While it may be second nature to some, there is no denying that Photoshop has a fierce learning curve. If you’re a coder taking your first tentative steps into the world of design, or you’re a designer looking to switch to a more professional application, Anton Peck has some words of wisdom on getting started with the perennial web design favorite.
It might seem like a good idea when you’re sat in the audience, but once you land your first speaking gig at a web conference it can seem a daunting concept. Why would anyone want to listen to what you have to say—and do you actually have anything worth saying in the first place! Branding expert Lea Alcantara shares what she has learned about putting together the perfect presentation.
If you’re anything like me, your hard drive is probably littered with unfinished redesigns of your personal portfolio site. As professional designers, we can often be our own worst client—which is why I’m very pleased to welcome FreelanceSwitch’s Collis Ta’eed to set out some sensible ground rules to consider when approaching that portfolio project.
“Genius,” Thomas Edison once said, “is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.” While we can’t help with the latter, one way to oil your creative gears is to maintain a collection of inspiring design. Join Matthew Smith on a scientific journey of discovery—all for the sake of a simple navigation bar.
There isn’t much that all-round web expert, Garrett Dimon, doesn’t know about the unique challenges of designing and developing for the web. This week he turns his attention to the ubiquitous web form, and demonstrates the do’s and dont’s of effective form design. (No international auction sites were harmed during the making of this article.)
Come January, when we look back over this year and take stock of the key advancements that have been made in our corner of the industry, one of the highlights will surely be an increased focus on website performance—and it’s mostly due to the work of one man. Digital Web’s Matthew Pennell takes a look at a book that is the result of years spent fine-tuning the Yahoo! sites: Steve Souders’ High Performance Web Sites.
Some of us know PHP inside and out, but many of us still have yet to take the leap into learning this very useful language. Virtually all the sites we create need contact forms, and PHP is a straightforward and safe way to build them. So, for those who are eager to find reliable PHP code they can copy (and tweak just a bit), or those who can build a basic contact form but are concerned about preventing some of the spam-related dangers, Digital Web Managing Editor Matthew Pennell walks us through the process, step by step.
It’s the sticky moment in any negotiation with a potential new client—no matter how great your proposal, you’re still going to have to deliver The Quote. But how do you arrive at that magic figure, taking into account the unpredictability of developing for the next generation of the web? Andy Budd, no stranger to client work, takes a look at a new way to cost out your projects.
Following on from our previous Web Design 101 articles, this week, web-design educator and writer Virginia DeBolt turns her attention to a subject guaranteed to trip up any beginner—the CSS float property.
In the second part of our series of articles on the basic building blocks of web design, we’re very lucky to be able to bring you SitePoint’s resident CSS guru, Paul O’Brien, who takes a detailed look at working with CSS backgrounds. There is nothing that Paul doesn’t know about CSS, so both newbies and experienced developers should be sure to bookmark this exhaustive resource.
In the first article in a brand new column here at Digital Web, we begin our series examining the fundamental skills that any web designer should master. Online veteran and markup expert Tommy Olsson takes a detailed look at the sometimes confusing art of CSS positioning.
The first article in our new column The Working Designer follows Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain, principal of 31three, a Canadian web design and development company, as he tackles a redesign for EllisLabs. EllisLabs, formerly known as pMachine, charged him with the formidable task of presenting a new face for four company sites, including one for ExpressionEngine, a popular CMS. Jesse gives us the designer’s view of the project, sharing his thoughts, challenges, and processes each step of the way.
It’s an all-too-common problem that anyone running a website will recognize. Lots of visitors, but no comments. Plenty of page views, but no purchases. Whether you’re building a reputation, a community, or an online business, converting virtual passers-by into readers, subscribers, or customers is the most important step you need to master—and Digital Web’s newest author, Jessica Neuman Beck, is here to point you in the right direction.
You’re a designer, information architect, or project manager, or you may develop with PHP, but don’t claim to be a code warrior. Clients have been asking about Ruby on Rails, or your colleagues are using it. You’d like some clarity on what it is and when to use it—without wading through articles thick with jargon and alphabet soup. If you’re looking to move ahead, painlessly, in your understanding of this programming framework, then Justin Williams’ “Ruby on Rails for the Rest of Us” is just the ticket.
Many of us learned design on the job, as the internet took our careers down unexpected paths. We’ve focused on our most immediate and practical needs so we could sharpen our skills and meet deadlines. But the new professionalism in web design calls us to a higher standard and a deeper understanding of design’s concepts, complexities, and historical underpinnings. It’s time to immerse ourselves in what we missed, as columnist Joshua David McClurg Genevese takes us back to school in the first of three articles on color.
Daunted by that multilingual site project around the corner? Designing and developing for multiple locales is a complex task. Get your head around the basics of internationalization in this primer.
This week’s Design in Theory and Practice column ties everything we’ve learned about the principles and elements of design together. Moving from theory to practice, Joshua David McClurg-Genevese analyzes eight CSS Zen Garden designs. You know they look good—now find out why.
You know you’d have a better site or Web application if you ever got around to usability testing, but the process just seems so daunting and expensive. Columnist Joshua Kaufman returns with a practical guide to conducting your first usability testing session without breaking a sweat—or the bank. Now you have no excuse!
In his third Design in Theory and Practice column, Joshua David McClurg-Genevese gets down to the brass tacks of designing for the Web. If you’re a new or traditional designer thinking about exploring the world of Web design, dive into this primer on resolution, browsers, Web-safe color, graphics compression and fonts.
So, microformats sound intriguing and useful, but you’re not sure what exactly they are. If you’re conscious of Web standards and already writing semantic code, it’s probably time you got the scoop on this workload-reducing practice.
Without a grounding in traditional design principles and elements, designing for the Web can be an arbitrary exercise. Dig into Joshua David McClurg-Genevese’s second Design in Theory and Practice column and get a grip on the real tools you can use in the practice of Web design.
You won't catch Jonathan Snook telling you to pay no attention to what's behind the curtain. In his first column on the hidden intricacies of Web programming, Snook runs down one of the basic elements that makes the Web work: the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). Find out what your browser says about you, and learn a simple way to test server communication when developing a Web application.
Take a step back from the nitty-gritty of style sheet jigs and alpha-channel jogs to examine the defining principles of your profession. After all, Web design is part of a much larger world of design. If you’ve been getting by on gut feel, here’s your chance to make your projects even stronger with a primer in design basics.
Working Web designer or a CSS newbie? Continue building your CSS knowledge from the ground up with a concise primer on borders and backgrounds—part two of CSS 101 from Mark Newhouse.
The best tool you can have for Web accessibility is education. Matt May presents a quick introduction to Web accessibility for the modern designer.
Elizabeth Castro's Creating a Web Page with HTML is loaded with clear color graphics and easy-to-follow pages that help even the most novice designer follow along in the journey to online publication.
As more browsers and devices support XSTL it can drastically alter the way that we think about and design web sites. Utilizing XSLT we can completely separate our content from design, making it easier to develop content in other formats and for other devices.
Paul Tero gives a brief introduction to using a database to make short and easy time of updating your site.
Want to get in on the CSS fun but aren't sure where to start? Mark Newhouse leads the way with a tutorial that will get you up and running in no time.
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