2010 May | Webdesigner Depot

30 May
Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
May 23-May 29, 2010
Best Of, Compilation, Twitter
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Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.
To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot Read more
29 May
Comics of the Week #27
Comics, Funny, Humor
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Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD.
The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.
These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own… Read more
28 May
Browser Testing: A Family Tree
Compatibility, Web Development, Webmasters
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One task drives web professionals to distraction more than almost any other: testing whether their design works equally well in a multitude of browsers and on different devices.
The list of browsers and platforms to verify against keeps getting longer, and as designers, our tempers are getting proportionally shorter; IE6 will probably feature in nightmares for years to come!
Yet doing our work in an ever-widening range of situations is becoming increasingly important.
This article highlights the most common issues that arise when testing with “the usual suspects” and explains why a change in tactics may soon be needed. Your entire perspective on compatibility testing could change. Read more
26 May
HTML5 and CSS3 Books to Watch for in 2010
Books, HTML, Review
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Over the past year, new techniques and tricks involving HTML5 and CSS3 enhancements have been shared on a number of websites, giving developers new possibilities for improving the user experience.
Of course, the plethora of information online is hard to keep up with, and some of it may be out of date, inaccurate, or may fail to promote accessibility, progressive enhancement, or other best practices methods.
To that end, designers and developers today may prefer to have a desktop reference in the form of a good old ink and paper companion.
So in this article, I’ve compiled a list of eleven books that will be released in 2010 that focus on HTML5 and CSS3. Many of the authors listed alongside the titles below will be familiar to us, since some of them have established themselves online as zealous proponents of best practices and standards-based code.
Read more
25 May
7 Personality Types of Developers Today
Web Design, Web Developers, Webmasters
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Developers and programmers are meticulous individuals, and developers sometimes stand out even among themselves.
We introduced you to 7 types of designers in our article 7 Personality Types of Designers Today. Developers have peculiar traits and habits of their own. This article looks at 7 types of developers today and their defining characteristics.
“The best programmers are not marginally better than merely good ones. They are an order of magnitude better, measured by whatever standard: conceptual creativity, speed, ingenuity of design or problem-solving ability.”
—Randall E. Stross
Stereotyping is generally not good practice. But we’re not trying to squeeze individuals into categories. Rather, delineating these types can help you figure out where you stand and help you understand others. Read more
24 May
The Psychology of Web Design
Design, Web Design
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Designers often don’t take the time they should to learn about how basic psychological principles can effect the experience their visitors have on the sites they build.
Psychological principles are either looked upon as unnecessary, or too complicated. But the truth is that they’re neither.
There aren’t that many concepts associated with basic design psychology, and most are relatively straight-forward and easy to learn.
They’re also mainly easy to implement, though some take a bit more care and planning than others.
Read on to learn more and please leave your feedback and comments at the end of this post. Read more
23 May
Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
May 16-May 22, 2010
Best Of, Compilation, Twitter
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Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.
To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot Read more
22 May
Comics of the Week #26
Comics, Funny, Humor
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Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD.
The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.
These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own… Read more
21 May
Creative Uses of Stickers in Advertising
Advertising, Compilation, Inspiration
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The use of stickers in advertising is not only an innovative way to attract attention, it is also an extremely cost-effective way to create a lasting impression.
Many companies, whose only form of advertising is stickers, have seen an increase in business by as much as 550%.
The great thing about these stickers is that they can be easily customized and this is probably one of the main reasons why they have become so popular.
In this post, we’ve collected some of the most striking and creative examples of stickers in advertising.
What do you think of these type of adverts? Please feel free to share other examples that you may know of in the comments’ section below. Read more
20 May
The One-Hour Block Technique
Design, How to, Productivity
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Being a designer is great. You get to spend all day being creative—that is, of course, if you have all day to spend and are feeling inspired.
Unfortunately, sometimes you’re completely devoid of ideas, which can be demoralizing, especially when it affects your profit and stress levels.
Many designers I’ve met suffer from this problem occasionally. In such circumstances, some creatives choose to push on and just create something.
This is a poor use of your time, though, because it won’t lead to your best work. Others decide to take the day off, but this isn’t always viable. I, on the other hand, use a clever technique, one that I find so effective that I use it all the time now: working in a one-hour time frame. Read more
19 May
7 Personality Types of Designers Today
Creativity, Graphic Design, Web Designers
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Design is a universal language. It transcends all cultural and national boundaries. It is diverse and ever-changing. Despite the fact that designs can be universally appreciated, the artists behind them are all unique and talented individuals.
What kind of designer are you? What is your philosophy? How do you contribute to the design community? Designers from different walks of life might have similar answers to these questions, and yet we are all different.
Some designers take it upon themselves to educate those who have not yet developed an appreciation for Web design and art. Some designers aim to improve the overall quality of design on the Internet.
And of course, some designers strive primarily to make a good living from their talents so that they can live a comfortable life. Read more
18 May
Web Design Trends for 2010
Compilation, Inspiration, Web Design
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Purists will say that great design is timeless. Yes, in an ideal world, we should ignore trends.
Pragmatically speaking, though, there is a lot of value in monitoring and incorporating design trends, especially with regard to websites.
Let’s face it: the web changes at a rapid pace. Unlike in other media, design trends on the web are not just driven by aesthetics.
Technology is changing that can drastically alter the capabilities of the medium.
In 2010, we’re seeing designers continuing to push the boundaries of web design, setting the following clear trends… Read more
17 May
Avoid “Perfect Photo” Syndrome
Design, How to, Web Design
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Sometimes, choosing just the right image for a website that does not yet have a defined visual theme can be daunting.
Should you use a drawing or a photo? Should you create it yourself or find stock art? How do you know whether it will set the right tone? Is that the best you can do?
When the quest for perfection leads to indecision, you may wind up with a mediocre design.
Two common causes of this are a lack of ideas and a glut of art. Both cause headaches, and both are solvable.
Finding the right image is like fighting writer’s block. Any old picture might do, but for people with a personal stake in the project, the quest for the perfect image is full of uncertainty.
Read on for ideas on finding the right imagery. Read more
16 May
Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
May 9-May 15, 2010
Best Of, Compilation, Twitter
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Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.
To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot Read more
15 May
Comics of the Week #25
Comics, Funny, Humor
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Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD.
The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.
These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own… Read more
14 May
Architecture vs. Web Design
Design, Inspiration, Web Design
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As designers, it’s common to wonder what the differences are between our chosen discipline and others.
After all, there are a lot of similar rules and guidelines that permeate design, no matter what the field. And sometimes that leaves us wondering how difficult it would be to switch between design disciplines.
In this post, we’ve compared architecture and web design. While there are a lot of similarities, there are also tons of differences between these two areas of design.
Most of these are directly related to the fact that web design deals primarily with virtual space, where architecture deals mostly with the real, physical world. If you’d like to share additional similarities and differences, please do so in the comments… Read more
12 May
Designing for Over Twenty Million Users: WordPress 3.0
Community, Web Design, WordPress
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WordPress 3.0 is, without doubt, one of the most exciting updates to the platform in a very long time.
As well as things that all users will notice such as custom menus, custom backgrounds and a new default theme, there are also massive additions to the code-base such as the ability to run multiple sites from a single install and custom post types.
These things bring WordPress up to speed as an extremely powerful CMS as well as a publishing platform.
Since January of this year I’ve been getting involved with the core WordPress community to contribute back to its ongoing development and today I’d love to tell you a little bit about how that works. Read more
12 May
Winners of “TypeFaces” Playing Cards
Contests, Web Designers
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For the past week, we’ve been running a great contest to win sets of awesome playing cards from Typefaces.
These super cool cards feature world renowned designers such as Veerle Pieters, Jeffrey Zeldman and Jason Santa Maria, among many others.
The official Typefaces site also carries wallpapers for each of the designers which you can download for free.
All winners were chosen at random and the results appear after the jump. Typefaces will contact all winners via email with details as to how to receive their prizes.
Read on to see if you won… Read more
11 May
Showcase of Blogs with Unique Post Designs
Blogs, Design, Web Design
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The trend of creating unique designs for each post on a blog is growing.
A few years ago the idea of creating a custom design for each post on a blog either meant you had to forgo traditional blogging software or hack the source code to allow for custom designs.
With the advent of WordPress plugins like Art Direction it’s now relatively simple for a designer to create a custom design for each post on their blog.
The sites below are some of the best examples of sites that use custom designs for many or all of their posts. Some play around with the general layout and color scheme of each post, while others create completely unique concepts for every post.
In either case, the posts are much more interesting because of their design and are reminiscent of magazine layouts (the term “blogazine” is often used to describe these types of blogs and posts). If you know of other sites with custom post designs, please share them in the comments area below. Read more
10 May
Creating a Logotype Depends More on the Means Than the End
How to, Logos, Web Design
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The process of designing a type-based logo is similar to that of designing a shape-based logo. Both logos need to convey a message, do it quickly and appease the client’s taste.
All of these objectives can be accomplished by defining goals, favoring message over convention and questioning our assumptions as designers—even to the point of considering Arial or Helvetica.
Anyone who designs a logo faces many questions. What should it look like? In what formats will it be presented? Does a particular color scheme need to be followed? As rough drafts are refined, the urge to find a general “solution” overrides the importance of these initial questions, which often end up neglected. When design becomes a question of preference, the end result is debatable.
Graphic design is a process of solving problems through visual communication. The process of designing a logo can be regarded as a series of steps that solves a series of questions. This article tells the story of a process that focuses on those questions. Read more
9 May
Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
May 2-May 8, 2010
Best Of, Compilation, Twitter
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Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.
To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot Read more
8 May
Comics of the Week #24
Comics, Funny, Humor
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Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD.
The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.
These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own… Read more
7 May
Win 10 Sets of “TypeFaces” Playing Cards
Contests, Web Designers
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What are TypeFaces? They’re “top-trumps” style card packs featuring 20 well known designers.
For each designer, a typeface was selected to match their overall vibe. Each card has also been individually designed to reflect their vibe, supported typographically with the selected typeface.
The official site also carries wallpapers for each of the TypeFaces characters which you can download for free right away.
And today, we have 10 great sets of these cards ready to be shipped to you. The contest is open to WDD readers worldwide. Only one entry per person.
Read on for more details and information on how to participate and win one of these awesome sets of cards. Read more
6 May
Beautiful Contact Forms for your Inspiration
Compilation, Inspiration
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Contact forms have evolved a lot since the days of simple bland html forms. This holds especially true for portfolio websites and design agencies.
The current designs are beautiful and can be extremely creative. Besides the common fields that everyone expects, forms can be enhanced by adding extra features such as maps, social networking information and appealing illustrations.
A solid and elegant contact form reassures the viewer’s confidence in the person or company behind the site and improves the overall experience.
In this post, we’ve collected the most creative contact forms which you can use for inspiration in your own designs.
Read more
5 May
How to Overcome 20 Reasons Not to Become a Freelancer
Business, Freelancing, Web Designers
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We recently published an article covering 20 reasons not to become a freelancer.
The idea was that there are already a ton of articles out there talking about how great it is to be a freelancer, and all the benefits, but there are very few posts that talk about the flip side of all that.
Freelancing is not for everyone. It’s an important decision that not only affects your career, but can also affect your personal life and financial well-being. Of course, a lot of readers thought we were being way too negative about it all.
So here’s a follow-up to that article, covering ways you can overcome the potential pitfalls of freelancing if you’re still sure it’s a career move that’s right for you.
The good news is that virtually all of these things are manageable if you’re willing to put in the time and effort it takes to deal with them.
Read more
5 May
Winners of the Massive Iconshock Giveaway
Contests, Icons
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Today we have the results of last week’s Iconshock Giveaway.
We received over 451 entries for this super awesome contest, where IconShock is giving away 10 licenses for ALL of their icons.
Each license includes 800,000 stock icons, 250 icon sets, 500 logo templates and 250 animated icons. The total value of the prizes is $4,990.
All winners were chosen at random and you can find the results after the jump. Iconshock will contact all the winners directly via email with details as to how to receive their prizes.
Did you win? Find out after the jump… Read more
3 May
It’s here! Say Hello to Techi.com
Review, Technology
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And it’s finally out! Please meet our new site: TECHi.com
It’s a brand new and amazing technology blog that focuses on tech stuff that’s always fresh and never boring.
You may have already come across it, or seen a few of the ads floating around the web. But now, it’s official, TECHi.com is out of beta and ready for prime time.
I’m super proud and excited today to shine the spotlight on the site that we’ve been working on so much for the past few months. And now, I’ll be taking you on a little tour of the new website, discussing the content and design and how it all came together.
As always, your feedback will be greatly appreciated and it will help us make the site even better… Read more
2 May
Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
Apr 25-May 1, 2010
Best Of, Compilation, Twitter
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Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the best tweets that we sent out this past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that we tweeted about, so don’t miss out.
To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow us @DesignerDepot Read more
1 May
Comics of the Week #23
Comics, Funny, Humor
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Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD.
The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.
These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own… Read more