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26 Aug
A Complete Guide to Progressive Enhancement
Accessibility, Web Design
14
For years, web designers have been using graceful degradation principles to make sure visitors in older browsers can at least see the content on their websites, even if they don’t see it exactly how the designer intended.
Graceful degradation let designers design for the newest and best browsers without completely alienating those using older browser versions.
And just because those with older browsers often got a less-than-optimal user experience didn’t deter designers from placing their focus squarely on the newest technologies and techniques, rationalizing that those using older browsers were either used to it or should just upgrade.
Progressive enhancement gives us a better option. Rather than focusing on browser technologies and support, PE focuses on content.
As most designers would certainly agree, content is the most important part of virtually any website project. But a lot of designers don’t fully understand progressive enhancement, how it works, and why it’s a better model than graceful degradation.
Read on for answers to those questions and information on how to use progressive enhancement on your next website design project. Read more
25 Aug
Win Custom Stickers from Sticker Mule
Contests, Freebies
337

Who’s ready for some great freebies? This time, we’ve partnered with Sticker Mule to bring you another awesome giveaway.
If you haven’t heard of Sticker Mule yet, they make truly awesome custom stickers in all different shapes and sizes as well as skins that you could use, for example for your laptop, iPhone or iPad. These are not only great fun but can also be used as promotional tools, or even gifts.
One week from today, we’ll be giving away 5 vouchers worth $100 each, with which the winners can choose any of Sticker Mule’s stickers or skins.
The winners will be chosen at random on September 1st. Read on more for details on how to participate as well as some examples of stickers and skins… Read more
Popular Posts
Creative Uses of Stickers in Advertising 50 Incredible Examples of Battle Art Massive Compilation of Designer Tools
24 Aug
A Showcase of Single Page Websites
Compilation, Inspiration, Web Design
49
When designing a website with a minimal number of pages and not a ton of content, a single-page design can be an innovative way to set the site apart.
Single-page websites often utilize JavaScript and Flash, along with HTML and CSS to fit more content on a page without substantially increasing load times.
Navigation has to be given some special consideration when it comes to single-page sites, to make sure visitors can get back to the home section of the page without issues, and navigate from any one section to any other section. This is often achieved through sticky headers or repeating navigation in each section.
The sites below are all excellent examples of single-page websites. They’re both usable and aesthetically-pleasing, and take full advantage of the single-page format. Read more
23 Aug
How Limitations Improve Design
Design, How to, Web Design
40

We often complain about the multitude of limitations which we’re faced with every day as designers.
From browsers, to screen resolutions, to user interactions, we seem to constantly be struggling to find some way of thinking outside the tiny little box of “best practice” which we’re constrained by.
Limitations are abundant but are they really such a bad thing? Is it possible, even, that they actually produce far better results than if we did not have them?
Ikea for example, starts with price and then work backwards. Their main concern is the price of the product to the end user. It’s up to the designers to create something appealing which fits within that.
37Signals wrote a whole book about how they operate with similarly heavy restrictions when building web apps; they set a date to launch and then they stick to it, no matter what.
Read more
22 Aug
Our Favorite Tweets of the Week
Aug 15-Aug 21, 2010
Best Of, Compilation, Twitter
5
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
Active discussions:
- How to Make an Internet Web Page
  Sheer and utter brilliance. The mind boggles!
- The Weirdest Clouds that You'll Ever See
  I think maybe some of them will be photoshopp...
- 100 Extraordinary Examples of Paper Art
  Noteworthy!!! Awesome!
- 40 Seriously Funny Print Ads
  Thanks, funny pics)
- Winners of Custom Stickers from Sticker Mule
  Holy Moly! That's Us! Thank You! San Fran...
21 Aug
Comics of the Week #39
Comics, Funny, Humor
15

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
20 Aug
Designing Microsites: Factors To Consider
How to, Web Design, Websites
24

When creating a website, so many things need to be planned and considered before even beginning the design — content, audience, goals, usability, color schemes, and so much more.
The design of a microsite, on the other hand, would seem to be an easier task to execute. But this isn’t always the case.
A microsite will sometimes have more sensitive issues to deal with, and could see just as many design iterations — possibly due to branding issues, or a host of other factors that arise due to company politics.
Because of the vast array of possibilities for designs of microsites, there really is no way to properly define any “best practices” in this area of web design.
Certainly many of the same habits and practices would apply (valid code, progressive enhancement, usability, etc.). So, while I’ll be refraining from making any definite statements here, I think it would be valuable to consider the different ways to approach the design of a microsite, discussing some of the potential benefits and drawbacks to each one. Read more