Fonts

Are you a font nerd?

By Stacey Kole  |  Apr. 24, 2013  |  11 comments

A few weeks ago, we posted a nifty quiz to test your prowess at differentiating between Helvetica and Arial. If that typography challenge succeeded in whetting your whistle for font games, a new app design is ready to take you to the next level of typographic deduction.

Designed by Copenhagen-based designer Andreas Hansen, Font Nerd is currently only a concept of an app, designed to help users gamify their font experience.

Quizzes — in the form of entertaining sentences displayed in different fonts  — prompt players to guess the correct typeface; if you’re stumped, there’s the option to view the whole alphabet. Another fun feature is the built-in Favorites button to help you keep a running list of the fonts that you find most appealing; plus, you’ll have the option to purchase your favorites straight from the app should a particular typeface catch your eye.

Dexter Adams says: I have to wholeheartedly agree...I'm a font nerd to the core and nothing is harder than differentiating a font without seeing...
Web Content

How to create a great 'about' page

By Kendra Gaines  |  Apr. 24, 2013  |  17 comments

Here’s one thing that never made sense to me: people make websites so others can find out more about them, but most “About Us” pages absolutely suck. They’re either really long and boring or really short and mysterious. Not many people understand the best way to go about these pages.

Many believe the “About Us” page is an afterthought because everyone wants to see the work or the products or read up on the services. And while that’s true, providing the right history and information can increase a website’s effectiveness.

Billy Clarke says: Hi Martin, our About You page is part of the overall SEO strategy we have set ourselves which is focussed on generating new...
Audio

How to use HTML5 audio (part 1)

By Sam Piggott  |  Apr. 23, 2013  |  3 comments

The introduction of the HTML5 spec introduced new tags for presenting media on a webpage; the <audio> and <video> tags, rendering the <object> tag no longer fit for video and audio streaming.

These new tags have made it considerably easier to add rich media content to your design, and in today’s video tutorial, I’ll be talking through the following features which make HTML5′s media tags so flexible:

Using HTML5 audio tags to play an audio track on load; wrangling HTML5′s more complex parameters, such as controls and autoplay to create a fully-featured media player in less time than an average song length; the first steps to creating your very own custom-built media player to fit in with your own web design projects.

Tony says: Thx Sam, very nicely explained, easy to follow. Hope you discuss fallback also :-)
Mobile

Mobile first: Luke Wroblewski interview

By Luke Wroblewski  |  Apr. 23, 2013  |  9 comments

The Mobile First philosophy has radically changed how professionals approach Web design and become the way companies as diverse as Facebook and IBM build their products.

The Mobile First approach is to start designing for mobile devices — which typically have less screen size and less capabilities than desktops — and progressively enhance the product; so that desktops get an enhanced site experience rather than mobiles getting a pared down one.

We grabbed the opportunity to interview Luke Wroblewski, who first defined the Mobile First concept back in 2009, about how he used the principle to create Polar at his latest startup, Input Factory Inc. where he is co-founder and CEO.

Luke Wroblewski says: I'm a big fan of "just in time" education. That is bringing help & tips to people based on how they are using an interface....
Code

How to use the download attribute

By Sara Vieira  |  Apr. 22, 2013  |  19 comments

HTML5 came with all new APIs, new input types and attributes for forms. As is often the case, those major additions often obscure the minor upgrades and I think that this is particularly true of the download attribute.

As you know, there are some files that the browser doesn’t automatically download; images, other web pages and depending on the settings in your browser, sometimes even PDFs. The download attribute gives the browser a native way to download these files automatically, without having to fall back on JavaScript. This is really useful for any app that deals with the downloading of images, such as image upload sites.

Victor lai says: Try make it into notepad++ file, then upload it to your cloud and share the sample link...I'm positively sure there won't be...
Creativity

Getting creative with usability

By Luke Clum  |  Apr. 22, 2013  |  3 comments

When it comes to designing a truly intuitive, responsive, and coherent website that’s also unique and interesting, it often feels like it’s difficult to reconcile the two sets of priorities. But in fact, nothing is further from the truth: there are only a few fundamental ideas that need to be employed in order to easily make the best choices in your designs.

The most essential of these concepts is that beautiful, usable designs are not difficult to make when the UX is given precedence, and the design is adapted to suit it. After all, the nature of user experience dictates that there are certain inflexible rules, while design is almost endlessly flexible. Once you learn the ways and means by which you should adapt your designs, you should be well on your way to turning a battle into a peace treaty.

Zell Liew says: Hey Luke, Great post here about how UX and aesthetics should complement each other rather than trying to make design elements...
Best Of

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

Comics

Comics of the week #179

By Jerry King  |  Apr. 20, 2013  |  no comments

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…