hype-nation.com
Nice use of the red and black here. I like the feel of the blocky type and nice thin lines in all the underlying shapes. I do feel like there’s a sense of split focus on the top-half of the page and the big slideshow setup. They even do a scroll-down focus when you click [...]
Apps Still Not Top Service On iTunes
Despite the invasion of iPhone, iPod Touch and iPhone apps on iTunes, music still dominates the services. According to NPD re search, virtually all iPhone or iPod Touch users have downloaded a free app. But 82% report purchasing music and more than half (56%) of iTunes buyers purchase music exclusively. A majority of iTunes user [...]
GCSE Student Launches New Appstore Hit with Help From ?The Studio of Dreams?
For the past 3 weeks, our friends from ustwo? have been working on a radical new iPhone app with the latest member of the team, Jack McLean ? a 16-year old work experience student. Here are all the details of the incredible story and an exclusive interview with Jack.
GCSE Student Launches New Appstore Hit with Help From ?The Studio of Dreams?
For the past 3 weeks, our friends from ustwo? have been working on a radical new iPhone app with the latest member of the team, Jack McLean ? a 16-year old work experience student. Here are all the details of the incredible story and an exclusive interview with Jack.
35 New Hidden Logos of 2010 a4 Messages revealed!!
Here are 35 exceptionally creative logos that have a hidden message within them. FedEx logo design is an old example now, check new brilliant hidden logos here. Few logo designers are capable of creating negative space logo design.
2 Vote(s)
Ars Technica: Delicious Library 2 Tried to Do Too Much
The publisher of the once well-regarded media cataloging application confesses that feature creep and a lack of follow-through subverted their ambitions for its second major release, leaving many customers frustrated and disappointed where the company had intended to wow them.
“Let’s say, for instance, 80 percent of these features worked great. I’d think, ‘Yay, I did good, I added a bunch of great stuff to the new version, it was definitely worth US$20 to existing customers.’ But, that’s not how the customers see it — they see the 20 percent that’s buggy, and they think, ‘This is crappy… he released software that didn’t work.’“
This is an object lesson in how success, ambition and even good intentions can lead to a bad product even when the business is fully aligned with the customer experience. It’s also a clever bit of mea culpa-style media spin. Not that I think it’s dishonest; I just find it very savvy. Read the full article
The Hidden Magic in TextMate
By Nick Pellant
TextMate has become an essential part of my development arsenal over the last few years. When you first open up the application, you may be wondering what all the fuss is about- at first glance it looks like any other text editor. The true beauty of TextMate is the plethora of bundles, add-ons, keyboard shortcuts [...]
FOWA. Las Vegas. Baby.
By Ryan Carson
Feb 7-9th 2011 Get ready for the best event you’ve ever experienced. Sign up to get notified when Early Bird tickets go on sale.
Working For A Web Design Agency
The most obvious job for a web designer is working for a web design agency, but if you’ve never done that before… then how do you know what to expect? Is it even the right path for you? Setting foot in an agency for the first time can be daunting. It’s filled with people who [...]
Use the 80-20 Rule to Increase Your Website?s Effectiveness
Want to increase your website's conversion rate? How about doing less work while you're at it? Focus on the 20% that will bring you 80% of the results.
Landfit logo
If it?s about getting people to use unused spaces, why not grow vegetables in the unused spaces in the logo?
Some Amazing Retro Style Illustrations Part 2
As we?ve already mentioned in the first part of this article series, we?ll be examining the diversity of styles within the retro trend. There are numerous artists who choose this style and yet, as you can see in this collection, none resembles the other — each one manages to have a unique [...]
33 Very Original Creative Industry Business Cards
If you are a graphic designer, a web-designer, an illustrator, a painter or you have any other profession within the creative industry, check out the awesome creative business cards in this collection! You will get fresh, and very original ideas on how to design your own business card in a way that will make it [...]
CSS Design: Yiipu
This is a very simple site with two key design elements: typography and color.
The type choices are really quite nice, I like the inset letterpress look. The colors are mostly uniform but still quite bright and friendly.
This design was featured on the 2nd September 2010 . It falls under the category of Corporate, and has a layout style of Two Column.
If you'd like, you can visit this site, or view all our other featured designs.
InkChaser.com 3,000 FREE Business Card Giveaway ? WINNERS ANNOUNCED!
Well it’s that time again! Where we announce the winners of a contest! The most recent contest where we teamed up with InkChaser.com to give 3 lucky loyal visitors 1000 FREE Business Cards is OVER! Special Thanks to everyone who participated! The winners were randomly chosen. And The Winners are: ROB TARR GOPAL RAJU JOSHUA CURRIER Congratulations to everyone! Hope you enjoy the [...]
Another morning in Preston
Sat in Cafe Nero in Preston city center once more, just around the corner from the office I will be working today. Watching the world go by, sipping at a cappuccino, and wondering what the day has in store for … Continue reading →
Don?t reduce your audience to a stereotype
One of the biggest dangers as a web designer or website owner is to stereotype your users and so misjudge their needs and attitudes.
Jasmine ? A JavaScript Testing Framework
There are some great JavaScript testing frameworks out there. Many only work from within a browser. Most don?t support testing asynchronous code like event callbacks. Some have syntax that?s hard for JS developers or IDEs to understand. Jasmine is a JavaScript testing framework. It?s heavily influenced by, and borrows the best parts of, ScrewUnit, JSSpec, JSpec, [...]
Links for 2010-09-01 [del.icio.us]
- Free Wireframing Kits, UI Design Kits, PDFs and Resources - Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine
* Smashing Magazine
* Smashing Network
Free Wireframing Kits, UI Design Kits, PDFs and Resources
* By Aquil Akhter
* August 27th, 2010
* Design
* 80 Comments
* Publishing Policy
Advertisement
To mock-up the user interface of a website, software or any other product, you?ll need some basic UI elements. And this is where wireframing kits and UI design kits come in handy. When you want to create a low-fidelity prototype for your projects, you can use these kits to give your idea a certain shape, keeping it abstract and not losing yourself in details.
In this post, we?ve prepared an overview of useful web and mobile user interface kits, handy PDFs and resources that you can use in your projects. We?ve carefully selected the most useful kits and resources to get you going in the early stages of a project. - 4 Advanced Wordpress 3.0 Cheat Sheets | Creativeoverflow
Most blogs make use of WordPress as their chosen CMS to power their site. The biggest problem that can arise though is that the author/owner of the blog isn?t quite sure how WordPress 3.0 code works after updating to the new release of WordPress. This is where Cheat Sheets come in, I have gone to the liberty of rounding up 4 Advanced WordPress 3.0 Cheat Sheets for you to download and use. This will not only help you learn WordPress 3.0 coding, but improve your blogging experience as well as your reader experience.
10 Fresh and Useful jQuery Plugins
When it comes to adding JavaScript functionality to a website, jQuery has become the solution of choice for web designers and developers. With it’s ease of use and ever-growing selection of plugins, there’s really no point to look elsewhere. Awesome jQuery plugins are popping up everyday, and we’re always on the look out. So for [...]
Poll: What social networks do you belong to?
Welcome to my Newly Designed Personal Blog
I have decided to start things over with a brand new website. I will still be working on getting things put together and functioning perfectly. I would like to know what your opinion is on the new do. Once everything is setup and good to do, I will start posting on Web Developer, Android, and pretty much [...]
Around the Web: 37 Signals, Apple, & @Beep
By Chrissie Brodigan
Hey there! It’s Wednesday, so this mid-week roundup is devoted to all things business and development. Some links are newsworthy, some retweeted across Twitter, and others just meet our ?awesomeness? requirement, and regardless we hope you?ll enjoy them. Without further delay: How do you measure your customer happiness levels? 37 Signals built a little app [...]
links for 2010-09-01
Think Vitamin » How to Track Six Key Metrics for Your Web App Great read for Web App devs (tags: analytics app business ecommerce measurement) Why & How Freelancers Should Exercise (from Fitness Expert Scott Tousignant) | FreelanceFolder Great read – I am trying to get back into fitness, because it makes me feel so much better – and [...]
Apple Blinks in the Living Room
No one’s happier than I am that Apple hasn’t thrown in the towel with its living room efforts. After much neglect, the new Apple TV, announced today, is a step in the right direction: sleeker in size, more capable in content access, network savvier in its diskless approach to media, and — the clincher — more wallet-friendly at US$99. That’s a winning combination, I think.
On the other hand, this new generation of Apple TV doesn’t appear to do too much more that I can’t already do with the older Apple TV and the Netflix Instant Watch-capable Blu-Ray player that I currently have in my living room. In fact, it’s telling that it’s still called just “Apple TV” without some new suffix indicating that it’s a second generation product. For all intents and purposes, it’s the same as what I already have.
That’s fair. I’ve always thought the core Apple TV feature set makes for a device that can do well in the marketplace, and its new price point and other alterations give it a fighting chance.
However, when rumors of an Apple TV reboot first started gaining momentum, what I hoped for was that Apple would undertake a bigger challenge than just making it a more attractive device for consumers. Much in the same way that they fixed the mobile space with the iPhone, and much in the same way they’re trying to fix the problem of true consumer computing with the iPad, I hoped that they would also try to fix the living room. This is a challenge that I wrote about in a general way a year ago in a blog post called “The Living Room Problem,” but luckily for those reading now, I’m going to revisit those sentiments here.
Oh Wire, Oh Wire Do We Have to Put up with This?
As a consumer experience, the living room is something of a disaster: a sprawling, schizophrenic mess of rat king wires hanging off the back of inscrutable devices sending cryptic signals to one another under the auspices of an alphabet-soup of initialisms and branded nomenclature — HDMI, DVI, component video, Blu-Ray, progressive and interlaced resolutions, Dolby, DTS, etc. — and that’s not even mentioning the terminology that intersects with personal computing.
No one I know thinks this ecosystem is elegant, and only a few people I know really understand how to navigate it. It’s complex and bewildering, and the only way to become acclimated is to throw yourself into the thicket of technical manuals, message boards, customer service calls and afternoons spent in trial-and-error fiddling. So imagine how my child’s babysitter feels when she wants to watch TV after putting the baby to sleep: it’s so bad that she’s often actually has to read a book instead.
On the other hand, let’s say you’ve got figured out how to get an XBox 360 or a media PC hooked up to high-definition television. As far as mastering this collision of advanced technologies goes, you’re doing pretty good. But did you realize that you’re almost behind the curve already? Your HDMI linkups may soon be outdated by the coming HDbaseT standard and your Blu-Ray player (if you even bothered to upgrade to those discs) may one day be left behind by the forthcoming, even more capacious BDXL.
I’m trying to sound like I know what I’m talking about here but I really don’t, and that’s the problem. I’ve invested countless hours into jerry-rigging a reasonably usable home theater but I have to admit that I barely understand how to fix it when something goes wrong. Moreover, the technology keeps changing, and as it does, the problem keeps getting worse. Few enough people understand this stuff now, and I can only guess that even fewer will understand it in five year. .
Opportunity Pings
The living room is a technological opportunity rife with potential. It commands so much attention from nearly every family in every first world country and could make a major technology powerhouse out of any brand, new or old, that can truly make it usable.
The problem is that every company out there that’s addressing this opportunity, from Sony to Samsung to even Apple, is actually trying to solve the wrong problem. None of them are really asking how they can fix the living room problem. Rather, they’re focusing on establishing their brand in the living room, positing completely unrealistic scenarios in which a consumer buys only, say, Samsung-branded components (e.g., its absurdly useless WiseLink protocol) without acknowledging the reality that the components of most home theaters make for a decidedly heterogeneous world.
As I wrote in the aforementioned blog post:
“…A rational, user-focused business model is still sorely missing. This is the free market at play, industrial competition in full effect: every device manufacturer, content creator and software publisher is competing to create the most commercially competitive subset of video entertainment or peripheral, but doing so in nearly complete isolation from one another.
“Fundamentally, they’re all incapable of getting on the same page and creating a coherent, consistent, transparent user experience for the teeming masses. In this current state of continual volatility in the business models driving home entertainment, there are so many market-driven, irreconcilable differences between all of the constituent parts of a home theater setup that a resolution to the mess seems discouragingly unobtainable. What’s needed is a consortium or a standards movement or an open source project, but one that spans across the many industries and players that are involved, and that can somehow resolve some of the biggest intellectual property challenges facing media today. Somehow. Design has done what it can for the time being; to get over this hump, it’s a business problem. And, as with almost all unresolved business problems, it’s the end users who suffer.”
I once asked a design consultant who had worked with a lot of companies in this arena, from technology manufacturers to cable providers, what their take on the living room problem was: did they think that we lacked the technology to create a superior user experience that real people can use, or was it that we lacked the will? He prevaricated, but in doing so he essentially gave me his answer: we lack the will. In my opinion, the new Apple TV is a nice product, but it demonstrates to me that Apple also lacks the will to fix the living room.
HTML, CSS, and Javascript from the Ground Up
I’ve done my own The VERY Basics screencast, but this full series from Google, targeted at just-starting-out beginners, would be a good place to go directly after my intro, to take things further along.
Direct Link to Article — Permalink
Quick Tip: What you May Not Know About JavaScript?s Logical AND Operator
In today’s video quick tip, we’ll be reviewing JavaScript’ logical AND operator. Those of you who are just beginning to get into JavaScript, or even a library like jQuery, might not realize that they can even be used as micro if statements! Subscribe to our YouTube page to watch all of the video tutorials! Example [...]
Old Digg Crushes New Digg in Reader Vote
In the debate between the old version of Digg and the new Digg, the readers have spoken.Last week, Digg launched version 4.0 of the popular social news website. Its been a rocky road pre-launch, so why would it be any different post-launch?Since the launch of the New Digg, which introduced the ability to follow friends, a faster architecture and personalized news, users have been in revolt, mostly over the types of stories reaching the front page. Digg has since addressed some of these issues, but the debate rages on.Last week we asked you, the Mashable readers, for your opinion on Digg. Which did you prefer: The new digg or the old one?The old version of Digg was clearly your choice. With a full 78% of the vote (4,808 votes), the classic version bested the new versions 12% (747 votes). Four percent of you (230 votes) said it was a tie, while 6% of you (348 votes) said you werent a fan of Digg.In the comments, the debate surrounded features that were available in the old version that werent in the new one, including the ability to bury stories and the ability to check upcoming stories. Many of you were also quick to point out that the new Digg is designed to broaden the appeal of the social news website, rather than limit it to its current niche of tech-savvy users.Were going to revisit this debate in the future, when weve had time to reflect on the changes happening at Digg. In the meantime though, we want to hear your thoughts on this debate in the comments. New Digg vs. Old Digg: Which one do you prefer?online surveys Follow Mashable on DiggReviews: Digg, MashableMore About: digg, New Digg, poll, web faceoffFor more Battles coverage:Follow Mashable Battles on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Battles channelDownload our free apps for iPhone and iPad
A good day at the coal face
Today has been a remarkably good day. It began at 7am, jumping into a worryingly flexible shower, before donning work clothes and calling for a taxi to take me to the “coal face” (as mentioned previously, I can’t talk with … Continue reading →
Schwartz & Sons
View in siteInspire | Go directly to Schwartz & Sons
The one where we stood in the car park at 2:30am
I woke to the wailing of an electrical alarm – a throbbing, screaming noise that caused confusion at first. I threw back the bed covers, and looked at the time – 2:30am. Ok. This is a fire alarm. It’s not … Continue reading →
iCandies Icon Set: 60 Free Icons For Your User Interfaces and Apps
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Today we are glad to release iCandies Icon Set, a set with 60 high quality icons in 64×64px, 48×48px and 32×32px, available in .EPS, .AI and .PNG. The set is designed by the talented folks from IconEden on a sole purpose of giving your projects a sleek and geeky style or provide crisp, attractive icons for your modern and fashionable-looking interfaces. All the icons in this pack — 60 icons in total — are designed in Round Rectangle shape.
You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed or rented. Please link to this article if you want to spread the word.
Writing Clean CSS3 Code
One of the main problems with writing CSS3 code are the vendor prefixes. These are the -moz- or -webkit- you see before properties such as border-radius or text-shadow. They’re a necessary evil at worst and you’ll have to use them to get the most out of what CSS3 currently has to offer. So what’s the [...]
5 Reasons Why Apple TV Is (Still) Boring
We know the new Apple TV is really small, and cheap and easy-to-use. That's all good, but still not knocking our socks off despite being the ripest area for expansion by a company that has already firmly established itself on the computer, phone, portable media player and tablet. Here are five reasons Apple TV is still boring.
NOOOO, a gunman is holding someone hostage at the Discovery Channel Headquarters!
submitted by ohsnaaap to reddit.com [link] [105 comments]
iPod nano vs touch vs shuffle... fight!
Three new iPods under one roof -- how could we not throw on a table and see how they size up to one another? Obviously, the iPod touch is the black sheep here in terms of sheer physical space, but the width / height difference between nano is as marginal as you probably guessed. More pics below! Gallery: iPod shuffle vs nano vs touch (2010)... fight!iPod nano vs touch vs shuffle... fight! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | |Email this|Comments
Epic's spectacular Unreal Engine 3 tech demo free at iTunes App Store
Did you oooh and ahh at the fantastic gaming graphics that accompanied today's Apple keynote? You won't have to wait for next week's iOS 4.1 to get a taste of those textures for yourself. Though the full-on gladiator dueling of Epic's "Project Sword" may be a while off, you can get your hot little hands on "Epic Citadel" right now, a 82.2 megabyte download that explores a beautiful medieval castle town. Oh, and did we mention it's free? Even id Software's mindblowing 60FPS Rage demo must be quaking in its boots right about now.Epic's spectacular Unreal Engine 3 tech demo free at iTunes App Store originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.PermalinkTouch Arcade | Epic Citadel (iTunes) |Email this|Comments
Sexy Anime Maid
 Sexy Anime Maid | A new wallpaper has been posted to the Anime gallery on Desktop Nexus. Uploaded By: rikku007 Category: Other Date Uploaded: 09/01/10 Native Resolution: 1597x900 Points: +1 Download Count: 54 View This Wallpaper Now |
Digging Into WordPress, The Book, Version 3
When we first released the book Digging Into WordPress, we thought of some reasons why people might not want to buy it. A big reason is because tech books can go out of date quickly, especially when the subject is a fast-developing technology like WordPress. So, we fixed that. When you buy this book, you get PDF updates to it for life.
Today is just such an event. WordPress 3.0 has been out for a while now, and so…
superscout.com
greplin.com
Buzzmart.com
gygan.com
lanyrd.com
Samsung?s Galaxy Tab Commercial Is Live
We thought since all this Galaxy Tab info is coming across the line today with IFA-2010 going on, you might like to see the first Samsung Commercial that has been released. We do not know what kind of jacket pocket this guy pulls this thing out of, but it must have been custom built to [...]
Vector Woman Silhouette on Abstract Flower Background
Vector art silhouette of a sexy girl striking a pose. Colorful background containing flowers, stars, swirls and ornate elements. Download this vector artwork for free. This colorful illustration is perfect for a variety of your...
2 Vote(s)
Three Major Cities, One Studio: An Interview with the Founder of aftermoder.lab
After spending 7 years living, studying and working in Tokyo, Japan, Graphic Designer Trevor Embury set up his design company aftermodern.lab in Toronto, Canada in 2009. He has been working in design for 10 years both as a creative director and lecturer. His enthusiasm and knowledge for design, architecture and photography comes from his extensive [...]
foundationsix.com
Very thorough design, from top to bottom there’s not a spot on this website that hasn’t been given some TLC. The subtle texture and gradient, mixed so perfectly with just the right typefaces give the design a very inviting look & feel. There’s not a ton of content on the site but each page has [...]
XDA to Have Android Tablet Development
Later this year, a variety of OEMs are going to release Android tablets. These tablets have a lot of fantastic development potential thanks to their large, high-resolution screens, plentiful amounts of RAM, and fast CPUs. A lot of them even have cellular radios inside for getting wireless data on the go. Yesterday we sent out [...]
Verizon Announces Pre-Paid Data Plans for 3G Smartphones including Entire Droid Line
Just as leaked documents suggested earlier in the week, Verizon has officially announced the arrival of pre-paid data plans for their 3G devices, including BlackBerry and Android smartphones. The new deal provides unlimited data at a contract-free rate of $30 per month. For feature phones they are also making available a $10/25 MB per month [...]
On the Concept of Process
I'm going to start this discussion of by revealing a secret about my own design work: I don't have a process. At least, I don't have a rock solid, time tested step by step formula that I follow for all my projects. That's not to say that I shoot from the hip or fly by the seat of my pants, to use a couple of cliched old sayings. I certainly take the time to think things through and to be both thorough and methodical in my work. I just don't follow the same steps every time. There are a couple of different reasons for this. The first is the nature of the project. Using web design as a primary example, there are some projects which just lend themselves better to being done primary through a combination of my code editor of choice (Coda) and the browser, using Photoshop only to create really simple graphics. For other projects, however, I just find that it's better to start mocking things up in Photoshop. Of course, depending on how I begin the project, the follow through will also be different. If I start in the browser, development will progress in one way and if I start in Photoshop, it will develop in a slightly different way.
What is a ?Brand??
I read a lot of industry produced articles and papers on branding, all have one thing in common, the message is confusing, they use a plethora of ?tech talk? and what I can only describe as gibberish, so let?s start anew. First off a logo is not a brand; a logo is a symbol or mark [...]
What is a “Brand”? is a post from: GoMediaZine
Go Media is a creative agency based in Cleveland, Ohio. Besides the GoMediaZine, we also work for clients and sell stock artwork and design files on the Arsenal.
Steinway & Sons
View in siteInspire | Go directly to Steinway & Sons
20 Useful Free PDF Ebooks for Designers and Bloggers
“In this post I would like to share my favorite 20 (freely available) ebooks with you.” View Post
Twitter App Updates
Twitter is making some updates to their application policies that will affect Twitter uses.
Verizon Selling Certified Pre-owned DROID Xs?
Now this news is just plain weird. Verizon appears to be pushing a new lineup of ?Certified Pre-owned? devices and one of them happens to be the Droid X which we all know keeps getting pushed back (9/15 now). Smart idea?I guess? You can snag one for just $149 instead of the $199 price tag [...]
Samsung Confirms Android 3.5 Honeycomb For Tablets
Samsung is on a roll here. They announced the Galaxy Tab and along with it, they mentioned Google?s Android version 3.5 will be coming for their tablets in the future. During the Q&A session they mentioned that they will have larger tablets coming in the future, that will be based on Android 3.5 Honeycomb, which [...]
Use the 80-20 Rule to Increase Your Website?s Effectiveness
“Want to increase your website?s conversion rate? Want more subscribers, opt-ins, members, customers? How about doing less work while you?re at it?” View Post
40+ Various High Quality Free Paper Patterns and Textures
Paper will never leave our lives, no matter how digitized we get. Its potential for beauty is celebrated in many designs today, whether in textures, layers, or other additional effects. These following paper textures and patterns range from the simple to the exquisite, from the crumpled and colored to the wrinkled, faded and nostalgic. Download [...]
An Easy Way To Manage Your Photo Collection
Dropico is an app that allows you to manage your photo collections on your computer and a variety of different social networks from one central location using a handy drag-and-drop interface.
Create Your Own Social Icon Stickers
In this tutorial I will run you through some simple steps to create some social networking icon stickers you can use on a website or any other project you want to use them for. First download this crinkle paper texture Now open a new document 300X300px in photoshop Create a new layer and choose your ellipse shape [...]
Mr. Oso
View in siteInspire | Go directly to Mr. Oso
10 Fresh and Useful jQuery Plugins
“Awesome jQuery plugins are popping up everyday, and we?re always on the look out. So for this post, I?ve gathered 10 fresh plugins that you should find very useful.” View Post
Fluid Width YouTube Videos
I saw that Andy Clarke had added a fluid width YouTube video to a particular page on one of his sites. His code relies upon a wrapping div and then images and video within this wrapper are set to the width of the wrapper:
.img img, .img object, img embed { width: 100%; }I love the idea. It’s essentially the classic technique for dealing with images in fluid width designs. Andy’s code sets max-width to 100% here…
tuispace.com
Interesting design here, I like how you can change out the background images as the user. I like a lot of the other aspects to the design as well, like the large box/shape that all the content is in for each page. It just has a nice feel to it with the set background image. [...]
HTML, CSS, and Javascript from the Ground Up
HTML, CSS, and Javascript from the Ground Up. Learn the basics of how UIs are created on the web and brush up on outdated UI development knowledge.
Why Uniqueness Counts
When we're talking about websites, uniqueness counts. Whether its the content or the design, making sure your website is original is essential for great SEO and user-friendliness.
My other iPad is a Kindle
The new Kindle has a lot going for it. It’s inexpensive compared to a full-featured tablet computer like the iPad; you can slip it in your back pocket, where it’s more comfortable than an old-style paperback; and it includes a Webkit browser. This last point is where folks like us start to give a hoot, [...]
30 Fantastic and Splendid Digital Painting Tutorials
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Responsibility and authority
It turns out you can get a lot done if you focus on responsibility rather than authority.
Negative Emotions Diminished by Difficult Mental Challenges
Can thinking about being happy make you less happy?
Wave Goodbye
Tech autopsy of Google Wave: did Google forget to answer the essential question "what's it for?"
Yoast: The heading structure for your blog
The heading structure of your pages is one of the very important aspects of on-page SEO. It defines which parts of your content are important, and how they're interconnected. Because they have different goals, a single post needs another heading structure than your blog's homepage or your category archives. This post intends to give you [...]
The heading structure for your blog is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!
Showcase Of Appetizing Restaurant Websites
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They say the first bite is taken with the eye. If so, these appetizing restaurant websites succeed in whetting our appetites, inviting us to a savoury next bite. In these designs, color scheme and introductory copy show vastly different aspects of the restaurant experience. Moody warm tones create atmosphere, vibrant greens underscore freshness, and earthy colors communicate a relaxed, friendly attitude.
Because customers are increasingly using mobile browsers to make decisions on the spot, restaurant websites are doing a better job of communicating core information quickly. Similarly, full Flash websites with no mobile alternatives are seeing some decline. Especially interesting is how these businesses are improving their online menus by replacing PDF-only downloads with Web-optimized alternatives that are more readable and easier to navigate.
25 E-Commerce Websites for Your Design Inspiration
The success of an e-commerce website is defined by sales, not by design. However, that doesn't mean that design does not matter. In this post we'll showcase 25 well-designed e-commerce sites from a wide variety of industries. For more on e-commerce sites please see these posts from the archives:
- 50 Inspirational E-Commerce Website Designs
- 25 Inspirational E-Commerce Website Designs - Part Two
- 35 Excellent E-Commerce User Interface Designs
- 25 Creative E-Commerce Website Designs
- WordPress E-Commerce: 30+ Resources
- 37 Shopping Cart Options for Developers
- 9 Characteristics of Well-Designed E-Commerce Websites
Dried Ink Stains: 20 High Resolution Brushes ? Premium Psdpack
Today, we have a new set of Premium Brushes available for Psd Premium Members. This set was crafted by Grant Friedman of Colorburned and includes 20 High Resolution Photoshop Ink Stain Brushes. If your next project calls for a grungy, stained look, then this set is perfect for you. Learn more at the jump! High [...]
The Wilderness Downtown, an HTML5 Masterpiece
Watch and enjoy. More details of how it works here including street detection within Google Maps Street View. Choreographed windows, interactive flocking, custom rendered maps, real-time compositing, procedural drawing, 3D canvas rendering… this Chrome Experiment has them all. “The Wilderness Downtown” is an interactive interpretation of Arcade Fire’s song “We Used To Wait” and was built [...]
21 Best Contemporary Worldwide City Logo Designs
Designing a city logo can be a difficult but rewarding process: when doing this one should keep in mind that, unlike company logos, a city logo involves a huge cultural background and will be representing the image of the city on many levels - from the political to the social and economical one. Therefore, a [...]
25 Brilliantly Simple Web Page Designs
Sometimes a site can be visually stunning not so much because of the content but because of the lack of content. Though often attractive, this is a tricky style to pull off correctly without just looking like you’ve got a boring page. Today we’ll look at 25 sites that we think got it right. First [...]
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99 Excuses For NOT Making Ideas Happen
So what?s the point of us listing them out here? Reason No. 1: To face facts. If we recognize the patterns we fall into, we can change them. Reason No. 2: To invalidate them. As an antidote to inaction, we?ve provided a counter-argument for each excuse. Don?t commiserate, instigate!
Common excuses for NOT making ideas happen:
1. I DON?T HAVE ENOUGH TIME.
Extra time, like money, rarely just materializes out of thin air. We have to work for it. If ?finding creative time? is a struggle for you, consider getting proactive about carving it out, and doing the most important work first.
2. I?M AFRAID OF FAILURE.
If we really push ourselves, we will fail more than we?ll succeed. But that?s how we gain experience, how we learn, how we grow. The greater failure is to never risk failure at all. Choreographer Twyla Tharp: ?If you do only what you know and do it very, very well, chances are that you won?t fail. You?ll just stagnate, and your work will get less and less interesting, and that?s failure by erosion.?
3. I?M NOT INSPIRED.
Inspiration comes from action, not the other way around. Our friends at Red Lemon Club shared this insightful tidbit from leadership guru John C. Maxwell: ?"The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation. And then, guess what? After you start doing the thing, that?s when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it."
4. I NEED TO FIND BALANCE IN MY WORK AND HOME LIFE.
Living a full, balanced life is a wonderful goal. But does that mean doing less work and having more leisure time at home, or doing better work and feeling more fulfilled? Seasoned non-conformist and entrepreneur Chris Guillebeau makes the case for better work and bigger dreams, arguing that balanced people don?t change the world.
5. I CAN?T OVERCOME THE INERTIA.
Getting started can be hard. Once you?re sitting still, once you?re in your comfort zone, the easiest thing to do is just stay there. As serial entrepreneur Andy Swan has written, one of the most common mistakes when we?re just beginning a project is to ?set lofty goals from a resting start.? With images of fame and success dancing in our heads, we set the bar too high, fail to make the grade, and quit because we?re discouraged. Instead, build momentum by starting with small, achievable goals, and work from there.
6. IT?S NOT ORIGINAL ENOUGH.
Originality is immaterial. Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch puts it like this: ?Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination? Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent? Remember what Jean-Luc Godard said, ?It?s not where you take things from ? it?s where you take them to.??
7. I?M AFRAID OF THE COMPETITION.
If someone else is doing something similar that needn?t be a reason to give up. In fact, it?s a great reason to get more excited. As Seth Godin has said, competition validates your idea by creating a category. It also lights a fire under your ass.
8. I GOT MY EXPECTATIONS TOO HIGH JUST THINKING ABOUT IT?
It?s easy to get high on the idea of executing your idea. You daydream about how great it will be, the recognition and acclaim that will inevitably follow its launch. You build it up so much that the reality of actually executing the idea starts to seem unappealing. Ze Frank calls these un-executed ideas ?brain crack? ? it?s a dangerous addiction.
9. IT?S NOT THE RIGHT MOMENT TO DO IT.
Occasionally, this excuse has the merit of actually being valid. Twitter creator Jack Dorsey had the idea for the service back in 2000. Unfortunately, the technology that would help Twitter thrive wasn?t in place yet. But how did he recognize this? Dorsey did a small-scale implementation of the idea that flopped. Even though it failed then, the exercise crystallized the idea in his mind, and Dorsey was able to revive it later when the timing was right.
10. I HAVE TO PLAN EVERYTHING FIRST.
At this year?s 99% Conference, author and entrepreneur Frans Johansson argued that humans are very bad at predicting which ideas are going to be a success. Thus, nearly every major breakthrough innovation has been preceded by a string of failed or misguided executions. The moral of the story? Spend more time doing, and less time planning.
11. THE PRODUCTION IS TAKING TOO LONG.
Nobody ever said creative execution was sexy. In fact, it?s grueling. Author Junot Diaz battled writers block for 5 years before finishing his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Inventor James Dyson built over 5,000 prototypes before he found the right design for his vacuum. And the list goes on. We must find joy in the process of execution, not just the end product.
12. THE IDEA ISN?T POLISHED ENOUGH YET.
Charles Darwin spent 20 years developing his theory of natural selection, and planned to eventually publish his research in a multi-volume tome. But in 1858, he received a letter from the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace essentially summarizing the theory he?d been cultivating over decades. Darwin scrapped his plans for a tome and quickly published his now-famous abstract, On the Origin of Species. Without Wallace nipping at his heels, though, how long might Darwin have gone on perfecting his world-changing theory? Sometimes it?s best to launch a project before it?s ?perfect.?
13. I NEED TO DO MARKET RESEARCH.
If you think about real, game-changing inventions and discoveries ? the electric lightbulb, the double helix of DNA, the airplane ? almost none of them had the support of the masses in the early days. Being a visionary means being able to see what other people can?t even imagine. That?s why companies like Apple don?t do market research.
14. I HAVE YOUNG CHILDREN.
This excuse reminded us of a great piece from writer Rebecca Cantrell, who struggled with the impact her newborn had on her writing. Though initially she lost her will to work as she focused on child-rearing, Cantrell found ? in watching her son?s willingness to experiment and fail and never give up ? that the experience actually inspired her and improved her writing practice.
15. I?VE GOT TO PAY THE BILLS.
Going with the status quo, we tend to give high priority to things like wealth and stability. And once we have them, it?s extremely difficult to imagine life without them. (To wit: ?The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.?) But should these things come at the expense of pursuing big, bold ideas? Paying the bills won?t necessarily earn you a legacy.
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16. ? 99. We highlighted our 15 ?favorite? excuses above. For the full list of 99+ excuses submitted by our Twitter army, you can go here.
Thanks to: @straightgangsta, @mbayik, @SanaTawileh, @rnbarlo, @sarada81, @matCruz, @LawRD_SaaS, @designglut, @josholalia, @laluxu, @suzero, @markstansbury, @njekaterina, @MisterCandy, @mikmak_fr, @bionicturtle, @YBaggili, @huminaboz, @pascaltje, @wakeupstar, @fabutastic, @ryanhyde, @markopandza, @objectformula, @BSObserver for the submissions included above.
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They make my button maker look dull and flat.
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