2012-07-14

It’s weekend again, and you know what that means .. time for a new roundup with the best design-related articles and tutorials of last week’s blogosphere, hand-picked for you. It’s all about webdesign, graphic design, SEO, tutorials, social media and more. A broad scale of topics, but never-the-less the underlying focus is on Design.



Also I see this as my personal bookmarks of great articles from the Community of the last period. The different articles and post are categorized by their main topics. The best way to keep track of these tweets is simply to follow me on Twitter.

 

 

Webdesign Coding: CSS, HTML, Javascript, PhP, APIs, etc.

PHP The Right Way - There’s a lot of bad information that leads new PHP users astray, propagating bad practices and bad code. PHP: The Right Way is an easy-to-read, quick reference for PHP best practices, accepted coding standards, and links to authoritative tutorials around the Web.

Introduction to Sass - Sass, which stands for Syntactically Awesome Stylesheets, is a “meta-language on top of CSS that’s used to describe the style of a document cleanly and structurally, with more power than flat CSS allows.

Hot in web standards: June 2012 - This month, several specifications advanced to the next stage, and we also saw some interesting new features being accepted. In addition, some long overdue topics, such as sticky positioning, are finally getting their fair share of attention.

JavaScript, jQuery, AJAX and Frameworks – These articles and posts are selected according to the two criteria: 1) they are interesting; 2) they are related to such topics as JavaScript, jQuiry, AJAX or CSS preprocessors / frameworks.

Loading a Different jQuery Version for IE6-8 – Last week the jQuery team announced that jQuery 2.0, which is scheduled for an early 2013 release, “removes support for IE 6/7/8 oddities such as borked event model, IE7 ‘attroperties’, HTML5 shims, etc.”

6 New jQuery Techniques to Spice Up Your Design Content - Since there are various forms of techniques being used nowadays, it can be quite confusing when choosing the perfect one. Content can either help to enhance the design, or serve as a focal point.

A Look Into: CSS3 2D Transformations – The four essential transformation methods; translate, scale, rotate and skew. However, as mentioned, this module is still in the early stage, so if you will apply these methods in your next website, make sure it degrades gracefully ..

.htaccess For All - Htaccess (HyperText Access) is a simple configuration file that allows designers to alter the configuration of the Apache Web Server in order to provide additional functionality. Such functionality can include redirecting users, URL re-writes and providing password-protected directories, etc.

Optimise your JavaScript- Optimising code is still vital for a seamless user experience, so I would like to share some simple rules that can dramatically help you decrease the time it takes to execute your JavaScript.

Using Checkboxes to Toggle CSS and Create Click Events - Today we’re going to examine two distinct methods for utilizing a checkbox to create a click event that swaps between two images using good old HTML and CSS. We’ll finish off with a brief discussion on semantics and the ..

Understanding Pseudo-Element :Before And :After – In short, the pseudo-elements will insert an extra element before or after the content’s element, so when we add them both, they are technically equal, with the following markup.

How to Create Custom Events in JavaScript – JavaScript event handling is the basis of all client-side applications. When an event occurs on a target element, e.g. a button click, mouse move, form submit etc, a handler function is executed.

10 Useful Fallback Methods For CSS And Javascript – In this guide I’ve put together some of the most common fallback techniques for web designers focusing on CSS and JavaScript/jQuery. When all else fails you want to provide users at least basic page functionality.

Coding Q&A With Chris Coyier: Code Smell And Type On A Grid - In this week’s Q&A: Designing For Email, Type On A Grid, Centering And Resets, Opacity Blues, Border-Radius On Images, and Spotting Bad Code.

5 Things You Should Check Now to Improve PHP Web Performance – If you want to improve something, you need to measure and compare the situation before and after. But what should you measure? I find that speed and memory usage are the most important, generally.

Avoid box-model disparity with box-sizing: border-box - The “border-box” value eschews the traditional box-model for something a little more simple-math-friendly. Instead of adding padding and border to a specified width or height, “border-box” places them within.

 

Usability, User Experience, Responsive Webdesign, Mobile, etc.

Mobile Web in High Resolution – Bringing half pixel borders to high resolution devices. With the advent of high DPI device screens like Apple’s retina display, creating high resolution apps has become a standard for native app developers.

Designing for Context on Multiple Devices - The user should not have to think about the device he is using, changes in the environment or changes in context and can rely on great functionality and ease of use independent of his situation.

Stop building apps and start building behaviors - A new crop of companies is setting its sights on changing the small behaviors in your life, hoping to reap big rewards. They’re using the best practices of interaction design and psychology to build products with your brain in mind.

Using CSS Sprites to optimize your website for Retina Displays - For a lot of small websites, the extra layer of complexity that CSS Sprites brings to your assets was not always worth it. But with high-resolution screens, such as Retina Displays, becoming more and more prevalent, there is a new big reason to use them.

Great Works of Fiction Presents: The Mobile Context - Let me make a long story short: just make quality, relevant content with appropriate tasks, and offer all of these to all users, unless said content or functionality is dependent upon device capabilities.

An Introduction To Website Usability Testing - Usability is how easy an object is to use. The object can be almost anything, including a machine, tool, process, book, software application or website. Anything that a person can interact with should be usable. In thw case of ..

Intention-Focused Design: Applying Perceptual Control Theory to Discover User Intent - At this point in the development of the field of user experience, I’m assuming that most good UX  professionals know how to tailor sites or applications to user profiles, create  ..

The Psychology of Content Design – As web designers, we face a difficult task every time we sit down to produce content for the web. There’s no doubt that we understand Content is King; this term was most famously coined by Bill Gates in 1996 ..

10 Useful Responsive jQuery Slider Plugins –  a small collection on some of the more impressive jQuery sliders for your perusal. Most of these responsive jQuery sliders are free and each of these plugins has their own distinctive feature, ..

New ‘Adaptive Image’ HTML Tag Stirs Controversy – The rising global popularity of smart phones and other small-screen Internet devices has created a number of dilemmas for web developers.

Native App vs. Mobile Web App: A Quick Comparison – There are two main directions you can go: native app or mobile web app. In this article, we’ll talk about the differences between the two so you can make an informed decision.

Of Responsive Images & Cute Puppies – Now that you’ve got a better understanding of all the factors involved in serving responsive images, you’re probably wondering which solution you should choose.

Responsive Web’s Message to Mobile Website Creators: “Rest in Peace” - There used to be a time when mobile website creation tools were very popular. In fact, a lot of premium software for mobile website creation had become synonymous with web design itself.

Using Media Queries to Test Device Resolution - There’s been much talk recently about high-resolution websites, especially since the release of the retina-display for iPad and Macbook Pro. The media queries test for the resolution of your device, using the device pixel ratio (DPR) as an argument.

 

Webdesign in Common, Web Typography, jQuery, Tools, etc.

10 Hot Summer jQuery plugins (july 2012) - This is hot hand-made collection of the most interesting jQuery plugins. Here are different plugins like Flow slider, Floater, Handsontable, Impress and so on.

10 jQuery Plugins that Will Make your Life Easier - jQuery has changed the way developers write JavaScript and the way users interact with websites and web applications. If you’re a developer, you know what a pleasure it can be to work with jQuery, especially the convenience of plugins.

Tips & Tools for Grid-based Layouts - Developing a vertical (and responsive) grid can help maintain consistency in website design and ease the creation of responsive layouts.

10 Most Beneficial jQuery Tab Plugins - Here you will find our collection of what we think the most beneficial jQuery Tab plugins that you would find around these days and very useful to improve your site’s tab user experience.

JPEG Optimization For The Web – Ultimate Guide - Image compression is found in every native media format. However the difference between GIF, PNG, and JPEG is how the information is compressed and display on-screen. There are so many tips for composing great image ..

Avoiding Faux Weights And Styles With Google Web Fonts - If you’re using Google Web Fonts on your websites, then there’s a very good chance that 1 in 5 visitors are seeing faux bold and italic versions of your fonts — even if you correctly selected and used all of the weights and styles.

10 jQuery Plugins that Will Make your Life Easier -  In this post, we’ve rounded up 10 jQuery Plugins that Will Make your Life Easier. In this collection of plugins, you’ll find a wide range of functionality, from navigation enhancements to image viewing.

True Minimalism in Web Design – In this article I want to share a few basic tips to achieve minimalism in web design. I will use a website I designed recently as an example, and then provide some other inspirational designs.

Websites with Excellent Font Usage and Guidelines for Your Site – Selecting the right fonts for your website is another one of these important decisions. These professional pointers and principles will match your website with the right fonts in no time.

10 Great jQuery Plugins and Tutorials To Create Panoramic Image Views – And in today’s post we bring together jQuery plugins and tutorials for panoramic effect.Panoramic view is a wide angle view of any place using many images combined together so that you can view it as 360 degree.

Beefing Up Dull Text in WebKit – I noticed that the font for the code editors was notably duller and weaker in WebKit browsers (Safari and Chrome) than it was in Firefox or Opera. I quite like Chrome and it was sad to me knowing that I would be spending a lot of  ..

 



 

Graphic Design, Brand Identity, Typography, Print Design, Icons, etc.

Brand Logos: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly- Your brand’s logo should be memorable, versatile, and consistent, all the while giving your audience a sense of what your brand is all about. Unfortunately, many companies haven’t exactly done a great job of keeping those goals ..

6 Basic Typography Blunders that Make You Seem Clueless – Typography can be a tricky beast to tame. There are so many fonts, so many rules, and so many ways to break those rules. A lot of finding out what looks good and what looks like crap comes from experience, ..

7 Ways To Make Adobe Bridge Your Personal Assistant- Adobe Bridge does a very good job of helping you organize all of your images, documents, code snippets, project folders, and other media assets. But, it does a lot more than just sort your files.

An Explanation of Photoshop Blend Modes – The Blend Modes specified in the options bar control how pixels in two separate layers interact with and effect each other. It’s helpful to think in terms of the following colors when visualizing a blending mode’s effect:

 

Blogging, Social Media, Writing, Content Strategy, etc.

What are the 10 Secret Benefits of Blogging?- The democratization of publishing and marketing through self publishing (blogging) and self marketing (social media) are breaking down barriers to display invisible experts who previously would have been hidden from view.

Four Quick Ways to Improve Any Blog Post – Do your blog posts lack something? Perhaps you’re trying hard, but you never seem to get more than a couple of comments – and a handful of subscribers. The problem is, you don’t have hours to spend on perfecting every post.

21 Freelancing Social Media Faux Pas – You’ve heard how wonderful a tool social media is for freelancers. For little to no cost and a minimal time commitment you can find exposure for your freelancing business that used to be beyond the reach of most solo professionals.

10 Types of Content that We ALL Love! - Today, I’ve put together a list of 10 content types that people just love to read, in hopes that one might serve as inspiration for you to create some “Wow!” content in your own niche.

10 Types of Content that We ALL Love!- Writer’s block happens even to the best of us, and it’s nice to help break through this “stalling” of our creativity with a good list of content types that people crave.

How to Create “The Perfect Blog Post” – There are 9 components, 4 of which require some technical know-how. Some of it is as easy as a few html tags, others require a few more steps. No worries though, it’s easy!

7 Smart Tips on How to Attract the Right Traffic to your Blog - The success of a blog all depends on the number of readers it appeals to. In this case, more is more. But even before it succeeds in appealing to readers and visitors, there is another objective that it has to achieve – generating traffic.

5 Types of Web Content It Is Time To Rethink – In this article, we will take a look at a handful of typical website pages, all of which I am still regularly asked to add to the websites of my clients, to offer alternatives and examples of how they can be rethought and improved.

One simple tip that can dramatically increase your Facebook fan engagement and reach – This tip may be so obvious that you are already using it. But if you are not, you should definitely test it out. Upload a picture with every Facebook post.

 

 

WordPress

15 Simple Yet Effective Techniques to Speed Up Your WordPress Site- This article mainly focuses in speeding up blogs or websites powered by WordPress, but these techniques can also be employed in general to speed up any website.

10 Most Common WordPress Errors (With Solutions) - In today’s post, we take a look at some of the most common WordPress errors users have encountered, and share with you the solutions to fix those problems or make them go away.

Making CSS Edits in WordPress - When you first get your hands on your first self-hosted WordPress site, you will likely be exploring themes like crazy. And no doubt you’ll find one that is very close to what you want, but you might want to change a few things up with the way it looks.

WordPress Plugins: Can You Have Too Many?- here’s a rule of thumb: less is best. Keep plugins and scripts to the minimum required to ensure the proper features and functionality for your target audience, and keep them updated.

Introduction to WordPress User Roles (Part I) - When working on a project, the question of adding capabilities to some roles and users sometimes rises. Thanks to high-quality and easiness of WordPress API, we can set our website’s user system as we want.

31 Steps to Mastering WordPress - All of the basic information that a complete WordPress beginner should know from the outset. Learning all of the tips and tricks below should save beginners a lot of time (and headaches).

WordPress 101: Beginners Guide to WordPress – This section of article can be called as the central and key part. Basic knowledge of formatting contents, writing posts, writing pages and uploading images would be covered in this section.

How to Create Your Very First WordPress Plugin - If you want more control and flexibility over your WordPress site and are ready to get your hands dirty with some code, one of the first things you’ll probably want to know is how to create a WordPress plugin.

 

Search Engine Optimalization, Conversions, Analytics, etc.

How Social Media Sites are Affecting SEO Ranking- There have been several experiments done that have demonstrated sharing on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ can most definitely have an effect on search results. In several interviews with Google engineers and ..

Why It Is so Important to Monitor Your Website – you can’t be successful if you don’t have full control over the state of your website. The matter of monitoring is crucial and tips bellow will make you understand and see the big picture of the situation.

10 SEO Techniques All Startups Should Be Using – So instead of dismissing the tremendous potential involved with SEO, consider implementing any or all of the following techniques into your startup’s marketing plan.

An In-depth Analysis of Authorship, Google+ and Snippets – Regardless of the specific case and the assessments evaluated on rel=author, this case analysis shows us how we should act when we wish to obtain certain answers about the behaviour of the search engine.

How to Add Google Author Tags to Your Blog for Improved Search Results – When implemented correctly on websites or blogs with authored content, this small addition to your articles can have a dramatic impact on how your content appears in Google’s search results.

Were You Hit by Negative SEO? – Since Google’s “Penguin” update, hysteria over negative SEO has exploded, with people blaming it for falling rankings. In 99% of cases, the SEO problems of websites in 2012, even after Penguin, are self-inflicted.

 

Tutorials

An HTML5 Slideshow w/ Canvas & jQuery - Today, however, we are doing something practical – we are making a progressively enhanced slideshow with a fancy transitioning effect, which is perfectly functional in older browsers as well.

Mini Collection for Prefix & Postfix Input Form - An instant library for prefixing and postfixing an input field on a form. This library using Font Awesome for the icons of the prefix and postfix, go through the post to see the sets.

25 Photoshop Tutorials Released In June 2012 - Here are the 25 Photoshop Tutorials Released In June 2012 which would be of great help to you in case you want to become an expert in this field. Find out the various Photoshop tricks and tips by reading and trying out these ..

40 New Adobe Illustrator Tutorials – Start learning new techniques, you’ll need some fresh tutorial to keep to. To help you with that we’ve gathered here a list of step-by-step tutorials that might come of a great interest to you, in case if you’re searching for new methods of enhancing ..

Set Text on a Circle - There isn’t any super simple standardized way to set web type on a circle (or any kind of curve). We’re going to use some CSS3 and JavaScript and not give two hoots about older browsers that doesn’t support some the required tech.

Creating Sortable Image Groups with PHP and jQuery- In this tutorial I am going to show you how to create a simple application to group images quickly using jQuery features. Days have gone where we used to group elements using multiple select boxes.

Magnifying glass for image zoom using Jquery and CSS3 – Learn to make a realistic magnifying glass using Jquery and CSS3. Hover above the image to see the action. The code uses CSS3 box-shadow and border-radius properties to create the magnifying glass.

Create An Elegant CSS3 Navigation Menu – In this tutorial we will be creating simple and professional looking menu with both horizontal and vertical orientation. Along the way, we will explore the usage of CSS3 features like gradients, box-shodows and text-shadows.

CSS3 Family Tree – Learn to display organizational data or a family tree just using CSS, without any flash or javascript. Very simple markup – just nested lists. Pseudo elements are used to draw the connectors.

Create Always On Page HTML Elements – In this demo were going to create a simple web page with navigation at the top of the page, this navigation is going to be fixed to top of the page using the keep in view plugin.

30 Must-See HTML5 Tutorials to Help You Impress Your Audience – HTML5 is going to strengthen its position even further and you want to be ready when that happens.Mastering the latest technology will allow you to experiment, push things further, ..

Old School Cassette Player with HTML5 Audio – Vintage format meets modern web tech: an HTML5 audio player with realistic controls. Today we want to share an audio player with you that looks like an old school music cassette.

How to Create Fancy Animated Buttons in CSS3 – To give designers more flexibility and interoperability, CSS3 is proposed as the next major revision of CSS. In this tutorial we will be making some cool fancy animated CSS3 buttons.

Top 10 CSS3 Forms Tutorials – CSS3 brings to life countless new possibilities to make better web forms. In this article, I have compiled a list of the best 10 tutorials to make great forms using this new and amazing technology.

CSS3 Tutorial: Create A Sleek On/Off Button - So, this time, we are going to create a slick and interactive button which is based on this excellent design over at Dribbble using only CSS.

 

Freelance, Business and Workflow Related Stuff

Freelancers: 5 Ways To Lose Your Clients - Freelancers have their share of idiosyncracies that drive clients up the wall. If you are serious about making a career in freelancing, it’s important to know if what you are doing is actually helping you in your career, or helping you lose clients.

How Freelancers can Maximize their Time and Make More Money- How do I know about time management? I deal with distractions on a daily basis and time management was one of the hardest obstacles I had to overcome. As a fellow freelancer, I understand the temptations, and the struggles you face on a daily basis.

 

F*cking Brilliant, a great Read or just magnificent Tips!

Startups: refined UX vs. quick rollouts - These two schools of thought each have their advantages and disadvantages as one might imagine, and they each have managers that believe in them to almost a hard-headed extent.

The Principles of Agile Development - Agile or Agile Development – we hear these words more often these days. But do we really know what it is all about? How can it help us become more effective, while having lots of fun developing software?

Better Product Pages: Turn Visitors Into Customers – The way you present your product or service is essential to its success — or at least it could be if you know how to do it right. On the Web, like anywhere else, the first impression you make on people is crucial.

We’re solving the wrong problem - When your organization is truly customer focused, right down to its core, then the prospect of preparing your content to go wherever your users are stops seeming outlandish and starts seeming like the only sensible course of action

 



I hope you have enjoyed these hand-picked great articles? Please let me know by sharing your opinion in the comments-section. Did we miss a great article, please let us know  .. To keep up to date with all the cool links, simply follow me @gonzodesign

 

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