Web Design (140 entries)

10 Quick and Dirty Ways to Lay Out a List of Links: June 04, 2009 | 22 Comments; A selection of ways to separate a list of links using typographic characters as dividers.
The Value of Paper Prototyping: May 10, 2009 | 17 Comments; Paper prototypes provide benefits in many areas during the wireframe stage of a web site design.
MMO Free Trial Landing Page Design Review: March 30, 2009 | 12 Comments; A look at the key components of a successful MMORPG free trial page and how those of the main MMOs compare against these best practices.
Are You Focusing Too Much on Your Home Page?: February 03, 2009 | 41 Comments; Your home page is not the most important page on your web site. Many designers spend too much time on it which can cause the rest of the site to be ignored.
Keep Track of Your Styles with a Content Formatting Quick Reference Guide: January 27, 2009 | 13 Comments; A content formatting HTML quick reference or markup guide makes it easy to know what HTML to use when coding certain types of content.
ESPN Web Site Redesign: January 08, 2009 | 10 Comments; Thoughts and commentary on the redesign of the ESPN web site.
Web Design Predictions for 2009: January 04, 2009 | 26 Comments; My predictions for some hot web design topics for the year ahead.
Borders Magic Shelf: A Clever Take on the Home Page Promo Area: November 24, 2008 | 3 Comments; Borders 'magic shelf' enables web site visitors to browse a wide range of content in a familiar way within the confined space of a home page promotional area.
Indicating Required Form Fields: A Recap: October 21, 2008 | 15 Comments; The results of my survey on how best to indicate that a form field is required.
Are These Really Web Sites of the World's Best Brands?: September 27, 2008 | 13 Comments; Not all the world's best brands have web sites that match. Here's a tour through the sites that clearly didn't get the memo about that whole branding thing.
Required Form Fields: Where Should the Asterisk Go?: August 26, 2008 | 36 Comments; Where should the asterisk that indicates required form fields go? To the left or to the right? Does it matter?
Web Site Navigation Design Showcase: August 24, 2008 | 14 Comments; A collection of over 70 examples of great web site navigation design.
Experiment in Making an Article Sidebar More Readable and Visually Appealing: July 02, 2008 | 25 Comments; An experiment in tweaking the HTML and CSS of an article sidebar to improve its readability and visual design.
Login Form Showcase: 65+ Examples of Login Form Design: June 23, 2008 | 16 Comments; A showcase of more than 65 examples of web site login form design. Discover the best practices for login form layout, labeling and design.
Footer Design Showcase: 75+ Creative Footer Designs: May 12, 2008 | 21 Comments; A collection of creative, engaging and useful web site footer designs to fire your imagination.
Redesigning the TechCrunch Web Site Footer: May 04, 2008 | 18 Comments; The footer of the TechCrunch web site has neither an attractive design nor any useful content. Here's my attempt to improve both of these and make it a useful part of the site.
Is It Fair To Criticize Bad Design?: April 21, 2008 | 28 Comments; It's hard to build a successful web site that meets both organizational and user goals. So is it fair to criticize design mistakes without knowing the reasoning behind these decisions?
BBC News Site Redesign and User Feedback: April 10, 2008 | 12 Comments; Reaction to the BBC news web site redesign has been pretty harsh. What should a designer do about it?
The Evolution of a Button: February 27, 2008 | 8 Comments; The 'Hidden Secrets of the Amazon Shopping Cart' explores the evolution of Amazon's add-to-cart button and how its design has changed over time.
Home Page Carousel Showcase: 40+ Carousel Designs: February 22, 2008 | 11 Comments; A collection of over 40 home page carousel designs showing common themes and different approaches taken by designers.
Calls-to-Action on Banners and Buttons: February 07, 2008 | 6 Comments; An article that examines what a call-to-action is and how to improve your implementation of them with graphical banners and buttons (with examples).
Web Site Typography Makeover: January 30, 2008 | 14 Comments; A before and after example of how good typography can greatly enhance the presentation of a content-rich web page such as a magazine article.
Examples of Typographic Style on Commercial Web Sites: January 29, 2008 | 14 Comments; Great web typography is key on content-rich, commercial web sites. Why is it then that so many of them get it wrong? Here are some examples of site getting it right.
New Book: Web Design for ROI: January 28, 2008 | 12 Comments; Web design for ROI looks like a practical and useful book on designing and running your web site more like a business.
Pricing Table Showcase: Design Patterns for Sign-Up Pages: January 16, 2008 | 8 Comments; A showcase of pricing tables on sign-up pages with best practice implications from their different implementations.
The Worst Home Page of 2007?: December 22, 2007; GM's home page disregards many basic usability conventions in favor of looking pretty.
Nielsen Norman Group Report on Accessibility Available for Free: December 18, 2007 | 2 Comments; The report outlines 75 best practices for the design of web sites and intranets, based on usability studies with people who use assistive technology.
How to Objectively Measure Emotional Response to Your Web Site's Design: December 12, 2007; The Repertory Grid or bipolar emotional response test is a useful interview technique for soliciting user feedback in an objective way.
Hacking Netflix's Navigation: December 03, 2007 | 10 Comments; One user's attempt at redesigning the primary navigation of the Netflix web site.
Future-Proof Your Web Site Design by Planning Your CSS In Advance: November 25, 2007 | 21 Comments; Setting up your CSS in advance to support a wide range of page elements will help your site to maintain design cohesion over time.
Book on User-Centered Web Design Available Online for Free: November 20, 2007 | 2 Comments; Access by Design book on designing web sites with a goal of universal usability is available online for free.
Flash Video Player Design Showcase: November 18, 2007 | 8 Comments; A collection of 50+ examples of the best designed Flash video players.
10 Reasons Why Your Web Site Sucks: October 21, 2007 | 9 Comments; A list of 10 common issues that make web sites hard to use and frustrate users (with a couple extra thrown in).
Designers: Beware the Lure of Stylized Text: October 11, 2007 | 12 Comments; Be careful about making your content appear too stylized otherwise your readers may ignore it.
Headings and Hierarchy: is More Than One H1 a Crowd?: September 28, 2007 | 14 Comments; How do you organize your headings? Should you use one H1 or can you use several? Is skipping heading levels as bad as it sounds?
Design Patterns: 50 Registration / Sign Up Forms: September 12, 2007 | 5 Comments; A showcase of sign-up forms which combine functionality and usability with pleasing visual design.
How to Design an Effective Sales Page: August 25, 2007 | 7 Comments; The Inspyder Insite product page is a great example of an effective sales page.
Is Your Font Stylesheet Vista Ready?: August 09, 2007 | 16 Comments; Add Calibri into your font declaration and make your typography more elegant.
10 Things You May Not Know About the Web Developer Toolbar: July 11, 2007 | 29 Comments; The Web Developer Toolbar is an essential tool for web developers. Here are some of its less well-known but still useful features.
Farewell 'Home', We Hardly Knew You: June 10, 2007 | 14 Comments; The 'Home' link is becoming less used in web site navigation. Why is that?
How to Conduct a Design Review with Stakeholders: June 07, 2007; Tips and techniques on how to conduct effective stakeholder design reviews.
Top 15 Smashing Magazine Articles: May 24, 2007 | 2 Comments; The most popular articles from Smashing Magazine -- a great online source for web design resources, techniques and tools.
Create Resizable Images With CSS: May 12, 2007 | 10 Comments; How to use CSS to create images that resize along with the text on a web page.
Be Careful About Using Social Media to Redesign Your Web Site: May 01, 2007 | 4 Comments; The advent of social media does not mean that traditional user-centered design practices should be ignored.
Another Day, Another Design Failure: April 27, 2007 | 7 Comments; John McCain's presidential candidacy web site gets an extreme makeover.
Is Your Web Site POSH?: April 26, 2007; POSH is a new acronym to describe semantic HTML. Spread the word!
The Web Design Survey, 2007: April 24, 2007 | 5 Comments; Take the 2007 Web Design Survey and learn more about the industry in which you work.
Pull-quote Design Showcase: April 08, 2007 | 5 Comments; Add emphasis and liven up your content with pull quotes. A selection of designs to inspire you!
10 Best Practices For Displaying Tag Clouds: March 12, 2007 | 6 Comments; A list of best practices for displaying tag clouds on a web site.
Using Icons for Web Site Navigation — a Waste of Time?: February 14, 2007 | 31 Comments; Most icons used in web site navigation provide no meaning to the user and serve only to clutter up the interface.
New Web Site Launched: Feedback Appreciated: February 06, 2007 | 8 Comments; Seattle Children's Hospital has marked the occasion of its 100th birthday by creating an online timeline of the major events over its first 100 years.
Would You Visit These US States Based on Their Web Sites?: January 16, 2007 | 45 Comments; A comparison of the tourism web sites of the 50 US states. Which ones work and which ones don't/
BBC News on Accessibility: November 29, 2006 | 5 Comments; Short video from the BBC News about how accessibility issues affect visually and motor impaired web users.
Novel Twist on Web Design Portfolio Pages: November 13, 2006 | 4 Comments; Adding 'info icons' to web design portfolio pages is a novel way to highlight various elements of each design.
Report: The Designer's Guide to Web Applications: November 13, 2006; UIE has published a report about designing web applications with a free first chapter.
Report Details Most Commonly Used Browser Sizes: November 01, 2006 | 3 Comments; Report on actual browser window sizes is useful in determining how wide to design web sites.
Fly Out Menus: Can They Drop Up as Well as Drop Down?: October 18, 2006 | 2 Comments; The Weather Channel's web site takes an unusual approach to fly out menus with navigation that scrolls up rather than down.
CSS Rounded Corners 'Roundup': October 11, 2006 | 82 Comments; A collection of techniques for creating boxes and layouts with rounded corners using CSS.
Crazy Egg Review: A New Way to Do Web Analytics: September 25, 2006 | 9 Comments; Crazy Egg is a new twist on web analytics that enables you to very easily test how a web page is working and interpret the results.
New Brown University Home Page: Breaking Too Many Rules?: September 18, 2006 | 4 Comments; The new Brown University home page is interesting and unconventional, but breaks some core usability rules.
More Useful Firefox Extensions for Web Designers: September 11, 2006; Some more useful Firefox extensions for web designers and developers.
Practice What You Preach When Selling Usability Products: August 31, 2006 | 3 Comments; If you are in the business of selling usability products and services your own web site should be as easy to use as possible.
Experiments With and Thoughts About Tag Clouds: August 29, 2006 | 4 Comments; Thoughts about the use of tag clouds to provide navigation for content that defies navigation.
Pantone Fall 2006 Color Scheme: August 17, 2006 | 1 Comment; Pantone's fall colors for 2006 make for a rich and warm color scheme.
Calendar and Date Picker Design Showcase: August 03, 2006 | 7 Comments; A gallery of well-designed online calendars and date pickers. Get your inspiration here!
New Conclusions in Usability Testing: July 27, 2006; Recent studies on usability testing have challenged some long-held beliefs as to how tests should be conducted.
The Challenges of Presenting Information Using Images: July 21, 2006 | 2 Comments; When using images to present information It's important not to make them overly complex as you risk overloading the viewer with too much data.
Using a Background Image Grid to Lay Out Your Web Site: July 16, 2006 | 43 Comments; How to use a background image of a grid to lay out your web site more precisely.
How to Calculate When to Add Jump Links to the Top of a Web Page: June 29, 2006 | 8 Comments; Use this calculation to determine when to add within-page links to the top of a web page.
Typography for Headlines: June 27, 2006 | 40 Comments; A selection of web site article headlines that have interesting and creative typography.
Questionable Design Decisions Seen Around the Web: June 16, 2006 | 14 Comments; A round-up of sites that have made some questionable web design and usability decsions.
Online Map Design: Which Way to Zoom In?: June 11, 2006 | 11 Comments; Thoughts on the design of zoom sliders on map sites. Should zoom in go at the top or bottom?
Comparison of Services to Create Online Polls: June 05, 2006 | 12 Comments; A review of several of the leading services to create online polls.
Review of Quimble: Service to Create Online Polls: May 25, 2006 | 8 Comments; Review of Quimble online poll creation service, including thoughts about the design and usability of its polls.
Validate Your Web Site and More With One Tool: May 20, 2006 | 4 Comments; Total Validator combines web page validation, broken link checking and browser compatibility checking into a single tool
Children's Museum Web Site is Not Very Usable: May 18, 2006 | 4 Comments; Thoughts about issues I had using Phoenix Children's Museum's web site.
Inline CSS Tabs with Rounded Corners: May 03, 2006 | 4 Comments; Inline tabs enable you to show a lot of content in a small space. Here's how to create them with rounded corners using CSS and JavaScript.
Blog Comment Form Design Showcase: April 24, 2006 | 15 Comments; A collection of blog comment forms showcasing interesting and creative design.
Clear or Cloudy: 20 Weather Forecast InfoGraphics Compared: April 14, 2006 | 7 Comments; A review of 20 web site weather forecast infographics.
How to Show Whether Form Fields are Required: April 08, 2006; Good practices to follow in order to indicate whether a form field is required or optional.
Blog Comment Design Showcase: April 06, 2006 | 36 Comments; A showcase of blog comments that have outstanding designs. Get your dose of inspiration here!
The Dilemma of Using Images on Web Sites: April 02, 2006 | 6 Comments; My thoughts about the best way to use images as web content and the dilemma designers face in trying to use them appropriately.
Aardvark Firefox Extension Available for FF1.5: March 28, 2006 | 4 Comments; The Aardvark Firefox extension is an essential tool for web developers. It now works with FF1.5.
Ideas for Color Schemes: March 14, 2006 | 17 Comments; If you're stuck for a color scheme idea for your web site, the major paint manufacturers might just have what you're looking for.
How to Create a Block Hover Effect for a List of Links: March 08, 2006 | 32 Comments; How to create a block hover effect for items within a list of links
How to Write a Web Site Creative Brief: February 26, 2006 | 6 Comments; Writing a clear, well-structured creative brief will get your web project off to a good start and keep it on track. Here's how. Includes examples.
How to Create a Standardized Web Site Development Workflow: February 20, 2006 | 26 Comments; An example of a standard web development methodology. Using a standardized workflow makes it quicker to develop web sites, reduces errors and ensures they meet organizational goals and user needs.
Improved Unobtrusive Javascript Image Rollovers: February 16, 2006 | 12 Comments; Use this script to create image rollovers without hard-coding any Javascript into your HTML. Easy to implement and maintain!
Free Web Site Templates: February 13, 2006 | 9 Comments; A huge collection of free web site templates.
Web Page Upload Checklist: February 07, 2006 | 5 Comments; Use this upload checklist to make sure that your web pages are error free before you make them live.
Are Focus Groups Worth the Effort?: January 22, 2006; Focus groups have been used for decades but are less useful for determining the desires of users than is traditionally believed.
The Hidden Cost of Free Stock Photos: January 20, 2006 | 7 Comments; Free stock photo sites have a hidden cost - the time it takes to find a photo
10 Tips to Improve the Comment Section of Your Blog: January 18, 2006 | 10 Comments; Ten ways you can improve the usability and look of your blog's comments section.
How to Style an A to Z Index with CSS: January 16, 2006 | 5 Comments; How to style an A to Z index using a list and CSS.
iWeb is the New FrontPage: January 12, 2006; Apparently iWeb produces terrible HTML code. Oh dear.
Wonderful Collection of License-Free Fonts: January 06, 2006; A great collection of license-free fonts.
Best Web Design Picks of 2005: January 03, 2006; My top web design picks for 2005.
10 Reasons to Use Web Standards: December 06, 2005; Ten good reasons to use web standards when you build web sites.
Download Free Icons from IconBuffet: December 03, 2005 | 10 Comments; IconBuffet offers a free download of a set of icons each month.
Don't Make Me Think: Read Chapter on Accessibility Online: November 28, 2005; Chapter 11 of "Don't Make Me Think" - on accessibility - is available to read online. Don't miss it!
Mouse Hover: More Useful Than You Thought: November 14, 2005; Bill Scott delves into the various uses for the mouse hover.
11 Principles of Great Web Sites for Consultants: November 10, 2005; A collection of tips and best practices for building web sites for consultants.
Web Site Usability Book Review: "Don't Make Me Think": October 19, 2005 | 2 Comments; Review of Steve Krug's book on web site usability, "Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability".
11 Reasons to Include Prototyping in Your Web Development Process: October 13, 2005; 11 reasons why building prototypes will make your web development process more efficient and effective.
Where Are the Standards Developers?: September 05, 2005 | 6 Comments; The lack of web designers knowledgeable in web standards provokes a lively discussion over at Asterisk.
Design In-Flight Now Available Online: August 19, 2005; The excellent design magazine design in-flight is now available in an online format.
Test Your Web Site For Speed, Accessibility and More For Free: August 02, 2005 | 2 Comments; A review of the free web site testing service offered by IndependentTesters.org
Create Online Graphs With Flash: July 28, 2005; A review of Fusion Charts - a product for creating online graphs using Flash.
Specialty Stock Photo Sites: June 13, 2005; Tired of looking through the same old mega-stock photo sites for that special image? Try some of these niche sites for something a little more off the beaten track.
No News is Better Than Old News: March 23, 2005 | 2 Comments; If you're going to have 'News' on your web site, you'd better make sure that you keep it current.
Sneak Peak: Asterisk Redesign: March 03, 2005 | 2 Comments
JavaScript Centered Pop-Up Window Script: January 09, 2005 | 4 Comments; Use this JavaScript to easily create a very customizable centered pop-up window.
Our Movable Type Intranet is Live: November 14, 2004 | 2 Comments; Thoughts about my experience of building our intranet to run on Movable Type.
Wanted: CSS Expert to Work Temporary Contract On-site: October 19, 2004
Free Stock Photography Web Sites: October 04, 2004 | 11 Comments; My pick of the various free stock photography sites on the web.
A Good Source of Web Design Gigs: September 02, 2004 | 3 Comments; Carig's List is a great source of web design projects and jobs.
Having Faith in Yourself as a Web Designer: August 21, 2004 | 3 Comments; Feeling like you can't keep up with the competition? Don't worry, there are always worse sites out there than yours.
Developing With Web Standards: August 17, 2004
Information Architecture Toolkit: August 17, 2004
Fun With Typography: August 15, 2004 | 1 Comment
Title and Alt Attributes Revisited: When To Use With Images?: August 04, 2004 | 3 Comments; Thoughts about when to use the 'title' attribute and when to use the 'alt' attribute.
Wanted: Web Designers: July 25, 2004 | 1 Comment
A Fun Way to Learn About Color Theory: July 11, 2004; A great interactive Flash tool for learning about color.
Conveying Information Through Design: July 04, 2004; How to avoid easy missteps when trying to convey information through design and especially images.
The Real World Benefits of Web Standards: June 26, 2004
Photo Gallery Software: June 22, 2004
How Much Should I Charge?: June 06, 2004 | 2 Comments
Creating a Good Color Scheme: May 19, 2004
A Good Use of Flash: April 24, 2004
IE Rollover Problem: April 13, 2004 | 2 Comments
Gurus v. Bloggers Design Shootout: April 09, 2004 | 3 Comments
Page Size - How Big is Too Big?: January 07, 2004
Avoiding Over-Engineering the US Navy Way: January 01, 2004; A real-world example we should take to heart when building web-based applications.
Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2003: December 22, 2003; My top-ten web design pet peeves.
Color Pickers and Color Scheme Pickers: December 21, 2003 | 1 Comment; A collection of my favorite color picker and color scheme tools.
"Help" Is a Waste of Time: December 18, 2003 | 2 Comments
Make Internal Links Scroll Smoothly with JavaScript: December 16, 2003
Using Site Search Reports to Enhance Web Analytics: December 11, 2003
The Worst Web Site of All Time?: December 08, 2003
Bloated Home Pages Increase Travel Site Load Times: December 07, 2003

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Web Design (140 entries)

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