50 Powerful Time-Savers For Web Designers - Smashing Magazine Advertisement Many companies try to create a great experience for customers. But few are willing to make the changes required to deliver on that promise. In fact most don’t even realize just how bad their experience can be. This is why we made a new book called “User Experience Revolution,” a practical battle plan for placing the user at the heart of your company. There are tools that make our lives much easier. In this post, you’ll find an overview of useful and handy tools that can help you increase your productivity and improve your workflow. Further Reading on SmashingMag: Link Useful Time-Savers For Web Designers Link House of Buttons5 A growing collection of various buttons spotted in the wild by Jason Long. Historious7 Historious makes bookmarking work the way you want it. Browser UI9 The Browser UI is an action that creates a browser window around any size Photoshop document you can throw at it. What deux yeux have teux deux teuxday? Share your ideas – Mark (them) Up19! Mr.
40 Useful Online Generators For Web Designers - Noupe Design Blog Oct 11 2010 Generators can be a great way to save time in your web design projects. High-quality generators can create graphics or code or even layouts in a matter of seconds or minutes, things that might take an hour or more if done by hand. Below are some useful generators to help you speed up your web design process. There’s everything from color scheme tools to complete layout generators included. If you know of other useful generators out there, please share in the comments! Color Schemes A good color scheme is the cornerstone of a good website design. Color Scheme Designer 3Color Scheme Designer 3 has a really fantastic user interface that’s both attractive and easy to use. ColorSchemer Online V2ColorSchemer lets you create color palettes around RGB or HEX values, or using a color selector tool. KulerAdobe’s Kuler is one of the best color scheme tools available, with multiple options for both creating and finding color schemes. Layouts There are CSS generators for almost everything.
Website Design Sheffield - Mark Goddard | My Top Ten Web Designer Resources If your a seasoned web developer your going to want to follow some great resource sites. I myself have quite a large list of RSS feeds in my Outlook but here are my top ten with plenty of resources, freebies and tips…I will however feature 5 “biggies” and 5 “smallies” if that makes any sense to anyone who speaks the English language… Here we go with the biggies… 1. SmashingMagazine.com Packed full of daily web resources from desktop calendars to tips on learning CSS. 2. Not specific in it’s content, Web Designer Depot seems to feature everything from Illustrator spotlights (like the recent one on the amazing Archan Nair) all the way to freebies such as the nice RSS icon set. 3. Is very good at eyeing up great web designs and showcasing them on their site. 4. Not a brilliant resource per se but it does feature some amazing modern designs. 5. Build Internet is managed by twins Sam and Zach Dunn and is a great place to read more about the business side of website design. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
What makes a good website? Yesterday we asked our Facebook fans what they think are the top elements, building blocks, which make up a good website. Results show that a large portion of Webs users believe that a good design makes a good website. Today, let’s dive into some of these elements a bit more to see how they can contribute to helping you make a good website. Design Design is a very vague word as it encompasses all the visual elements used on your website. Items such as the theme you use, font(s), logo, colors and layout contribute to your overall website design. Content Content is made up of informational elements that you have on your website. Navigation While content is important for providing credibility to your website, it’s futile if your visitors can’t reach the right information quickly and easily. Lastly, when thinking about information that you should place on your website, make sure you are not committing the following mistakes: 5 Mistakes That Spell Disaster for Your Website.
3 Tips for a More Intuitive Website Navigation Nowadays, GPSs help us get from point A to point B, with minimal effort necessary on our part. However, your website’s navigation should be so intuitive that your visitor shouldn’t need any help getting around. When visitors come to you website, they are undoubtedly looking for information about your company or product. If your information is too hard to find, they will bolt. This is why it is important for your site to have a navigation that is highly intuitive. Navigation Bar One of the most important factors determining your site’s navigability is its navigation bar. Additionally, when choosing the title link name to use on your website, sometimes simpler is better. Internal Links Another great way to increase your website’s navigability is through the use of internal links. Also try to avoid linking to other pages by only writing “Click here” or by copying and pasting the entire link address (URL). Site Maps A sitemap displays your website’s link structure as an easy to read list.
25-point Website Usability Checklist I've been thinking a lot lately about my process. Experience is a powerful thing, but it's rare that we really sit down and try to map out what we know. A while back, as part of my 5-point Website Clinic, I developed a 25-point website usability checklist - a way to create some method out of my madness and make sure that I don't forget anything critical when I'm working with a new client. Even though it's part of one of my paid offerings, I've decided to share this checklist. Basic Overview The list is split into 4 roughly equal sections, (I) Accessibility, (II) Identity, (III) Navigation, and (IV) Content. Section I. This section contains not only traditional accessibility issues, but anything that might keep a visitor from being able to access the information on a website. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Section II. A key question when someone first comes to your site is "Who are you?" 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Section III. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Section IV. You've heard it before - Content is king. 18.
25 Beautiful Minimalistic Website Designs Minimalism is a style appreciated by many designers. While it is not appropriate for every web design project, when a minimal design is done well it can be clean, striking, and it keeps the focus on the most important content. A design with a minimalist style seems like it would be easy, but many designers find it to be very challenging to create a minimal design that looks great. White space, balance, and typography are all important elements for pulling off this look. Here are 25 websites that make use of very little unnecessary design elements but still manage to pull off a beautiful appearance. Looking for hosting?
Anatomy of a Usable Website I was thinking recently about all of the elements that can go into a modern website and started sketching out a picture of it in my head when I realized that it might make an interesting resource. A few hours later, I had come up with this: Essentially, it's a road-map for what a typical, usable website might contain. It's not a design guide, per se - more of a cheat-sheet for the pieces that any site should consider having. Of course, not all pieces are relevant to everyone, and I don't claim this is 100% comprehensive. Any comments are welcome, as this is something I'll consider revising as time goes by. MikeTek · Tuesday, April 28Killer resource Dr. Dr. · Tuesday, April 28Thanks, Mike. Hannah_Bo_Banna · Tuesday, April 28I love this - I'm all for a cheat sheet. · Tuesday, April 28@Hannah - That's exactly it: it's a way to make sure you're not missing anything important. Avinash Kaushik · Tuesday, April 28I love it! -Avinash. Jun Steven Bradley · Thursday, April 30Well done. Christian Watson
Website Design - Dreamweaver, Fireworks Make a Website Website Design Tutorial Learn how to make a professional website step-by-step and then build it into a CSS website. Fireworks is the software used to design the website's visual interface and Dreamweaver is the HTML editor used to build the website's pages. If you are using the CS4 or above version of these software please read the upgraded version of this website design tutorial series - How to Create a Website using Adobe Creative Suite. The simple and cool website design we are going to teach you to make is shown below: Prerequisite Knowledge This tutorial series teaches you how to make a complete website using Fireworks and Dreamweaver. Software Required Adobe Fireworks (Macromedia Fireworks prior to version 8) and Adobe Dreamweaver (Macromedia Dreamweaver prior to version 8). Compatible Versions of Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Fireworks for this Tutorial Before you Design Color Palette - Purple & Pink Passion How to Make a Website Steps