10 Free Wireframing Tools for Designers This series is supported by Ben & Jerry's Joe, Ben & Jerry's new line-up of Fair Trade and frozen iced coffee drinks. Learn more about it here. Wireframing is a crucial step in web design and development as it allows for rapid prototyping and helps to pinpoint potential problems early in the process. It can be invaluable to have a visual representation of content, hierarchy and layout. Wireframes make it easier to communicate ideas, reduce scope creep, cut down on project costs (due to fewer design revisions later), and enable greater upfront usability and functionality testing. This post highlights 10 of the best free wireframing tools available, including standalone applications, web-based tools and browser add-ons. If you're partial to a particular wireframing tool available for free download, let us know in the comments. 1. Mockingbird is a web-based beta software based on the Cappuccino framework to create, link together, preview and share wireframes of your website or application. 2.
Web Development for Beginners (Resources) While I usually try to write stuff that’s geared more to experienced developers, I don’t want to neglect those who are just starting out. I’ve been collecting links to beginners resources for web development for some time now, so I thought I’d share that list here. Feel free to add your own in the comments. A Beginner’s Guide to HTML & CSS (website) A simple and comprehensive guide dedicated to helping beginners learn HTML and CSS. Outlining the fundamentals, this guide works through all common elements of front-end design and development.” This guide, led by front-end developer Shay Howe, looks quite comprehensive, covering everything from tag semantics to new CSS3 features like gradients. HTML & CSS: Design and Build Websites (book) A beautifully designed book by Jon Duckett that has been the #1 selling web design book on Amazon for a number of months now. Don’t Fear The Internet (screencast series) Video lessons created by Jessica Hische and Russ Maschmeyer.
10 Essential Free E-Books for Web Designers While many may still prefer print for long-form reading, e-books are gaining popularity as a worthy digital alternative. Aside from all the usual benefits of digitizing a book (faster searches, less page-flipping, linked pages, additional resources, etc.), e-books are a huge help to digital and online professionals. There are now e-books available on almost every aspect of design, from planning your business and managing your time, to designing web applications. Whether they're meant to inspire or educate, let us know if you can recommend any other free e-books aimed at designers in the comments below. 1. This detailed, intelligent guide is a how-to on transitioning from print to web by Jeffrey Zeldman. Even though it was written in 2001, much of the advice about transitioning from print to the web still holds true, and print designers and art directors are still scrambling to move into web and interaction design. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. More Dev & Design Resources from Mashable:
Advantages and Myths of RDF A 10th Birthday Salute to RDF’s Role in Powering Data Interoperability There has been much welcomed visibility for the semantic Web and linked data of late. Many wonder why it has not happened earlier; and some observe progress has still been too slow. But what is often overlooked is the foundational role of RDF — the Resource Description Framework. From my own perspective focused on the issues of data interoperability and data federation, RDF is the single most important factor in today’s advances. So, on this 10th anniversary of the birth of RDF [1], I’d like to re-visit and update some much dated discussions regarding the advantages of RDF, and more directly address some of the mis-perceptions and myths that have grown up around this most useful framework. A Simple Intro to RDF RDF is a data model that is expressed as simple subject-predicate-object “triples”. A triple is also known as a “statement” and is the basic “fact” or asserted unit of knowledge in RDF. Advantages of RDF
Review Of Cross-Browser Testing Tools sparql - Triple Stores vs Relational Databases How to Fix Your Website "Everything on the Web is measurable." That's a pretty common statement--so you'd think that businesses would also be measuring everything they did online, right? Well, not so much. Slapping Google Analytics on your website isn't the half of it. And if you're not routinely checking in on this data, trying to derive meaning from it--and, most important, using this information to improve your website's performance--then you're probably coming up short. Part of it boils down to tools: You need to know where exactly to look to derive the juicy tidbits and comparisons that can help you make improvements. Usability Issues Want to understand how to do a better job moving people through your website and through the Web in general? UseIt.com: Less tool and more resource, but invaluable. Web Traffic Visualization There are several tools out there that can help you understand how people view your Web page and interact with your content and links. Comparative Rankings Analytics Software How about you?
Quality Indicators for Linked Data Datasets At a high level, the main drivers for me are: how easy it is to find the information I'm looking for; and conversely, how hard is it to find wrong information. From this point of view, and concentrating on the semantic web portion of the picture, we want to figure out measures and metrics for how well a particular (RDF/linked data) dataset or set of datasets satisfies these drivers. I can't see how a naive count of the number of links between datasets can offer much of a measure of how easy it is to find what you're looking for, nor how difficult it is to find wrong information. There's probably some deep scale-free characteristic (c.f. the six degrees of separation meme) suggestive of a perfect balance between having no links -- which feels like it should be bad -- to having a complete graph with links everywhere -- which feels like it would be a needle+haystack and equally bad. link This answer is marked "community wiki".
How to setup an eCommerce Store in India? I’m working on a updated version of this article and will publish it soon. Indian e-commerce sector is booming. I see a new online store every week. Facebook ads are filled by new cloths, electronics, footwear etc. E-commerce Store ABC What do you need to set up an online store? You need at least these four: Product Catalog e-commerce Cart/Software/Platform Payment Gateways Shipping and Fulfillment services These are basic requirements for setting up the store. How to build an online store in India What I’m going to recommend is only suitable for Small Business owners and applicable if you’ve a small team (or only you), small budget and some cool products. If you’ve got a good budget and big team, I would recommend to you consult the e-commerce Developers. Creating your Product Catalog A product catalog is the list of products which you’re going to sell. I recommend using Google Product Feed Specification because it’s being used by many carts. Ecommerce software/platform + Payment Gateways Like:
Semantic Web The Semantic Web is a collaborative movement led by international standards body the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).[1] The standard promotes common data formats on the World Wide Web. By encouraging the inclusion of semantic content in web pages, the Semantic Web aims at converting the current web, dominated by unstructured and semi-structured documents into a "web of data". The Semantic Web stack builds on the W3C's Resource Description Framework (RDF).[2] According to the W3C, "The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries".[2] The term was coined by Tim Berners-Lee for a web of data that can be processed by machines.[3] While its critics have questioned its feasibility, proponents argue that applications in industry, biology and human sciences research have already proven the validity of the original concept. History[edit] Purpose[edit] Limitations of HTML[edit] Semantic Web solutions[edit]
DIY Website design UK - advice on designing your own website Creating your own website To create a website, you need a domain name, some web space or web hosting, a program to transfer files to your web host and a way of creating your website. Domain name Your domain name needs choosing with care; if you do not already have a domain name then be cautious about obtaining a domain name via a hosting company; some of these work out very expensive to renew. Web Hosting Web space or web hosting is now much cheaper than a few years ago, and so if you selected your web host several years ago it may be worth shopping around. FTP programs An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Program is an easy way of transferring files between your computer and the host computer. Website design It is possible to download a free FTP (file transfer protocol) program from the Internet and use NotePad or a free HTML editor to design your own website. Most websites consist of headings, various navigation areas, search facilities and page content. Choosing a web developer Website upgrades
Relational Databases and the Semantic Web (in Design Issues) $Id: RDB-RDF.html,v 1.25 2009/08/27 21:38:09 timbl Exp $ Up to Design Issues There are many other data models which RDF's Directed Labelled Graph (DLG) model compares closely with, and maps onto. What the Semantic Web can represent One is the Relational Database (RDB) model. The Semantic Web and Entity-Relationship models Is the RDF model an entity-relationship mode? For example, one person may define a vehicle as having a number of wheels and a weight and a length, but not foresee a color. Apart from this simple but significant change, many concepts involved in the ER modelling take across directly onto the Semantic Web model. The Semantic Web and Relational Databases The semantic web data model is very directly connected with the model of relational databases. a record is an RDF node; the field (column) name is RDF propertyType; and the record field (table cell) is a value. Special aspects of the RDB model Relational database systems manage RDF data, but in a specialized way.
A DIY Web Design Education May 17 2010 A lot of designers and aspiring designers take formal design courses (or get design degrees), while many others wish they could take the time to get some formal design education. But not every designer has the time. After all, if you’ve come to design later in your career, or just have other responsibilities that preclude you from attending formal classes, going to school for a formal design degree just might not fit into your life. Image by laffy4k But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn just as much as those who have taken formal classes and be just as good a designer. It’s by no means a comprehensive list, but it’s a great place to get you started, and can give you a good foundation for your design education. Web Design 101: The Basics We all need to start somewhere, and the articles here provide a good foundation for the concepts discussed in later sections. Front-End and User Interface Design Fixed vs. Grids Front-End Coding User Experience Information Architecture Typography