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Web Design Elements: Examples And Best Practices - Smashing Magazine

Web Design Elements: Examples And Best Practices - Smashing Magazine

Off Canvas Multi-Device Layouts Most multi-device layout patterns for the Web are designed to rearrange page elements within a visible browser window. Off canvas multi-device layouts, on the other hand, use the space outside a browser’s viewport to hide secondary elements until people need them. Jason Weaver and I put together demonstrations of several new off canvas layout patterns. Why Off Canvas Layouts? In my survey of multi-device layouts patterns, I found several common ways to adapt Web page designs to a variety of screen sizes. Since many multi-device layout patterns are only considering the visible browser window as their canvas, this situation is pretty much inevitable. Off canvas layouts do just that. Footer Nav & Off Canvas Column On large screens, this pattern looks like a pretty typical Web page layout: primary navigation on top, a left-hand column with some supporting information, and a main content area in the middle. Check out the Footer Nav & Off Canvas Column demo and in action on this site.

Thematic, A WordPress Theme Framework Thematic is a free, open-source, highly extensible, search-engine optimized WordPress Theme Framework featuring 13 widget-ready areas, grid-based layout samples, styling for popular plugins, and a whole community behind it. It’s perfect for beginner bloggers and WordPress development professionals. Download it from the official WordPress Themes Directory. Thematic Features Praise for Thematic “A theme framework that I highly recommend to anyone working with WordPress. “An amazing theme, back-end and design wise. “An open-source theme designed as a starting point for simple customisation, which also happens to look pretty darn good out of the box.”Best WordPress Themes Support for Thematic The Thematic Forums If you’ve got a problem with Thematic you can find help from the Thematic community in the Thematic Forums. The Thematic Guide A guide to using Thematic. Thematic Child Themes Lead Developers Like this: Like Loading...

Beautiful Data Visualization Special Coming to BBC, Too Bad It's UK Only (Video Preview) The BBC will broadcast an hour-long special next Tuesday called The Joy of Stats and it looks great. Hosted by Hans Rosling, Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute and Director of the Gapminder Foundation, the show will use some beautiful computer generated graphics to demonstrate the importance of data and data visualization. Unfortunately, the show is expected to be shown only in the UK, due to BBC licensing practices. (It's on BBC 4, UK only.) That's a real shame, because as is so amply demonstrated by the preview video of the show - statistics, data and data visualization are matters of global importance. Thanks to Nathan Yau, author of the great blog Flowing Data, for posting this video in the first place we saw it. See also Rosling's widely acclaimed TED Talk video and Emily Cunningham's in-depth review of Gapminder's DIY data desktop data visualization tool here at ReadWriteWeb from August.

Free Fonts: Excellent List of Resources Are you working on a new project that involves type face and are looking for something new and fresh to work with? You might just be in luck. In this post I have compiled a list of websites that offer an amazing selection of unique and free fonts to choose from. So why not benefit from these great resources and start downloading fonts to use in your next design. Happy surfing! Want to check out more resources? Ultimate Resource list of Patterns and Backgrounds Free PSD Files: Collection of 50+ psd files from around the web Ultimate Resource list for Photoshop Brushes dafont.com dafont.com fontex.org fontex.org urbanfonts.com urbanfonts.com searchfreefonts.com searchfreefonts.com fawnt.com fawnt.com fontsquirrel.com fontsquirrel.com fontstruct.fontshop.com fontstruct.fontshop.com josbuivenga.demon.nl josbuivenga.demon.nl fontstock.net fontstock.net fontica.com fontica.com fontspace.com fontspace.com justmytype.org justmytype.org ffonts.net ffonts.net 1001freefonts.com 1001freefonts.com deviantart.com deviantart.com

Infographics Are Broken. We Can Do Better. | Erick Schonfeld: TechStream Infographics on the web are so bad and so broken. They are everywhere, yet few actually do a decent job of conveying information (click on the one at left to see what I mean). Some even argue that they are ruining the Internet. They tend to be formulaic and overreaching, often cobbling together too much information instead of focusing on the one or two nuggets that are truly useful. There are many reasons why they suck. I know we can do better, which is why I’ve applied for a grant from the Knight News Challenge on Data to build a data visualization platform to address some of these shortcomings (please like it or reblog it on Tumblr). As I note in my Knight News application: Infographics are very popular on the web, but most of them aren’t very good. And yet people love them because humans are visual creatures. Infographics are the scourge of the Internet. What publishers need is a better way to create and present visual data. But wait. We are solving this problem for publishers.

Ultimate Resource list for Photoshop Brushes Here at Designrfix, we are always in search of great resources that can help other designers develop their skills. This week we have decided to make a collection of all the best websites that offer Photoshop brushes. These brushes can be downloaded and installed for free. brushking.eu brushking.eu brusheezy.com brusheezy.com qbrushes.com qbrushes.com 123freebrushes.com 123freebrushes.com deviantart.com deviantart.com fbrushes.com fbrushes.com photoshop-free-brushes.com photoshop-free-brushes.com 101photoshopbrushes.com 101photoshopbrushes.com photoshopedia.com photoshopedia.com free-brushes.com free-brushes.com psbrushes.net psbrushes.net colorburned.com colorburned.com bestphotoshoptutorials.net bestphotoshoptutorials.net dezignus.com dezignus.com idesignbrushes.com idesignbrushes.com phatbrush.com phatbrush.com obsidiandawn.com obsidiandawn.com rastersociety.com rastersociety.com spoongraphics.co.uk spoongraphics.co.uk trendyrobot.com trendyrobot.com blendfu.com blendfu.com pbrushes.com pbrushes.com libertiny.com libertiny.com

Jennifer Preece - Interaction Design Interaction Design: Beyond Human Computer Interactionby Jennifer Preece Preece, J., Rogers, Y., & Sharp, H.. (2002). Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction. A typical undergraduate level textbook to introduce you to the field, including both scientific background and usability design methods. One of the few that adequately addresses affective measures. Jump To: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Table of Contents: Preece's Summary of the Chapters: Remember, usability is of utmost importance to Interaction Design, while user-experience follows (see graph on p. 19 of book) usability goals: at center of Interaction Design user-experience goals: outer ring of diagram (secondary to usability goals) Chapter 1: What is Interaction Design? The Goals of Interaction Design: Usability Goals & User Experience Goals (top) Chapter 2: Understanding and Conceptualizing Interaction Chapter 3: Understanding Users

Trends / Websites Log In Sign Up COLOURlovers Search Create Welcome to our web color community. Web»Trends»Websites Web Color Trends Browse the trends below to see what's the new hot hue in the Web world Websites Latest Web Trends Papeterie Haute-Ville Logo December, 2011 slowmotion production Poppin.com - Office Supplies by Color August, 2011 Pandora January, 2011 Box LivingSocial FourSquare Groupon Crumbs Bake Shop Znyga Etsy Yelp.com Five Guys Burgers and Fries Banner Illustration Tradewinds Masud Labor Law Group Pop the Box November, 2010 Art Attack - Paul Frank Brooklyn Beta Josh Sullivan September, 2010 Stephen Caver Visual Editions Hype-nation Browse Create Community Channels Trends Tools Store About © 2014 Creative Market Labs, Inc.

Typography Is The Foundation Of Web Design Advertisement For years you have been searching for it. You hear the question being asked in your dreams as you go on an Indiana-Jones-type-crusade to find the answer. What is the secret to Web design? A tough question and one that might not have an answer. Of course typography doesn’t mean font selection. More toys means more fun though, right? I’m not being sarcastic, saying that is all you need to know for a majority of websites. Information Architects is based around strong typography. One of my all time favorite designs is A Working Library. A Working Library by Mandy Brown. Some people find design like this to be dull and boring, they feel that design should have more pop to it. Well That Isn’t Hard It’s possible to create a wonderful design without the use of images at all. With the use of images I’m not talking about images that are needed to represent something such as icons, but images that are there for flare. Blake Allen Design uses images, but with great typography. (jvb)

50 Awesome Website Design Galleries For the longest time, one of my best sources of inspiration has been web design galleries. My favourite being The FWA: Favourite Website Awards which was founded in 2000. The FWA showcases the most cutting edge website designs. Since then there have been many web design galleries that have been popping up. In this post you will find 50 website design galleries that showcase the best websites from around the world. Want more on website design? Website Design: 30+ Beautifully Designed T-Shirt Sites Inspirational Web Design: 50+ Beautifully Designed Blogs Website Design: Beautiful Vintage and Retro Inspired Designs designcharts.com designcharts.com thefwa.com thefwa.com designlicks.com designlicks.com bestwebgallery.com bestwebgallery.com makebetterwebsites.com makebetterwebsites.com moluv.com moluv.com creamycss.com creamycss.com thedesigninspiration.com thedesigninspiration.com netdiver.net netdiver.net webgallery.crazyleafdesign.com webgallery.crazyleafdesign.com cssbeauty.com cssbeauty.com styleboost.com

Crash Course: Design for Startups I recently stumbled across screenshots of old websites of mine and was hurled into a state of reminiscent shock. I knew they were bad, but wow they were outstandingly horrible (redeemed only by their microformats support! I kid, I kid). Several years and a few Georgia Tech design and HCI courses have passed since those atrocities graced the web but I archived them in a sort of reverse portfolio as a personal reminder of how much my design sensibilities have matured. I have yet to consider myself a real designer and there are quite a few things I would do differently with my most recent work on Notifo and Pic A Fight. I have been brainstorming for the past few days about how to scope this article. What I can do is share what has worked for me. Subtle is key! When I was a wee pixel pusher I would overuse whatever graphic effect I had just learned. You can imagine how horrible everything looked. Then what do I mean about "except when it's not"? Easy to use with their browser bookmarklet.

Who’s Using Twitter And How They’re Using It This post was written by Jenny Urbano, our Social Media Manager. Here at Demandforce, we love seeing and celebrating your ideas! And more than that, we love to hear from YOU. We want to bridge the gap between us and you, so that’s why we’re offering a once in a lifetime opportunity to win a trip to San Francisco, sightsee in this amazing city, visit Demandforce headquarters and share your ideas with us! 6 winners, and a guest of their choice will be flown out to San Francisco, California on March 12-14th, 2014, where they will stay in Union Square, spend a day at Demandforce, have dinner with the team, and explore the lovely City by the Bay! For contest rules, and how to enter, please visit our post in the Generation Demandforce Community here. Good luck!

Startups, This Is How Design Works – by Wells Riley

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