April 3rd, 2009 posted by Josh Lasdin 12:08PM | View Full Story
As I mature as a designer I’m seeing more and more the great importance of doing some research before jumping into a design. A classic example of this is our very own blog (yes, the one you’re reading right now!).
The planning that went into creating this blog was probably a lot more than one would expect. Xander and I sat down one fateful sunny afternoon (we won’t discuss how cold it was outside) and discussed what we wanted to accomplish with the blog, who our target was, how we would reach them and still push the envelope for inspirational creativity.
We boiled it down to two options: we could focus on just utilizing our blog to gather links and boost internet presence, or we could create a design that would mix the blogging world with traditional newspapers. The latter built a better argument. A large number of our clients (consequently also our target market) aren’t you’re typical “Blog Readers”, so our angle would be to try and bridge the gap between something they were comfortable with: reading a morning paper over some hot java, and something we were comfortable with: pining over blog posts looking for the latest tips and tricks.
March 20th, 2009 posted by Luke Small 12:08PM | View Full Story
Microsoft is at it again, trying to keep up with the times yet make everyone happy. Version 8 of Internet Explorer is set to launch while a lot of the population doesn’t yet know that different web browsers even exist.
In Microsoft’s newsletter published yesterday, they warn of compatibility issues between companies’ websites and their new-and-improved browser. For those that know the details of past IE versions, you know that in so many words they came out and made some pretty bold statements.
Let’s start with the alarming red warning text that really gets the interest going. …View Full Story
November 13th, 2008 posted by Josh Lasdin 12:08PM | View Full Story
After attending a few web design conferences this year (namely An Event Apart and Future of Web Design) I saw it fitting to put together a few tips that I’ve picked up, both technical and procedural. I feel these conferences have greatly changed my view on how websites are and should be created, and hope this list of tips can help strengthen my fellow web designers. So without further blabber, here they are:
1. The Magic of 62.5
Let’s start off with an easy technical tip. If in your stylesheet you set the font size of your body element to 62.5% your text will render on most browsers (we’ll get to IE6 in a minute) as 10px. You might be saying, “10 pixels?? Why is that so special?.”
Doing this allows you to create fluid layouts out of practically any design. With a base value of 10px you can now set every measurement in your CSS in em’s. Have a wrapper container that needs to be 1000px?
Well, now you can set it to 100em and the browser will display it just as planned, but if a user decides to increase their text size, your entire layout will grow respectively, essentially creating a “page zoom” that doesn’t break your containers.
For an example of what this looks like, check out one of our recently launched mini-sites: Beaujolais Duboeuf. Below is the code that you can put into your CSS, including an IE6 rule to balance out all the browsers. body { font-size: 62.5%; } * html body { font-size: 10px; } …View Full Story
June 9th, 2008 posted by Shawn Farner 12:08PM | View Full Story
I thought I’d share something with a little bit of humor today. This is a rap about search engine optimization by The Poetic Prophet (also known as The SEO Rapper). The video is called, “Design Coding” and the lyrics are below the video. Enjoy! Thanks to iJustine for finding this gem and GottaQuirk for the lyrics.
Your site design, the first thing people see. It should be reflective of you and the industry. Easy to look at, with a nice navigation When they can’t find what they want it causes frustration A click costs an action. To increase the temptation Use appealing graphics that create motivation You have animation please use in moderation ‘Cos search engines can’t index the information
Display the logo of all associations Highlight your content; therefore that’s an obligation. Create clean design; you can use some decoration But try to prevent any client hesitation Every page that they click should provide an explanation Should be easy to understand like having a conversation Create a site style you can use your imagination But make sure you use correct colour combinations Do some investigation, looks at other organisations But don’t duplicate or you might face a litigation You done? Congratulations start construction
Move into production, please follow these instructions: Your photoshop functions, slice that design Do you layout with divs make sure there is a line Please don’t use tables even though they work fine When it come to indexing they give searchers a hard time Make it easy for spiders to crawl what you provide Removed font type, font colour and font size No background colours, keep your coding real neat And tag your look n feel on a separate style sheet Better results with XMl and CSS, Now you making progress, a ‘lil closer to success Describe you doc type so the browser can relate Make sure you do it great or it won’t validate
Check in all browsers, I do it directly Gotta make sure that it renders correctly Some use IE some others use flock Some use AOL, I use Firefox Title everything including links and images Don’t use italics, use emphasis Don’t use bold please use strong Cos if u use bold that’s old and wrong
You use CSS your page should load quicker Your client’s satisfied like they eating on a Snickers They stuck on ur page like you made it with a stickers And then they convert now that the real kicker
Make u a lil richer, your site a lil slicker Design and code right man I hope you get the picture What I’m telling you is true man it should be a scripture If it’s built right you’ll be the pick of the litter Everyone will wanna follow you like twitter
Competition will get bitter You will shine like glitter If you tryna grow; your company will get bigger Design and code right man can you get with it?
You have to be pretty knowledgeable about your topic, write really well, and make your blog posts look great too. On top of that, you’ve got to read, comment, and converse daily with your online peers to get into your niche.
Rough life right?
To give you some relief, here’s the stuff that’s made my blogging addiction a little more manageable. Enjoy!
As I mature as a designer I’m seeing more and more the great importance of doing some research before jumping into a design. A classic example of this is our very own blog (yes, the one you’re reading right now!).
Microsoft is at it again, trying to keep up with the times yet make everyone happy. Version 8 of Internet Explorer is set to launch while a lot of the population doesn’t yet know that different web browsers even exist.
