Header text gets all the love, doesn’t it? From Photoshop to the browser window, the focus seems to be on design elements like logos, navigation, and of course, header type. It’s great fun to use tools like Typekit to make your header text something a little less than ordinary. It defines your site, gives you a unique look and feel, and gives readers that oh-so-scannable sensation they know and love. When you really think about it, however, readers aren’t there for the header text. The headers serve as an essential tool to quickly find what you’re looking for, but the real prize here is the body text, isn’t it? This is where your information is, this is where you write and communicate to readers, and this is an area of design that cannot be neglected. Sadly, it often is. // more
3Jun '10
Input Prompt Text: A Better Way
It’s a very cool feature to have a form field that has prompt text such as Enter search keywords… right inside the input box, itself. It looks good, it makes sense to users, and it can save a lot of real estate in your design by negating the need for field labels. The problem, however, is that there are about one hundred ways to implement prompt text, and ninety-nine of them are wrong. Let’s look at this thing from all angles and come up with a fantastically simple and reliable way to make this work. // more
14Apr '10
The Perfect jQuery AJAX Request
If you’re into client-scripting, then jQuery AJAX is probably your thing (if it’s not, perhaps it should be!). jQuery has some fantastic support for AJAX, and implementing it into your web application is so easy it’s stupid. The AJAX functionality in the AJAX library is so flexible, sometimes it’s easy to get lost when you’re trying to do something very simple. I’ve come up with a very basic jQuery AJAX template that I use for just about everything I do, and I thought it might be useful to share. // more
9Apr '10
8.9%, Where are you?
According to W3Schools’ latest March update, 8.9% of internet users are still using the old and oft-neglected grandson of Microsoft’s intrepid series of web browsers, Internet Explorer version 6. Times are changing people, and you’re falling behind. It’s amazing to me that a web browser that is now two major versions outdated, that is no longer supported by its developer, and that was released almost ten years ago is still in circulation today. Nearly one in ten internet users are browsing the internet like it’s 2001. That’s simply not acceptable. You are missing out; there is so much more to see! As a web designer, my charge is to make websites look good. This is my plea: please, update your browser, and never look back. // more
7Apr '10
Splat!
The designer in me seems to live in a perpetual state where I regard my six-months-previous-self as an “idiot,” and I think that the latest and greatest design I’ve just come up with is the best thing since sliced bread. Welcome…this is my latest and greatest design. I’m sure I’ll hate the high-contrast and dark background in another six months, but I’m digging it for now. Let me know what you think. I’ve been playing around with typography quite a bit lately, and I have to say that I’m starting to enjoy this new “type is coming to the web” phenomenon quite a bit. I got an idea in my head this evening and went from concept to complete WordPress theme in about three hours. Gotta love that WordPress…
1Apr '10
A Refreshing Change of Pace
Are you in the Winchester area? I’ll be speaking at Refresh Winchester tonight, detailing my painstaking journey throughout the development of my personal pet project, ThumbSticks.com. It’s been a long road, and there have been many bumps along the way. I’ll share what worked, what didn’t, and I’ll also share a few invaluable assets I discovered along the way. If you’re nearby, be sure to check it out tonight at 6:30pm in downtown Winchester.
26Mar '10
New and Improved: ThumbSticks.com
I’ve totally revamped my weekend project, ThumbSticks.com. An entirely new visual presentation accompanies what I hope to be the final version of my ambitious new website. I’m still working on adding box art and other media to the thousands of products you can find on the site, but it’s come quite a long way since last year when I officially launched the initial beta. // more
17Mar '10
Plug in to Amazon Web Services (AWS) using PHP
I’ve recently started using Amazon Web Services (AWS) to import large amounts of rich content into my weekend-warrior project, ThumbSticks.com. I have to say that I’m quite impressed with Amazon’s dedication to providing their product information in such a transparent and detailed manner. If you’re not familiar with AWS, here is a quick introduction and some useful code snippets to help you get started with AWS in your PHP environment. // more
15Mar '10
Create a Lightbox with jQuery and CSS
The “lightbox” is a unique and useful design tool when used properly. It allows designers to present information that is totally independent from the site theme, and it is especially useful when displaying information that is loaded via AJAX requests (often negating the need for additional post-backs on your pages). There are countless ways to implement lightbox functionality into your site, and almost every option I’ve ever seen is weighed down by extraneous functionality or useless transition animations. It’s quite easy to create your own lightboxes with minimal effort. This tutorial can serve as a quick and easy template to get you started. // more
12Mar '10
9 Amazing Things You Can Do in Firefox 3.6
The latest update to Mozilla’s wonderful web browser, Firefox 3.6, includes support for some fantastic CSS version 3 recommendations that you may or may not be aware of. Obviously, these tricks won’t work in Internet Explorer just yet, but look for widespread support coming in the (hopefully) very near future. // more