Enhanced Sidebars with Dynamic Content
After writing Effective Use of Blog Sidebars a couple of weeks ago I decided to look into the topic of dynamic sidebars. Typically, most blogs will us a standard sidebar for the entire site. WordPress users have a lot of potential functionality that is rarely used in terms of creating various sidebars and displaying them in different situations. For example, when I was creating the theme for DesignM.ag I needed to have slightly different sidebars according to the category of the post. You can see the differen..
Vandelay Website Design (14 hours ago)
Business of Web Design Audio Book
The ‘ Business of Web Design ‘ is an audio book/podcast series that teaches you to start and build a home based web design business. I am still currently in the process of fleshing out all the details, but I do have a lot down on paper. That said, I am very close to being ready to record the first (of many) sessions and I expect to have something out this week. You can learn more about in the killersites.com magazine Thanks, Stefan Mischook www.killersites.com
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (18 hours ago)
Top 10 Sites for Illustrator Tutorials
Photoshop gets most of the attention when it comes to tutorials and blog posts, but Illustrator is also an excellent tool for designers. If you're interested in brushing up your skills, here are my top ten (taking both quality and quantity of tutorials into consideration). 1. VECTORTUTS VECTORTUTS is still a very new blog, but it's already a leader in Illustrator tutorials. You're probably familiar with other sites from the Eden family, including PSDTUTS and NETTUTS , and VECTORTUTS provides the same high qua..
Vandelay Website Design (2 days ago)
Announcing the Launch of DesignM.ag!
Today I'm very excited to announce the launch of DesignM.ag ! In attempt to provide a useful and resourceful site for the web design community, DesignM.ag includes a blog, a community news section, a design gallery , and a job board will be added soon. If you enjoy and appreciate the posts here at Vandelay Design, I think you will like DesignM.ag as well. Here are the initial posts that are already published: Welcome to DesignM.ag A general first post. 50+ Fonts for Big, Bold Headlines This is a big list of s..
Vandelay Website Design (3 days ago)
New Features in Dreamweaver CS4 Video Tutorial
I just released a video that goes over my top 3 favorite new features in Dreamweaver CS4: Workspaces Code Navigator Related Files Video tutorial: new features in Dreamweaver CS4 Thanks, Stefan Mischook
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (3 days ago)
Dreamweaver CS4 Video Tutorial
I just released a new Dreamweaver CS4 video tutorial on the new user interface. Video: First look at Dreamweaver CS4 Dreamweaver CS4 is sporting a brand new interface that bring Dreamweaver up-to-speed with the other Adobe products. In this video I give you a quick tour looking at how the new user interface works. Thanks, Stefan Mischook
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (3 days ago)
Firefox Add-on Colorzilla Video Tutorial
Firefox has become much more than a great browser that puts pressure on Microsoft to do a better job with Internet Explorer. Firefox has become a treasure chest of tools that web designers can use in their everyday web design work. A lot of this power comes into Firefox via their plug-in architecture that they call ‘add-ons'. Check out the video tutorial: Firefox Colorzilla Ad-on Thanks, Stefan Mischook www.killersites.com
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (5 days ago)
Link Block Hover Effect
Link Block Hover Effect It’s a fairly common trick used nowadays, a block of text with a title and some other information that acts as a link while the only thing that looks like a link in the block is the title. It doesn’t require any fancy tricks even, but it’s probably not the most semantic bit of code. Check out the demo here. The key is simply wrapping the entire block in the link, and then styling the rest of the content to not look like a link.
Blogging Tips (5 days ago)
Blog Navigation and the Ongoing Challenges that Arise
Navigation is obviously one of the most critical aspects of usability. Developing effective navigation is a challenge for most websites, but it's especially an issue for blogs because of the content that is continually being added. Think about the typical blog. A few new posts are probably added each week, but navigation is almost never changed or updated, except by using internal links within the posts themselves. Finding posts is always possible by browsing through the archives, checking through some catego..
Vandelay Website Design (7 days ago)
The three steps to creating a killer blog?
Creating a ‘killer' blog is not that hard to understand … but it is hard to do. As the title of this post suggest, there are three things you need if you want to create a ‘killer' blog: Start with a great blog software. Get a great design. Produce great content. The list above is in order of doing, but not the order of importance: content is still king and so you must be able to produce quality content on a regular basis for your blog, otherwise it won't work. Let's look at some details R..
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (9 days ago)
Dreamweaver CS4 Review
The boys and girls at Adobe recently released a public beta of Dreamweaver CS4 - I can now freely talk about it now! I’ve been beta testing Dreamweaver CS4 for a little while now and I’ve been looking forward to spewing my nerd impressions. I had to hold my tongue until Adobe released DW CS4 to the public … In this article, I provide a quick overview of what’s in CS4. But don’t worry, in soon to come articles and video tutorials, I will be digging deeper. Read the complete review of Dreamweaver CS4 ..
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (9 days ago)
Is Social Networking a viable business?
This article is targeted at web designers and business owners who are considering an investment in social networking. Let me just first say, that I have invested in it personally, where I created a video sharing system to help distribute my own content. … I had other ideas beyond that, but I soon discovered that: 1. It would require a huge investment (millions) in capitol to just get it off the ground. 2. That most user contributed videos are just terrible. I deleted most of them. You can read the rest in t..
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (9 days ago)
25+ Inspiring Designs by Land, Sea & Air
I constantly come across excellent designs that feature various elements of nature and I've been collecting samples for a while now. Some use photos and others use illustration. Some feature bright skies and clouds, and others feature mountains, water, or grass. Feel free to list your favorites in the comments. Project Vino Adit Shukla Modern Arboricultural Services Ambassador Cellar Walters & Walters ACS Elements Fall in Tennessee Chipping Sodbury Estrela Santiago Martis Camp Anchorage, Alaska Rawkes Robyn J..
Vandelay Website Design (10 days ago)
The Top 10 Blogger Template Resource Sites
The Top 10 Blogger Template Resource Sites These days, Blogger users are spoiled for choice by the variety of free Blogger templates available to them. What’s more, as blog designers push the boundaries of blog design, the quality of templates just gets better and better! Whereas not long ago, Blogger templates seemed to all have the same two column layout with no extra functionality, Blogger template designers now add features like navigation menus; tabbed widgets to include much information in a small..
Blogging Tips (10 days ago)
Tutorial - Create Your Own Custom Del.icio.us Badge
For a long time I used the Del.icio.us Tagometer Badge on this blog. If you're not familiar with the Tagometer Badge (shown below), basically its purpose is to show visitors how many Del.icio.us users have bookmarked a particular page, what tags are commonly being used for that page, and it makes it easy for them to bookmark the page themselves. Of the social media buttons and badges that I've used, the Tagometer Badge was my favorite. When I re-designed the blog a few weeks ago the badge didn't look good wit..
Vandelay Website Design (11 days ago)
Reduce your code.
Reduce your code. Complex designs are quite often a mess of div’s and span’s, it’s not surprising some people are sticking to tables, but unless they have a time machine tables are not the answer, remember it’s CSS or die! In January I told you to lose the fat in visual clutter and plug-ins, now in the second half of 2008 we’ll talk about trimming to create a more semantic, SEO friendly, easily maintainable, clean and lean website code. To start with, keeping styles and javascrip..
Blogging Tips (12 days ago)
Learning from Other Designers
One of the things that I like about web design is that there's always plenty to learn, regardless of how experienced you are. I know that my knowledge really only scratches the surface of web design and development, and I appreciate the fact that seemingly unlimited resources are available to allow me to become a better designer. Every designer needs to place some importance on continued learning and improvement due to constant changes in the industry. Without ongoing improvement and adaptation you might be d..
Vandelay Website Design (14 days ago)
40 Photoshop Tutorials for Lighting and Abstract Effects
Photoshop gives designers the ability to create some amazing effects that can accomplish just about anything you can image. Fortunately, there are plenty of Photoshop experts who are willing to write detailed tutorials to show off the potential. Here is a look at some of the best tutorials for using various lighting and abstract effects. Adding Light Streaks to a Photo Fiery Photoshop Space Explosion Really Cool Eclipse Effect in Photoshop Electrifying Glow Album Art Lighting Effects in Photoshop Luminescent ..
Vandelay Website Design (17 days ago)
Effective Use of Blog Sidebars
While sidebars aren't the primary focal point of blogs, they still have an important role in usability and appearance. A well-designed sidebar can make it easier for visitors to find what they like, which will keep them at your site longer and improve your overall effectiveness. On the other hand, a poor sidebar can lead to lost and frustrated visitors. Before the re-design of this site was started, the sidebar (or in this case sidebar s ) was a focal point of need. I felt that whatever direction the new desi..
Vandelay Website Design (18 days ago)
Use CSS to Style Link Types.
Use CSS to Style Link Types. Ever wanted to style your links to represent the type of content it links too without having to add a class to each link? Well I’m here again to save the day with a no brainier solution. This is quick and simple so I’ll get right too it. Say you want to have all links to PDF’s have a PDF icon next to it, letting users know they are about to have their browser stall for a few seconds as the file loads. Well all you…
Blogging Tips (19 days ago)
Are Paid Links a Necessary Search Engine Optimization Evil?
This is a guest post written by David Brown. What do nearly all high ranking websites have in common? As a search engine marketing consultant , I am confronted with the task of evaluating the inbound links of thousands of websites each month. In doing so, I have come to the realization that top ranking websites continue to pay for links despite Google’s public disapproval. Google’s minimalistic efforts to combat paid link building force ethical search engine marketing companies to buy links in order to co..
Vandelay Website Design (20 days ago)
The Three Critical Aspects of a Web Site
Hi, I just released a 10 minute video blog talking about the three critical aspects of a web site . So what are the three critical aspects of a web site? Content Ease of use Design aesthetics I go over what each mean and I also give you a few hints and examples that you can use in your own web design work. Thanks, Stefan Mischook www.killersites.com www.killerphp.com
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (22 days ago)
Things Every Web Designer Should Know
Things Every Web Designer Should Know Web design is much more than layout and effects. There are so many areas and things every web designer should know. The profession itself requires a fundamental understanding of business, the craft itself, and technology. Employment in this profession requires skills in areas other than design. Many a creative web designer has come to realize that web design isn’t just about the latest visual effects and a creative design. Those that are willing to learn the other s..
Blogging Tips (23 days ago)
Miscellaneous Template News
Miscellaneous Template News I spoke last week about how Unique Blog Designs are getting better and better . Well, yesterday they went up in my estimations again as they released a gorgeous free wordpress theme called UBD Money Maker . The theme has been designed for those who are not great with coding as has an options page which allows you to add your Feedburner and MyBlogLog information. The theme features Fully Widget Compatible (drag and drop your preferred selection of sidebar elements Built-in UBD Block..
Blogging Tips (23 days ago)
Fancy Forms
Forms can be a bit of a pain to style, in the old days tables were the method of choice to align everything just right, but this is the future; CSS OR DIE! P.Diddy will come to your home and kill you if you use tables for presentational markup. So in order to prevent a Diddy disaster here is some helpful information, I accept thanks for saving your lives in cash and gifts off my Amazon wish list.
Blogging Tips (26 days ago)
Wordpress Videos Appear in Web Designer Magazine
I just wanted to announce that my video tutorials on installing and using Wordpress are being featured in the latest edition of Web Designer Magazine. Thanks, Stefan Mischook www.killersites.com www.killerphp.com
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (27 days ago)
Unique Blog Designs are getting better and better
Post from: Blogging Tips Unique Blog Designs are getting better and better Unique Blogging Designs exploded onto the blogging scene last Summer with the redesign of popular bloggers John Chow and Jeremy Schoemaker ’s blog. They built on this success and did designs for the likes of Zac Johnson , EntreCard and Fat Man Unleashed . I do like all of these designs however there is no denying that for the first few months most Unique Blog Designs looked very similar. In particular, the header and footer of th..
Blogging Tips (29 days ago)
What are IE8 WebSlices?
From the killersites.com magazine: In a nutshell, webslices are an IE8 specific feature that allows the web designer to tag part of a webpage as a ‘webslice’. By tagging sections of a web page, users of IE8 can then subscribe to it, much in the same way that they can subscribe to an RSS feed. Read the full article about webslices . Thanks for reading, Stefan Mischook www.killersites.com www.killerphp.com
Website Design Blog - Killersites.com (31 days ago)
Columns dropping off.
I've talked about using grids in designing websites previously, aligning your elements to a formula to create consistency and harmony. This isn't hard to integrate into your design process, but issues can pop up in putting the layout to code; one such problem is columns dropping off.
Blogging Tips (33 days ago)
10 Video Tutorials for Learning Basic Web Design Skills
10 Video Tutorials for Learning Basic Web Design Skills: Some interesting video tutorials linked from Mashable that could help budding web designers or dabblers put a new sheen on their existing blog or website. Of interest are such video tutorials as “How to turn any web template into a WordPress theme“.
Weblog Tools Collection (38 days ago)
Accessibility Checklist
Accessibility Checklist Last week Aaron Cannon, a web developer and accessibility consultant who is blind, wrote his version of an accessibility checklist . That is not to say that when followed you will have a 100% accessible site, but it’s a great guide to keep in mind when tackling a new design, and a lot of the items are just good semantics. Here are a few of the items from the list. Make sure headings use
Blogging Tips (40 days ago)
How to add borders to your images in posts
How to add borders to your images in posts I always think it’s a good idea to add images to blog posts when you can. They make posts visually more appealing and are useful for breaking up large sections of text. Using CSS, you can add a border to your post images to make them even more appealing. To do this you first need to find the CSS class which controls what happens in your posts. If you edited the img selector on it’s own you would edit how every image on…
Blogging Tips (41 days ago)
An explanation of CSS List Style Types
An explanation of CSS List Style Types Lists are a great way to present information to readers in your blog posts and are used in blog designs frequently to style menus and links as well. Thankfully, CSS allows you to customize your list markers much easier than basic HTML. I’m sure most of you reading this are using the default style type which came with your blog stylesheet however it’s worth trying a new type of style out and in this post I will show you how you can do just…
Blogging Tips (44 days ago)
To ID or not to ID.
To ID or not to ID. The diffrence between an ID and Class was something I was largely ignorant too for some time at the beginning of my jumping onto the CSS bandwagon and abandoning tables for layouts. I used them both, probably incorrectly, but stuck with class for most of my layouts. It took a while before I even bothered to inquire as to what the diffrence was between id and class, and lucky for you I’m going to share that morsel of knowledge. ID , using the # sign in…
Blogging Tips (47 days ago)
Control how your links are displayed using CSS
Control how your links are displayed using CSS Just about every blogging platform controls its style using a CSS stylesheet. You may have looked at this code and found it difficult to understand however I believe it’s important to have at the very least a basic understanding of Cascading Style Sheets and how it works with HTML. In this post I will show you how can define how links are displayed on your blog. The CSS selector for controlling links is a . This selector can have 5 pseudo-elements : link, v..
Blogging Tips (51 days ago)
Castroller Identity Development
CastRoller is an online podcast subscription tool. Just add one personalized feed to your desktop application and let CastRoller do all of the work. When you want to subscribe to a new podcast, just add it to CastRoller. Your personalized feed will be updated to automatically contain the latest episodes from all of your favorite podcasts. I took on the project to give CastRoller a complete visual overhaul, and as usual I started with the identity.
Blogging Tips (54 days ago)
Create Your Own Frontpage Slideshow
The folks over at PerfectSurf.de have published a tutorial which goes into detail on how you can create your own personal slideshow to appear on the frontpage of your WordPress powered site. This slideshow feature has been seen in numerous premium themes as of late and now you can create one for yourself via this
Weblog Tools Collection (62 days ago)
Are You Familiar with HTML and CSS? Six Reasons Why You Should Invest the Time to Learn
I had been involved with web design for a few years before I ever started blogging. In my opinion, being able to work with the code of a blog is a huge advantage that many bloggers choose not to pursue. Aside form the design aspect of creating an attractive blog, being able to work with the coding will allow you to make changes and adjustments to your blog any time you want, rather than relying on a professional to do it for you, or rather than just limiting yourself to what's available with the theme you hav..
Daily Blog Tips (70 days ago)
The Fonts Paradise: dafont.com
So the other day I was talking with my designer about a logo, and he recommended me to go to dafont.com , choose one font, and report back to him. Believe it or not I had never came across this site before. It is nothing less than the fonts paradise. They have over 7,000 fonts available for download, most in PC and MAC versions. You can search for fonts based on style (e.g., fancy, techno, gothic, basic) or even browse among the Top 100 fonts on their database. Overall it is a very useful website for anyway t..
Daily Blog Tips (97 days ago)
Engadget Has Been Redesigned
It is always interesting to see the redesign of famous blogs, and this time it is Engadget's turn . The old design was really cramped and narrow, so it was about time. The new design is more minimalistic, with a simple header featuring navigation links, a big column for the content, and a sidebar with ads and links to featured articles. I like minimalistic concepts, but the opinions regarding this new design are divide. If you check the comments (over 130 of them) you will see that many people did not like it..
Daily Blog Tips (105 days ago)
Stripped Down Naked to Honor Web Designers and Developers
In honor of April 9, 2008, as CSS Naked Day, my blog is going naked. I discussed this a few days ago with details on how to strip naked your blog if you would like to join in the celebrations. By going naked, my blog stands with thousands of others who recognize and honor the hard [...]
Lorelle on WordPress (107 days ago)
Strip Down Your Blog: CSS Naked Day
Get ready to go naked. On April 9th, 2008, hundreds, possibly thousands, of blogs and websites will go naked in honor of CSS Naked Day. Join fellow WordPress bloggers in honoring web designers and WordPress Theme builders by going naked. This is the third year of the annual CSS Naked Day which honors web design and [...]
Lorelle on WordPress (108 days ago)
11 Factors to Consider When Designing Your Blog Theme
Changing themes is very common for bloggers. In addition to the option of changing from one free theme to another, many bloggers develop their own theme, make some customizations to an existing theme, or pay someone else to design one for them. Even if you are paying someone else to do this for you, you should still be very involved in the process to insure that you get the best possible end result. Regardless of whether you are doing the work yourself of having someone else do it, here are 11 factors that yo..
Daily Blog Tips (129 days ago)
How to Use Wordpress as a Membership Directory
This article was written by Chris Cagle. Do you want to create a moderated membership directory that showcases your member’s information? Do you want it to be flexible, be very little work after initial setup, and use a world-class open source platform that you are already familiar with? Your first thought might not be to use Wordpress [...]
WPDesigner (145 days ago)
C.R.A.P.:The Four Principles of Sound Design
This is a guest blog by Jacob Cass . Be sure to check out his $5000 prize giveaway . As a graphic designer, I could tell you if your website design is C.R.A.P. Not crap as in crap crap, but I mean C.R.A.P as in the underlying principles of good design. C.R.A.P stands for contrast, repeitition, alignment and proximity and these are the four principles of design that a blog design should adhere to. The Joshua Tree To get your head around the c.ra.p. principles let me tell you a true story aptly named The Joshua..
Daily Blog Tips (147 days ago)
Are You Ready and Willing for CSS3?
Are you ready for the changes in web page design that will come with the new version of Cascading Stylesheets known as CSS3? In A Refreshed Design for 2008 by Don’t Trust This Guy, I found a glimpse of some of the new CSS3 features and possibilities including multiple background images and CSS drop shadows. One [...]
Lorelle on WordPress (199 days ago)
Preparing for the Annual “What I Want Gone from the Web” Post
It’s almost time for my annual Things I Want Gone from the Web post. I had quite a list last year, and I’ve been collecting whines, rants, and nags over the past year, but this year, I want to know what you want gone from the web. Let’s make this a community whine, rant, and nag. So [...]
Lorelle on WordPress (219 days ago)
Cleaning Up and Decluttering is Back
They say that history and fashion repeats itself, and it’s true. Cleaning up and decluttering your blog is back as a new trend, according to Jason Kaneshiro on the Blog Herald in Getting Back To Basics: Blog Decluttering: When Web 2.0 first began with Google and Craigslist, one of the “innovations” was simplicity itself - empty, [...]
Lorelle on WordPress (251 days ago)
Lessons from Eye-Tracking Studies
23 Actionable Lessons from Eye-Tracking Studies: A very nice summary of the eye tracking studies performed at Eyetrack III. The lessons are easy to follow and made a lot of sense to me. I have found most of them to be true in my experience but they can serve as a good guideline for new
Weblog Tools Collection (252 days ago)
How to Create An Archives Page
In another effort to de-clutter the sidebar and begin your initiation for The Organization for the Organized, here’s how to create an archives page for archive links listing by categories and months. First of all, check out the Wpdesigner’s archives page to see what you’ll be adding to your blog. Second, most free WordPress themes [...]
WPDesigner (287 days ago)
