03/2008 Article Archive

  • March 31, 2008 in Design Tips & Tutorials

    3 Layouts that Handle Screen Resolution with Dignity

    There's nothing more discouraging than watching your beautifully designed website load on a screen with a resolution it wasn't built for. And it usually happens when you're unveiling your work to a client. Other than browser variations, screen resolution is the biggest unknown we face. It's also a dilemma unique to interactive design which makes it difficult for people outside the industry to understand. In fact, even designers working in other areas of design have a difficult time relating. So let's take a look beyond the simple fixed-width / variable-width decision and zoom in on three creative solutions that can make the process a little less painful.

  • March 28, 2008 in Friday Blog Clips

    5 for Friday | The Week's Best Blogs (3/28/08 Edition)

    I stumbled upon some really good lists this week. Vandelay's 101 Typography Resources for Web Designers is one that's especially impressive. I haven't featured Devlounge here in awhile but their guide to mashing up content with Yahoo Pipes is exceptional. I had to include it. Enough introduction, though. Here is the 5 for Friday.

    • 4 Comments
    • 2266 Views
  • March 26, 2008 in Business & Process

    The Lone Web Designer: Strategies for Competing Against the Big Agency

    I don't think much introduction is necessary with this topic. We've all been beaten out of a project by a big ad agency at some point. It's a frustrating and demoralizing; especially when you know you could do a better job. As an independent web designer, I've battled this issue for quite a few years now, and I've decided it's time to publish a list of core strategies based on my experience.

  • March 24, 2008 in Business & Process

    The Efficient Web Designer: Simple Adjustments That Will Dramatically Increase Your Productivity

    Web designers can be pretty snooty about efficiency. We all have our little sets of widgets and tools; and we love to look down our noses at the riffraff that hasn't discovered whatever little app we happen to be high on. But through the haze of shortcuts and hacks, I've found that many web designers are actually extremely inefficient. Our tools can help us, but every once in awhile we need someone to pull our noses off the ground so we can see the big picture. With that in mind, I've put together a list of simple adjustments that will dramatically reduce your stress and increase your productivity.

  • March 21, 2008 in Friday Blog Clips

    5 for Friday | The Week's Best Blogs (3/21/08 Edition)

    It's hard to believe that Friday is already here again. I guess it just went fast because I've been trying to catch up after losing a week to SXSWi. There were some very original articles posted this week by some of my favorite bloggers. I especially liked Tutorial Blog's guide to color schemes. Who would have thought to look at North Portland homes for design inspiration?

    • 4 Comments
    • 1390 Views
  • March 19, 2008 in Design Tips & Tutorials

    The Amazing LI: Using CSS and Unordered List Items to Do Just About Anything

    I can still remember the day I discovered the li tag. It's not that I had never used list items before--I had built plenty of bulleted lists. What I discovered that day was that with a little CSS, the li becomes one of the most powerful and versatile tags in a web designer's arsenal. So versatile is the list item, in fact, that you could build and entire website layout out of just ul / li tag pairs (if you wanted to). This article is a tutorial and a tribute to the amazing li.

  • March 17, 2008 in Business & Process

    Everyone's a Design Critic: How to Handle a Client Critique

    On Sunday at SXSWi, Jason Santa Maria and Rob Weychert double-teamed an issue that's been an ongoing struggle in my own experience. It's the issue of clients who inexplicably become design experts when it's time for you to present your design. The presentation was well thought out, well presented, and very helpful. I'll start with their practical advise for presenting a design for client critique. Then I'd like to present their list of the top five client requests as a comical ending to an otherwise serious topic. It will make you laugh, it will make your cry. It's truly moving.

  • March 14, 2008 in Friday Blog Clips

    5 for Friday | The Week's Best Blogs (3/14/08 Edition)

    SXSWi 2008 is over, and somehow I managed to read all my blogs and put together 5 for Friday during the fray. It was actually a great week for web design blogs and I was almost late for a few panels because I couldn't stop reading. I had an inspiring and rejuvenating time in Austin and I'm excited to present this week's list.

    • 1 Comments
    • 1396 Views
  • March 12, 2008 in Design Inspiration

    Rome, Sweet Rome: Ancient Lessons in Design

    When I arrived late to my first panel on Saturday morning at SXSWi 2008 I thought I had accidentally walked in on a reading for a book-on-tape. Jennifer Fraser (lead user experience director at Corel) was the singular presenter, reading off her notes word for word in a timid voice that had the whole audience leaning forward and tilting an ear. I have to admit that Jennifer's departure from the typical in-your-face SXSWi panelist style felt a little alien at first but as I listened, I began to warm up to it. By the end of the panel, I was captivated. Fraser had very effectively taken the system of architectural design principles developed by Vitruvius in ancient Rome and applied them to modern interactive design.

  • March 10, 2008 in Business & Process

    Respect! Say It Loud: I Design Websites and I'm Proud of It

    I honestly didn't expect to hear anything worth writing about on the first day of SXSWi 2008. Friday is usually a day for getting registered and settling in. There's the now annual "How to Rawk SXSW" panel, and usually a few lighthearted introductory discussions, but things typically don't gear up until the second day. This year, though, I was immediately swept off into web designer heaven as Jeffrey Zeldman and the Happy Cog team presented one of the first SXSWi panels entitled Respect! Say it loud: I design websites and I'm proud of it.

  • March 7, 2008 in Friday Blog Clips

    5 for Friday | The Week's Best Blogs (3/7/08 Edition)

    Today is the first day of SXSW Interactive and I'm posting this edition of 5 for Friday from Austin, TX--my hometown. I guess the anticipation of SXSWi makes web designers want to write prctical guides, because this week the blogosphere was overflowing with great tutorials. I'm sure you'll find my five picks for the week to be help resources you can bookmark and return to again and again.

    • 3 Comments
    • 2388 Views
  • March 5, 2008 in Product Reviews

    Getting Stuff Printed Online: 4 Resources I've Actually Used

    As much as we hate to admit it, web designers still have to get stuff printed from time to time. We can't do without our business cards and bumper stickers, our t-shirts and table tents. But when we're forced to go groveling to the printing industry, we can at least make sure we use an automated online printer. That's still stickin' it to the man a little bit, right? I've used a handful of these online printers over the past few years and I think my experiences could be a great benefit to a web designer looking for a place to print. So here they are--four online printing resources I've actually used.

  • March 3, 2008 in Web Design Worldview

    Function vs. Form: Rescuing Design from Insanity

    The debate over function and form has raged in the design community for over a century and a half. Artists and craftsmen in every design discipline have wrestled, and continue to wrestle, with the tension of function and form every day. In web design this tension is especially pronounced because the success of our work requires an almost mathematical balance of function and beauty. That's why it's imperative we have a solid grasp on the history and philosophy that has shaped our own approach to solving this dilemma. Why function? Why form? Once I've answered those questions, I'll present the Christian worldview of design and briefly map out a practical Christian approach to design.