Ideas of March

This post is a contribution to Chris Shiflett’s ‘Ideas of March’ blog revival campaign. To participate you have to complete the following:

1. Write a post called Ideas of March.
2. Write about why you like blogs.
3. If you don’t already blog regularly, pledge to blog more the rest of the month.
4. Share your thoughts on Twitter with the #ideasofmarch hashtag.

So here goes. (more…)

I Lost My Creativity When I Learnt How To Code

Before I knew how to code I would make all my websites in Flash. It was easy because I could place elements wherever I wished and my ‘websites’ would look the same in every browser. It seemed that I had absolutely no constraints so I started creating websites which were a bit off the wall, but allowed me to express my creativity. (more…)

Speed Up Your Web Design Workflow Tip #1 – Lorem Ipsum

As a web designer you probably have a bunch of tasks which seem to pop up in every project e.g. download the latest WordPress release, strip down the twentyeleven WordPress theme, create layer folders in your PSD file, download a reset.css file, etc. (more…)

Don’t Make Mockups — Make Prototypes!

2012 is the year you should take part in Code Year, a project by fresh startup Codecademy. Codecademy, as a product, is a free and interactive way to learn programming. It’s gone from strength to strength since the announcement of Code Year and it’s difficult to believe that in just 5 months Codecademy has gained so much traction. (more…)

Stop SOPA Ribbon Plugin

You may have noticed I’ve added a Stop SOPA ribbon on the top right of the header which acts as a link to this site. The Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act are absolutely unacceptable and to be honest, it actually frightens me. What if this Act was passed? I can only begin to imagine. With a multitude of well-known sites protesting today (most notably Wikipedia) it’s hoped that those fuckers at US Congress will take note and realise they are just abusing their power with both SOPA and PIPA… although something tells me they already know. (more…)

Speak a Programming Language from Day One

No, the title of this post is not a typo. It’s to draw your attention. In the web industry, people are required to have many skills. You are probably familiar with the following two job titles from the web industry – Web Designer and Web Developer, and you’ll know that each have different skillsets. (more…)

Stop Repeating Yourself, Code Smarter

If you’re a web designer or front-end developer then you’re likely to spend a lot of time coding HTML and CSS. CSS can be particularly redundant as many rules and properties are repeated several times throughout stylesheets. It’s always a good idea to use a reset.css file such as Eric Meyer’s Reset or Normalize.css but these merely prepare your page for the styles you are about to layer on top. (more…)

New Year’s Resolutions for the Web Designer

It’s almost 2012 and it’s time to create a new list of resolutions which are more like absurd wishes than realistic aspirations. This year I’ve made 5 simple resolutions which should apply to many other designers and will maybe give you some ideas for what you should do for 2012. Be warned these are simply my New Year’s Resolutions rather than suggestions for the everyday designer. Below, I present to you, my 5 resolutions for the New Year. (more…)

Mac OSX Lion: 3 Things That Suck

I finally got around to downloading Mac OSX 10.7 (Lion) last night. First impressions… excellent. I managed to avoid some of the problems that people initially had with the update because I held off for a couple of weeks. So at about 12.30am, Lion finished installing. I waited in anticipation as my Mac restarted and suddenly I was greeted with the biggest eyesore I’ve seen on any operating system (nothings worse than the Windows blue screen though), the first thing that sucked was: (more…)

Why Do Designers Love Helvetica?

A designers typeface by default. It’s clean and efficient, yet beautiful in its minimalist form. Chances are you probably see it on a daily basis. But why are designers so “obsessed” with this font? Why is it used so frequently? You have to admire Helvetica’s longevity, no matter how many new typefaces arrive on the scene, Helvetica is still standing strong. There must be a reason. (more…)