Christian Montoya wrote about adding Vista fonts to your stylesheets a few months ago. I only recently added Calibri to my stylesheet after I got Vista myself and could see the improvement for myself.
Read MoreWeb Design
10 Things You May Not Know About the Web Developer Toolbar
Yes, we all love the Web Developer Toolbar. However, unless you’ve really taken the time to explore it, you’re probably only scratching the surface in terms of what it can do for you. I know I am.
Recently, however, I’ve been trying to learn some of its less obvious (but no less useful features). Here are 10 of them that you may not be aware of. Read More
Farewell ‘Home’, We Hardly Knew You
I’ve been noticing that the inclusion of the ‘Home’ link in web site navigation is no longer a given. Sites are increasingly relegating it to a subordinate position or even removing this once standard web page element altogether.
How to Conduct a Design Review with Stakeholders
UX Matters has a very useful, practical article about a difficult subject — how to walk stakeholders through your design approach. Although it focuses on product design, the tips and techniques outlined are equally applicable to presenting web designs.
Top 15 Smashing Magazine Articles
I’m a big fan of Smashing Magazine and appreciate the time and effort that goes into researching and writing their often exhaustive posts on web design tools, resources and techniques.
Create Resizable Images With CSS
I’m a big fan of layouts that still work if a user increases their browser’s text size. However, I was wondering what it would be like if any images resized along with the text rather than staying constant in size. Would everything seem more in proportion?
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Be Careful About Using Social Media to Redesign Your Web Site
Yes, “AOL’s new home page”:http://www.aol.com/ has been getting some flack since it went live. However, “Greg Sterling’s suggestion”:http://www.searchenginejournal.com/aols-new-homepage-social-media/4817/ that AOL would have been better off getting users to vote and provide feedback on several home page redesigns is not the way to go.
Another Day, Another Design Failure
It seems like MTV is not the only one who found that its web site was not working. John McCain’s presidential candidacy site has been completely redesigned to bring it more into line (or rather, complete alignment) with those of his competitors.
Read MorePull-quote Design Showcase
I’m a big fan of using pull-quotes (or callouts) to improve the readability of content-heavy pages. Not only do call out important content, but they can also be used to break up content on the page and provide additional visual interest. Read More
Is Using Icons for Web Site Navigation a Waste of Time?
Not that this is a new phenomena, but I’ve been noticing icons popping up in the navigation of a number of web sites recently.
As much as I appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into designing these often beautiful graphics, I have mixed feelings about the time and effort it must take.
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