Archive for the 'design' Category

Chinwag Live - Notes from Real World Usability event

Saturday, April 26th, 2008

Usability is at a crossroads - are we looking at “Back to Basics” or “Brave New World? I attended the latest event from Chinwag, and here are the notes.

On the panel were a Brighton trio - who were presenting their ideas and beliefs on usability and accessibilty as part of the tools for effective web marketing. Bryan Rieger, Andy Budd and Niqui Merrett.

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SxSw08 Wrap Up

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

Well, the creme de la creme Web Design and Development Conference in Austin, Texas certainly lived up to its formidable reputation.

And it’s hard to put into one blog post an event that encompasses so many aspects of the web, real time social networking, some marketing, and a lot of partying with new friends.

SxSw 2008

One interesting statistic was that it was thought 20% of America’s iPhone users were at SxSw. There were a lot of iPhones, and Apple products everywhere you looked. It felt like being part of a community just by having similar gadgets with these folks.

I really loved the openness of the event, it’s true - you can sit next to a Vice president of Yahoo! on one side and an A list web celebrity on the other.

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Essential Web Design & Development Podcasts

Tuesday, March 18th, 2008

A great resource of web 2.0 trends, emerging technologies, web code, web services and what you should be checking out are on podcasts.

Great if your job involves travelling, have a short break, on have a long flight on the way back from a conference!
It’s a great way to keep in touch with whats happening on and around the web. And a different way of learning compared to getting the lowdown from friends and followers on Twitter.

For those on a limited budget for training or self learning this is an excellent way of listening to leading industry experts share their knowledge and information for free!
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Top 10 Web Development Books

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008

Without a doubt, the best CSS / XHTML training you can give yourself is pick up any of these books to learn about front end web development.

Most of the books involve learning and adapting web pages using CSS based layouts. Some are new, some are classics. I have learnt valuable tips on working practices for CSS management, color palette selection, and also layouts using CSS3.

Books like ‘Don’t make me think, and ‘Bulletproof..’ make you question ‘Why should I do it this way..?’. Then they cover alternatives you may not have considered. Some of these books are in their Second edition, a testament to how well they are written and deservedly gaining a place on any discerning geeks bookshelf.

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What I learnt from ‘Transcending CSS’

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

When I bought Transcending CSS I wondered what I would learn from the book, as there are a lot of others based on front end design and coding of valid XHTML/CSS based web code.

However, as the author Andy Clarke is a well renowned designer and speaker at various web conferences, he can give both newcomers and experienced designers/coders valuable information.

>> For making your life easier, making you think differently, and see everyday objects as being your design inpspiration on the web.

What I learnt from Andy’s chapters in ‘Transcending CSS’:

  1. Design Scrapbook > using iPhoto to store scanned design ideas, paper sketches, and inspirational design styles, types and logos. For future reference and design inspiration.
  2. Photo of iPhoto Scrapbook

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