The web has become a part of our lives. Folks from all walks of life, from upscale parts of New York to dirt road villages you probably will never hear of in Burundi, are all a part of what we call "the internet". The reasons they use the web is highly varied: it could be to search for news articles, directions to the nearest pub, the winter/fall clothing trends, post-grad research, or shopping for a handbag, the list is endless. It could be anyone too. It’d be impossible to try to classify web users in any particular demographic range.
Posts Tagged web
Winter is upon us (in the Northern Hemisphere at least). Few things in this world can be so solemn and magnificent at the same time, the winter season being one of those things. In this collection, we share with you a stunning set of photos that capture the true beauty and essence of winter.
As we’re coming to the end of this year, everyone starts to look towards the next one and there will no doubt be an upsurge of articles predicting the web trends of 2010 in the next days to come. However, in this article, we’ll be talking about what’s actually driving these trends now, and what they mean for the future of the internet.
1. CSS3, HTML5 and Fonts as a Service
There are a lot of options out there for using other-than-websafe fonts in your website designs. Dynamic text replacement methods or resorting to very long fontstacks (where most of your visitors won’t see the font you wanted anyway) have long been the standard for using anything other than websafe fonts.
But the @font-face function changes all that. With most major, modern browsers now compatible with it, services are cropping up all over for providing the fonts you want to embed on your site without eating up your bandwidth and server space.
One of the biggest hurdles these services help to overcome is the licensing issues related to embedding certain fonts on your website. While many fonts (especially open source fonts) have licenses that allow for embedding, others strictly prohibit it. Webfont services work with the type foundries to provide fonts for embedding while also providing the security that foundries insist upon.
Currently, there are four such services available, though two (Typekit and Fontdeck) are still invite-only. Read on for more information about each.
1. Typekit
Typekit is invite-only at this point. You can sign up for updates on their website, and they’ll announce when it’s ready. But a lot of information is already available on their blog.
Webapps–compared to their desktop counterparts–have the distinct advantage of being flexible in terms of the environment they have to run in; if you have a web browser and an internet connection, you’re good to go. This allows designers who work in a variety of locations, from office cubicles to the neighborhood coffee shop, to do what they need to do without being bound to a single spot.
5. FreshBooks
The latest versions of the five major most web browsers (Mozilla Firefox 3.5, Google Chrome 3.0, Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0, Opera 10.0, and Apple Safari 4.0) went head to head under six performance indicators: JavaScript speed, average CPU usage under stress, DOM selection, CSS rendering speed, page load time, and browser cache performance. Each web browser was tested three times under an unprimed cache (except for the browser cache performance), and their average value reported in the results. Read the rest of this entry »
Ryan Keiser and StackOverflow are this weeks stand out web designs. They have each got a unique style which, I don’t think can be categorized, especially StackOverflow, which seems to have created a wholly new style. Cool.
Thanks for all the recommendations, keep theme coming. Send us a recommendation for next weeks Weekly Web Design and Development Inspiration in the comments now!
The History of Web Browsers
Sep 30
The title for Div Knowledge’s new press release reads, “Div Knowledge Launches a Web Developer Blog and Design News Aggregator” you can view the DivKnowledge press release by visiting this link.
PR: Div Knowledge a Web Developer Blog and Design News Aggregator
http://www.prlog.org/10355633-div-knowledge-launches-web-developer-blog-and-design-news-aggregator.html
Here is a preview of the article;
“Div Knowledge is a Web Developer Blog and Design News Aggregator for professional web designers. Get the latest design knowledge news and tutorials from our hand-picked articles. Check out the latest web developer feed at divKnowledge! Web design tutorials, iPhone accessibility, Photoshop news, RSS feeds for developers and more…. http://www.divknowledge.com”
In other site news, we have switched from Google Analytics over to the ExactoStats visitor statistics system. The precision statistics and new features ExactoStats brings to DivKnowledge are integrated with a warm welcome.
Exactostats has allowed DivKnowledge to get heatmaps of the articles so that we can determine what is important to you, the reader, and we will be making adjustments to the site as necessary. Other salutations go to the Exactostats for the ability to watch live-video of your website’s viewers. This a huge acomplishment and is something even Google Analytics has not been able to accomplish.
Read the rest of this entry »
Where do you go normally when you start planning to design your new web design project and you are curiously finding for a mind blowing web design inspiration or just want yourself to bring up with some amazing creative ideas which can help you to create your web design project like it will make a trend or inspiration for others. But sometimes, your mouse is not moving around as you want or your hand is not in your creative control or maybe when you are just tired and do not have creative mood to work…
The use of graphics as a tool for educating viewers is a great approach to sharing information. It’s an effective way of composing otherwise boring information and data into an easy-to-consume and fascinating way.
In this article, you’ll discover a variety of infographics and visualizations associated with the internet. You might just learn a thing or two about the web by looking at these awesome artworks!
Click on the image to go to the larger version of each graphic.
1. Web Trend Map
is a graphical representation of the top domains and personalities on the web. It maps websites and notable persons onto the Tokyo subway system as train stations with their popularity and success represented by their position and size.
When it comes to design, there’s a plethora of free web-based tools to help you accomplish tasks such as color palette selection, creating unique fonts, editing images, and testing typography.
In this article, you’ll find a bunch of handy online utilities for designers.
kuler Create
kuler is a web-based application by Adobe that helps you create and share color themes. You can peruse the user-submitted color themes or create your own color themes with the kuler Create web tool.
Did you know you can customize a little of your Gmail inbox by changing the so-called Gmail web clips? Web clips are the little pieces of text just above your e-mail inbox. You would think it was just a regular place to display Google’s advertising, but if you pay attention you might see some other messages come by too.
These messages can be customized. You can for instance add the RSS feed of your favorite blog or news site or add favorite quotes or other wisdom. For more information on what RSS feeds are see this article.
It could become a bit of a distraction, but I think it’s a nice variation for your inbox. For people who practically live inside their Gmail inbox, this is nice and it could even make you smarter by displaying trivia (or look smarter if you memorize the quotes).
They work like a mini one line RSS reader. You can click the link to read the article. You’ll see from what source the link is and how long ago it was published. Click the arrows < and > to browse through the different sources and links. Customizing is easy:
- Sign in to Gmail.
- Click Settings at the top of any Gmail page, and open the Web Clips Read the rest of this entry »
It’s easy to get caught up doing your own thing and even easier to stick to what you know already know. However, whether you’re a developer or a designer, seeking out constructive, third-party feedback can bring your projects to a new level. You may also know that finding objective, qualified sources of feedback can be near impossible (your relatives and roommates only cut it for so long).
That’s why I’m bringing you 10 fresh, useful and fun ways to get an outside perspective on your work. So no more excuses, it’s time to break out of your rut and start getting the feedback you need to learn, improve, and grow as a professional.
Free web-based feedback communities
1. Concept Feedback
Concept Feedback is a brand new community for designers, developers and marketers. Members can upload a concept (a website, logo, advertisement or other), specify an objective and start receiving constructive, actionable feedback from other members. A system of reputation points keeps users honest and helps prioritize advice. Sensitive concepts may also be posted privately for client or co-worker review.
