If you’re anything like me, it’s easy to “finish and forget” when it comes to web development. Once a website is live and the boss or client is happy, we close the project, kick off our shoes and crack a beer.

Part of the problem with this approach is the ever changing landscape online. Something that converts visitors today, might not be working two months from now (in some cases, it may not be working in the first place, but no one took the time to test it).

Recently, the notion of killing the design community has come up on a few blogs (sometimes indirectly), creating many intense conversations on the direction the design community has taken over the past couple of years, and what can be done about it.

The possibility that such discussions are going to improve the design community is quite troubling.

In the interests of taking advantage of this recent trend (namely, writing about “killing the community”), I felt it would be necessary to address this issue by describing some easy-to-learn and practical tips that will help all of us do our part in killing the community.

The market for freelance web design is huge. Being able to design a beautiful site in Photoshop is one thing. Programming a website is a whole other story.

So when clients come knocking at your door asking for web design services, what do you, the non-programmer but rockstar designer, tell them? “Sorry, I only design, I don’t code.” No! You take the job, and team up with an equally rockstar-esque programmer to develop the site that you design.

Easy, right? Well… not exactly. In case you haven’t noticed, there are many (too many) “hack” programmers out there. They talk up their capabilities, techie background, and all powerful programming skills, but just can’t deliver the quality results your project and your client deserve. Finding the gem in the bunch can be a tough task.

As the first thing visitors see, home pages and headers often steal the design spotlight.

But above-the-fold thinking neglects the natural flow of vertical page layout. What happens when people reach the end of a page?

You can bet that a simple copyright statement won’t hold visitors’ attention, but many pages are designed with the expectation that people will find their way… or so we assume.

The bottom of a page is not the end of a website. An informative, compelling footer is the natural place to lead people to more information within the site rather than wandering aimlessly.

Read more about the trends and innovations that follow page content and answer the unspoken question, where to from here?

The Internet truly is the land of opportunities of our time.  The amount of online sales transactions are increasing at an incredible rate and while opportunities seams nearly endless competition is harder than ever.  Being able reach anyone with a connection to the Internet certainly is amazing and the only problem is that the number of competitors have gone up at the same rate.  If you don’t manage to surface and get online presence the millions of potential buyers will surf by you store without noticing it.  Customers today can pick and choose, compare, analyze etc. your products and services against others making it essential to know your competitors well and more important to get a sale whenever you have the opportunity! This is where Landing Page Design becomes important and rally can make a great difference. This article provides essential tips and examples on creating Landing Pages that work.

One of the great things about designing with vector shapes is that any design, especially characters, can be developed out of basic shapes, giving a simple and stylized style. Let’s get busy with Adobe Illustrator and design a cute bear character and surrounding scenery in just two colours, ready for use as a cool t-shirt design.

I always found project management something very scary. Agencies that I worked for used Basecamp, MS Project and other very complicated (and pricey) systems. I tried them myself but I really needed something a lot simpler and ‘less serious’. Because I had some spare time, and because I was already learning a ‘rapid application development framework’ I knew it wouldn’t take me that long to build, so I decided to do it.

Like most bloggers do, this morning I checked my Feedburner stats and see that my blog Cats Who Code had 6000+ RSS subscribers. I decided to check out how many readers I had one year ago. I wasn’t surprised to read that I only had 900 readers at the time.
So, how did I manage to get 4000 new readers in 2009, while I only managed to get almost 1000 the previous year? This is what I’m going to explain in this article.

Usability is paramount in creating a good website or web app. If your site isn’t user-friendly, the majority of visitors won’t come back, regardless of how good your content is. You need to do everything in your power to make sure every website you design or web application you create is as user-friendly as it can be.

So how do you do that, exactly? The answer is simple: you test the site for usability. This involves getting actual users to try the site and let you know what isn’t working for them, either through automated means or simply by telling you. Read on for more information on usability testing and some tools available to help you.

Visit Source Article …

If you’re like me, you don’t want to spend money if you can do it yourself and yield the same results. One day I was at my local photography store I saw one of these “Pop-Up” light tents. It consisted of a collapsible white fabric box with a hole in the front and 3 lights – used for photographing small objects in photographic studios (like the shot of the chocolate reindeer to the left).

I was going to purchase it until I saw the $100 price tag. No way I am going to spend $100 on some fabric and 3 lights when the material costs far less. So I set off and built one of these light tents and it did not come out bad at all.