2007: More Web Design Trends & Cliches

Cartoons, textures, swirls, earty tones and richer colours

It's been well over a year since I compiled the original list of web clichés, so I figured it was time to revisit some of the trends currently prevalent in web design now. [read more...]

JavaScript LED Message Scrolling Display

Any resemblance to a <marquee> is purely coincidental

I guess this answers the question of what to do with the LED icons I posted yesterday – I’ve always wanted to do a dot matrix type display in JavaScript, and I suppose an LED message scroller is the perfect excuse. [read more...]

Screen Resolutions and Aspect Ratios Worldwide

Screen real estate availability across a selection of countries

Intended screen resolution is a deciding factor in terms of a site design and layout - catering for smaller resolutions is a key factor for accessibility and for ensuring as many readers as possible can read your content. But how does screen size vary with locale? [read more...]

Good Practice in Implementing HTML Forms

Tips & tricks for optimum efficacy in data collection

Forms are a critical but often misunderstood aspect of web design - most of the attention in tutorials and guides go to the presentational aspects, rather than the usability of forms. [read more...]

Hexadecimal Colour Mnemonics

A new approach to remembering hex web colours?

For a fortunate few, working with hexadecimal colours comes naturally - my experience stems from working with colour palettes whilst programming in BASIC some 15 years ago. Thankfully, hex colour codes persist today in CSS, so my early experience means working with hex colour is second nature. But what about those less versed in hexadecimal? Perhaps a mnemonical system could be employed... [read more...]

5 incredibly outdated and annoying techniques in (X)HTML

Navigating through the vagarities of legacy code

Legacy code. The mere words strike fear into the most hardened web developer, and with good reason - out of date, poorly factored code that's been left untouched for years is a nightmare to work with. [read more...]

Alexa Rolls Out New Stats

If you're a compulsive statistics sort like I am, and are familiar with the statistics available at alexa.com, then you may want to take a look at this. Looks like they've rolled out a few new features in the last couple of hours, and there's some interesting new metrics. [read more...]

New Vista Fonts & The Web

Will Cambria, Calibri et al be adopted as web typefaces?

Once upon a time, back in the early days of the world wide web, when Windows 95 was still revolutionary and Internet Explorer was actually a sensible choice over the competition, Microsoft bestowed a gift unto the web which persists to this day: the Core fonts for the Web project. [read more...]

Web Standards Don't Matter (As much as you think)

Rules are supposed to be broken...

W3C. Valid XHTML. Valid CSS2. Ring any bells? If you’re learning web design, or even if you have a passing interest, then some standards evangelist has probably told you how everything should be marked up semantically and to current standard definitions set by arbitrary organisations. It’s just the way things should be done. But here’s what they don’t let on – standards don’t really matter at all. [read more...]

There's no such thing as 'Web design'

Unspoken secrets of web design: Part 1

So you’re a web designer, right? So what exactly does that entail? Do you cover the whole web gamut? [read more...]