Forget design 'inspiration' - just stick to the basics

A lot of design tutorials tend to focus on the aspect of 'inspiration' - without much emphasis on the design process itself. For all the showy gradients and web 2.0 gloss, truly good design comes from an altogether different approach. [read more...]

5 Terrible Fonts You Shouldn't Use in Print Design

(And preferably not at all, with the possible exception of Arial)

For those designers who work with both web and print media, the limitations of web typography are all too apparent. Some designers struggle to shake off the bonds of such limitations, though - and repeatedly use and abuse some of the worst fonts available. Here are five examples which raise my typographical hackles. [read more...]

Understanding Traffic Statistics

A guide to common traffic trends and graph features

For the webmaster, blogger or internet marketer, traffic reports and statistics have long been the bread and butter of performance analysis in terms of the success and popularity of a web site. There are a multitude of different services and means of analysis out there – from the raw log files to full analytics packages like Google’s own Analytics service. But what do all those facts and figures mean? [read more...]

Why is RSS adoption so abysmal amongst UK newspapers online?

Old media, meet new

The transition from old media to new media is inescapable, and for most the daily dose of news via the internet is now perhaps more common than the newspaper on the doorstep in the morning. Why then, are the RSS subscriber numbers so weak? [read more...]

The Demographics of Digg

US, Los Angeles, Firefox, Windows lead the way

This week Modern Life was the grateful recipient of the 100,000th Digg user since the site was established – a number accrued over 9 front page stories and 6 months. That’s a lot by any measure, and Digg.com thus far has been the largest referrer to ML. With Digg.com being touted as a possible acquisition target, and with a purported value of $150 million, just what (or who) exactly are potential investors buying in to? [read more...]

Web Typography Cheat Sheet

Fine print, not so fine web

Let’s be honest. Typography and the web do not go hand-in-hand. You’re limited to a choice of about 5 fonts, most of which are cheap knockoffs of ‘proper’ typefaces. You’ve got practically no fine control over kerning or line spacing, and – worst of all – there’s a very good chance that no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try – your type is going to look different on every single browser and operating system. So what is an avid graphic designer-cum-web designer to do when faced with the seemingly insurmountable task of making web type look good? [read more...]

Great Fonts for Web 2.0

A selection of typefaces for the modern web era

Fonts are an essential part of design - but there are thousands of fonts out there, so knowing which ones to use can be quite daunting. Here's a roundup of some fonts that have found popularity recently. [read more...]

The biggest mistakes made by web design companies

Apart from trying to compete in the web design marketplace, of course...

Web design is a massively competitive area on the internet – it seems that every man and his dog is offering ‘fresh creative designs’ to ‘help grow your business online’. But why do so many of these sites run afoul of so many elementary errors? [read more...]

How many Diggs do you need to make the homepage?

..and when's the best weekday and time to submit that hot new story?

Recently, I set up a script that logged the average number of 'Diggs' a story on the frontpage of Digg.com has - purely out of curiosity, and to discover any trends in digging activity. [read more...]

Anatomy of comment spam

From where does it come?

f you have a blog, or website of your own and you have some degree of interactivity with your visitors (such as comments), then you've no doubt experienced the scourge of spam on your pages. Comment spam is now an intrinsic tool in the blackhat marketer's repertoire, and can give an edge in competitive markets. But where on earth does it come from? [read more...]