Blogs

As a web designer, you're often asked to develop as quickly as possible – but here are five risky shortcuts you want to avoid.

Shortcuts are the name of the game in web design online – if you can spend five hours writing a script that might save you one hour of work six times, you do it. Still, there are some common shortcuts to watch out for, as they come at the cost of your project's quality.

1. “I don’t know where to put this CSS call, I’ll just add it to the bottom of the stylesheet.”

Finding a balance between flashy designs and intuitive interfaces can be difficult - here’s some things to consider when making your next web project.

Web design schools and courses give you a huge array of skills to use when you leave, but as with anything, moderation is a key component. Many people with web design online degrees find themselves stranded on a familiar gradient - that between usability, and user experience.

Just because you know a lot about web design, doesn't mean your user does – here are a few rules to keep in mind when designing for a broad audience.

Having gone through web design online schools and courses, perhaps even obtaining degrees along the way, you’re in a formidable position when it comes to web design. You know how to make almost anything you need, can talk about it intelligently, and can even add to the collective knowledge of the design community.

2011 is barely half way over, and all ready we’ve managed to compile a list of trends that have been shaping the industry since January.

2011 isn’t even half way over, and already there are enough new trends to write an entire article about. Changes happen so quickly in web design online that it can be hard to keep a grasp on what new trends are emerging, so collected below are some of the top emerging trends of the year so far.

1. HTML5 & CSS3

With web interactions moving into more physical spaces like touch screens, its important to stop and reconsider what connects us with web content.

The internet has given so many benefits to the world of design and information architecture that sometimes we forget what we lost in the process - in exchange for an immediate, worldwide distribution of our thoughts, feelings, and knowledge, a certain amount of craftsmanship was relinquished as we attempted to harness this new form of media.

As a web designer, you’re probably looking for inspiration online - however, this might be limiting your horizons instead of expanding them.

Ask any web designer in your courses or schools where they got their inspiration from, and they're bound to pull up another website to show you. This isn’t all bad; to draw inspiration from your peers - after all, web design online is a medium unlike any other. However, if you limit yourself to only drawing your creative juices from other web designers, you risk falling into an unproductive cycle of copy cat. Here are a few offline ways to get your ideas flowing:

1. Photography

As screen sizes grow and shrink, responsive web design may be the answer to your resizing issues - if you use it correctly.

The devices we use to access the internet continue to change size and shape - not in a predictable manner, either. Unlike television, whose linear development has simply been larger and larger, computer screens are being tucked into pockets as often as they are mounted on walls. This all puts a terrible burden on the designer - not knowing what size, or even aspect ratio your work will be viewed at is a completely new, emerging problem for web design online.

Looking for ways to be more efficient and productive with your time and web design projects? Here are some sites that will help you in reaching that goal.

As you become better at web design, whether that’s through web design online schools and courses or in a traditional university, you eventually reach the point that you’ve got your lessons down and are ready to move into web design careers. This can be a frightening point, as you realize there are no longer teachers and professors reaching over your shoulder to help you.

Picking a content management system for your site is a big decision - here’s a comparison of some of the top CMSs in the industry now.

Picking a content management system for your site can be nerve-racking - once you’ve made the commitment, you’re stuck until your next big overhaul. Every CMS offers its own special benefits and flaws - below are some of the top CMSs right now, and a breakdown of what they offer.

1. Wordpress

Just as every country and culture has its own take on art, the same applies to web design. Here are a collection of takeaways from some country's approaches to the digital craft.

Design, like art, is a unique reflection of its country of origin, and the culture surrounding it. Add to design the conveyance of information, and it's easy to understand why each culture approaches web design online in a different way.

1. Japan