tips for photoshop design and for website design - article reviews

Sometimes you need that extra Photoshop knowledge in order to achieve the look we need - Photoshop can help you more than you think you know. Read the carsonified advices below:

5 Advanced Photoshop Techniques for Web Designers

1. #1 Awesome Buttons (and how to make them)
2. #2 Navigation Menus (and how to design them)
3. #3 Typography Inset (the technique)
4. #4 Faded Shadow (little bit of Blur and Quick Mask)
5. #5 Depth and 3D Space (with just few extra layers, you can create an illusion of 3D space)
   

Enhance and optimize, with a cool touch of design, your website by following these steps / tips - Advanced Photoshop Techniques for Web Designers.
On the other hand, related to the design of the websites, there are many ways and many more efficient and begin to work smarter in designing the websites! Via boagworld we have

10 tips for efficient design

1. 1. use snippets
2. 2. use a javascript library
3. 3. configure your tools properly
4. 4. have one system for tasks
5. 5. embrace and manage admin
6. 6. distractions must die
7. 7. keep a tidy environment
8. 8. avoid multi tasking
9. 9. don’t do excessive hours
10. 10. communicate better
    

As simple as they sound, they are nonetheless very true - there are so many little things that "eat up our time" while we try to focus on the designing of the website. Let's learn then these 10 tips for efficient design.

design an effective homepage to your site - article review

The first impression left by a book is its cover; the first impression, which either draws or rejects someone is the homepage of a website. The Homepage can lead to a lasting impression (negative or positive) that can affect their decision to return to it. Via sixrevisions read more about:

Essential Tips for Designing an Effective Homepage

• Identify the website’s purpose/goal(Differentiating goals of the homepage vs. goals of the website)
• Learn the difference between a new vs. returning visitor(Subscriptions and memberships)
• Selling products or services
• Highlight Content Effectively
  - Step 1: Prioritize
  - Step 2: Create a Content-Only Layout
  - Step 3: Make Attention Happen
  # An Example: Horizon Business Coaching
• Remember to include the necessities
• Have a rationale for everything
• Use meaningful graphics
• Use meaningful content
• Know the importance of page response times
• Minimize and optimize the amount of graphics
• Combine JavaScript and CSS files
• Minify your scripts
  

I guess that we all are learning about this - continue to read this helpful article about some Essential Tips for Designing an Effective Homepage.

Tips on how to think like a designer - develop yourself - article reviews

Below are 10 things (plus a bonus tip) that I have learned over the years from designers, things that designers do or know that the rest of us can benefit from - speaks the person from presentationzen.

10 Tips on how to think like a designer

1. (1) Embrace constraints.
2. (2) Practice restraint.
3. (3) Adopt the beginner's mind.
4. (4) Check your ego at the door.
5. (5) Focus on the experience of the design
6. (6) Become a master storyteller.
7. (7) Think communication not decoration.
8. (8) Obsess about ideas not tools.
9. (9) Clarify your intention.
10. (10) Sharpen your vision & curiosity and learn from the lessons around you.
11. (11) Learn all the "rules" and know when and why to break them.

Continue to read more about these characteristics of a designer - with examples - 10 Tips on how to think like a designer.

Advanced CSS selectors, introducing more specific CSS elements

Though most of this article still is an object of my study and guide for my practice, and I can't say I master this, yet this article is a very helpful reference for either testing or even using these Advanced CSS Selectors in the creating of a modern website. Despite the fact that we are all well aware of its usefulness, CSS selectors are still not used to their full potential and we sometimes have the tendency to litter our HTML with excessive and unnecessary classes and ids, divs and spans. Below are the major points from this article:

Taming Advanced CSS Selectors

CSS Specificity

1. 1. Attribute selectors
2. 2. Child selector
3. 3. Sibling combinators
   - Adjacent sibling combinator
   - General sibling combinator
4. 4. Pseudo-classes
   - Dynamic pseudo-classes
   - :first-child
   - The language pseudo-class
5. 5. CSS 3 Pseudo-classes
   :target
   

The UI element states pseudo-classes

1. 6. CSS 3 structural pseudo-classes
   - :nth-child
   - :nth-last-child
   - :nth-of-type
   - :nth-last-of-type
   - :last-child
   - :first-of-type and :last-of-type
   - :only-child
   - :only-of-type
   - :empty
2. 7. The negation pseudo-class
3. 8. Pseudo-elements
   - ::first-line
   - ::first-letter
   - ::before and ::after
   

Continue to read this article, with more explanations and also examples - Taming Advanced CSS Selectors (via smashingmagazine).

Web design checklists & questionaires AND Nice flash websites to see - article reviews

Not just creating a website - also making sure it is a good one, checking it with the existing standards - 45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires. And, thanks to 1stwebdesigner, there is a nice list of 50 Gorgeous Flash Websites You Definitely Should See(out of which we list only the 1st 20).

45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires
Below are 45 checklists to make your design process easier and more organized in 8 categories. Consider using these checklists as a jumping off point for creating your own customized list, based on your own needs.

1. Client-Focused Checklists and Questionnaires
2. Pre-Launch Checklists
3. General Web Design Checklists
4. Usability Checklists
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Checklists
6. Marketing Checklists
7. WordPress Checklists
8. Ultimate Web Design Checklists
   

Continue to read this article online - 45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires.

50 Gorgeous Flash Websites You Definitely Should See
- we list here only the 1st 20 of them -

1. Saizen Media Studios
2. DrawingArt – WebDesign and Development Studio
3. Section Seven
4. Semisture Webdesign
5. Fl-2 Interactive Agency
6. Lecaid Design Studio
7. Esj * Com * AU
8. Recom CGI
9. Millice – Cyril Louis
10. HYPR – Interactive and Creative Design Studio
11. TwistCube
12. Go For Change
13. John Wright Photo
14. Timothy Hogan Photography
15. LS5 Design Agency
16. SoyTuaire Labuat
17. Mattthias Dittrich – Interaction Design Portfolio
18. Museum of Science and Industry
19. Parasol Island – Film Animation Interactive
20. Unouplus
    

Continue to read this article, which also contains previews of these gorgeous flash websites - 50 Gorgeous Flash Websites You Definitely Should See!

about the article lists on stefanm on wordpress.com

I truly apologize for not writing on this blog for a while, but "I'be been busy", as they say. Check out the Cool Articles and the Social Media Article series on my other blog! Though I dodged the twitter thinggie for a while, eventually I gave in to so many of my friends who use it, and I'm on twitter also, writing every day about stuff, especially about website design, website programming, SEO, internet marketing, interesting stuff....(I hope).

Now about the collection of the articles in my link collection(there's also an archive of cool articles/twitter-facebook related ones): There are so many sites out there that write about interesting things related to different niches, and I was thinking to compile them, even to express an opinion about them, and list them! This becomes a more difficult task as the list of such sites increases. Some of them are:

• techcrunch, mashable, smashingapps, readwriteweb,
• engadget, thenextweb, smashingmagazine; sbwire; tech blorge;
• programmable web; seo scoop; webdesign booth; search engine journal; css reflex;shoemoney; 1st web designer; instant shift; blog oh blog; graph paper press; web design dev; design reviver; noupe; doshdosh; seosmarty; creative SEO; outlaw design blog; SEO design solutions;

and many others! Anyways, since so many other people on twitter and their blogs mention these articles, I was thinking even to introduce the most interesting ones of them here, on this blog, with a few words, at least with their main topics. Believe me, some of them are really interesting!

So, in conclusion, follow me on twitter here, or the business account, or the account where u'll get some spiritual nourishment.