CSSAddict » General Discussion http://www.cssaddict.com Web Design Concepts Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:06:29 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Photoshop Filter effects http://www.cssaddict.com/blog/photoshop-filter-effects/ http://www.cssaddict.com/blog/photoshop-filter-effects/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:42:23 +0000 admin http://www.cssaddict.com/?p=294 Thanks for all your messages. I’m now back to blogging with great resources and offers for all web designers out there. The first offer comes from Rollip. A new site in town that offers different photoshop filters for your images. Some of them are quite good although most of them are easy to create if you have the time.
For those that do not have the time to do so, Rollip offers CSSAddict subscribers 30 free credits with each sign up. The credits are distributed on a first-come first-serve basis, so don’t delay!

]]> http://www.cssaddict.com/blog/photoshop-filter-effects/feed/ 2 Web 2.0 design secrets http://www.cssaddict.com/blog/web-20-design-secrets/ http://www.cssaddict.com/blog/web-20-design-secrets/#comments Mon, 07 Apr 2008 09:23:16 +0000 admin http://www.cssaddict.com/blog/web-20-design-secrets/ The common use of visual design elements, have some way or another created a new wave in web design that many of us would refer to as a “web 2.0 design“. It just so happened that by the time web 2.0 was happening, this new trend in web design was leaving its mark on the web. The main features of a “web 2.0 design” are development with web standards, particularly CSS and XHTML, as well as dynamic content and participation of the end-users. But, what about the design, the visual part of it?

Most web 2.0 websites or online applications do share some visual characteristics that make their interface more user-friendly compared to the web 1.0 websites.

So what are the secrets of a web 2.0 design?

A clean and simple layout that focuses mostly on the content design other than the whole page environment in itself,

layout.jpg

Bigger fonts on text,

typo2.jpg

White space, allows for easier read of the content

whitespace.jpg

Use of illustrations, either in logos or in icons

e3d.jpg
3D effects on buttons and badges

logos.jpg
Neutral background colours

neutral.jpg

If there’s any other web 2.0 feature that you know of, please do share it with us.

Any great web 2.0 designs are more than welcome for listing!

]]> http://www.cssaddict.com/blog/web-20-design-secrets/feed/ 14 WordPress as a CMS http://www.cssaddict.com/blog/wordpress-as-a-cms/ http://www.cssaddict.com/blog/wordpress-as-a-cms/#comments Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:00:31 +0000 admin http://www.cssaddict.com/blog/wordpress-as-a-cms/ I have recently come across someone, who completely dislikes using WordPress as a CMS. The reason? He just didn’t find that it can be used as anything else other than a Blogging platform. And he is right, up to a point.

WordPress used to be a blogging platform. Not any more. Through the use of small hacks and a few plugins, WordPress has grown to one of the best and easiest (both to theme development and administration) CMS platforms out there.


There are many reasons why:

  • It separates blogging system to the Page system
  • You can have multiple user/author roles
  • You can customize your homepage
  • You can use different templates for different pages and even categories or posts, or even parts of the site.
  • There are so many plugins developed for the WordPress platform, that not many other open source systems can compete with it (it even has an e-commerce plugin, to turn your site into an eshop).
  • Fully valid compatible Web Standards code (the editor helps).
  • Extremely good SEO, through the use of plugins
  • Also has many Statistics plugins to choose from

More than 1500 plugins, so you can extend your wordpress installation can be found here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

]]> http://www.cssaddict.com/blog/wordpress-as-a-cms/feed/ 5 Does CSS / XHTML development pay YOU back? http://www.cssaddict.com/blog/hello-world-2/ http://www.cssaddict.com/blog/hello-world-2/#comments Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:37:55 +0000 admin http://www.cssaddict.com/?p=1 CSS and XHTML tableless development, most certainly, requires more time than the old school ways of development. And as if this isn”t enough, web standardization comes over to remind us of the constant testing we need to realize in order to make sure the site is accessible. As a result, a lot of time is being consumed in testing and correcting. This procedure, most certainly, proves to be costly for web design agencies that care about the quality of work they will hand over to their clients.

The clients, on the other, don”t really care about the way you will decide to develop (fortunately, some do!) their site. They only need their website done over with, at an “affordable price”! Coming to terms with like-minded clients, proves very costly for the agency or the freelancer, and the only one to rip the rewards is, of course, the client.

Some of the most important rewards for them is the amount of traffic they”ll enjoy. Tableless CSS/XHTML developement is very very attractive to search engines, because they are simply clean. That is, fast to load, with only keywords and descriptions juice in it.

Now, coming to think of it, aren”t the freelancers or the agencies rewarded by the results that have been brought to the client”s website? I think that, they most certainly are! Gaining good reputation though, isn”t enough, or is it?

Good reputation could prove profitable, as we are working in a very competitive market with many noticable designers, developers and marketeers around. Make this your starting point as a freelancer or agency and then exploit other methods to gain more money. And, believe me, there are many!

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