CSSAddict » Tools & Resources

Photoshop Filter effects

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:42:23 +0000

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!

Generating Inspirational CSS Web Forms

admin — Wed, 28 May 2008 08:15:37 +0000

Creating an inspirational web form, is like opening the door to your site visitor with the most warm welcome in. I’m saying this because web forms are usually the most common means of communication between the visitors and the site owners. So, creating a very warm or stylish entrance to your form could actually make some visitors very happy to get in touch with you!!

How do we get around of creating such a form? I think it would be good to start visiting websites with great form design to get inspiration. This is probably the hardest part here. By hardest, I mean time consuming. I have conducted a small research on websites and here are some of the finest form design ideas I have found.

Velox Media

Karim Zurita

Alexandru Cohaniuc

ZdotB

MB Dragan

Nofrks

Mark Boulton Design

Squawk

ExileDesigns

Modern Arboricultural Service

As soon as you decide on your design, then you only need to get a good form generator to do all the fields for you.

Web Developers can understand the pain of stylizing form elements and keep them compatible with most browsers and operating systems. Having a good generator can help get everything done faster. Here’s a list of a few great form generators & stylers that can create compatible and stylish fields for you.

wufoo

Uni Form

Form Style Generator

phpFormGenerator

Web Form Factory

pForm

Nice Forms

Contact Form Generator

The Form Garden

Jeff Howden Tabless forms

Accessible Forms

Free Usability Tools online

admin — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:00:06 +0000

We all know how important is creating a usable website in order to be successful. Usability has become, in some way or another, a way of life for most designers. There are many rules to follow when creating a website, regarding layout, text, images, etc., but there are also great tools to help you out create your own usability lab.

Taskee – Website task management

A FANTASTIC free tool for testing your website is Taskee. After you have completed your design, you need to find any possible bugs on your pages. This is a very important and time consuming process. It is not easy to spot each and every bug by using one or two people only (especially if your site is too big).

This tool allows your team of testers (or clients) to track any bugs and notify you.

StomperScrutinizer

You have probably heard of the eye tracking stimulators. StomperNet, has created something similar. It is a browser that tracks the mouse and forces the eye to look at the location of the mouse. This way it provides you with the visual data when looking at the specific location. Now, get a new pair of eyes for creating a usable website, for free. You only need to register your email and you will immediately get a download link to install this great browser on your pc. If you don’t have your own usability lab, then this is a great way to start one..

CrazyEgg – Visualize your visitors

This one has to be one of the best usability applications online. I have listed it here because it does provide you with a free account that is limited up to 5000 visitors. It is basically an analytics account that provides you with a heatmap of most clicked areas.

ClickHeat by LabsMedia

Another Great Resource, is a clicks’ heatmap developed by LabsMedia. It shows the hot and cold areas based on the clicks of specific html links on your site. You can download the installation file on Sourceforge.net, and there’s also a nice demo to show you what you will see on your website if you decide to try it.

User Rec

For older versions of Firefox (1.5) there’s an experimental plugin called User Rec, and has been developed by George Murray. It is supposed to record mouse gestures while testing a website. Haven’t had the chance to experience it yet.

OptimalSort – online and easy card sorting

A very important part of usability is the organization of your content. Card sorting is a common method for completing such tasks. Optimal sort, although a paid service, it does provide a free account for up to 30 cards and 10 users (which is not bad for small websites).

DejaClick by AlertSite

Put your users to the test using this firefox extension by AlertSite. Monitor their steps while on a website and avoid any problems that might be caused on the end-users later on.

Web Metrics

Web Metrics have created seven tools for helping us out with usability troubles.

The Web Static Analyzer Tool, that check the code against usability guidelines
The Web Category Analysis Tool that helps conduct a category analysis according to what items go where.
The Web Variable Instrumenter Program (WebVIP) to capture user behaviour on your site
The framework for Logging Usability Data (FLUD), provides valuable date of user behaviour for optimizing your website
The FLUDViz tool that lets you analyze a single usability session.
The VisVIP tool for analyzing navigation and paths
The TreeDec tool for adding breadcrumbs and easier navigation

I haven’t had the chance to download and use Web Metrics tools yet, so any feedback is more than welcome.

Web 2.0 design Generators

admin — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:43:38 +0000

Would you like to add a little bit of web 2.0 flair in your designs? Web 2.0 design styles have been a very popular trend the last year or so and, consequently, many online generators have been developed to help you make our life easier. Whether you’re looking for web 2.0 styled buttons, backgrounds, logos or tabs, there is a free online generator to do it quickly for you!

Web 2.0 Stripes Generator

Stripe Designer

Online Ribbon Generator

Web 2.0 Budges

Fresh Badge Generator

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Monthly Calendar for your desktop

admin — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:16:42 +0000

When you have time to kill, you can do so constructively. So, I thought, I’ll design and upload, once a month a calendar for the desktop. Now, I’m not a professional illustrator, but I do love using my resources and fool around with different brushes and patterns. This is what I came up today.. so, I thought I’d share with you.

Download Desktop Calendar for Standard Browsers: 1024×768 – 1280×1024 – 1600×1200

Download Desktop Calendar for Widescreen Browsers: 1440×900

One of the best resources for different styles of brushes and patterns is Brusheezy. You can find loads of different things to play around with there. This is what I came up with and I’m planning to do this once a month (I hope!).

Visit Illustration Downloads section to download the .eps file used for this calendar.