Web design links

  • The Essential Elements of a Successful Website: Measuring Usability
    A successful website needs to be usable, credible and visually appealing. This will generate positive word of mouth, repeat visitors and ultimately a more successful website. The trick is effectively measuring these concepts.
  • How to pitch an idea
    Coming up with good ideas is hard enough, but convincing others to do something with them is even harder. In many fields the task of bringing an idea to someone with the power to do something with it is called a pitch. This essay provides a primer on idea pitches.
  • 40+ Inspirational Non-Profit Website Designs
    Non-profit organizations operate on a tight budget and rarely have the necessary money and resources to develop a powerful and effective website. Here are 40+ non-profit/social action organizations with great web designs.
  • 50 Effective and Creative Call to Action Buttons
    “Call to Action” is a term commonly employed in the field of web design and user experience (UX). It refers those elements in a web page that plead for an action from the visitor. Here is a roundup of more than 50 websites demonstrating effective call to action buttons that do their job quite smartly.
  • Add an iFrame Facebook custom Tab
    This post is aimed at the non developer in an effort to give the bare minimum of what is needed to get your first custom tab via iframe deployed.
  • Rock Solid HTML Emails
    There are a whole host of ingredients that contribute to a good email marketing campaign. The biggest challenge for designers still remains building an email that renders well across all the popular email clients.
  • 25 Examples of Convincing Call-To-Action Buttons
    A look at 25 of the most convincing call-to-action buttons found on the web and why each individual button is so successful. Hopefully, they’ll give you an idea of some basic does and don’ts and help inspire your own designs.
  • 10 things never to leave out of a web design brief
    Brief writing really is a tricky skill to master, but you can still write a detailed brief by following these simple steps, and vitally by knowing your own business.
  • The Missing Google Analytics Manual
    A collection of links to implement, configure and get insights from Google Analytics.
  • Starting Out Organized: Website Content Planning The Right Way
    Content planning doesn’t find a home easily in many people’s workflow. But rushing on to programming and pushing pixels makes for content that looks shoehorned rather than fully integrated and will only require late-game revisions.
  • Usability Toolkit
    The Usability Toolkit is a collection of forms, checklists and other useful documents for conducting usability tests and user interviews.
  • Guidelines for Writing a Good About Page
    The About page is where site users go to learn more about the site they’re on. If you want to convert visitors to users, capture opportunities to work with people, and give your regular users a deeper appreciation of what your site does, a well written About page is your ticket
  • Is Your Website A Dinosaur Or On the Verge of Distinction?
    There’s been a lot of talk recently about whether websites have outlived their usefulness and are merely dinosaurs left over from 1990s, like grunge music and flannel shirts, but websites have found new life and have moved beyond serving as online brochures.
  • The Science Behind a Single Page Website
    The single page website is a paradigm of the modern web in which everything that needs saying can be placed in a single document. This article is on single page websites that use HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
  • 25 reasons why I'll leave your website in 10 seconds
    What makes people press the back button, shortly after visiting your website? Why do they bail out so quickly? And what can you do about it?
  • 20 Must Have WordPress Plugins For Every Website
    WordPress specialist Amber Weinberg looks at the plugins she can’t do without.
  • Building a successful online team
    Here is a list of what one organisation believes to be the five most crucial positions required for maintaining and growing your organization’s online presence.
  • Designing For A Hierarchy Of Needs
    Based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the idea of a design hierarchy of needs rests on the assumption that in order to be successful, a design must meet basic needs before it can satisfy higher-level needs.
  • How To Successfully Educate Your Clients On Web Development - Smashing Magazine
    When dealing with clients, one faces the challenge of clearly and effectively communicating the goals and results of the work done in business development, graphic design, technology and user experience design.
  • The Art and Science of Understanding Users
    Get your audience assessment wrong, and your whole marketing strategy will fall in a heap, no matter how slick your design or compelling your copy might be.
  • Ten Commandments of User Experience
    User experience is the result of your interactions with a product or service, specifically how it's delivered and its related artifacts according to the design.
  • Why you only need to test with five users (explained)
    There are a lot of strong opinions about the magic number 5 in usability testing and much has been written about it. Here's another one.
  • Designing for the Web: A book by Mark Boulton
    This book aims to teach you techniques for designing your website using the principles of graphic design. Learn solid graphic design theory that you can simply apply to your designs, making the difference from a good design to a great one.
  • Usability Review of Charity Websites Taking the Lead
    A look at charity websites which have successfully developed their online brand using modern and creative ideas, and how each charity website can be improved in terms of design or usability.
  • 11 Blogs to Help You Become a User Experience Expert
    There are UX focused blogs out there that are loaded with info, tips, and insights that can help you in your journey to becoming a user experience expert. Here are 11 of the best.
  • The Content Strategist as Digital Curator
    As businesses become ever more comfortable using the web to bring their product and audience closer, the techniques and principles of museum curatorship can inform how we create online experiences - particularly when we approach content.
  • How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell
    Sometimes the path of web design doesn't run smooth. Here's how it can go downhill fast.
  • 10 Things to Consider when Writing for the Web
    Writing for the web is a challenge. There are usually word length restrictions, the fact that users scan rather than read every word, and sometimes style guides to adhere to. Here are 10 useful tips.
  • How To Create The Perfect Client Questionnaire
    Creating a client questionnaire isn’t complicated, though it can be a bit time-consuming if you don’t know where to start.
  • 15 Useful Resources to Get Clued Up on HTML5
    Check out this collection of some of the best resources from various blogs and websites in the industry. Each one gives an interesting insight into what HTML5 has in store with detailed write-ups, tutorials and handy cheat sheets to help you along your way.
  • COI Usability Toolkit
    The Central Office of Information have developed a usability toolkit to help Web editors and Web content developers incorporate the basics of usability across all public sector websites.
  • How to set up an e-commerce site using PayPal to process
    Want to set up your own online store instead of dealing with eBay? There's an easy way to get started that uses PayPal as a credit card processor, allowing you put together a simple store without major monthly commitments.
  • How to run a one-person web design agency
    "Knowing yourself, working hard, playing even harder and being able to quickly switch between different tasks is a start". A look at how a one-man-band achieves a great working life.
  • 20 SEO Tips That Every Web Developer Should Follow
    One aspect of web development that is many times overlooked is search engine optimization. This list outlines some basic SEO techniques that will help you make friends with Google, and increase your page rank.
  • The essentials of information design
    By co-ordinating a range of design, language, evaluation and technical skills, information designers play a vital role in making complex information easy to understand and use.
  • A Nonprofit’s Guide to Building Simple, Low-Cost Websites
    Guidance on how to plan a new website and how to maintain an online presence using tools that you don’t have to be a web developer to master, including tips for finding volunteers with web expertise who can help along the way.
  • A Guide to Google Analytics and Useful Tools
    This is an easy to read guide that will help you understand and use the full power of Google Analytics, including its many under-used features and reports.
  • Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site
    Yahoo's Exceptional Performance team has identified a number of best practices for making web pages fast. The list includes 34 best practices divided into 7 categories.
  • 80 Corporate Website Designs For Design Inspiration
    A perfect layout, A good design and nice resource can produce a creative output. Layout, textures and patterns are used more often than one may think but the outcome of different combination can result verity of excellent designs.
  • 80 Creative and Well-designed Logos
    They say a picture speaks a thousand words, and that is definitely true when it come logo design. A memorable logo is always a plus if one wants to ensure first-time visitors to their websites will return in future.
  • 10 Tools to Improve Your Site’s Usability on a Low Budget
    Testing the usability of your site is one of the smartest things you can do. Usability involves making a website’s interface easier to use and simpler to understand, so that the user’s experience is as enjoyable as possible.
  • The 7 wonders of wireframes
    Quick, hand drawn wireframes can provide substantial benefits that will save you time and money.
  • How to Extract the Facts with a Web Design Client Questionnaire
    I recommend using this questionnaire before you write a Web design proposal. You should reserve your proposal-writing time for the best-qualified prospects, rather than everyone who asks for one.
  • Tips for Designing (or Redesigning) a Nonprofit Web Site
    If your organization is building a new Web site from scratch - or updating an existing one - you may need to rely on professional help when it comes to design and implementation. The following guidelines can help you plan and design a polished, functional site that meets your organization's needs.
  • 10 Things Every Web Designer Just Starting Out Should Know
    There are many aspects of creating a website design. Web designers often have to play multiple roles and be very knowledgeable about building effective and usable site layouts. Most of the lessons you’ll learn in web design comes from work experience. This article, discusses 10 essential and general tips that every novice web designer should know.
  • Website Analytics Toolbox
    Effective analysis is a big part of running a successful website. Hee are more than 75 tools, resources, and articles that can help you in various aspects of web analytics.
  • 12 Excellent Free Tools for Monitoring Your Site’s Uptime
    It’s essential that your sites and web apps are constantly accessible to your users. In this article, you will find free and useful monitoring tools to help you know when your website or web application becomes unavailable.
  • Effective Strategy To Estimate Time For Your Design Projects
    Many people say estimating time for web projects accurately is an oxymoron, but by applying a few effective techniques it’s possible to dramatically increase the accuracy of most web project estimates.
  • 40 of the Best Websites of Non-Profit Organizations
    Budget limitations are common with non-profit and charitable organizations. As a result, organizations often compromise on the need for an effective and attractive website. However, the websites shown here represent some of the most well-designed websites of non-profits.
  • The 960 Grid System Toolbox & Resources
    In this article, you’ll find tutorials, a showcase of sites designed using the 960.gs, spin offs, basic WP themes built on the 960.gs and possible alternative frameworks
  • Optimizing Website & Landing Page Copy - A 10 Step Process
    "Talk to the dog in the language of the dog about what matters to the dog." Roy H Williams
  • 10-Point Basic Website Checklist for Nonprofits
    Here’s a 10-point checklist to use when giving the home page of a nonprofit website a quick evaluation.
  • How To Improve Your Branding With Your Content
    Branding experts hit the nail on the head when they say that a winning brand conveys why you are your prospects’ only solution.
  • Non Profit Website Design: Examples and Best Practices
    A non profit’s website needs to make it easy to find out more about their cause, to donate money, and to become more involved. It needs to make it easy for media contacts to find the information they need and the contact information of key personnel.
  • How to Elevate Your Website Design Process and Results
    This tutorial will guide you through the process and ideas behind the designing a professional website with a funky flair in Photoshop.
  • Non Profit Website Design: Examples and Best Practices
    A list of best practices for designing non profit websites followed by some examples of non profit websites that are getting things right.
  • The Do’s & Don’ts of Modern Web Design
    Relevant snacksized web design tips and tricks
  • Five Types of Effective Headers in Web Design
    Your website’s header makes an immediate impact on your user so it’s important to get it right. Think about what you’re trying to achieve, what’s the first thing you want to tell your users when they visit your site, what will intrigue them and get them to read further?
  • 8 Tips to Design a Charity Website
    How does a charity get the most out of its website? It needs to let users find out information about the charity, but the main objective of the site is to get people involved with the charity, usually resulting in the user donating money. Here are 8 principles that you should follow when creating a charity website.
  • 42 Questions Every Freelancer Should Ask Their Clients
    It’s important for freelancers to get to know every prospective client before taking on a new job.Here's a list of 42 questions for freelancers to ask prospective clients during the interview/briefing process.
  • 15 Essential Checks Before Launching Your Website
    When launching a website, you can often forget a number of things in your eagerness to make it live, so it’s useful to have a checklist to look through as you make your final touches and before you announce your website to the world.
  • Design To Sell: 8 Useful Tips To Help Your Website Convert
    As we see more and more businesses move their services online, and even more that begin their life on the Web, a greater need arises for websites that are designed and built to sell.
  • Designing to Sell
    A simple template you can follow if you need to create a design that “sells” - that is, creating a website landing page that intends to turn a viewer/user into a customer.
  • 7 Useful Tools for Web Development Testing
    Before launching any new website, feature, or upgrade, it has to be tested. Luckily, there are many great tools for web development testing. These tools test everything from CSS validation to website speed. Making sure that users and customers have a problem-free experience should be the goal of any website. These tools are the final step in that process.
  • How To Develop A Facebook Page That Attracts Millions of Fans
    There are numerous ways for brands to leverage Facebook but the overall branded experience is becoming increasingly integrated into a single offering as the new Pages product highlights. So what are the primary benefits and changes for the new branded pages?
  • Complete Beginner’s Guide to Information Architecture | UX Booth
    This article discusses what information architecture is, why it’s related to usability, and what are the common tools/programs used in information architecture.
  • 50 Essential Strategies For Creating A Successful Web 2.0 Product
  • 12 Useful Techniques For Good User Interface Design
    12 useful techniques for good user interface design in Web apps and how to implement them so that they are properly used.
  • How to Embed Almost Anything in your Website
    Learn how to embed almost anything in your HTML web pages from Flash videos to Spreadsheets to high resolution photographs to static images from Google Maps and more.
  • Top 75 Best Design Resources of 2008
    Collection of the best and most useful design resources of 2008.
  • The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
    For many web developers, the most intimidating part of the design process is getting started. With some critical input from the client about what his company actually does, and by gathering information about the content you have to work with, you'll be able to come up with a successful layout and design.
  • The Role of Design in Modern Church Marketing
    Any web designer subscribing to Screenalicious, CSS Mania, or Best Web Gallery can attest to the recent rise of hip, high-quality church web sites. These churches are branded as intensely as any business and supported by savvy church-marketing communities on the Web.
  • 100 Websites With Outstanding Artistic Design
    A look at 50 websites that look really different from their peers and automatically captivate their audiences with their design of elaborate backgrounds, illustrations, and textures. Is different always good? Let’s take a look...
  • 10 Useful Techniques To Improve Your User Interface Designs
    Web design consists, for the most part, of interface design. There are many techniques involved in crafting beautiful and functional interfaces.
  • The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World
    For marketers, Web 2.0 offers a remarkable new opportunity to engage consumers. The Wall Street Journal interviewed more than 30 executives and managers in both large and small organizations that are at the forefront of experimenting with Web 2.0 tools.to identify a set of emerging principles for marketing.
  • How-To: Taking WordPress One Step Further
    Creating a website is no easy task. WordPress is an easy solution for creating a Blog, but sometimes something a little more, in terms of functionality, is needed. Using a Custom Write Panel, Custom Options, and manipulating the theme files, the possibilities are almost endless.
  • The Grid System
    The ultimate resource in grid systems
  • ProBlogger: Blog Tips to Help You Make Money Blogging
    ProBlogger is a Blog that helps bloggers to add income streams to their blogs.
  • How to Mimic the iGoogle Interface
    This tutorial shows how to create a customizable interface with widgets. The finished product will be a sleek and unobtrusively coded iGoogle-like interface which has a ton of potential applications!
  • Central Office of Information - Web Standards and Guidelines
    A guide to managing, improving and marketing UK public sector websites
  • Battle of the CSS Frameworks
    I’ve become a little obsessed with CSS frameworks lately. I’ve tried just about all of them at one point or another. Regardless of how you feel about them, it’s pretty obvious that they save time, and that’s what we’re all after.
  • Strategic Design: 6 Steps For Building Successful Websites
    Web design isn’t art. It involves a whole collection of different skills all fused together to create an interface that not only features a pleasant aesthetic but that communicates function and facilitates easy access to its content. To achieve successful results you must have a clear direction you must think strategically.
  • Web Development Toolbox: 120+ New Tools for Web Development
    Drag-and-drop application builders, code repositories, project management and testing apps, and frameworks for working with a variety of coding languages, from Ajax to Ruby to Python.
  • JavaScript and screen readers
    In recent months, many web designers have been asking the question, "How can I make my dynamic site accessible?" Screen readers are complex beasts, and understanding why they do what they do can be quite a challenge.
  • Good-Tutorials
    Good-Tutorials is the largest source of tutorials on the web, was started in 2002 and is designed, coded, and loved by Zach Holman.
  • This is How You Use the Google Maps API
    So your client emails you and asks, "Can you put one of those flashy maps on my contact page so that users can actually see our building from a satellite's view?". You've used Google maps many times, but there is only one problem: you have no idea how to use the API. Well get out your spoon and dig in!
  • Logo Design Love
    Logo Design Love is a website devoted to logos, is updated once or twice per week with news and features from the logo design industry and is authored by David Airey, a self-employed graphic designer.
  • 20 Websites to Help You Master User Interface Design
    The following websites deal with interface design, user experience, user-centered design, usability, and everything in between – all with the goal of enhancing the user’s interface.
  • PSDTUTS: Photoshop Tutorials
    PSDTUTS is a blog/Photoshop site made to house and showcase some of the best Photoshop tutorials around. We publish tutorials that not only produce great graphics and effects, but explain in a friendly, approachable manner.
  • NETTUTS: Web Development & Design Tutorials
    NETTUTS is a blog/tutorial site aimed at web designers. We run tutorials on technologies, skills and techniques to improve how you design and build websites. We cover HTML, CSS, Javascript, CMS’s, Simpler Development Examples in PHP and Ruby on Rails, and Flash.
  • 22 Firefox 3 Plugins Web Designers Can’t Live Without
    Mozilla Firefox has always been considered a "user-friendly" browser, but with all the customizable extensions, it has become probably the most "developer-friendly" browser as well. We have collected the best FFX dev scripts available, and installing them takes just a few clicks.
  • Building a Custom Lifestream Website with Sweetcron
    Sweetcron is "The Automated Lifestream Blog Software". New posts are created automatically from your activity elsewhere on the web. New photos on Flickr? Tweets on Twitter? Thumbs up on StumbleUpon? Blog posts on Tumblr? Add them all to your Sweetcron-powered site and they will appear on your site in minutes.
  • Understanding Disabilities when Designing a Website
    With 75% of the US population and 65% of the UK population having internet access at home, it is imperative that websites are designed to be both accessible and usable. The WCAG Guidelines, introduced in 1999, go some way to helping web developers create accessible websites—but …we must look further than the guidelines if we are to create websites which are accessible to users with disabilities and the assistive technologies they rely on.
  • 13 Amazing Firefox Add-Ons To Make Designers Lives Easier
    There are lots of free downloadable extensions and add-ons available for Firefox and there demands are increasing every day. This post lists 13 Amazing Firefox Add-Ons To Make Designers Lives Easier.
  • How to conduct a Web site competitive analysis
    Conducting a competitive analysis is an important part of the job if you're a usability engineer or information architect. A good competitive analysis not only produces usability metrics but also aids decision makers in their strategic goal-setting and planning. Done right, a good competitive analysis can steer a Web development project in the right direction.
  • Web 2.0 Design Generators For Developers
    If you are a busy web developer that also need to work on the interface, here is a handy list of online tools to help you save time and effort creating nice graphics for your sites or apps.
  • 19 Most Essential Open Source Applications That You Probably Want To Know
    Most of these are top of the list projects that have an open source industry leading popularity
  • 10 Ways to Save Time While Building a Website
    As a freelance web developer, time is money. I use many different tricks to increase my productivity and these are my top selections for saving time.
  • Resources for builders, developers and designers of the web.
    Community, blogs, reference sites, tutorials and betas for builders, developers and designers of the web.
  • Geocities 2.0: Website Creation Tools for The Social Web
    Despite the social web, the 'read/write web' has expanded the market for web publishing, so there is still room for traditional website building platforms such as Geocities. Do these tools still exist, in the Web 2.0?