May 12, 2014 — We’ve seen many permutations of images in responsive design and spent a lot of time spinning our wheels, banging our heads and screaming at the wall. But our tireless journey is coming to a close. The W3C and browser makers got the hint. We’ve come a long way with responsive images. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but a lot of work still has to be done. Read more…

May 9, 2014 — The second part of this series addresses the third step into making navigation as simple and predictable as possible, and discusses which type of navigation menu is best suited to which content. A navigation menu is any area of an interface that presents navigation options to enable users to find content on the website. A common distinction in navigation models is between a primary, traditional navigation system and secondary, alternate navigation models. Exactly defining this distinction is difficult. Read more…

May 8, 2014 — Installing security plugins is a good practice and a must for every WordPress website. However, if your file-system permissions aren’t set up correctly, most of your security measures could be easily bypassed by intruders. In this article, Benjamin Intal will teach you all about WordPress filesystem permissions and ownership: what they are, why they are important and how to set them up. He will also cover the two most common WordPress server configurations (how they differ and how to set the proper permissions and ownership for each). Read more…

May 7, 2014 — We all have our favored methods and techniques, but the general process is similar: Conduct research, prototype, then present to stakeholders and users. However, every once in a while something will take you by surprise. In this article, Chrisday will discuss the variety of challenges that he faced and how he eventually overcame them. Many of these learnings can be applied to enhance the user experience design process in smaller projects. Read more…

May 6, 2014 — John Holt Ripley was working on a website that required a number of icons. “I know how to handle this. I’ll use an @font-face icon set for high-resolution screens. It’ll be a single file, to reduce HTTP requests, and I’ll include just the icons that I need, to reduce file size.” he thought. Until he ran the page in the device lab. On some devices, a number of the icons weren’t showing. Yet on the same devices, others were, so clearly it wasn’t an @font-face issue. It must have been the underlying Unicode. Read more…

May 5, 2014 — While many Web professionals work hard to make work-related relationships as strong as possible, they often neglect their non-professional relationships. Web professionals, and IT workers in general, often struggle to maintain a healthy work-life balance, and their relationships often suffer because of that struggle. In this article, Jeremy Girard will offer some of the ways that he has found helpful in his own life and career to foster healthy non-professional relationships and personal well-being. Read more…

May 2, 2014 — Originally released in 2007, the BBC’s Programmes website now has pages for over 1.6 million episodes, but that’s barely half of the story. Surrounding those episodes is a wealth of content, including clips, galleries, character profiles and much more, plus Programme’s newly responsive home pages. This article is a case study of the responsive rebuild of the BBC’s Programmes pages, and it actually begins back in 2007, at the conception of the project. Read more…

April 30, 2014 — As designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one. This post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for May 2014. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper! We are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. Read more…

April 29, 2014 — With Responsive Web Design becoming a convenient strategy for device-agnostic design, we keep running into annoying technical issues that all those quirky mobile browsers are raising so very often. Inconsistent CSS/JavaScript support, mobile fragmentation and complicated nuances such as device pixels, viewports, zooming, pointer/click events and the 300ms delay. To make sense of it all, we created The Mobile Web Handbook. Read more…

April 28, 2014 — You’ll be able to produce stunning work more smartly and quickly than ever before if you work with people. By sharing assets, constructing files systematically and generating objects using core techniques, the team is freed to focus on crafting concepts and solving problems. In this article, Dan Nisbet will show you how to create a stronger foundation for collaboration, even before the design process begins. He’ll also explore some techniques that are unique to Adobe Fireworks and that have the potential to transform your collaboration. Read more…