A Baseline for Front-End Developers 12 Apr 2012 edit I wrote a README the other day for a project that I'm hoping other developers will look at and learn from, and as I was writing it, I realized that it was the sort of thing that might have intimidated the hell out of me a couple of years ago, what with its casual mentions of Node, npm, Homebrew, git, tests, and development and production builds. Once upon a time, editing files, testing them locally (as best as we could, anyway), and then FTPing them to the server was the essential workflow of a front-end dev. We measured our mettle based on our ability to wrangle IE6 into submission or achieve pixel perfection across browsers. Something has changed in the last couple of years. Whatever it is, I think we're seeing the emphasis shift from valuing trivia to valuing tools. Here are a few things that I want to start expecting people to be familiar with, along with some resources you can use if you feel like you need to get up to speed. JavaScript Git (and a Github account)
Stripemania - Striped background generator How to Create Your First Web Page Using HTML and CSS Note: If you know anything at all about HTML and CSS, don’t bother reading this, it’s a guide for the uninitiated, technophobes, luddites, computer-illiterates, anyone who is more comfortable with a pen and paper than a keyboard and mouse. If making a web page seems like brain surgery to you, then this is the article for you. What you need to know The only prior knowledge I will assume is that you’ve used a computer before, you’re familiar with using a keyboard and a word processor, and you’ve at least seen a website. The Basics When you visit a website (for example the one you’re reading now), you see a page in your web browser (the program you use to access the internet) , containing text, images and maybe some other things like videos, music etc. In order to display a page correctly, the web browser needs to know about the structure of the page, e.g. What HTML Looks Like HTML uses ‘tags’ to identify different parts of a page. Getting Started Next, the page must contain a HEAD section.
50 Useful Coding Techniques (CSS Layouts, Visual Effects and For Advertisement Although CSS is generally considered a simple and straightforward language, sometimes it requires creativity, skill and a bit of experimentation. The good news is that designers and developers worldwide often face similar problems and choose to share their insights and workarounds with the wider community. This is where we come in. We are always looking to collect such articles for our posts so that we can deliver the most useful and relevant content to our readers. You may want to look at similar CSS-related posts that we published last months: CSS Layouts: Techniques And Workarounds Facebook Style Footer Admin Panel4Learn how to re-create the Facebook footer admin panel with CSS and jQuery. Adaptable View: How Do They Do It? Easy Display Switch with CSS and jQuery9A quick and simple way to enable users to switch page layouts using CSS and jQuery. One Page Résumé Site13A clean layout on one page—literally (just one index.html file with optional images).
15 Design Tips to Learn From Apple There is no shortage of companies that follow popular design trends to appeal to a mass market. Much more rare is the breed of company that actually sets design trends. Today we’ll examine the techniques of a company that occupies the top of the design food chain: Apple. Below you’ll find 15 practical ways to follow Apple’s example in creating beautiful interfaces. #1: Keep it Simple Take a look at Apple’s homepage and don’t think about what you see, but what you don’t see. Apple’s homepage simply shows off their most recent work and provides you with a few easily understood categories to help you get to the information you want to see. Imagine you’re driving up to an airport. Apple takes the same approach to interface design. #2: Use Amazing Product Shots One of Apple’s principle reasons for cutting back on superfluous graphics on their site is to really showcase what’s important: their products. There are several things that make these products look so incredible. #3: Contrast is Key
20 Methods for Upping Your Current Web Design Skills Design All great designers are constantly improving their skills. There has never been a successful designer, or anyone of another profession for that matter, that has stopped at a certain point and said, "Good enough". Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to always be learning new things, and to always be improving. In this post we're looking into 20 different ways a web designer can improve their skills at any time. 20 Great Improvement Methods 1. Check out websites like UI-Patterns.com to explore the best user interface patterns for the web. User Interface Pattern Websites: 2. Look at the detail in everyday objects, and actively look at detail in other web designs. 3. Many clients love a designer that offers SEO services. 4. Trends are never something a web designer should solely rely on, but learning new trends is a great way to keep up with technology, and to keep you as a designer out of a rut. 5. 6. Image credit: Dey 7. 8. 9. Image credit: Jakob Montrasio 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.
Test Your Site Multi-Screen Resources Skip to content Make Your Website Work Across Multiple Devices Build a website that showcases your business on every screen from smartphones and tablets to computers and TVs. Your customers expect a great browsing experience regardless of what device they use. Whitepaper Building websites for the multi-screen consumer Learn about the most typical structures for multi-screen websites, with tips on how to create a great user experience and avoid some of the more common mistakes. Learn more. Case Study American Cancer Society mobilizes 7,000 web pages in one quarter The Society increased mobile visits by 250% and trippled mobile donations with a smart content strategy and deep understanding of visitor needs. Read more. Case Study Baines & Ernst’s new site increase mobile conversions Baines & Ernst launched a Responsively Designed Site. Read more. Case Study Beyond the Rack’s mobile conversion rate doubles Read more. Case Study Plusnet sees traffic grow 2x and sales 10x Read more.
Basic JavaScript | Java Script programming tutorial Path // → → BASIC JAVASCRIPT JavaScript is a very easy way to add all sorts of dynamic elements to your site. Unless you've had some programming experience, JavaScript will be quite a new concept at the start — it's fairly different to HTML. In this tutorial we'll be laying some groundwork on the language, and writing our first script. This page was last updated on 2012-08-21 What is JavaScript? JavaScript is a simple scripting language invented specifically for use in web browsers to make websites more dynamic. JavaScript is a client-side language, which means all the action occurs on the client's (reader's) side of things. JavaScripts are integrated into the browsing environment, which means they can get information about the browser and HTML page, and modify this information, thus changing how things are presented on your screen. Most importantly, JavaScript isn't overly tough to learn and use. Browser Compatibility Note: The Java Connection compiled first. Versions The DOM Implementation
100+ Useful Bookmarklets For Better Productivity | Ultimate List In a nutshell, bookmarklets are small little applications you can place as browser’s bookmark bar and they each perform a specific function, depending on what they are coded for. Bookmarklets are usually written in Javascript and they are extremely easy to install/remove. Bookmarklets work in most common used browsers like Firefox, Opera and Safari but probably lesser support in Internet Explorer. In this article, we’ll show you some of the most useful bookmarklets for designers, developers or even if you are a net surfer, they might just come in handy. Installing a bookmarklet is simple – all you need to do is drag them to your bookmark toolbar, that’s all. Why bookmarklet are cool? They are efficient! Hassle-less installation – Installing a bookmarklet is simple. Social Bookmarking and Sharing Here are a bunch of social bookmarking bookmarklets that might come in handy: Browser resize Here’s a complete article of browser resizing bookmarklets with positioning capability. Design and Develop