Webdesigninformer.com

Andy Budd Go to the source

In order to get more people in the design scene speaking at events like SillSwap , BarCamp and even dConstruct or UX London , I’ve been toying with the idea of organising a free public speaking course. It would be held on a yet-to-be-determined Saturday at the Clearleft offices in Brighton and would focus on practical, hands-on tuition. We would start with how to plan, research and design a talk that delights your audience, paying special attention to story telling and narrative. We would then move onto the delivery and performance side of things; teaching people how to project their voice, vary their tone, use the stage and work the audience. It’s all basic stuff, but it’s these rookie errors that can damage an otherwise excellent presentation. To ensure everybody gets the individual attention they need, the even will be for a limited number of people… Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Michael Bierut is such a down-to-earth, practical designer (and speaker) who works hard to do amazing work without the typical stigma associated with graphic designers. This practicality is clearly evident in the video above, a presentation given at CreativeMornings in New York City. And if you haven’t seen Helvetica , you need to see how his commentary really helps the movie shine. Michael’s presentation on clients is one of those “should be required viewing” kind of presentations. It’s fantastic… Read the rest here

Mezzoblue Go to the source

I’ve spent a bit of time playing around with HTML5’s canvas element lately. It’s a fun new toy and has a lot of potential to be useful. But the biggest headache I’m finding so far is the lack of authoring tools. SVG has been around for ages, whereas Canvas is still relatively new. (Mozilla’s Vladimir Vukićević has a good overview presentation of the differences between the two, and when and where to use each.) SVG support is built into plenty of graphic editing tools; Canvas support is so far sadly lacking, although Matt May pointed me to this YouTube video that shows off the upcoming Canvas support Adobe’s CS5 suite will have, whenever it becomes available… Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

As a self confirmed conference junkie I speak at a dozen events each year, and attend many more. As such I’ve probably seen close to a thousand talks over the last five years. Because of this I’ve got a pretty good idea what makes for an exciting talk and how you can guarantee your session will suck. As somebody who also organises two conferences, UX London and dConstruct I’m really keen on getting new talent into the speaking circuit while still maintaining quality. As such I’ve put together a quick guide to help both new and experienced speakers kick arse/ass. … Read the rest here

Mezzoblue Go to the source

I’ve been using Cufón off and on since writing about font embedding back in May. It’s a great hack, but browser progress since that time has been making me feel that the native CSS @font-face rule is becoming increasingly viable. Or, at least enough so that it seems like it’s time to start dabbling. Yes, I know of TypeKit . It’s a great idea and there are some solid reasons to consider using it. But I’m still interested in using the native technology from time to time, which is where we begin… Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

My first time speaking professionally in public was back in 2005 at the first An Event Apart in Philadelphia. While not my first time speaking in front of a big audience, it was the first time I had to prepare a slide deck and use Keynote. Before and after view of a slide deck. On the left, you can see the bright red used to slides that need work, as well as black and grey for title slides, and blue for quotations. Two basic rules: simple and big When I use images, I almost always use them full screen and free of distraction. Keep your title slides to a few words, then speak through the rest of the story… Read the rest here

SimpleBits Go to the source

It was a hot Summer Sunday afternoon. I’d just stepped off the Acela Express from Boston to New York City, and I was confused as ever about HTML5 . I thought I was alone. Impossible in mid-town Manhatt— no, alone in being confused about the next chapter of markup specifications. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

A compilation of resources, products, and inspiration spotted before, after, but not during knee surgery. Los Angeles Times gets a makeover A rather nice overhaul of the latimes.com site. (Here’s what it looked like in February 2008 .) Oliver Kavanagh A rather audacious, springboard-style home page that leaves me wanting to try something similar. DIY ring light with LEDs …and other DIY camera mods using LEDs. The 6 brand naming styles Josh Levine: The 6 naming styles add context so you can see the full landscape of choices… Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve been taking a bit of a break lately. But there’s some exciting stuff coming up in the not too distant future. Excuses, Excuses Despite the temptations of ever-warming weather, I had to throw most of my free time towards a new presentation for An Event Apart and @media last week, and on a gameplan for teaching in the fall. Well, that and sometimes I just don’t have much of anything to say. Rather than drop posts on here that I don’t care about, I decided to take a few weeks away from this site to recharge. … Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

Last week I had the pleasure of attending @media 2009 in London, where it has to be said, I had the best conference experience I’ve had for a long time. I prefer the more cosy nature of the event – a single track, not too large and overwhelming quantity of people, and simply great talks. I can’t pick one favourite presentation, as I came away feeling really inspired and energised by everything. It was also the last @media curated by Patrick Griffiths, who is moving on to follow other passions (from next year the conference will be in the able hands of the Web Directions Team ). I want to take this opportunity to thank Patrick for encouraging me to talk, and giving the best possible environment to do it in. … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

The first day of An Event Apart is wrapping up here in Boston. Dan is delivering his talk Implementing Design: Bulletproof A-Z which I’ve already liveblogged from a previous event so I can give my fingers a bit of rest now. The liveblogging was kind of fun. By keeping myself busy, I was able to stop myself from getting too nervous about my own talk. I’m so glad it’s over and done with now. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

If you’ve not yet signed up for next month’s HOW Design Conference in Austin, Texas, now is the time to do so. The conference organizers have been gracious enough to allow me to publicly post the handout that will be provided in my session, “Good vs. Great Design”. This 10-page summary of my presentation is something I’ve been hoping to compile for quite some time now, and HOW has finally provided the impetus for making it happen. Download good-vs-great.pdf (PDF, 588 KB) Highlights from other sessions and speakers include: Print to Web Breakthrough The Secret of Project Management for In-House Designers Keeping Creative Control with Difficult Clients Communicating Up, Down and All Around the Organization 10 Things You Didn’t Know Fonts Could Do Craft + Activism = Craftivism Studio tours (frog design, Olive Interactive Design & Marketing, others) for pre-conference attendees DJ Stout (Pentagram), Thomas Phinney (Adobe), Cynthia Rapp (Cartoon Network), Lia Braaten Hager (Proctor & Gamble), and nearly 50 other speakers Hope to see you there. … Read the rest here

Snook Go to the source

When CSS animations were first introduced in Webkit back in 2007, I expressed my concerns that CSS may not be the best place for it . Sound cool? I don’t think so. Not only does it make CSS more complicated, it makes JavaScript more complicated, too. Having actually taken some time to implement CSS animations in an example , a light bulb clicked. The way I looked at how animations were declared and in what situations you would declare them suddenly changed. … Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

The rule of thirds and ratios such as the golden section are fantastic methods for achieving designs that feel cohesive. The problem is these principles don’t really apply to web design. Golden Ratio: When the ratio between two numbers is the same as the ratio of the sum of those numbers and the larger number. Basically, a+b is to a as a is to b . Also referred to as the “divine proportion” from its frequent occurrence in nature. … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I’m back from spending a weekend in Cornwall at the inaugural Bamboo Juice conference , held in the inspiring surroundings of the Eden Project . I opened up proceedings with a talk entitled All Our Yesterdays . I know it’s the title of a Star Trek episode, but I actually had Shakespeare in mind: To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Usually my presentations follow a linear narrative but this was a rambling, self-indulgent affair. So I used a non-linear presentation tool this time; the Flash-based Prezi . You can view the presentation at prezi.com/35967 . … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

I recently received a wireframe from a potential client outlining their plans for a new homepage, which in itself was pretty impressive. It showed that the client had knowledge of the industry as well as a good understanding about the importance of planning. To produce this wireframe our prospective client had used a relatively new tool called Balsamiq, which aims to capture the sketchy nature of hand drawn wireframes with the utility of a GUI application. On the surface this seems like a really good idea and it obviously allowed the client to produce something relatively quickly with little or no prior experience. As such, I think a tool like Balsamiq does have a place in the non-professional market… Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

Last Friday I played in Coudal Partner’s Layer Tennis in a east coast vs west coast brawl with Derek Powazek , a friend and one of my favorite web designers. I thought it might be fun to give some background on the match. The view from my desk during the match. For those uninitiated with Layer Tennis, the premise is simple: two players trade a Photoshop document back and forth, each player has 15 minutes to iterate on the previous “volley” however they see fit. The matches are played live on Friday afternoons, and people follow along and comment via Twitter… Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

Last Friday I played in Coudal Partner’s Layer Tennis in a east coast vs west coast brawl with Derek Powazek , a friend and one of my favorite web designers. I thought it might be fun to give some background on the match. The view from my desk during the match. For those uninitiated with Layer Tennis, the premise is simple: two players trade a Photoshop document back and forth, each player has 15 minutes to iterate on the previous “volley” however they see fit. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

As you’re no doubts aware I’m an unabashed conference junky, so it will come as no surprise to you that I’ve spent the last couple of weeks in the States attending three such events. First up was ETech, the emerging technology conference from O’R eily. Moved from it’s spiritual home in San Diego, this year it was help in the Chino wearing capitol of Silicon Valley, San Jose. The event was much smaller than last year and the tone was somewhat downbeat. However I don’t think this was necessarily down to the economy as a lot of people were speculating. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

Each year, hundreds of assorted geeks will get the chance to speak on a panel at SXSW, many for the first time. I’ve witnesses some truly inspiring and thought provoking sessions at SXSW. However I’ve also had to sit through my share of turkeys, from the mind numbingly boring to the painfully embarrassing. So here are my top 9 ways to stop your panel sucking. Keep your introductions short and sweet… Read the rest here