Fancy CSS3 buttons that are sexy looking, flexible, and with the least amount of markup possible.

“This week we are posting 10 photoshop actions which will be very useful to produce some retro/vintage effect on your photos. I hope this freebie will make you happy.”

View Post

There are all kinds of reasons IPs get banned. A forums manager might ban an IP because the user at it is spamming. An admin of an email server might also ban IPs for spamming. A web service might ban an IP for using an API in an unapproved way.

On this site, we used to ban IP’s in the forums all the time (the new forums have been much better in spam prevention). I also sometimes ban IPs from inside WordPress. There is a setting to “blacklist” IP’s in the admin area on the Settings > Discussion page. There are few in there from spammers, and a variety of people I thought just shouldn’t come ’round here no more. In looking at this list now, some of these IP’s have been in here for years. Is that acceptable?

At the time of blockage, and IP address might belong to Danny Doucher, but after sometime, the IP address might be reassigned and now belong to Susie Supercool. I certainly wouldn’t want to punish Susie for Danny’s crimes.

So, how long should we ban IP’s for? Wikipedia, who certainly needs to deal with IP blocking on a regular basis, has a few choice words:

Most IP addresses should not be blocked more than a few hours, since the malicious user will probably move on by the time the block expires.

IP addresses should almost never be indefinitely blocked. Many IP addresses are dynamically assigned and change frequently from one person to the next, and even static IP addresses are periodically re-assigned or have different users. In cases of long-term vandalism from an IP address, consider blocks over a period of months or years instead. Long-term blocks should never be used for isolated incidents, regardless of the nature of their policy violation.

I can get on board with that. IP blocks should only last a limited time, since all IPs eventually change. Most blocks should be short, but if you experience long-term bad activity, make the ban longer. In the case of this site and WordPress, the Discussion Settings also offer a Moderation list, so you don’t actually have straight blacklist IP’s at all if you don’t want, and even if you do, you can move them from the blacklist to the moderation list after a while and be fine.

Anyone else have any theories or research to share?

An beautiful and free functioning photography web template. Normally $12 so grab it fast!

View Post

Powerpoint has produced more bad design in its day that perhaps any other digital tool in history with the possible exception of Microsoft paint.

In this post we’re going to address the epidemic of bad presentation design with ten super practical tips for designer better looking and more professional presentations. Along the way we’ll see a number of awesome slide designs from Note & Point along with some custom examples built by yours truly. Let’s get started!

Not a Designer?

Most of the content on this site is targeted specifically towards professional designers and developers, or at the very least those interested in getting started in this field. This post however, is for everyone that has ever created a presentation. Whether you’re a student, the leader of a self-help group, or a corporate executive pulling in six figures, the second you open up Powerpoint or Keynote, you become a designer whether you like it or not.

You’ve chosen a visual tool to communicate and should therefore take the time to learn a thing or two about visual communications. One of the major reasons for this, especially for people in the professional business world, is that your colleagues will subconsciously make judgements about you based on the visual appeal of your presentation.

Follow the ten tips below and see if you don’t start getting comments about your awesome presentation design skills. Just watch out, if your co-workers notice you getting good at it they’re likely to start asking for to help with theirs!

#1 Don’t Use a Built-In Theme

To illustrate this idea I opened up Powerpoint, grabbed an actual default theme at random and threw some type on it. This workflow is nearly identical to that of countless presentation designers and the result is a typical presentation slide that I’ve seen countless times throughout college and my career.

Here’s a design secret, this slide sucks; as do many of the default themes you’ll find in Powerpoint. Granted, they’ve definitely improved the offering in recent years and Keynote (Apple’s presentation software) has some awesome templates, but you shouldn’t view these as the go-to method but rather a last resort if you need to create a presentation in record time.

The point here is that something custom makes a much stronger statement. Your colleagues know and use the templates in Powerpoint and they’ll recognize immediately that you didn’t put any work into the aesthetics of the slides.

I know for non-designers leaving behind templates may seem a bit radical, but you can do it! Just be sure to read the other tips below before striking out on your own. Otherwise you might end up with something much worse that even the Microsoft designers could come up with (and that’s saying something).

#2 Use Quality Photography

Photography is one of the single best ways to make your presentation look awesome. It’s also one of the single best ways to make it lame. The “business people on white background” look is nice, but it’s overdone and tends to look a bit stock art-ish or flat out cliche.

Further, just because a picture is on a white background doesn’t mean it’s a good photo. Stop using ugly or awkward photography just to have something to put on the slide. Remember that no photo is better than a bad photo.

As an example, compare the slide above with the one below. See the difference? The image in the slide below is unique, attractive, and void of cliches. Don’t get stuck in a pattern of using cheesy stock art when you can nab free high quality photos that make a much stronger visual statement.

Finding Free Photos

Where are these amazing photos you say? For starters, check out Stock XCHNG, a free stock photography website with tons of content (good and bad). Also, did you know you can run a Flickr Search using only creative commons licensed content? These photos are free to use and many only require attribution, which can come in the form of a simple slide thrown in at the end of your presentation with a link to the photo sources.

As an example, the photo above is from Lauren Tucker, and is a Flickr Creative Commons item.

#3 Solid Colors Rock

You don’t always need a fancy photo or crazy custom background to make a presentation look professional. Using a strong palette of solid colors can make for an awesome presentation.

The slide above is a perfect example of using very plain design and little effort to create something that actually looks really nice. Whether you’re a designer or not, you could make this right?

The key here is to be very cautious about your color choice. Something too bright bright and fun will blow the audience’s eyes out. Also make sure to use plenty of contrast in your secondary color. A crash course in color theory will go a long way.

If you need help building color palettes, check out the free tools below.

Kuler

Kuler is the quintessential online color tool. Choose from thousands of awesome pre-built color schemes or generate your own with advanced but user-friendly tools.

Piknik

Piknik is one of the most basic color tools on the planet and definitely one of my favorites. Simply move your mouse around to change the color, scroll to change the luminosity and click to copy the values to your clipboard.

I use this daily when building websites to get a feel for what a color will look like when it covers the whole screen, which makes it perfect for presentation slides as well.

0to255

0to255 is another one of my favorites and is an amazing tool for finding variations of a color. This makes it perfect for hovers and borders in web design but it can also be great for finding an accent color for typography or other elements in a presentation.

#4 Typography Speaks Volumes

Non-designers frequently stress out about finding the proper typeface for a presentation, and for good reason. The right font can me make or break your presentation. Typography is a major art form in the design world and it can really set the stage for what you want to say.

Remember that typefaces can communicate a mood, a point in time, or any number of other factors. Instead of browsing your font list and looking for “something cool,” instead think about the message you want to convey.

Consider the fonts below as an example of how typography can communicate just by virtue of its design. Old style serif fonts tend to fee formal and professional while sans-serif fonts feel modern and clean.

The biggest mistake that people make with fonts in presentations is assuming that the first three font styles listed above are boring. This causes them to jump to something like the font on the bottom because it feels more unique and interesting.

If you’re not a professional designer, remember that the first three styles above aren’t boring, they’re safe. They’re great looking typefaces that have been professionally designed to make you look good and that’s exactly what they do.

Never be afraid of standard-looking fonts. Using them can help ensure that your design remains inside the realm of clean and professional and away from cluttered and ugly. Notice how the slide below uses relatively “boring” fonts but varies the size and weight to add visual interest and create something that is ultimately quite non-boring.

The Trick to Using Fun Fonts

Now, to take that frown off your face I will say that you don’t have to avoid cool fonts 100% of the time. There is a time and a place to throw in something fun, just know that you should use these types of fonts wisely and springily.

As the image above illustrates, one great trick for using crazy fonts is to only implement them in a headline while leaving the rest of the text plain. When you have too much of a complicated font or start mixing complex styles, what you get is an impossible to read mess. Above we’ve left most of our messaging in a typeface that you can actually read while still bringing plenty of awesomeness to the page with the headline.

#5 Watch Your Readability

While we’re on the subject of typography, you should always be aware of how readable the type is in your presentations. Sometimes the amazing photography tip from #2 will leave you in a situation like the one below.

Here we have a really captivating image, but it’s wreaking havoc on the readability of our text. Even if we make the text bold and try different color variations, it still comes up short. This can be immensely frustrating to new designers.

The solution however is quite simple: use tip #3 (solid colors rock). By creating a simple color bar behind the text we increase the readability by leaps and bounds and still maintain a stylish looking slide.

This is an extremely common tactic carried out in a number of different ways. Check out the examples below for some inspiration.

Skinny Bar Fat Bar Paper Scraps Hey Where Are Tips 6-10!?

This topic quickly got out of hand so I decided to break it up into two posts. Check back next week for the next five awesome tips for better presentation design!

In the mean time, this gives you a chance to get featured in part 2! Leave a comment below with a link to a presentation that you’ve built if I like it enough I’ll include it as an example.

Sharing is awesome. Paste this handy snippet into Twitter or Facebook to share the article with your friends:
10 Tips for Designing Presentations That Don’t Suck: Pt.1 http://ow.ly/2yHlB

  

The business of building websites is one of constant change, adaptation and strategy. The way designers and developers build websites is often informed by the methods of others and their own trial and error. In light of this, we can draw a number of parallels — some philosophical, to a certain extent — between Web professionals and one of the oldest and most popular board games of all time (counting traditional and digital games). This game is chess.

In this article, we’ll explore the relationship between the game of chess and the Web industry. We’ll learn fundamental lessons from the pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen and king, and we’ll highlight the factors — both offline and online — that determine best practices. The game is beloved by many professionals, so it seems fitting to apply its great strategy and elegance to the digital age; certain practices might help you lead a more successful working life.

An interesting and unique site that uses full screen graphics that pan around as you move your mouse.

The navigation can be a bit frustrating but much of the work on display is quite attractive.

This design was featured on the 3rd September 2010 . It falls under the category of Portfolio, and has a layout style of Other.

If you'd like, you can visit this site, or view all our other featured designs.

For the record is an interesting site that features attractive infographics mostly built with CSS3.

I like the retro feel in conjunction with simple shapes and bright colors. The combination really comes together to complete the overall feeling of the design.

This design was featured on the 3rd September 2010 . It falls under the category of Music, and has a layout style of Other.

If you'd like, you can visit this site, or view all our other featured designs.

A descriptive list and breakdown of the top 15 Web Design companies on the web today.

A fast and compact JavaScript framework with simple syntax conventions and out of the box support for common UI interfaces.

Creating a conceptual logo with a powerful hidden message is more vital than making a fancy logo design. Here are 35 exceptionally creative logos that have a hidden message within them.

Everybody wants to use CSS 3 now that even Internet Explorer will support parts of it once IE 9 is out. But since parts of CSS 3 are still subject to change, most browsers use a vendor prefix for many CSS 3 properties to signal that their implemenation is “experimental” and may change in a later version of the browser.

This means that for a property like border-radius to work cross-browser you need to specify it several times with different vendor prefixes, like this:

1. .box {
2. -moz-border-radius:10px;
3. -webkit-border-radius:10px;
4. border-radius:10px;
5. }

Read full post

Posted in Browsers, CSS.

One of the most important thing when developing websites is page loading speed, to load as quickly as possible, especially in the case of large websites.

These are way above and beyond the level of any other “CSS3 buttons” I’ve seen. Multiple backgrounds combining gradients and images, uneven border-radius, pseudo elements, HSL coloring, @font-face icons, transitions, box shadows, text shadows, hover and active states… the list goes on. Every trick in the book masterfully employed.

They make my button maker look dull and flat.

Direct Link to Article — Permalink

“In this post I would like to share my favorite 20 (freely available) ebooks with you.”

View Post

“Want to increase your website’s conversion rate? Want more subscribers, opt-ins, members, customers? How about doing less work while you’re at it?”

View Post

“Awesome jQuery plugins are popping up everyday, and we’re always on the look out. So for this post, I’ve gathered 10 fresh plugins that you should find very useful.”

View Post

I saw that Andy Clarke had added a fluid width YouTube video to a particular page on one of his sites. His code relies upon a wrapping div and then images and video within this wrapper are set to the width of the wrapper:

.img img, .img object, img embed { width: 100%; }

I love the idea. It’s essentially the classic technique for dealing with images in fluid width designs. Andy’s code sets max-width to 100% here too, but since the width is already 100% that doesn’t matter. Max-width works best by itself. So it can scale down images which could be larger than the wrapper, but not scale them up if they are smaller. For video, scaling up is probably fine. I’d suggest this change:

.img img { max-width: 100%; } .img object, .img embed { width: 100%; }

That will scales images only down if needed, and videos up or down.

Keeping Aspect Ratios

With images, as long as there isn’t an inline “height” setting, the aspect radio will be maintained in a fluid width environment even when you only alter the width. With video (flash or otherwise) this is not the case. If we want to maintain aspect ratio while the video grows and shrinks in width, we’re going to need JavaScript.

Example YouTube Provided Code:

<object width="640" height="385"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EWsWFjO9MlE?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/EWsWFjO9MlE?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed> </object>

This is the plan:

1. Find original aspect ratio by dividing original height by width
2. When window is resized…
3. Measure width of parent
4. Set width of video to width of parent
5. Set height of video to width multiplied by aspect ratio
6. Trigger a fake resize on pageload to ensure video fits right away

Here, we’re using jQuery. Take note that we are target both the class name of .youtube and the embed within that class name. This is presupposing that we are adding a classname of .youtube to the object in the copy-and-paste code YouTube provides. Feel free to adjust the selectors as you wish. You may wish to target all objects themselves, or use a special wrapper. Here we’re using the #page-wrap of all the content to measure width.

<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4/jquery.min.js'></script> <script> var $origVideo = $(".youtube, .youtube embed"); var aspectRatio = $origVideo.attr("height") / $origVideo.attr("width"); $(window).resize(function() { var wrapWidth = $("#page-wrap").width(); $origVideo .width(wrapWidth) .height(wrapWidth * aspectRatio); }).trigger("resize"); </script>

Also of note here is that we are targeting the <object>s and the <embed>s within them with this JavaScript. Targeting the objects alone will work in modern browsers. Including the embed is fine for modern browsers and makes it work with Internet Explorer as well.

Bonus Trick

You can get rounded corners on your YouTube videos! The only luck I’ve had so far is in Google Chrome (7.0.503.0 dev).

1. Add this param to your embed (within the object) <embed wmode="opaque" ...
2. Then you can add border radius to the objectobject { border-radius: 10px; }

Credit to ubahnverleih on Forrst for the idea.

Demo & Download

View Demo   Download Files

UR DOIN IT WRG

This worked in all browsers I tried, including Internet Explorer (tested 7 & 8), but not Opera. The best I can tell is that Opera respects in the inline width and height attributes over those set via inline styling. If anyone knows of a way to fix that, or if you think my whole method here is stupid and you have something better, please let me know and I’ll update things here.

HTML, CSS, and Javascript from the Ground Up. Learn the basics of how UIs are created on the web and brush up on outdated UI development knowledge.

The new Kindle has a lot going for it. It’s inexpensive compared to a full-featured tablet computer like the iPad; you can slip it in your back pocket, where it’s more comfortable than an old-style paperback; and it includes a Webkit browser. This last point is where folks like us start to give a hoot, whether we’re fans of epub reading or not.

The flavor of Kindle’s browser concerns us because it affords us the ability to optimize the mobile viewing experience with a single line of markup. You can see this in action in the photo at the head of this article (published and discussed on Flickr).

I made no tweaks for Kindle per se; the Kindle is simply responding to a line of markup I’ve been putting into my web pages since 2007—namely, the viewport meta element, which controls the width of the viewport, thus enabling mobile devices with a limited number of pixels to focus all available pixels on your site’s core content (instead of, for instance, wasting part of the small screen on a background color, image, or gradient). The technique is as simple as web design gets:

meta name="viewport" content="width=770"

(Obviously, the value of “width” should be adjusted to match your site’s layout.)

I learned this little trick from Craig Hockenberry’s Put Your Content in My Pocket (A List Apart, August 28, 2007), which I naturally recommend to any designer who hasn’t seen it.