LordElph's Ramblings » Web Design http://blog.dixo.net Stuff and nonsense about software development and whatever else I find fun... Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:04:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Silk icons for web apps http://blog.dixo.net/2007/10/10/silk-icons-for-web-apps/ http://blog.dixo.net/2007/10/10/silk-icons-for-web-apps/#comments Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:18:43 +0000 lordelph http://blog.dixo.net/2007/10/10/silk-icons-for-web-apps/ IconsThe free Silk icon set from famfamfam.com is very useful for giving even the most mundane of web pages a little polish. With over 700 icons you’d think you’d have one for every occasion, right? Wrong! Or so says Damien Guard, who is releasing a companion set of 400+ icons in the same style as the original.

Nice work, will look forward to seeing them!

(20th Nov 2007: the new icon set is now available!)

]]> http://blog.dixo.net/2007/10/10/silk-icons-for-web-apps/feed/ 1 Safari on Windows http://blog.dixo.net/2007/06/11/safari-on-windows/ http://blog.dixo.net/2007/06/11/safari-on-windows/#comments Mon, 11 Jun 2007 20:37:01 +0000 lordelph http://blog.dixo.net/2007/06/11/safari-on-windows/ Well how about that?

The browser wars are back. But this time round, everybody wins!

]]> http://blog.dixo.net/2007/06/11/safari-on-windows/feed/ 1 Notes on Geograph’s Redesign, Part 1 http://blog.dixo.net/2007/04/02/notes-on-geographs-redesign-part-1/ http://blog.dixo.net/2007/04/02/notes-on-geographs-redesign-part-1/#comments Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:38:53 +0000 lordelph http://blog.dixo.net/2007/04/02/notes-on-geographs-redesign-part-1/ Front pageAs the OS liked the design draft I posted here a few days ago, I’m refining it further as a complete freshen up of the design. First up, here’s a slight refinement of the front page. Tried a little colour in the headings and made an attempt to make the lower half of the page look more organised. Not sure if those green headings work though…

Photo viewer, blackNext up, here’s some treatments for the photo viewing page. This attempts to simplify and organise the links we have on the photo pages, as well as make the black/white/grey backgrounds work a little better into the design. Here’s a version with a white photo background.

]]> http://blog.dixo.net/2007/04/02/notes-on-geographs-redesign-part-1/feed/ 6 Geograph Redesign, Take Two http://blog.dixo.net/2007/03/30/geograph-redesign-take-two/ http://blog.dixo.net/2007/03/30/geograph-redesign-take-two/#comments Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:20:25 +0000 lordelph http://blog.dixo.net/2007/03/30/geograph-redesign-take-two/ I played around with an idea for new geograph design last year, but as the Ordnance Survey would like a revised design for schools use, I’ve dusted it off and worked on it some more…(click for bigness)

New design

I wanted to get all the important stuff above the fold, so we have the coverage map / entry point, a featured image, and the one-liner mission statement with an image count and call-to-action.

I’ve also dropped the use of Georgia as a body text font – while I think it gives the site a distinctive look, it does look poor at smaller point sizes, and it has caused the odd complaint.

Once that lot has tempted you to explore, the site guide gives you all the main entry points to get you started. As before, we feature recent news but give it a little more prominence centre stage. Finally, it’s time we highlighted the vibrance of the forums by linking to popular threads from the front page (at the same time we’ll most likely drop the need to register to view them – only to post).

Comments are more than welcome…

]]> http://blog.dixo.net/2007/03/30/geograph-redesign-take-two/feed/ 5 Stop Hacking CSS http://blog.dixo.net/2006/04/25/stop-hacking-css/ http://blog.dixo.net/2006/04/25/stop-hacking-css/#comments Tue, 25 Apr 2006 08:00:09 +0000 lordelph http://blog.dixo.net/2006/04/25/stop-hacking-css/ David Shea (the CSS Zen Gardener) urges web designers to stop CSS hacking or be stopped. Nice article from the fledgling Vitamin website.

CSS Zen Garden inspired me to try and do a better job of CSS and semantic markup, I’m hoping to find enough time to make Geograph a whole lot better in that area too. One thing David’s article mentions is the difficulty of testing, but I find the BrowserCam service invaluable. Not only can it take screen captures of a page on many different OS/browser combinations, you can also remotely access some systems via VNC to play with your site for real. Easier than maintaining your own virtual machines or real test kit!

]]> http://blog.dixo.net/2006/04/25/stop-hacking-css/feed/ 0 Web designer position in Huddersfield anyone? http://blog.dixo.net/2006/04/12/web-designer-position-in-huddersfield-anyone/ http://blog.dixo.net/2006/04/12/web-designer-position-in-huddersfield-anyone/#comments Wed, 12 Apr 2006 20:12:24 +0000 lordelph http://blog.dixo.net/2006/04/12/web-designer-position-in-huddersfield-anyone/ A long shot, but my 8-month-pregnant friend Clare Quartermaine runs QT Creative, web design and marketing company in Huddersfield, and one of her HTML/Flash designers is leaving in 4 weeks.

If you read this, and know someone in the Huddersfield area with HTML, CSS, Flash skills, and maybe a smattering of basic PHP and Javascript, starting salary around the £18K+ mark depending on experience, then do get in touch (info at qtdm.co.uk)

]]> http://blog.dixo.net/2006/04/12/web-designer-position-in-huddersfield-anyone/feed/ 0 The Zen of CSS Design http://blog.dixo.net/2006/04/10/the-zen-of-css-design/ http://blog.dixo.net/2006/04/10/the-zen-of-css-design/#comments Mon, 10 Apr 2006 16:05:08 +0000 lordelph http://blog.dixo.net/2006/04/10/the-zen-of-css-design/ The CSS Zen Garden site is a fantastic demonstration of what CSS can do. A few days ago I found myself with a few hours to kill while waiting for my car to be repaired, and while browsing a bookshop came across a book about the site – The Zen of CSS Design

The book takes a selection of Zen Garden designs from a variety of designers, and walks through the process they took while covering any neat CSS tricks that were pulled off to achieve the end result.

It’s a pleasure to read, with a nice layout and feel to it, and chock full of useful followup links on the techniques demonstrated. Highly recommended!

Yet another of my never-ending side projects for Geograph has been reworking the UI, and I’m hoping to ensure the XHTML has enough “hooks” to enable other designer to easily come up with alternative stylesheets.

Anyway, here’s my current effort so far.

Geograph Design

Web-2.0-a-licious, no?

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