Background image strategies: Crash course.

Thanks, Elliot Jay Stocks, for a great write up on picking and massaging background images. Great for developers gone designer, or any other visual layout newbies. The other 24 Ways to impress your friends are definitely going on my ‘to learn’ list as well.

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Great UI/UX resource:

SURL, or Software Usability Research Lab at Wichita State University publishes their easy-to-read and well-reseached studies here. Great source for tips and principles when you’re planning site styles.  I liked the info on the influence of the typeface on the perception of a resume or a company website, and the top 10 shopping cart design [...]

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Markup your personal relationships with XFN

Today I learned how XFN defines:

muse
Someone who brings you inspiration. No inverse.

…and that XFN (X(HTML) Friend’s Network) isn’t just another cheeky web thing, but based on a one of the best descriptions of the web I’ve seen (from the father of the web himself, no less):
The web is more a social creation than a technical [...]

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How I got my background image to stretch:

from htmllite.
I’m pretty sure that the answer to every CSS problem is to add a wrapper around the whole “problem” and then control it from that outer layer. Works pretty darn well.

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SEO Bonanza.

Recently, I started research on SEO techniques. I was already late.
I had thought that SEO tasks would mainly be tweeks to an existing site, little optimizations. I’ve learned that SEO is actually, mainly, a pre-design and in-design task.
I started with Search Engine Visibility, which I’d recommend as a short and sweet foundation.
The best [...]

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More on the Rounded boxes:

Circtangles — TheManInBlue’s javascript sandbox of the CSS border-radius command. Sweet!
JQuery Corners — Since we’re doing javascript for rounded corners, why not go all the way?

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A Sing-Along Blog?

I’m all for it. Starts on a computer near you, July 15th. And OMG, it’s Neal Patrick Harris, even.

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Firebug is my new BFF

Get it here!
Not only can you see DOM elements, CSS, scripts and HTML, you can turn elements on and off and even change their values. There’s no better way to see how all the tiny little line items add up to what you see on the page. And I would wager that until you understand [...]

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Difference between a div and a span:

From About.com

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Turns out rounded corners are a real pain in the B*tt.

I tried, but it wasn’t worth it afterall.
Some of the better resources I found along the way:
Simple::Straight-forward Approach to Rounded Corners

Fancier::25 Rounded Corner Tricks
Goin’ Towards Messed Up::“Sliding Doors” Box– Rounded Corners

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