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As a web developer, you’re probably among the earliest adopters of new browser technologies. Google’s relatively new Chrome browser is one of those products that developers jumped all over as soon as it became available, but its initial lack of extensions was a dealbreaker for many.

Now extensions are supported in Chrome and some of the tools you’re accustomed to using in Firefox have become available, plus a few unique to Chrome. We’ve compiled a list of ten of the most useful Chrome extensions for web developers right here; if you use these extensions, you might even be able to make Chrome your main workhorse. Maybe!

Look at the list and give it a try — and if there are any great ones that we missed, be sure and share them with us and the other readers in the comments.

1. Firebug Lite

Arguably the most popular Firefox extension for web developers, Firebug lets you look at and edit the HTML, CSS and JavaScript of any page on the fly without leaving your browser. Firebug Lite is a scaled-down version of Firebug made for Chrome. You can inspect a page for errors then quickly edit to fix them.

Though Firebug Lite doesn’t have all the same features as Firebug, it has most of the essentials, and there’s a console interface for power users.

2. IE Tab

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser is not at all popular with web developers, but it’s by far the most popular browser for the general population. With IE Tab you can open any website in a tab that’s actually running Internet Explorer instead of Chrome. You can make sure your website runs correctly for those millions of people who aren’t using Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or Opera.

3. Eye Dropper

With EyeDropper, you can find useful information on any color on a website you’re viewing in Chrome. Click the extension button and a color wheel interface drops down. From there, you can click the color picker button, then click anywhere on the site to see where the color for that pixel falls in the wheel, what its RGB levels are, and what its HTML color code is.

4. Chrome SEO

Tapping the Chrome SEO button after the extension has been installed will give you website information that’s important for search engine optimization. You can check backlinks, traffic measures like the Alexa Rank and Google PageRank, popularity on social bookmarking sites like Delicious, and more.

5. Lorem Ipsum Generator

The Lorem Ipsum Generator extension will generate filler text for your websites so you can make sure your formatting works well without wasting time typing several paragraphs of text. This extension is lightweight and minimalistic, so it’s easy to use and it won’t take up a lot of memory. That means it’s easy to pop in and out of as needed.

6. Resolution Test

Resolution Test’s purpose is right there in the name — it re-sizes the browser window to show what your website will look like at various popular screen resolutions. As a web developer, you probably have a very high-resolution display. Good for you! But most of the visitors to your site don’t; this extension will help you make sure the site’s formatting looks ok to them.

7. Speed Tracer

Speed Tracer uses the browser’s built-in metrics tools to record how much time your web application is spending on various tasks so you can find out what the hang-up is if your site is running slowly. It can tell you how much time the browser is spending interpreting layout, Javascript, and other details.

The only downside to this useful tool is that for it to work, you have to run the browser with the command line flag “–enable-extension-timeline-api.” But if you’re a developer, that’s probably not a big issue, right?

8. MeasureIt!

MeasureIt! is pretty straightforward — it gives you the dimensions (pixel width and height) of any element present in a website you’re looking at. Like a lot of the other extensions on this list, it was previously available for Firefox.

9. Pendule

Pendule pops up an easy-to-use, well-laid-out control panel full of miscellaneous tasks helpful to developers. Examples include reloading or disabling CSS, viewing JavaScript scripts, hiding images, a color picker, a display ruler, viewing source, and several script validators. It works well as your basic, catch-all web developer’s extension.

10. BuiltWith

BuiltWith gives you a profile of the website you’re hanging out at, including a list of all the technologies it can find there. It will tell you what widgets the site is using, which analytics tracker the webmaster is using, which frameworks are present, which advertising platforms are in use, and so on.

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Reviews: Chrome, Delicious, Firefox, Google, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari

Tags: development, extensions, Google, google chrome, rackspace, web development series

Chrome: We love Gina's Better Gmail Firefox extension, a bundle of user scripts that improves the Gmail experience. Now that Google's beefed up support for Chrome extensions, reader Dimitar Gruev has taken a shot at bringing an unofficial Better Gmail to Chrome.

Almost a year ago our own How-To Geek put together a version of Better Gmail for Chrome, but that was way back when Chrome didn't even have extensions (his were all bundled into a single user script). This new Chrome extension is an unofficial Better Gmail for Chrome that was inspired by Gina's Firefox extension and our earlier Better Gmail for Chrome bag o'scripts.

Once installed, access Better Gmail's options by clicking the wrench -> Extensions -> Better Gmail Options. Tick the boxes of the features you want activated and you're good to go. You can choose to hide little used fields like "Invite Friends," remove ads, show the number of unread emails in the favicon, and more.

Gruev says future versions of Better Gmail will hide spam count, move to next message on delete or archive, and include support for POP3 email. A big round of applause goes to Gruev for putting this together. What kinds of features do you hope for in future versions of Better Gmail? Share your ideas in the comments.

Better Gmail for Chrome [Chrome Extensions Gallery]

Lisa Hoover08721408516924715310143248376305971004930477246881236483339700178447321323565259055404500013015998680634475683170588018212610159215944925910019584825058100415511817201817159406829006095992534378420213118896076887185567700073850559515898361911170130688549419355068907168518219423800472587851891112859815578170896299901778075411825932075200180680911879862222341817888598307044077893016499727350088057960181716316897560800304677147694927755839146560998623333745710955609908442136496403071964743688776999177965624421748299531522539732168659692117543291858960396508096335205466133776071330328428596757132009383057214070800364082850004892742712341147835880665495681308843031957409642206054386959281853714630239433651449249338115213625333717830523076060142873182630131352338644703871128612564530915931524937023525993990673632190863023077776382814105901874963049303938121280808522813833721141089305322088789409572201056443485598025765355528577737801129673393469378064517291469013351179187148385925576233152460548438635862868222117907866350354389867184299315864815317641262908893135848379208634806355076514413044338094182916398450160957292718673721418028649285878871865068358739291070732120108915467384795119001780332854091776138056053878568756407431801500639401770055201452256926808458034083662242541417704910197748062328890426703545668826444399061012592544963147637790578969807798518371807077425834492744993151237634645152203080270964186280840030000043048931938258391149568681342505347471817510930595802210208121377861212694153135315360265139706770944372770295074945707233628527458574872056460312830612443810438908869080175772811297493716790246428149155765787537205850774356440763868567510262891496885273077100784656369702730200830505249992951446909524223078735546816009021622180919211940256179711314031988002414971998920373718147733287036316492031373587117931475258406443521309186264445054979574088097861530998086828698152962505466452867217087822162723682060339956510791148841813475411001371973917415297102

Next time you inadvertently ding or bruise a piece of beloved wooden furniture, head to your pantry. According to all-things-home blog Apartment Therapy, all you need to cover up that ding is a single walnut.

The folks at Apartment Therapy know a thing or two about making an almost-perfect piece of furniture perfect, and according to them, a walnut—under the right circumstances—can buff out a ding in vintage wooden furniture with the best of 'em. The simple method, in, *ahem*, a nutshell:

1. Identify areas of your wooden furniture that are unsightly because they have been bumped or scraped.

2. Get your walnut.

3. Rub the walnut on the damaged area.

4. Watch in amazement as the damaged area begins to darken.

5. Step back and admire your work. Hey, you didn't even break a sweat!

Ever tried this yourself, or have a better method? Let's hear about it in the comments.

How To Cover Up Dings in Wooden Furniture [Apartment Therapy]

Adam Pash07750738591325512619159856647743921874251562880524450863348606562517447146392898060400840384404297880562318475319903027706641971179773570645131950800001004542280167135598982485224902594654150562014152027652818611156068140634475683170588018213587985847209488520180813816632661940290012620739583344400901764978357855875487126101592159449259100153855353898186722313677070350147727897106792869818198412830368499051673684117110535748387749822791028377116963635241930210659914740283230711977828674059583642077927312567480173480231471141796807983816664260317709228043060473955227715688840584195842504269160308124241349828494034108721405203091836970867949679747983501413771761916064829826175370607686890281881543729826386063217213567648622507188795044693947334444315660324084837372084718706660520556448643940089685710446502549551840362551788589075116867925579858436231112781908281396955011702255226757653921416845911819953017431137837865262021102240795355323605288948909190700126814797647068909510670911182750277607029397557827103916466752657772922078464076569614117390770346481565733317205759768145742197609119648715831229347890855086978706127958312390966758509260288024455300535659325901778813528353474530904540909001915200327055238912621105313851040531345714156040902638159892981276468081788624637804430500164997273500880579615571765261736288678076835368379646783991122446618116183918209581140484768628068080040614183197594931532307009292791788504901569521241429899008361738630898441171696282490460176034705431405511310341009078715366816449953560256639903153357051006734794180786167740121487475990444177410649706208319093605014939757711848389942127663408553801250690898258147762991397706456394325147907220162459123487024884100796691213284444734605329517304802915906073193778567323386071754329185896039650812567492979535017278108124068014486852270473386641734406119413093015677850134697085876242187370125421038811041774430799603870846693843269396102332087577608246440852969472268152887413949945115150848372

No matter which version of Windows you use, you will find your PC slowing down after a few months of regular use. This holds true for the latest incarnation as well – Windows 7. There are several third-party utilities that optimize Windows, but it is not safe to run system programs from unknown developers.

In this guide, we will cover speeding up windows 7 and how to optimize your Windows 7 PC or Laptop in a safe manner. These steps do not involve any “hacks”, so you can safely use them without harming your system in any way.

#1: Remove Unused Programs & Windows Features

When you buy a PC or laptop, it usually comes pre-installed with a lot of demo-ware, trial-ware, try-before-you-buy kind of software. If you like to play with new applications all the time, you might have yourself installed software downloaded from the Internet. Each program installed on your computer uses system resources that you are wasting if you don’t really need the software. Remove and uninstall all software that you no longer need from Control Panel –> Programs –> Uninstall a program. Also see How to Uninstall Applications Efficiently and Remove Obsolete Files.

Also, from Control Panel > Programs –> Turn Windows features on or off, uncheck any Windows features you don’t need.

#2: Review Startup Programs

The most common cause of slowdown are programs that automatically run when Windows starts and keep running in the background consuming precious system memory.

The simplest way to detect which programs are running when you start Windows is to check the notification area on the taskbar. Click the up arrow to show hidden icons. Uninstall any programs you don’t need, or disable the option within that program to start it automatically.

A better way to review startup programs is to use the System Configuration utility. From the Start menu, enter msconfig in the search box and start it from the search result. In this utility, click the Startup tab and review each entry. If you see entries of programs you don’t need, uncheck the box to disable that application from running at startup. Note : this does not uninstall applications from your system, it only disables them from automatically running at startup.

Advanced users should use the free Autoruns for Windows utility from the Microsoft website. This is the most comprehensive monitor of all kinds of startup programs and services you will ever need.

#3: Adjust Visual Effects

A pretty Windows is not the fastest Windows. You can adjust visual effects to get better performance from your system. In Control Panel, search for Performance and select Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows from the System category in the results.

In the popup window, you can choose the Adjust for best performance option or make a custom selection of which visual effects you need.

#4: Adjust Indexing Options

Windows continuously indexes drives and locations where it thinks you search for your files, including all folders in Libraries. You should tweak these settings so that Windows only indexes those locations where you actually search frequently. In Control Panel, search for Indexing and select Indexing Options. Click Modify.

In the popup dialog, click Show all locations if enabled. Now, clear the check box for those locations where you rarely search, and click OK.

#5: Adjust Power Settings

The default power management setting in Windows 7 is Balanced, conserving power at the cost of performance. If you are not concerned with battery usage and power consumption and more concerned with speeding up Windows 7, you can change the setting for maximum performance. In Control Panel, go to Power Options.

Click the down arrow to Show additional plans, and select the High performance power plan.

#6: Disable Sounds

You can disable unwanted Windows sounds to squeeze more performance. Go to Control Panel –> Hardware and Sound –> Change system sounds. In the Sound Scheme drop down, choose No Sounds, uncheck Play Windows Startup sound and click OK.

#7: Tweak Windows Services

This step is for advanced users. Windows Services run in the background and provide critical Operating System functions for your computer. However, most users don’t need all the Services that run by default. Since each running Service consumes system resources, tweaking the default settings for which Services run automatically at startup helps with speeding up windows 7. You can view and modify these settings by entering services.msc in the Start –> Search box.

Each Service can be set to Automatic (auto-start at boot), Manual (start when needed), or Disabled (cannot start). Which Service settings should you change? An excellent trustworthy reference guide is provided by “Black Viper”. Use the Safe configuration in which settings for 19 services have been changed from their default state. If you know what you’re doing, you can use settings from the Tweaked configuration for maximum benefit.

#8: Other Tips To Improve Performance

Apart from the above, the following tips also help improve Windows 7 performance:

• Use ReadyBoost as explained in #7 of 12 More Windows 7 Tips & Hacks.
• Use CCleaner as described in Freeware to Speedup Your Computer.
• Use a good Anti-Virus program like Microsoft Security Essentials.
• Restart Windows 7 at least once a week.
• Do not change the default disk defragmentation auto-run schedule.

These tips cover all the essentials you need to know to speed up Windows 7. There is no need to install any third-party utilities that tweak Windows 7, especially as most of them are not officially supported by Microsoft. Do you have other tips to speed up Windows 7? Share them with us in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Related posts

• (23)Your Easy Guide to Windows 7 Themes
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• (14)WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows Computer (Part 2)
• (94)Windows 7 Libraries Explained – And Why You Want Them
• (14)Vista Switcher – Replace Windows’ Alt-Tab With Something Cooler

Windows: Backing up just your data is better than no backup at all, but creating a complete disk image allows you to restore not just your data but your entire operating system and all your settings. SelfImage can help.

SelfImage is an open-source tool for creating disk images. Not only can you create a simple disk image of an inactive partition but you can also create images of partitions in active use and even partitions not recognized by Windows. This allows you to use SelfImage to not only back up your Windows partition from Windows but also to create images of partitions that Windows doesn't normally recognize like a Linux and Mac OS X partition on a multi-boot system.

SelfImage is open-source, Windows only. Thanks Mike-RaWare!

Have a tip or trick you want to share with the world? Add the #tips hash tag to any Lifehacker comment you make and it will be added to our Tips pool.

SelfImage [via Tips]

Jason Fitzpatrick15628805244508633486067217581780169295391067715751179329411905858642265821273662027652818611156068141451917434454979425515835440548890645348108721405203091836971322129629582628033015437298263860632172035761921877622101041399413051029704086400738505595158983619122553932773225851671127819082813969550118180696974608707274035385419480074206090367548773727516425701817163168975608003112244661811618391821218026116863599756006891674307818818653067347941807861677401786214184492883935805685780385763108354177429913215775695880532951730480291590616842990377825777499065977855796677862800586209039610588476410233208757760824644171122315972645256470227374917786500899116053963623940267144098156888383177463490764997859906481037910249099827136609766081153574039116475771242117809756856301603927909844877918838174688128671273025340600872199600220466017905306490066291461074263099108621234740851014192601078918805010404366288287175082985673291639370931842993158648153176409903810309805826983011159470992868399880513951649526199242916937570405818335258004824011648691483771049946881445074574302491936874893840159056053878568756407430780690130030594229509992028640069300202028924375883128308221281770989591261962203481147998654124807057848461727140002161240601083516952922816452829551753312301082595173475655739420668219692826271516703573982994851996062032769436623087066311002609136118578643301542086486331190240115144408926270234690663213281821983021202245310296096845252164526947786985635471049778838654631595311106874170914565643149155765787537205850799231905327668874216654731997437621762047868019141377214040638307885152784063517894409593163854286090398787545165019061720088923274408281301321247874535601551004130681564766143960791818429362624795017149103023186367181076111078982292864510842342305662865917800252242833823537091122947747122681738781843631647755615509415443465098392025780119807026231334870391754058581983125199507911488418134754110015343266374226943550204023522120366314309297848783682342728

If you're a bibliophile forever in search of inexpensive ways to acquire new books you'll want to check out The Book Depository, a book seller with a focus on a huge inventory of books that always ship for free.

The Book Depository has an enormous collection of physical books and a complimentary library of 11,000 free e-books to share. We compared the prices at The Book Depository to several other online retailers including Amazon and Barnes and Nobles—two sites constantly working on undercutting each other—and the prices at The Book Depository still came in the lowest. Sometimes it was only by 10 cents and other times by 10 dollars or more and very rarely it was equal pricing at both sites. Once the free shipping is factored in, the pricing at The Book Depository is almost always the best value, especially for international shoppers.

Have a favorite site for finding books cheaply? Let's hear about it in the comments.

The Book Depository [via Download Squad]

Jason Fitzpatrick10888366699930496107143248376305971004930729110484993761419002104097281536882250096398532753362752690562318475319903027708606341318016026459021364626711280467651231809441845431941615119870711546223098078682389324623688091358798584720948852009056092011726557353037000583152584154691484045911508624580503684990516736841171105357483877498227910623847514104661056911977828674059583642166642603177092280430584195842504269160315657013662352781488135114633105982356471470445989561345058913190214954383710827057791595227142215070018076860500720230615437298263860632172142009576202191639561651163470279261629311711834877345069437023740252323140133490073850559515898361909397579400550036980084622495226347832200658073073074031676900982293129159920190139642577760959998991126519599850171926205759768145742197609030436050392359934681166007827208632890502026075793440048190085293571717812722940164997273500880579614674575869286027676112244661811618391820726589350082318019613283536367350689931137970507549077522760373328485351233861114747471189817126247175700117096054385531136295145345752009410082953936944130654152253973216865969211114590522997924290906052538705660451813108133356574214001591394994511515084837217290369623686362428004163447714400257981663532290939277402117112231597264525647102124856821178796410828500048927427123401402201156699234309028965160128362153720677887274255360798910959234503139720380028953463761949351780192866575640431805302822046855842498746091907392766734145871377400318092947822801724451340563389169169259003599438736880600872199600220466006201756302945593743118604699045454351681790530649006629146102140061208564675099143931304178438204051480759734513958711617708159201331275236004467054373660073941212808085228138337208232274259157712663062452896891657491311329639971888632928512157905165365766125007770847268292909390373415607620636889206889262239276025840070219568376139691891842993158648153176408466279022964457415060863758192060775860443380941829163984506604450464938758106

  

The email newsletter is a powerful marketing and communication tool that has various useful functions. It reminds your users about you; it informs users about your products; it tells them what you have been up to; and it helps you build a unique relationship with them. Users like email newsletters if the newsletters bring them value.

The fundamental rule for creating an email newsletter is to give it interesting, relevant and up-to-date information that is enjoyable to read. Users sign up for newsletters hoping be informed about things that they would not otherwise be able to find out about. In this article, we’ll discuss some guidelines for designing and distributing email newsletters. Each point will be accompanied by both good and bad examples.

Please notice: in this post we features both good and bad examples of newsletter design, so you can get a better understanding of the problems to avoid and good design decisions to make.

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• Design and Build Email Newsletters Without Losing Your Mind (and Soul)

[Offtopic: By the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has a mobile version? Try it out if you have an iPhone, Blackberry or another capable device.]

Signing Up For A Newsletter

This is an important step in convincing users that your newsletters are interesting and that they would benefit from signing up.

Tell Users What They Will Get

Before asking users for their details, tell them what they will receive, and identify the benefits of signing up. If you mention that the newsletters will include exclusive offers and deals, make sure to keep the promise. In addition, let users know how often they will receive the newsletter: weekly or monthly.

On the Mulberry sign-up page, the company promises to send users exclusive updates and offers. The Marie Claire UK subscription page clearly states that its newsletters include news, beauty buys, competitions and offers.

Marie Claire UK subscription page

Reward Users for Signing Up

You may want to consider giving some reward to users for signing up; for example, a free gift, voucher or discount. To encourage users to sign up for his newsletter, Jamie Oliver offers a free £25 wine voucher that can be claimed after subscribing (on the condition that users spend £64.99 or more on the wine).

Jamie Oliver sign-up page

Jamie Oliver reward page

If you will give rewards, let users know as soon as possible in the process. James Perse gives users who subscribe to its newsletter a $15 online gift card. However, the reward is not mentioned on the subscription page, and the promotion code is sent via a confirmation email only after the subscription has been received. You would not have known that until you subscribed. The company is clearly missing a great opportunity to get people to sign up for its newsletters.

James Perse subscription confirmation email

Preview Your Newsletter

One way to let users know what they will get is to give them a preview of your newsletter. Hershey’s Kitchens has two different newsletters, and it offers examples of both types. The company even gives each newsletter a name and clearly indicates how often it will be sent out.

Hershey’s Kitchen sign-up page

Keep Questions Short and Simple

Users avoid filling out forms and submitting their details if possible. For a newsletter sign-ups, all you need is their email address.

Hersey’s Kitchens has 10 mandatory fields. MarieClaire.com has 8 fields, but only the email field is required. We have found from our studies, though, that people often miss the asterisk or do not know what it means. Users who are reluctant to fill in many details may well refuse to sign up in this case.

Hershey’s Kitchen sign-up page

Content Of Newsletter

Based on our user testing, we found that people look at three things when they receive a newsletter:

1. The sender, to see if it is from someone they know.
2. The subject line, to see if it is of interest to them.
3. The date, to see if the communication is up to date.

Write an Attractive Subject Line

One way to encourage users to open your newsletter is to write a subject line that grabs their attention.

If you are offering some sort of deal in your newsletter, try to avoid generic appeals in your subject line (for instance, Game July newsletter subject line: “Sizzling Summer Deals”). Instead, mention specific offers, such as Dorothy Perkins November Issue: “25% Off Just for You”. Also, be realistic about your offers, and avoid making them sound too good to be true. Users are skeptical about subject lines like “Get 1000 Extra Points” because they know they will often have to spend a lot to get those points.

Provide Useful and Well-Written Content

A newsletter should contain information that users would not normally research on their own. Users take seconds to scan for topics of interest to them before deciding whether to spend more time reading the newsletter. If your newsletter, like Forrester’s, shows only one or two topics, users would less likely to find something of interest to them.

Forrester newsletter

Furthermore, including links to your website in the newsletter is crucial.

Make Content Relevant to Your Readers

Make your newsletter’s content as relevant to your readers as possible, whether through offers, products or images. Superfluous content will add no value and simply be ignored. You could also provide customized content. Personalization can be done in one of two ways:

1. Asking users for more (optional) information when they sign up.
2. Implicitly recording what they buy and view on your website.

For example, Amazon sends newsletter with recommendations based on what its users have purchased. Recommendation-based newsletters can be highly useful, provided that your analytics are accurate.

Amazon’s customized newsletter

Offer Exclusive Deals

You could always offer subscribers special deals or freebies. There are a few ways to go about this. H&M and Photobox ask users to present their newsletters at the point of purchase in stores to receive discounts. Clinique and Airparks include a promotion code in their newsletters that users can redeem when checking out online.

H&M newsletter

Photobox newsletter

Airparks newsletter

Avoid putting these benefits so deep in the newsletter that users miss them. For instance, Clinique (above) puts its code at the bottom of the page, whereas Airparks puts its at the very top of the page.

In addition, make sure the rewards are relevant to your product and target audience. Take Inkclub, which gives out a free blusher to customers who shop via its newsletter. Not only does this item have little relevance to Inkclub’s product line, but it may not be very attractive to the company’s target users.

Inkclub newsletter

Newsletter Design

Design your newsletter to suit its chief purpose. If the main objective is to announce a new product or promote a particular service, you may want to focus the newsletter entirely on this product or service. Good examples are Apple in promoting its new iPhone 3GS.

Apple newsletter promoting its new iPhone 3GS.

To promote its latest exclusive offers, Ted Baker takes an easy and rather lazy approach: the whole newsletter consists merely of one big banner showing offers of 50% off, in the hope that users will click to the website to find out more. By contrast, Dabs.com showcases a number of its latest deals in its newsletter, giving users a rough idea of its product line and sale prices.

Ted Baker newsletter

Dabs newsletter

You could also adopt a catalogue style, like IKEA, or create a summary of your e-commerce website, like Audible, which teases users to visit its website with prices and a clear call-to-action button.

IKEA newsletter

Audible newsletter

Keep it Simple and Straightforward

As reported by the Nielsen Norman Group in its Email Newsletter Usability Report, the average reader skims a newsletter for 51 seconds. People never read: they scan for content that is of interest to them. So, don’t overwhelm them by squeezing too much information on the page. Make sure your content gets straight to the point, and write short paragraphs and bullet points.

The main purpose of Flybe’s newsletter is to present an exclusive offer on family trips to Disneyland. The value of this deal is lost among the long paragraphs. The message could be conveyed more effectively in bullet points for quick scanning.

Flybe newsletter

Make Good Use of Images, Numbers and Colors

Users are drawn first to elements that are visually simulating, such as graphics. Use images to guide users to the most important content and messages.

Numbers also grab attention. Users tend to associate them with prices and savings. Use percentages and dollar values to show concrete offers. For example, Pixmania newsletter has a big “49% off,” showing how much savings are available: clear and appealing.

Pixmania newsletter

Color adds interest, too. But be careful, because inappropriate use makes for a messy, confusing newsletter. Take Rimmel London’s newsletter.

Rimmel London newsletter

Tailor the Layout to the Content

A newsletter can be designed in a one-column or multi-column layout or a mixture of both. A one-column grid is easier to skim but might take up more space and increase the length of the newsletter. While people do skim email newsletters, that’s no reason to make them overly lengthy. However, some exceptions are the Design Hotels newsletter, which is long but well organized. Hotels are shown based on location, with attractive photos and deals.

Design Hotels newsletter

A two-column layout is common for newsletters. Narrower columns is usually used for the table of contents and upcoming events, while the main content is given a wider column. Etsy uses a two-column design for its newsletter, but both columns contain photos and links, and the sections have no prominent divisions. The design makes the page look messy and it lacks focus, making it hard to figure out where to look on the page. By contrast, iStockphoto’s clear division between sections and grid design help guide the user’s attention to the left or right column.

Etsy newsletter

iStockphoto newsletter

Be Creative

Creativity in a newsletter is always welcome. Both First Great Western and Southern present their content using fictional characters, Bob and Loco respectively, who users can easily relate to.

First Great Western newsletter

Southern newsletter

Giving each edition of your newsletter a different layout or design is okay as long users can easily recognize your brand. Despite STA Travel using various styles for its weekly newsletter, certain elements follow their branding guidelines, allowing users to quickly identify it.

STA newsletter, issue #254

STA newsletter, issue #255

Unlike the rather uninspiring Tripadvisor newsletter, Top Gear gets creative with its hand-sketched design, which makes the newsletter fun to read and explore.

Tripadvisor newsletter

Top Gear newsletter

Be Wary of Table of Contents

Some newsletters include a table of contents at the top of the page, which can help users quickly scan for items of interest. A table of contents can be especially helpful in lengthy newsletters that have a lot of content, such as the one from MoneySavingExpert.

MoneySavingExpert newsletter

Previous experience tells us, though, that some users do not understand that the links in the table of contents navigate within the newsletter. Assuming that the links take them to a website, they avoid clicking them altogether. One solution is to avoid placing the links in the left or right columns, as Foodepedia does, which is where external links and ads are often found.

Foodepedia newsletter

Be Wary of Ads

If you have to include ads in your newsletter, make sure they blend in with the content. A good example of this is Lastminute.com, and a bad example is PCMag.com which merely copies Google AdSense code directly into its newsletter, making the page look messy and the content unconvincing.

Lastminute.com newsletter

PCMag.com newsletter

Tools And Features

Make it easy for users to unsubscribe, but don’t remind them how to all the time. Also, tell users how they can change their email address, view the newsletter in a Web browser and quickly share the newsletter with their friends. Other useful features include: “Follow us on Twitter,” “Be Our Fan on Facebook” and “Watch Us on YouTube.”

After Sending Out The Newsletter

After sending out your newsletter, use an email marketing tool and list manager to track, monitor and measure the performance of your campaigns. Many email service providers are out there, such as MailChimp, iContact, Mailvivo, Mailing Manager and Atomic Email Tracker. The majority of them also provide templates to help you create your newsletter if you don’t want to get your hands dirty.

Showcase

MacHeist’s Directorate newsletter grabs its readers’ attention with the price of its iPhone apps (£0.99). Then, it tells them what MacHeist does in a short paragraph and presents its features in a clear and appealing way via icons. Simple, interesting and effective.

Headscape’s newsletter with large headlines and nice illustrations.

Muji’s newsletter has a tidy layout that allows for quick scanning. Each section is accompanied by nice product images and prices.

Howies might have a bit too much text in its newsletter. However, it organizes the content into different sections with big clear headings.

Apple’s Christmas newsletter has a photo-related theme promoting its digital photo organizer software, iPhoto, and its photo books and calendar printing service.

HQhair.com gives its users an exclusive offer with a code. It not only emphasizes the word “FREE” but makes good use of the model to draw attention to the offer.

Bluefly cleverly divides its newsletter into two sections: “Offers” (the main section) and the right navigation section, using beautiful imagery in the process. Also, notice how it emphasizes the 80% offer and word “OFF” (in large font).

Ambiance San Francisco takes a creative drawing-based approach to encourage users to shop with it.

Disney Adventures‘ newsletter is another good example. Its beautiful picture gives users that holiday feeling.

Good Life Garden’s newsletter effectively uses the word “Free” to grab the user’s attention. The design is simple yet visually pleasing. Unfortunately, the content is repeated in the same newsletter.

Bite Card’s newsletter has festive background imagery to evoke the winter season. It is simple, with a big banner at the top showing the product price, followed by cocktail choices and ingredients.

The Squawk’s newsletter attracts users with the beautiful book cover on promotion for that month.

Cauldron’s newsletter also has a tidy layout and clearly defines the purpose of each section. It tells users the subject of its next issue in the “Coming Next Month” section at the bottom, a nice tease.

Mango’s newsletter makes good use of bright, attractive colors.

iStockphoto’s uses a gallery to present its top eight photos of the month: neat and easy to scan.

Threadless‘ newsletter offers “$10 per tee” in big clear type at the top of the page.

Further Resources

You may also be interested in these additional resources:

• Beautiful Email Newsletters
• 25 Impressive Email Newsletter Designs for Your Inspiration
• Design and Build Email Newsletters Without Losing Your Mind (and Soul)
• A Guide to Creating Email Newsletter
• Strengthen Your Email Marketing Performance

About the Author

Chui Chui Tan is a User Experience Consultant at cxpartners, UK. She loves being creative. Chui Chui has spent over seven years conducting user evaluations and designing usable and accessible user interfaces. She previously worked as a Mechanical Designer and received her doctorate in Human Computer Interaction. You can follow Chui Chui on Twitter.

(al)

© Chui Chui Tan for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 54 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: e-mail, marketing, newsletters

  

Today we are glad to release a Free Medical Icons Set, a set with 60 original medical icons in .png 32 bit in resolutions 32×32px and 128×128px. This set was designed by the user interface design agency Centigrade and released exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The icons can serve as great in-app icons for desktop or RIAs in the medical domain. With perspective and reflective effects these can be a real stunner on landing pages or in touch screen application menus.

Download the icon set for free!

You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. The set may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you would like to spread the word.

• large preview
• download the set (.zip, 0.28 Mb)
• release post on designers’ website

Behind the design

As always, here are some insights from the designers:

There are a lot of free icon libraries out there, however, only few of them focus mainly on medical icons and we wanted this gap to be closed. Centigrade conducted quite a lot of icon projects in the healthcare sector just recently, for which reason we already had some nice vector shapes on the pile. We distilled the most frequently requested metaphors and wrapped them into a fresh new style. Being modern and concise rather than fancy and playful, they are in line with what we experienced works well in the medical domain.

Thank you very much, guys! We really appreciate your efforts.

© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 51 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: Icons, medical

Photo: Mattel

The takeover of the world by geeks has just made another giant leap forward. Yesterday, Mattel announced that, as a result of a poll of fans, for Barbie’s next career, she will be a computer engineer.

We at GeekDad are all for anything that might encourage girls to pursue tech careers when they grow up, and this new Barbie might just fit the bill. We especially like that its accessories were chosen with help from the Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering, which explains the geek chic shirt with the binary code all over it, and the smartphone with Bluetooth headset.

We’re concerned, however, that the doll will create unrealistic expectations of what a job as a software engineer actually entails. Some of these expectations may be encouraging and some discouraging. For instance, Computer Engineer Barbie is, like most (if not all) Barbies, wearing high heels, which seems a ridiculously uncomfortable shoe choice for a job where nobody really cares what you’re wearing so long as it’s decent.

Here, then, are five ideas that we think would make Computer Engineer Barbie more realistic (in no particular order):

1. The choice of a coffee cup or Mountain Dew can that, once put in her hand, can’t be removed for two hours.

2. A cubicle farm playset, with optional foosball table.

3. A switch to turn on dark circles under Barbie’s eyes from having worked until 2:00AM three days in a row to get all the bugs fixed before the new release is deployed.

4. A wrist brace for when Barbie gets carpal tunnel syndrome.

5. The choice between Mac Computer Engineer Barbie, Windows Computer Engineer Barbie, and Linux Computer Engineer Barbie. Then they could publicize the sales figures daily to encourage geek parents to buy the version they want to win for their kids.

Check out the article on our sibling blog Gadget Lab for more on the subject.

  

Hyperlinks (or links) connect Web pages. They are what make the Web work, enabling us to travel from one page to the next at the click of a button. As Web Standardistas put it, “without hypertext links the Web wouldn’t be the Web, it would simply be a collection of separate, unconnected pages.”. So without links, we’d be lost. We look for them on the page when we want to venture further. Sure, we pause to read a bit, but inevitably we end up clicking a link of some sort.

[Offtopic: by the way, did you already get your copy of the brand new Smashing Book?]

Styling Links

When you style links, remember that users don’t read; they scan. You’ve heard that before, and it’s true. So, make sure your links are obvious. They should also indicate where they will take the user.

Let’s start by looking at CSS selectors and pseudo-classes:

• a:link { }
  Unvisited link.
• a:visited { }
  Visited links.
• a:hover { }
  The user mouses over a link.
• a:focus { }
  The user clicks on a link.
• a:active { }
  The user has clicked a link.

The TLC uses not only plaint text links, but also icons to communicate the corresponding file types.

Ensure Contrast

Links should stand out not only from the background but from the surrounding text. If the font color is black and the link color is black, you have a problem. Make your links stand out by using one or more than one of the following techniques.

• text-decoration: underline;
  Underline.
• font-weight: bold;
  Bold.
• font-size: 1.4em;
  Enlarge.
• color: #ed490a;
  Color.
• background-color: #c0c0c0;
  Background.
• border-bottom: 2px solid #a959c3;
  Border.

If you decide to make links blue, then make sure no other text (including headings) is blue, because users will expect it to be a link, too.

Also, don’t underline text that isn’t linked because users expect underlined text to be a link. And keep in mind users with poor sight. Red won’t stand out to someone who is color blind, so consider underlining or bolding links, in addition to changing the color.

A helpful technique that I always use is to slightly blur the focus. Links with good contrast should still stand out when you look at the page.

Don’t Forget About Visited Links

Visited links are often overlooked, but they are very helpful, especially on larger websites. Knowing where they’ve been before is helpful for users, whether because they want to avoid pages they’ve visited or to make a point of visiting them again.

Give visited links a darker shade of color, so that they stand out but aren’t as obvious as unvisited links.

Use the Title Attribute

The title attribute is usually overlooked, but it’s a convenient way to add descriptions to your links and can be especially useful for those who rely on screen readers.

<a href="example.com" title="This is an example link">Example</a>Use Button Styles

To make really important links stand out—say, a call to action or a “More info” link at the bottom—use a button style. And you can reuse the style again and again without having to edit any graphics.

For more information, check out “Super-Awesome Buttons With CSS3 and RGBA” and “Call to Action Buttons.”

Hover State

Offering feedback to users that they’re hovering over a link is good practice. The best way to do this is to change the background color, change the text color or remove the underline.

a:hover { text-decoration:none; text-shadow: 0 0 2px #999; }

The mouse pointer usually turns from an arrow into a hand when the user hovers over a link. But this functionality is sometimes lost; for example, in IE when the link contains a span element, or on “Submit” buttons. Fix this by adding the cursor type via CSS.

a:hover span { cursor: pointer }Active State

Provide visual feedback to the user to indicate that they have clicked a link, so that they know to wait. One nice effect is to move the link down one or two pixels, which gives the link the appearance of being pressed.

a:active { padding-top: 2px; }

Apply Padding

Here is a good usability tip. Add padding to your links. This way, the user doesn’t have to hover over the exact point of the text. Instead, they can hover in proximity and still be able to click. This works well for navigation links.

a { padding: 5px; }

Use Icons for File Types

If your links point to files in various formats, inform the user of as much using icons. This prepares them for the file type they are about to open, whether it’s PDF or JPEG, for example.

For some great resources, check out “Fam Fam Fam Silk Icons” and “Social Media Mini Icon Pack.”

Use Icons for Recognition

Just as you would use icons for file types, use icons to identify where links go or what they do. This user can more quickly absorb a visual icon than text.

Make Anchor Text Descriptive

Use meaningful text, not “Click here.” The problem with the latter is that it forces the user to read around the link to understand why they should “Click here.” Anchor text such as “See Britney on a beach” speaks for itself. It’s also more SEO-friendly.

Link Your Logo

Always link your logo to the home page. Most users expect this convention across the Web. That said, don’t assume that users know this. Regular surfers expect it, but a number of users still look for the “Home” link.

<h1><a href="/" title="Homepage">Site name</a></h1>h1 a { background: url(images/logo.gif) no-repeat top left; display: block; text-indent: -9999px; width: 200px; height: 60px; }Don’t Open New Windows

Just don’t do it. Let the user decide when and where to open a new tab or window. Users expect links to open in the same window. If you really must do it, at least add an icon to show that this will happen. There are exceptions; for example, it you don’t want to break the flow of a check-out process.

Micro-Formats

As the Web becomes more semantic, consider incorporating micro-formats into your link structures, to help machines understand how a link fits into a page and its relationship to other pages. For example, the following…

<a href="http://myfriend.example.com" rel="friend met">My Friend</a>

tells search bots that this text links to a friend who I’ve met, which is useful for discovering connections between links. You can also read more about micro-formats.

Showcase Of Links In Web Design

Komodo Media

Hicks Design

Notable App

UX Booth

Max Voltar

Elliot Jay Stocks

The TLC

Sam Brown

Adii Rockstar

Forty Seven Media

Stefan Persson

Huge

AWP

Simple Bits

Andy Rutledge

Brian Hoff

Simon Collison

Further Reading

• Padded Link Targets for Better Mousing, 37 Signals
• Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design, Useit
• Guidelines for Visualizing Links, Useit
• Styling Text Links, Andy Rutledge
• Showing Hyperlink Cues With CSS
• Don’t Lose Your Focus

(al)

© Lee Munroe for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 68 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags:

Here's a tiny shopping cart block for Ubercart that fits right in with the menu. Of course the standard block could be themed this way, but this is handy when the design calls for the full-sized block elsewhere in the layout.

read more

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Over the last months we released a variety of icon sets, tools and templates, but now we would like to release something a bit different for a change. In this post we are glad to release Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts, a PDF-file with a handy overview of most useful keyboard shortcuts available in Adobe Photoshop. The cheat sheet was created by Kenneth Setzer and released especially for Smashing Magazine and its readers.

The cheat sheet is a mousepad-sized image featuring a typical PC keyboard. Photoshop’s keyboard shortcuts are listed for each key, with the shortcut and its icon printed on the individual key. In red is the shortcut you will get by hitting the key in combination with the Ctrl key. For example, typing "t" in Photoshop will activate the Type tool, while typing Ctrl+t will allow you to use the Transformation tool. Additional shortcuts requiring more than two keys are listed as well.

Download the cheat shee for free!

Of course, you can use the PDF for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. The PDF may not be resold, sublicensed, rented, transferred or otherwise made available for use. Please link to this article if you want to spread the word.

• large preview (.jpg)
• download the set (.pdf, 2.5 Mb)
Behind the design

As always, here are some insights from the designer herself:

Originally, I intended to buy a keyboard overlay with Photoshop shortcuts, but couldn’t find any for a PC, just for Macs. So I compiled a list of keyboard shortcuts, and thought they would fit nicely on a mousepad. I think printing it out and hanging it by the monitor works just as well. I hope those learning Photoshop will find it useful, as well as the more advanced users who may have forgotten some of the less-often-used shortcuts. They save a lot of time, and can impress your boss!

Thank you very much, Kenneth! We appreciate your efforts.

© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 87 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: cheat sheet, PDF, photoshop

Asynchronous HTTP And HTML or AHAH is a technique which allows you to update parts of a DOM without reloading the entire page. In Drupal, AHAH refers to adjusting forms dynamically by changing a part of a form based on input given in other form elements without a page reload.

While Drupal 5 was downright lacking support for AHAH driven forms, it became part of the FAPI in Drupal 6. Module developers are able to design dynamic forms without worrying about writing complex JQuery. Yet, implementing and debugging AHAH in a secure and maintainable fashion is still tricky business.

(author unknown)13263726867632499141056053878568756407430452394563166245661305628593072626605780

  

“Mathematics is beautiful.” This may sound absurd to people who wince at numbers and equations. But some of the most beautiful things in nature and our universe exhibit mathematical properties, from the smallest seashell to the biggest whirlpool galaxies. In fact, one of the greatest ancient philosophers, Aristotle, said: “The mathematical sciences particularly exhibit order, symmetry and limitation; and these are the greatest forms of the beautiful.”

Because of its beautiful nature, mathematics has been a part of art and architectural design for ages. But it has not been exploited much for website design. This is probably because many of us regard mathematics as being antithetical to creativity. On the contrary, mathematics can be a tool to produce creative designs. That said, you don’t have to rely on math for every design. The point is that you should regard it as your friend, not a foe. For illustrative purposes, we created a couple of web designs that present mathematical principles discussed in this article. We are also giving away a couple of PSDs that you can use right away in your next design.

Layouts featured in this post were created specifically for the purpose of this article. During the design process we made sure that all of the designs shown in this article are essentially mathematical in nature; that is, they exhibit order, symmetry and limitation. We also have followed the Web design algorithm in this process — the designs have distinct themes, styles and elements. To keep things simple and clear, we tried to stick to minimalist designs and also preferred single-page layouts. Obviously, examples in this article are supposed to serve as a simple foundation for your designs and not as the finished designs.

[By the way, did you know there is a brand new Smashing Wordpress Book? Push WordPress past its limits!]

Golden Ratio and Golden Rectangle

The golden ratio, also known as the divine proportion, is an irrational mathematical constant with a value of approximately 1.618033987. If the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one, then the quantities are said to have a golden ratio.

We already published a very detailed article “Applying Divine Proportion To Web Design” that explains how to use the golden ratio in Web design. In today’s article, we’ll look at how to use golden rectangles in Web design. A golden rectangle is one whose side lengths have the golden ratio 1:(one-to-phi); that is, 1:1.618.

The construction of a golden rectangle is very easy and straightforward. First, construct a simple square. Then draw a line from the midpoint of one side of the square to an opposite corner and use that line as the radius to draw an arc that defines the height of the rectangle. Finally, complete the golden rectangle and you are done.

A method to construct a golden rectangle. The square is outlined in red. The resulting dimensions are in the ratio 1:Phi, the golden ratio.

As an example, consider the minimalist design below. It has six golden rectangles in it, three rectangles per line. The rectangles have the dimensions of 299 x 185 pixels. Thus, the sides of these rectangles adhere approximately to the golden ratio; that is, 299/185 = 1.616. Notice how the large amount of white space surrounding Golden rectangles creates a calm and simple atmosphere in which the navigation options can breathe and serve their purpose. Although the layout uses only few colors and all blocks are positioned very similarly, the navigation options are obvious.

Large view

However, it may be quite difficult to add a new Golden block while keeping the consistency of the design. Probably the only reasonable design solution here would be to add the block on the third line and use the rest of the horizontal space for other, more or less prominent features (if necessary). You can click on the image below to see the enlarged version.

Large view

Possible Applications

The golden rectangle design is well suited for photo galleries, portfolios and product-oriented websites. The golden rectangles can also be arranged in other mathematically sound ways to generate beautiful designs. In particular, you may want to use them for blocks that display images or ads in your sidebar. Of course, the pure collection of golden rectangles doesn’t make for a professional, nice-looking design. You also need to work closely with grids, alignment, proximity and emphasis to achieve the main goals of your design. For instance, an interesting design solution would be a CSS/jQuery-based fluid grid design based on golden rectangles, however we do not cover this technique in this article.

Download the PSD-layout

We prepared a sample PSD layout that is designed according to the Golden Ratio and Golden Rectangle. Please feel free to use it in any way and please send the link to this article to your colleagues if you want to spread the word.

Fibonacci Design

As the name says, Fibonacci designs are designs based on the Fibonacci sequence of numbers. By definition, the first two Fibonacci numbers are 0 and 1, and each remaining number is the sum of the previous two. Some sources omit the initial 0, instead beginning the sequence with two 1s. So the first two Fibonacci numbers are given, and each remaining number is the sum of the previous two. The higher the Fibonacci sequence gets, the closer its numbers relate to each other according to the Golden Ratio. A Fibonacci sequence goes like this:

0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144...

In music, Fibonacci numbers are sometimes used to determine tunings, and in visual art to determine the length or size of content and formal elements. Jürgen Schmidhuber his methodology for Fibonacci-based designs on his blog. However, if you examine the design he created, you are likely to find it rigid and a bit difficult to read and navigate. Indeed, you need to get a bit creative with math rather than following the rules blindly — maths gives us a guide that we can apply, however it’s rather about implementing sites with maths than implementing maths with our designs.

Approximate and true golden spirals. The green spiral is made from quarter-circles tangent to the interior of each square, while the red spiral is a Golden Spiral, a special type of logarithmic spiral. Overlapping portions appear yellow. The length of the side of one square divided by that of the next smaller square is the Golden ratio. Source

The main idea behind such designs is to use Fibonacci when deciding on the dimensions for content area or sidebar. Both Golden ratio and Fibonacci let designers rely on sound, common ratios for page containers or blocks within page containers.

In general, layouts are quite easy to build using the Fibonacci sequence. You pick a certain base width first — for instance, 90px. Then, when determining the size of your containers, you multiply the base width with the numbers from the Fibonacci series. Depending on the calculations you get, you need to use them for your page blocks. Let’s take a look at an example. Below is a minimalist typography blog based on Fibonacci Web design.

Large view

You can see that the page is divided into three columns. Each column corresponds to a Fibonacci number. For this design, we used a base width of 90 pixels. This base width is then multiplied by a Fibonacci number to get the total width for a particular column. For example, the first column has a width of 180 pixels (90 x 2); the second column has a width of 270 pixels (90 x 3); and the third column has a width of 720 pixels (90 x 8). The font size also corresponds to a Fibonacci number. The blog heading has a size of 55px; the article’s heading is 34px; and the content is 21px.

The downside of layouts based on the Fibonacci sequence is that it’s difficult to use it if you are given certain fixed width layout dimensions (e.g. 1000px). In this situation it’s easier to use the Golden ratio, as you would simply multiply 1000px with 0.618 and get 618px which would be the ideal width for your content block. However, if you try to achieve the same result with the Fibonacci sequence itself, you first need to figure out the sequence to the 1000 range.

According to the Fibonacci sequence calculator, the sequence would be ...,610, 987, 1597.... Indeed, 987 is a good fit and you can start picking the widths for smaller blocks using the previous numbers in the sequence. But if your fixed width layout is smaller or lager, you would need to use some approximate values which would again result in pure guessing. The problem may also occur in liquid or elastic designs to some extent, but you have much more design freedom there.

Possible Applications

A Fibonacci design is best suited to blogs and magazine layouts. You can arrange the layout in different ways according to Fibonacci numbers. The article “Nombre d’or, suite de Fibonacci et autres grilles de mise en page pour le design web” (in French) explains in more depth the application of Fibonacci numbers to Web design. Again, notice that you need to be creative when using Fibonacci sequence in your designs, otherwise your designs will turn out to be too rigid and hence difficult to use and navigate.

Download the PSD-layout

We prepared a sample PSD layout that is designed according to the Fibonacci sequence. Please feel free to use it in any way and please send the link to this article to your colleagues if you want to spread the word.

Five Elements, Or Kundli Design

Another interesting layout technique comes from the Indian horoscopes which are also called Kundli. Basically, a Kundli is a very simple figure can be made in just three steps. Draw a square, and then cross the two diagonals. Join the mid-points on each side of the square to get the Kundli figure. You’ll notice four right-angle rhomboids in the figure. These are the basis for our Web design.

The design below, then, is based on the Kundli geometric layout. You’ll notice that the chakras in the design also have mathematical properties.

Large view

This is a single-page layout. Clicking on an element reveals more information about it, as shown in the figure below. You could also include some simple jQuery animations or jQuery tooltips that would reveal more information on demand. A further step would be a sliding web page where animation is used to display different content blocks; you may also want to change the background images of the single content areas to make them a bit more distinctive.

In the following figure, you can see that our design is just a simple three-column layout: a header, three columns and a footer. Not complex at all.

Possible Applications

This design is best for displaying product information and portfolios. You can spice it up with JavaScript animation frameworks. For example, you can apply color transformations to the chakras by using Raphael library, or you can add freestyle animations using  jsAnim library. You can have a tree sprout when the user clicks on the Earth element, or you can show sea creatures swimming in the water element. The sky is the limit when it comes to animation using these JavaScript libraries.

Download the PSD-layout

We prepared a sample PSD layout that is designed according to the Kundli design. Please feel free to use it in any way and please send the link to this article to your colleagues if you want to spread the word.

Sine Wave Design

When it comes to mathmatics, you do not need to stick to well-known Golden Ratio or Fibonacci sequence. You can also experiment with formulas from physics, chemistry and other sciences by using more general formulas and values in your designs.

For instance, let’s consider the sine wave, or sinusoid, a mathematical function that describes a smooth repetitive oscillation. We used a simple sine wave pattern as the basis for a simple and original Web design and create a single-page layout. Of course, you can use the same approach for other designs such as graphics or infographics.

Large view

The layout is again very simple, consisting of a header, five columns and a footer. You can use a jQuery tooltip to make the design more interactive.

Possible Applications

This wave pattern occurs often in nature, including ocean waves, sound waves, and light waves. Also, a rough sinusoidal pattern can be seen in plotting average daily temperatures for each day of the year, although the graph may resemble an inverted cosine wave. You can also use it to display a timeline of events. It could even be developed to include horizontal navigation. You can make it more interactive with the jQuery highlighter plug-in, which highlights each element (i.e. DIV) so that the user can focus on the content.

Download the PSD-layout

We prepared a sample PSD layout that is designed according to the Sine Wave design. Please feel free to use it in any way and please send the link to this article to your colleagues if you want to spread the word.

Other Techniques

Rule of Thirds
This rule states that an image should be imagined to be divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. It can also be expressed as a simplified mathematical approach that divides any layout into thirds, left to right and top to bottom.

Musical Logic
The rhythmic or thematic structure of musical compositions can be applied to distances between elements in a layout, like ABA, ABAC, etc. Learn more about music and mathematics in this Wikipedia article.

Useful Links and Resources

Wikipedia articles

• Sacred Geometry
• Proportion
• Canons of Page Construction

Articles

• Mathematics in Art and Architecture
• Design and Divine Proportion
• Create Awesome Geometrical Designs, Myoats
• Photographer Loves Math, Graphs Her Images
• Typograph: Scale and Rhythm
• Michael Paunker – Art and Math

Books

• Geometry of Design
• Euclid’s Elements
• Mathematics in Nature

We hope you’ve enjoyed this article on mathematics and Web design. Hopefully you now see mathematics not as a hindrance to creativity, but as a friend. Embrace it!

(al)

© Adit Gupta for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | 111 comments | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: fibonacci, golden ratio, mathematics

The word that Google has decided to stop supporting Internet Explorer 6 as of March 1 will come as welcome but bittersweet news to designers and developers who have wrestled for years to make perfectly compliant sites work properly in that wretched browser.

Welcome, because this could well be the death knell for IE6. You can make a legitimate case to clients that, hell, if Google isn't supporting it, why should they?

Sponsor

And bittersweet, because the death of an old foe feels almost like losing a friend. No more nights curled up by the monitor together, trying to remember obscure hacks and puzzling through baffling JavaScript errors. No more repeated "!important" declarations. (sniff) No more (sob) custom script to get "hover" to work... or workarounds for (snuffle) transparent PNGs... sweetie, could you pass me that box of Kleenex?

Oh, who the hell am I kidding? The only tragedy about IE6's passing is that it didn't happen three years ago, and involve giant snowmobiles with poison-tipped 12-inch spikes embedded in their treads. (And what do you want to bet the meddling feds would have some objection to poison-tipped 12-inch spike-riddled snowmobile treads? But I digress.)

Consider the number of Web sites that have required major time-wasting workarounds. How many? 200,000? 300,000 at a very conservative estimate?

Say it took a developer two hours to get each site to work properly. That's 600,000 lost hours... or more than 1,643 years. And at an average life span of 67 years, that's... 25 lifetimes.

Now, if corporations can have the same rights as people, then surely abstract life-equivalent calculations can, too. Internet Explorer 6, you're under citizen's arrest for murder. That's right, murder. 25 counts.

Given how arbitrarily and unjustly the death penalty has been applied, I can't in all good conscience give in to the temptation to sentence IE6 to be taken from this place to a highly magnetic place and to be overwritten with zeroes until it is dead, and may Bill Gates have mercy on its soul.

Instead, install it on a computer that has also committed a heinous crime, seal it in a watertight box with a large solar panel affixed to each side, and set it adrift to live out the rest of its days on the shore of some deserted island. ("Hey, Professor, what's this?" "Don't touch it, Gilligan! It's IE6!!")

And then pop the cork on a bottle of champagne, and let the bells ring out. Ding dong, the Six is dead.

More Noise to Signal.

Discuss

Rob Cottingham0378559372129115955715068586036371259114100134140586204750560859400974172863425903506979255397830379060193715294932809500889766270488092597217422543653519659248146356555465899862841526110928984083562312909525259911503918177175893648677165271731188730361855600605605387856875640743032063252455824829631294449741642216833117906351136746581586072024656624293338521307159093502879768504287676069463688522117879276218596739231264005865808236157105619524859777690770

I’ve always wanted to learn how to draw. It’s standing right next to learning C++ and playing the cello in Procrastination alley. It’s not that I’m a total failure at drawing, I’ve just never dedicated myself to it, or left behind the childish doodles that are weak imitations of your favorite comic books.

Like a lot of you, drawing has become a ‘what if’. What if I gave it a little more of my time and dedication? What if I were to take lessons? But life is busy, and surprise, lessons take too much time. So sitting in that dreadful drawing class is no option. But why should that conclude your options? The Internet, with just a bare minimum of time and dedication, can give you everything you need to learn how to draw.

In the free programmes, you’ll miss out on those treasured personal pointers, but all the knowledge is still right there!

DrawSpace – How to Learn How To Draw Technical and Realistically

We’re going to pass right by the amateuristic cacophony of tutorials that make up your initial expectations of online drawing classes. I reckon you don’t want to know how Bill draws the hands or what a cute kitten Sandra has doodled.

In three words, DrawSpace is professional, extensive and realistic. Not to mention incredible. This site teaches you how to make realistic drawings. With hundreds of amazing drawing lessons, you’ll be on your way to become the human camera.

As you can see in the screenshot above, and again below, the lessons gradually increase in difficulty. You’ll first focus on shapes, before going continuing to study the lines, shading and coloring. Although a lot of people don’t prefer this much realism in drawings, there’s far more to it than just ‘copying’ it. There’s an incredible amount of skill involved in being able to draw what you see, or want to see. Once you’ve got a sufficient knowledge base, you can start giving your own spin to your work.

Although you will need to register to view the lessons, there’s no more to it than that. You’ll have to pay for an upgrade if you want download and printing privileges, but that’ll be hardly a botter for most people.

As you can see above, the lessons use Macromedia FlashPaper. Blame the blurred text on the unimpressive copyright notice that shows at the bottom of every page.

This incredible application allows you to browse the document, and zoom in on the details you deem important. As said before, you’ll only be able to follow these lessons online, but Macromedia FlashPaper makes this a small pain.

For the above reasons, DrawSpace stands out as the most incredible online source of technical drawing lessons. In some of the following articles, we’ll take a look at other kinds of drawing sites, including the comic and manga styles, and interesting sites to show and be judged on your work.

Do you know any other great drawing sites? Let us know all about them in the comments section below!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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I am so proud to announce the first release of the Display suite module. It took us a bit longer than expected, a few API changes still got in the last month, even days - despite my promise, mea culpa - but finally it's there: Display Suite, Node displays, Node displays contributions (including cck, fivestar, search and ubercart support) and Comment displays are tagged as DRUPAL-6--1-0. We polished the build modes, added basic features support, made a few changes so we can basically add more field types and made it possible to export, import or revert (default) settings and fields.

To celebrate all this exciting news, we've created a new screencast and setup a demonstration site on which you can login to play around with the settings. We've added tons of documentation on d.o where you can find the API, snippets, info about all modules and last but not least, our roadmap, which you can consult to see where we're at and what the next steps will be.

Important to know is:

read more

(author unknown)146209088574833250490560538785687564074310667788084322409531

Designed by an architect, and known today as the face of The New York Times, Cheltenham is the seventh installment in our ‘Know your type’ series.

American architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was known for his involvement in the gothic revival at the turn of the 20th century, designing countless churches and buildings, including the Nebraska State Capitol and the Los Angeles Public Library.

But before that, he designed a typeface.

Building the foundation

Goodhue became involved in the Arts and Crafts Movement early in his career. Though trained as an architect, he published a short-lived quarterly art magazine and participated in illustration and book design, including An Alphabet of Celebrities.

In 1896, Goodhue applied his talents to type design when he was commissioned by Daniel Berkeley Updike of the Boston-based Merrymount Press to design lettering for a church altar book. Following the success of that project, fellow printer Ingalls Kimball commissioned Goodhue to design a new typeface for the private use of his New York-based Cheltenham Press. Kimball sketched the basic weight while Goodhue completed the drawings, for what would become the namesake Cheltenham typeface (or ‘Chelt’ as it was often referred to by American typesetters).

Original sketches of Cheltenham by Bertram Goodhue (Source: Anatomy of a Typeface)

It was Goodhue’s intent to create a book type in which legibility would be the dominant element. He therefore designed an alphabet of rather monotonous construction, including serifs similar to the Clarendon style of fifty years earlier. It was in the treatment of ascenders and descenders that Goodhue’s premise was most evident. Believing that the upper half of a line of type is more important for recognition, the designer lengthened the ascenders and shortened the descenders of the letters. This feature also allowed for economical composition, since leading could be dispensed with, even in longer-than-average lines.

—Alexander S. Lawson, Anatomy of a Typeface, 1990

Creating a family

In 1902, Goodhue’s design was purchased by the American Type Founders (ATF). Influential type designer Morris Fuller Benton refined the typeface, developing a large variety of condensed and expanded widths for its release. Cheltenham was among the first typefaces to be released as a type ‘family.’

Cheltenham enjoyed massive success in the early 1900s, largely due to the robust variety of widths and styles it offered. By 1915, Benton had cut twenty-one variations of Cheltenham, leading the typeface to be considered one of the most widely known in the United States.

The typeface was a favorite among newspapers, and was notably adopted as a headline typeface for The New York Times around 1906.

Despite early success, with the rise of advertising typography in the following decades, Cheltenham saw a decline in popularity—even becoming somewhat controversial among designers. The subject of numerous trade publications in the post-World War II era, Cheltenham was criticized for being ungainly. Even today, it seems designers either love it or hate it.

Owing to certain eccentricities of form, it cannot be read comfortably for any length of time. Its capitals are better than its lowercase, which is too ‘perpendicular’ in effect—a fault appropriate to so distinguished an architect of Gothic buildings! It is, however, an exceedingly handsome letter for ephemeral printing.

—Daniel Berkeley Updike, Printing Types, Their History, Forms, and Use, 1922

’70s revival

Considered dated by the 1970s, Tony Stan was commissioned by the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) to revitalize the design. Attempting to improve its aesthetics, Stan dramatically enlarged the typeface’s x-height, evening out the previously top-heavy design.

Originally released in Book and Ultra, ITC Cheltenham was quickly expanded (due to popularity) to include Light and Bold, with companion italics and condensed designs for each weight.

ITC calls their version a “straightforward, no-nonsense typeface that will serve ably in both text and display applications,” although it is criticized by Cheltenham purists for stripping out the qualities that had made it so unique.

Other foundries, including Bitstream, Font Bureau, URW++, Scangraphic, Elsner+Flake, and Tilde, have released more traditional digital versions of Cheltenham.

The Times are changing

For nearly a century, The New York Times had been using Cheltenham in conjunction with at least five other typefaces (including Latin Extra Condensed, News Gothic, Century Bold Italic, and Bookman) for front page headlines. According to The New York Times, the variety was common for newspapers in the early 20th century because of the cost of stocking full ranges of metal type within a family.

That changed in 2003 when The Times settled on a single family, replacing the varied typefaces with roman, italic, and various weights of Cheltenham. A narrow variation is also used for their one-column headline on Page A1.

Under longtime art director Tom Bodkin, The New York Times commissioned type designer Matthew Carter to rework the century old typeface, with the exception of Cheltenham Bold Italic. Carter’s version, dubbed ‘Times Cheltenham,’ remains proprietary to The Times.

The Times manages to make Cheltenham—designed in 1898!—actually sound bracingly progressive. Thus the paper successfully fulfills that most frustrating common of client briefs: to simultaneously signal modernity and heritage.

—Michael Bierut, Design Observer, 2003

Cheltenham made the leap onto the web recently with the launch of Times Skimmer, an online news browser which uses Typekit to deliver the newspaper’s renowned typeface (instead of the web-safe fallback, Georgia).

Usage

Cheltenham in use: L.L.Bean logo and catalog (Source: brendaarnall.typepad.com), Celebration Florida logo by Pentagram, Florida’s Natural orange juice packaging, Orchard Supply Hardware logo, ‘Don’t Mess with Texas’ campaign, Farmer’s Market sign (Photo: joeclark, Flickr), La Tisanière tea packaging, letterpress stationary (Photo: anemoneletterpress, Flickr), record label circa 1921 (Source: tedstaunton.com)

Also see:

• Know your type: Gill Sans
• Know your type: Clarendon
• Know your type: Gotham
• Know your type: Futura
  
• Know your type: Verlag
  
• Know your type: Din

(author unknown)016042403462144431900560538785687564074312816528731545720927

The Greasemonkey extension has long been one of our favorite tools for Firefox, allowing us to bend the web to our will with light and simple scripts written in JavaScript. Now most Greasemonkey scripts work in Chrome, no extension required.

In fact, when you install a userscript in Chrome, it actually installs as though it's a regular old extension. That means, as the original Greasemonkey developer and Google employee Aaron Boodman points out on the official Chromium Blog, that Chrome users now have roughly 40,000 more extensions to add to the list.

Some scripts won't work with Chrome just yet because of differences between Firefox and Chrome, but it looks like that number is somewhere around 15-20%. Not bad, Chrome. It's getting more and more tempting to consider Chrome as a viable Firefox alternative every day.

The improved support for userscripts should work on any Chrome version over 4, which includes the stable version on Windows and both of the beta versions on OS X and Linux. If you'd like to try out a few good userscripts—for Chrome or Firefox—our list of the top 10 Greasemonkey user scripts is a good place to get started.

40,000 More Extensions! [Chromium Blog]

Adam Pash10101596917293512748064011733433697165240659359312128857977204821176400622682076176538855633157885821435149109287841946715835440548890645348097452673468427186640066778267567475554714349957743663114168176934636951410566930020060438686018829817230846013803509251022391187716757006181166007827208632890509328083885859018536003153660927072670580210386468015723625501074684414682580447023728793171254190430501375792727901727310443345534301057683067347941807861677400955609908442136496409666901071041763721091904230032433015350906657236040876239414977823534682521561038708466938432693960828666471889264811402696850220782169757035101577259089420250500200675850769419602336491176476717540076499785990648103791024909982713660976601059345005528369405033291503453838860830760601428731826301304267569772709631828095722010564434855980369929393104194696803311335662430046309177885411150266044221842993158648153176412527062515322897301014015843271452961780148313390554613604701417719251919109570054618699339643019410560538785687564074304506600889013849695019774806232889042671723103967532626787702312042911823059098089856025284173375931512376346451522030817829665286889299635183611754370515863741168288856111537937306682196928262715167174454919981799625900357398299485199606213459401869864952496149227293731787352831002609136118578643316274948034199257450117073316977598121590680431085438878806516156738564819915672004830135879104407820275678197107067763912438706795442321443117902832286159831250952422307873554681600889468897582261859045772899953162465031312141576495070390208974477659845233140125878207177554968040741410771499164301316930731936357372760010666498534375903771308896340797045763206112816028167768976137380062878938664070990989449977278089007490993217563326471070094739447667149940016885485765010133917361459353086603354041993082069257773120342873298966697994008031590662036649182

The Greasemonkey extension has long been one of our favorite tools for Firefox, allowing us to bend the web to our will with light and simple scripts written in JavaScript. Now most Greasemonkey scripts work in Chrome, no extension required.

In fact, when you install a userscript in Chrome, it actually installs as though it's a regular old extension. That means, as the original Greasemonkey developer and Google employee Aaron Boodman points out on the official Chromium Blog, that Chrome users now have roughly 40,000 more extensions to add to the list.

Some scripts won't work with Chrome just yet because of differences between Firefox and Chrome, but it looks like that number is somewhere around 15-20%. Not bad, Chrome. It's getting more and more tempting to consider Chrome as a viable Firefox alternative every day.

The improved support for userscripts should work on any Chrome version over 4, which includes the stable version on Windows and both of the beta versions on OS X and Linux. If you'd like to try out a few good userscripts—for Chrome or Firefox—our list of the top 10 Greasemonkey user scripts is a good place to get started.

40,000 More Extensions! [Chromium Blog]

Adam Pash10101596917293512748064011733433697165240659359312128857977204821176400622682076176538855633157885821435149109287841946715835440548890645348084377085727068343690974526734684271866400667782675674755547143499577436631141681769346369514105669300200604386860188298172308460138035092510321656064294503761602239118771675700618116600782720863289050932808388585901853600315366092707267058021038646801572362550754118259320752001801074684414682580447023728793171254190430501375792727901727306795754681775366801104433455343010576830673479418078616774009556099084421364964140850452389440812070966690107104176372109190423003243301535090665723604087623941497782353468252156103870846693843269396082866647188926481140269685022078216975703510157725908942025050020067585076941960233649117647671754007649978599064810379102490998271366097660105934500552836940503329150345383886083076060142873182630130649950306772484239704267569772709631828095722010564434855980369929393104194696803311335662430046309177885411150266044221842993158648153176412527062515322897301094724242949162503570218898389299512581001401584327145296178014831339055461360470141771925191910957005461869933964301941056053878568756407430450660088901384969501977480623288904267113087316077170573511723103967532626787702312042911823059098089856025284173375931512376346451522030817829665286889299635183611754370515863740786668742083605389911682888561115379373066821969282627151671744549199817996259003573982994851996062134594018698649524961492272937317873528310026091361185786433162749480341992574501170733169775981215912334985592945749344068043108543887880651615673856481991567200483013587910440782027567819710706776391243870679544232144311790283228615983125095242230787355468160088946889758226185917391192254774905953045772899953162465030446601095165498692213121415764950703902089744776598452331401258782071775549680407414107714991643013169307319363573727600821329324427166777001066649853437590377130889634079704576320611281602816776897613738006287893866407