The major news of the week is the acquisition of AppJet by Google. AppJet are the creators of the collaboration word processor EtherPad. The news was met with a wave of negative feedback from the users of EtherPad when it was announced it would be disabling key functionality (like creating new pads), and planning to shutdown the service completely in March 2010. AppJet had to issue a statement they have re-enabled this features until they have made the code open-source.

The AppJet team will be incorporated into Google Wave early next year. It’s definitely a rather interesting acquisition from Google, who have already spent much of this year acquiring other companies such as ReCaptcha, AdMob, On2 Technologies and Teracent.

I’ve called this the Design Hell edition after the first link which was my favorite article of the week. It is a familiar story to all designers who face a client who takes your wonderful designs and asks for something from circa 1995!

• How A Web Design Goes Straight To Hell
  Hilarious comic that all designers can relate to! It shows how a project starts and rapidly goes rapidly down hill with the resulting design going straight to hell!
• As a web designer, are you leaving money on the table?
  An interesting article on using a retainer fee structure on your web design projects because a website should be presented to the client as a living, breathing article that will require much ongoing attention.
• Smashing Magazine – Realigned
  Smashing Magazine is one of the best resources for designers and developers online today. However the site needs better Information Architecture and there are a few usability issues as well.
• Step Away From Design and Design
  Brian Hoff speaks about something which I do myself – taking time each week to dedicate a few hours to just designing (just for ourselves not a client). It brings back the joy and excitement into the work we do.
• What does browser testing mean today?
  A thoughtful article from Andy Clarke discussing what browser testing actually means today, in the face of an ever more diversified browser and device landscape.
• Make an Editable/Printable HTML Invoice
  A fantastic lightweight editable HTML invoice from Chris Coyier. It uses real form elements so it you could also use it as an online invoice form. It’s available as a free download, so go grab it.
• Grid Based
  This is a beautiful gallery which showcases some of the world’s best websites designed with grid-based approach and beautiful web typography.
• Mnmlist
  A fantastic site from the amazing Leo Babauta of Zen Habits. ItIt’s about minimalism, and why it’s important today. It covers a wide range of topics besides simplicity, including productivity.
• There Is No Page Fold
  A simple yet bold page which states that the web is an interactive medium where scrolling behaviour is a standard and that there is no page fold. We should simply love our scrollbar!

That’s a wrap up of the twenty-eighth edition. Were there any links you thought deserved a mention? If so drop a link in the comments so we can check them out.

Weekly Web Roundup: The Design Hell Edition #28 is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

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The major news of the week is the rumor surrounding the possibility of a Google branded Android handset. Gizmodo are reporting that a reliable source has claimed to have seen this device with his own eyes, calling the Google Phone “a certainty.”

It’s suspected the handset will be less than a typical handset and more like something with Google Voice at its heart. It will be interesting to see over the next few months whether these rumors prove true.

I’ve called this the Pie Chart edition after the first link which was my most tweeted link last week. It is a sarcastic and hilarious email exchange from a non-paying client to his designer. It is a must read!

• Please design a logo for me. With pie charts. For free.
  One of the most humorous articles I’ve seen online. It details an email exchange between a designer and a client which descends into pure comedy.
• Thought Different – Apple Design Archive
  A superb interactive archive of Apple’s homepage design since 1997. It also rounds up the news around the design that year and details rumors of what’s coming next.
• Textorize – Font Rasterizer
  This is a Ruby-based font rasterizer command line utility for Mac OS X. It generates PNG files from an input string and options, using Mac OS X’s pristine typography facilities.
• Gifts For Designers
  Hightlighting a new, fun and creative gift idea for designers each day, this is a site to keep a close eye on in the run-up to Christmas.
• The State of the Web Design Profession
  A thought provoking article suggesting that one day we may be licensed and held to a strict standard and code of ethics, but until then, let’s act like we are now.
• Undrln
  Another of my newly disovered sites that highlights articles from the world of advertising, marketing and design. It’s an excellent resource so bookmark it!
• Compass Style
  Compass is a stylesheet authoring framework that makes your stylesheets and markup easier to build and maintain. With compass, you write your stylesheets in Sass instead of CSS.
• 60 Websites with Huge Typography
  Design is all about communication, and if you want to communicate something loudly and clearly, write it large! Here’s a selection of great websites that use big type to convey big messages.
• The death of the URL
  The URL and the ability for anyone to mint a new one and then propagate it is what makes the web so resilient, so empowering, and so interesting!

That’s a wrap up of the twenty-seventh edition. Were there any links you thought deserved a mention? If so drop a link in the comments so we can check them out.

Weekly Web Roundup: The Pie Chart Edition #27 is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

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The major news of the week were the details revealed of exactly how Google Chrome OS will look and operate.

It’s the most radical rethink in terms of computing I’ve ever seen with the entire system being web-based and runing in the Chrome browser. Applications are launched from a persistent apps panel and background apps like Google Talk can be minimized to “panels” that dock to the bottom of the screen.

Chrome OS will be targeting the cheaper netbook market and while I’m not a netbook user, I for one can’t wait to see the beta version next year.

I’ve called this the Moo Cards edition after the first link which was my favorite of the week as it shows how client meetings don’t have to be boring and with a little ingenuity and free thinking you can make the design process both more efficient and fun.

• Moo’d Cards Unleashed!
  A thoroughly unique and original idea from the talented John O’Nolan using a set of Moo Cards printed with various screenshots of beautifully designed websites to use in client meetings. John has now made these available to download!
• Typography is the backbone of good web design
  Take away all the extra design elements and all we are left with is the type. Unlike glassy reflections, wood grain textures, and shiny buttons, communication with type is timeless.
• Web Trend Map
  Webtrendmap.com collects, summarizes and publishes all of the trending links on individual maps onto a Macro-Aggregate represented as Top Trending Links. It’s useful, interesting a site I can’t get enough of at the moment.
• Useful Tips Every Web Designer Should Know About SEO
  I think that every web designer, or developer, should know SEO. Ok you don’t need to know all the “secrets” behind the search engine optimization, but have a basic knowledge of SEO can help you in your freelancing.
• The Unwritten Rules of Web Design
  In the relative short time that websites have been around, compared to other media, much has been learnt about web design. There are a number of other guidelines or rules that you should be adhering to when designing for the web.
• 20 Photoshop Actions to Add Flair to Your Photos
  This post rounds up 20 of the best Photoshop Actions that allow you to easily spice up your photos with popular effects, including HDR, Soft Focus, Lomo, Velvia and more!
• A Collection of 70+ Automator Actions, Workflows and Tuts for Designers
  Together with Applescript, Automator is the best automation tool a Mac user could have. It lets you automate everything, from repeating tasks to automatically backing up your blog.
• How To Achieve Cross Browser @Font-Face Support
  At the moment, web fonts are all the buzz. Unfortunately, achieving cross browser support is not easy. This tutorial shows you how to get custom fonts working in all of the major browsers.
• Creative Sear.ch
  This was my find of the week, it is an aggregate search engine that provides results in the form of pictures, text, film and music and is a must bookmark.

That’s a wrap up of the twenty-sixth edition. Were there any links you thought deserved a mention? If so drop a link in the comments so we can check them out.

Weekly Web Roundup: The Moo Cards Edition #26 is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

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The major news of the week was the rumor that Google Chrome OS is to launch within the next week. It’s been highly anticipated and there are a lot of people (including myself) who will want to get their hands on it.

If it’s anywhere near as good as the Google Chrome browser, then it will blast the operating system market wide open.

I’ve called this the Coding edition after the first link which was my favorite of the week as it shows designers how to slice and dice PSD’s effectively and efficiently.

• Coding a Web Design for Speed and Quality
  In this article, you’ll find a few simple tips that can help designers learn basic XHTML/CSS conversion efficiently for a quick-loading website that is accurate to the original PSD.
• 10 Fantastic and Creative Web Design Styles
  A look at ten of the most creative styles in use in web design today with examples of some of the best websites that utilise them.
• Custom WordPress blog design checklist and walkthrough
  This is an excellent post which showcases the basic areas and elements to consider when designing a custom WordPress blog and when dealing with a standard WordPress template.
• Five Ways to Become a Mac Minimalist & 5 More Ways
  My interpretation of minimalism in the home office is removing all distracting items that are not constantly utilized. This post contains a few quick and easy steps to help you reach software bliss.
• What Beautiful HTML Code Looks Like
  In HTML, it comes down to craftsmanship to create beautiful code. This is a closer look at some markup written the way markup should be written and how beautiful it can be.
• CSS Frameworks: Pros and Cons
  This article will give proper coverage to both sides of the fence by looking at common arguments for and against using a CSS framework.
• A Collection of 250+ Terminal Commands, Hacks, Tips and Tuts for OS X
  Terminal is an app which provides a command line interface to manually control your Mac. This showcases the best commands, hacks and tips to get the most out of it.
• The Design Evolution of Popular Websites
  This article travels back in time to see how some of the most popular websites today looked in their beginning, and how their design has evolved through the years.
• Google in Real Life: Google Imitations & Installations
  For some time now it has seemed that Google IS the Internet, and this is a hilarious roundup of examples of Google in the real world.

That’s a wrap up of the twenty-fifth edition. Were there any links you thought deserved a mention? If so drop a link in the comments so we can check them out.

Weekly Web Roundup: The Coding Edition #25 is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

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The major news of the week was the launch of Google Dashboard – which essentially summarises the data for each Google product that you use and allows you quick access to control your settings within each of these products, which include Gmail, Calender, Docs, Web History and others.

I think it’s an interesting insight into exactly what information Google has on each of us but is also rather scary as we individually realise just how much of our ‘lives’ is online and just how ‘private’ this information really is.

I’ve called this the Dropbox edition after the first link which was my favorite of the week as it shows a number of unique ways to use Dropbox which would benefit any designer.

• 40 Creative Uses For Dropbox Designers and Mac Users Will Love
  Dropbox is a great service: it allows users to keep everything in sync between multiple devices. There are many creative yet less known uses for Dropbox and this roundup features some of the best.
• Why and How To Use Dropbox For Client Files
  An in-depth review on how to use Dropbox to secure your blog folder, backup client files, preserving your current folder structures and collaborating with others on design files or posts.
• The Future Of Interface Design
  The future of how we interact with computers is exciting to say the least, and some of the technology is a bit overwhelming. This post delivers a taste of what the future of interface design has to offer.
• 6 Ways To Take Your Webdesign From Good To Great
  The difference between good and great webdesign is relatively small. This post examines a selection of awesome site to focus on some of the small details that make up the difference.
• Using Wireframes to Bring Your Site Together
  A major project can be intimidating. The first time you take one on, it may even be terrifying. But with a little planning, you will succeed with flying colors.
• What Every Graphic Designer Should Do Right Now
  Wireframes are the blue prints that define and allocate a Web sites content and behavior. As I am a well known Wireframe junkie I thoroughly enjoyed this article on exactly why they are so essential.
• 30 (More) Essential PDF Documents Every Designer Should Download
  No matter what you call them; ebook, white paper, or resource they all contain information that no designer should go without.
• Screencasting for Communication
  An excellent idea from Danny at the Outlaw Design blog who uses Screencasts to guide clients through using WordPress and how they can be used to effectively communicate with both clients, designers and developers.
• The Web Designer Wheel
  The Web Designer Wheel is simple process model that describes in five steps how to manage a small web project and relations with client. This approach allows you to work better and set and respect milestones.

That’s a wrap up of the twenty-fourth edition. Were there any links you thought deserved a mention? If so drop a link in the comments so we can check them out.

Weekly Web Roundup: The Dropbox Edition #24 is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

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The major news of the week was the launch of Twitters new feature – Lists which are an innovative way to organize the people you’re following on Twitter, or to find new people. They are basically a type of ‘group’ feature that applications such as TweetDeck already use. You can create both public and private lists and are also able to follow other peoples lists.

Personally while I realise how useful they can be, I’m slightly concerned they will be used and abused by those already obsessed with numbers.

I’ve called this the Google edition after the first link which was my favorite of the week as it is a fantastic bookmarkable list of the best Google hacks, tips and tricks to speed up searches and research.

• 100+ Google Tricks That Will Save You Time in School
  These are fantastic tricks for just about anyone whose time is at a premium. From super-effective search tricks to Google hacks and tips for using Gmail, Google Docs, and more, this is a must bookmark.
• 80+ Typography Related Twitter Accounts To Follow
  This list contains only typography related Twitter users. Some are typeface designers, others represent type foundries and some exist to share news about typography and other related topics.
• Design checklist: What clients should provide their designer
  This is a superb checklist of things that clients should provide their designer at the outset. To follow this list will ensure the client and designer are dealing professionally as well as creating an efficient workflow.
• Work Smarter, Not Harder – 8 Important Tips for Designers
  A look at 8 important tips that we can start applying in our work and businesses today for future success tomorrow.
• 40 fresh websites for daily visual inspiration
  This is the result of a one-month research on the best new & hot websites that could light up the visual inspiration: a collection of must read websites, RSS Feeds and Twitter accounts.
• 10 tips to maximize efficiency in Photoshop
  We all have to do a lot of things, so every split second you may save by not having to drag that mouse across the table, in fact, counts. Read this and save time!
• 101 invaluable questions to build your Web Design Client Questionnaire
  With these 101 invaluable questions, you’ll be able to build an awesome questionnaire template and adapt it to the client in order to gather all the information you need.
• eCSS Tender
  Extensions built with eCSStender greatly simplify the design process because you can author modern CSS using advanced selectors and rest assured that your design will work… even in IE6.

That’s a wrap up of the twenty-fourth edition. Were there any links you thought deserved a mention? If so drop a link in the comments so we can check them out.

Photo by manel

Weekly Web Roundup: The Google Edition #24 is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

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The major news of the week was the launch of Googles new feature – Social Search. It helps you find more relevant public content from your broader social circle with the bottom of your search results displaying social networking information from your friends, like their Flickr photos or their status updates. It’s an exciting development and I can’t wait to test it out.

I’ve called this the Principles edition after the first link which was my favorite of the week as it is a fantastic in-depth article at the principles that are essential to adhere to for a great design.

• 7 Key Principles That Make A Web Design Look Good
  By following some simple pointers, anyone should be able to create a visually pleasing design and take one step closer to fame.
• 20 Handy Photoshop Tips For a Faster Workflow
  We all use Photoshop on a daily basis, however simple tips can make the most common of tasks quicker and easier than ever to help speed up your Photoshop workflow.
• 14 Simple Tips for Super Fast Web Browsing
  A collection of simple, brilliant tips from Leo, I’m sure some of these will be old hat for web veterans, but they bear repeating.
• 10 Useful WordPress Coding Techniques
  This article compiles 10 useful WordPress code snippets, hacks and tips to help you create a WordPress theme that stands out from the crowd.
• What Every Graphic Designer Should Do Right Now
  I would like to remind every designer today about some of these tasks that we often put-off but are so important and necessary to get done.
• 30 (More) Essential PDF Documents Every Designer Should Download
  No matter what you call them; ebook, white paper, or resource they all contain information that no designer should go without.
• Systematizing the Graphic Design Process
  Here is a simple six-step graphic design process, which you may want to take wholesale or build on.
• 50 Original Ads Of Old Times From Famous Companies
  A beautiful collection of vintage advertisements enabling us to make a comparison between the branding and marketing of previous era’s to our own today.

That’s a wrap up of the twenty-third edition. Were there any links you thought deserved a mention? If so drop a link in the comments so we can check them out.

Photo by manel

Weekly Web Roundup: The Principles Edition #23 is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

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The major news of the week was the leak of the new Facebook redesign with particular attention paid to the new home page and engagement ads. There is no indication of when this new design goes live, although judging by the document sent to advertisers it won’t be too far away. Personally I’m not impressed with the new design, I would like to have seen much more refinement on the actual aesthetics, but it looks like this phase is more concerned with the functionality and usability.

I’ve called this the Client edition after the first link which was my favorite of the week as it is a superb resource on how to make life easier for our clients when it comes to WordPress.

• 8 ways to make WordPress easier to use for your clients
  If you use WordPress as a CMS for your clients’ websites, you’ve probably faced that issue: regular people find WordPress hard to use. This is brilliant roundup to keep note of for any designer or developer!
• Contact Us Page Best Practices with 22 Fabulous Showcases
  This post illustrates the best practices for a Contact Us page that you can adopt and how you can further enhance it. The Contact page can’t be overlooked as it’s the gateway for your visitors to get in touch with you.
• 3 Powerful Ways To Make Typography Talk On Your Website
  Typography is a very powerful tool in a web designer’s arsenal. Understanding typography and implementing its usage is essential, as this article points out.
• 5 Rules To Write More Readable CSS Files
  In this video from The Future of Web Apps London (FOWA), Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, WeFollow and Revision3, shares 9 things he did to increase his users to 1,000,000 and beyond.
• 50 Essential Web Apps for Freelancers
  Perfectly illustrating five simple practical rules that can help you write well structured and more readable CSS files to make your developer life easier.
• 10 Dirty Little Web Development Tricks
  We all have them – little coding tricks and snippets of knowledge that we’ve picked up over years of experimentation and evolution of our processes, here are a collection of great little snippets.
• 34 Excellent Punctuation Inspired Logo Designs
  The 34 logos showcased in the post use punctuation as a design element. Some logos feature commas, colons and semicolons while others use exclamation marks, question marks, brackets and parentheses.
• Call to Action Buttons: Examples and Best Practices
  How can we create effective call to action buttons that grab the user’s attention and entice them to click? This post explores effective design techniques and examples to provide some answers on exactly how to do it.
• 60 Resources for the Frugal Web Developer
  Because of the world’s economic state, we’ve had to change how we develop. The first step to becoming a frugal web developer is cutting back on expenses.

That’s a wrap up of the twenty-second edition. Were there any links you thought deserved a mention? If so drop a link in the comments so we can check them out.

Photo by manel

Weekly Web Roundup: The Client Edition #22 is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

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The major news of the week centered around the launch of the new Adobe Photoshop Mobile app for the iPhone. The app offers quick and simply on device photo editing for both iPhone and iPod touch users. The program allows photos to be cropped, rotated and flipped and even saturated and tinted. It’s an extremely handy app for photo touchups and edits on the go and could be one of the killer apps of the year.

My favorite news of the week was the launch of a new app called PhotoSketch created by five Chinese Computer Science and Technology students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore. You sketch the image you would like, it then finds actual photographs that match your sketch, it’s all kinds of awesome!

I’ve called this the Facebook edition after the first link which was my favorite of the week as it is a superb re-design of Facebook, giving it polish and style, if only it were the real thing!

• Facebook Facelift – Home and Profiles
  Focused on creating a more streamlined interfact, and enhancing the user experience and absorbability of content, designer Barton Smith has created a video and designed screenshots for core areas of the site.
• Methodic approach to CSS coding: Four Bubbles Model
  The model is based on four progressive phases that helps you quickly develop CSS files and maintain a better control of code you’re writing.
• 3 Powerful Ways To Make Typography Talk On Your Website
  Typography is a very powerful tool in a web designer’s arsenal. Understanding typography and implementing its usage is essential, as this article points out.
• 9 Ways to Take Your Site from One to One Million Users
  In this video from The Future of Web Apps London (FOWA), Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, WeFollow and Revision3, shares 9 things he did to increase his users to 1,000,000 and beyond.
• 50 Essential Web Apps for Freelancers
  This super useful article from Appstorm breaks down the apps into categories, including; Invoicing and Time Tracking, FIle Management, CRM, Finance and more.
• 20 Essential Infographics & Data Visualization Blogs
  All the blogs with cool data visualization eye candy in the same place courtesy of Inspired Mag. For any info junkies, this is a must bookmark.
• 40 Creative Uses Of Cufón Font Replacement
  Cufón has been growing in popularity among designers as an alternative to sIFR and this showcases some of the creative uses of the Cufón font replacement in action.
• Minimizing Complexity In User Interfaces
  A complex interface can disorient the user, this includes several techniques that can help streamline complex applications into lightweight user experiences.
• Twitterers I Won’t Follow
  Twitter has a lot of stupid people on it. If you see anybody using any of the avatars on this list, you probably shouldn’t follow them.

That’s a wrap up of the twenty-first edition. Were there any links you thought deserved a mention? If so drop a link in the comments so we can check them out.

Photo by manel

Weekly Web Roundup: The Facebook Edition #21 is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

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The major news of the week centered around Google Wave with pretty much every webbie wanting an invite (hint: I’m still waiting for one). It’s been called a game changer but the majority have yet to test it out so the jury remains out on exactly how much of an impact Wave will make until it opens up to a wider audience.

My personal site of the week is Woorkup which is my good friend Antonio Lupetti’s new site as he recently switched from Blogger to his own domain. If you haven’t already you should subscribe as he is one of the best web development bloggers out there, 27,000 other subscribers would agree!

I’ve called this the Thumbnail edition after the first link which was my favorite of the week as it is an amazing in-depth post on how thumbnails can be used effectively within blog design.

• Beautiful Post Thumbnails: Top Examples & Best Practices
  Your blog post thumbnail will play a big part in how your users see your website, and how they navigate it. A well designed post thumbnail can really engage your visitors and help encourage them to explore your website.
• 30+ Super Secret OS X Features and Shortcuts
  Topics covered include downloading YouTube videos using Safari, accessing an entire second clipboard, placing widgets on your desktop, and taking control of your system volume!
• Why front-end developers are so important
  An interesting article on how traditional businesses who have moved to the web regularly undervalue their front-end web developers, and are worse off because of that.
• The Art of Branding Yourself and Your Freelancing Business
  A fab article that takes a closer look at ways to define a brand for something as unique as a freelancing business.
• The History of Web Browsers
  A wonderful graphic approach to show the history and development of web browsers over the years from Jacob Gube.
• 75+ Awesome Font and Typography Tools, Tutorials and Inspiration
  As Typography is such an essential element of good design, this is a brilliant collection of good tools that make your life easier in this area.
• 30 Professional Logo Design Processes Revealed
  A collection of articles from logo designers who share their tips, tricks and secrets about the process they go through when creating a logo for a client.
• Solve any CSS problem in 3 minutes (or less)
  If you’ve spent any length of time building tableless web designs, you’ve probably come across some frustrating CSS problems. However a temporary border is the key!
• Nightmare web design clients
  An oldie but a goodie, this post has hundreds of comments because as designers and developers i think we have all worked with our share of nightmare clients!

That’s a wrap up of the twentieth edition. Were there any links you thought deserved a mention? If so drop a link in the comments so we can check them out.

Photo by manel

Weekly Web Roundup: The Thumbnail Edition #20 is a post from: Hi, I'm Grace Smith

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