In this week’s episode of the Web Design Quicktips podcast I show you how to quickly and easily add a little bit of fun interactivity to your site by utilizing CSS transitions. This is a great way to break out of normal background/opacity changes and add something unique to your designs. The best part is that it’s super easy to do! Check out the video and see if you can use it in your next web design project.
A simple corporate website can be cranked out quickly if you know what you’re doing. Learn how with the “BluePrints Basics: Building Corporate Websites” webinar. After this 94-minute course you’ll know how to build a corporate site from scratch to launch, giving you a new service to offer your clients.
This webinar will go step by step through the process of building a corporate website from start to finish. You’ll go through installing WordPress, configuring a layout using the Builder theme from iThemes, installing and setting up plugins, tweaking the site and launching it.
It’s part of the WebDesign.com premium membership. Join today to get access to more than 250 hours of training that can help you do business better.
One great plugin to include when building a corporate site is Gravity Forms. Check out the Gravity Forms Premium Training June 22 & 23, 2011 to see how much you can do with it, and what a great asset Gravity Forms is for every web designer.
You already know that WordPress is a powerful, flexible and free content management tool you can use to build web sites for your clients. What you might not know is just how easy it is to design in WordPress. “Web Design with WordPress” is a 12-module course offering nearly four hours of training to walk you through the ins and outs of WordPress theme design and customization.
The recorded training noted above is led by Adam White, who has more than 10 years of web development experience, many of those working specifically with WordPress. He’ll focus on how doing things the right way the first time can save you time and energy.
It’s an ideal course for budding designers/developers looking to launch a freelance web design business around WordPress. It is designed to take those familiar with basic WordPress theme design to a deeper level of understanding. Basic WordPress knowledge required.
It’s available as part of a premium membership with WebDesign.com. Join today to get access to a growing library of training content that can help you do business better.
And be sure to check out the upcoming webinars on the Events page – like the one on how to use creative layer effects in Photoshop® on Tuesday June 14th at 2pm Central Time.
This webinar will be taught by Justin Seeley, one of our full-time trainers at WebDesign.com.
You can register for it here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/781311331
A widget only website is quick and easy to create and update. With most WordPress themes it’s hard to change how the front page looks without dabbling in code. But using iThemes’ Builder we can create a WordPress site using only widgets that is quick and easy to customize.
“Blueprint Basics: Widget Only Website” is an 80-minute (recorded) webinar that will show you how to build and populate widgets. A widget only website is an easy way to get a site you can customize up and running quickly without touching code.
Using widgets, and the Widget Content feature unique to iThemes Builder, also makes it easy for your clients to handle simple sidebar/widget updates on their own.
This is just one of the many courses available with a WebDesign.com premium membership. Join today to tap into this constantly expanding source of web knowledge.
We’ve invited our friend Amanda Blum to do a free online workshop on doing website sitemaps aka Why Site Mapping is the Ugly Redheaded StepChild of Website Development June 30 starting at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time.
Amanda is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, and Creative Director of Howling Zoe Productions, a creative strategy firm involved in design, marketing and public relations. Helping microbusinesses and non profits find new ways to reach their target demographic for over 10 years, Amanda represents a wide range of clients including P.R. Agents, boutiques, entrepreneuers and web 2.0 companies. Amanda has been active in community volunteering for almost 20 years including HIV agencies, Red Cross, animal disaster rescue and environmental causes, and is dedicated to helping non profits utilize social media tools to help further their mission.
She runs Howling Zoe.
Reserve your webinar spot today here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/608218090
Here’s a summary Amanda wrote of what the workshop will include:
Everyone hates doing it but you should revel in it because doing it right will make your website like a zillion times more effective and unicorns will love you.
In my basement somewhere is an ironically framed-in-beige certificate assuring people I graduated from a criminally expensive design school somewhere on the east coast. But I like living on the edge, so I’m about to make a bold statement:
Design is the least important aspect of your website.
Let’s all take a breath for a moment while I see if these circa 1986 jellies I’m wearing will absorb the lightning strikes. Wow… you know they say silicone deteriorates, but these puppies still have some magic left in ‘em.
Sitemapping is the most important aspect of your website
Whether you’re a developer or a user, figuring out the “what goes where” and “what should my website say” bit does seem to spin people into knots. For a long time, we’ve been thinking completely logically about it, creating wholly reasonable menus that put items into truly common sensible categories. The whole thing makes complete sense…… to us. Therein lies the problem: we’ve been putting out the information in the way we, as the site owners want to give it. We have often ignored how people – our users – might want to receive the information.
WordPress core has inherent functionality to help you sitemap effectively. In combination with some plugins, it has like, Superman strength to ensure that what you’re doing is working (ensure usability), to continue trying to make it better (analyze metrics) and you know…. to sell more stuff (actualize revenue streams by leveraging low hanging fruit to facilitate ROI).
Reserve your webinar spot today here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/608218090
Trying to find the right web designer or developer to help you to create and build a strong online presence can be an overwhelming task, especially if you’ve heard the countless stories of people being taken to the cleaners on their web development projects. Today, I’m going to give you a few great tips on how to hire the right web designer for your next project.
I am a designer with an old school mindset. There are methodologies or rules in the design world that “just are” – some have valid reasons and others are personal preference, but regardless they are concrete pillars that shouldn’t be moved. Then there is the “new school of thought” which has caused riffs with the purists and old-timers like myself. Many of these battles have to do with the advancement in technology and the tools at our disposal. The digital age has changed some of the methodologies on how we used do things, which is both good and bad. This blog post stems from the Smashing Magazine blog post called The Dying Art of Design and which led me to Confessions of a Template Whore by Sabrina Dent.
This is going to hurt but I’ll say it … I agree that designers are getting lazy. I feel that in many ways we have neglected the true creativity that is hidden within us and settled for mediocrity in order to pump out our work. Things have changed and it reminds me of the first MTV music video I ever saw, Video Killed the Radio Star, at the age of eleven. Digital killed the the artistic star. Terrible, I know! However, on the other hand the advances of technology have been extremely beneficial for graphic and web designers. Who remembers burnishing Letraset for ads or coding on the Tandy TRS-80? Some things in the past were just a pain in the butt to do and now we can be more creative in certain areas, more quickly.
How does this relate to WordPress themes for web design?
Simple. There are those discussions where the purists thumb their noses at the kids who “cheat” and use a template, theme, or stock art. But is it really cheating? Can we blame some designers for finding ways to be more productive and for making more money by not creating everything from scratch? Here are some considerations:
If you just consider these true and valid thoughts, then it absolutely makes sense to streamline the creative process or development. Time IS money. You either can sell your custom artwork or creativity for a very high and lucrative price because you do less projects and time is limited, or you can sell efficiency and good enough work for less and bang out more projects. As long as the client who is paying your fee is happy, why does it really matter?
Please know that I value custom artwork and the lost arts and crafts we once knew. I also value the ability to make quick money and getting on to the projects that I really love that might not pay. My belief is that using WordPress themes or stock artwork is definitely not cheating or wrong – it’s smart business!
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