Web Design

Sarah Parmenter with some good honest thoughts about the popular idea of designing in the browser.

I’ve tried, goodness knows I’ve tried, but my designs end up suffering, looking boxy, bland and uninspiring.

Not that I'm that great of a designer but I feel the same way. I have to start in Photoshop to get anything decent looking. I try to get out it as soon as possible, but once I'm into the HTML/CSS my brain is in a more analytical and less creative mode.

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I can’t design in the browser is a post from CSS-Tricks

Within the overall web design and development communities, there are endless communities within them. Within each freelancer, designer, developer, blogger, or otherwise, there is a community based around that individual as well, and a community based around each agency, big or small. Within a field that is constantly evolving, and has one of the highest rates of independent workers, a community is needed.

As much as it's needed for us all as a whole, having a community based around your work and your business can help your business grow, while it's also giving back. For a business (freelance, agency, or otherwise) to be successful, it must have some sort of following, which can help lead it to new clients, projects, and help it grow in a variety of other ways.

In this article we'll cover how one can build a network and sense of community around their work, and then we'll also look into some larger networks and communities within our niche, and what they bring to the table.

Why a Community is Important

A community is what brings us together, keeps us together, and helps us all grow individually and as a group. There is a community surrounding every niche, and fortunately there is a very strong community for us web designers and developers. Let's look more into why it's so important.

For Your Personal Development

The community created for web designers and developers is full of tutorials, forum posts, social networks, questions, advice, tips, snippets, tools, resources, and more. Whether you went to school for your profession or not, chances are you learned the majority of what you know from the community somehow. Someone took the time to create that resource for you, and someone else took the time to answer your question on Twitter.

A blogger may have taken time to contribute to the community by writing a useful blog post, and the community surrounding that post added more input for you to learn more and to provide you with the resources to grow your business and to grow yourself professionally by adding comments.

In a field where we're always having to learn something new, study new trends, and discover new best practices, there is always a community behind developing those technologies, trends, and best practices. There is also always a community to help you learn in a constantly changing environment. Beyond that, there is a community behind the personal development side — you've learned productivity tips, marketing tips, and organizational tips for yourself and business from the community as well.

For Your Business

Frameworks, tools, resources, and more. Beyond learning more technical skills from your community, which also help you with your business in return, there are several things that are created from members of the web design and development community, many of which are very high quality, and free for you to use. Even the premium resources that are made cheaply can contribute to your business's well being.

Think of things like WordPress, Drupal, HTML5 Boilerplate, CodeIgniter, and more — all of which are open source and given to the community. How many times have these resources helped your business? How much of your business is based off of these gifts from the community?

Community is also important in helping your business obtain more client work. You can get referrals from others who follow you, get recommendations to others you may need to outsource to, and even meet new people that you can work with and join forces with. If you give back to the community a lot too, not only are you doing a great thing, but you can also showcase your expertise in your field.

Types of Communities/Networks

There are many types of sub-communities within the overall community. Each web professional can create their own to improve their business, and it can be up to you to how far you take it. A lone freelancer that shares a few resources or advice, and connects with others through social media is a community in itself. It may be small or big, but it's a type of community.

Other types of communities are more formally constructed. Think of a large blog, or any blog dedicated to a particular niche within our industry. Getting bigger, think of a network of other blogs, covering a wider range of topics (Fuel Brand Network). Other types of communities may be marketplaces, forums, social networks, portfolio sharing sites, and so on. Many freelancers or agencies may then take it to the next level, creating a network of various types of these communities, such as how Envato has done.

No matter what size you want your network or simply the community that surrounds you to be, you can gain a following by getting more involved in the community, and therefore creating a sense of community yourself.

How to Gain a Following

Starting a blog, web app, website or otherwise that is meant to promote a community is relatively easy compared to actually getting people involved and active. A community in and of itself is not the social network it runs on, or the forum software behind it, or the blog or blog posts that promote it. A community is people together, and a network is comprised of many successful communities.

So how does one build a community around their business or themselves? Anyone that has any sort of successful community around them knows the real answer is to be a real person. There's really no smoke and mirrors, or secret success tips behind it — it's merely getting involved, being helpful, and growing with others. It's value.

Below are a few additional tips:

Using Social Media Effectively

The first step to creating a solid community is to first get involved with social media, and then also uses it effectively to gain a following. A following is not just a number though — a good following consists of a community that provides value overall. Use social media in a way to share useful tips, links, resources, and to ask for help when needed. Actively engage in the community around your social media presence, and the numbers will follow.

Blogging (it doesn't have to be a full-time job)

Blogging is a very easy way to gain attention and create a community around you or your brand. While running a professional level blog can take up all your time, having a blog on the side doesn't need to. Professional bloggers may treat it like a job, but simply having a blog and updating it even once a week will make a world of difference. However, if your community grows to a larger size, you may want to consider blogging more often as it can be an excellent marketing tactic, and an excellent way to keep your community alive and thriving.

Get Involved in Other Communities

Creating a community around your brand shouldn't be seen as another piece of competition to the many communities already out there. Many individuals within this industry follow many people, and are a part of many communities as a whole. Use forums, blogs, and networking sites that already exist to help out your own. Comment, leave insight, and get involved.

Be a Real Person, and Be Personable

Don't be a robot, testing which types of posts, links, times, or frequencies get you the most clicks, sales, or whatever else. Focus on providing quality, share what you know, and what you're interested in. Be friendly and helpful, it will attract the crowd. While you may see a bigger boost initially with sleazy marketing tactics, true communities are based off of a real person that leads to or creates that community.

Don't Hoard Your Knowledge: Share Tips, Advice, and Help

Share what you know. People are always looking to learn more, and it's easiest to learn with others. Provide quick tips, and always answer emails. You never know when answering a seemingly helpful email will turn into a prospective client, or a very dedicated member. Those who learn from you will respect you and follow you; they will love being a part of your community, as they will see it provides true value in helping them learn something new.

Provide Something for Free

Give away freebies, content, and resources. It's great marketing, but it's also giving back to the web design/dev community as a whole, and gives your personal community a great reputation.

Provide Something for Sale

Provide freebies, but also feel free to sell quality content through your community as well. If it's a great product, then not only will you make an extra buck or two, but it's also great marketing for your community.

Build a Network of Niche Communities

Finally, if you end up (or it's your ultimate goal) to create several communities, keep them separate and organized, yet still connected by creating your own network. You can have a network of blogs covering your many interests in the same field, or many different types of sites within the same niche — say a logo design marketplace, logo showcase site, design blog, etc.

Inspirational Networks

There are obviously a lot of network sites already, all of which provide their own unique value to the overall web community. Below is a look at a few, and one can see that they all may be structured a bit differently, have different goals, members, and activity, but all in all they allow us as professionals to come together and better ourselves.

Smashing Magazine Network

The Smashing Magazine network is simply a feed of several of the top design and development blogs within the industry. They see other blogs as not competition, but as an entire network as a whole. Unlike many other networks, Smashing Magazine doesn't focus on owning all of these sites or building more communities on their own, but rather includes other independent sites as a part of their network.

In terms of their marketing method, they do not consider their job board, directory, shop, and other main site sections such as "Wordpress", "Coding", and "UX Design" as a part of the "SM Network", but in a way it still is a part of their overall network structure.

Envato Network

Envato is a network of a variety of website types, including marketplaces, blogs, and tutorial websites (the Tuts+ network). This is one of the biggest networks in the industry, comprising of several smaller communities, a few of my favorites being FreelanceSwitch, ThemeForest, and PSDTuts.

Fuel Brand Network

Fuel Brand Network is a network of simple blogs under a variety of niches relative to the creative industry. There are blogs such as "Fuel Your Blogging", "Fuel Your Venture", and "Fuel Your Coding". All of their blogs have the same layout, logo, and overall branding, except each community separates itself from the other via its name and primary brand color.

One Mighty Roar

This is an example of a smaller network, or a network that's just starting out rather. Build Internet is a popular web development blog, and shortly after its success the owners opened up their own web design and development agency, which soon followed with a small collection of other sites. Some are related to the industry, while others are fun websites that they're happy to include in their portfolio. Either way, they market their collection of sites as a network, and surely enough, each of these sites has its own community based around it.

Conclusion

Building a network comprises of building a successful community first and one that is a part of the entire web design and development community as a whole. Anyone can create an empty network on un-thriving communities and call it one, but a successful network built from the ground up will be most beneficial to your business, and to the overall design/dev community as a whole.

First and foremost, it's about providing quality. It's about influencing your followers, friends, and community members to provide quality. It's also about managing that quality and collecting it in one overall place for everyone to enjoy. What you do with it beyond that is ultimately up to you.

• Active vs. Passive Approach to Design Business Development
• 8 Essential Steps of Handling Web Design Projects
• A Dozen Tricks Used By Clients To Manipulate Freelancers
• Mood Boarding Methods for Web Designers

Written by: Kayla Knight for Onextrapixel - Web Design & Development Online Magazine | No comment
Post Topic(s): Articles

  

In darts, hitting the bulls-eye is harder to do than hitting any other part of the dartboard. This is because the bullseye is the smallest target. This same principle can also apply to touch targets on mobile devices. Smaller touch targets are harder for users to hit than larger ones.

When you’re designing mobile interfaces, it’s best to make your targets big so that they’re easy for users to tap. But exactly how big should you make them to give the best ease of use to the majority of your users? Many mobile developers have wondered this, and most have turned to the user interface guidelines provided by the platform developer for the answer.

Looking for quality stock images for your project? With a variety of stock image agencies available, we are just too spoilt for choice.

Well, here's your chance to win one of 5 stock photo accounts, each loaded with 50 download credits (worth about $50) courtesy of our friends at Stockfresh! You can use these credits to download photos and vectors alike, whichever you need!

About Stockfresh

Stockfresh is a new up-and-coming stock photo agency by the original founders of the popular stock.xchng and Stockxpert sites. Their goal is to provide high quality stock photos, graphics and vector illustrations at affordable prices through a hassle-free, clean interface.

It's also important to note that their contributor commissions are among the highest in the industry, so if you shop with them, your money goes to the right place - the hard working artists who deserve it. Currently Stockfresh has over 1.2 million images online, their collection is growing rapidly, and their site is available in a whopping 9 languages.

Stockfresh offers flexible payment plans at great prices. If you are a designer who just needs a few images for a project, simply get a couple of download credits. If you are an online publisher or blogger with an insatiable appetite for imagery, subscriptions are the way to go. They accept all major credit cards, PayPal and Moneybookers (Skrill) payments and bank transfers as well.

The Prize

Stockfresh offers 5 accounts loaded with 50 download credits (worth about $50) each.

How to Enter

To enter this giveaway simply leave a comment in this article below. Follow us @onextrapixel and @Stockfresh on Twitter or like us @onextrapixel or @Stockfresh. Tweet or like this giveaway to double your chance of winning.

This giveaway ends on 27th February, 2012. Please use a valid email address when filling out the comment form. Please comment only once.

The winners will be selected at random, contacted by email within 3 business days after the contest is over and announced in this article.

Good luck, everyone!

• Amazing Performance Photography : 40 Stunning Images
• 40 Examples of Forced Perspective Photography
• Stock Photo Giveaway: 5x $50 Credit from Depositphotos
• Architecture Photography: Appreciation of Man-made Structures

Written by: Onextrapixel Team for Onextrapixel - Web Design & Development Online Magazine | 24 comments
Post Topic(s): Giveaways

I love looking at Black and White pictures...it somehow gives me a very calm feeling and intimate thoughts. However, seeing a bit of color on a Black and White picture makes it more exciting and outstanding. Thus, we see selective color photography everywhere nowadays. It usually draws attention to the subject in the photo and turns it into a work of art.

Most selective color photos are converted to Black and White,  leaving some parts with color. But, this time I want to share a "Selective Color Technique" that will color some parts of a Black and White picture.

How to Color a Black and White Photo Tutorial Details

Program: Photoshop CS5
Requirements:

• Music: Colbie Caillat’s You Got Me (I play a song in the background as it helps me to be in the groove while working)
• Comfy Working Table
• Pen Tablet or your trusty Mouse
• Black and White Image - you can get the image I have used here

First of all, study your black and white photo and decide which part of it you want to color. Well, in this case, of course, I’m going to choose the couple in my picture, because they are kissing and I’m a romantic!

Okay, so let’s start now...

Step 1

Start by creating a path using the Pen tool.

Let’s work on the woman’s face first. Make sure that you carefully trace the outline of her face so you get to color it perfectly.

TIP: When using the pen tool and you’re trying to trace or crop an image, you just click and drag and follow the contour of the image.  To close the path you’re making, you should be able to see a little circle beside the pen tool instead of the “x” symbol if you put it on the first anchor point you created. (Please see the image below to check on the anchor points – they are the little squares on the woman’s face.)

Once you have closed the path, you’ll be able to see the grey outline on the woman’s face.

Step 2

Select the Work Path.

Go to Paths tab and point your mouse on top of the layer or the path you created, and then press and hold the CTRL key from your keyboard and then click on it once you see the small square beside the mouse pointer. You should be able to see an ants trail after selecting the work path as shown in the image below.

TIP: You also have the option to rename the path by double clicking on the layer. I have named mine F face (Female face). This is for future modification so it will be easier for you to find it just in case you have created more than 10 paths.

Step 3

Choose a color and fill the selected path to create a colored layer. Go to Tools and click on the Foreground Color to pick a color. With this one, let’s try #feba8f hexadecimal to achieve a light skin tone for the woman. You may try other skin tones, but I prefer this one since they are Caucasians.

Once, you have chosen your preferred color for the skin from the Color Picker or Foreground Color window, click ok and fill the selected  layer with the paint bucket or press shift + backspace from your keyboard and click OK once you see the Fill window as another option.

Step 4

Use Blending Modes to achieve the right skin tone and make the colored layer blend into the original image. Color works well with our chosen hexadecimal #feba8f for the skin.

But, the color needs a little more fine-tuning so let’s try to adjust the Opacity to 54%. Try to do the same thing for her hand.

Step 5

Repeat Steps 1 to 4 to color the other parts of the picture like the woman’s hair, coat, bag, plastic bag and her laptop bag. Do the same thing to the man’s face, hair, jacket, knapsack, pants and umbrella.

TIP: Play around with the Blending Modes and the Opacity so you can get the right blend for each element.

TIP: Create a folder and drag all the layers you have created for the woman inside it so it won’t be hard for you to find a particular layer later on. It’s also good to have your layers organized.

These are the colors and blending modes I used:

Female Hair: #f78f08, Soft Light, 54% Opacity

Woman's Jacket: #ff18c1, Subtract, 100% Opacity

Scarf: #ff18c1, Color Burn, 100% Opacity

Purse/Bag: #ffe42b, Soft Light, 100% Opacity

Carrier Bag: #fff36d, Divide, 100% Opacity

Step 6

Create a new group for the color fill layers for the man.

Here are the colors and blending modes I used for him:

Male Hair: #663f0d, Soft Light, 100% Opacity

Man's Face: #ffbb94, Color, 55% Opacity

Man's Hand: #ffbb94, Color, 40% Opacity (we make the hand a little darker as there is something covering it)

Man's Pants: #1a5685, Color Dodge, 100% Opacity

Sweat Shirt: #ffffff, Soft Light, 100% Opacity

Sleeve Patch: #1264d8, Multiply, 40% Opacity

Knapsack: #be0620, Multiply, 100% Opacity

Knapsack Straps: #be0620, Multiply, 100% Opacity

Knapsack Accents: #ffffff, Normal, 100% Opacity (or you can erase or mask out the red from the Knapsack layer in these areas)

Step 7

Are you happy with it? We can still do something about this to make the colors more vibrant and make them more alive.

You can make a copy of the Female and Male folders to achieve this look.

TIP: In order for you to duplicate the female or male folder, in the layers palette, drag the group to the “Create a new layer” which is beside the Trash can icon/Delete layer, and then let go.

And you can just sigh and say, it’s always nice to have that fuzzy feeling and just be in love all the time. LOVE can color your gloomy world. That's for sure!

Further Resources

There have been many, many tutorials written on selective coloring, so here we bring you the links to a few showing different techniques using Photoshop.

• Enhance Photos with Selective Color
• How to Use Selective Desaturation to Improve your Photos
• Photoshop Tutorial - Selective Color
• Selective Colour in Photographs Tutorial

Conclusion

I hope this tutorial has shown you the power of Photoshop's blending modes. You can change the mode and opacity until you find something you prefer, or go back to the above suggestions. Your original image is still intact using this non-destructive method of coloring.

Please leave any comments in the section below.

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Written by: Dianne Lane Co for Onextrapixel - Web Design & Development Online Magazine | 6 comments
Post Topic(s): Tutorials

  

The work of Chip Kidd spans design, writing and, most recently, rock ’n’ roll. He definitely has the charisma to get ahead in that third field. He is best known for his unconventional book jackets, but he has published two novels of his own: The Learners and Τhe Cheese Monkeys.

Uninterested in design trends and fashions, he often draws inspiration from collectibles and memorabilia. Kidd is now busy creating his masterpiece, a graphic novel born from his lifelong fascination with Batman (he regards himself as Batman’s number-one fan). He has teamed up with comic-book artist Dave Taylor to illustrate the story in an astonishing way, conjuring a Fritz Lang aesthetic with a healthy dose of Kidd’s own sensibility.

Business cards are a necessity, even if you have an online business, there will be times when you need a business card, and it may be the only printed matter your company needs. Therefore, it is a very important aspect for any and every business.

Here we have collected 25 green themed business cards designed by creative designers. Green can signify good health and environmental awareness and care. We hope you enjoy this round-up.

Green Themed Business Cards

Winten America

Savoir Faire and Co

Ridequik

Graphic Designer

Green Commodities

Bigpack Media

Sixmode

Taste Of Ink

John Deo

Forst

Pixelfancy

Creativewitty

The Cuckoo Story

Pixel Design

David Crow

Vive Tile

David Buck Photography

Plant Raisers

Inkd

Badbon

Uncle Spence

Andrew Johnson

Orderedlist

Mona Vie

Creaam

Conclusion

Your business card may be the only thing a prospective client has to recommend you – so it has to portray your suitability for the work required. It’s a tall order for a small piece of card, but innovative and creative designers are able to get your message across effectively.

Please let us know which is your favorite from this list in the comments section below.

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Written by: Yogesh Singh for Onextrapixel - Web Design & Development Online Magazine | No comment
Post Topic(s): Inspiration

This week Dave and I were joined by Zoey Gillenwater and we chat about print stylesheets, CSS formatting, icon fonts, spec mysteries, and much more.

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ShopTalk Episode 6 is a post from CSS-Tricks

I'll be representin' Wufoo at a bunch of BarCamps again this year. Super fun. We need to figure out exactly what (U.S.) cities we are going to go to this year, so if you are organizing one, hit us up at the form on the site.

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BarCamp Tour 2012 is a post from CSS-Tricks

Performance photography is the art of capturing shots of performers in motion. It isn’t an easy task as the images have to be captured at precisely the right moment, one second either side of the perfect moment will result in losing the opportunity of the perfect shot. This type of photography is usually best carried out by professional photographers.

In this showcase I have collected some amazing performance shots – enjoy!

Amazing Performance Photography

Two Queens

To The Max

Fire Wand

Neoclassical

Beauty Of Linda

Golden Rain

Bite Me

Just Amazing

Golden Eagle Style

Cockfight

Sengkol's Fisherman

Sincity

Ready & Go

Music For Livestock

Proud Dancer

Smile

Pool Art

Moterbike Drift

Observer

Violinist

Firebrand

Carnival Triplets

Six In Chiffon

Calanistic

Jester

Spanish Dance

Devotion

Right Rute

Railroadblues

Magic Stick

Flash Dance

Lady Like

Too Much Fun

Pathos

Mexican Red

CCD Cleaning

Carnival

Chinese Opera

Hands Up

Adonis

Conclusion

Generally, in photography we have to focus on stable and constant things but in performance photography the focus is on moving things which makes it hard to get better quality pictures. To get a perfect shot we have to pay attention to a performer with a camera so that when the time comes we are ready to shoot.

Have you come across any amazing examples of performance photography that we have missed from this round-up? Please share your links and comments in the section below.

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Written by: Yogesh Singh for Onextrapixel - Web Design & Development Online Magazine | 6 comments
Post Topic(s): Inspiration

  

After several grueling days I had finally finished the proposal. I sent it off and waited for a response. Nothing. After a few weeks, I discovered that they were “just looking”. Despite the urgency and aggressive timeline for the RFP (Request For Proposal) plus the fact that we had done business with this organization before, the project was a no-go. My days of effort were wasted. Not entirely, though, because the pain of that loss was enough to drive me to decide that it wouldn’t happen again.

I work at a Web development company and we’ve experimented with proposal writing a lot over the years. We’ve seen the good and the bad, and we have found something better. In this article I will share the pains that we have experienced in the proposal writing process, the solution we adopted, and our process for carrying out that solution. I’ll also give you guidelines to help you know when this solution is and isn’t appropriate.

  

The Web has entered an era of user-centricity. If businesses are to attract new customers and retain existing ones, they must create websites and apps that deliver intuitive and tailored experiences. Whether you run an online retailer or a not-for-profit community website, the user experience is mission critical.

As a consequence, we have seen a real surge in the need for talented user experience (UX) designers who can help turn vision into reality. How do you attract, recruit and retain UX talent in your business?

Whether they are used to subscribe to services, send a contact form or simply to call the user’s attention to a specific page, buttons are a very important part of websites. When well designed, they have the power to change conversion rates, bring new customers to a service or help users perform and validate specific tasks.

No wonder web designers tend to put so much time and effort into creating nice, appealing buttons. In this article, we will present a showcase of websites that can inspire designers in their quest for the perfect button design, some websites to find and download nice PSD button templates. We will then take a look at some online tools to create nice HTML CSS buttons using CSS3 goodness, and finish with a showcase of pretty CSS button frameworks ready for use.

All About Buttons Finding Inspiration on the Web: Button Showcases

House of Buttons
House of buttons is a nice Tumblr website that showcases great UI buttons spotted all over the web. No search form is provided, this is a simple Tumblr blog. Just go through the pages to find inspiration.

Ui parade, Category “button”
The website Ui parade showcases different pieces of user interface and has a special category for buttons.

The Dailybutton
The Dailybutton is yet another Tumblr blog that only showcases beautiful buttons.  The interesting part of this blog is that most of the buttons are available for download as firework files. You can navigate through the blog page by page, but buttons are also classified by tags to help you find similar buttons.

Button Tag on Dribbble
I think I don’t have to present Dribbble to you these days, this website has found its place in the designer community. By taking a look at the “button” tag on Dribbble you can find inspiration and take a look at some really nice and well designed buttons created by designer peers.

Deviant Art Button Project
The button project is a Deviantart gallery that put together many Deviantart button resources in one single place. PSD files are also available for some of those buttons.

PSDs and Inspiring Button Resources to Download

Pixel Premium Buttons Tag
Pixelpremium is a website curated by Orman Clark that offers free resources for web designers. The “buttons” tag offers a nice collection of inspiring button PSD templates to download.

365PSD
365PSD is another website that offers a free PSD daily to the designer community. The archive tag for “button” offers a huge and nice variety of button PSD templates to download. Just take a look at them to see how great designers create their buttons.

Favbulous
Favbulous collects and showcases some of the best button PSD templates you can find among the designer community. You can go and take a look at the button tag to find inspiration and download nice PSD templates for buttons.

Duckfiles
Duckfiles provides free and premium quality resources for web designers.  The “button” category showcases a nice sample of button PSD templates to download and find inspiration from.

CSS Button Makers

We can save lots of great PSD and pixel resources to visually create appealing buttons, now we will take a look at some code and some online services that will help you create your dream button.

CSSButton.me
CSSButton is an online button generator. Not much coding skill is required; all you have to do is play with the options and create the three states of a button. You can start from scratch, or use a template. Once the button is finished you can view and copy/paste the code. You can login using a Twitter account to save the buttons.

css3buttongenerator
css3buttongenerator provides the same services as cssbutton.me  with a different layout.  Fewer options are available here, you can’t create an active state for instance or save your button.

CSS Tricks Button Maker by Chris Coyer
CSS tricks button maker is yet another easy to use button generator. No option to save the button here.

CSS3button.net
CSS3button.net is another CSS3 button generator with many options available. Neither hover nor active state for this service, but it enables you to share the button in their showcase gallery.

CSS Button Frameworks and Tutorials

CSS3 button UI by geekeries
This is a nice and clean framework for simple UI buttons, using CSS3 gradients, transitions and animations.

Zocial CSS3
Zocial is another CSS framework that offers nice and clean buttons for social services like Twitter, Facebook or G+

Bonbon
Bonbon is a sweet framework with tasty and juicy bonbon like buttons in pure CSS3 : yummy!

Radioactive Buttons
Using CSS3 animation, this tutorial will show you how to create radioactive buttons that will glow.

CSS3 Animated Buttons
A nice tutorial and demo that displays buttons with a bubble animation.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve got plenty of nice sources of inspiration, templates and CSS button generators you don’t have any excuse anymore not to create awesome buttons.
Now it’s your turn : do you know any great website where you find inspiration when you want to create a button ? Some lovely resources for download or a useful generator and CSS framework ? Just leave us a comment and share your discoveries.

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Written by: Stéphanie Walter for Onextrapixel - Web Design & Development Online Magazine | 12 comments
Post Topic(s): Resources

Paul Irish recently wrote a post on using the universal selector to set border-box box-sizing on everything:

* { -moz-box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-box-sizing: border-box; box-sizing: border-box; }

I've been wanting to try that for a while and I'm happy to say I've used it on a few projects already and it's awesome. It also got my thinking what other properties might be similarly useful in applying to all elements on the page.

Transitions * { -webkit-transition: all 0.2s ease; -moz-transition: all 0.2s ease; -ms-transition: all 0.2s ease; -o-transition: all 0.2s ease; }

If you're on a desktop browser, try it out right now. Open your browsers dev tools and add a new CSS rule. I happen to be in Chrome so:

I just tried it in the WordPress dashboard where I'm writing this and it's pretty wacky fun, especially in the side navigation. Performance could certainly be a concern here, so I'm not exactly advocating it's use right now, but it's fun to play with. When everything on the page has a quick and equal transition, I find it a nice, softened, comforting feel.

Non-Repeating Backgrounds

I bet overall you tell backgrounds to no-repeat more often than you actually leave them repeating.

* { background-repeat: no-repeat; }

That way you can do:

.logo { background-image: url(logo.png); }

Without worrying that the image you've set will repeat and be weird if the container is slightly bigger than the logo. And you also don't have to use the shorthand for background, which sets/resets background-color, background-attachment, and background-position whether you want it to or not.

I know Estelle Weyl is a fan. =)

Relative Positioning * { position: relative; }

If everything starts out with relative positioning, that means z-index "just works" instead of the confusing issue where default statically positioned elements ignore it. It also means it's easier to nudge things around with top, left, right, and bottom which all "just work" on relatively positioned elements. It might be hard to apply this to an existing layout but starting from scratch with this shouldn't be too hard.

Middle Alignment * { vertical-align: middle; }

I find myself setting this value a lot, especially on projects that use icons. It doesn't affect much on most layouts I tried applying it on, as it only really comes up when inline or inline-block elements line up with each other on the same line. Essentially, I find myself setting this more than resetting a default, which I think makes it a good candidate for universal settage.

Things It Might Be Fun/Useful to Try the Universal (*) Selector On is a post from CSS-Tricks

  

Yes, the brand new Smashing Book #3 is coming. The printing press is warming up, the illustrations are finished, and the chapters are being proofread. This third book is the best printed book we’ve produced so far: it is a valuable, cutting-edge, high-quality printed book that any Web designer should have on their bookshelf.

This time, we’ve also prepared an extra book 3⅓ that offers even more exclusive content. And unlike its predecessors, the new Smashing Book #3 has a theme: Redesign. It is a professional guide on how to redesign websites and it also introduces a whole new mindset for progressive Web design. In this ever-changing Web design industry, the book challenges you to think differently about your work and will change the way you design websites forever.

What holiday could be sweeter than St. Valentine's Day? It is the most romantic time of the year when two people in love feel deeper and realize how much they appreciate each other. This day has to be really wonderful and unforgettable...

A stunning photo website fully dedicated to your sweetheart or a romantic photo gallery with your favorite shots may become a wonderful afterword to this romantic Day you both spent together! Creating a stunning photo gallery, you have a unique chance to impress this day in your memory for years.

We have good news for you! Our friends from MotoCMS.com kindly give a 40% discount on any Photo Gallery and Wedding template, only for OXP readers! So, hurry up and get a striking Photo Gallery for your beloved one at a really attractive price!

Grab the promocode below and get any of the Photo Gallery Templates and Wedding Templates from MotoCMS with a 40% discount:

1EXTRAVALENTINE

This promocode will be valid for a week, from February, 14 till February, 21.

Note: You may use this promocode in order to get any Moto CMS template with a 40%. To get the template, you should pass through the standard procedure of purchasing a template: click on the "Buy This Template" button on the chosen template's page, and on the stage of filling in the "Billing Details" (that you should fill in carefully), enter the promocode to the "Promotional Code" field as well. After that you will pass through the standard payment procedure.

Great Photo Gallery and Wedding templates

Let us quickly look through the best Photo Gallery templates that will make this Valentine’s season really stunning. Choose one of the Photo Galleries and make a photo album which then will revive the emotions you both experienced on this Special Day.

Floral Photo Gallery with Scrolling Preview

Stunning Portfolio to Memorize a Big Day

Flash Portfolio with Multiple Photo Galleries

Whirling 3D Gallery for Memorable Photos

Cube-Shaped 3D Photo Gallery

Dynamic Photo Gallery with Accordion Style Menu

Stunning Photo Gallery with Piles of Photos

Interactive Photo Gallery with Flashes

Interactive Photo Gallery with Zoom Option

Book Style Photo Gallery

Conclusion

You are free to choose any of the Photo Gallery Templates or Wedding Templates and get it with a 40% discount. Hurry up, the offer is time limited.

Happy St. Valentine’s Day, dear readers! Love and be loved!

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Written by: Onextrapixel Team for Onextrapixel - Web Design & Development Online Magazine | One comment
Post Topic(s): Giveaways

  

Have you ever looked at a bizarre building design and wondered, “What were the architects thinking?” Or have you simply felt frustrated by a building that made you uncomfortable, or felt anger when a beautiful old building was razed and replaced with a contemporary eyesore?

You might be forgiven for thinking “these architects must be blind!” New research shows that in a real sense, you might actually be right.

Seasons greetings postcards are a cost effective way to send family, friends, and business acquaintances affectionate wishes during the Festive season. Fully personalized postcards or those that you have designed or created yourself convey a whole lot more love and affection. There are different types of postcard design available today, with the most common ones that you can easily find in different stores with some beautiful landmarks, landscape and beaches.

However, in this post, we have put together an interesting and most beautiful collection of some amazing postcard designs that you can send to your friends and family members at this festive season.

Beautiful and Interesting Postcard Designs

Lukoil Postcard

Postcards Featuring Famous Monuments

Postcard

3D Popup Postcards

3D Popup Postcards

Anfisa and Animals

Anfisa and Animals

Birds Card

Yeti-Mailing 2011

Postcard of Barcelona

Polaroid Postcards

Postcards

Vintage Postcard Save the Date 

CUTS Letterpress Postcard

CUTS Letterpress Postcard

Daydream Postcards

Daydream Postcards

The Coffeebean & Tea Leaf Postcards

The Coffeebean & Tea Leaf Postcards

Mid-Century Bird Menagerie

From Russia with Luck 

ToDryFor Publicity Material

Restore

Postcard

Postcards

Postcard

Futeristika Postcard

Filter017 Postcards

Wine Card

Greetings from One Percent

Postcards

Post Card

3D Popup Postcards

Spaceship Skyline

Christmas Postcard

Love Like Past

Postal MICA

Holiday ’08 Self Promo

Conclusion

For this list, we have composed fun and vibrant postcard designs for your viewing satisfaction and design inspiration. You can also complement your vibrant postcard design with an exceptional marketing message to put in more fun to your prints. So, play a part in the celebration and make each and every postcard designs something to be happy about with your own thoughts and make your loved ones feel special.

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• Free Printing Contest: Win $50 Credits from Next Day Flyers
• Cacoo Design Competition: Send In Your Designs Today

Written by: Jameel Khan for Onextrapixel - Web Design & Development Online Magazine | 4 comments
Post Topic(s): Inspiration

  

Developing for the Web can be a difficult yet rewarding job. Given the number of browsers across the number of platforms, it can sometimes be a bit overwhelming.

But if we start coding with a little forethought and apply the principles of progressive enhancement from the beginning and apply some responsive practices at the end, we can easily accommodate for less-capable browsers and reward those with modern browsers in both desktop and mobile environments.

Since the dawn of time, mankind has tried to find ways to get people to do what they want. Sometimes they employ strong-arm tactics and sometimes they use deceit, but most of the time they use manipulation to bend people to their will.

They have used tried and tested forms of manipulation for thousands of years and for the most part these techniques have worked pretty well. But they only reason they are so successful is that most of the intended victims don't even realize that they are being manipulated.

12 Most Used Manipulative Tricks Employed by Clients

If they did recognize these techniques for what they really are, then they would lose all of their effectiveness. Just glancing over the list below could save people from being manipulated in most circumstances.

1. Using Common Misconceptions

This is one of the most common manipulations in the entire world and most of the time not even the person using it understands they are being manipulative.

This manipulation involves taking a common misconception and stating it as if it were a fact just to win an argument or force the other person to do what you want. It is a tactic that is frequently used by parents in order to keep their children in line.

Here is an example:

"Freelancers don't do the same kind of quality work that a large corporation does and they don't have as many overheads either, so I can cut down their salary base by 20% and still get the type of work that I want."

2. Taking Advantage of Divided Attention

This is another very classic manipulation. Instead of asking a person for something while they are giving their full attention to them; the master manipulator will ask for something while that person is preoccupied. This is a common practice among women who are looking to get their husband to do something while they are watching the game. It is also used frequently by people to control their co-workers.

Client:"I need this report done by Thursday"
Freelancer:"I have quite a bit of work on my desk today, but I should be able to get to it."
Client:"Oh, can you also do one little assignment for me by say, Saturday?"
Freelancer:"I am really strapped at the moment."
Client:"It's just a little assignment. Won't take much time."
Freelancer:"Ok, send it on over.

The client then sends over an assignment that consists of three parts and would take at least a week to complete.

3. Taking Advantage of a Superior Position

This is a manipulation that is often used by people in positions of power. People such as police officers, doctors and politicians are the most common perpetrators, but it can be used by almost anyone in an authoritative position.

They use their authoritative positions to convince their intended targets to forgo their own common sense in lieu of theirs.

Here is an example:

"I spend millions of dollars on freelancers every year, and every single one of them works for the salary I just offered you. If you don't won't to do the assignment for what I am willing to pay, then you are missing out on quite a bit of work."

4. Topic Dialing

Topic dialing is when a person wins an argument by quickly changing the subject to a completely unrelated topic that is only distantly related to the original subject. The effectiveness of this technique is usually dependent on how fast they can change the topic. They faster they can change the topic, the more successful it is likely to be.

Here is an example:

"I heard that Stephen King worked as a freelance writer before he became a novelist. During that time he was able to write five or six reports at a time and have them done within a week or so. He could really crank them out. By the way, do you think that you could finish this assignment in the next day or so?"

5. Assumption of Guilt

This is when the manipulator assumes that a person is guilty of something by observing only the smallest amount of evidence.

Here is an example:

At 3am, after finishing a website template for a client who had to have it “by 6am their time,” the freelancer sent an email letting her know that it was finished. The next day he get a call:

Client: I don’t appreciate you staying out all night when you should be working on my project.
Freelancer: I’m sorry? I was working all last night. As you can see, I sent you an e-mail.
Client: I see that. At 3am. Do you think it’s okay to party all night and then work without sleep at 3am? It’s very unprofessional and morally reprehensible.
Freelancer: What makes you think I was out partying?
Client: Why else would you be up at 3am?
Freelancer: You gave my 24 hours to do 18 hours of work. I had to stay up.
Freelancer: Don’t try to use math on me!

6. The Use of Technobabble

Technobabble is frequently used by professionals in high tech fields such as medicine or computer science. It is encoding information in jargon intensive language. It is often used as an intimidation tactic to get a person to do what the professional wants done without the person knowing exactly what is being discussed. It can also be used to hide inherent flaws in the manipulator's argument that he doesn't want to reveal.

Here is an example:

"Despite its dangers, Dihydrogen monoxide is often used to wash children." Dihydrogen monoxide is a pseudo-scientific name for water.

7. Making an Outrageous First Request

Here is a tactic that almost everyone has used at some point in time. It involves making a request that is almost impossible to fulfill or is a request that is most likely to have been denied by the target. The manipulator then asks for something that is less likely to be struck down.

This works on the psychological principle that people don't like to have to say no multiple times in a row.

Here is an example:

Client:"Do you think you can finish these 4 reports by this weekend."
Freelancer:"I don't think that is possible."
Client: "How about 2 reports by this weekend?"
Freelancer: "I'll try but I can't promise it."
Client:"Okay, can I have the first report by tomorrow then."
Freelancer:"Sure."

8. The Stepping Up Manipulation

This tactic is often used by children. It is when a person asks for something small, and when that person agrees, then working up to bigger and bigger things.

Here is an example:

Client:"I need that report done by tomorrow."
Freelancer:"Ok, no problem."
Client:"I also need it done in triplicate."
Freelancer:"Ok."
Client:"And by the way can you make sure you add in some charts to illustrate the point."
Freelancer:"Umm, I can do that."
Client:"And I need each report to have a different type of chart. One with a bar graph, one with a pie chart and one with a comparison of the two."

9. Razor Thin Conclusions

This is when the manipulator gives out a little bit of information to the victim and then draws a conclusion from this fact. The conclusion that is drawn is usually based on a razor thin premise and is thinly connected to the information that was granted in the first place.

Here is an example:

"Can you finish this assignment by the second week of this month? You can't? Well, most of the professional freelancers I employ would be able to do it. I guess that you aren't as professional as they are?"

10. Making Reality More Pleasant Than It Really Is

This is often called looking at things through rose-colored glasses. Except that it is done intentionally and is not a result of the manipulator's naivety. The manipulator relays information about a potentially unpleasant situation in a very pleasant way.

Image credit: designers of tumblr

Here is an example:

"This assignment is really easy and shouldn't take anytime whatsoever." After receiving the assignment, the freelancer realizes that it will take several long days to get it completed on time.

11. Making Something Appear Like It’s Limited

This is when the manipulator makes an item appear to be rarer than it actually is, thereby driving up demand.

Here is an example:

"We need an illustrator with a medical or veterinarian background. We’re expecting a lot of responses, so make sure to give as low a quote as possible or I am afraid that you are going to miss out on a great opportunity."

12. Fear Creation

This manipulation technique is employed by everyone from the average person on the street to the governments of very large nations. It is a tactic that has been successfully employed for thousands of years and will probably continue to be employed for many thousands of years to come.

It involves creating a scenario that invokes fear in the recipient. This fear is then cured by a solution that the manipulator just happens to offer up at the exact right time.

Here is an example:

"We are going to have to cut some freelance jobs from our division in order to keep payroll costs under control. We are going to have to start cutting the jobs of freelancers who aren't willing to work on a lower commission. I know that these jobs are important to you and I want to help you, so why don't you lower your rate to prove just how important this job really is to you."

Conclusion

As can be ascertained from the above list, there are a variety of different ways that people use manipulation in order to tilt things to their favor. This has always been, and most likely will always be, something that is done on a regular basis. But if a person knows the different ways that people manipulate, and keep their eyes open, then they can avoid being manipulated and ensure that they are always in charge of the situation.

Do you have any examples of manipulative clients? Feel free to share with us in the comments below.

Note: Some examples are extracted from Clients From Hell.

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Written by: Aidan Huang for Onextrapixel - Web Design & Development Online Magazine | 15 comments
Post Topic(s): Articles