Web Design
Web Design Postcards
A web design activism site, Wish You Were Here aims to provide tips to web site maintainers (old and new) with a series of topics presented in postcard format, complete with 2-cent stamps. It had its 15 minutes of fame shortly after release when I asked for a site-test on a web design mailing list I read, and somehow got linked on about 900 blogs and websites, which pleased me no end. Since then, the site has been expanded with new tips and updated to provide useful links with each postcard to help web designers find out more on a particular topic and how to improve their sites.
Wish You Were Here: Web Design Postcards
Web Design Tutorial
Back in 2003, I wrote this tutorial as “dummy content” for my final project at the University of Hertfordshire, which researched e-learning techniques. It's a somewhat idealistic guide to planning, designing and creating a web site using modern techniques and web standards. Looking back after a couple of years, it's clear that it doesn't delve nearly deep enough into the actual theory of design, it outright lies about character-sets, and its guide to choosing a colour scheme is simplistic. Nevertheless, it offers a solid grounding in HTML and CSS, and good, plain advice on creating your first home page.
Other web design sites
- A List Apart, magazine-style site with tips and techniques.
- EyeTrack 2004, a fascinating study that reveals how visitors really read web sites.
- Dave Shea's CSS crib-sheet has good advice on designing with CSS.
- Quirksmode explains all the real-world pain that my web tutorial glosses over.
- Text Generator, for when Lorem Ipsum gets too dull.
- Converter for funny characters into the proper html