You (the Designer) and I (the Client), We Make a Team

It takes more than compelling content and intelligent coding to produce a great website. A successful relationship between a designer and a client is, perhaps, just as imperative. Take a look through your portfolio. Are there any projects in there that you weren’t quite happy with? If so, think back to your relationship with that client. Were both parties on the same page, so to speak? Over the years, I…

Subtle UI Improvements

Sometimes the best user interface elements are the ones we barely notice. They’re so subtle, so masterfully crafted, that we don’t even recognise how much thought, care and attention has gone into creating them – because we use them while we’re on autopilot. It’s easier to spot the big, fancy UI elements – Path’s pop-out menu is a great example of that. It’s beautifully designed and fun to use –…

The Truth about Web Design

As a freelance web professional, designing websites is your livelihood and in some cases, your life. Your ability to create a website that does everything but make and pour coffee is commendable, but the sad truth is that other than yourself and other web designers, nobody cares about the design at all. What they care about is what it can do for them. Truly great web design supports the purpose…

How to Read Code – 5 Essential Books

Knowing how to read code is one of the founding pillars of programming. While writing and practice are intrinsic to learning any programming language, much can be gained from reading the code written by other, better programmers. Just as a reading of Tolstoy, Twain and Austen is essential to the education of any serious writer (with even a book devoted entirely to this subject), every competent programmer should devote at…

What Bad Designers Know That You Don’t

Ever feel like you’re getting passed over constantly for new and exciting work by other designers who aren’t quite as, well, good as you are? Don’t worry, you’re not alone – and you’re not a bitter jerk for having those thoughts. It’s something that most designers will face at some point in their career, especially as they improve their skills and become better designers, yet their client roster is still…

Useful Tips To Get New Web Design Clients

Many freelancers begin their careers without a formal marketing plan for their web design business. The truth is that sales and marketing is a crucial part of all businesses, and that is why your clients hire you. Today’s business owners know a great website is an important part of their marketing toolkit, and since this is your career you should have an awesome website yourself. While a great site is…

Using Web Design to Solve Creative Problems

Our modern technology has come about from centuries of human evolution. Even before computers we were using cars to get around and radio/television to broadcast media across large areas of the population. Now that the Internet is so well adopted in most areas of the world the field of web design has become a booming industry. Every company and their CEO needs to have a website. This may appear overboard…

Using the Power of the .htaccess File to Improve WordPress SEO

Search engine optimization is a rapidly growing field which seems to grow more lucrative by the day, and that’s largely because a website’s placement within a search engine can make or break the site’s revenues and their stream of new readers or subscribers. Many people are familiar with the best ways to optimize a website for the best search engine placement, whether it’s committing to a routine and regular cycle…

Advanced Illustrator Tutorials – My Favorites

Have you ever wanted a list of only the best advanced Illustrator tutorials that you could reference when needed? I keep finding myself spending too much time scouring the web for techniques, having to watch or read through a bunch of tutorials, to FINALLY find what I was looking for in terms of quality advice. So I went on a mission to build said glorious list of Illustrator resources, just…

Speed, Consistency, Harmony, Creativity & Certainty with The Golden Grid

As most will know, grid-based systems can improve your website’s aesthetic, and Italian designer Carlo Poso has taken that sense of aesthetic even further by creating a grid system inspired by the golden ratio.

Utilizing jQuery UI Animations for Neat Page Effects

If you’re familiar developing in JavaScript then you must know about jQuery. It’s an extremely powerful library allowing you to write much simpler code and express the same end result. This trend has split off into a few sister projects, one of which being the jQuery UI Library. This script allows developers to quickly animate with precision using custom functions. You can also include themable page widgets such as tabs…

Recently Released Free WordPress Themes

Free themes can be highly valuable resources to WordPress users and bloggers. While there is no shortage of premium themes available for purchase, the quality of free themes can sometimes exceed the expectations that you would have for something that can be downloaded and used for free. In this post we’ve compiled some of the best free WordPress themes that have been recently. The collection includes a variety of different…

Cookie Consent – an Open Source Solution to EU Cookie Law

Few weeks ago, we covered the European Union’s Cookie Law, and its implications on websites based in Europe. Thereafter, we have also covered the reactions to the said law. In fact, as a UK-based site, Speckyboy itself firmly stands in support of such protests against the Cookie Law. Speaking of protests, Silktide, one of the most prominent critics of the Cookie Law and the brains behind concepts such as No…

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