February 10, 2011 in Learn
Gawker Media's Redesign
This past Monday, Gawker Media rolled out a redesign of all the sites in their network. A two-column, app-like interface has replaced their previous layout, placing heavy focus on a “splash” story with scrolling headlines in the sidebar. For reference,…
February 7, 2011 in Learn
Tips on Learning JavaScript
In his seminal article Style Versus Design Jeffrey Zeldman wrote The web used to look like a phone book . What he should have written is: The web used to look like a phone book sitting in a tacky 70s…
January 25, 2011 in Learn
Why Is Chinese Web Design So Bad?
I’d like to begin with a disclaimer. My opinions on the following topic are merely that, opinions. Opinions formed by observations and interactions with the Chinese culture over a brief period of about two years during my time living in…
March 22, 2010 in Learn
The Startup Story of Carbonmade
Author Note: Spencer Fry has offered up 5 Carbonmade “Whoo!” Accounts. To be entered to win one, follow instructions at the bottom of this article. Back in 2009, around the time when the global economy broke, a lot of creatives…
March 19, 2010 in Learn
5 Important E-Commerce Themes for 2010
Editors note: In his first article for Think Vitamin Rob Smith looks at his top five themes for e-commerce for 2010. Whether you are considering starting an online shop or have one that isn’t performing as well as you would…
March 3, 2010 in Learn
17 Essential Developer Networks
Recently I have been noticing that more and more tech companies are starting up “developer networks”. Some of these, like the Yahoo! Developer Network, consist of great tools and resources (think YQL, YUI etc) that we can all make use…
February 17, 2010 in Learn
5 Good Reasons Why Designers Should Code
Earlier today Elliot Jay Stocks commented on Twitter I’m shocked that in 2010 I’m still coming across ‘web designers’ who can’t code their own designs. His comment created a great little debate on Twitter. Personally, I agree with Elliot. I…
February 16, 2010 in Learn
Sitemaps – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Sitemaps are like Marmite (Ed: yeast extract spread that divides opinion, very popular in the UK). You either love them or hate them. OK maybe you don’t ‘love’ them but they do seem to create an obvious divide between those…
December 2, 2009 in Learn
10 Things to Consider when Writing for the Web
Writing for the web is a challenge. There are usually word length restrictions, the fact that users scan rather than read every word, and sometimes style guides to adhere to. There are enough writing tips online to keep you reading…
September 15, 2009 in Learn
How to Debug in PHP
Nobody enjoys the process of debugging their code. If you want to build killer web apps though, it’s vital that you understand the process thoroughly. This article breaks down the fundamentals of debugging in PHP, helps you understand PHP’s error…
September 14, 2009 in Learn
Why You Should Switch from Subversion to Git
You may have heard some hubbub over distributed version control systems recently. You may dismiss it as the next hot thing, the newest flavor of kool-aid currently quenching the collective thirst of the bandwagon jumpers. You, however, have been using…
September 4, 2009 in Learn
How to Create a Valid Non-Javascript Lightbox
I recently came across a solution on CSSPlay for a JavaScript free lightbox that uses invalid markup. So, being a sucker for a challenge, I set myself the task of creating one with valid markup and I eventually succeeded. Here’s…