May 19, 2011 in Learn
Mediaqueri.es: a collection of responsive web designs
Came across this wonderful site called mediaqueri.es The site contains a curated collection of responsive web designs and is aptly named after a feature of CSS3 which is called Media Queries. You can sort the list of sites by date…
April 7, 2011 in Learn
Solarized
“Solarized is a sixteen color palette (eight monotones, eight accent colors) designed for use with terminal and gui applications. It has several unique properties. I designed this colorscheme with both precise CIELAB lightness relationships and a refined set of hues…
March 31, 2011 in Learn
Quick Tip: Use bit.ly for Local Development URLs
Recently I’ve been working on a new Master Class for Think Vitamin Membership on the topic of responsive design. One of the major goals of responsive design is cross-browser compatibility, so as you might expect, I’m teaching a project that…
March 3, 2011 in Learn
10 Must Have Ruby Gems
One of the most beautiful things about Ruby development is the ease of adding functionality through packaged libraries called gems. With the power of Bundler, you can quickly add and manage gems in few lines of code. With the recent…
February 14, 2011 in Learn
Encrypting Cookies in the Browser
Cookies are a convenient, often necessary way to maintain state and data in web applications. Since this is well known, cookies are a target and potential vulnerability you have to be aware of when developing for the web. There are…
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…