There are so many things that come into play in effective web design that for an aspiring web designer, but if there’s one skill that a web designer must really develop, and fast, is how to deal with customers, especially those that are notoriously difficult to work with. In this infographic from the online publication Top Web Design Schools, the business of dealing with difficult customers is given a tongue-in-cheek, but very informative treatment. Reading through the infographic will give you the necessary information that will help you deal with clients more effectively in the future. As they say, forewarned is forearmed. You can now go to a client meeting with the necessary tools that will help make these meetings more fruitful and definitely a lot painless.

From: Top Web Design Schools

The new Web Typography tool provides direct integration with Google’s Font API. This provides users with more than 50 font options, each with selectable weight, style, spacing etc. Custom typefaces can be previewed in live preview panes. Everything is integrated seamlessly for Google fonts, making selectors and inclusion of CSS files redundant.

PlatformPro has always included many meta options for the control of separate pages/ posts. Using the various panels was almost impossible to manage. The new MetaPanel combines all the usual CMS meta options in one panel, providing tabs for different sections worked on, thus making things more manageable.

Two new navigation options have been added. A secondary (sub) nav section allows users to select custom menues for each post/ page for sub navigation. This provides more flexibility within site architecture.

The new graphical BrandNav section, a much requested customisation option, combines the site logo/ branding with site navigation inline.

New child theme features added to the Platform API consist of template overriding (overwriting of section templates including files), custom templates (adding new drag and drop templates with files and functions) and a new hook for additional option types.

These improvements alone will certainly help to make web design a more manageable task.

Get you Platform pro license here

First, Dogfoose uses close-up images of produce in his illustrations. The sample below uses broccoli as treetops for a kids magazine illustration:

What an amusing way to channel the miniature look (achieved through tilt-shift photography) for infographics purposes! Is this is a subliminal technique to get children to eat their veggies? Or just a quirky case of nonsequitur?

It doesn’t matter if these questions get answered or not; what matters it that these questions were asked because of the design.

Next, we have Dark Roasted Blend’s otherworldly microscopic images. This one’s from the Olympus BioScapes competition, a photo of Drosophila larva eye neurons:

We’ve gotten so comfortable with tiled textures, but why not take an asymmetrical, unpredictable image as a cornerstone for your design concept?

Why not make trends like photographic backgrounds your own and experiment in unchartered waters? These unusual sources should be a good starting point.

The layout editor offers complete flexibility in building a great website by allowing modules (content areas with and without sidebars, navigation, images, a footer, HTML areas and widget bars) to be inserted without the need to know a thing about codes.

The included – free – child themes create a solid basis for site designs by providing typography, structure and various colour palettes; there is an option for any imaginable project and it is even possible to create one’s own.

The Style Manager quickly and easily makes tweaking the CSS, changing backgrounds, matching colours to individual preferences or trying different fonts possible without any knowledge of codes.

Builder also incorporates two very useful SEO options – users control how they want to be located by choosing either the basic or advanced options. For those already using plug-ins (such as SEO All-In-One), the Builder will keep existing settings.

This incredible package consists of the Builder, a multiple use license – the theme package may be used on as many sites (both client and personal) as required, the Style manager for codeless tweaking, a continually increasing collection of extra (bonus) child themes and a whole year of updates and support.

Start using Builder now!

Configuration

As well as being quick and easy to install – upload, activate, done – Builder has several configuration options that make life simple!

The navigational menu is configured by simply checking a box by the page names to be included – ready. A second, yes/ no option determines whether default text widgets will carry default text for ease of identification. “Yes” keeps things easy throughout.

Then there are various options for the tracking code, usually placed on the footer of a theme.

SEO options include using post tags (meta keywords) for single posts or category archives for indexing by search engines.

The most exciting part is the layout builder. There are four ready made layouts, but creating a personalised layout is much more fun.

This is done in a few simple steps: first, the new layout has to be named; then the width is selected (600px narrow, 780px medium or 960px wide). Step three is to select an extension – doing this allows the layout to make changes to the style.css and, if required, disable the style.css file of the theme. Hiding widget areas – for ease of working on the theme – is another option.

The best part of the process is creating a design without the use of codes. Builder currently provides a choice of six self-explanatory modules – content, HTML, footer, widget bar, image and navigation – to be inserted .

A page template builder allows views to be configured to a total of eleven different options.

Purchase a copy of Builder

It’s a very short list, so you won’t tire easily reading this, and the sites are more like Position is Everything than Smashing Magazine. (No offense intended; I know that SM does a wide variety of blog posts, not just lists and freebies. I just mean they’re more references than resources, okay?)

Web Design+

Web Design+ contains the solutions to common web standards problems. From choosing a DOCTYPE to implementing CSS hacks, this is a great one-stop-shop for the best practices in web design out there. There are a ton of HTML and CSS cheatsheets out there, but reading them shouldn’t stop there. Refine your markup and stylesheets with the help of this site, free!

When Can I Use…

When can I use… compares support for several web design features according to browser version, from HTML to CSS to SVG to other technologies.

For example: thinking of using CSS3′s rounded corners (border-radius)? It’s not even available on IE8 and Opera 10 yet. Of course, you don’t have to avoid using them just because the conclusion says “not ready”. It’s still a very useful page for recalling which browser version can support what.

On Having Layout

On having layout demystifies the concept of Internet Explorer’s hasLayout property. A lot of the IE-related CSS problems that web designers run into are related to hasLayout, so understanding how it works is essential.

The Ultimate Website Launch Checklist

The Ultimate Website Launch Checklist helps one go over key aspects of a website once it goes live. It’s more for the designer-webmaster hybrid, but regardless of your role in the process it’s a good view of what needs to be done.

No, this is not about plagiarism.

Imagine my surprise when Jeffrey Zeldman blogged about a list of 60 WordPress themes. A few minutes before that, I found Douglas Bowman bookmarking another list, also from Smashing Magazine. It’s like my feed reader was trying to tell me something: yes, a list article can bring an interesting discussion if you’ll just let it.

Back to Zeldman’s post, which started a discussion on whether you should use existing themes for your own design:

…Even if you are a designer, you may ask yourself if you really need to perform that next site redesign from scratch.

Every once in a while I get clients that specifically want existing themes to be customized instead of starting from scratch, so clearly there is a demand for the practice. If clients have enough initiative to choose it as a solution, then why not? Does it take more effort to find and customize than start from scratch? Depends on how comfortable you are with someone else’s code, how much you trust the other designer’s expertise, and how much you need to customize.

The bulk of the debate will probably lie mostly in this situation, but to me it boils down to don’t reinvent the wheel, but don’t get complacent either. While it is a shortcut for building a website, it is not a shortcut for conceptualizing the website.

So the other situation is this: Sometimes I envy all the beautiful themes and templates out there because I don’t really get an opportunity to use them for myself. Does choosing to use someone else’s work for a web designer’s own website make sense? It seems counterintuitive but a real problem: sometimes we barely have time to dedicate to our own projects. Sometimes we just want to use something ready-made and have fun with it.

Although there are frameworks for practically level of development these days, from CSS to JS to PHP to whole themes, they are created specifically as tools for designers; they aren’t really products for designers as consumers. What I’m talking about are the real themes that are smart enough, beautifully-designed enough to meet your discerning needs. It could be as stark as Cutline or as detailed as WordFolio: compare this and this. (Now that would be good idea for a list article: websites that are highly customized versions of existing themes. Not to mention a good source of inspiration. A niche gallery, even!)

We could probably exclude portfolio sites since web designers would prefer to show off their skills on them—but even that argument can be ruled out if the customization is custom enough. Take blogs, tumblelogs, and other secondary sites that still belong to a web designer but don’t necessarily need a design from scratch. The issues with the client scenario website still apply, but there’s the added pressure of being your own worst critic.

Would you be confident enough to use one, or would you lose sleep at night without customizing at least some bit of it to keep your design cred intact? It doesn’t have to be a bad thing; it could be a different type of challenge.

• Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability
• Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web
• The Elements of Typographic Style
• Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative
• Envisioning Information
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
• Grid Systems in Graphic Design
• Universal Principles of Design
• Thinking With Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students
• The Design of Everyday Things
• Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
• The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master

How about you?

First Impression

Now quick, when you look at the site what is your first impression? While a couple of years ago I could easily see this site as being looked upon as being profressional there are just too many flaws that show how dated it is.

Site Alignment

While there is nothing wrong with left-aligned sites, I don’t think it works on this site because it leaves you with a feeling of emptiness. Centering the site will give it a little more polish and add more options to what can be done with the background and color scheme.

Logo and Typeface

Usabilla

Usabilla has the most features out of the lot, letting you test both images and live websites with click markers, notes, and heatmaps. There’s a free plan but you’ll enjoy more test participants and pages with the premium plans.

ConceptFeedback

ConceptFeedback anchors on a thriving community and and offers special perks for both individual designers and businesses, including compensation for giving feedback. Not only can you get reviews for your current work and inspiration for your next one, your profile, design, or product can get featured to earn better exposure and business—but you need to jump in with both feet and register.

fivesecondtest

As the name implies, fivesecondtest focuses on first impressions as a test-takers look at designs for no more than five seconds and answer custom questions from test-makers. This means judgments can be rash, but the barrier to entry is very encouraging. For extra good measure, the app runs on a karma system where the more tests you do, the more test results you can make.

FineTuna

The Flash-based FineTuna creates a link for every image you upload, which you can send to specific people for feedback. That link is a space where one can insert notes and doodle on the image. You won’t have a community of users at your disposal, but you have complete control and privacy over the feedback process. It’s also available as a Firefox add-on.

CritiqueTheSite

CritiqueTheSite uses hackable URLs, iframes, and JS-Kit’s Echo to let visitors leave comments on a currently loaded site. Append a URL of any website (like Aviary Screen Capture does) after the slash and it loads that site, ready for critique. Public, no-registration-necessary feedback makes the service prone to abuse, but it also means it has a low barrier to entry.

No clear winner here!

If you want a more detailed level of testing, Usabilla is the way to go; if you need something lighter and more accessible, the likes of CritiqueTheSite, FineTuna, and fivesecondtest may be better for you. If you’re all about building your reputation and relationships as an added bonus, pick ConceptFeedback. Or why not use all of them? Using all these tools for online critiquing lets you reap the unique benefits for each.

Check out the more colorful, animated visualization of browser support for the latest HTML5 and CSS3 features based on data from When can I use… Inspired by a General Dynamics postcard and an infographic on America’s wealthiest religions, this single-serving site is quite literally a rainbow that’s painting optimism for the future of web standards.

Each ray represents a feature, and the different bands of color represent the leading browsers, IE6 excluded (finally). More under the hood details here, praising the virtues of Sass and Photoshop-less, in-browser design. Kudos to Paul Irish (again!) and Divya Manian.