Redswish - carefully crafted banter

1 year down!

I noticed it was a year today that I first posted on Redswish. The site’s come a way since then but hasn’t been anything ground-breaking, not that I intended it to. I’ve tried to put a decent amount of time into the site but it’s not always that easy. Plus over time I discovered the value of quality of quantity (I think)!

Through constantly trying to better myself and the quality of my writing I’ve learnt a lot and hopefully crafted some articles that have helped and inspired people. If not, well I’ve wasted a lot of time then! But I do feel that if you were to read through all the articles mentioned below you’d see how my writing and understanding has matured over the past 12 months…

Anyway, just a quick thank-you to the regular visitors and commenters and even those that have popped in and never returned again. The odd bits of support and kind comments keep me going. Here’s to another year!

A quick summary of some of the more popular articles from the past 12 months:

• How to sell a website
• Why I hate Flash sites
• CSS Horizontal Menu
• Creating a Wordpress Theme Parts 1, 2 & 3
• Death to IE6!
• A selection of top CSS Showcase websites
• What to do when you get Bloggers cramp
• Accessible Web Design – The Whats and Whys
• The power of Wordpress Custom Fields
• Increasing and maintaining blog traffic
• Different blog post styles
• Improving yourself as a designer
• Accessible Web Design – The How
• Managing brand consistency
• 10 SEO elements all websites should have
• Designing with data
• Designing from the inside out – Part 1 & 2
• Design constraints
• Designing with empathy

That’s just a selection. I’ve also write and have guest written for other blogs including the Flame blog and iFoh designs.

Shout Outs

There are a lot of people, designers and companies that have inspired and influenced me over the past year. I’m really sorry if I forget anyone but off the top of my head I’d like to thank David Airey, Jacob Cass, Matt@ifohdesigns, Andy Clarke, Jeffrey Zeldman, Vandelay Design, Smashing Magazine, Adelle Charles, Chris Spooner, Carsonified, Elliot Jay Stocks, Nick La and so many more people…

Working at Flame since last June has been great fun, the people here are great and learning so much. So, here’s to another year!

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Wordpress Magazine Themes

This selection of 10 fantastic free Wordpress Magazine themes was compiled by Tom Walker, a self confessed gadget addict who writes for Manchester-based ink cartridge supplier, Cartridge SAVE.

10 Awesome Free Wordpress Magazine Themes

Wordpress has risen to become the online publishing tool of choice that enables anyone to create a blog or multi-page content website with relative ease. Fully customisable, this open source platform is now powering some huge online properties, including many online magazines. Of course, there are thousands of free-to-use Wordpress themes which you can use to create your own magazine with minimal programming knowledge. Here are 10 of the best free Wordpress magazine themes to try out.

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Designing with empathy

Being a web designer is a tough job. “Oh give over!” I hear you cry, and you wouldn’t be the only one. This misconceived view is justified by the general lack of understanding as to exactly what a web designer does.

Okay, being a good web designer is a tough job – but so is being a good barrister, doctor, teacher or engineer etc. The difference is that in the latter instances this is widely acknowledged based on the fact that professions of this nature have been around for a while. But due to the short lifespan of the Internet and it’s architects, coupled with the all too common ‘anyone-can-do-it’ mentality that is attached to the term ‘web design’; true web designers are rarely afforded the respect we deserve (yes, I’m considering myself a good web designer. A little bit of ego won’t hurt, will it?).

I’m not soliciting sympathy, I simply wish to raise awareness that designing for the web requires so much more than a knowledge of HTML and a copy of Photoshop. Depending on which side of the playing field you’ve approached from, development and functionality may hold precedence whereas those from a more traditional print design background rather fancy a more aesthetic approach. Then there’s fussy usability and accessibility wizards in the middle.

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Designing from the inside out: Part 2 – Semantic Markup

In the first article in this series, Content before Design, I discussed the approach to take when building sites structured in accordance to their raw content as opposed to their presentation. In part 2, I’ll be looking at how to use semantic markup and which XHTML elements are best used for different types of content.

What is semantics?

I used to naively believe that semantic markup was just clean, well-formed HTML with divs and uls instead of tables. I thought it was a term I could throw at clients and such to look clever. But although semantic markup is so much more, it is in essence very simple. Semantic markup is that which conveys meaning and the purpose of the content it contains. So, headings should be correctly wrapped in <h*> tags, unordered lists in <ul> tags and so on.

Semantics is meaning.

Well, ‘that’s just plain common sense’ you may be thinking. And of course you’re right! But regardless, the majority of websites are built so solidly around their design as opposed to content – you’d be amazed how many times obvious lists are created in paragraphs with line-breaks instead of in individual <li> tags. Or take this very site for example – the header logo is simply an image, no <h1> tag – although it’s obviously the top level heading.

“I will be fixing this elementary issues on the next redesign, I feel it’s good for the purpose of writing such articles to be able to point out my own mistakes.”

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Design constraints

Constraint leads to bad design, and good design

Books can teach you how to write HTML, online tutorials can help you craft your Photoshop and Fireworks skills, thousands of hours of hard work and engagement will provide you with a better understanding of the ins and outs of the Internet and the ways in which people interact with it.

Your job title is meaningless.

I am a designer. I work mainly on the web. I use Photoshop and Textmate daily. I build websites.

Does that stop me picking up a paint brush, spray can or scissors, or camera and camcorder and going out onto the street to obtain different forms of media that I feel may be useful in moulding my final output, the end creation?

No?

If it serves as a valuable asset in creating the final experience, there is no need to be restricted by my job title or the equipment on my desk alone. But constraints also allow us to expand creatively. By creating barriers, we know how far we can go – the lengths to which we can stretch and bend the rules to create something new, something that works within it’s medium whilst evolving beyond the competition, beyond the confines of the original brief or spec.

Make clients happy, make users happy. Everyone’s happy, everyone wins!

If there are no rules in the first place, how can we break them?

However, never forget the difference between art and advertising. Art is personal expression. Advertising serves the needs and purposes of the client. It is to promote a brand, a product, a service or opinions. Advertising makes money. Web design is a form of advertising, an increasingly essential and multifunctional branch of advertising and branding that absolutely cannot be overlooked or underestimated.

But advertising is dead, isn’t it?

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