Building a Wordpress theme

In coming days I will try to build a Wordpress theme that will work as the skin for a website.

I started reading about it today and the most helpful resource comes from the Wordpress site itself. Here is the link to read.

http://codex.wordpress.org/Blog_Design_and_Layout

There are other tons of resources on the net. However it is not that easy as it seems, specially when you are out of touch in PHP for so long. Hopefully I should be able to come up with a plan soon.

Fingers crossed !!

Cheers ~
Bis

Another Design completed | Web 2.0 based

The designs can be found here.

I finished another design for a close friend of mine. This one is a free project for a startup based in Germany. I have sent the design to the team and awaiting a response. I hope that they will like it and that it will solve their purpose. The problem with startups is that you cannot be too experimental, with colors and such. They need to hit the market from day one and more conventional approach is preferred.

 

New Design | Apr 17th 2009

So I was working on a new design yesterday and today, based on a few guidelines by our Editor in Chief and our Creative director.

The idea is to create a website which relates to “Social Networking” and wraps around our publication’s “News” content. So we wanted to create a “Social Networking” site which is “News” driven. Interesting huh ? !!

It’s not easy to satisfy people who are above you, and more so when these people know a lot about their subject. Both of these two people are extremely talented and it is my first time dealing with the former who is well known to have incub-ed CQ – congressional quarterly. The second person, my direct boss is very thorough in his subject which ranges from movie production to the nitty grittys of magazine production and design. Truely speaking I consider myself to be very lucky to be in touch with this versatile talent.

And then there is my all-time-friend-and-critique who goes by the name “Debarati” and incidentally happens to be my wife.

So after doing the design and having passed the initial round of debate with Jeff and David and selling them my ideas I sent out the design to Deb and this is what she said.

…………. And I agree 100%. She sent me two links which I went through, and after careful consideration I am pretty convinced that the design needs to be changed, which means I will have to re-sell my concept to the big two. Ah Well !! That’s the life of a designer, and I Love it big time.

Here are the two links that Deb sent me, if anybody out there is interested to know more about usability and accessibility as regards to Web design and Development.
http://www.webaim.org/standards/508/checklist
http://www.webaim.org/articles/visual/colorblind.php

I am currently studying more and more on “Accessibility in Web Design” and will come back to you with a post on what I learn soon. Thanks Deb for helping me out on this one !!

Cheers
Bis.

It’s fun time again !!

Guess what ~

I got three design projects lined up and this should be fun to do, at least much much better than stupid design tweaks whole day long

1. GovGateway needs a facelift
2. A close friend “Sven Horak” needs a website designed for his company
3. and I am working on my website

Feels like I am back to designs after a long time. This is a well deserved break !!

Take it easy everybody out there. I will share the results when done

Cheers !!
Bis.

CSS optimisation using CSSTIDY

Click here to go to the CSSTIDY app on Thenetweaver. The interface is pretty self explanatory, but I would suggest to keep a backup of your CSS files vefore you decide to replace them with the generated ones.

Optimising your CSS files

Optimising your CSS files and cleaning them up is very important not only for the size but for further maintanence issues as well. This would enhance readability too.

Below are few principles which can be read in details in “SmashingMag” and these can be applied not only to CSS files, but also to Javascript, HTML and other programming languages. Considering the principles below will help you to create more optimised websites from user experience standpoint. I have already implemented these for few of my websites for my company
eg:

The Principles as discussed in SmashingMag

1. Use Shorthand :

Instead of writing something like this

p { margin-top: 10px;
margin-right: 20px;
margin-bottom: 30px;
margin-left: 40px; }

You can try writing the same in a line

p { margin: 10px 20px 30px 40px; }

2. Replace Hacks with conditional comments :

Use conditional comments instead of hacks.

3. Use whitespace wisely :

In your CSS files avoid using multiple line breaks for readability.

4. Use resets :

Using a framework and/or a reset set of rules can help keep your work optimized.

5. Future-proof your CSS :

Seperate layout styles from the rest of the styles.

6. Document your work

We all know how important documentation is. When working in a team this helps to keep your styles consistent.

7. Make use of compression :

Try to compress your CSS files using either manual compression or some kind of online tool like CSSTIDY. I will write about this in a seperate post and how you can use that. Follow this link to read that post. I have implemented and installed CSSTIDY in my server and you can try it there.

« Previous Page