blog

You're viewing the archive for the ‘web design’ Category


Getting to Know Drupal 7

Friday, August 27th, 2010

In the process of beginning to redevelop this website in Drupal (this site’s portfolio is static PHP and this blog currently runs WordPress), I’ve decided to dip my toes into Drupal 7, the next-generation version of the venerable content management system (CMS). Might as well, right? Somebody’s got to be the guinea pig.

Although it’s not done yet– it’s just getting into beta– one can see what enormous changes the Drupal core development team has made. Although I found a number of the changes confusing, initial confusion is really fine with me if it represents an improvement in functionality or usability, and I’d argue that that’s what most of this is. So, in no particular order: (more…)

Tags: , ,
Posted in web design | No Comments »

More slick design, including the Drupal.org redesign

Saturday, July 31st, 2010

http://www.matthamm.com

http://www.jccpgh.org - the new Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh. Very solid redesign of a previously outdated and hard-to-navigate site.

http://typekit.com - Amazing font collection at just $50/year. I think I’ll be using these. Sweet site, too.

http://www.markboultondesign.com/projects/drupalorg - This is the mock-up for the new Drupal.org homepage. Isn’t it much nicer than the current one?

Tags: , ,
Posted in web design | No Comments »

Some Slick Site Design to Share…

Sunday, February 28th, 2010

Some nicely-done sites I’ve found recently:

That’s it! Enjoy!

Tags: ,
Posted in web design | No Comments »

Case Study: Drupal as an Educational Platform

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

Drupal, the ever-growing website management framework, has long been known in the web development industry as a content management system that allows website administrators to log into their site via a web browser– without special software, just as one would do with, say, a Gmail account– and keep their site up-to-date without knowing HTML or other technology.

When you dig deeper, though, it is much more, as we demonstrated with our redesign/redevelopment of Pittsburgh Prep– which included a move to the Drupal platform. Pittsburgh Prep is an educational company focusing on standardized test prep classes and private tutoring, and in early 2009 they made the decision to move towards a web-based solution for the selling and management of classes. In 2010, they plan to add online courses and Blackboard-like functionality that will include forums and quiz-taking. (more…)

Tags: , ,
Posted in technology, web design | No Comments »

ClockingIT for Project Management

Monday, October 26th, 2009

Ever have a rough time managing multiple web design projects and multiple workers per job? How about logging hours during, say, a day when you work on 10 projects?

As a project manager, I find it harder than ever to keep track of everything and everyone, and of course email and text documents just don’t to projects justice. Enter ClockingIT, a BaseCamp-like solution for logging hours, projects, and individual tasks. (more…)

Posted in project management, technology, web design | No Comments »

Whole Advice goes live

Monday, June 15th, 2009

One of my recent projects, Whole Advice, has just recently gone live.

Whole Advice is the brainchild of Tom Dickson, an experienced financial advisor and marketing expert. This business, though, is unique: it’s not a financial advisor, but rather a “second opinion” on investment and advice. Clients approach Whole Advice to find financial advisors and get an “inside scoop” on the business– so as to be all the wiser, especially in the wake of Bernie Madoff and other less-than-reputable investment “gurus”.

For this website, we decided to stick to a simple design and palette, giving a professional yet “earthy” and “natural” look– consistent with this business’s values. We also developed a custom logo to span the gap between contemporary and timeless. Technically, this site is managed via WordPress, the open source PHP/MySQL content management/blogging platform the visuaLATTE blog uses. We also make use of jQuery, as with most of our recent projects.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in identity design, web design | No Comments »

If you’re a web designer, and this sounds familiar…

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

I came  across a great piece at A List Apart (in my view, a premier online magazine of the web profession) about self-employment and burnout.

Tags: ,
Posted in web design | No Comments »

Really Cool jQuery plugins

Monday, May 25th, 2009

I’ve written before about jQuery, the open-source JavaScript library that makes it far less time-consuming to do visually stimulating website effects– which one formerly could only do with Flash– using lightweight, accessible JavaScript. The greatest thing about jQuery, though, is that it by itself is lightweight and, unlike Prototype/Scriptaculous (which are bigger, more complex libraries), relies on thousands of small, easy plugins that do much of the “fancy” work.

Here are a few that I have made use of recently, and wanted to share:

  • Lightbox (creates image overlays)
  • Shadowbox (does the same thing as Lightbox, but supports HTML entities, video, audio, you name it
  • Cycle (creates versatile slideshows)
  • Step Carousel (makes “carousel-type” slideshows which slide to the right or left when the “next” or “previous” button is clicked)
  • Validate (simply and easily validates forms)
  • Superfish (makes versatile, animated drop-down menus)

Tags: , ,
Posted in technology, web design | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Powered by WordPress Copyright © 2004-2009 visuaLATTÉ  •  412.521.1003