Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with web and design

You own a Web Design biz, how would you advertise?

livin4u — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:02:56 -0800

You own a Web Design biz, how would you advertise? Until now it has been entirely word-of-mouth. Hey, I do Web Design and until now all business has come from word of mouth. Never did advertising for it.
What would you suggest doing to attract more clients.

Thanks for your time and input :)

Need recommendation on FLASH program

hellodonna — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:42:23 -0800

I am looking for a program that will easily allow me to create a Flash banner. All I want is to create a banner that has about 4 images fading in and out and some animated text over top. I should think this would be super easy but I am trying to find a software program to do it and I am coming up with either stuff that's way too complex or software that can't do it. Do you know of any program that would help me? (It doesn't need to be free, I can spend up to 100 USD on it).

What would I do without you guys, really?

Bageena — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:31:30 -0800

My friends and I are starting an artist collective in Phoenix, Arizona and we desperately need help thinking of a name. Can you help? Short explanation; I myself am an artist with, you know, the paper and the pencil and occasionally, some ink or acrylic or something. I have three friends that are photographers, another friend who's a painter, two friends who are musicians, and a few others who might also join. What we've decided we'd like to do is start a community blog where we all write individually what we're doing to try and break into the mainstream or just get our work seen. The main site will show all of our posts, broken down by individual members, along with a sort of swarm cloud that shows how often each artist works with the others.
Anyways, we've got a ton of great ideas already and we're excited to get a move on it, but we're stuck at what seems to be the first effing step! We need a name for our little community. We don't have a lot in common except that we all work normal 9-5 jobs outside of our passions for our individual work, we are all artists of one sort or another, and we all live in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm trying to think of names that are reminiscent of the desert or of Phoenix. I sort of like the idea of something ancient and awesome sounding. Really though, we're open to anything. I'd list the links to our websites so you could actually see our styles and who we 'are', so to speak, but I think that'd be a little too self-linky for me. So yeah - if your really that curious, you can look in my bio and I think there's a link there to my personal work.
So yes, I leave it once again to the most clever people I know to help me hop a hurdle in my life. Thanks Mefites!

Sorry, no matches for the tag graphic design books across MetaFilter‽

Mr. Anthropomorphism — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:19:17 -0800

What are the essential books on the topic of the objective qualities of effective graphic design? I am particularly interested in web design, but anything that pertains to the underlying principles of design and the interplay of aesthetics and content would, I think, benefit me.

I'm not so much after a gallery of "wow, look how easy this is for the masters" but more of a manual that bears re-reading and referencing.

I don't have a mint to spend, but if I could maybe have at least one each regarding layout, color, and typography, I think I would benefit hugely.

Need recommendations on automated checkout and download

arniec — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:38:25 -0800

I need recommendations for a web host and software to allow people to purchase digital downloads using Paypal, etc. (think Rifftrax or eBooks, etc.) I want to have a web site where I can make electronic things available for purchase. Be it software packages, MP3 podcasts, or eBooks, I want to have an automated checkout and download system where people can pay and then immediately download the item they've paid for. Credit card purchasing is a must.

In my research I've come across DigiVendor Pro at http://www.idevspot.com/DigiVendorPro.php and the software is very cheap (in price), and security and reliability is a must for me so I'm not afraid to spend more if it means a more robust, secure solution.

Has anyone done this and can they recommend a good package for me?

(as an aside, I'm a programmer and web developer not afraid to get up to my elbows in code to implement or customize the solution. And yes I asked this question: http://ask.metafilter.com/120735/Need-a-store-thats-quick-and-cheap but this one is different as it's digital download automation, whereas the last one was shipping a physical product).

How to game my Google search results?

citron — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:59:42 -0800

What are some good IT-related, or editorial-related, blogs and sites on which to comment, so that if my name is Googled by potential employers, these comments will show in the search rankings? I'm not trying to get my name out there, what I'm trying to do is: kick some old and irrelevant Google search results down, so that relevant and current interests show up first. I'm doing copy editing work at the moment and have some background in web development, though my skills are not as sharp as they should be, and I'm trying to learn more. Ideally, early next year, I'd be searching for a job that requires more web editing and/or development.

But in today's job search process I'm well aware that potential employers will Google me, and while my social media profiles are professional and fine, I don't have much else that shows aside from a few arts section reviews I wrote for a college journal, years ago. They're not the worst thing in the world, but way too snarky, so I don't like them now and they probably don't present me in the best light. I'm embarrassed of the attitude I've had in the past, basically.

What are some sites I should be reading and commenting on now, just for talking shop? I need sites that would 1) be useful places to comment and ask questions about web development and design processes, user experience, social media, web editing and where I could comment under my own name, where comments are Google indexed & thus show up if someone Googles me? For instance, I used to read A List Apart religiously, but I am out of touch, the web moves so fast! There must be more sites to recommend like this. Thanks!

How to create online video classes?

jabo — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:36:36 -0800

I need advice in setting up secure, online video classes. A student would pay for the class, and then be directed to a streaming video that they would be able to watch (not download) for a length of time (say a week).

I could use any advice, resources, warnings or general musings on how to accomplish this. Existing software or hosting solutions also welcome. I know html and css but only just getting my little toenail wet with php. Finally, this would be for a small business with limited resources (i.e. cash).

I need a crash course in the current best-practice website accessablity standards.

anastasiav — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:42:45 -0800

Give me a crash course in making our nonprofit website accessible. What are the best practices/standards? What's the lingo? I'm not building the site, but I have a meeting with the developers who are, today. They are doing this pro-bono for us (we're a community nonprofit with a goodly number of disabled users). Its important to our CEO that the website be accessible, but she hired me because she doesn't really understand the web.

I get the web fine, but I've never had to deal with this particular issue before. My first meeting with the developer is this afternoon. Help me talk with them about this issue and not sound like a N00b!

What should I do when I grow up?

LolaGeek — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:31:56 -0800

The future of my current job is uncertain (familiar story, I'm sure). What should I do to plan for the future? My background is in art, and ... pharmaceutical training and compliance. I'm a pretty much self-taught graphic designer and web designer. I graduated from college five years ago with a BA in Commercial Art. The program was woefully behind the times, so I actually learned very little about the software side of things, and our training in web design was nonexistent. (I ended up teaching HTML to half my class during that lesson.) While I can write up a nice HTML web page in notepad, and I'd consider myself an above average-level user of most standard design software (e.g. the Adobe Creative Suite), I feel like I'd be totally lost if I walked into a job tomorrow as a "graphic designer." My local community college has a Web Development certificate program that starts with the basics and works up to different server technologies. As a county resident, it would run me ~$4000 to complete, and can supposedly be done in a year, full-time.

On the other hand, for the past five years I've been in the pharmaceutical industry, working in compliance and training. So I'm now very familiar with compliance issues working in a highly regulated industry, and have lots of experience with training development and administration. Part of my job is that I'm the webmaster of a large, unruly intranet site, but that doesn't require too much specialized skill. Another large part of my job is being a glorified administrative assistant, and I do some customer service-type work, communicating with clients about training issues, and troubleshooting their technical problems (so I'm also a technology help desk, sort of).

There's really no specific career I'm interested in switching to (e.g. education, nursing, etc.), though I could if I needed to, if there was someplace my skills would be a good fit. I feel like my general skills (organized, good communication, highly technologically competent, etc.) would be desirable in a lot of areas, but in the current climate I'd want to make myself as marketable as possible. So should I focus on graphic design and/or web development, should I try to stay in the pharma industry, or should I totally change gears? And if so, what should I learn now to help me in a future career?

Best place to find web designer to do a very simple one page design that I can maintain?

jcmilton — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:58:23 -0800

Best place to find web designer to do design/layout/code for a Wordpress static page that I can maintain? I maintain a Wordpress site with a few static pages. But my design/layout/code skills are pretty lame, so I'm looking for the best place to go to find a contractor who can make some of my static pages look... well... "designed" that would also work within my current, and any future WP theme I use. The pages also have to be able to be updated by a non-programmer (me) whose skills extend to basic HTML and image and text replacements.

I'm not looking for a new custom theme, or a site overhaul, or tons of custom CSS, I just need to pretty-up some static pages. My impression is that a lot of the online contractor sites are more geared to whole site design and bigger jobs, this should be a fairly small endeavor. Perhaps my impressions are wrong? Suggestions on where to go?

Online event listings, what are the good ones?

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:01:23 -0800

Please show me the most informative and useful online event listings you use. Want to revamp the event listings for the company, make them really informative and useful to the end user. To that end I'm looking around at other listings to see how others manage and present the data for users.

So what event site do you find really useful in terms of clearly presenting information about what's going on not only today, but in the future?

How to apply a radial-subtle gradient to a 1px line Photoshop?

wildrain2008 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:26:44 -0800

How to apply a web 2.0 radial-subtle gradient to a 1px line Photoshop? Hi All, I'm a freshman Web/Graphic design student and am looking to achieve the following:

How to apply a subtle gradient to a line tool in Photoshop? In other words I see a trend in web 2.0 graphic-rich websites that use these horizontal rules that fade on both sides.

I have been able to achieve all effects with linear gradients. But am unable to master the radial gradient. It seems that if I start from center it blends the middle of the line instead of the outer edges.

Essentially I'm looking to learn to achieve two effects:

1: http://www.cobblestonecn.com/
- the top-most tab's bottom border fades on both sides seemlessly

2: http://onwired.com/
- the border of the green strip fades on both sides and also has a shadow under it to make a pop effect.

Are there good tutorials for both web 2.0 effects?

I know my way around Photoshop, but have not had experience with achieving certain effects.

Thanks in advance!

How to create a dot background pattern for a blog / website??

arbor day — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:44:17 -0800

I'm looking to create a very subtle dot background pattern, like the one on this site. I'm pretty familiar with Photoshop and Illustrator and have been able to produce a dot pattern, but the scale is much too big, and when I try to create a smaller pattern using a smaller circle, it simply disappears, or becomes a solid gray once I import it as a background. Does anyone have any idea how to make a pattern like the one on that site? It seems like it should be pretty straightforward, but I haven't been able to figure it out.

How much does it typically cost for a good logo and front page for a web application?

tomargue — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:13:25 -0800

Okay, I'm designing a web application with a minimalist look-and-feel. I want a simple, clean, cute logo, and a simple, clean, cute front page. What's a ball-park figure as to what this may cost? A little more detail as to what I'm thinking of...

I'd like the front page to have about maybe 4 main ideas, and when hovering over each idea, more information about the web-application is displayed. However, this idea may change when I start talking to a graphic/web designer about effective front pages. And it may change depending on how much it all costs.

Obviously the price is going to change dependent on my requirements, but at the moment, I don't know whether this is going to cost me $100, $1000 or $10,000. What's an order of magnitude estimate of what it may cost?

Fireworks and Photoshop workflow issues

fauxtoes — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:04:06 -0800

Fireworks vs. Photoshop - which is better? (ok, that's obviously flamebait). How do I make a workflow argument for Photoshop in a production department entrenched in Fireworks? We're a web production department that primarily designs and builds web pages from Fireworks source files. I prefer to design in Photoshop, but I'm getting pushback from the production department. The argument being, that working with photoshop is fundamentally slower, not built for the web, and therefore has no place in our workflow.

I'm trying to build the case that we can, and should, have a capacity to work with Photoshop. I see opposition to Photoshop as a training issue that can be overcome. How can I sell the benefits of adding photoshop expertise to our repertoire?

What software should I use to design a Webpage logo?

hellodonna — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:09:42 -0800

I am trying to create a professional looking logo for a Web site. I am using GIMP but finding I am very limited in terms of what I can do with it. Is there a software package that I should be using that will allow me to create a good looking logo/header image? I understand Photoshop is the best however, it's really expensive (700.00). Are there any software alternatives or do I just have to pony up for Photoshop? By the way, I have a PC.

How cool can Wordpress get?

london302 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:43:34 -0800

What is the coolest thing you have seen/done using Wordpress. Special relevance to a corporate website. Can I get it to do cool stuff for me like IP filtering and more? I am not a web developer or a designer but am willing to read and learn and any help will be appreciated.

The site itself will be hosted as a wordpress theme and the client will use it for updating it (CMS). What I was wondering was if there are any nice plugins/tricks which would allow us to do some of the following cool things:

1. Embed Google documents which can be shared either the whole world or in a password protected section (particularly interested in presentations and spreadsheets)

2. Can we present a different set of pages to visitors from different part of the world based on their IP addresses?

3. We are planning to use Dreamhost as our web host - any good or bad experiences with Wordpress/plugins?

4. Can we backdate postings in our press release section?

Help Really Cool Nonprofit Reptile Park Not Have Unusably Sucky Web Site

jimmyjimjim — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 07:46:42 -0800

Hideously incompetent webmaster volunteer dies, leaving awesome but destitute nonprofit reptile park with a blacklisted, non-updatable web site. Management is all-consumed by the task of feeding and caring for 300 huge crocodiles and running around the country to rescue others, so it falls on the rest of us to bring their web site, a simmering pile of alligator squat, back to some point of usability. But how the heck to proceed without drowning in crocodile tears? These guys (ignore the malware warning...more on that in a sec) run all over the country rescuing unwanted crocodiles (idiots buy babies as gifts for their kids, then, duh, don't know what to do with them when they grown (the crocs, not the kids), and bring them back to their refuge in Florida, where they care for them and edutain the public, trying to destigmatize these awesome big creatures. Kids can have alligator birthday parties at the park. One current resident is Tarzan, 90 year old croc star of the old Tarzan films from the 1930's. The whole operation's awesome, like out of a dream (I've never been there; just follow along from afar).

Unfortunately, there's not much money in this, so they resort to sucky volunteer labor for things like their web site. And the latter's a simmering pile of crocodile squat - and the guy who donated programming(sic) and design(sic) recently passed away. It's currently blacklisted as a malware site, and most surfers using Safari or Fireforx can't even get in. One peek at the source code, and you'll see why. It's insane.

They can't afford a site makeover, nor do they really want one. Even though it looks cheesey, they're ok with it. They just want to 1. get off the blacklist, and 2. have a way to update stuff (including the blog, currently a badly installed old version of Word Press whose details the deceased programmer took to his grave). And while my instinct is to tear it all down and build new, that'd be expensive to recreate.

So I'm thinking of taking a deep breath, wading into the wanky code, and purging the non-functional ad delivery set-up, the pointless javascript; reconfiguring the images pulled from other servers, and figure out why Camino reports a bunch of glacially-loading files ending in .tw.

Can anyone offer advice? Or if you have time to actually help, I'd kick in some money from my own pocket (I'm just a volunteer, myself), or the Croc guys could provide a tax receipt for donated labor. I don't want the refuge to close! Where would the 300 giant crocodiles live???

Am I trying to take down a mammoth or a mouse?

Diablevert — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:32:38 -0800

I have an idea for a web project, but barely any knowledge of code. Can I teach myself enough to do this on my own over weeks or months, or is what I want to do so complicated it'd take years to learn everything I'd need to know? I have an idea for a web site/application. I think it's a good idea and I'd like to at least have a go at making it, but I certainly can't afford to hire a professional. I myself am pretty ignorant: I know some HMTL, I've fooled around with CSS but never built anything in it, and once, long ago, I had to work with an SQL database. That's about it, really.

The site/ap I want to build would work along these lines: John would be able to upload a file to the site. The file then goes into a pile with a bunch of others. When Paul comes along to the site, he will get a pop up with a partial excerpt of John's text. If he wants, he'll be able to click in and read the rest of John's file. If he doesn't, he clicks "next" and another excerpt from a different, random file from the database will appear in the window. Paul can just keep clicking through. I would like to be able to very preciely measure at what point in the page Paul decides to read further or not --- some kind of floating cursor arrangement, perhaps, with a button hovering at the end of each line as Paul scolls through the excerpt. Further, I would like to automatically compile a number of statistics related to the excerpts (how many times they've been served up, how many times people wanted to read further and at what point they came to that decision), and possibly to correlate them with other user info stored in some kind of profile. Like, George and Ringo both like Paul's stuff; maybe George would also like John, who Ringo likes.That type of thing. There's more to it than that, but that's kind of the core of it and any of the additional functions I had in mind I don't think would work substantially differently, from a programming perspective. Like, I don't want to add a flash intro or nothin'. Also, I would like to be able to display much of this information to the user, through a web interface.

So, what types of things would I need to know to make something like that? And would trying to teach myself starting from almost pure ignorance be like trying to build a table from scratch (which, with the help of God* and Black and Decker I think I could do) or more like that guy who's trying to build a toaster from scratch?

*Norm Abrahms.

Painted my self into a technical corner with theory paint. Help.

lottie — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:54:39 -0800

I'm here to enrol in web kindergarten. How do I get started on a likely-to-become-extremely-complex website build when I... ahem... haven't designed anything for the web before? I'm a Graphic Designer researching Design at PhD level, and my project has arrived at a point where I have proposed that I create a website as an interactive part of my practise-based research.

Please consider me a complete and utter noob, and by extension wonder why the hell I would propose doing something that I don't know how to do. Imagine I just fell to earth and decided to create a website. Assume also that I'm a quick learner.

The reason I've elected to do something I have no expertise in, is that it is the best way to investigate certain theories in my proposal, so really, I just have to make it happen.

There are two factors to consider before I ask my extremely daft question:

1. I will be very sure about how I want things to look and behave from a design and function perspective. I'm scared to death of this project because my only web experience is dicking around with a small WYSIWYG application at work, and going out of my mind in very short order because I couldn't control the visual elements and functionality to my liking.

2.The site will need to be up and running pretty soon, even at a basic clunky level, but will need to have room to accomodate lots of slick, well executed complexity in the future as my skills grow; complexity of the user participation/upload of content/chat/message board kind, all encapsulated in aesthetic theatrics appropriate to the content and the design-loving audience.

Basically, I have a pretty good idea of what would be cool, a grasp of what the site needs to be able to do funtionally, and absolutely no idea where to start.

An IT Guy friend said to me "Just get hosting and go from there" but I'm afraid he lost me, and I need someone to just give me the first boost up - please tell me what I need to do to get started. The basic step-by-step start, always keeping in mind that I must be able to accomodate greater complexity later.

I have read this thread and noted the various things people have said to learn, but still don't know where to start. What do I do - am I using software here? What do I need to learn in extremely short order?

If it helps at all, I learned a bit of Flash at Animation School, and "got it". I know not to build a Flash site, for fear of making people cry, but I would like to incorporate some of the trickery. My skills are animation, graphic design, fine art techniques and illustration. I know that a template-type thing is not going to work for me, unless I can fuss with it, and bend it to my will.

And hey... if you think I just need to go back to Uni to learn a whole new trade, be sure and tell me that too. I can handle the truth and would rather know if there's just no way to do what I have in mind without a computer science degree. I won't be able to do that, but at least I will know that pro assistance is in order.

Happy to answer any questions about the likely content if it will help in the answering.

I should also mention that I really do want to learn this, so I'm willing to work hard to get it done.

Freelance web design - how do you estimate hours?

Fifi Firefox — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:01:22 -0800

Freelance web designers - what factors do you use to estimate the number of hours you'll spend on a project? I'm looking for examples of reasonable rough estimates (based on scope). I have some freelance web projects coming up, and I need to estimate hours to determine a rough project budget. I've found lots of great Metafilter threads on rates, but the archives haven't turned up many sources to help me figure out how many hours I should budget.

I realize that this is highly personal and depends on a million things, from the developer's experience to site scope and how particular the client is. I haven't done a great deal of web work yet, and what I have done has been either small + simple (done in a weekend or two) or huge and sprawling over months and multiple revisions. There's also a pretty steep learning curve with this stuff, so time spent on past projects where I had to figure things out from scratch won't necessarily equate to future projects where I have more experience under my belt.

So, I'm hoping to get a ballpark idea of what other designers estimate, then adjust from there.

- What information do you need from the client at the outset to estimate how long a project will take?
- Is number of pages a good starting point? If so, how long would a 10-page site take versus a 100-page site?
- Or, do you estimate differently based on programming language? (ie, using PHP might mean more upfront coding, but time spent is less tied to page count).
- Or, does it make sense to split time based on project phases, allotting hours for initial planning, creating sample layouts, coding, and testing separately? If so, what are general guidelines for time spent in each phase? What are the most logical phases to include?

(If it helps: I am an experienced graphic designer, so things come pretty naturally on the design end, but I'm new to web work. I am pretty solid in XHTML/CSS and can do basic stuff in PHP/MySQL/Wordpress/Flash)

Firefox Frustration

chrisalbon — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:47:59 -0800

WebDesignFilter: Why is Firefox resizing my images? My site displays a random image to visitors in the top right corner. When I view the image in IE (in Windows) or Opera (in OSX) the image displays correctly. However, when I view the image in Firefox (in OSX), it is smaller (and therefore blurry).

You can see the problem by following these steps:

1. Visit the homepage: http://warandhealth.com/.

2. If you are in Firefox, the image in the top right is resized (slightly smaller) than it should be. If you are not in Firefox, the image is displayed correctly.

3. If in Firefox, right click on the image and select "View Image". This displays you the non-resized image.

4. Click the back arrow navigation bar.

5. Click the forward arrow in the navigation bar. Now are seeing the resized image.

6. Click on the image once and firefox will display the image in the correct dimensions.

It does not matter if I specify the image dimensions in CSS or even html, Firefox always resizes the image.

Why is this? How can I make firefox display the image correctly?

To Popup Or Not To Popup?

chocolatepeanutbuttercup — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:48:22 -0800

To Popup or Not to Popup? I have a blog website. It's a serious site with a lot of content. We've been working hard on it and it's beginning to gain a nice little readership.

Currently, I am setting up any links within a post to open in the same window, in other words, without a target attribute set.

However, a few friends have opined that I should set up my anchor tags to launch a new window so that my viewers don't get lured away from my site when they click on a link.

My first reaction to this idea is that I want to avoid opening a popup window but perhaps I'm wrong.
Web designers and blog viewers - what is your current thinking on this? Which do you prefer?

Marquee Tag 2.0

gum — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:59:30 -0800

What do web designers call the slideshowy flipbook of stories that appears in the upper left corner of these news websites? Are there effective ways to block or replace these (browser plugins, Greasemonkey scripts, etc.)?

It worked a minute ago!

lilkeith07 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:58:45 -0800

I am having a problem with some JavaScript and Wordpress. It worked a minute ago but now it seems broken. I am updating this site and it has a coda slider on the main page, I updated the slider to make it bigger then it originally was, and it seemed to work fine. Then I updated the images with the correct dimensions and now the images don't change. The arrow moves but the main the main window doesn't update to reflect the change. Ive been working on this since about 5 PM yesterday and can't seem to get it working right. Here is where it works right in a smaller scale. I'm not a real big JavaScript guy just mainly cut and paste from what I find online. If anybody can find out why it broke and how to fix it I would appreciate it so much. Thanks!