Archive for the ‘Web Design’ Category
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012
With the news that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 has – finally – fallen to 1% of U.S. browser share, the modern internet is now turning to face a new problem from the folks down in Redmond.
Until recently, the technology to include fonts and also the permission to use them has prevented web sites from deviating beyond generic typefaces like “sans-serif” or “serif”. To get around this, many people banked on the popularity of Microsoft Windows to leverage their default font library. Which eventually came to include the famous and well entrenched “Verdana” font. Read more...
Tags: cleartype, css, freetype, Linux, microsoft, osx, skia, tco, web fonts, windows
Posted in Technology, Tools, Tips and Tricks, Web Design, Web Development | No Comments »
Monday, January 9th, 2012
“It’s a little skinny, can we make it wider?”
More and more these days our clients are coming back to us after viewing a new design mockup on their modern high-res, wide-screen 16:9 displays, and have a common simple request. Make it wider. We are big fans of the 960.gs grid system here at Canada’s Web Shop, and often recommend against heading out into areas wider than 960. Read more...
Tags: 960, browser, clients, design, grid system, viewport, w3schools, wider, width
Posted in Web Design, Web Development | 2 Comments »
Monday, December 5th, 2011
If you’ve been keeping up with the latest and greatest in web design, you’ll probably have heard of the Responsive Design (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/) trend that’s been picking up steam the last couple of years. Personally I think it’s a great concept, and I’ve been looking forward to the day it becomes standard practice in web design for quite awhile now. However, each time I express my enthusiasm to fellow web designers, I am greeted with blank stares and total apathy. Read more...
Tags: design, Web, Web Design, Web Development
Posted in Web Design, Web Development | 2 Comments »
Thursday, October 13th, 2011
We’re starting the new (fiscal) year off right at Canada’s Web Shop by establishing and holding each other to a clear set of measureable personal goals. I’ve made a commitment to put down my copy of A Game of Thrones for the next 365 days, and stave of reading fiction all together. I believe we live in an age where anybody can become an expert on anything through self guided research. To advance through the endeavour of becoming an expert in what I do, I’ve set a goal to read one book per month on the topic of Usability and Web Design. In September I read the still-relevant title Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug. Read more...
Tags: design, don't make me think, Web
Posted in Web Design | 2 Comments »
Friday, September 16th, 2011
Google’s home page, iGoogle, Google Docs, and other apps are offering users a new look recently, changing the day-to-day just slightly for millions of people. These are mostly cosmetic changes, the kind that could be missed. I first noticed the unlikely dark grey with orange accents and generous white padding this summer at the introduction of Google+. Google ran with it and we expected “Try the new look” prompts to move across its vast suite.
Read more...
Tags: design, google, Google Docs, layout, Web Design
Posted in Online Marketing, Web Design | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
It’s rare that a project passes by my desk at The Web Shop that couldn’t benefit from the use of external resources. Whether that might be inspiration, stock photography, an icon pack, or an interesting color swatch, I’m all for utilizing available resources. In this post I’d like to highlight my top 5, enjoy! Read more...
Tags: design, icons, photography, Resources, stock, top 5
Posted in Technology, Tools, Tips and Tricks, Web Design | No Comments »
Monday, May 30th, 2011
Approximately two months ago, the “Canada, Get Your Business Online” initiative was launched. Supported by big names such as Google, the aim of the initiative was pretty self-explanatory; getting Canadian businesses to build websites. According to Google, 100,000 Canadian small to medium sized businesses were/(are) not online, a sharp contrast to the 80% of Canadian consumers who are online.
Whereas this initiative was definitely a step in the right direction, it may not have been the most effective way to address the online disconnect between Canadian SMBs and consumers. For those unfamiliar with the initiative, it offered both free website creation through a templated “What you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) website provider, and a year of free .ca domain registration, in addition to a few other perks. Read more...
Tags: "get your business online", e-commerce, google, Marketing, Online Marketing, websites
Posted in Business, Sales and Marketing, Online Marketing, Web Design | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 19th, 2011
Your website is being viewed on a huge variety of resolutions, whether your design is ready for it or not. Every day mobile devices are becoming more connected and commonly used to browse the internet. In the past, website owners would strive to have their website displayed the same on as many screens as possible. As smaller and larger screens become more common, it’s becoming important to have your website display in a way optimized for the screen. The question remains: How do we give each size screen its own optimal user experience without creating multiple designs for each project? The answer is through Responsive Web Design. Read more...
Posted in Tools, Tips and Tricks, Web Design, Web Development | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
I recently had a conversation with a fellow designer at a different shop, and we were discussing ‘The Design Brief’. Whenever we start a new project here at Canada’s Web Shop we always release a design brief document to be filled out by our clients that helps us get ‘into their head’, and their industry. My friend thought this was a novel idea; I thought it was a necessary idea. This is probably the beginning of the process for many professional web design shops, but I just wanted to outline the key areas that I find helpful to ask about in our design brief when starting a new project. Read more...
Tags: Brief, Canada's Web Shop, Chris, Chris Savoie, design, Design Brief, Important, Process, Project, Savoie
Posted in Online Marketing, Random Musings, Web Design | 2 Comments »
Friday, November 5th, 2010
Web designers are often asked “what DPI do you need?” when clients provide digital imagery for their websites. The best answer is coy and not well-accepted: “it does not matter.”
The Myth: DPI tells us the quality of an image.
DPI refers to “dots per inch”. It is a measure of print. Technically, DPI is a property of the image file that indicates nothing about the quality or resolution of the image. DPI exists to direct a printer how close to place the dots on the page. You can create a very high DPI file with very low image quality, and vice versa. Read more...
Tags: digital imagery, dpi, resolution, Web Design
Posted in Web Design | No Comments »
