The online design community has its fair share of articles, comics and websites about the downsides of design work. Forums and comments are rife with stories about being “forced” to create poor work; dealing with irrational clients; breakdowns in communication and more stress-inducing cons of being a design professional. These negatives can’t be denied – every designer has had a poor work experience at some point, I’d imagine, myself included – but what about the flipside? What are the best parts of being a designer?
Read the whole article >
Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category
The Best Parts of Being a Designer
January 2, 2012
Responsive Web Design: Standard or Feature?
December 12, 2011
Web design is a flexible, consistently evolving medium. There are a variety of different ways to accomplish the same goal; there are always new techniques and best practices on the horizon; web design projects can range from the tiny (one-page websites) to the huge (multi-page CMS-powered websites). Any web design freelancer or web design firm knows the range of features, and their corresponding costs, that can be built into their projects – dynamic content, jQuery effects, advanced layouts, etc – and the question of what should be a standard vs. what should be a feature is constantly evolving too.
With all that in mind, the newest web design technique on the block is responsive web design. If you’re not clear on what responsive web design means, read this article. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Designing a Client-Focused WordPress Site
November 22, 2011
This past weekend, we held WordCamp Edmonton. It was the first time it came through our wintry city, and it went off swimmingly! On top of organizing it, I also spoke on a couple of subjects near and dear to my heart. One of these presentations was titled Designing a Client-Focused WordPress Site. Click the image below to view the presentation.
Feedback for the presentation was positive, so I thought it might be worthwhile to share the slides on this here blog. In the presentation below, I cover the following…
8 Snippets for a More Client-Friendly WordPress CMS
October 24, 2011
Out of the box, WordPress is a great content management system. It has tons of functionality, and it’s easy to learn for both developers/designers and their clients who will be managing the site content. However, a little customization can go a long way to creating a more user-friendly theme, a better CMS and a more positive overall user experience for your clients. In this article, we’ll use specific “snippets” (small code samples) to achieve this goal. highlighting 8 great snippets for a more client-friendly WordPress CMS.
Wordcamp Edmonton 2011 is Coming!
September 28, 2011
Today we’re going to divert from our regularly scheduled (that’s a joke) writing to inform those of you who are local to Edmonton, AB about Wordcamp Edmonton. Taking place on November 18 & 19, 2011, Wordcamp Edmonton is the place to be if you’re a WordPress user, designer, developer, or even just someone who wants to learn more about publishing and the web in general.
We write a lot about WordPress on the ol’ Paper Leaf blog, since it’s our publishing platform of choice. We’re actually involved in the organization of this, Edmonton’s inaugural gathering of WordPress-ians (we are Edmontonians ourselves, after all). Hit the jump to learn more about what a Wordcamp is, who it’s for, and why you should be there (plus, tickets are only $40!).
