September 26, 2011 — Michelangelo once said, “The best of artists has no conception that the marble alone does not contain within itself.” Translate this to the world of Web design and you might say, “No matter how great a designer you are, you’re only as good as your … Read More…

September 23, 2011 — Read More…

September 22, 2011 — Part 1 of “Improving the Online Shopping Experience” focused on the upper part of the purchase funnel and on ways to get customers to your website and to find your products. Today, we move down the funnel, looking at ways to enable customers to make the decision to buy and … Read More…

September 21, 2011 — While many functions you already use in WordPress communicate with the database there is an easy and safe way to do this directly using the_$wpdb class. Built on the great_ezsql class by Justin Vincent,_$wpdbwill allow you to address queries to any table in your database, … Read More…

September 21, 2011 — This is not a normal Smashing Magazine post. I’m not going to teach you something new or inspire you with examples of great work. Instead, I want to encourage you to complete a Web design challenge. I believe this will help to address a weakness that exists in many of our … Read More…

September 20, 2011 — Metrics can be a touchy subject in design. When I say things like, “Designers should embrace A/B testing” or “Metrics can improve design,” I often hear concerns. Many designers tell me they feel that metrics displace creativity or create a paint-by-numbers scenario. They … Read More…

September 19, 2011 — The flexible box layout module — or “flexbox,” to use its popular nickname — is an interesting part of the W3C Working Draft. The flexbox specification is still a draft and subject to change, so keep your eyes on the W3C, but it is part of a new arsenal of properties that … Read More…

September 16, 2011 — Created by Ryan Dahl in 2009, Node.js is a relatively new technology which has gained a lot of popularity among Web developers recently. However, not everyone knows what it really is. Node.js is essentially a server-side JavaScript environment that uses an asynchronous … Read More…

September 16, 2011 — For drawing and painting digital illustrations, Adobe Illustrator is a favorite among designers for many reasons. One of the reasons is some of the amazing time-saving features that come with it. The Symbols feature in Illustrator does just this: it saves valuable time by … Read More…

September 15, 2011 — Amazon turned sweet sixteen this year, and, by extension, so did online shopping as we know it. As online shopping has grown over the past 16 years, so have user needs and expectations related to the online shopping experience. Setting up shop online is easy, but creating an … Read More…