HAVING FUN WITH WEB DEVELOPMENT!
Art: Philosophy
May 7th
“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see”
~Edgar Degas
How true.
Source: beautylies.tumblr.com via Caitlin on Pinterest
Ribbons in Web Design
May 2nd
I love viewing all the creative ideas when it comes to Web Design. Gets my imagination working and excited about new designs. Here is a link to an article by 1st Webdesigner showcasing 40+ creative uses of ribbons in Web Design. Love it!
New Painting in Progress!
Sep 28th
I have finally started a new painting! It is going to be a Christmas present for my boyfriend. Knowing how long it can take me to complete a piece, I figured that it would be a good idea to get started now. Here is the original image that I will be painting from:
Original Picture: Henry & I
Since this is meant to be a Christmas present, I decided to do it the right way. Which is completely opposite of what I usually do. Generally, I pull out the canvas and just start painting. With this piece, I drew an outline on the canvas first. While drawing the outline, I was reminded how useful this step is. I found myself erasing the eyes a bit and at one point, I made his forehead a bit too big (so sorry Henry).
Stage 1
During this first stage, I am focusing on getting the skin color and basic layout in place. This will be the first layer of the piece and may be changed several times before completion.
Stage 2
Article 2 – Delving into SEO
Jun 27th
During my research into the best Search Engine Optimization Practices, I came across the “Findability Strategy Checklist”. This was developed by Aaron Walter, his site is located at: http://buildingfindablewebsites.com/. Thus far, it has been the most comprehensible list I have found. I am going to list it here, but you can also find it at http://buildingfindablewebsites.com/findability-checklist.php.
Included in this checklist are:
- General Recommendations for All Projects (this includes mark-up, server, content, javascript, flash, etc.)
- Redesigning or Moving a Site
My goal is to form my own checklist that I can include with each client’s file and go through whenever a site is being developed. Once I have all the information together, I will post my checklist for other to use.
Challenges in Responsive Web Design
May 12th
One of the many challenges that Web Developers face is designing a site that will work on as many different platforms as possible. Not only are there the different browsers to contend with, now there is such a variety of screen sizes and resolutions. From the high-res desktop screen to the smaller mobile devices, the screen sizes and resolutions can vary so greatly that developing a site that will fit all can at times, be rather challenging.
A article was recently posted Web Designer Depot that breaks it down rather nicely and offers some suggestions on how to design a site that will fit as many platforms as possible.
Big vs. small: Challenges in responsive web design
PHP Password Generator
Jan 31st
I have discovered a very useful PHP Password Generator. After making a couple changes to update the code to my specific needs, it worked perfectly! Check it out at http://www.tutorialchip.com/php-password-generator-class/.
PHP Remove Comma From Currency String
Jan 26th
I was recently faced with the situation of needing to enter a dollar amount from a <form> via PHP to a MySQL Database. This may sound like a simple feat, but it resulted in being completely the opposite. The reason being is that when data is “uploaded” into MySQL, it views a comma as being the end of a string. So, when the amoutn 75,000 is entered, the amount that MySQL actually “sees” is 75. To find the solution took me a bit longer than expected. And, as per usual, it ended up being something simple to correct.
To removed the “,” from the string:
| <?php $price = ereg_replace(“,”, “”, $_POST['nprice']); ?> |
Let’s break this down: ereg_replace function is to stating, locate the “,” in the $_POST['nprice'] string and replace it with “”, which is nothing. You can place anything inside the first “” of any symbol you would like removed. Now the data is clean and ready to be uploaded into MySQL accurately. The next solution to find, is how do we show the number (example: 75000) as a currency? That proved to be much simpler.
| <?php echo number_format($price); ?> |
This indicates that the value stored in $price should be shown in a number format (example: 75,000).
To learn more about the function ereg_replace: http://php.net/manual/en/function.ereg-replace.php
To learn more about the function number_format: http://php.net/manual/en/function.number-format.php
Beautiful Contact Forms
Dec 27th
Yet, another inspirational post by webdesigner Depot. Check out these beautiful and inspirational contact forms. It is always a wonder to discover beauty in a very functional, yet feels like somewhat mundane, Website attribute. http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/05/beautiful-contact-forms-for-your-inspiration/
Inspirational Typographic Designs
Nov 17th
Typography has become very popular in Web Design and more and more sites are using this technique to grab and maintain user’s attention. Listed below are examples that offer inspiration on all that typography has to offer!
Ampersand Food Groups // Typography Illustrations By: Dan Beckemeyer
Michael Jordan Typeface Portrait By: Ziarekenya Smith
Top Search Engines
Nov 16th
One of the first steps to Search Engine Optimization is knowing which search engines are attracting the most users. Listed below are the current top 5 Search Engines.
Statistics are according to Hitwise (http://www.hitwise.com/) 
Last Updated: 11/6/2010
| Rank | Search Engine | Searches |
| 1 | www.google.com | 70.21% |
| 2 | search.yahoo.com | 15.06% |
| 3 | www.bing.com | 10.16% |
| 4 | www.ask.com | 2.56% |
| 5 | www.aolsearch.com | 1.43% |
