When Simon Collison wrote the end of CSS showcases my initial thoughts were that they really ended a long time ago when everyone decided they would start their own showcase. It got to the point where every new site was being showcased at the same time so there was nothing really unique between the sites. Stylegala did the smart thing and decided to build a community around the site and to my knowledge it is the most popular of these CSS galleries today. However, I think the idea of a CSS gallery is dead and should remain so.
I’m not one to say whether we have won the fight for Web Standards or not, but I do know there is enough awareness about it within our community (the people who actually visit these galleries) that we can focus on design overall now, whether the site is tables, Flash, or CSS. Where’s the gallery that takes in all of these sites and focuses on quality design and not quality code? Yes code is important, but above the hood matters more to the end user than under the hood.
Where is the design gallery that focuses on not only the whole site, but just the logos and icons as well? If you are going to make a design showcase, why not make a comprehensive one? To me that’s the next evolution of design showcases. Let them die and resurrect like the Phoenix.
Not sure how I missed this but ABC launched their online video player at the beginning of this month which allows you to watch selected ABC shows online with short 30 second interactive ads sprinkled in. However, they are making the same mistake along the lines of Sony and Pearl Jam by only keeping the episodes free for a limited time. If advertisers are willing to pay for those eyeballs and be the sole advertiser for a single episode then why not keep them free forever?
If anything why not keep a limited number of episodes up and back episodes can be purchased through iTunes? Wouldn’t that make more sense because now you can please the stations that are syndicating the shows years down the road, while also keeping your audience happy by providing a couple alternatives to how they can view their content.
If you haven’t already checked it out, I suggest having a look at ABC’s online Flash player as the quality of the shows is really top notch.
Does anyone truly work on the weekends? I know the 9rules crew does some work and it seems easier to get work done on the weekends because there is no pressure. During the weekday I feel like there are a million things that need to get done at once, but on the weekend I tend to only have one focus and if I don’t get it done it’s okay because it’s the weekend.
So the question is, do you do any work on the weekend?
If you scour the design galleries you have no doubt since this work of art. Color scheme, typography and layout. The total package in aesthetics has been achieved. The message comes across strong, but not overbearing. Throw in a little flash and you have one of the best sites in 2006 so far in my opinion.
Done by the dream team at 31three.
I have been studying one page designs this week and am quite fascinated by them. It’s interesting to see when the best times to apply them are and when they simply do not work. I will go into much more depth next week, but for now I would love to get your opinion on them. Do you find them appropriate and if so for which situations would use them?
Also if you could provide me with some examples that would really kick some ass.
It’s Jared and it’s pink. Not much else to say.
Whether you are starting a project or a company do you really want it to grow fast? Do you want to try and control a beast running wild? Far too many of us envision a quick start and a happy finish, but rarely do you see that today. Once that momentum builds up, keeping it is a lot harder than getting it initially.
Seth Godin wrote about overnight successes and if you follow the 37signals’ philosophy you know that they believe its much better to make your mistakes while under the radar than when you make it. The problem is that in this type of aggressive environment not becoming big quick can become discouraging.
With 9rules we had a very slow and steady growth and have made a number of mistakes basically because we don’t have another blueprint to follow. We know what we want to do and we have a feeling that what we are doing is right, but we can not be totally sure because it has never been done in our space before so there are bound to be some hiccups. However, every single time we walkaway feeling a bit stronger while learning something new.
If we would’ve blown up at the rate of Digg I don’t think I would have been able to handle it. I can’t speak for my partners, but I know the thought is cool and everything, however I would have to buy a new set of boxers everyday if that event occurred. Now that we have been around for over a year I much more prepared to handle challenges and have a better understanding of the overall picture and that definitely couldn’t have happened by getting big fast.
Think of the new freelance designer who takes on more projects than he realized he could handle. Think of the new music group that experiences overnight success only to disappear by their next album. The athlete with a superior rookie season that can’t be matched his sophomore year.
I know that we can’t always control how fast we grow, but we can control what we wish for so if I were you I would think twice before asking for that huge overnight success. Take your time and let things marinate, it usually works out better in the long run that way.
UPDATE: This entry was published a year ago, but since a couple of people have emailed me telling me what a great resource it has been for them I have updated it some and am pushing it back to the front page for anyone that missed it.
When you have been working with CSS for so long it becomes difficult to tell people the best methods for learning it because your methods aren’t always what works best for everyone. In a sense, writing CSS is a lot like writing actual backend code because there are many different syntaxes that can be applied to your solution. I definitely encountered my bumps and bruises and still seem to be going through some growing pains in my learning process (although I know a hell of a whole lot). The thing with me and CSS is that no matter how much I seem to know, I always feel like there is a better way to code it, which is probably true.
Do It Now
If you are just beginning to get into design you really shouldn’t look at learning CSS as an option or something to do down the road. Start learning it immediately. It’s way beyond the fad stage and is a technology that allows you to reach the largest audience possible by being accessible (if done right) and customizable (different stylesheets for different formats).
If you are not learning CSS then you must be learning how to structure your site with tables and if you are doing so you are only making your life harder. These two design methods require two completely different modes of thinking. Start with CSS. I have a hunch it will work out for you.
Now don’t confuse using tables within a CSS page for tabular data and using them for full-blown layouts. Tables serve their purpose, but table-based layouts are usually accompanied with spacer gifs and other tricks that can slowdown any redesigns you have in mind.
Where to Begin
Before you attempt to learn CSS (or any technology for that matter) you should have an understanding of why it is important to learn. Here are some articles from the past that do a great job of explaining the benefits of CSS/Web Standards and why you should focus on that type of development over tables.
Now after reading all of that you should feel good about the decision you are making. It is now time to move on to the tutorials that will help you grasp the basics of CSS to get you going. As there are many sites that give you a basic beginner’s tutorial on CSS, there are two that I am going to recommend to help get your feet wet.
If you are more of a sitdown by the fireplace type learner (and are not using a laptop and wireless connection to view these tutorials) then you should checkout these books:
Honestly though there isn’t much in those books that can’t be found online already. However, it’s always good to have a book to fall back on when you are tired of the computer screen.
Do As I Code
Ask any programmer the best way to learn programming and they will tell you is by doing it. The exact same goes for CSS. You can read all the tutorials you want, but until you experience the IE 3px bug for yourself then you just can’t grasp it. The great thing about coding and practicing is that you don’t even need a web server to do it. Open up your favorite text editor or WYSIWYG software, create an HTML file with the CSS embedded and start your browser. Voila! Instant coding environment.
I happen to work with a wizard of CSS code and he has posted two entries that dive into how he handles CSS:
Stretching Your Limits
Now that you have played around and grasped the basics of CSS there is always new territory to be explored. This is where the CSS Vault, CSS Beauty and the CSS Zen Garden come in. Go look at the designs and find the ways that people are pushing design with CSS. View the source. Add the code to your own practices. Explore the resources and read about new coding concepts.
After doing all of this you should have a solid grasp of CSS. Essentially, to continue learning it’s a rinse, wash, repeat type of cycle. This just goes to show that once you start down the CSS path, there is no turning back. If you need some quick inspiration or just to continuously remind yourself that more and more people are joining the CSS bandwagon make sure to checkout StyleGala, Unmatched Style, and CSS Reboot.
For the business of affiliatemarketing powerful business web sites are strongly recommended. Web developers use advance languages and scripts like ASP as well as PHPto develop remarkable websites. HTML is also an essential part of web developments and helps a lot while one should have enough knowledge of ColdFusion too in order to meet international web development standards. In the prominent programming languages Java is placed at the top where as the ASP.NET is the latest program developed by the Microsoft to support the web
Typical Web 2.0 business plan:
- Create free site for millions of people to use.
- Places ads on site for them to click on.
- Get rich.
That’s how it works right? Well that’s what the tendency is today when creating a web application. I don’t know when and why this started, but I wonder when will the companies that have a variety of revenue streams start to appear? For all the shit and praise 37signals receives you have to tip your hat at the fact that they make the majority of their money through subscription services. Yes there is some advertising revenue thrown in there, but when has diversity been a bad thing? It’s even been argued that if free competitors sprout up it won’t put a dent in their bottomline. Hell, now they even have a job board that is pulling in some nice scratch for them.
37signals’ Revenue Model:
- Consulting / Workshops
- Subscription services
- Ad Network
- Publishing
- Job board
Potentially 5 different sources of revenue. Very nice position to be in.
Advertising still works and therefore companies will continue to purchase ad space to gain awareness of their products and services so I don’t believe that we should ignore advertising altogether. However, how effective can an ad on a photo-sharing site be when people are there to look at photos and not a text ad pertaining to the cat pictures they are viewing? You almost have to blame Google for this whole mess because they made placing relevant ads too easy and by default that is the first ad unit most new sites reach for.
The problem is that these sites start to fall into a cycle that only makes things worse. You see that a couple of clicks earn you $X so if you can increase the amount of clicks, usually by increasing pageviews or blinding your audience with your ads, you can increase your revenues. For this to occur however more resources are usually required and your new revenue doesn’t match the costs of those resources.
From the beginning we knew that advertising would be a piece of our revenue pie, but we also made sure to sketch out planes for other forms of revenue and the only thing keeping us from them is execution. I don’t want to think that another bubble burst will occur and companies start pulling the plug on their advertising budgets leaving many websites high and dry. Of course there is no need to worry about a bubble bursting when there are so many advertisers who can’t figure out how to advertise on Web 2.0 sites.
My belief is that if you can create a great site or service there is bound to be ways to monetize it alongside advertising. I just don’t like to see us building up infrastructures where the base depends on the advertising economy because as history shows that base does not remain stable forever. I think many companies know this and that’s why they are trying to sellout even quicker because there is no other future for them.
A couple of days ago I talked about letting things die and I wrote that entry knowing that I would be selling the Fine Fools Network. It’s not a hard thing to do now, but it’s probably something that should have been done a long time ago, but it was hard to let something die that I knew I could make stronger. Of all the projects that I have done in the past I learned the most from this one and I have no regrets.
It caused me a lot of shit that’s for sure, but that only made me stronger and helped me to understand where 100% of my focus needs to be. One day I’m sure I will talk about the lessons that I learned so hopefully many of you don’t make the same mistakes as me, but for now if you are interested go check out the auction if buying sites is your kind of thing.
The server move is complete so everyone should be able to see this entry and carry on ignoring me as usual.
