'Net Features : design

20 Terrific Tumblr Themes

Michael Garrity — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:00:00 GMT

The biggest Internet news this week was unquestionably Yahoo’s massive purchase of the popular microblogging website/platform known as Tumblr.

Once considered nothing more than a haven for angsty teenagers and aficionados of unmentionable content, the site has quickly become an effective marketing platform for numerous major brands over the last couple of years, particularly content providers, although many e-commerce companies and service providers are slowly getting on board as well. In some cases, Tumblr blogs even serve as the primary websites for writers, artists and other creative professionals.

A big part of the appeal of Tumblr is the wide variety of available themes and looks that people can incorporate on their blogs that are visually appealing and conducive to sharing all types of content. The website itself hosts a number of great free and paid themes that users can put on their blogs, but other websites, such as ThemeForest, also have additional themes that users can implement if they don’t like what Tumblr has to offer.

So if you’re looking to get started tumbling, or you have been and just want to change things up, maybe you should consider one of these 20 terrific Tumblr themes.

The Squared Magazine

Timeline

Effector Theme

Rapture

Observer

Incorporated

Optic

UltraMnml

Pixelated

Vision

Pop Gallery

Inkhorn

Squared Folio

Tumbl News

Heterotelic

Polaroid

Elegantem

POPCASE

Tumblair

Create Your Own

Did you know that you can basically create your very own Tumblr theme by simply clicking on the “Edit HTML” button in the left-hand sidebar of your blog’s customization page? Once you’re in there, you can customize anything about the theme you’re currently using, or you can insert your own HTML/CSS and – tah-dah – you’ve just made your very own, totally unique Tumblr theme. Of course, doing this requires pretty extensive knowledge of both HTML and CSS, as well as the Tumblr format, but for experienced designers, this can be a great way to get a little extra mileage out of their Tumblr blogs.

Award-Winning Websites That Inspire Us

Allison Howen — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:20:00 GMT

There are millions of websites on the ’Net, so how do you get yours to stand out from the competition?

While the answer to this question depends a great deal on the type of site you run, implementing a combination of design best practices and popular trends will typically put your site on the right track. That said, sometimes we need a little inspiration.

One way to get inspired is to research the sites of some of your business’s biggest competitors, as this will provide you with some elements, features and functionality to consider incorporating on your site. However, another way to get inspired is to take a gander at some award-winning sites.

For example, Website Magazine’s redesigned website was recently honored with a 2013 “Best Magazine Website” IAC (Internet Advertising Competition) Award, yet it was far from the only site to be recognized by the IAC. Get inspired by looking at the examples below to learn about other companies who won a Best Website award from the IAC in 2013:

Site: Cincinnatiusa.org

Award: Best Government Website

Takeaways: This website’s navigation rocks. Not only does it have an easy to navigate drop down menu bar, but it also features parallax scrolling, which is currently a hot and unique design trend.

Site: Theupsstorelocal.com/3358/

Award: Best Small Business Website

Takeaways: It is nearly impossible to overlook the location or contact information for this business, because The UPS Store prominently highlights all of its important information on its landing page, including directions, phone and fax numbers, email address, hours of operation and UPS Air pickup times.

Site: Noonedeservestodie.org

Award: Best Advocacy Website

Takeaways: The use of images and text on this site may be jarring, however, this strategy gets to the point and demands attention. Moreover, the Lung Cancer Alliance’s site offers social login to its visitors, as well as features parallax scrolling.

Site: Assetmanagement.fidelitycareers.com

Award: Best Employment Website

Takeaways: Fidelity puts an emphasis on unique images on its career site. Not only does the main image on this site include interactive tags, but its large drop down menu also includes a variety of images that makes the company more relatable and desirable to work for.

Site: Coorslight.com/projectcold

Award: Best Beverage Websites

Takeaways: As an alcoholic beverage company, it is very important for Coors Light to have a secure website in order to keep minors out, which is why the company implements an age-based security block upon arrival. That said, the company also features a big background image that includes movement, as well as a simple menu for visitors to navigate the site with.

Site: Adventuresbydisney.com

Award: Best Travel Website

Takeaways: Disney uses a combination of high-resolution images and interactive maps to grab its visitors’ attention. Additionally, the company makes it simple for visitors to let their friends know about their dream vacation by featuring a share menu directly on its rotating images of travel destinations.

Site: Jeep.com/en/

Award: Best Automobile Websites

Takeaways: Not only does the large, high-quality image on the Jeep website demand attention, but the image is also interactive, which allows visitors to gain insights about each vehicle by simply moving their curser around the image. Furthermore, this site features very clean and easy to read menus on the top and bottom of its landing page, which includes a local feature to help visitors find nearby promotions.

Site: Garrettpopcorn.com

Award: Best Retail Website

Takeaways: Garrett’s site is simple but fun, as it features an interactive photo, prominent call-to-actions and most of the business’s other important information above the fold. In fact, without scrolling, site visitors can click on a variety of icons to take actions such as create their own tin, register to the site, browse gifts, find a nearby shop, join the company’s mailing list, read Garrett’s blog and leave a message to the company.

Site: Sixflagsjobs.com

Award: Best Employment Websites

Takeaways: The Six Flags’ employment website is colorful with a bright menu bar. That said, the real star of this site is its use of videos, which are prominently featured for each of the career categories.

Site: Chefboyardee.com/cooking-with-kids

Award: Best Consumer Goods Website

Takeaways: This site not only features delicious recipes, but also high-quality images and large call-to-actions. Moreover, the site uses parallax scrolling, which enables visitors to learn recipes step-by-step as they scroll. It is also important to note that as visitors scroll through the site, they are exposed to additional interactive content, including videos, social sharing features, as well as recipe ratings and reviews.

Responsive Design Gets Simplified

Michael Garrity — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:45:00 GMT

As a Valentine’s Day present of sorts, Adobe announced the release of a handful of new Web design and development tools for its Creative Cloud suite earlier today. This includes updates to the Adobe Edge Animate and Dreamweaver programs, but the real star of the show is the Adobe Edge Reflow responsive design tool.

Edge Reflow will allow users to create “high fidelity” CSS3 website designs that can realize and resize for the design surface that the user is visiting the site from, while allowing creators to select from a desktop or mobile-first design approach and to preview their work (in its various sizes) from within a browser.

Needless to say, this is going to be a handy tool for many Web designers and developers out there, as it makes it significantly easier to create a robust, feature-rich mobile-responsive website; and really, isn’t that the ultimate goal of most Web professionals these days? Of course it is, and that is why solutions like Adobe Edge Reflow are not only going to become more commonplace, but they’ll likely become something of a necessity for the designers and developers of the future.

Responsive Design: Then & Now

Traditionally, the bulk of the work of responsive design has been laid at the desk of a content management system (CMS), which most websites utilize in one form or another through a platform like WordPress or Drupal, or by using an internally developed system. Either way, the responsive design challenge has long been based upon the capabilities of a company’s CMS.

Building a responsive website starts by designing a liquid layout or set of fluid grids that expands with a page to fit the browser/screen from which the site is being accessed. But that isn’t the most important part, because next the developer has to include the CSS3 media queries that help websites to gather data about a sits visitor and use that info to conditionally apply CSS styles. These queries effectively control the site’s behavior and allow it to respond to the end user’s needs.

Until now, the challenge for responsive design has largely been trying to find a theme for a designer’s content management system that would be able to respond to a wide array of different screen sizes and device types, but thanks to new platforms, solutions and services (like Adobe Edge Reflow) that take automatically take care of the “responsive” aspect of website design, that is quickly changing.

No Longer Just a Special Consideration

If the release of Edge Reflow signifies anything, it’s that responsive design isn’t just a cool added bonus that only a select few websites have or need to worry about anymore. From now through the foreseeable future, mobile is going to be a major factor in company’s Web success, and responsive design is the simplest and most effective way to meet that problem head-on.

As a result, solutions that make it easy to not only create a website that is able to automatically respond to a user’s screen size or device, but also allows designers and developers to preview what their site will look like in a variety of different shapes and sizes as they’re designing it, will become some of the most useful tools available to them; so much so that we will likely begin to see a proliferation of similar services sooner, rather than later. We already are, to some extent.

Just yesterday, a new all-in-one CMS and marketing platform called Bislr was launched, born initially out of the desire to combine all of the different touch points for business owners, designers and marketers into a single, unified platform. With Bislr, companies can build their own “intelligent” websites from the ground up, using a simple drag-and-drop interface, that come equipped with built-in social media and marketing capabilities, including integration with CRM and marketing automation software. And on top of all that, the service creates sites that are immediately responsive “with no extra work.” Users can even adjust their interface’s size to see how the site will look when rendered on different devices, allowing them to make changes as necessary during the initial build.

Responding to Needs

As the need for responsive design increases exponentially, so will the need to simplify the process for designers and developers, as virtually every site they create will have to be able to operate across devices. Adobe Edge Reflow may be the first big-name solution to provide this kind of quick-and-easy functionality, but it certainly won’t be the last.

What is TypeScript?

Michael Garrity — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 12:46:00 GMT

Have you heard of TypScript, yet? That’s Microsoft’s new JavaScript-like programming language that the company just released a developer preview of a few weeks ago.

TypeScript is translated into good old JavaScript so that apps developed with the language can run in any type of browser, which naturally begs the question, “Why come up with TypeScript to begin with?”

See, while this new language has a similar syntax to JavaScript, it also offers a slew of additional features that you can’t get with JavaScript, including optional static typing, class declarations, a Visual Studio plugin and module support. According to Microsoft, this will make it easier to build larger, more complex applications without straying too wildly from the commonly used JavaScript path.

In fact, Microsoft has been looking forward with this new project, and apparently much of TypeScript is based on the next version of JavaScript that is currently being developed by the ECMA.

Also in an effort to be more forward-thinking, TypeScript is being developed to work with existing frameworks and libraries like Backbone.js, which intend to make it easier for people to create more large-scale applications suited to the Web today. Thus, any JavaScript code should be able to be pasted into TypeScript and work just fine.

TypeScript was developed by Microsoft’s Anders Hajlsberg, along with Steve Lucco and Luke Hoban. The language’s source code has been licensed under Apache 2.0 and now on Codeplex.

Single-Page Design, New Face of Customer Support

Amberly Dressler — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 16:30:00 GMT

The sleek interface synonymous with some of the best social media and consumer applications has come to customer service software. Zendesk, Web-based help desk and support ticket software, recently announced its biggest redesign in the company’s history. The simplicity of the revamp is one others might want to consider.

“The primary benefit of single-page design is performance,” said Adrian McDermott, Zendesk’s Senior VP of Engineering and Product Development. “There is a significant decrease in the number of pages and information that needs to be loaded from the server as the user navigates the application. The entire page isn't refreshing, only the most relevant pieces of information is. This enables a snappy experience as agents navigate through their workflow.”

Zendesk’s redesign has been in the works for two years, with the focus on keeping things simple by reducing the number of menus and clickable options available to the user at any given moment. However, customer service agents are in control of how many tasks they want open, enabling them to view several service inquiries at once. They can also flip back and forth between the a number of different pieces of information, such as the history of customer's issue, the details of a customer's organization, all of which can be updated while the inquiry is still active and appearing in the current view.

“A customer service agent can keep flipping tabs and looking at a specific inquiry and have more information at their fingertips, in-context,” said McDermott. “The tools we are giving an agent enhances their ability to provide customer service with great context about the customer, in real-time.”

With Zendesk’s redesign, the five-year-old company also announced the completion of $60 million of new financing, which was led by Redpoint Ventures with participation by Index Ventures, GGV Capital, Goldman Sachs, Silicon Valley Bank and the company’s existing venture capital investors including Charles River Ventures, Benchmark Capital and Matrix Partners.

“We believe Zendesk is one of the most innovative SaaS companies in the industry,” said Satish Dharmaraj, General Partner with Redpoint Ventures. “The enterprise software industry is seeing a huge shift to the cloud. Zendesk has proven itself as a leader in this transition, with stellar performance in the customer service sector and they are poised for phenomenal growth.”

The $60 million should definitely help Zendesk meet that prediction.

Quickly Test Mobile Design Elements with Plunk

Allison Howen — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 19:20:00 GMT

Usability is everything – especially when it comes to mobile.

But creating a design that is truly user friendly requires an abundance of testing. This is where Plunk comes in handy. Plunk is a free Web app from ZURB that enables users to create click tests for design elements of a mobile app or website.

These tests reveal a lot about the usability of your mobile design, because they show where an audience clicks in response to a direct request. For instance, one Plunk example from Foursquare asks its audience to check into their current location. Once an audience member starts the test, they are presented with Foursquare’s app and have the opportunity to quickly click the requested call-to-action button.

In order to start testing with Plunk, users must visit plunkapp.com and upload a screen of a mobile Web page or application. Then, the test administrator can drag and drop a hot spot over the target that will be tested. After setup is complete, administrators can share the test, which is available for 48 hours, via email and social media in order to gather results. Then, test administrators can visit their reports page to view how many testers clicked the right location, which can help them decide if their site or mobile app’s design needs to be modified.

Get Started with Parallax Scrolling

Michael Garrity — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 19:00:00 GMT

The strides made in website design since the inception of the Internet are often taken for granted these days. But if one actually takes the time to consider how much more advanced some site’s are today, it’s actually pretty mind blowing.

One such development is parallax scrolling, a popular trend in modern Web design in which the different layers of a Web page move across the screen at different speeds as the user scrolls up or down, allowing for a site contained entirely in a single vertical page (or horizontal, as you’ll see in some examples) with sectional transitions taking place through the act of scrolling.

Parallax scrolling gives webmasters the opportunity to add unique and engaging visual effects to their sites. And although it may not be ideal for every type of website – specifically those that are content heavy – it can be a great way to show off new products, develop a brand’s image, improve time-on-site and more.

Five Awesome Examples of Parallax Scrolling

If you want to get an idea of how parallax scrolling can be used to enhance the experience of a website visitor, check out these five awesome sites:

Air Jordan 2012

The official page for this year’s Air Jordan shoes from Nike features multi-faceted parallax scrolling.

Cantilever Fish & Chips

The website for this English restaurant allows visitors to scroll down to view its four different pages, each accompanied with its own unique background that changes as the user moves down the page.

David Beckham

Believe it or not, this fancy site isn’t actually the English soccer star’s official website, but rather a tribute made by a big (and very talented) fan of his.

International Watch Company

Many may think that the wristwatch industry is in decline, but the website for the IWC proves that it certainly has what it takes to keep up with the times.

Mario Kart Wii

My personal favorite – the official site for the Wii version of the popular Mario Kart video game series takes a second to get used to, because as you scroll down with your mouse, the site actually begins to move to the right (or left when you scroll up), with each “page” acting as a checkpoint along the virtual track.

Six jQuery Parallax Scrolling Plugins

Typically, parallax scrolling is implemented on a site in one of two ways: using either a combination of CSS and JavaScript or using jQuery plugins, which is probably the simpler method, especially for those of us who aren’t professional Web designers.

Here are six of the Web’s best jQuery plugins that make it easy to incorporate parallax scrolling onto your website:

Stellar.js

This is probably the most popular and highly regarded plugin available and allows users to add parallax scrolling effects to any type of scrolling element.

Scrollorama

Use Scrollorama if you want to animate different elements on a Web page based on a browser window’s scroll position.

Arctext.js

This jQuery plugin was made to help designers rotate letters (it’s based on the Lettering.js plugin) by calculating the “right rotation” of each letter and distributing them equally across the arc of a given radius.

Scrolldeck.js

Scrolldeck.js provides an (almost) static background that moves slower than a visitor scrolls by changing the top position of the background for every pixel of the page that is scrolled.

Curtain.js

Create Web pages with multiple fixed panels that unroll using Curtain.js, which helps your page move, as the name implies, in the same way that a curtain rises.

Spritely

This plugin from Artlogic allows you to create dynamic character and background animations (known as “sprites”) using HTML and JavaScript.

WordPress Wednesday: Themes of a Social Nature

Michael Garrity — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:15:00 GMT

When Facebook burst onto the national scene and stopped being the exclusive domain of college undergraduates, its biggest selling point (and the attribute that helped propel its phenomenal success) was a clean, straightforward design.

A far cry from the cluttered, disorganized social profiles of the earliest years of the 21^st Century, Facebook’s first priority was simplicity and readability. Now, thanks to some fanboy designers, you can adapt that same aesthetic for your WordPress site.

Check out these Facebook-inspired WordPress themes:

If you like your social networking a little more bite-sized, here are a few Twitter inspired themes:

And, of course, for both of those huge Google+ fans out there:

Plus Theme

WP Plus

8 Ways to Improve Your Site Over the Weekend

Michael Garrity — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Everybody may be working for the weekend, but if you run a website, you already know that you’re almost always working on the weekend, as well.

In fact, most of the work of the everyday Web professional has to do with tweaking, analyzing, and generally optimizing the performance of their site(s), which can take up a lot of time.

So, if you don't want to spend your whole weekend working, here are eight quick ways to refine your website in two days, and still have time to go see the new Batman movie.

Offer social proof on your website.

While peer pressure is typically seen as negative, that is not the case in the marketing world. Web workers can display customer testimonials or case studies on their website to increase engagement and conversions. By doing this, your audience will be able to relate to other customers, and therefore learn how effective your services or products are from a trusted opinion. So, find some of the nicest things that consumers out there have said about you (and don't forget, you can encourage them) and share it with the world.

Test email subject lines.

Email marketing campaigns won’t be successful if emails aren’t delivered or opened, which is why it is always important to use best practices, such as testing, when creating email subject lines. One way that marketers can quickly test email subject lines is with subjectline.com. This free subject line scoring tool evaluates subject lines and provides users with scores, as well as deliverability and marketing tips and advice. Take some time - 15 minutes or so - to sit down and brainstorm great subject lines.

Generate a Fivesecondtest for your site to assess its usability/readability.

When you don’t have the time to conduct user tests, this handy Web-based tool lets Web workers upload a screenshot of their Web page and then creates two different five-second user tests, one for memory and one for descriptive feedback. And, you know, it only takes five seconds.

Insert dynamic meta descriptions into your HTML.

One of the easiest ways to improve your search marketing efforts is to include useful, compelling meta descriptions on your Web pages. Just be sure that they are relevant to the page’s content and are captivating enough inspire a user to click on the search result.

Monitor keywords on Twitter.

It is important to keep an eye on discussions that are relevant to your brand, because it can help social media managers better connect with their audience, as well as help publishers discover possible content ideas. While there are many tools that can be leveraged for monitoring social media mentions, two free Twitter-specific tools worth checking out are Monitter and Twitterfall. Take a few minutes every hour or so to see who is using your keywords in the Twitterverse.

Assess your forms.

Does your email subscription form ask for unnecessary information? If the answer is "yes," you may be scaring off potential subscribers. This is why removing unnecessary or less important information from your forms can prove to be beneficial in the long run. In fact, it is important to note that the only information really needed on a newsletter subscription form is a name and email address, especially because more targeted information can always be obtained at a later time. Should you have some time to spare, why not give one (or all?) of your forms a review to make sure they're not asking superfluous questions.

Fix up and customize your 404 page.

Obviously you never want your visitors to land on one of these, but it happens, and in those situations, it’s good to have a custom 404 page that will not only provide them with information, but also offers additional useful content and encourages them to continue exploring your awesome website. If your 404 page is uninformative and boring, why not take a few hours to create one that will be a little more meaningful to your site's visitors?

Adjust white space to improve readability.

Finding the right balance between too much and too little space around text is one of the essential aspects of a readable website. Remember that your chunks of text content need room to breathe so that your visitors can view them more easily, and they shouldn’t be adhered to other elements, particularly images. Spend a few minutes during your morning coffee looking over your website to make sure it's optimized for readability, and if you see any problems, try increasing your padding and margins.

Web Font Fun with Javascript Plugins

Administrator — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 19:30:00 GMT

When I first started working on the Web in a professional capacity, there really wasn’t much you could do to dress up your website as it related to font choice.

Web designers had little control over fonts in the past, but that has changed dramatically over the past two years as the pace around jQuery development accelerates and responsive design becomes the norm (or at least more normal).

While it’s possible to manipulate text using CSS, that method still has its limitations. As a result, many turn to Javascript to solve the inherent problems - and the results are often worth a look.

Below you’ll find several javascript plugins that can help you, the designer/developer, modify text through kerning, introducing a responsive nature and even tossing aside all convention with some quite dramatic effects.

SlabText: This Javascript plugin splits headlines into rows before resizing each to fill available horizontal space.

FitText: The plugin renders font-sizes flexible, making it ideal for use in fluid or responsive layouts to achieve scalable headlines.

LetteringJS: For those willing to make a more daring design choices, LetteringJS fits the bill.

jqsloText: This plugin is another for those willing to make some edgy design choices, as it renders an arching effect (gets bigger as you approach the middle and then tapers off) on HTML text.

jQuery Glow: The plugin provides the ability to add a glow effect to text when hovered over.

BigText: This plugin automatically sizes text to fit inside a parent element, resulting in perfectly justified alignment.

Create an iOS-Ready Site with This New Tool

Michael Garrity — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 03:00:00 GMT

International domain name registrar and cloud hosting provider Gandi wants to help you be iOS-ready with its latest product, Gandi Basekit.

This new website creation tool was built for compatibility with Apple iOS devices, meaning iPhones and iPads. Customers create sites that will be easily, automatically viewable on these mobile devices; and, of course, they will be hosted by Gandi.

Oh, and it’s totally free.

Websites can be created using HTML5 and CSS style sheets, an important component in developing for iOS, which doesn’t support Flash. This does away with the need to set up Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) or Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) systems for similar functionality.

The tool comes with a variety of features and benefits for users. For instance, it was designed for ease-of-use, and offers preconfigured and customizable theme templates, so users can start building their websites in no time. That being said, it also comes with a powerful infrastructure for more advanced developers, providing tools that allow experts to directly edit their sites’ HTML and CSS codes using preset or user-supplied graphics and images.

And, one cannot forget the integrated social media tools (including link installation for the most widely used social media sites), e-commerce integration with a Google Checkout widget for payment functionality and intuitive content management that allows users to edit block text, add more blocks, reposition images and add a submit button or navigation menu using a simple drag-and-drop interface.

Basekit is the latest in Gandi’s portfolio of free tools. It is currently available for all of Gandi’s customers.

Bing Redesign Gets Top Result in Social Search

Michael Garrity — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:25:00 GMT

A few weeks back, Bing made some design changes to its search results pages that were meant to offer a new de-cluttered experience and make it easier for users to quickly find the best results for their queries.

Microsoft’s search engine added some more changes on Thursday, one that highlights different results types in three vertical columns and, most importantly, finally does social search right (and much better than Google).

Now, when a SERP pops up, everthing from the center to the left side of the page will show the algorithmic text results. To the right of that, context results will appear, including maps, reviews and actionable input fields. Finally, the far right side of the screen displays “social assistance” results; this focuses on social network connections (notably from Facebook) and experts who can help searchers find the information they want.

One of the best social assistance features is an “Ask Friends” option that lets users request help from their Facebook friends in sorting through results. After entering a question, Bing will automatically post it to the users’ Facebook profile along with a link to the user’s current search. If any friends make recommendations, the searcher will be notified in the social assistance sidebar.

Overall, this is a solid addition and further advances the company’s efforts to cut down on a lot of the clutter that can quickly become distracting and cumbersome for users.

Of course, this is also probably a shot at Google’s attempts at social search with its integration of Google+ to create Search Plus Your World, which has been accused of overemphasizing the importance of Google+ content.

In addition to the latest design tweaks, Bing is including more social functionality into its product. Thanks to an instant personalization partnership with Facebook, users will be able to see what their friends have liked in search results, which shows up as a thumbs up icon next to the text results. However, Facebook Likes won’t have an effect on search result rankings.

For more information about the new design, click here, and here for a video highlighting the new social search features.

Five Easy Ways to Go Green on the Web

Michael Garrity — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Happy Earth Day, loyal Website Magazine readers!

Some say that it ain’t easy going green, and that sentiment certainly rings true when you’re talking about a Web business. However, if you know where to look, there are actually plenty of ways that you can curb your energy consumption and make your website more environmentally friendly.

Green Hosting
Most of the energy consumption that takes place on the Web comes from hosting. After all, it takes a lot to host and manage all of the data from all of the websites out there on the ‘Net. However, some more forward-thinking hosting companies have begun to turn to green hosting, wherein they purchase Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) that are powered by wind energy to offset the amount of energies used by their servers.

Don’t know how to find a green hosting provider? Never fear, our editorial staff compiled a list of some of the best right here.

Green Partners
Businesses can also take steps themselves to curb their energy use. Two of the best are by working with the EPA’s Green Power Partnership and the Energy Star program.

The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program in which partnering businesses can buy green power to reduce the environmental impact of their purchased electricity use. The EPA provides the businesses with expert advice, tools and resources and credibility through publicity and recognition for their green-inspired efforts.

Energy Star is a joint program from the EPA and the Department of Energy that partners with businesses to offer an energy management strategy that measures their current energy performance, sets goals, tracks their savings and rewards their improvements.

Simple Site Design
It’s no secret that the more bells and whistles you add to your website, the more energy it is going to take to display it. So why not tone it down, cut out the unnecessary frills and keep your design as simple as possible so that your business’ message is still clearly stated and your site is still interactive and useful for audiences.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to keep as much of the content of your Web pages above the fold, because then users won’t have to continue to scroll down and continue rendering the page, which constantly increases the amount of energy needed just to view a single page.

Printer-Friendly = Environment-Friendly
Sometimes people just need to print things out, and with stellar content like yours, it’s bound to happen. However, you can lessen the environmental impact and save a few trees by designing a printer-friendly version of your Web pages, especially those that you think are more likely to be printed.

You can do this by making an alternate version of the page that users can click on before printing. Some characteristics of a printer-friendly Web page are: They are black and white only, use a small-sized, serif face font, free of unessential images, JavaScript, Flash, animation and navigation (and sometimes advertising) and include a copyright notification and the original URL at the bottom of the page.

Be a Green Advocate
If nothing else, it probably doesn’t take much to put an image on your site encouraging and reminding your visitors of the importance of going green. A simple, tasteful logo will show off your commitment to an energy-conscious future, and hopefully influence your visitors to do the same.

Typekit Now Available for Adobe ID Users

Michael Garrity — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:30:00 GMT

Popular font provider Typekit, purchased by Adobe back in October, has received an update that allows webmasters and designers to access its non-standard fonts using an Adobe ID.

Now, current Adobe ID holders are able to sign in to Typekit with their previously registered username and password. It also encourages others to take the time to sign up for an Adobe ID, making it possible for them to take advantage of Adobe’s Creative Cloud service launching in the next few months.

This also means that Typekit users can utilize Adobe ID support, which has been reflected in a recent update of the Typekit terms of use that have moved to the standard Adobe privacy policy, bringing it in line with Adobe’s traditional practices and opening the door for new features in the future.

Those old-school Typekit users who want to carry on using their current Typekit logins will be allowed to do so, although the terms of use changes will still apply.

In addition to updating the privacy policy, Adobe has disabled the use of third-party Web analytics within kits, which had been used to gather data about the “browser landscape,” as well as traffic across the various kits. Third-party analytics tools have been removed from all of the kits published after September 12 of last year.

Typekit has also announced that all night weights (and corresponding italics) of Darden Studio’s Jubilat font are now available in its library.

The Meaning Behind Color - What Choice Evokes the Best Response

Allison Howen — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:51:00 GMT

Color is one of the most fascinating things in the world. It attracts attention, evokes emotion and can trigger the memory.

Something so powerful should not be taken lightly, especially when creating visual elements to a website, in an advertisement or for a brand. Colors can increase brand recognition, increase participation and provide brands with a competitive edge.

Of course everyone has a favorite color, but marketers should be aware of the meanings behind colors, as well as what colors yield the best response from consumers.

Red – This color draws attention, and is often the color that eyes are drawn to first. It is also known to increase the heart rate and create a sense of urgency, and is often used for clearance sales. Its complimentary color is green, however, adding just a spot of red can be useful in some cases, because it can accent other colors or draw attention to a specific spot of an advertisement or webpage. Big brands that are associated with the color red include Target and Coca-Cola.

Orange – This is an ambitious color. It is associated with fun and energetic times or citrus fruit. It is recommended for kid’s websites or call to action buttons, such as subscribe, buy or sell. The complimentary color to orange is blue. Brands associated with this color include Nickelodeon and the Home Depot.

Yellow – The color of the sun is associated with laughter and happiness. It is said to make people feel optimistic and youthful. In its brightest form, this color is often used to grab consumers’ attention. Its complimentary color is purple. Many brands are associated with this color, including Best Buy, McDonalds and Sprint.

Green – Who doesn’t love the color of money? This color is associated with growth, nature, wealth and can also be calming, depending on its shade. Its complimentary color is red. Brands that are associated with this color include Starbucks and Android.

Blue – This is probably the most popular color in the world, perhaps because it is the color of the sky and the sea. It is calming, and can be associated with dependability and security. It is used by many brands, especially banks. Its complimentary color is orange. Brand’s associated with blue include Facebook, Chase and, of course, Website Magazine.

Purple – This color is associated with royalty, and therefore represents sophistication and prosperity. It is often used with anti-aging and beauty products, and can be used to soothe or calm consumers. Its complimentary color is yellow. Brands associated with this color include Taco Bell and Yahoo.

Pink – This feminine color is best associated with romance. However, depending on the shade it can also be seen as sentimental or youthful. Many times this color targets women and young girls. This color is associated with Victoria Secret’s Pink line and Barbie.

Black – This is a powerful color (or absence of color). It represents authority, stability and strength, and is often seen used for expensive products. It is usually used in combination with other colors, especially white. Brands associated with this color include Nike, Adidas and Smashbox Cosmetics.

White – Simple and purity are two words that describe this color. It is often seen used is conjunction with black, or with health related products. While most brands won’t only use white, many use white in at least some aspect of their color scheme, including Apple, Volkswagen and Tylenol.