Most sites have at least one element, like a navigation feature, a header, or a simple piece of text, that appears on multiple pages. (I really worry about the sites that don’t.) Dreamweaver users can use templates and the library to store repeated elements, and if they do, they need only change the repeated item once, rather than many times on each individual page.

Dreamweaver’s library can store lots of design chunks, but it isn’t always the best solution for repeated elements.

Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks to this method. For starters, all of the library and template code ends up in every page that displays the item. Let’s say your site’s sidebar navigation is a library item. When you build a new page, you can simply insert that item into your design. It’s easy, but check out the page code. It’s long and bulky.

Also, when you change a library item, you have to reload every individual page that features the item. If you have a large site, this can take a long time.

Server-side includes (SSIs) serve the same purposes as library items, but without the drawbacks. Imagine again that your sidebar navigation is a repetitive element. The pages that feature the navigation would only need a line of code that calls or includes code from a separate file. All that’s required is one little line, and if you ever need to update the navigation, you can simply change and upload the include file. (more…)

Last week, we discussed the Diagnostics section of Google’s webmaster toolset. This week, it’s Statistics, where you’ll find lots of information about how your site is indexed and how it appears in Google’s search results.

The various categories and sub-categories of data are discussed below.

Top Search Queries

You can get some of this information no matter what package you use for web statistics, but there are are a few special tidbits available via Google’s tools.

You can see the top 20 searches that returned your site and compare those to the top 20 searches where the user actually clicked through to one of your pages. Are there differences? You can also see how your site ranked on those searches. If you’re seeing numbers higher than 10, you may want to spend some time tuning your site to those keywords.

You can also sort searches by time period, type (what engine was used - Google Directory, Google News, Google Images or good old fashioned Google Web Search), and location (are the search terms different in the US and Canada?). It can be helpful to see how many people found you through the Google Directory as opposed to the main search page.

Unfortunately, none of this tells you what terms return sites similar to yours but not your own.

What the Googlebot Sees

Getting into Google is all about how the Googlebot indexes your site. This page provides some insight that process.

Phrases: The Googlebot looks at the phrases associated with links to your site. This can affect your search results because Google assumes that the links will correctly define the content of your site. Unfortunately, you don’t have much control in this situation, since the links come from outside sites.

Keywords: The Googlebot also looks at the text on the pages, and you can see what search terms will produce high-ranking results. You have some control over these keywords, so make sure the ones you want associated with your site appear in the list. For example, (more…)

Stereohype, an online graphic art and fashion boutique, has announced the 4th annual 1″ Stereohype Button Badge Competition. Professional designers, artists, photographers, and illustrators are encouraged to participate. The winning designs will be packaged with t-shirts and/or sold separately.

All shortlisted designs will be featured at stereohype.com, and a short bio or mini profile of each winning designer will also be posted on the site. Prize packages including t-shirts, buttons, and more are also up for grabs.

It’’s a cool contest, so do think about submitting a design. The deadline for entries is January 31, 2008. More information about the contest can be found here.

The new year is almost here, and it’s time to make some resolutions. Remember to write 2008 on your checks, and…add Blue Iris to your design projects?!

Blue Iris is the color of 2008 according to the gurus at Pantone. This shade of blue-purple, also known as PANTONE 18-3943, was chosen for its calming and somewhat mystical properties.

Wave goodbye to last year’s Chili Pepper. Blue Iris is the color of 2008.

Compared to last year’s vibrant Chili Pepper, Blue Iris is calm, but it’s still very bold and complex, with lots of good combinatorial possibilities. Leatrice Eiseman of Pantone suggests combining it with (more…)

If you’ve been reading the blog lately, you’ve probably noticed that I’m on a bit of an “(insert Apple thing here) for Designers” kick. First it was Safari plug-ins, then Dashboard widgets, and now podcasts. The is because I’ve recently discovered that though I’m an early adopter, I rarely take full advantage of the features that come with my new gadgets and software. I bet some of you are the same way!

Podcasts for designers, direct to earbuds everywhere.

I’m like a grandma when it comes to podcasts, (though come to think of it, many grandmas are probably more podcast-savvy than I). I’ve had an iPod since the first generation of battery-eating bricks, but only recently have I started downloading these little audio and video shows. Once I started looking for them, I found many that are perfect for designers. Here are some of the standouts.

There are many podcasts that focus on technology and software, one of the best being Photoshop Killer Tips, hosted by Matt Kloskowski, who also happens to be an instructor at Sessions! Photoshop Killer Tips is updated five days a week, so there’s no shortage of useful information here. But if you need even more Adobe tips in video podcast format, check out Terry White’s Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast. There’s a new episode at least once a week, and (more…)

Just about everyone can remember painting with watercolors as a child. Little tin trays with a small rainbow of colors. Just add water, and brush the mixture onto the paper. The simple materials made watercolor a sensible choice for children’s paintings—no dangerous turpentine, no expensive canvases.

The simplicity of watercolor appeals to experienced artists as well. Elizabeth Groves, author of Exploring Watercolor, puts it this way, “What if instead of waiting for the ‘big idea,’ you begin painting by dropping beautiful color onto your paper and seeing where it takes you?” Watercolor is a medium that encourages exploration and experimentation.

Exploring Watercolor is meant to rekindle your interest in watercolor, no matter how many years it’s been since you last picked up a brush. I found the beginning of the book to be somewhat intimidating, because the author works only with traditional and experimental paintings that are well beyond the capabilities of a new painter. In fact, I started to worry that the book was too advanced for me, but my fears were quickly put to rest, when subsequent chapters got back to basics. (I must say, the vivid cover and the nice spiral binding that let me lay the book flat while I followed along, convinced me to keep going.)

Unlike many art books, the initial focus of Exploring Watercolor is design and composition, rather than technique. The early discussions of fundamental concepts, like flow and the focal point, will make even your first few paintings relatively pleasing to the eye.

In later chapters, specific methods are explained. As a beginner, I would have liked a little more information on materials up front. Do I want paint in pans or tubes? What are the colors I should have on hand? Are expensive brushes a worthwhile investment? Art supplies can be quite costly, so I hate to make a purchase only to find out later that I need something else. That said, (more…)

So, after reading Part 1 of this series, you signed up for Google’s webmaster tools and added and verified some of your sites. Now what are you going to do? Well, why not start using the tools to understand and improve your Google page rank, and squash some bugs in the process?

Here’s what’s available via Google’s webmaster tools:

Overview –This is Google’s summary view of your site.

Diagnostics – These are the errors the Google robot discovered while crawling the site.

Statistics – This is how your site appears in the Google index, and it tells you which search terms will return your site.

Links – You can see the pages that link to yours and the sitelinks generate by Google.

Sitemaps – A sitemap is a list of all the pages on your site, and it’s useful if you have a deep site that cannot be easily indexed by Google’s robot.

Tools - You can use these to target your site geographically. You can also determine the crawl rate of your site and do other good things.

Using the Tools: The Overview and Diagnostics Sections

Here you can see when the home page was last crawled and check the site’s status in Google. This is helpful when the client asks, “Is my site in Google?”. You can also find out what problems Google has when crawling the site; this is the meat of the Diagnostics section.

The Google robot crawls every link on your site and will let you know if it encounters any problems. The most common error messages and their meanings are discussed below.

HTTP Errors - Have you ever tried to visit a web page and instead received a message about an HTTP error? Well, that’s the outcome the Google robot encountered here. You’ll see (more…)

In October, Business Week published an article entitled “The Top Design Schools.” Most of the schools mentioned in the piece were those one would expect to see under such a heading. However at least one, the Harvard Business School, seemed just a bit out of place.

Over at Design Observer, Steven Kroeter took issue with the inclusion of HBS, on the grounds that it offers only one design course as part of its curriculum. I share his opinion but not just because the offering is limited. I think the list fails to acknowledge that design means something different at HBS than it does at the Royal College of Art or Pratt. It’s not a fatal flaw by any means, but it does create a confusing picture, which isn’t good for business or design.

Design, as it’s taught at the Harvard Business School and other such institutions, is essentially a strategy, an approach that may or may not lead to success in the marketplace. It’s a popular methodology these days and rightfully so. Major corporations such as Apple and P&G have routinely achieved success in the marketplace in large part because they appreciate good design. They also understand that the design process can be a reliable, though not guaranteed, source of innovation, a key to competitive advantage. In business, design is a means to an end, rather than an end in and of itself.

Compare that concept of design to the one typically espoused by more traditional design schools. At places like the Art Center College of Design or Parsons, for example, design requires certain skills and sensibilities and it’s part of an ongoing tradition with a rich history. The function of design in today’s marketplace is a topic worth considering, but (more…)

FFFFOUND! is a social bookmarking site similar in kind to del.icio.us, except that its focus is images. Using FFFFOUND!’s downloadable bookmarklet, users can “collect” images as they traverse the web. The images, once marked, are saved to the user’s profile and posted to the FFFFOUND! page.

Users can also bookmark images that have been selected by other site participants, which means the site can recommend visuals it believes are consistent with your expressed preferences.

Users can bookmark images, like this one produced by Jorinna Scherle, that others have selected. That process, in turn, leads to recommendations.

Some, like Alexander Bohn, have suggested that watching the stream of images on the FFFFOUND! site is a bit like watching an art show that’s being curated in real time. I’d agree with that, and for now at least, the quality of the images is high, probably because the site is expanding slowly while in beta.

In any case, I’ve found the site to be a pretty reliable source of design inspiration, and I look forward to assembling my own collection of other people’s images.

At the Future of Web Design conference in New York, Ryan Singer of 37 Signals and Jonathan Snook of snook.ca led interesting seminars on web application usability and Ajax design, respectively. These subjects are very much related, as Ajax is commonly used to create web applications and so can positively or negatively affect usability.

Ajax’s biggest benefit to the user is its speed. If well prepared, Ajax apps on a web page will move very fast, because only small amounts of data will update or refresh. The whole page need not reload. The speed makes these applications, in general, more interactive and engaging.

AjaxDaddy.com has a wide range of demos that are both fast and interactive.

However, the speed and the fact that changes often only occur in small areas of a web page can actually pose problems from a usability standpoint. Every morning, I visit washingtonpost.com and read the comics, which are posted in an Ajax-based tabbed list. When I’m done with the comics in the first tab, I move to the second. Sometimes, (more…)