Various

The Streaming Web: Video on the WWW

1 Comment 19 November 2009

In the past few years there has been growing popularity of video on the web. This is due to a variety of factors like increased internet speeds, higher compression technologies and better video players. Video on the web went from short clips shared between friends to full-scale streaming, making the computer a very strong substitute for television.

Video has become one of the most effective ways of delivering content, be it news, opinion, tutorials or just plain entertainment. YouTube was the pioneer of this trend on the web, and it quickly gained popularity, and video has now almost become ubiquitous on the web.

Below are some websites that use video very effectively to deliver content and add to the user experience.

Ted.com

Ted delivers compelling free content in the form of recorded lectures and presentations from their conferences.

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Various

What Does Your Business Website Need?

5 Comments 16 November 2009

We’ve all seen ineffective and sometimes downright ugly business websites. From garage-run e-businesses to corporate websites that merely play a supporting presence to offline advertising, the internet is littered with pathetic examples of online understanding and misguided attempts at online commerce.

You’d think it’d be easy to send a hint to businesses that one-page Wordpress websites (running Kubrick, of course) aren’t enough to highlight their qualities, but it’s often a losing cause. Many online businesses are run on assumptions – what could work rather than what does work – and are generally immune to suggestions built on metrics and data. Rather than investing in the data, thousands of online businesses put all their effort into an online presence that simply doesn’t have any measurable effects.

If you run an online business and want to improve your metrics and margins, read on to see how you can make your business website more effective. Remember, these tips, tactics and strategies aren’t limited to online businesses; offline businesses that are experimenting with online advertising and establishing a web presence will be able to put them to use in their planning and execution too.

What End Result Do You Want?

Designing a website purely for the sake of having one is a failed strategy. Unless you’re aiming to create real, measurable results, there’s no real point in having a website. If you move into the design and development process without a clear goal in mind you’ll likely end up with a website that both fails to convert and costs you valuable funding. So, whenever you aim to create a website (or make a change to an existing one) ensure that it’s a change that helps you move towards your goal.

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Inspiration

35 Beautiful Photography Shots for Inspiration

9 Comments 15 November 2009

Early this week, we published an article featuring different photography blog themes. Having a great theme for your photography blog is important, but one must not forget the most important aspect – updating it with beautiful photography.

Photography is the art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an electronic sensor.

There are millions of amazing photographs online, today we are show casing 35 which we hope you will find inspirational.  Hope you enjoy them. Thanks!

1. Road to nowhere…

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Various

12 Essential Plugins for Your Wordpress Design Blog

17 Comments 13 November 2009

For millions of bloggers worldwide, Wordpress is the platform of choice. Offering the widest range of plugins and features — both user-designed and official, a massive network of bloggers and inbuilt installations, and the perfect price ($0), there’s no wonder why this blogging platform has become the industry standard.

Of course, Wordpress isn’t limited to blogs and bloggers. With such powerful customization options, thousands of big name corporate websites are running on the Wordpress platform. Design and development blogs, some of the most popular online presences, almost always use Wordpress as their platform of choice.

If you’re thinking of launching a design blog, these twelve plugins should always be on your to-download list. From server protection to intense design options, customizing your Wordpress design and development blog is much simpler with these 12 plugins on your server.

1. Lightbox 2 Plugin for Images

The original lightbox plugin, Lightbox 2, has some pretty cool features that make it a virtual requirement for any Wordpress based design website. Images are the life and soul of any design website — without them it’s hard to draw attention or valuable links — and presenting those images is just as important as having them there. Using a simple lightbox plugin, you can let your readers view images and design examples without having to open them in another tab or window.

While the original plugin is the most popular, there are several others around that offer similar features, and often more customization options. For Picasa users, the Picasa Lightbox plugin will save you time and server space by directly loading images from your Picasa account. Flexible Lightbox seamlessly integrates the lightbox feature into your gallery options, making the entire process more simple for you. Finally, the Lightbox Gallery Plugin changes your gallery viewing mode to lightbox by default, saving your visitors the trouble of having to click through to new tabs to view images.

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Inspiration

35 Cool Illustrations for Inspiration

4 Comments 11 November 2009

An illustration is a visualization such as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that stresses subject more than form and our Today’s post is dedicated to all Illustration lovers specially for the ones wish to play their hands on great graphic softwares like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to come up with such great artworks.

Visualization is important but Inspiration is always helpful specially when we are talking about the Graphic Industry, So here we are with a cool round-up of 35 Illustrations which can be Inspirational for some in the Graphic Design Industry.

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