Your Inspiration Web

Want to improve your projects of web design and yourself? Spend more!

sarah — Mon, 28 May 2012 10:00:11 +0000

Who more spends, less spends, who more spends, more earns… a saying heard over and over again. You know, all the proverbs have a kernel of truth and wisdom that we should all consider both in our private and professional life. On this last thing and on the incapacity of many web designers to invest [...]

Want to improve your projects of web design and yourself? Spend more! is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Tips & tricks: how to optimize a website for mobile devices

Maurizio Tarchini — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:00:50 +0000

The huge development and usage of mobile devices makes us pay a close attention to this market of potential clients that will accede the website we’re creating with a far lower resolution respect to the standards (320 x480 tells you something?). In this article I’ll give you a few hints on how it’s possible to [...]

Tips & tricks: how to optimize a website for mobile devices is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

How to semplify your life and design a great layout

sarah — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:00:29 +0000

I receive a lot of e-mails from web designers or presumed web designers that quoting their words are “denied for all that concerns graphic and design” and they ask me how to improve themselves and build up attractive sites without being a genius of creativity and fantasy.

I often reply that sometimes a good course of graphic and books can do miracles, but the main quality of a graphic should be the aesthetic sense and this is one of those things that you can’t learn. Aesthetic sense can get refined through years of practice, but if basically one doesn’t have it, there’s very little you can do.

How to semplify your life and design a great layout is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Gold section and web design: how to use it and why

sarah — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 09:20:52 +0000

People often talk about it as something fascinating and elusive that is still struggling to shape up in our minds of web designers in a practical concept: I’m talking about the gold section, that special number that, like an urban legend never contradicted, seems to be the holder of intrinsic and great abilities.

Gold section and web design: how to use it and why is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

How to implement an online payment: First step (1/6)

Maurizio Tarchini — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 08:00:05 +0000

In this series of articles we will see how it is possible to implement online payments in your own website through a credit card. We will be relying obviously on a company specialized in on-line transactions and in our case on PayPal. The choice fell on this company since it's the most famous and already synonymous with reliability for everybody. The setting on which we are going to work is the following:

In our website, we want to create a reserved area in which special contents will be available. We want that access to this area comes with a fee and that the contents are available immediately once the user has paid the fee (instant access). In this particular case it will be about Your Inspiration Images, a website which collects images. In order to have them at a high resolution it is necessary to become users by paying a fee of 50 Euros.
How to implement an online payment: First step (1/6) is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

A creative touch to your layout: tips & tricks

sarah — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 23:45:37 +0000

There’s a question that I often read on forums and that many of you have in several occasions e-mailed me: how can I improve the graphics of a site, giving it a creative and professional touch to make the layout more attractive and appealing?

The answer to such a question can’t absolutely be found in a simple article, in fact we should talk about symmetries , white spaces, the page balance, typography , colors, coherence of communication, usability and many other arguments and factors. And maybe it won’t be enough.

However, even if the principles of graphics are practically endless (in certain fields, you never stop learning), there’s always something more that we can do to improve our graphic projects. To give that certain creative touch that makes the difference between a good project – but ordinary- and a special and more attractive project .
A creative touch to your layout: tips & tricks is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Beauty and Clean: a free minimal WordPress theme

nando pappalardo — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 13:13:16 +0000

Oh well, it’s too late now, it passed: Your Inspiration Web celebrated two years of life and nobody gave us their best wishes. Of course, it’s our fault, we didn’t say anything, we didn’t organize anything, not even a small party this year therefore our second anniversary passed quietly.

In reality in the past weeks we have been working behind the scenes to release a free resource just for this occasion, but unfortunately for one reason or another, the date was always postponed and we completed this project only in these days.

It was tough, as they say, but we did it: we present Beauty & Clean, a free WordPress theme in minimal style, elegant completely controllable by the panel. Our small gift to celebrate with you our first two years of activity.
Beauty and Clean: a free minimal WordPress theme is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

CSS3: is the right moment to use it?

panna — Mon, 30 May 2011 12:09:00 +0000

The draft of the CSS3 code arouse a lot of excitement from the first moment of its announcement, then seeing the first browsers (all, except IE) that starter to support these fantastic proprieties, making simple to achieve even the most complicated thing sent in ecstasy many web designers that decided to dedicate body and soul to this novelty, along with HTML5.

The HTML language defines the structure, the fundamental part of the site and leaving it at the mercy of a non standard code, or of js libraries that should run sites in HTML 5 on non-compliant browsers (like Modernizr)is however a risk.

Different is the story for the CSS code that, by definition, defines the presentation.
CSS3: is the right moment to use it? is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Want to improve your projects of web design and yourself? Spend more!

sarah — Mon, 16 May 2011 09:28:14 +0000

Cheapest is dearest, who more spends, more earns… a hackneyed proverb heard millions of times in all the versions that certainly everybody know. It’s known , all proverbs have a bottom of truth and popular wisdom that we should all consider, both in our private and professional life.

On this issue and on the incapacity of many web designers to invest on themselves and on their projects will be today’s article.
Want to improve your projects of web design and yourself? Spend more! is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Webdesign: let your website communicate the right way

sarah — Fri, 13 May 2011 08:06:40 +0000
If you’re just starting out as a web designer, you might still think -erroneously- that creating a site is simply putting good graphics into code, uploading everything to a host, and voilà. Done. Nothing more, nothing less. The truth is, creating a website is a combination of numerous, complicated steps, each one linked to the [...]
Webdesign: let your website communicate the right way is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Accessible form: how to position items and render it attractive?

panna — Mon, 09 May 2011 07:00:11 +0000

We were left in great suspense, curious to see how our ugly duckling, difficult to understand, is transformed into a beautiful swan... and now are you ready to follow me in this transformation process through the CSS code?
Accessible form: how to position items and render it attractive? is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

How to order the elements with jQuery (2/2)

Maurizio Tarchini — Wed, 04 May 2011 08:00:20 +0000

In the previous article we saw how the sortable method allows the sorting of a list of items through dragging. We just saw a "visual" implementation though. But if we want the sorting to be lasting, hence it remains the same even if we reload the page, we will have to go the extra mile. In the practical case, we will extract the items from a table of the database in which we will save the id, the item name and the item order. The change of order has then to be intercepted and sent by means of an asynchronous call to a file that will take care of updating the database.

As you can see by the example, if you change the order, it will remain unaltered even by reloading the page (unless there is another user that is using the example) since it is saved in the database as it will be illustrated in this article.
How to order the elements with jQuery (2/2) is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Usability: How to write for the Web

panna — Mon, 02 May 2011 07:00:33 +0000

You have probably read it so often that it may even sound banal, an illogical expression but…Content is the king. So how come nobody never talks about it?

People talk on how to present it, what to put around it, but they never talk about how to create a good content. Or better, thinking about it, most all of the times in which I have read this statement it was always to justify a lack of aesthetics.

The content is king, so let's give it the space that it deserves.
Usability: How to write for the Web is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Database structuring: the normalization

Maurizio Tarchini — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 08:08:45 +0000
In the previous article we treated the important concept of the primary key. Today we are going to see in theory what are the main measures (which are called normal forms) to be implemented in the database to make them more efficient and maintainable and to ensure data consistency. Instead in the last article of this [...]
Database structuring: the normalization is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Mobile Web Design

Alessandro D'agnano — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 09:09:28 +0000

The question that I ask myself as a web designer is whether it’s right and obvious that our profession automatically covers the abilities of developing graphics and markup for mobile devices and tablets.
Mobile Web Design is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

How can we create an accessible form and with an optimized code?

panna — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 07:00:38 +0000

After a lot of theory and examples on what not to do, today we’re finally going to put our hands on some codes, seeing how to create an accessible form and with a standard code.

In most cases, in fact, the forms we find around don’t respect the accessibility rules regarding keyboard commands and they are usually paginated inside tables: it seems that even the most brilliant web designer in front of a form has a sort of block that inevitably forces him to imprison the innocent input fields inside useless and irritating cells.

Yet it’s possible, with much less codes and a couple of lines of CSS, to have a form without tables, accessible, standard, and if wanted also appealing… let’s see how!
How can we create an accessible form and with an optimized code? is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Inspiration: art in a cup of coffee

sarah — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:20:05 +0000

If the dog is man’s best friend, the best friend of a web designer is most likely coffee. Coffee that wakes you up in the morning, that keeps you active even in the most silent night, that marks a break between one project and another. Probably because I’m in caffeine withdrawal (my coffee machine is broken from immemorial time), probably because I don’t know what I could give for a good espresso… fact is that it seemed a good idea to dedicate an inspiring article on coffee, as only Italians know how to do.

Be inspired!
Inspiration: art in a cup of coffee is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Is it really necessary to validate the code?

nando pappalardo — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 01:08:04 +0000

It’s the mania of those who tend to perfection and write the code with almost a maniacal accuracy, to see the green check mark that indicates that the code of the web page newly developed passed the validation control. But what does validating a code mean? And why is it convenient to do so? And yet, is it always necessary to pass the validation or there can be some exceptions?

First things first, in this article we’ll try to answer to all the interrogatives posted and with which many developers find themselves facing everyday.
Is it really necessary to validate the code? is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

How to order the elements with jQuery (1/2)

Maurizio Tarchini — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:47:59 +0000

In this article we’ll treat the fascinating and always increasingly used the technique of the item ordering in an html document. The classical example could be the management of WordPress widgets. To activate a widget we have to drag it in the sidebar with a drag and drag operation as described in this article. To decide the order in which it will appear I’ll drag it (up or down) until the desired postion is reached.
How to order the elements with jQuery (1/2) is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Plagiarism and web design: prevention and reaction

sarah — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:04:41 +0000

It’s a situation that many web designers may face during their carrier: finding out that someone, somewhere on the web has shamelessly copied your work, passing it off as their own, is without doubt a really unpleasant experience. And frustrating.
Plagiarism is a phenomenon that has always existed and it has its roots practically in every artistic field: books, films, songs, paintings get plagiarized. And from the birth of art applied to the web, the tentacles of plagiarism also reached the web design, nowadays web sites are copied, the graphics is copied, the programming codes are copied, texts are stolen without even bothering in modifying or readapting them a bit.
Certainly, plunder on the web is easy: all you have to do is push a few buttons to take possession of everything that the net has to offer. And the copyright on the web is still an illusion: there’s still a little talking about this issue to really know what all this involves and what is the procedure to protect one’s works.
So then, what should we do when we find a bad copy of the site we hardly worked on? And above all, is there a way to prevent plagiarism?
Plagiarism and web design: prevention and reaction is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Inspiration: when web designers go … to drink

sarah — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:47:54 +0000

The topic galleries of inspiration always arise in me a certain interest, especially if I have the fortune to find many collections related with the object of the design I’’m working on. It’s with this spirit- aware that I’ll make somebody happy- that today I’m gathering a rich collection of sites with an ...”alcoholic content”, sites that deal with beer, wine, spirits and whatelse.

So, if you’re working on the creation of a layout with this topic, or planning to do so in the near future… this collection is for you. Be inspired!
Inspiration: when web designers go … to drink is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Tutorial + Psd: creating a professional Vcard in a few steps

sarah — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:34:45 +0000

A week ago we talked about the VCard phenomenon: what they were, how they could be used and also which were the main characteristics of an efficient VCard. Today it's the time to put into practice what we learned, trying to create a captivating VCard for our fictional client...so let's waste no time, open Photoshop and let's get started!
Tutorial + Psd: creating a professional Vcard in a few steps is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Accessibility and reality: the horror gallery (first part)

panna — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 08:30:49 +0000

It happens that I read on the web a bit too often, statements of web-designers ( or presumed) that say that they get paid separately for the compatibilty with browsers like Internet Explorer 6 and even the accessibilty of the site.

If you have read my articles,it should be clear my position : accesssibility is a “state of mind” and using this approach to work, making a site accessible or not involves the same time, because the modifications are done long the way and not at the end, actually they are done automatically. In case a job is processed in this order, you can say that one earns a kind of additional value, for which you can ask for a higher payment,whether or not the “accessibillity” item is on the budget. And the compatibility comes as a consenquence (yes, even with IE6)
Accessibility and reality: the horror gallery (first part) is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Accessibility: is your site readable?

panna — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 15:20:09 +0000

A few weeks ago we treated the issue of the web-standard fonts and in particular the specifications CSS3 @font-face.

An important aspect that, for one reason or another, I didn’t take in consideration is the readability of the “fonts”: “now” that you have the possibility to choose the font you want for your website, you have to be careful not to base the choice only on the aesthetic ( excited for the new CSS3), since the ability to set a certain font doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the right choice, simply becasue some fonts are more readable than others.
Accessibility: is your site readable? is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Portfolio? No,VCard: when doing things “small” is better

sarah — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:25:11 +0000

Those who saw the film “American Psycho” surely remember the part full of pathos where Patrick Bateman and other daddy’s boys show off their business card just to boast in an elegant way- maniacally, if you permit- their social status: headed letters, monograms, glossy paper, cream colored … an endless series of classy details to be evaluated for and for which to be feel above the others.

Probably the same scene of the same movie, filmed in America 2011, would have as the main character not the traditional paper business card but a VCard, an electronic virtual business card, viewable only with an appropriate electronic device. Impalpable , impersonal, but in step with times.

And a lot of sweet goodbyes to suspense.
Portfolio? No,VCard: when doing things “small” is better is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Database structuring (1/3): The primary key

Maurizio Tarchini — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:00:25 +0000

We start today with a series of articles on database structuring. Throughout years of militancy in various support forums, I have realized that there are many users who are perfectly able to manipulate databases, even with very complex queries, but when they seek help for some reason and you see the database table structure, it may happen that you find yourself in front of confused ones and which do not take into account some simple and basic rules. This article is thus intended for those who are newbies in the world of databases and want to get off on the right foot, or even those who have a certain experience and want to further improve the quality of their products.
Database structuring (1/3): The primary key is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Why typographically thinking ruins your site? (second part)

panna — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 08:00:20 +0000

A couple of weeks ago we talked about how some summaries of the traditional graphics are stored and wrongly reused in the web world: for example the definition of the height of the elements involved in the layout. But there are many other very common mistakes to avoid.
Why typographically thinking ruins your site? (second part) is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Trends: the new retrò web design and the “CSS3 style”

sarah — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 08:00:17 +0000

On the web the CSS3 and the HTML5 mania go crazy and this is nothing new. Web designers from around the world indulge themselves with animations –of doubtful utility but, we have to admit, certainly creative- they experiment shades and curves and go wild mixing almost unconsciously dozens of fonts inside the same project (hooray for the font-face!). Removed the premise: I’m sure that some of you have noticed that the boom of CSS3 potentialities created a new and curious trend for what concerns the web graphics: this is a slightly retro style- that seems a bit a paradox -, with a particular attention to the effects on the text and it’s characterized by many elements that in a short time have become a must.
Trends: the new retrò web design and the “CSS3 style” is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

The tools for a remote life

Alessandro D'agnano — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:00:27 +0000

In this article I want to discuss with you all, trying to create a list o f all those applications and tools that are essential for a remote life. For remote life I intend the passage of all the documents, photos, works and information on an accessible space from any kind of device, wherever in the world and above all without necessarily having along one’s pc/mac.

I would like to push myself further, trying to understand how much these tools can be shared even by the common people that don’t use the web as a profession. It’s obvious that many advanced and innovative solutions are first tested by those who use them for work and after pass to the commercial level and to wide diffusion. So, I hope to discuss this argument not only with the YIW community, but also to give indirectly helpful tips to all web users.
The tools for a remote life is a post from: Your Inspiration Web

Accessibility: how and why to be careful with the colors to use

panna — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 08:00:34 +0000

In the previous articles, of the series "Why typographically thinking ruins your site" we already talked about taking in consideration the possible personalization of a website from the user and the standard font , leaving out although a very important issue: the colors.

If you’re one of those people that approaches web graphics without a minimum bases, surely every time that you had to set a document on whatever type of graphic software, you’ve found yourself facing the “dilemma of the colours”: CYMK OR RGB?
Accessibility: how and why to be careful with the colors to use is a post from: Your Inspiration Web