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Striped Text Boxes Website Design Trend 2012

Published on May 1st, 2012

Placing text in long strips is a design trend I have seen in both print and web lately—usually the box is a neutral colour, but I have also seen them in bright pink and yellow. The transparency is often set to 80-90%, so the image or colour field behind them bleeds through slightly without making

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Images are fuzzy on iPad 3 – how do I optimize for retina displays?

Published on April 1st, 2012

The new iPad 3 is out and it is gorgeous! Retina display apps jump out from the standard apps like red roses in a field of ashes. In excitement, I started looking at websites and while the text was clear and sharp, images turned into a blurry fuzzy mess. Standard image viewed on retina Image

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Where did the left column navigation go?

Published on March 2nd, 2012

I have noticed many of the newest sites have eschewed the left navigation column that we are so used to seeing for a more horizontal approach. Usually there is a large area going all the way across, then a set of columns underneath. This allows for a large rotating or static highlight area and a

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Are detailed background images distracting or awesome?

Published on February 1st, 2012

Back in the early times of website design, when the idea of having images was still new, I remember using the technique of a dramatic image as the background. It drew people’s eye and helped differentiate the website. Eventually, designers decided it was a bit busy, and design turned more to using header photography with

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A billboard is not a brochure, and a website is not a magazine ad

Published on January 4th, 2012

As I was driving around during December, I noticed a lot of banners hung by churches out on their front lawn or by their parking lot advertising their Christmas Eve service. The image above is a quick reproduction of one (with the church’s name changed) that floored me. Here you are driving along at a

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