I don’t know about you, but when I visit a website I haven’t been to before I often feel my heart sink – lots of time, energy and expense have been clearly been spent, only to produce a site that, frankly, annoys me. So I thought I’d take you through two of my (and other […]
Another year, and another trip to ionSearch, a web optimisation conference up in Leeds, UK. This time sadly a brief visit, just the Thursday and only the latter half of it. You can probably still get a sense of what’s been happening via the #ionsearch hash tag. Multi-lingual Sites and Geo-Location I only saw a […]
With as many typefaces as stars in the sky, how do you come to a decision of which typeface to use for your project? Here are some useful areas of thought that we would consider when starting to put design ideas together … Context – In what environment will the type be used? Will your chosen typeface […]
Websites today are often highly visual beasts, with lots of images and other goodies to make them look ‘just-so’. But what if you can’t see those images? Does your website still make sense?
Once your information architecture and HTML/CSS templates are complete it is time to start building your new web site. There are a number of steps involved in turning the technical designs into a beautiful, working website. Server, hosting and CMS specification The first decision to be made is what kind of webserver setup you require, […]
Back in January 2013, the Guardian published a piece about a scheme (entitled “buddying”) that granted access to the heart of government to various multinational companies. It seemed like lobbying on steroids, so I contacted one of the authors of the piece (James Ball) to find out what data the story was based upon…
Paul attempts to demystify what page caching is (in the context of WordPress plugins like W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache and Quick Cache) and if you should be using it. I was involved in a discussion on the ‘WordPress Experts’ group on LinkedIn recently about which cache plugins people would recommend when using WordPress, […]
Inspired by the infographic shown on Urbanfonts.com, we thought we’d throw in our two pence worth on this topic. So … Which is better to use and when, serif type or sans-serif type? This debate that has raged in the minds of designers (and procrastinating students) for decades. Is there a winner in this war? […]
I regularly contribute to the WordPress Experts group on LinkedIn and a topic that has been cropping up a lot of late is “how do I choose the right WordPress plugin for my site”. So, based primarily on the contributions in this discussion, I thought it would be helpful to put some of Refined Practice’s […]
We’re all aware that we should protect our details online, but this week news has reached the BBC (other news outlets are available!) about a new kind of “hacking” run by “The Comment Group” from China. How does it work? Well, they email you from what looks like a trusted address (say, someone inside your […]
