News & Tutorials

• Introduction to CSS3 - Part 3: Text Effects

  9th May 2008 | 6 comments

  The third part in this series on CSS3 will be delving into the new text effects. Typography is, without any doubt, one of the most important aspects to get right when designing a layout. Type can draw the reader through a page, give a certain impression, provide impact, be subtle, or aid in separating content.

  CSS is already reasonably versatile in the way in which text can be displayed, but still constricts design in quite a few areas. CSS3 goes some way towards removing those limitations.

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• And the winner is...

  8th May 2008 | 3 comments

  Once again, thank you to everyone who entered our competition and filled out the survey. We have randomly selected a winner and the proud recipient of a new CSSEdit 2.6 copy is Domantas Jankauskas. Congratulations!

  If you are interested in the outcome of the survey, please feel free to read on. We’ll be discussing some of your responses and how Design Shack has changed as a result.

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• Silverback Previews

  8th May 2008 | 2 comments

  

  Silverback is a new app which lets you run your own usability tests really easily. It looks set to be a great new tool for designers who want to analyze how users interact with their site. After a recent request for beta testers, a few interesting details are emerging:

  • Read Kyle Meyer’s initial impressions
  • Quicktime movies are created which show the user’s interaction with the site
  • A video and audio recording is also taken of the user, showing their expressions and remarks
  • It can also be used for testing desktop applications
  • It’s Mac only for now, likely due to the standard hardware features of Apple laptops

  It’s certainly an application which could bring the idea of usability testing to a large market. There’s no substitute to actually watching someone using your website when testing it. Keep your eyes peeled for a release and give it a try for yourself.

  Follow Silverback on Twitter

• Introduction to CSS3 - Part 2: Borders

  7th May 2008 | 7 comments

  For the second part of our series on CSS3, we’ll be taking a look at borders. Everyone who uses CSS is familiar with the border property – it’s a great way to structure content, create effects around images and improve page layout.

  CSS3 takes borders to a new level with the ability to use gradients, rounded corners, shadows and border images. We are going to look at each of these in a bit more detail, using examples where possible.

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• 9rules Submission Open

  7th May 2008 | 0 comments

  

  For the next few hours, the blog network 9rules have opened their doors to website submissions. They run a high quality network of sites and provide a central way to access all their content. Members includes sites such as Smashing Magazine, CSS Globe and PSDTuts.

  If you think that your site has a great design, great quality content and regular updates then it is definitely worth submitting. There are some great tips to help with deciding whether you will qualify as well.

  Submit your site to 9rules