Webdesigner in Warri Nigeria
CSS Gradients provide alternatives to image/graphic gradients, You could easily use a CSS gradient instead of using a large image as you site background. In this video, I explain how to generate and use CSS gradients.
Important Links
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/graphics/cssgradientbackgroundmaker/default.html
http://davidwalsh.name/css-gradients
These are blogs i read everyday, they have helped to build my my skills, shaped my ideologies and kept me in sync with design trends and the modern tools I use today. I hope they’ll be useful to you too (Web Designer).
This tutorial shows how to install WordPress 3.5 on xammp server, It also explains and shows how to post content on WordPress, Kindly leave comments if you have questions or contributions
The world is continually evolving, the web too is evolving with it. The evolution of the world and everything in and about it depends on human behavior for direction. As our needs and ideas change, we modify what is already in existence to meet such needs and 
sometimes create new things.
Our ideal fashion evolves like everything else, clothes we could have worn in the 80s we can no longer wear, wearing such outdated clothes would quickly make us look odd, reduce our self worth and confidence thereby affecting our social security.
Just like clothes and everything else, the web evolves too. It’s evolution being guided by human needs and desires just like everything else too. More comfort, speed, beauty, ease and security have been the main determinants of the evolution of the web, and so far, it tends to meet most of our needs at different decades.
We keep wanting more, and we’ll keep getting more because we’ll keep working towards having more, we’re never satisfied. Take cars for example, kids want toy cars, teens want real cars, and for the rest of life, keep working towards having better cars. Each year, there is a newer model with more features, a sleeker look and of course people naturally would want the new ones!
This desire for a newer and better thing is part of what drives the evolution of web standards. While it could be said that a desire for a newer and better thing is one of the determinants for a better web, necessity is also a feature that drives this evolution, it’s necessary to have better security, better stability!
The evolution of the web could easily be divided into two major parts, evolution of web standards and evolution of web browsers to portray and accommodate those standards.
The Evolution of Web Standards
As a result, web stands have changed over the years and would keep changing, CSS3 is fast making way for the next CSS standard, for HTML, the new and still Shiny HTML5 is in vogue, Java script is fast replacing some functionalities of flash and silverlite. Programming languages such a PHP, ASP.NET, Python, Ruby, Java etc are improving the capabilities of the web and its security.
The Evolution of Web Browsers
As web standards improve, old browsers built to support the old web standards would be replaced by new browsers with capabilities to support the new standards. Browsers are frequently tested and upgraded to improve security, usability friendliness and performance, all this in-line with the evolution of web standards.
The web is always evolving, you have the option of evolving with it or choosing to be left behind. Whatever choice you make as an individual will not affect the evolution of the web, so i’d say it is in your interest to evolve with the web.
For Web workers such as developers and designers, it is imparitive we follow and adapt to the trend! I know designers who in the 90s and early 2000 refused to start using divs for site structure, they didn’t see anything wrong with tables, they felt divs was just another option and tables were the main thing, Today, most of them have adapted inconveniently and out of compulsion while others are now out of business!
The same thing goes for browser updates, some folks don’t just like updating their browsers and even their Os! In Nigeria, over 40% of Internet users still use windows XP and Internet explorer 6! Firefox 3.5 is still the most popular version of Firefox in Nigeria!
Sad as this statistics may sound, it applies to both very big corporate organizations and individual computer owners/users. As at this time of writing, Shell Nigeria still uses Windows Vista (Internet Explorer 8) on 95% of all its computers!
Web developers must follow web standards as they evolve, this would secure their future, safeguard their users and clients, make beautiful things while web users should ensure they update their browsers, its for your own good! Where ever you are, who ever you are, stay up to date!
Recommended
3 Reasons Why You Need To Update Your Browser
A simple responsive web design video tutorial from Frank Waive a Nigerian Web Designer/ Developer
Mathematics is the most important subject/course taught in schools, don’t get me wrong, I am one of those people who don’t like mathematics, this probably is a transferred dislike I had for my first mathematics teachers. Some people just don’t like numbers, formulas and equations but Math is everywhere, even where you wouldn’t expect it, graphic design, web design, programming etc you’ll need some math, you can’t avoid it, so live with it!
For this article, I’ll be concentrating on web design, the mathematics involved in web design, we’ll be using layout calculations (Responsive Layout) as an example.
Lets talk width calculations, in ordinary fixed width design, design measurements especially widths are done in pixels (px), in responsive web design, they are done in percentages (%). I’ll assume you already know how to design websites and you’re conversant with divs and css.
When using divs for your site site structure, a simple rule applies, rows before columns, the rows are then split into columns, This principle applies to most designs such as the this one for example
How Percentage (%) Measurements Work
These days, desktops and laptops are no longer the only media through which people access the internet, we now have a variety of devices ranging from mobile phones, to tablets, to TVs, apps etc. As good as this sounds for the end user, this development present a challenge for web designers/developers who now have to make websites look good and usable in all of these devices regardless of their screen size and OS.
To beat this, Responsive Web Design was coined.
“Responsive web design (often abbreviated to RWD) is an approach to web design in which a site is crafted to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones).” – Wikipedia
Percentage based measurements would simply render the width of the page/element based on the size of the container element/browser for example, if the #wrapper of a site is set to be 80% in width, the wrapper would be 80% of the browser size, if an element placed immediately inside the wrapper is given the size of 50%, such an element’s size would be 50% of the #wrapper’s width not 50% of the browser width.
Let’s use this design as an example
The Solution
*{
-webkit-box-sizing: border-box; /* Safari/Chrome, other WebKit */
-moz-box-sizing: border-box; /* Firefox, other Gecko */
box-sizing: border-box; /* Opera/IE 8+ */
}
The above code would adjust the border-box model affecting every element in you design such that your assigned width will be the actually width regardless of padding and border you may have attributed to the element, that is, if you assign 500px as width to an element, 50px as padding and 5px as border, the actual width you’ll get would be 500px which would not be the case without the above code. Using the same figures, without the above code, your displayed width would be equals assigned width 500px + padding 50px + border 5px = 555px.
To make the code work for a specific element rather than all elements, replace the * with the selector ID(#) or class name as the case may be, for example, say we have a div with the ID(#) #asia, to fix the border-box model
For #asia, replace the * with #asia just like this
#asia{
-webkit-box-sizing: border-box; /* Safari/Chrome, other WebKit */
-moz-box-sizing: border-box; /* Firefox, other Gecko */
box-sizing: border-box; /* Opera/IE 8+ */
}
“Your designs don’t need to look exactly the same in every browser, they just need to look good in every browser.”
