Web Design Blog – CSS Tutorials, jQuery Tutorials, SEO Tips, Learning Advice, Personal News, and More

I have been getting familiar with jQuery recently and the more I get into it, the more I’m impressed with it. When I first heard about jQuery I was definitely intimidated by it since I had no previous background with javascript, but I soon realized once you get the basics down its not very hard to pull of some neat effects.

Of course, to master anything it takes dedication and hard work, but for those who are on the sidelines looking in, don’t be scared to get familiar with it.

Over the past year, we have been researching and testing the effects of markup hierarchy making a difference in search engine results. What I mean by markup hierarchy is that we want the unique and rich content to be at the highest point in the markup.

Why? First Read Chris Casarez’s Article

After several tests and reviews, we did see some improvements in search engine rankings as Chris Casarez (SEO Specialist at the Company) mentions in his article “Content Placement and Keyword Density matter“.

Are you the type of designer/developer who eats and runs? I don’t mean going to a party, chowing down, and then taking off as you just went there for the feast. I’m talking about the type of designer/developer who cruises around the blogsphere finding what they want, copy + paste, then get’n the hell out.

Although there is nothing wrong with this since most bloggers who share their techniques and code are giving back to better the community, you may be cheating your self out of a good lesson.

Here are various plugins I used and customized to create my latest project www.DesignBombs.com. If anyone is interested in creating a gallery or portal, these plugins will definitely give you a head start!

As we’ve discussed before on my previous article, “How much longer will we design for 1024?” semi-liquid layouts may possibly start to become more popular in the near future. As screen resolutions get both smaller (mobile) and bigger (larger monitors), having some knowledge on adapting to semi-liquid layouts will most definitely be a plus in your arsenal.

I know there are a lot of toggle tutorials out there already, but when I was learning the basics of jQuery and the toggle effect, I had a hard time finding resources on how to switch the “open” and “close” graphic state.

After reading a few tutorials and mix and matching techniques I was able to achieve this effect, but wanted to share it with those who experienced the same frustration that I had gone through.

I have been working on a new web gallery site called DesignBombs the past few weeks. It all started from buying a domain name sporadically (was an inside joke between co-workers), moving on to experimenting with a logo, then transforming it self to a gallery style site.