Web Design Tutorials, Interviews, Articles and more...

We know opinions on the use of CSS frameworks are strong, to say the least. That said, there’s a lot to learn from the way these frameworks are structured. By studying frameworks, we can make our CSS more portable and reusable without sacrificing flexibility. In this article, SitePoint forums regular Alex Dawson walks us through the key points we can take away from a study of the main CSS frameworks.

Microsoft’s Expression Blend design tool includes a very interesting prototyping tool called SketchFlow. In this article, former Microsoft developer Shane Morris walks us through some of its unique features and shows us how to best use it for rapid application prototyping. There’s also a fun quiz at the end.

In Part I, Earle showed us some jQuery basics: how to select the elements on the page we’d like to play with, and how to manipulate their CSS properties. In this second lesson, we’ll move onto manipulating the DOM itself: hiding, revealing, adding, removing, and modifying elements. We’ll also touch on the theory of progressive enhancement and the basics of animation in jQuery.

So you’ve mastered HTML and CSS, but now you want to take your site to the next level. You need to add some fancy user interface enhancements, but the thought of learning a full-blown programming language like JavaScript gives you the heebie-jeebies. Enter jQuery. In this article, taken from the new SitePoint book jQuery: Novice to Ninja, Earle shows us the ropes in the form of jQuery’s most elemental features: its selector engine and its CSS manipulation methods.

Our newly released book, jQuery: Novice to Ninja, contains a wealth of great ready-to-use solutions, and teaches you both the basic and more advanced concepts of jQuery as you progress. As a taster, here’s an excerpt from Chapter 7 wherein Craig Sharkie shows us how to build a robust, sophisticated star rating widget using jQuery. It’s keyboard-accessible, and allows for half-star ratings.

An interactive map can be a great way to show your site’s visitors where your physical locations are. Thanks to jQuery and the Google Maps API, implementing this sort of map is a breeze. In this week’s tutorial, Madhuri and Mona show us a few of the tricks the API has up its sleeve.

As conscientious developers we try to ensure that our applications are streamlined, self explanatory, and easy to use. We work hard to make sure they look good and lend themselves well to a given workflow, but often forget that not everyone experiences our work in the same way. From dyslexia and color blindness to full visual impairment and mobility issues, a percentage of the population face obstacles that can make using an application difficult or even impossible. In this article Toby examines several ways to tailor your Flex applications to make sure they work for all users.

In a recent article, we saw how easy it is to get a web server up and running on Windows with PHP, IIS, and SQL Server Express using the Web Platform Installer. In this article, Akash explains how to use those tool together to build a simple web app.

Buying your first website property can certainly be daunting, especially if you’re unsure how to go about investigating your potential purchase. Flippa.com’s new marketing manager, Luke Moulton, walks us through the due diligence behind a sample website purchase to show us the ropes.

When your site or application grows beyond what can be supported with shared or even VPS hosting, perhaps it’s time to look for a dedicated server. Countless companies provide dedicated hosting, and the features of their offerings can be difficult to untangle. In this week’s article, Khurram guides us through ten different entry-level plans and points out their pros and cons to help you make an informed decision.