Computer and Web Design Resources

Home > Web Tools > Web Site Picks > January - April 2003 Web Site Picks

5/6/03 - Macromedia Showcase highlights outstanding sites created with Macromedia Flash MX. Be sure to visit this archive if you want to see some of the "cutting edge" sites on the Internet. I personally enjoyed visiting mytinygarden which includes an outstanding display of digital imagery and a rather unique Flash interface.

5/1/03 - ScanTips - Tons of information and tips on scanning. Great site!

2/24/03 - OxyScripts is a site devoted to PHP, MySQL, & HTML. There are tutorials, a forum, code snippets, and the latest news about PHP. Looks like a good resource. Check Tutorial Find for links to lots of sites with PHP tutorials.

2/21/03 - User Interface Engineering has great articles on designing effective user interfaces/web sites. Some of the topics include: Persuasive Design, Designing for the Multiple Personalities of Users, 5 Things To Know About Users, The Search For Seducible Moments, Strategies for Categorizing Categories, and Users Continue After Category Links. You can also sign up to do usability testing at this site.

eFuse.com - Brands itself as "The friendly place to learn how to build a better web site". This site is packed with very informative articles on site design. I especially like the articles on color.

About.com has an Internet for Beginners section which includes articles on building web sites. These articles are excellent for any one who wants to build a web site for the first time. About's Learn the Net area has a lot of other articles written with the "newbie" in mind.

A student asked yesterday, "what is the DOCTYPE statement in the code at the top of all web pages?". The DOCTYPE statement basically tells the browser what version of code, HTML, XHMTL, etc., your pages is using. This statement is necessary if you want your pages to validate properly and should be included on your web pages. For information on XHTML DOCTYPE statements visit Endomcg.com (be sure to check out the rest of the Endomcg site, there is a lot of useful information; page redirection, choosing a web host, avoiding spam, etc.). You can also find additional information HTML DOCTYPE statements at the W3C's HTML Structure section.

The House of Style, CSS Resources, now has a CSS Blog. They bring you all the latest happenings and developments in the lang of CSS.

2/20/03 - Take a look at some of the sites at Worst of the Web and Web Pages that Suck. As a group, discuss some of the design techniques found that you shouldn't incorporate into your own sites. Pick a site that needs redesign. As a group, decide how you would redesign the site and present your redesign ideas to the class. Create a mock layout of your new design to present to class. If you have time, visit the Webby Awards, CoolHomePages, to see examples of some of the best sites on the Internet.

2/14/03 - While I was over at Yahoo Picks, I found some sites that I thought you might enjoy. The New York Libraries Digital Image Database Project - Go see this site just because. The Candy Critic - Need I say more? Playing with time is a project that looks at how things in the world change over various time periods (the movies require QuickTime). You are able to control the speed of time. The project can be seen "live" at Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley now thru May 4 2003. Get Crafty is worth a visit even if you're not into crafting....I mean, who doesn't want to learn to Reuse Your Trash.

2/12/03 - I just updated my hosting resources page for those of you who are currently looking for a web host.

2/5/03 - If you are having difficulties with programming concepts, I recommend reading Learning Computer Programming It's Not About Languages by Mary E. Farrell.

1/6/03 - Top Ten Web-Design Mistakes of 2002 - This list was compiled by Jakob Nielsen, useit.com. It's definitely worth a read.

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If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and you're interested in learning more about web design and development, graphics, or computers in general, consider taking classes at the Contra Costa ROP Technology Center. We offer affordable computer training in a variety of subjects. Visit our web site for more information.

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