Here we are with week 22 of Friday Focus. I apologize for the incredibly slow article week this week, state testing really wore me down for being in the writing mood, and some above-average temperatures for this time of year drove me outside when I was home school. Without any more delay, here’s this weeks Friday Focus.
Sites of the Week
Rejected Robot starts off this weeks favorite three according to AJ. This fun portfolio plays off the idea of a box for a robot, with 3 pages: Front, Pieces, and Back of Box.
Critbuns, the second of this weeks top three, features a bulletin board style design that I really like. Like grays with pink accents also work very well in this case.
And finally rounding out this week is Electricpulp. While the layout might be pretty standard, the background illustration really help distinguish it from the “layered” look many designs have taken on these days.
Digg Weekly
Design – 25 Code Snippers for Web Designers (Part 1)
25 services and bits of code that can help make your life easier and save you a nice amount of time.
Programming – Why HTML renders different in different browsers
A thorough article from this authors point of view on why html with render different in every browser. This is why cross-browser compatibility is so important people!
Here are a few more Digg links that are up-and-coming.
Design – Failed vs. Unfailed redesigns of newspaper websites
This article analyzes the redesigns of two newspaper sites.
Programming – WordPress Launches “Offical” Plugin Directory
Finally there is a good attempt by WordPress to have a one-stop-shop for WordPress plugins.
Design Dilemma
The purpose of Design Dilemma is to post one dilemma a week and allow the readers to voice their suggestions and/or opinions. If you have your own dilemma, please send me yours at ronalfy+devlounge@gmail.com.
You’re about to go over a design concept with a client when the client stops you mid-sentence and says, “I already have a design in mind.” The client then proceeds to show you a design template from one of those template sites. You want to make the client happy, but at the same time, you don’t want to put your name on someone else’s design. Furthermore, you’re conflicted whether you can still call yourself a designer after using someone else’s template. Any thoughts?
WordPress Plugin Spotlight
One plugin that caught my attention this week was one called Expand Comments (Thanks Bes). The plugin loads comments on your main page via AJAX. The plugin also allows you to submit a comment on the main page as well. I never could get the AJAX comment submission to work in Internet Explorer, however. This plugin seems ideal for blogs that don’t have a lot of comments.
Is Your Website Afraid of the Nude?
April 5th is coming up fast. What is April 5th, you ask? April 5th will be the second annual Naked Web Day (as started by Dustin Diaz). Naked Web Day is an opportunity to show an appreciation for Web Standards, semantic markup, and good code hierarchy. If your site doesn’t look good naked, perhaps it needs a good workout by April 5th.
