Possibly one of the most exciting website genres out there, we’re focusing on event sites this week on Friday Focus.

Designs of the Week

The photo slideshow effect here works really well. The background bamboo pattern is also a nice idea.

The highlight of this design are the interactive shapes that are not only built with CSS3 effects, but tell stories about the different principles of design.

Another site that has subtle animations, but also time-sensitive design. When implementing a one-page site it’s important to remember that scrolling from one section to another is important, so a back to top button that appears only when you’ve left the top section gives a more striking notice than a button that’s constantly there. The large headings and and photos are great as well.

This one’s a little modest compared to the others we’ve seen, but still nicely organized and even cheerful (read: not boring). Always a good idea to format dates calendar-style and have an “important dates” to remember section.

Love the irregularly shaped menu items and other buttons. I wish the large banner switched to show different attractions at the state fair though, and not just have them appear in the footer.

I love how the introductory text is styled, not to mention the colors. Relatively simple design but no detail was missed here.

A little bit of the split and centered approach here. The date stamps are a nice touch, and the details of the project/event are nicely mapped out in one table.

Great idea to hide the tall header and keep the menu as you scroll down (it doesn’t have to be all or nothing). Some sections are a little too text heavy, but it’s the toasts section that could have been styled to be more meaningful looking.

Very nicely designed website. Every button and heading has its own little icon too. Good idea to include sample tracks of the artists playing at the festival.

The intro blurb below the header isn’t quite perfect, but everything’s easy to find and read.

This year’s FOWD conference website keeps the bold look with a little realignment. The information link is a simple graphic right alongside a summary by the numbers. Not sure what the list of years in the footer is doing in the timeline, but using images from NASA is a great move.

Social Media Weekly

SEO – SEO for the Average Joe
“From about 10 lists I found, I gathered only the points that we would need and would make sense to the average person looking to ensure their SEO is up to snuff.”

CSS – Hardboiled CSS3 Media Queries
“Since I started using Media Queries extensively over the last few months, I’ve revised the queries several times for each project, so it made sense to build a boilerplate to use as a starting point. These hardboiled CSS3 Media Queries are empty placeholders for targeting the devices and attributes I’m interesting in making responsive designs for right now.”