Tag Archives: Design

Web Resources Depot Admin Template

May 4, 2008 by Matt | Posted in Design One Comment

Web Resources Depot has released a free Admin Template for use in web apps. It’s a three-column design with a row of tabs, for navigation, along the top. With some modifications, it would work well for a web application, if you were developing one.

Personally, I would use the design during development, and swap it out with a unique theme when all the coding work is done. But if you’re trying to put together a web app, and you don’t have any design know-how, and don’t want to hire a designer, you could conceivably use this. I’d just recommend customizing it a bit, so it doesn’t look like you have the exact same template as someone else.

Admin Template

You can view a live demo of the template, and download it here.

Matt Mullenweg’s New Design

Apr 22, 2008 by Matt | Posted in Design 6 Comments

Matt Mullenweg has just redesigned his blog. First impression: “My eyes!” The oranges, greens, and blues are really shocking if you were expecting the old, more tame design.

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Smashing Magazine: Grid-Based Design

Apr 3, 2008 by Matt | Posted in Design No Comments

Smashing Magazine has recently released an interesting post on grid-based design.

Grid-Based Design: Six Creative Column Techniques.

Grid systems bring visual structure and balance to site design. As a tool grids are useful for organizing and presenting information. Used properly, they can enhance the user experience by creating predictable patterns for users to follow. From designer’s point of view they allow for an organized methodology for planning systematic layouts.

The post talks in-depth about grid design, and has plenty of screenshots to illustrate their points.

I haven’t looked closely at the whole grid-based design concept before, but it’s definitely on my to-do list. It looks like a good way to design certain types of sites (e.g. content-heavy ones), and I need to read more about it.

31 Professional WordPress Themes

Mar 24, 2008 by Matt | Posted in Design, Featured 59 Comments

If you’re serious about blogging, and are trying to run a quality blog on a specific topic, you need a good design. Ideally, you want to have a unique design, built by a designer, though you can get away with a pre-made theme if you’re on a budget, or if you want to wait until the blog can pay for the design.

If you’re not ready to hire a designer, you can use a freely available WordPress theme, or a premium theme. Premium themes are pre-made templates for WordPress, which, though they are not free, cost much less than hiring a designer to make a unique theme.

Once you’ve picked-out a good theme, make it your own. Put your logo in the header, tweak the colors a little, and whatnot. Customize it so it matches your site’s personality.

Now that the introduction is out of the way, let’s get to the fun part. Following are a few WordPress themes that, in my opinion, are professional and well-done.

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Evaluating the WordPress 2.5 Interface

Mar 21, 2008 by Matt | Posted in WordPress No Comments

WordPress 2.5’s new interface is quite a bit different from the current one. Currently, many WordPress users aren’t entirely sure what they think about it yet (myself included). I will have to use it for a few weeks until I’ve decided what I think.

Astheria has an in-depth review of the new WordPress 2.5 interface.

Overall, I think the new interface is a great improvement, but there are many things that leave me wondering if it’s had enough polish yet. I am sure the folks at both WordPress and Happy Cog will make the final release a great experience, and I am excited that they are having a period for feedback prior to that release.

There is some nice commentary and creative criticism in the full article, and I would say it’s worth reading. WordPress developers, I hope you’re paying attention! Especially to this part:

The most important screen in the whole application is also one of the most drastically changed. While I love some of the new additions, such as the permalink preview and tag path there are a lot of things here I find questionable.

Design Spotlight: ZDNet

Mar 16, 2008 by Matt | Posted in Design No Comments

ZDNet has recently redesigned their website.

New ZDNet Design

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Design Spotlight: Schneeballsch8 – The Duo Blog

Mar 3, 2008 by Matt | Posted in Design No Comments

Schneeballschl8 is a very innovative German blog. It’s two blogs in one, displayed on both sides of the central “sidebar.” (I suppose it would be a centerbar…) Leif Langsdorf and Dennis Nicolai, the two web designers who run the blog, are represented by the two cartoon caricatures in the header, with their blogs below.

Schneeballschl8.de, the duo blog.

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BlogBuzz March 1, 2008

Mar 1, 2008 by Matt | Posted in BlogBuzz One Comment

Design Spotlight: Adii

Feb 27, 2008 by Matt | Posted in Design One Comment

Adii, the self proclaimed “WordPress Rockstar,” has redesigned his blog.

The new Adii.co.za design

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Profile of the Most Annoying Site on the Web

Feb 19, 2008 by Matt | Posted in Design 6 Comments

What is the most annoying website on the web like? Well, there are a couple of satirical attempts to be the most annoying (view at your own risk), but they’re just trying to be funny (in an odd sort of way), but they’re not realistic.

In my opinion, the most annoying real website ever

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