There are tools that make our lives much easier. However, finding those obscure time-savers which would save time in every single project isn't easy and requires a lot of time. At Smashing Magazine, we are regularly looking for such useful tools, gather them, review them and eventually prepare for a truly smashing round-up. Such posts are quite lengthy and extensive, but they are always worth checking out.

… «In this brilliant and entertaining user’s guide, Jeremy Keith cuts to the chase, with crisp, clear, practical examples, and his patented twinkle and charm.» (eBook and/or paperback)

Because sometimes, being your own worst critic is not enough.

What is so special about this pencil that its devotees will accept no substitute and make them willing to spend $250.00 for a box of them?

Designers have coveted print for its precision layouts, lamenting the varying user contexts on the web that compromise their designs. Ethan Marcotte advocates we shift our design thinking to approp…

… are hand letter-pressed business cards with a greeting on the front and 3 blank spaces on the back ready for your personal details.

Are we pulling our punches too much when it comes to critiquing design? Are we being honest with one another?

Lightbox is a great image display technique for the modern Web, just be sure it's still usable!

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8 Tools to Analyze Your Website’s Level of Accessibility

Nach dem kleinen Schränkerücken gibt es das Design Tagebuch nun auch auf Facebook. Wer bislang im Blog mitgelesen hat, und meine eher vorsichtige Haltung im Umgang mit den sozialen Netzwerken kennt, der mag sich nun vielleicht fragen, wie es dazu kam. Zur Entstehungsgeschichte habe ich etwas auf der unten verlinkten Facebook-Seite geschrieben. Einige werden sich vielleicht ja noch an mein 1 ...

contemporary

Israel is a young country with an old heart. It has been quickly built up over the last 60 years as an independent democratic Jewish state and is shockingly cutting edge for a country so new. What’s unique about Israeli web design?

After buying the book "Penguin By Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005". I started searching local book stores and online for some of the old Penguin and Pelican books. Here's what I have so far. "Seven Hundred Penguins" is another great book that shows an amazing collection of 700 book covers Do not grab my images and repost them on your flickr page.

I had the opportunity to work with some very talented and highly experienced designers who all had made the jump from other design fields to the Web. It was there, as part of that training, that I learned about **critiquing**, both giving and receiving, through regular design reviews.

PSD nach XHTML/CSS, Wordpress, TYPO3, Joomla, …

The design profession is full of happy folks, and understanding why so many designers enjoy their work is not hard. But not all are so happy. If you’re not careful, the joy of getting paid to pursue your passion can be tainted by the less joyous realities of the professional world. You see, no matter how skilled you are as a designer, unless you are equally prepared in **professional matters**, your prospects will be limited and your circumstances compromised. This is true whether you work freelance, for an agency or in-house with a company.

In this tutorial we'll get a taste of what's to come in HTML5 by building a cool iPhone app website with HTML5 structure and visual styling with CSS3 effects.

… that will save your day

Logo design is often seen as a quick and easy job; you create a small graphic, stick it next to some text and the job is done! In reality there’s a lot more to it, which makes the whole process of creating a logo or identity a challenging task. Let’s take a look at some […]

… css layouts, visual effects and forms