A Blog in Suburban Glory: Web Design Ideas and Inspiration

I find dozens of links to blog posts and articles sitting in my Google reader every day. I subscribe to 60 different feeds and I use this as a means of keeping track of latest trends in web design and SEO.

Every time I read an article and think “That'll come I handy in the future. I'll bookmark it,” I click on the little yellow star to put it to one side.

The list of articles I saved in January is an interesting and varied list and I present them to you below:

Dissecting the Unlicense: Software Freedom in Four Clauses and a Link > >

A fascinating article from Arto Bendiken that promotes a new software license – the Unlicense. This allows code to be donated to the public domain but it has some great ethical clauses at the bottom:

May you do good and not evil May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others May you share freely, never taking more than you give.

Introducing morality into licensing seems like a good idea to me.

My Life with Panels, Vol. 1 > >

A Drupal Panels tutorial from Chapter Three's Farsheed Hamidi-Toosi

Form Design with Sliding Labels > >

This is a really impressive jQuery plugin for creating an attractive form effect. Definitely one to use on a forthcoming website. Check out the demo.

Drupal Basics: Insert Module > >

Matthew over at Nonprofits and Web 2.0 introduced to me a Drupal module that I wasn't familiar with before and which allows non-technical users greater control when uploading and placing an image in a node. Very useful.

A Stationary Logo That Changes on Page Scroll with CSS > >

Another CSS effect to use on a future clients' website. Really, really impressive. For a demo see here.

Build Links with Better Answers > >

It's very rare that you read an SEO article that provides new and practical link building strategy tips, but Jennifer Van Iderstyne on Search Engine Journal did just that in this item published on |January 12. It details how you can use Wordtracker to provide article ideas.

53 Promotional Websites To Gain Traffic Quick And Easy > >

Dainis at 1st Web Designer does it again. If you are writing a web design blog then this list will provide you invaluable link building ideas. Check it out.

65 Resources for Nature-Inspired Design > >

This one does what it says on the tin. I've already created nature-based websites but this list is worth saving in case I need to find some green grass and blue sky inspiration in the future.

Tips for Coding and Designing Usable Web Forms > >

One from Noupe. More ideas on all-important form presentation.

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Heron Quays web design