The CSS opacity property lets web designers define how particular page elements will blend, adding both style and emphasis to important page sections.

Essentially, this property allows you to adjust an element’s translucency, changing the amount of diffused virtual light that seems to pass through a paragraph, image, or other page element. In this Web Design Tips, I will briefly discuss browser compatibility for this property, and then I’ll show you how to use the CSS opacity property to add emphasis to a product description.

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A TEENAGED web designer from King Solomon High School is celebrating after winning a competition to design a new website for a cancer support charity.

Jamie Miller was picked to helped create a brand new site for the London Sarcoma Support Group after wowing judges with his innovative ideas.

He won the honour after seeing off stiff competition from a group of fellow A-level students – all of whom met the challenge with a wide range of imaginative solutions.
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Choosing a web design company or an individual web designer can be a daunting task. Yes, there are ads claiming that you can get a functional website for $199, but will these websites portray the image you want for your business or organization? Probably not. You have about 7 seconds to attract visitors to your website before they move on to your competitors site. Your website can’t just be functional to keep visitors on your site beyond those precious few seconds, it needs to be user friendly, easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing. As an experienced web designer I will pay great attention to detail in creating an affordable, proffesional web design that is representative of your business or organization.
Chicago Web Design

Zeldman delivers four keys to surviving a bad economy for web designers. Jeffrey Zeldman, founding partner of An Event Apart web design conferences and founder of Happy Cog studios, shares his experience surviving bad times based on starting an agency at the dawn of the dot-com bust in a helpful article at 24ways.org/2008/recession-tips-for-web-designers. Zeldman’s four keys to surviving a bad economy for web designers include simple axioms: do good work, charge a fair price, lower your overhead, and be sure you are communicating with your client.

“Although the recession we’re in now may end up making the dot-com bust look like the years of bling and gravy, the bust was rough enough at the time,” said Zeldman. “Bad times are hard on overweight companies and over-leveraged start-ups, but can be kind to freelancers and small agencies. Clients who once had money to burn and big agencies to help them burn it suddenly consider the quality of work more important than the marquee value of the business card. Fancy offices and ten people at every meeting are out. A close relationship with an individual or small team that listens is in.”

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Palmer Management’s web design division recently developed an online store for Luggage Tags N More, the internet presence for Cranston based engraver Resources Unlimited.

“We needed a site that was easy to navigate, but not boring. We spoke with Palmer Management and felt they would be a great match for us, because they are both creative AND build highly functional sites.” Said Richard Butmarc, Owner.

“We were pumped to be selected to build this e commerce site, because their previous web designer did not get them a single sale from the old website. It was simply too complicated, dark, and barely navigable. We gave Mr. Butmarc a site he could be proud of, and he had his first sale almost immediately.” said Dan Tessier, an executive at Palmer Web Design.

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Web developers and graphic designers

often have great ideas on how to create interesting online shopping environments, but it’s important to keep in mind the practical needs of shoppers, experts will say in the Internet Retailer Web Design ’09 session, “Programmers are from Mars, designers are from Venus.”  The session will feature Larry Becker, a

web design consultant

to online retailers and an associate director of an MBA program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, and Archie Miller, senior manager, web design and development, at Crutchfield Corp.’s Crutchfield.com.

Software programmers and graphic designers

go about addressing web interface challenges from different perspectives, so we’ll talk about how teams can work to avoid problems,” Becker says.  Every link on a

retail web site

serves as a promise that it will take the shopper to an expected shopping experience, he adds. “But many times when a shopper clicks a link, that promise is broken,” he says. “It may be mislabeled or it may interfere with the task the shopper expects to complete.”

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Check out these CSS tutorials. These tutorials are awesome whether you’re a web designer in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Sydney, Australia or anywhere in the world.

CSS TUTORIALS

AN up-and-coming web designer has won first prize in a national competition.

Peter Bell won the £2,000 cash prize in the competition run by home study provider SkillsTrain to find the student whose life has most improved this Christmas.

The 35-year-old, from Alnwick Road, in Durham City, has been studying

web design

with the distance learning company for the last year, and is now starting to attract commercial interest.

He is already running his own evening classes in computing and

web design

and is now working on two commercial projects,

designing web sites

for a neighbour’s business and the local Indian takeaway.

Mr Bell said: “This has come at exactly the right time.

“My

web design

business is taking off and now with this win I’ll be able to treat the family this Christmas.”

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In the same manner as color bears great significance in our daily lives, so too does color play an essential role when designing a website. Design for color-blind browsers and think of the color combinations that you use. Similarly, think about the navigation and how the site will work, why users will come to your site etc. This will give you greater insight to what you need to achieve when designing a new website.

This is a way lower as compared to what a web designer would ask you for designing your website, not to mention the time factor. For help visit www.instant-video-streamer.com. How to minimize issues during check-out? Design your website for instant product reviews and actual delivery time and scheduling fast delivery of orders and pick-up of returns. When designing your site, put into mind a website that is homey. Navigation is one of the most important aspects of designing your website. Use website templates if you don’t have any designing flair. The website designing company which you choose to use will be able to do this for you, as this is something which they are very familiar with.

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This position is ideal for an enthusiastic junior Web Designer wanting to break into the industry. This very busy design agency that is currently expanding and will offer you the opportunity to gain valuable experience working on a variety of projects for an impressive list of clients. If you’re a diligent worker, work well under pressure and are wanting to learn the ins and outs of the design world, this could be the perfect opportunity for you!

Overview of daily tasks:
Content and Graphic maintenance to existing client websites via either offline methods such as Dreamweaver, or Content management systems.
Implementation of banner ad campaigns across different sizes.
Direct Client Liaison in the form of text and minor graphic changes to electronic mailers, website layouts etc.
Deep etching, Image optimization and manipulation.

Ideal candidates should:
• Know HTML very well.
• Know CSS (no we don’t mean the indie rock group)
• Be familiar with Photoshop
• Have experience with Content Management Systems
• Be able to work well independently and as part of a team.
• Pay meticulous attention to detail
• Have good interpersonal skills
• Want to grow with a dynamic company

Nice to haves:
• Any other design related experience, as your role in the company is likely to expand and develop
• A love for coffee

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According to Microsoft, a release candidate of Internet Explorer 8 is just around the corner, and with it comes an urgent call to web designers to get their act together and tweak their sites so they’ll render properly under the new browser.

Back in August, I began using IE8 Beta 2 full time on the Windows PCs I use for everyday work. Over the last few months, I noticed a shocking number of web sites that displayed incorrectly in IE8. The only way to view those pages as the web designer intended is to click the Compatibility View button (described in great detail here).

Apparently, I wasn’t alone in having to click that button. According to IE8 Program Manager Scott Dickens, that Compatibility View button has been getting a workout this fall.

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by Dev Basu

1. The Kick Off Phone Call – The purpose of this call is to affirm your role as a supportive entity that complements the web designer’s work. The call with the client and his/her web designer will help set deadlines, process, and types of communication between the project’s stakeholders.

2. Setup A Wiki or Similar Collaboration Resource – Email isn’t necessarily the best way to manage a project, and it’s often much better to establish a central resource for sharing information, wireframes, checklisted SEO recommendations, and similar files. It’s important to keep the access open to the client if they wish to see how SEO is being integrated into the design process.

3. Schedule Regular Phone Calls – Email is great to get communication in and out fast, but not necessarily when you want anything actionable to happen. You can’t file a scheduled phone call away, and it forces both the SEO and web designer to focus project milestones so that deadlines are met.

4. Explain Your Recommendations – While some might think it’s not worth the extra time and effort in educating the web designer, I’ve found that putting some rationale in your recommendations can speed up the work flow. Baking SEO into the design process asks the designer to make changes into their existing work habits, and change isn’t always easy to accept.

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Web designers can do so much for themselves, their clients and their businesses by incorporating the following seo tips…

1) Make sure your URL’s are as SEO friendly as possible. Avoid all those “=” and “?” marks. Use mod re-write to re-create these URL’s to a more seo friendly format. Also, if the URL includes the keyword phrase for that page, that’s extra bonuses!

2) Keyword research should be the absolute basis of any website design project. It should be the very first thing that you do with your client. You’ll be surprised how many more pages and information you’ll be able to get from your client if you can show them what their target audience is looking for.

3) Use semantic tags on every website page. If you’re not familiar with these tags, read this list of semantic tags outlining all the semantic tags. These are not tags that are used in the section, instead, these are tags used within the body of text. They’re very helpful with search engines and how they understand the content of your website pages.

4) Avoid using flash for your navigation, if possible. I know, I know, you want to show your client your flash design, beautiful menus, etc, but the truth is search engines still have trouble reading flash files and they simply will not follow the links from the navigation menu if it’s written in flash.

5) Don’t forget the alt tags on your images. They should be not only descriptive of the image but use the keyword phrase for the page as well.

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Rob Buti is a professional web designer & developer servicing  the Chicagoland area and its surrounding suburbs including:

Chicago, Buffalo Grove, Elmhurst, Hinsdale, Lincolnwood, Niles, Orland park, Rolling Meadows, Westchester, Aurora, Burr Ridge, Elmwood Park, Hoffman Estates, Lisle, Norridge Palos Hills, Roselle, West Chicago, Barrington, Carol Stream, Forest Park, Indian Head Park, Lombard, Northbrook, Palos Park, Rosemont, Western Springs, Bartlett, Cicero, Franklin Park, Inverness, Melrose Park,Northlake, Park Ridge, Schaumburg, Westmont, Bensenville, Clarendon Hills, Glencoe, Joliet, Merrionette Park, North Riverside, Palatine, St. Charles, Wheaton, Bloomingdale, Darien, Glendale Heights, Kenilworth, Midlothian, Oak Brook, Palos Heights, Summit, Wheeling, Bolingbrook, Downers Grove, Glen Ellyn, La Grange, Morton Grove, Oak Lawn, Plainfield, Tinley Park, Willowbrook, Broadview, DuPage County, Glenview, La Grange Park, Mount Prospect, Oak Park, River Forest, Villa Park, Willow Springs, Brookfield, Elk Grove Village, Hanover Park, Lemont, Naperville, Orland Hills, Riverside, Warrenville, Winfield, Winnetka, Wood Dale, Woodridge, New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Tampa, Pittsburgh, and Charleston.

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I’m sitting in a café up here in Inwood and I overhear three guys doing a deal. The customer is an architect or interior designer. He wants a new Web site so his customers can find his shop — online and off — and can see the construction companies and contractors he likes to work with. “Pictures are nice, but not necessary,” he says. The two guys at the table with him are local Web designers.

After the customer leaves, I ask one of the designers how’s business, since, you know, everything blew up. “Actually it’s very good,” he tells me. But I’m skeptical. How could it be? Everyone’s hurting. “Well, people are looking for cost-effective ways to market themselves and redesigning their Web site is a relatively cheap alternative,” says the designer.

It’s true: I think I heard them offer to do the job for the architect for something like $1,300.

“Also it’s its a one-time charge. Advertising only lasts for a certain amount of time and then you have to pay more.” The designer says another good business right now is search engine optimization (SEO), which is the polite way of describing the business of tweaking Web sites so they’ll appear higher in natural search results. This makes sense to me. Paying a one-time fee for a SEO re-vamp is probably a lot cheaper than paying for clicks each month. Maybe when cash is easier again, you’ll do both.

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