CSS

As a Web designer, I like to approach the design of any site as efficiently as possible. Long before I even became interested in Web design, I stumbled upon the art of information architecture, which is basically a complex map of information. As a primarily visual learner, I took information architecture to the next level by expressing information visually as opposed to textually. My fascination with mapping led me to what I consider my primary source of inspiration: maps!

Coda
Coda is an amazing multipurpose program created by Panic Softare for the Mac OS platform; it combines a text and CSS editor, FTP program (based on the already wildly succesful FTP tool for Mac, Transmit), terminal, web previews of your files, and even has a built in version of The Web Programmers Desk Reference. I absolutely LOVE this program because it eliminates the need for having multiple applications open and streamlines my web editing and uploading process. Unfortunately for PC users, Coda is only available for Mac.

Here are some development tips and tricks I've found useful over the years.

Typography has been around since the printed word was invented. The above image is an example from iso50.com, where amazing work is collected, created, and  discussed.

Typography: The art or process of setting and arranging types and printing from them.When this definition comes into the mix with web design, we experience why it is such a vital part of the front-end design.

On a recent project, I ran into an issue where the main navigation needed to be centered and flexible enough to add and remove menu items through a CMS. For those of you not familiar with CSS, this creates an immediate problem: you can not center a block element without first knowing its width. The normal technique is to use auto left and right margins (margin: 0 auto), that are then calculated based off the element's width. But what happens when you don't know the width of the element?

I'll be the first to say I love Javascript. I have two big Javascript books to my right to prove it. It's one of the greatest things about the web two-point-oh! movement (yes, I hate that term). And I love milk. But I will also be the first to say I hate how some people misuse Javascript.

By default search inputs are notoriously ugly. Just look at what they are: a plain text input. But Apple had the great idea to make a search widget for Safari that looks like this:

This is probably nothing new, it's been around for quite a while, but the code used to create the field (input type "search" instead of "text") does not validate and only works in Safari. So what happens when you like the search field and what to use it on other browsers?