CSS Specificity Scoring

Most folks realize what the "cascading" part of Cascading Style Sheets means for styling Web pages. However, some of the inner workings of CSS specificity are lost on many of them. Especially when it comes to those maddening CSS selectors that should be taking effect, but aren't.

My 5 Essential Web Design Tools & Apps

When designing websites there are a few online tools that I regularly utilize. Thinking back on my growth as a designer, its hard to imagine what it was like before these tools were lurking in my web design toolkit. From typography and color to layout and design patterns, these tools help me cut down on time during the design process.

Preload images with CSS, not JS

There's really no reason you should need Javascript to preload images when it can be done with a little CSS.

Going from Design to Cut-up Involves Switching Mental Gears

Being a user-interface designer involves two jobs: designing a comp and then turning this design into code (or as we say here at Phase2, "doing a cut-up.")

Both involve creativity and precision, but while there is some overlap, at a certain point I take off my designer hat to put on my cutter-up hat. It involves a clear switch of mental gears.

Considerations for mobile device-friendly design

A colleague here at Phase2 (Kelly) passed along a great link to an article in Smashing Magazine that outlines usability considerations and technical approaches surrounding mobile friendly UI design.

Rounded Corners on Images using CSS

Many of our clients want a photo to accompany almost every article on their site. Sometimes its necessary to offer some “styling” solutions to these photos, usually in the form of a CSS-driven frame around the photo. Here’s a quick and easy way to add rounded corners to photos on your website.

Transparent Backgrounds with CSS

How do you create transparent-background DIVs, that works across browsers? If your first thought is “I have no clue” or “just use opacity CSS property”,read on for some useful tips.