To kick things off I will list out my daily bookmarks and sites I visit in order, along with a rough estimate of time spent on each site, then hopefully get some feedback through comments on other peoples daily routines!

My average day I generally visit the following websites:

1. Best Web Gallery

Ever since I was featured in the Best Web Gallery back in 2008, I have made it my first port of call every day to visit the site, take a look at all the new website submissions and play my part in commenting and joining in with the sometimes quite heated discussions on design practices and techniques.

I am also a massive fan of Nick La and his work at NDesign Studio and Web Designer Wall.

Time: I would say on average I spend about 5-10 minutes on this site depending on how many new submissions there are.

2. Apple / Apple Store

Yes yes I am part of that gravy train of Apple fan boys, although I would consider myself tame in comparison to some people I know! I do regularly check the Apple Store, mainly the refurb section as I am keen to grab a bargain.

At this stage I find myself drifting away from my browser and into the iTunes app store, generally having to pull my self away from spending more money on the latest tunes! I am a big listener of music when I work so always having new tracks to listen to is a productive measure in my opinion!

Time: I would estimate about 10-15 minutes here, depending on if I saunter off to the iTunes app store or not!

3. BBC Technology News

I think this should be a daily stop for any techno bod, the BBC technology pad is a great place to find out about new releases in the latest technology, social media news and new digital movements. You can sign up to the BBC Technology feed here. I also then skip around the sport section and latest general news stories to keep up with whats going on in the world.

Time: If there are stories of serious interest here I can be on for around 20-30minutes reading, but usually I would say about 5 minutes is average.

4. Rightmove

Kind of an odd one this one! but for the last 5 months my wife and I have been ‘trying’ to sell our house, so it is now part of my routine to log in to Rightmove and take a look around any new houses that have been added in the last day or so. It is a little addictive house hunting! and our favourite list is getting larger and larger by the day!!

Anyone want to buy a house?! Just give me a shout, I know a great little pad in the North East of England!

Time: Generally about 2-3 minutes, quick search in our price bracket, print off or save details then move on.

5. CSS Remix

CSS Remix is a site that I have visited regularly for a few years now. I have been a little disappointed of late not to see many new submissions, but I am still an avid daily visitor as not only do I enjoy checking out the new submissions, but I also like to see how many overall visits my site is getting.

Time: Lately around 30 seconds as there have not been any new submissions, but usually around 5 minutes.

6. Google Analytics

At this point, I am feeling a little more in work mode and open up Analytics for my daily checks on all my sites to see how they are performing.

I would recommend this step to anyone designing or building websites, always keep an eye on your Analytics, whatever method you use to check them, as it is invaluable information, and can seriously help you keep clients happy via on going maintenance or gather new business via improving and targeting areas lacking in performance on your sites.

Time: I spend a decent amount of time here a day, usually around 20-30 minutes, unless we are looking at online marketing campaigns and I am actively tracking certain sites.

7. Twitter

Well, I was a little bit of a slow burner on Twitter, I only actually got my twitter link on to my site last year!

As the guys at Twitter release more and more features I am finding myself spending more time on Twitter on a daily basis, especially now with Twitter in my iPhone I am sometimes tweeting before I even get out of bed in the morning!

You can follow me on Twitter @branded07

Time: 20-30 minutes a day is about right for my daily Twitterage! Not taking into account wandering off to different linked sites.

8. Facebook

Aah Facebook, I don’t know about you but for me, I am not spending as much time on Facebook as I used to, especially on a daily basis. I do still log in to keep up with the chat, but not nearly as much as I did in the hype days.

I don’t doubt that it has become such a large part of peoples lives but for me it is so ‘common place’ now that I am not really interested anymore. I walked past an internet pod the other day in our local mall, and a teenage girl was sat with what must have been 20 friend chats open on her screen, she was there when we arrived to shop, and was still there 3 hours later when we left.

For me, that is now the direction Facebook has gone, entertaining the younger generation, unless you are looking at it from a commercial aspect. Obviously from this point of view, Facebook becomes another beast all together. This post is from a personal angle, and I am beginning to find value in actually ‘seeing’ my friends again, when I have the time that is!

Saying that, if you want to buddy up, here is a link to my Facebook profile!

Time: 5 minutes max, personal time.

9. Linkedin

I pop on to Linkedin daily to search for new connections and check my recommendations. At the moment, I am extremely busy so finding new business, although nice and always welcome, is coming second to my on going work. I would love to get connected so please feel free to view my Linkedin profile and throw me an invite to connect!

Time: 5 minutes for checking and updates.

10. Smashing Mag

Ok so I have done the social thing, I am now back in web design mode and looking around for more inspiration, I turn to Smashing Mag.

I have been reading Smashing Magazine daily now for the last couple of years and I am always amazed at the great and diverse level of content available for web designers. I generally integrate items I find of interest on Smashing Mag and retweet them on Twitter. Visit Smashing Magazine here.

Time: I can spend 10 minutes a day easily on this site

11. Gizmodo

Similarly to Smashing Mag, I use Gizmodo as a great resource for Technology news.

I also find it a great way to get some banter from other techno bods on the articles posted and read other peoples views on what is hot and whats not.

Time: I would say around 15 minutes a day is spent reading Gizmodo articles.

12. Apple Movie Trailers

I love films, and I am an avid cinema goer. It has become a weekly excursion for my wife and I, we even own an Odeon Premiere card, which I treat with more care than my bank card!

So I love to visit the apple movie trailer site to check out the new releases and teasers of up and coming films. I think tonight it is Sex and the City 2 night… but it looks like I am going to be ill this evening and unable to attend.

Time: About 2 minutes on the site excluding actually watching the trailers or reading the synopsis.

13. The CSS Awards

Since Branded07 won site of the month back in December 2009 I have been visiting the CSS Awards site as it is a great resource for inspiration.

It has a very dedicated judging panel, of which a random selection judge the submissions on design, creativity, usability and content, ranked out of 10. These then get placed and chosen from the daily submissions to win the monthly award and finally an overall site of the year.

It is really interesting to see how others rate the level of your work and it is nice to see how different popular sites get ranked.

Time: I usually spend about 5 minutes on this site as there is only 1 new submission a day gets ranked and placed on the site.

14. Dribbble

No, this is not my weak attempt at getting a Dribbble invite! That’s next week…

Dribbble has been brought to fruition by Dan Cederholm from Simplebits and Rich Thornett who have put together a great site made up of top designers, developers and creatives showcasing small screen shots of designs, projects and applications they are working on.

It uses an invite process to be a part of the Dribbble community in order to keep up standards of design work available on the site. It is a fantastic resource for getting an insight into what new designs could be released and what people are working on.

Time: I spend about 5-10 minutes a day on Dribbble checking out the new snapshots and responses.

Then after all that, it is down to work! So that my friends is what I do on a regular daily basis. It is amazing how I find time to do anything else! So I would love to hear your daily web paths and routines, maybe I can pick up a few new ones for my trails!

My journey started on the night of the 13th, I traveled down to meet all the speakers for a pre-conference dinner which was great. We got down to some techie talk over some calamari and pizzas! I must say for a very small group of people I don’t think I have ever seen more iPhones in my life!

Within the group was the keynote speaker, Rory Cellan-Jones, BBCs Technology Correspondent, Charles Arthur from The Guardian, Anand Verma from Sapient Interactive and Kai Gait from GSK. Also present was Matt Seward who won his ticket to come to the meal and conference through the HDLive competition. Matt runs a small web design agency in Leeds called Kilo75, and he was a pleasure to chat to.

After dinner we all headed back to the hotel where I spent the next 2 hours in my room pacing over my speech and making my final modifications. Then it was off to bed for a well earned rest before the big day!

8.15am came pretty sharpish, I even un-characteristically missed my breakfast! (Nerves!) We arrived at KC Stadium, the venue for the conference just on time to get setup with the AV guys who did a marvelous job throughout the day.

The conference opened with Rory’s keynote on “Digital and technology in the UK today” which was extremely enlightening. Jaan Orvet then followed, The Swede from Noded! His talk was on Noded, entitled “Don’t limit yourself – work Noded” It was an extremely interesting speech about finding the best team for particular web projects and searching outside the box. I have just downloaded a copy of his book, “Noded – The Untouchable Business” which was written along with his business partner Andreas Carlsson. I am sure it will be a very interesting read.

Charles Arthur and Mike Butcher from TechCrunch also spoke, Mike gave an interesting speech about business start-ups.

We had a break for lunch where again, I ate very little as I was first up after the break! 1.30pm arrived and it was my turn to go on. I was quite pleased with how much I actually held my nerve, (Kai may disagree!). My speech was all about how much a well designed website can influence a business and its presence on the web.

It was quite difficult to judge the audiences technical knowledge so I didn’t go to much into coding techniques and covered off more detail on good design practices. It seemed to go down really well!

After me was Kai with his talk on his on going digital battles in the pharmaceutical world, the difficulties they experienced when incorporating social media into their business due to different rules and regulations, and how relying on strong content written for search will enhance a websites rankings. Kai also mentioned that its been heard some GPs gather their medical information from Google! Which is rather worrying…

Next up was Karen Barber from Audio Boo. Karen had a few technical problems at the beginning of her talk but pulled it back marvelously once she really got into her business and booing!

And finally to round up a great day was Anand Vermas talk. I have to admit, I was totally taken back by the quality of work Sapient are producing and Anands talks was extremely inspiring. He touched on a project they are working on to close his talk involving Augmented Reality, which was pure wizardry! I am definitely going to have to get my study cap on and get myself some of that intel!

So all in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable day and a great experience. There is already now talk of HDLive10 so lets watch out for next years conference!

Video Podcasts to follow shortly! – Follow the comments and Tweets here!

I have no doubt in my mind that what the digital revolution is doing for television, one day common sense will do for internet browsing and we will be rid of it forever, but until that day comes, we must live with IE6. So with that painful recognition, I thought I would put together and share a few common IE6 bugs, along with some helpful hints and tips to combat this crummy browser!

First, some advice

We can of course before we get into any bugs and fixes, help ourselves along by making sure all our code is built using semantic markup which validates and works in modern browsers. Never build your site for the older browsers first, always build for the newer ones then apply fixes for the older ones. This means you are future proofing your site. Also make sure a valid doctype is declared. If you do these things then you may not experience any bugs or issues. If you do come across a bug, fix it when you discover it as it is much easier to handle than trying to fix a boat load at the end of a project.

A handy CSS tip!

One trick I use regularly is the ‘* html‘ rule. This rule is ignored by all browsers other than IE6, allowing us to apply specific rules and styles for IE6 problem areas. This code in use could look something like:
p{
font-size:14px;
color:#fff;
}
* html p{
font-size:12px;
color:#000;
}

Using the above example, the font would be 14px and white in all modern browsers, but in IE6 it would display at 12px and be black. I sometimes use this rule to overcome some of the specific bugs highlighted below, also as a light weight alternative to replace pngs with gifs in IE6 instead of using the iepngfix.htc PNG fix which we will cover shortly.

The Double Margin Bug

Lets say we have an element on our page, a div for example. We need this div to be 500px wide and want to float it right with a margin-right of 10px. The CSS for this would look like:
div {
width: 500px;
float: right;
margin-right: 10px;
}

IE6, due to it being a genius browser will double the margin, so instead of 10px it makes it 20px. Marvelous!

Solutions:

1. You can set the element to have the property ‘display: inline;‘ which immediately remedies the issue, but this causes an element which does not have a float property attached to lose its static width. So this is not always a viable option.
2. Do not add margin-right to your element, but instead add padding-right. Again not always suitable as you may have a border or different background colour applied to your element.
3. Remove padding and margin all together from the element, and instead add a padding to the elements parent.
4. The * html fix mentioned above!

None ideal, but no bug fix is!

The Box Model

The Box Model is quite an annoying and very common IE6 bug and it involves a miscalculation of any element with a declared width. Your code could look something like:
div {
width: 500px;
padding: 20px;
}

IE6 calculates the width of the div to be 500px, whereas modern browsers will calculate the width of the div as 540px incorporating the 40px padding.

The solution:

The answer to this problem is to not add padding to the outer element, but instead embed an element, perhaps a ‘p’ tag or another div inside the parent div, and add your padding to this element instead. Creating:
div {
width: 500px;
}
div div {
padding: 20px;
}


The Stepdown Bug

This is an issue commonly found when creating elements like horizontal menus. It is caused by IE6 adding a line break after the floated element, which in turn knocks the next floated element down a line and so on.

The solution

There are two ways around this problem.
1. Set the elements that are floated, lets say the ‘li’ in a list to be ‘display:inline’, then display the embedded element as ‘display:block;’ An example of this would be:
ul li{
display:inline;
}
ul li a{
display:block;
}

This allows us to remove the float property from the parent element, in turn removing the bug.
2. You can set the parent elements line-height to 0 causing the break to attain 0 height.

None Collapsable Elements

This is quite an annoying little bug, if you are trying to set an element with a 1px or 2px height property, IE6 ignores this and will not collapse the element down further than the height of the base font-size.

The solution

Simple solution to this one, we just need to add ‘overflow: hidden;‘ onto the element in question. This then ignores the height of the font in IE6 and sets the height of the element accordingly. Example:
div {
width: 400px;
height: 1px;
overflow: hidden;
}


No Hover States

In modern web design, we like interaction, meaning we try to add hover states to more things than just links. Most modern browsers support hover states on elements such as ‘li‘ ‘inputs‘ etc, but not IE6.
You can only have a hover state on an ‘a‘ element and it must include an ‘href‘.

The solution

Unfortunately the only solution to this problem is using a JavaScript fix, something similar to this, or you will just have to live with your users experiencing less interaction on IE6.

Alpha Transparency PNG

IE6 does not support transparent images, and it was only until IE7 was introduced did Microsoft decide to say, OK we will allow people to have pretty websites! Not a quote! Yes if you try to include a nice transparent png image on your website, IE6 will throw in a lovely Grey coloured background for you.

The solution

There are again a few workarounds to this issue.
1. Use the * html fix I highlighted above to specifically add a gif instead of a png image to your site. This does mean creating 2 images every time you want to use a png but it is very flexible and allows you to keep your code clean. something like the following would work:
div{
background-image: url('images/BG-image.png');
}
* html div{
background-image: url('images/BG-image.gif');
}

2. You can use a iepngfix.htc. This works by cleverly replacing the background with a blank 1px x 1px gif image. There are many different versions of this file, some only work with inline images, some can handle background images. The one I turn to can be downloaded here. It is simple to implement and contains instructions on use.

To Conclude

These are just some of the bugs we as web designers need to face when dealing with IE6, and these are some of the ways I deal with them. Not all are the best way, but they seem to work! If anyone has any preferred and tested methods covering some of the issues above, please feel free to post them below.

But all good things must come to an end…

So,  in light of the recent times and economic downturn I have decided to say…Sod all that! Lets make things better!

I am writing this post to inform my readers that change is coming for Branded07 and I need your help! Over the coming months I am going to be carrying out  a full re-Brand(ed) of Branded07.

So whats in store?

A new name will be born, Branded07 was developed out of nothing really and there is no story behind it, I now have a story! And even though I, Rob Palmer have become known for Branded07 I feel it is reaching its final days. I will be designing a whole new and improved look to the site with a less traditional, more intriguing site layout and OK, I ‘may’ keep the Puffins!

What I would like from you…

I would like to use this post as a tool to collect a group people who would like to be kept ‘in the loop’ and up to date on all the re-design steps. You will get the chance to offer feedback and comments on all the new design elements, and I am also planning on running a couple of questionnaires to gather some insight into my specific quandaries! So if you would like to help a guy out, simply write a comment in the comments section on this blog post with your email address and I will add you all to a mailing list.

It is exciting times and I am really looking forward to starting on this. Branded07 will still be running as functionally as ever up until the date of switch over, so keep your eyes peeled and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

I was asked:

1: Where did you get the inspiration for your site’s style?
2: How do you test your sites for accessibility?
3: What tools or techniques do you use to make sure your sites get built to good standards?

I answered very thoroughly as there was a chance I would not get featured.

Anyway I was told if I get in I would get a PDF version of the mag and a copy sent through the post. So I waited…a month went bye and the new copy of .Net came out (Issue 182) I stood in the shop, searching through this magazine for what must have been like 30 minutes…I nearly got kicked out! I looked under every section, searching for a line, a word, even a mention…But nothing. I still bought it and had my wife run through it a couple of times to check I hadn’t missed it, but no, I didn’t get my feature…Gutted.

Anyway, a few days ago I got a text from a friend saying…

Hey, saw your feature in .Net magazine, am very jealous!

It was in Issue 183! Woohoo! Straight out to the shops to buy it, and there I am! My very own quarter page spread!

“I even have a quote!”

Now for all you big successful agencies this is not such a big thing, but it is my first feature and I am ecstatic!

I am in along side some very special websites which are certainly worth a mention: www.hype.com.br / www.jasmax.co.nz / niketo.ru so I am chuffed to bits!

Thank you .Net! If anyone fancies taking a look it’s in issue 183 pg61 in the gallery section. (You don’t have to buy it but don’t tell them that!)

VOTE FOR ME HERE! »

Yup it has now gone to public vote, so if you like my site and think it deserves a prize, please spend a couple of seconds and throw me a vote! Thats if you think its the nicest blog in the list!

Voting Closes on December 1st 2008 and there is a lot of very popular blogs in the list. So all votes will count!

Thank you all for your support and wish me luck!

There are so many nice lightweight Javascript frameworks now a days, mootools, jquery, scriptaculous to name a few, that allow us to do so many nice effects that once were only possible with Flash. Fading buttons, gallerys, slides and so on can now all be achieved by a much more accessible route.

Now I know Flash has been pushing for accessibility, but it can never really give you the content benefits that a Javascript or plain XHTML/HTML built site can. This only leads to adding noscript tags and making your website code all messy.

One thing Flash can give you is a damn good looking website! But I have to say, this can only been achieved by some extremely talented designers.

I have gathered together a few websites below which I have found and bookmarked over the recent months which really made me go WOW!.

So why not give them a tickle and see what you think! But remember to download Flash Player!

Saizen Media

Original Source

Galaicofolia

Axiom

Ian Wharton

Maria Filo

Eco Zoo

Carona Beach

Oasim

The rules are simple:

I must enter a blog post on my website with a link to the WordPress Freedom Blog
I must receive over 5 comments on this post wishing me luck!
I must then submit the link to WordPress Freedom Blog

Prizes

1st Prize Winner: $500 Cash (via PayPal) + The Unlimited Video Theme Pack from Press75.com worth $295 + 6 Months WooThemes Club Single User Subscription for from WooThemes worth $250 + WP Freedom Plan Life Time Hosting Sponsorship worth $100/year.

So… Is my site up for the challenge?

Well if you have been following my feed, like my work or just want to be kind, throw me a comment below and lets see how I do!

I came accross this little gem about 6 months ago when trying to send out a simple mailshot to about 50 people. Spam city I found! So I went in search of a solution and this one popped up!

Now I know there are many many mail shotting programs out there but I have never used one which is so simple and has such clever interaction with the user. I could know nothing about the web and still manage to send out a good campaign with this system.

From the top

It has an extremely simple walk through procedure with a lovely use of javascript to apply differnt tool tips and a very well constructed dashboard offering lots of functionality, campaign reporting, tutorial videos and list organization to name a few.

The free trial version is a great place to start giving away 600 free email slots for you to practice and play around with.

Cost wise for the full version it is on par with its competitors and has a couple of options for payment working on either a Pay as You Go or Monthly Plan allowing for great flexibility.

It offers a selection of mail templates to choose from and an advanced drag and drop option to move images around. The template also has a styled WYSIWYG editor and gives the option of changing background colours, header styles and body fonts.

The campaign reporting is very thourough and very accurate boasting different graphs, pie charts and a very well arranged filing system.

All in all it is hard to fault this program and from a beginners perspective it does not get much better! Kudos to Mail Chimp!

The role I have undertaken is excellent and suits me to the ground, I am doing a lot of design work without much developement. Ive never been the developing type!

Guerilla Communications has been in business since 22nd April 2002. The company is a full service agency and covers a wide variety of media. The company had a number of teams including Guerilla Propaganda, Guerilla Productions and Guerilla Interactive.

It feels really great to be part of an award winning, up and coming, lively business, with such a great team and a host of amazing clients.