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The Smashing Book: Already Got Yours?

Have you gotten your copy of The Smashing Book yet? If not, it may still be worth spending $29.90 for this printed book. The book shares technical tips and best practices on typography, usability, UI design, marketing and color usage. It contains interviews with high profile designers and developers. And you will also get a peek behind the curtains of Smashing Magazine. You can buy the book now, it is available and can be shipped right away! And you can also check more details about the book.

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Also, in this post we are giving away 35 exclusive Smashing Book Posters (folded, limited edition), and if you want to win one, just leave a comment on this post and tell us what you would do with it! So, let's find out who are Smashing Magazine's biggest fans? And we also have a new book chapter available for free download as PDF to serve as an appetizer.

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Showcase Of Web Design In Germany

Germany, which is situated in the heart of Europe and neighbors nine other countries, is not only the motherland of eminent philosophers, poets, composers, world-famous automobiles and great beer, but also a place where some of the most talented and highly ranked Web designers live.

Armin Morbach in Showcase of Web Design in Germany

German design is certainly worthy of respect and a delight to the eye of anyone who takes the time to observe it. For years, we have accumulated knowledge, upheld eternal principles of style, simplicity and accessibility, adopted best practices and kept up with the latest global trends. I'm proud to present here a showcase and discussion of world-class German Web design.

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The New Hotness: Using CSS3 Visual Effects

Previously in this series on CSS3, we talked not only about how to create scalable and compelling buttons but about how to effectively use new CSS3 properties to speed up development and quickly create rich page elements. In this final article of the series, we'll really get into it and use CSS3 visual effects to push the envelope.

Sliding Vinyl with CSS3

Not everything in this article is practical, or even bug-free, but it's a fun primer on what's in the pipeline for Web design. To get the most from these examples, you'll have to use Safari 4 or Chrome. (Firefox 3.5 can handle most of it, but not everything: WebKit is further along than Gecko in its tentative CSS support.) We'll show you how to create impressive image galleries, build animated music players and overlay images like a pro. All set? Let's rock.

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Don’t Forget The Small Stuff This Year

Whether a designer, developer, blogger, or freelancer, you surely have a to-do list on which certain items slowly inch their way down. These forgotten items add up fast! Think of all the items that you've discarded from your to-do list to save time. Even more frightening, what items might you have overlooked to meet a deadline? What have you left on the proverbial cutting-room floor yet again?

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What better time than the new year, or new decade for that matter, to tackle your neglected checklist? In this article, we'll look at some commonly overlooked items on a typical checklist (in no particular order). Some are new, some are commonsense and some are not so minor and ought never to be forgotten. So, let's get started in this young year by striking off some items from your to-do list!

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35 Beautiful E-Commerce Websites

Despite any financial recession and economic stress, online purchasing continues to grow. Expansion of the market and evolving technology that simplifies our daily lives help to set the pace of e-commerce design. Customers want the shopping process to be quick and easy, and merchants want to increase sales by making their stores attractive and popular. Thus, e-commerce design tends to combine a look and usability that is at once unique and eye-catching. In this post, we showcase 35 attractive online store designs.

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One of the trends we observed from this collection is a minimalist design style. Small details and accents (e.g. unobtrusive background patterns, icons, pictograms and typography) reflect a brand’s spirit and match the character of its products. Some websites, though, are unconventional, rich in visual effects. Please note that the selection of stores featured in this showcase was based more on design aesthetics than usability. But we made sure that the websites included here provide at least an easy shopping experience, even for foreign visitors.

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Find The Right JavaScript Solution With A 7-Step Test

As Web developers and designers, we are spoilt for choice right now. To build a complex Web application or even just spice up a website with some highly interactive interface element, we have hundreds of pre-built solutions to choose from. Every library comes with widgets and solutions, and every developer tries to make a name for him or herself by releasing a funky JavaScript solution to a certain interface problem. We can pick from dozens of menus, image carousels, tabs, form validators and "lightboxes."

Disable JavaScript with the web developer toolbar

Having this much choice makes it easy for us to pick and choose, which is where things go wrong. In most cases, we measure the quality of a solution by its convenience to us. Our main reasons for picking one solution over another are: Does it do what I need it to do? Does it look cool? Does it sound easy to use? Would I want to use it? Does it use the framework I'm committed to?

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