Make the right decisions and good things happen. That’s the philosophy of DesignKarma, where we believe a great web design is the result of lots of little decisions. Find out more…
DesignKarma got a call from an excited client the other day informing us that the email template we designed for them has been featured as a case study on Campaign Monitor. Sunny Thinking are a long time client and collaborator, and they’re delighted with the reaction to their new regular email campaigns. Check out the case study.
Whilst broadly welcoming HTML5—particularly some of the nice new form tags and attributes—I’m still trying to get comfortable with some aspects of it. As builders of the web we’re all striving for solid semantics right? Well, what helps is a set of black and white rules, whereas too many new HTML5 tags are open to personal interpretation. When is a section not a ‘section’? When are ‘details’ not actually details? And so on. Maybe I need to get out more, but these are the things I find myself dwelling on more now than I ever did with HTML4. It’s progress of sorts, but I can’t help feeling the rules could be more rigid.
News has been a little patchy of late, but that’s not to say it’s been quiet around here—far from it. We’ve got a number of exciting projects hatching this summer, all powered by shiny new technologies like EE2.1, HTML5 and CSS3.
Yesterday EllisLab released ExpressionEngine 2.1, marking the end of the public beta period. The new version boasts improved performance, some exciting new file management features, and a sexy new control panel. DesignKarma is thrilled to be able to start releasing EE2-powered websites this summer, starting with a major website for Northern Ireland football. The DesignKarma website will also be redeveloped soon in EE2 (if/when I get the time!). Watch this space!
One of the biggest (if not the biggest) surprises to come out of the recent EECI Conference in San Francisco, was the unveiling of MojoMotor—Derek Allard’s (EllisLab) new pet project. MojoMotor is “The Publishing Engine that Does Less”, or a kind of micro CMS with no control panel, you simply edit pages at the front end. This is potentially great news for clients with smaller sites and smaller budgets, who would still like some ability to publish and edit pages. DesignKarma thinks this product could even become as popular as ExpressionEngine, and we’re certainly itching to give it a try. There is no release date set yet, but the final product will cost just $49.95 US per license.
Web professionals can rejoice this month as Microsoft Internet Explorer’s market share dropped below 60% according to Net Applications. As of April, fewer than 6 out of 10 people now use IE. Recent trends show that IE continues to slip, Firefox and Opera remain fairly static, Safari is very slowly moving forward, and Chrome is pushing ahead fast. What’s important here is not the demise of IE, but rather a healthier browser mix on the web. This should help to encourage standards adherence, and dissuade browser makers from pursuing proprietary technologies, making life a little bit easier for yours truly!
Many developers and consumers have been wondering why Apple doesn’t allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Well, in a recent item on the Apple site, Steve Jobs shared his thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products, and why they increasingly favour “open” technology over proprietary technology like Flash. It certainly matches a general industry mood which has seen developers increasingly looking for alternatives to Flash.
A couple of DesignKarma websites have popped up on Show-EE.com, a new website dedicated to showcasing good ExpressionEngine websites from around the world. Both Riviera Travel and The Kirsty Club have been listed so far, and hopefully lots more in the future.
Late last year Microsoft revealed a glimpse of their Internet Explorer 9. This month they released what Microsoft calls a “Platform Preview”, so developers and users can test drive IE 9 for themselves. Early reports are positive, including long overdue improved performance and standards support. In an increasingly competitive market, it looks like Microsoft are finally ‘getting it’, as IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch posted: “We want the same markup to just work across different browsers.“ Good news.
DesignKarma is now listed on the Recommended Agency Register (RAR) as a recommended digital supplier. RAR helps companies source, select and engage suppliers. Through knowledge sharing and consultancy they provide key data on potential new suppliers, helping companies create short-lists and manage the selection process.
Great ideas, clever design and really good execution. On time and on budget, without any drama. Already thinking about my next project. Thanks DesignKarma!
AXA, BBC, Cisco, David Lloyd Leisure, Etisalat, Fujifilm, GPJ Australia, Intel, Kirsty's Appeal, Medics Away, NHS, Riviera Travel, Ryvita, STA Travel, Yahoo!