DesignKarma

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…

August 05, 2010
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HTML5 Falls Short

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.


July 13, 2010
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ExpressionEngine 2.1 Released

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!


June 11, 2010
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Get Your Mojo Working

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.


May 25, 2010
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IE Usage Dips Below 60%

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!


May 04, 2010
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Goodbye Flash—Apple’s Future Strategy Emerges

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.


March 31, 2010
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IE9 Platform Preview Available

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.


December 01, 2009
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ExpressionEngine 2.0 Public Release

Christmas comes early today with the much-anticipated public release of ExpressionEngine 2.0. The new release is built on top of CodeIgniter, EllisLab’s open-source PHP framework. The two communities combine to supercharge an already hot app. DesignKarma has been involved in beta testing the new version, and had an extensive preview recently at EECI2009 in Holland. Very impressive it is too. Clients will love the new improved control panel and more sophisticated publish screens. The existing 1.6.x tree will continue to be used and supported by the EE community whilst 2.0 beds in, but DesignKarma will be developing a new 2.0-powered website in the New Year. Watch this space.


October 23, 2009
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EECI 2009 Dispatches

One more quick report before the afternoon session. WiFi is patchy here, so got to be brief. Big news out of the way first: ExpressionEngine 2.0 is set for launch 1st December. Already been playing with the beta release and very impressive it is too. Derek Allard took us through the new File Management suite yesterday, and this will make image management in particular much easier for DK clients. Overall, the sessions so far have been very enjoyable, and validated much of my existing working methods. Good to meet and “nerd-out” with others in the EE community also. Full report when I get back to the UK.


June 17, 2009
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It’s Official: Good Design is Critical to Success Online

Just came across an interesting report—The demand for good web design is increasing, revealed a recent Webcopyplus online poll. Almost 25% of web users indicated “poor visual presentation” as the number one element that drives them away from websites. Only 6.6% of web users who participated in a similar 2007 online poll indicated “poor visual presentation” as the main reason to abandon a website. Read the full article here.


May 13, 2009
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To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

Twitter has so much hype at the moment. However, it does provide a unique opportunity to reach a larger audience with your message. The question is, how best to use it? Some organizations use Twitter as a broadcast tool, turning it fundamentally into an alternative to RSS. An example of this is BBC News or CNN, which provide latest updates via the service. If your business has the time, then why not consider adding this platform to your publishing arsenal?


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