Book Description

Veteran icon designer Kate McInnes introduces you to the wonderful world of icon design, so you too can become a Rockstar Icon Designer!

In this book Kate shares with you her experience and expertise by covering everything from the history and theory of icon design, to best practices and methods. She’ll also take you through the whole process of creating your own icon set, and walk you through actual tutorial exercises where you’ll design icons from scratch.

Hi, I’m Kate, the author of Rockstar Icon Designer.

When I first started out in icon design I found that there was very little information to help guide me though the design process. Through a lot of trial and error, I finally came to understand and really appreciate the wonderful world of icons.

During the course of this book, I will share my experiences in the field of icon design. I’ll look at rendering styles and ways to achieve them, and the many uses for icons today. This book won’t teach you how to emulate others. It won’t focus heavily on one OS over another; nor will it turn you into a master overnight. Instead it will help you create designs that will stand up to the test of time and help you better understand the constraints (and the joys) of pixel perfect rendering and icon design in general.

Here’s what I cover in each chapter of the book:

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Book Description

This is the must-have book for designers who want to expand their skills and improve the quality of their designs. Learning CSS technology and continually improving one’s design and developer skills is essential for every Web designer in today’s marketplace. The goal of Professional Web Design: Techniques and Templates is to educate beginning-to-intermediate Web designers on the various issues involved with Web design through general discussion, case studies, and specific tips and techniques.

Using easy-to-understand language and concepts, the book teaches designers and developers how to create professional-quality CSS-based designs. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is explored, giving the reader a strong, basic understanding of how to get sites to rank better in search engines. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) also is explained, helping the designer create a more efficient site for the users who are already visiting. You’ll get the benefit of the author’s experience. With more than 15 years of experience as a Web designer for Fortune 500 companies, non-profits, and small businesses alike, Eccher has learned numerous tips and techniques of the trade and discloses them here, saving you time and aggravation by alerting you to potential pitfalls.

About the Author
Clint Eccher (Fort Collins, CO) is an award winning Web designer with more than 15 years of experience designing and developing professional Web sites. Download Now »

Book Description

Theme Like a Professional!

Managing web content has always been tricky, but with WordPress, any web designer can have a flexible, free and powerful CMS to use not just on blogging projects, but on all sorts of websites. In How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer you will learn step by step how to take a straight HTML site and power it with WordPress.

During the course of the book you’ll build THREE WordPress themes, a blog, a portfolio site and a general site with menus and submenus. Each theme demonstrates different aspects of WordPress theming and all three are packaged in with the book so you’ll have Photoshop, HTML, CSS and WordPress PHP files to refer to. You can take a look at the three sites online here:

• http://superpreviewer.com/creatifblog
• http://superpreviewer.com/creatifportfolio
• http://superpreviewer.com/creatifsite

Updated for WordPress 3.0: How to Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer has been updated for the latest release of WordPress and includes a section on Navigation Menus!

Who is this Book for?
The book is aimed at anyone with a solid understanding of HTML/CSS. You don’t need to know PHP, you don’t need to have ever even touched WordPress before. Download Now »

Book Description

Moodle is a highly extensible virtual learning environment and is used to deliver online teaching and training materials. Theming is one of the main features of Moodle that can be used to customize your online courses and make them look exactly how you want them to. If you have been looking for a book that will help you develop Moodle Themes that you are proud of, and that your students would enjoy, then this is the book for you.

This book will show you how to create themes for Moodle, change pre-installed Moodle themes, and download new themes from various resources on the Internet. It is filled with suggestions and examples for adapting classroom activities to the Virtual Learning Environment.

This book starts off by introducing Moodle, explaining what it is, how it works, and what tools you might need to create a stunning Moodle theme. It then moves on to show you in detailed steps how to choose and change a Moodle theme, and explains what Moodle themes are and how they work. It shows you how to change an existing theme and test the changes that you have made.

The latter half of this book will start you off on the road to creating your own themes from scratch. It provides detailed instructions to guide you through the stages of creating a stunning theme for your Moodle site. From planning theme creation, through to the slicing and dicing, and more advanced Moodle theming processes, this book will give you step-by-step instructions to create your own Moodle theme. Download Now »

Book Description

Get ready to take your applications to the next level by harnessing all of Visual Basic 2005’s tools for programming, debugging, and refactoring code. In this hands-on book, you’ll get proven techniques for developing even the most complex Visual Basic applications. Expert tips on modeling, user interface design, and testing will help you master the advanced features of this language. You’ll learn how to make writing code more effective so that you can quickly develop and maintain your own amazingly powerful applications.

From the Back Cover
Are you ready to take your applications to the next level by harnessing all of Visual Basic 2005′s unmatched tools for programming, debugging, and refactoring code? In this hands-on book, I’ll share with you proven techniques for developing even the most complex Visual Basic applications. I include expert tips on modeling, user interface design, and testing so that you can master the advanced features of this language.

I’ll first take you through the design activities that are necessary before Visual Basic development can begin. Next I’ll describe the various writing tools that you’ll be able to use to make programming easier and less error-prone. I then focus on various ways to make writing code more effective and cover sophisticated techniques for handling particular tasks. This approach will help you quickly develop and maintain your own amazingly powerful applications. Download Now »

Book Description

With over 100,000 iPhone applications and 125,000 registered iPhone developers, is it still possible to create a top-selling app that stands apart from the six-figure crowd? Of course, but you’ll need more than a great idea and flawless code—an eye-catching and functional user interface design is essential. With this book, you’ll get practical advice on user interface design from 10 innovative developers who, like you, have sat wondering how to best utilize the iPhone’s minimal screen real estate. Their stories illustrate precisely why, with more apps and more experienced, creative developers, no iPhone app can succeed without a great UI.

Whatever type of iPhone project you have in mind—social networking app, game, or reference tool—you’ll benefit from the information presented in this book. More than just tips and pointers, you’ll learn from the authors’ hands-on experiences, including:

• Dave Barnard of App Cubby on how to use Apple’s User Interface conventions and test for usability to assure better results
• Joachim Bondo, creator of Deep Green Chess, beats a classic design problem of navigating large dataset results in the realm of the iPhone
• Former Apple employee Dan Burcaw tailors user interfaces and adds the power of CoreLocation, Address Book, and Camera to the social networking app, Brightkite
• David Kaneda takes his Basecamp project management client, Outpost, from a blank page (literally) to a model of dashboard clarity
• Craig Kemper focuses on the smallest details to create his award-winning puzzle games TanZen and Zentomino Download Now »