Smashing Magazine is a great web design blog featuring fun and useful articles and tutorials for web designers.

When they announced they were releasing a book–The Smashing Book–I was eager to read it.

Disclaimer: This review is not a paid review. However, I did receive a copy of this book free from Smashing Magazine.

Who Is the Book Written For?

The Smashing Book ($29.90 / €23.90) was written specifically for web designers—both beginners and those that have been at it for a while.

What Topics Are Covered in the Book?

The 313 page book focuses on basic, but fundamental areas of web design, such as:

• User Interface Design
• CSS-Layouts
• Typography
• Usability Principles
• Color Usage
• Website Optimization
• Increasing Conversion Rates
• Site Branding

I was initially worried that the book would center on a specific topic or technology. Or that it would just be a rehash of previous posts from the Smashing Magazine site. I was relieved that the book focuses on these core basics.

I think that many web designers that are self-taught have not been educated on many of these main principles of web design, so I think the book does a good job of covering these basics.

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Photo credit: tvvoodoo

Even as a designer, there are times when you have to speak before a group. This is especially true if you’re an individual freelancer.

Sometimes you need to pitch ideas for a project. You may be showing a design to a client for approval. Maybe you’re giving a speech to a group at a conference or other event.

What do you find to be the most difficult part of public speaking? [Take our poll]

I’ll Take Death, Please

“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”

—Jerry Seinfeld

Most people are not born with the ability to comfortably speak in a public setting.

Even those who are good at communicating with others in casual social settings are not necessarily at ease speaking to a group in a formal setting.

So what can help you overcome stress when speaking in public?
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As someone viewing websites on the web, ad-blockers filter out adverts for “enhancements”, and a bunch of flashing, ugly advertisements. Not only this, but ad-blockers can help protect you from potentially sneaky and malicious code.

This is why one of the most popular downloads for Firefox is an ad-blocking extension.

However, have you thought about the reverse? What about the effect ad blockers have on your website or the sites you design for clients?

Is my coding style or design choices limiting what’s viewable to visitors because it’s being incorrectly identified as advertising content by ad-blockers?

Choose Your Class and ID Names Carefully

You may reason, “I don’t have to worry about ad-blockers because I don’t have any advertisements on my website”.

But do you really have to reason for concern?

While you may not have a single ad on your site, the names you give your classes and ID’s matter.

Classes and ID’s containing keywords like banner, ban, ad, advertisement, etc may get flagged incorrectly by a visitor’s ad-blocking plugin.

Important sections of information could never appear on the screen because of this.

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This week, we’re looking at 10 outstanding and uniquely styled TV series title sequences.

Many people refer to the title sequence as the opening credits even though they are not really the same. However, I’ll be using the two terms interchangeably in this post.

The title sequence / opening credits is usually accompanied by visuals and sound that set the mood for the series. This usually includes the theme music for the series (if any).

Previously, I showcased a couple of title sequences from other shows that use specific effects, such as Poirot and Dollhouse. Since I’ve already featured them here on the Blog, I’m not going to include them in this list.

The title sequences chosen for this post are ones I feel are particularly memorable or out of the ordinary.

Human Target (Season 1, FOX)

The opening credits for Human Target immediately made me take notice.

The title sequence makes great use of a grunge/watercolor effect. It borrows a bit from the Bond movies, but everything works well together and fits the theme of the series.

I also like the tilting and suddenly jerk effects (for lack of better terms). This gives the sequence a more ‘real’ and less digital feel, which goes well with the watercolor and grunge effects.

Murphy’s Law (Series 3, 4 and 5, BBC)

Murphy’s Law as a series changed quite a bit from the beginning of season 1.

Season 5’s title sequence was a big departure from the opening credits of the previous seasons but fits with the shift in the subject matter of that season.

My favorite part is the way the Murphy’s Law text/logo appears to be painted onto shards of glass which move toward the viewer at the end.

I couldn’t find the opening credits for just season 5 by itself, so the video below contains the intros for seasons 3, 4 and 5.

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It’s only been a couple weeks since the newest version of Mozilla Thunderbird–Thunderbird 3–was officially released.

This new version of Thunderbird includes several new features.

Let’s look at 4 features in Thunderbird 3 that can help you stay more organized and work more efficiently:

1. Sync all your email accounts
2. Better Gmail integration
3. Better Email Search
4. Manage tasks, calendars, Google Wave, webmail and more within Thunderbird 3 with content tabs

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