When I built my first ever website, I didn’t design it. I knew what I wanted the main colours to be, and through trial and error with CSS eventually came up with something I quite liked. It was hideous, of course, but I wasn’t to know.

A lot of your design ability will come through practise and research, knowing what is “in” and knowing what will always look good. However, if you’re just starting out and don’t quite have a hold on the nuances, here are a few things to consider.
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My first forays into web design were for purely practical reasons. I needed a site, had no money, and the only friend of mine capable of doing it was too busy. Therefore, I thought, why not?

I still remember the pride I felt at completing that first site, though looking back on it it was fairly ugly it was still my baby and will always have a special place in my heart. Surprisingly, after the stress of getting that first site live and having actual people actually use it without it breaking (oh my that was scary!), I realised how much fun I was having and set about learning everything I could get my grubby little hands on. (more…)

A friend of mine joined Twitter this morning, because I told him to and he’s a good boy.

His pathetic air of confusion and lost-puppy-ness inspired me to impart some of the knowledge I’ve gained since becoming a regular user of the service about a month ago, which might be useful for other Twitter newbies too. Twitter is highly addictive, and people will attempt to explain their addiction with cunning use of words like “networking” or “link-building”, but let’s face it we really all just want to see Stephen Fry’s new haircut. There need be no shame in this.

Without further ado then… (more…)