But if your into CSS3 there are some options for borders in CSS3, of which one is border-radius. Both Firefox and Safari 3 have implemented this function, which allows you to create round corners on box-items.

The code for this example above is actually quite simple:
(The example below is an image so all browsers can see it)

<div style=" background-color: #ccc;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000;
padding: 10px;" >

These different corners can also each be handled on their own:
(The above example is an image so all browsers can see it)

These are handled by this:
-moz-border-radius-topleft / -webkit-border-top-left-radius
-moz-border-radius-topright / -webkit-border-top-right-radius
-moz-border-radius-bottomleft / -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius
-moz-border-radius-bottomright / -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius

Please check out the blog for some recent posts,
there have been some exciting things happening in the digital news lately!

http://www.micelistudios.com/blog

Google posted a map showing the locations of the applications and letters of support – the small dots represent a government response, and a large dot represents locations where more than 1,000 residents submitted a nomination.

Read more from WIRED

Web design contains many of the principles of print related graphic design such as typography, general visual aesthetic, color theory, placement of elements in order to lead the eye to a place of interest, breaking up information so that is is easily digestible, and many other principles that go into creating effective design.

So what’s the difference on the web ? Why can’t we apply the same principles to create effective website design ? There are many reasons for this — and the first one that might come to most people’s minds is that website’s are built on “code” —and hence the designer must have at least a general understanding of how this code structure works, to be able to effectively design for the medium. This is true, and I recommend designers understand XHTML, CSS, some javascript, and some flash, as well as what the back-end languages like .php and .net can do — however knowing how to actually program is not a requirement. Even though it is not a requirement it is recommend that a web designer understands the languages intimately so that he can design much more effectively and efficiently. An understanding better than just basic, will also help a designer communicate with a web developer (or a web programmer) this is the essential synergy that is necessary to design, build and create great web experiences!

So, let’s say I understand the programming and I am an awesome designer — what else should I know in order to create great websites as a designer? The next thing is structure, or architecture. This is a the foundation and grid of your layout, and there are specific grids that are proven to be effective in the design of websites. It also refers to the placement of elements on the screen, and the placement and proximity of these elements will either drive people through your site to deeper areas of information or drive them right off your website and on to one of the other websites that might have similar content but are easier to navigate and find the information or service that they are looking for. This is the reason that the logical stricture and architectures of your web design be done right — simply because there are so many other websites out there and it is a lot easier for someone to click to another site than it is for someone to put down the print-related graphically designed communication they are reading or looking at. The amount of choices and quick ability to abandon a website make this factor of great importance. Architecture also refers to the navigation structure and how pieces of information are logically broken down into digestible pieces for the website visitor. It is a necessity for a web designer to be able to create visually pleasing designs as well as formulate a logical structure — this is easier said than done. Visual or creative people tend to be less concerned with structure and logic, which is why a web designer requires a special trait — they need to balance the two often opposing sides, or the right-brain and left-brain in order to create effective designs for the web.

So far we have awesome graphically and visually appealing design, an intimate understanding of the programming underneath the designs and we are able to balance our design into a logical, clear and concise structure so people can find what they are looking for, when they want it! What else do we need as an effective web designer ? Let’s call this one “on-page strategy”. On-page strategy will enhance the user experience by combining the above three principles into something called strategy. Web design strategy depends greatly on a very good “discovery” period — this looks at the competitor landscape, it reviews the main objective of the website as well as the secondary and tertiary objectives of the business and the website. On page strategy also includes a good SEO (search engine optimization) plan. SEO entails a good coding structure so that your valuable web design copy can be deciphered not only by the humans that read your website, but also by the search engines, so that they can rank your information and index it on their search engines — and in turn making the vast amount of people able to find your website. It examines the information and makes decisions based on this information.

Then we have “off-page strategy” which refers to how other web sites will lead people into your website — sort of like road signs that take people straight on to the street that your site lives. Some off page strategy includes advertising and link building, good public relations, article writing, web sit submission to directories and of course social media.

So, in summary web design requires a whole new set of skills and an expansion of the palette of a print-related art director or graphic designer. Throw in some motion design experience, video experience, maybe a dash of 3D and the art of simplicity and you’re well on the road to designing great website experiences that are effective!

There seems to be some confusion about what these two roles are so we figures we would define and compare each of them here. IA’s and IxD’s and user experience professionals should all be living in the same space and their jobs really overlap, however some larger web site design requires some with special skills and know-how. If your saying “what the heck is he talking about, hold on… I’ll explain everything”

So what is IA

IA goes all into taxonomy design and database architecture. Changes occur when an IA adjusts categories and navigation structure. IA is about distributing content according their relevant category. Simplification of content and information it for website visitors to find what they are looking for more easily.

And what about IxD

IxD exists in the interaction experience itself, and is more likely to apply psychology and deeper cognitive principles to create a highly usable interface. They look at some of the same things IAs do (information flow, usability, etc.), but they’re the ultimate user experience – and so they excel at things like usability, content strategy, visual impact. 

Most UX professionals probably do both – among other things. So IxD deals a bit more with user experience, and IA is a fundamental part of this experience, let’s say the building blocks and IxD’s know what technology to use and where to render the best user experience, which is sort of the “magic” in a site that makes all the difference. but first you gotta start with good IA and killer web design!

Due to the fact that WordPress is open source, many say that it is not the best choice for a serious project due to insecurity – but we feel quite the opposite. To prove these points are not worthy, below we list and show you that WordPress can be used for serious projects and big brands that go big in scale (including The Wall Street Journal, Sony, and Ebay) :

http://ebayinkblog.com/

http://ycorpblog.com/

http://www.thefordstory.com/

http://blogs.wsj.com/

http://electronicsblog.sel.sony.com/sony/default.aspx

http://stylenews.peoplestylewatch.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/topnews/blog-index.html

http://www.benjerry.fr/blog/

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Here is a great article on creating your own theme for WordPress. A theme for WordPress is the starting point for a web designer or web developer and the framework to the web design.

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/creating_wordpress_theme_with_dreamweaver_pt1.html

A simple article highlighting and explaining the SEO ( search engine optimization ) importance and qualities inside of WordPress

http://wpbloghost.com/blog/wordpress-search-engine-optimization/

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Wordtracker SEO Blogger is a plug-in for Firefox that opens alongside your blog entry as you are editing it to aid in finding the right keywords for your article. (perfect for interactive copywriters, web designers, and business professionals)

http://labs.wordtracker.com/seo-blogger

There is also a service and application to help you evaluate, export and compare your keywords. I have not tried this package and there seems to be an abundance of these types of applications out there, however this one looks very good

http://www.wordtracker.com

Here is an article by Pingdom – rating the different blogging platforms – WordPress being at the top of the list

http://royal.pingdom.com/2009/01/15/the-blog-platforms-of-choice-among-the-top-100-blogs/

WordPress, in our experience, is by far the best solution out there for the small blog that is shared among friends and the super-huge serious full-blown websites that require a content management system with thousands of built-in options and inherently search engine friendly!

So if the user is already engaging with this, why not make it an ad? That appears to be Microsoft’s mentality, as it has proposed exactly that with a patent application. The concept is simple. It works just like any other CAPTCHA, but it shows you a picture of a product (the Xbox 360 in an example from Microsoft) and asks you to type the name of the product you see.

Todd Bishop at TechFlash points to this and actually another mention of this concept from as long as four years ago, at Ad Lab, which simply presents the concept, showing logos for Tide and UPS.

Clearly this is a concept that has been around for some time, but you don’t see it very often, and you have to wonder why that is. There’s no question that the CAPTCHA is intrusive, and perhaps brands won’t always want to be associated with that kind of advertising, but in reality, it’s not the ad itself that is intrusive. It’s the step of completing the CAPTCHA form, which is already there. If it’s already there, you might as well utilize that space for some further benefit.

What Designers and marketers would not want to do is start displaying more CAPTCHAs specifically for the purpose of advertising. That’s where things could go sour. On the other hand, a user might not know the difference, and could reach the conclusion that you’re just throwing an intrusive advertisement at them.

It is an interesting strategy—and I like it and I would take a picture rather than those hard to decipher CAPTCHAs any day. There is no click value to this from the advertising standpoint, but the brand value is definitely there.

Source: Web Design Library

An Event Apart is from the makers of A List Apart, which is known for its knowledgeable contributors on web design, interface design, up-to-date web developer techniques, (SEO) search engine optimization and internet marketing.  An Event Apart is a two-day conference put on by Eric Meyer and Jeffrey Zeldman, founder of Happy Cog. They are joined by expert guest speakers listed below:

Info for Chicago, October 12-13

Jason Santa Maria, web designer
Kristina Halvorson, founder and president of BrainTraffic
Dan Brown, author of Communicating Design
Whitney Hess, strategic partner to Happy Cog
Andy Clarke, author of Transcending CSS
Brett Welch, co-founder of GoodBarry
Aaron Gustafson, co-author of AdvancED DOM Scripting
Simon Willison, developer at Guardian News and Media
Luke Wroblewski, author of Web Form Design
Dan Rubin, co-author of Web Standards Creativity
Dan Cederholm, author of Handcrafted CSS

Info for San Francisco, December 7-8

Jarred Spool, founder of User Interface Engineering
Andy Budd, UX Lead of Clearleft
Dave Shea creator of CSS Zen Garden
George Oates, writer and content strategist
Michal Migursky, technology head at Stamen
Ethan Marcotte, head designer at Airbag Industries
Jeffrey Veen, author of Art Science of Web Design
Jonathan Snook, web expert
Sarah Nelson, design strategist for Adaptive Path

Click over to http://www.aneventapart.com/ An Event Apart to learn more!