In January 2011, Ecommerce Developer's readers gravitated toward design, favoring some of our site showcases and graphic design tutorials.
Ecommerce designers and developers viewed the collections of example sites that typify Ecommerce Developer showcases. These examples can help make design choices easier.
The interest in graphic design tutorials from contributor Drew Coffin may also reflect interest from our freelance readers, as at least some web developers seek to add graphics skills in an effort to offer small clients a complete solution.
Regardless of the cause, here are the ten most read Ecommerce Developer posts from January 2011.
No. 10: Get Design Inspiration from Political Stock
January can be a political month in the U.S., with new members of Congress headed to Washington, D.C.; new laws becoming enacted; and the start of a new year in government. But even without taking political sides, it is possible to draw some design inspiration from what political sites are doing.
No. 9: Identifying IE with a Simple JavaScript
Prior to its most recent beta, Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), for better or for worse, differed significantly from version to version and from other popular browsers, requiring web developers to code some portions of their sites or web applications twice or more.
There are several browsers that are generally considered to be web-standards compliant. These are Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Apple Safari, and the recently released IE9 beta, which renders pages more like Firefox or Chrome than previous versions of IE. In opposition to these compliant browsers are the various and sundry versions of IE from before the release of IE9.
No. 8: Develop Custom Icon Sets
Consistent and well-designed icons can run like a connecting thread through a site design. Moreover, making icon sets is a hot commodity on the web today.
In this video tutorial, Drew Coffin will show you how to create a dark, embossed icon set inspired by the Bitter Creek Ale House website that was recently featured in an Ecommerce Developer showcase.
No. 7: Facebook Helps Developers Test JavaScript
Facebook's JavaScript SDK and OpenGraph API make it possible to access many of the popular social media network's features and thereby provide visitors to your sites or applications with an integrated user experience.
To help web developers get started, Facebook offers documentation and a nifty JavaScript Test Console where you can run your code before you implement it on your site or even before you get a Facebook application ID, which you will need before your project goes live.
No. 6: Create Forms on Your Site that Post to Another Site
Forms are a key feedback mechanism online. Without them, you couldn't register users or load products into a shopping cart.
Recently, Practical Ecommerce, our companion publication, needed a form that posted data to the GoToWebinar site. In this tutorial, you will see a demonstration of one solution for this challenge, and by so doing explain some techniques you could use in your own projects.
No. 5: How to Add Depth to Your Site Design
Adding depth to an image or design can be a great way to transform your site into a three-dimensional landscape.
In this video tutorial, Drew Coffin shows you how to create a paper-style header or menu that will add depth to your site.
No. 4: 2010's 25 Most Read Articles
Ecommerce Developer is a little more than a year old. And although our site is young, we believe we've done a pretty good job of providing some interesting content.
In fact, in this well-read post you'll find a list of the top 25 articles from 2010. These articles received the most reads and helped to guide our editorial schedule.
No. 3: Five New Ruby on Rails Videos
Ruby on Rails (RoR) is one of the most promising server-side scripting languages-frameworks currently being used for web projects.
RoR is especially useful for getting projects going quickly. In this post, we've collected five new RoR videos for your enlightenment. These videos represent some of the best RoR tutorials, interviews, or discussions published so far this year.
No. 2: Learn By Imitating the McDonald's Navigation Menu
Sometimes the best way to learn how to do something — like a particular technique — is to imitate an existing design pixel by pixel.
In this video tutorial, Drew Coffin will teach you pixel perfect design by recreating the McDonalds.com navigation menu.
No. 1: LemonStand Stores Are Great-Looking, and Compliant
LemonStand is a new ecommerce platform that allows designers and developers to create attractive sites that comply with web standards and best practices.
Perhaps you haven't heard of LemonStand, but you should start to listen. This relatively new PHP-based platform was created with you — the ecommerce designer or developer — in mind. The proof of any good ecommerce solution, in my view, can be found in the actual sites that use it. So for the showcase, I have tracked down ten excellent examples of what this platform can do.
