Viget Inspire

Even with the EE 2.0 release in December, I think the best ExpressionEngine event in 2009 was the rise of Travis Schmeisser's Structure. While 2.0 lays the groundwork for a bright future, in the short run it's more of a step backwards because so few of EE's amazing community-built addons have been ported so far - even with new functionality, a 2.0 upgrade takes away far more than it gives at the moment.

In contrast, the Structure module immediately makes major improvements to your site's UI, construction, and template codebase, and it also plays nice with other addons, creating a faster, smarter EE experience. No software I installed last year saved me as much time and effort as Structure did, and Travis deserves all the credit for that (and he got quite a bit, including Devot:ee's Module Of The Year award)

So what is Structure, and what about it makes EE so much better?

Structure is a module that overrides EE's URL/template setup and creates its own hierarchy of pages and "Listing" pages, along with a new interface that's meant to handle most user needs. Why is this such a big deal?

1. A page is the basic unit of most websites, but in EE, there's no great way to handle them. EE developers spend a lot of time trying to simulate a page structure using templates, categories, and weblogs - which tends to make bulky, finicky sites that can be hard to extend and update. Structure brings the page concept into EE beautifully, and adds breadcrumbs, navs, and a host of other traditionally hard-to-develop features.
2. Entries are now linked to templates, and not vice versa. This might not seem like such a big deal unless you've made a big EE site without it - large EE sites rely on a large number of repetitive templates, which are especially difficult to handle. With Structure, you can run a big site with hundreds of top-level pages off a handful of templates - a huge time-saver.

We had a few false starts with Structure - mostly because we were trying to bring it into existing EE sites (recommendation: don't) or use to do the wrong things, but we eventually got the hang of it. A few pointers:

Continue reading "A Whole New Wooooorld: Structure + ExpressionEngine"

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Alright. You've got me. These Valentine's day ideas aren't just for designers. They can be for anyone with a divine sense of taste and style just like you and me. Here's a few ideas that came to mind as I was shopping for my better half, an English major, for Valentine's day.

Bacon-Flavored Lip Balm

Let's start with the edibles and get those out of the way. Everyone loves bacon, right? Ok, well at least things that taste like bacon. By giving your special someone bacon-flavored lip balm it's like giving yourself a gift. Just be careful not to bite down at pucker-up time.

Source: Source: BaconSalt.com

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Recently, Owen Shifflett and I combined forces (not unlike the Wonder Twins) to work on the design for Viget's annual holiday gift (it's still January, it's not too late to write about holiday things yet, right? Right?) This year it was VigePops, yummy handmade lollipops (read all about them and maybe even snag some VigePops for yourself here). The project included branding, packaging, web design, and illustration. Lots of illustration.

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When reflecting on my creative intake and output over the past year, they simply stand out: the three guys that cursed a lot but admittedly got me fired up creatively. Simple as that, but with warnings:

• You may have already happened across these.
• I don't agree with all that is being said.
• Explicatives fly. You may be offended. The cursing may make them more memorable than they actually are.
• I most assuredly did shed a tear over #2 (the part about the dad).
• #3 was posted at the end of 2008, but I didn't come across it until earlier this year.

#1: Now is the Time

#2: The Clackity Noise

#3: America Is F*****

Let us know if something has you passionate going into the new year.

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We are certainly at an interesting point in time with the web. There are new techniques being created every day, and as developers, we have the privilege of deciding how and when to use them. I'm the new guy at Viget (only been here a few weeks), and every company is different, so it is interesting adapting to Viget's standards. Some companies utilize progressive enhancement more than others, and I love that we utilize it when we can.

One big item for me is how much we use CSS3. Yes I know, it is not fully supported across all browsers. If you still want everything to look exactly the same across all browsers, you should probably just close this article and not read about CSS for another 10 years. A user is not going to pull up your site in two different browsers to compare the experience, so they won't even know what they are missing. Just because something is not fully supported, that does not mean that we can't use it to an extent. In this article I'll show you some practical uses for CSS3.

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I recently had a chance to implement a custom design for a Shopify storefront. This was my first time using the e-commerce site, but Shopify's known to be easy to customize and work with, so I was excited to dive in and take on the challenge. I was ready for Mount Everest or Iditarod levels of difficulty; Triathalon-hard at least. But luckily, Shopify makes customizing a shop's design very easy even for the less-than code savvy like myself, and its customizing tools make the process as painless as possible.

Continue reading "Conquering Shopify Design"

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Are you looking for that perfect gift for an artsy loved one? Or your brother in-law who wears skinny jeans and is always on his iPhone? Or maybe even your Grandmother who's looking to spice up her social life? Look no further. I've compiled a list of ten fabulous design related t-shirts that is so good it will make you want to sing the intro to the Lion King... TWICE.

Continue reading "10 T-Shirts You Want To Buy a Designer"

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