Googles Hummingbird algorithm

Google's top 3 search ranking factors

Top 3 search ranking factors are:
Content, Links & Rankbrain

This is from 2 good articles from Search Engine Land
This one talks about Hummingbird and the highest factors for ranking.
http://searchengineland.com/now-know-googles-top-three-search-ranking-factors-245882?utm_source=marketo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_content=scap&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRonv6TOZKXonjHpfsX56eovXqeygYkz2EFye%2BLIHETpodcMTsBgMbnYDBceEJhqyQJxPr3CLtcNwMR4RhHmDA%3D%3D


This article goes into detail about Rankbrain and contains the SEO periodic table for ranking.
http://searchengineland.com/faq-all-about-the-new-google-rankbrain-algorithm-234440

If you do any kind of SEO I'd recommend you read both.

Podcasts For Web Designers Worth Listening - good ole Smashing Mag again!

As timely as ever Smashing Mag have just posted an article on Podcasts for Web Designers, and as my time is now more precious I think it appropriate to try some of these gems.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/05/14/useful-podcasts-for-designers-and-developers/

The Path to Performance, for example, is a podcast dedicated to fostering a culture around web performance in organizations. It often features interviews with people who have successfully integrated performance as part of their culture and the benefits they have seen.

Responsive Web Design Podcast is dedicated to responsive redesigns; Viewsources Podcast is dedicated to front-end development and design workflows and if you're looking for something slightly less technical, Unfinished Business, talks about pretty much everything web (and not web) related, hosted by Andrew Clarke.

All change

So its been a bit quiet on the blog side, job situation has been in turmoil for the past 18 months. I'm still t'internetting, but moved to client side (rather than agency). Now 3 months into a new role which I'm loving but as you all know corporate land has very little access outside of the LAN so I'm just starting to have a bit of time to stick my head out the window and smell what the world is doing again.

Top 10 online coding courses - Courtesy of Creative Bloq

Thanks to Creative Bloq - (copied and pasted for my reference)
http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/10-top-online-coding-courses-11513890

The internet is brimming with learning tools. Katie Kovalcin takes a look at the coolest code schools on the block.

There comes a point in everyone's life when it's time to take more control of your destiny. So, if you've built your own site using free WordPress themes or Drupal themes, you might be craving more control. It's time to take an online coding course, learn to code yourself and built your site, your way.
We have many accessible educational tools popping up that make learning new skills more straightforward. The daunting task is finding the one that is right for you and your learning style. I've tested and reviewed some of the most popular schools being talked on the web today, to give you a better understanding of the pros and cons of each.
Here's my list of the webs 10 best online coding courses.

01. Code School

Code School offers some free course and it's one of my favourites

Of all the tools I dug into, Code School was one of my favourites. Not only does the site look great, but it offers quality content and a great student experience. You can follow a 'path', which will guide you through a succession of different courses, or you can opt for a single course on its own. There are also 'electives' on offer – additional courses you can take to supplement your path.
The videos are quirky and fun in an 'after-school special' kind of way – which is a refreshing break from typically dry video tutorials. It's like watching Bill Nye explain it – which is to say, comforting. After watching a video, you work on your own tasks – relating back to the video if required. If you get really stuck (like I did) you can 'buy' answers with points you've earned from other classes.
Code School offers some courses for free, so you can try it out for size, or you can buy a monthly subscription for $29/month. If you're looking to splash a few bucks on a learning tool, I would recommend spending your money here.

02. Skillcrush

Skillcrush closely resembles learning in the classroom

Skillcrush is a unique online coding course, and the one that most closely resembles an actual curriculum in a classroom setting. Users can enrol in either a one-off three-week course, or a three-month 'blueprint' (a design- or development-focused path that takes the student through three courses that build on each other).
Once enrolled, students have access to not only a classroom setting chat forum with their fellow students, but also office hours and one- on-one time with their instructor.

03. Udacity

Udacity covers a huge array of technical subjects

Udacity offers robust guides to many different topics, with seriously advanced courses for everything from robotics to design theories in everyday life.
All courses are summarised before you even begin, outlining the difficulty level, why the course is important, any prerequisites for taking it, and the project you will complete at the end. This meant I could easily scan through and choose what suited me best.

04. Code Avengers

Code Avengers takes a simple step-by-step approach

Code Avengers walks you through each process in very simple, step-by-step instructions, starting with minor tasks, while you watch what happens in a mini phone simulator next to your editor. Tasks weren't so difficult that I felt the need to 'cheat', but they weren't so simple that I was just copying and pasting.

05. Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is very straight forward and offers quizzes too

What's interesting with Khan Academy is that you hear someone talking while they write the code, which feels natural, like you are sitting down with someone. The courses were straightforward, easy to follow and I could then transfer the concepts to the simple exercises.
Sometimes, there are mini-quizzes following a demo, which made me think about things conceptually and helped me understand what the code was doing a little better.

Pengin, Panda and Pirate - Great blog article about google's SEO algorithms

A really interesting article by Glen Gabe (twitter.com/glenngabe) on the Moz Blog about Google's SEO algorithms.

http://moz.com/blog/the-danger-of-crossing-algorithms-panda-update-during-penguin-3

re-post: 15 Web Apps That Top Web Designers Are Using

re-post from Design Mag, will be working my way through these...
http://designm.ag/design/15-web-apps-that-top-web-designers-are-using/
There's a great piece that DesignMag have just posted, really useful tools, most of which I haven't heard of to will be investigating further. I've just blatently copied the titles out with the links in so I have them for future reference...

Invoicing and Financial Apps

Nutcache

Pulse

Apptivo

Wireframing and prototyping tools

Proto.io

PowerMockup

Collaboration and project management tools

Freedcamp

Comindware Project

Time Management

Toggl

Timeneye

Email Marketing

Mailigen

Sendloop

Form builders

Gravity Forms

Typeform

File sharing

Onehub

SugarSync

Style Guides & Pattern Libraries

Just a collection of links and useful articles for creating style guides or as they are becoming more well known pattern libraries:

• http://alistapart.com/article/creating-style-guides 
• http://patterns.alistapart.com/  
• http://kaleistyleguide.com/  
• http://guidelines.usability.gov/  
• http://livingstyleguide.org/  
• http://rizzo.lonelyplanet.com/styleguide/ui-components/cards  
• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/09/13/create-pattern-library-with-evernote-fireworks/   
• http://ux.mailchimp.com/patterns  
• http://patternlab.io/ https://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/about/  
• http://responsivedesign.is/resources/frameworks/pattern-lab

Pre-loaders - ...loading

Great set of flat preloaders.
http://pixelbuddha.net/freebie/flat-preloaders

Fonts tool

I just seem to be posting all the great tools I've discovered recently, but this just means the blog is full of great reference material. No bad thing?
http://cssfontstack.com/

Responsive Social buttons

Great responsive social buttons from Kurt Noble Labs
http://kurtnoble.com/labs/rrssb/

CSS Magic

A fantastic site with loads of CSS magic explained really well, great job Adam Schwartz
http://adamschwartz.co/magic-of-css/

Responsive HTML email marketing - a great new tool from Zurb called Ink

The guys at Zurb have come up with a peachy little package called "Ink", for creating responsive HTML emails, ready for you to use with an Email Service Provider of your choice.

Its called INK  - http://zurb.com/ink/

Cracking!

20 useful resources for web designers, thanks to Inspirationfeed.com

Thanks to Inspiriationfeed.com
/http://inspirationfeed.com/freebies/20-fresh-tools-and-resources-for-web-designers/


I've just picked a few below that I will use:

Flat UI Colors

Flat UI Colors is a really simple tool. If you’re looking for a color to use for your design, check out their color palette to find one that suits you. To copy the color’s hex code, all you need to do is click on the color.
Website: Flatuicolors.com

Unheap

jQuery plugins can be really useful as they can add functionality to your site and don’t take a long time to implement. There are tons of jQuery plugins out there and it’s hard to keep track of them all. Unheap has a large selection of jQuery plugins to choose from. The website is neatly organized and categorized so you can find the perfect plugin.
Website: Unheap.com

PlaceIt

If you’re a web designer doing mockups, sometimes its helpful to have images of your website displaying on a device. It can be tricky to PhotoShop these images yourself and an even bigger pain to take these photos manually. PlaceIt allows you to add a screenshot of your website to an image with a device in it easily.
Website: Placeit.breezi.com

Mincss

It can be frustrating trying to figure out which parts of your CSS you’re actually using. If you’re not using it and don’t plan on using it, why keep it? Mincss removes the sections of your CSS that you never use.
Website: Peterbe.com/plog/mincss
As you can see, there are tools to help with every aspect of web design. You can use tools to choose colors, to get inspired, or even to clean up your code. Without a doubt you will save valuable time by using these tools, so give them a try!

Free Intranet Persona Template - (pdf format)

A really useful, free persona template. (PDF format)

A bit of background
We wanted to help our clients to create some excellent user experiences and engage with their staff on their new Interact intranet, so I set about putting a great staff persona template together.

Realised that it might be quite useful to share our template with you, so that you can benefit from creating brilliant personas too, which in turn will help you create great user experiences.

Download the Persona Template PDF

What is a persona?
Personas are realistic but fictional user profiles for an intranet or website. The profiles represent a broad range of needs of groups of users, in terms of their goals and personal characteristics. The personas act as ‘stand-ins’ for real users and help guide decisions about functionality and design.

Personas identify the user motivations, expectations and goals responsible for driving online behaviour, and bring the artificial users to life by giving them names, personalities and even a photo.

When specifying any structure, features, functionality or new processes every team member can use the personas to work out the advantages and disadvantages any new item will have on each user. This in turn naturally leads to better user interface design. With everyone using the same baseline, it makes planning more straight forward and efficient.

Although personas are fictitious, they are based on knowledge of real users. User research should be conducted to create each one, which ensures they represent end users rather than the opinion of the person writing the personas.

The persona template
I’ve made it simple for you, just print out the persona template and follow the light grey text for guidance. Overwrite the grey text with responses to the questions and you’ll end up with a great persona ready to use for your next planning meeting.

Use FitVids for video embedding

HTML5 Video Embedding

HTML5 has simplified video embedding, but designers still have two problems. The first is getting video to resize responsively, the second is to ensure resizing degrades gracefully for Flash when HTML5 embedding isn't supported. Enter FitVids, a jQuery plugin that takes care of all that for you.

Thanks to the guys at Creative Bloq -  http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/tips-812580

Special Characters

A great little site http://unicode-table.com/en/#control-character for all your unicode chrs.

Sugru - and magnets

Sugru

Amazing substance, just so many hacks already completed, and refreshingly easy to use.

Now with magnets!
http://sugru.com/magnet-kit?

Get some!

Digsby gmail notification fix

Get your notification of how many unread emails you have back into Digsby desktop app. This clever chap has sorted out a fix and it works well. I've installed it several times on different machines.
http://softconsultant.ro/2013/05/13/solution-for-digsby-gmail-notifications/
He has my respect and gratitude.

CSS3 code generator

This website provides a very simple and easy to use, incredibly valuable facility to show you how CSS3 elements can be created and all the code you need to make it work! Fab!

http://www.createcss3.com/

Handy random stuff generator

http://www.randomthing.me/
 Great little website for lists of random Names, Addresses, and / or Business names.