CategoryFireworks

December 3, 2012 — Since the release of iPhone 4 and the iPad 3 (known as “The new iPad”), Apple has doubled the resolution of the displays, which are now 640 x 960 pixels (iPhone 4 and 4s), 1536 x 2048 pixels (iPad 3), and 640 x 1136 pixels (iPhone 5). Read more…

November 14, 2012 — When you’re working in Fireworks — be it for a website design, mobile design or graphic asset for a project — one need you will undoubtedly have is support for textures. In this article, we’ll look at the Texture Panel. Read more…

October 12, 2012 — While Fireworks can be a useful and powerful tool for any screen designer, several aspects of it make it really shine in an enterprise environment when used by both small and large design teams. What do I mean by “enterprise”? For the purpose of this article, enterprise can be defined as any environment where multiple designers, developers and other stakeholders collaborate on a project. Read more…

September 13, 2012 — A well-functioning pattern library is a beautiful thing. It is a powerful resource that you and your entire team can use to efficiently create consistent user experiences for your website or service. Read more…

August 28, 2012 — As a platform, Fireworks gives its users a lot of freedom, when it comes to extending it. Because of that, Fireworks has a thriving ecosystem of add-ons (extensions) that add a lot of valuable functionality with newer options. Read more…

July 20, 2012 — One of the visual effects that is a mainstay in my Web design toolkit is the letterpress effect. Used properly, it’s a quick way to make text blend better with the layout, as if it were machine-stamped onto the background. Think of what a home appliance marquee or a professional business card looks (and feels) like, and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Read more…

July 3, 2012 — As interface designers, we’re often required to demonstrate the look and feel (and interactions) of the interfaces we design. We often begin with a series of flat images, and while these may be pixel perfect and show some amazing detail, they lack the context of the user experience. Read more…

June 25, 2012 — Whilst designing for screens—including Web, mobile and RIAs—you often need to create a prototype to see whether the application works properly before moving onto the development stage. Prototypes are also essential in Web projects. Read more…

June 11, 2012 — Every designer has their own workflow when starting a new project, even if it’s only loosely defined in their head. A typical Web project goes through a variety of steps from inception to launch, with a lot of moving parts throughout the cycle. Read more…

May 25, 2012 — There is an aspect to Web design that no one likes to talk about: spec’ing. We all do it, we all hate it, but we also understand that specs are vital to both designers and developers. Read more…