Web Design Links


Web design is a very important aspect to becoming a successful architect, because the internet is a level playing field for all architects to communicate their ideas and display their work for the world to see.  Below you will find the best opensource webdesign tools that we have used for the development of the Critique This website.

  • Web Design

    • Adobe Browser Lab
      I cannot believe it took Adobe this long to develop a solution to the biggest nightmare for web designers. Adobe Browser Lab allows web designers to test their site in multiple browsers, which is not a new concept, but they do it better than anyone else.
    • bbPress
      A very fast and very free forum software solution. Works seamlessly with WordPress now. We have our site integrated with bbPress in the anticipation that we will need a forum down the road. Requires separate theming.
    • Bluehost
      Bluehost is a reliable web hosting provider that we have been using to host the Critique This website and other sites for the past two years. After you sign up for your initial domain, additional domains are only 9.95 a year.
    • Box
      Box is a great free way to host content for download on your website. Get up to 1GB of storage for free, and store files as large as 25MB. All of our files are hosted on the Box.
    • BrowsrCamp
      This tool allows you to test your website with Mac OS X browsers.
    • cforms II
      This is one of the ultimate must have plugins for anyone operating a Wordpress blog. This plugin is used for all forms and comment pages, creating a spam free and secure environment.
    • CSS Sprite Generator
      Free sprite generator. Sprites combine multiple smaller files into one large file. The advantage is that instead of transferring many files you transfer only one, and generally the larger file is smaller in size than many small ones.
    • Feed Validator
      This site verifies that your Atom, RSS and KML feeds are active and valid. A free service that only takes a couple of seconds to analyze your site.
    • Firebug
      If there is only one piece of software that you download for use in the development of your website it has to be Firebug. Firebug allows you to trouble shoot the code on your site with a GUI that is very easy to use and allows you to find bugs fast.
    • Free Favicon
      A free favicon generator. Favicons are the little icons that appear next to our site right after you bookmarked it.
    • IE NetRenderer
      Unfortunately there are some people that still use Internet Explorer, and even more unfortunate there are still people that use Windows OS. This emulator allows you to test how your site is rendered on the always unstable IE.
    • Page Speed
      Developed by Google, Page Speed is a lot like YSlow, but different. Not different better, but just different. If you use YSlow you should probably use Page Speed to verify that your site is running on all cylinders.
    • PHP
      The ultimate resource for the widely used general purpose scripting language, php. This is the language that makes all blogs possible. This is a good supplement to the Wordpress codex available on their site.
    • Screenium
      The best free video and audio screen capture software for Apple or Mac computers available. Easy to use with tons of original features not included in suites by its paid competitiors.
    • Site Meter
      DO NOT USE! I used to use Site Meter until I found out that they load cookies and spy ware onto your computer to track you and your visitor’s every move.
    • StatCounter
      StatCounter is a great free resource that allows you to track your visitor traffic, referrals and search engine exposure.
    • W3C Link Checker
      Link Checker looks for issues in links, anchors and referenced objects in a Web page, or recursively on a whole Web site. It is best to run this after using Valid (X)HTML Markup.
    • W3C Markup Validation Service
      The validator checks the markup validity of Web documents in HTML, SHTML, SMIL and everything else to varify that your code meets web standards. Generating valid html is important in order to get search engine bots to efficiently index your site.
    • WordPress
      Go here to download and install WordPress, the publishing platform that runs Critique This. WordPress is great because it combines ease of use with the ability to modify for any need, pluse there is a large community available for support.
    • YouTube
      YouTube is the best free option for hosting video content. Streaming video requires a lot of bandwidth and why waste valuable bandwidth when YouTube is giving it away for free, and your videos posted on YouTube gives you greater exposure.
    • YSlow
      This is an amazing piece of software which is a plugin for Firebug. YSlow allows you to run diagnostics on your site and track how fast your site is and determine how to best optimize your site performance.

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