The sudden and great fall of Flash from the favor of its loyal fans may go down to the history of the website design and development as an enjoyable and interesting piece of documentary. But on the flip side, website designers and developers around the world are keeping their fingers crossed since Flash gallery is about get sidelined by JQuery Gallery thanks to the imminent arrival of HTML which is already making a loud knock at the doors. Over the last few years or so, image gallery or more specifically, flash gallery had been a rage among website designers since it is highly interesting, engaging and alluring as far as its overall appearance is concerned. But then comes HTML5 which turned turtle this tradition and people start favoring JQuery Gallery over flash Gallery since JQuery does not make a website heavy.

Now if you want to migrate from Flash gallery to JQuery gallery like all others, you will certainly need some JQuery plugins that can facilitate your tasks to a great extent. Here in this article, we are going to share some of the best and finest JQuery plugins that you will definitely love to have in your kitty:

Supersized –jQuery Plugin
This is probably the most powerful, creative and versatile jQuery plugin that will definitely make you say wow. It is the first ever-full screen image gallery that comes with a number of amazing features that you will definitely like to explore. Its transition effects are sensationally unique and its powerful controls are something to take note of. What is all the more amazing about Supersized is that it looks more or less like a desktop application. Here are some of its awe-inspiring features:

• Forward/back and pause/play navigation options.
• Endless options.
• Cycles Images/backgrounds via slideshow with preloading and transition.
• Image dimension ratio can be maintained while resizing images to fill the browser.

Galleriffic jQuery Plugin

This sleek and trendy plugin is extremely simple to implement and use. It looks great and it is extremely featured rich. Lets check out some of its unique features:

• Pagination with thumbnail navigation.
• Configuration is highly flexible.
• There is option that allows support for image captions.
• Slideshow gallery comes with an auto-updating URL bookmarks.
• If JavaScript is not available, degradation is possible.
• Bookmark-friendly URLs per-image
• Smart image preloading option.
• Support for multiple galleries per page.

Galleria jQuery Plugin
This is an image gallery that is written in jQuery. Images get loaded one by one and the thumbnails are loaded once each image is loaded. It is a supercool plugin that reduce your work pressure to some extent. Here are some of its salient features:

• It is extremely lightweight.
• Lightening fast image browsing
• Thumbnails can be cropped and scaled to proper structure.
• History object can be adjusted easily besides enabling the back button of the browser.
• Images behavior onLoad can be modified accordingly.

Zoomimage – jQuery plugin
This plugin is fabulous and innovative enough to give your image gallery a grand new look. It is extremely simple to use and implement. Inpage popup option is available with this plugin.

Like every creative sphere, website design industry is too fraught with limitations both in terms of creativity and in terms of professionalism. As a designer, you know how frustrating limitations can be. Limitations in web design can have crippling effects on your creative impulse that can maim you from designing an esthetically pleasing website. There are limitations over screen resolutions, users interface and browsing platforms and many more that force you keep your creative impulse in check while designing and developing a website.

Limitations are All Over: Limitations are not bad all the time. They guide us what to do and what not to do, and thus make us aware of the possible negative outcome of following a non-standard method while developing or designing a website. For example, is you are using large background images as opposed to gradients for adding a creative touch in your website, you are driving it to the brink of being becoming invisible to most of the search engines since search engines abhor low loading websites.

Here in this article, we are going to cover some restrictions that we strongly believe to have positive impacts to express ourselves in a better way. It may sound oxymoronic but this is the truth:

Freedom is not a good thing: Well, this may sound a bit wacky but the fact is that if there is no restriction, things can go haywire and turns things utterly ridiculous and crazy. The same goes true with the basic website design principles. If you do not abide by these rules, you are certainly going to face the music. You might have to face a barrage of problems with the funky structure of the website, even you might find it overwhelmingly difficult to tame CSS etc. The same thing happen with flash based website if you make it extremely heavy loads of animation.

Limitations Over Color: – If you want to be a professional website designer, you need to limit your color palate as it is highly important for designing an aesthetically pleasing website. You might find your calling in bright colors but you should not ignore the fact that bright colors are a big turn off for most of the visitors. What visitors look for is an ideal atmosphere and not something glossy that can dazzle their eyes. So, you need to apply colors judiciously to ensure a better browsing experience.

Topographical Limitations: – Web topography is something that can make or break the fate of a website. Since most of us are accustomed with standard web topography, we find it hard to go through a website where the structure is turned upside down. Unless your approach is exceptionally good and impressive, visitors are mostly likely to bounce back from your website once they bump on it.

Minimalism: Minimalism is a new trend in website design industry where the force is on applying an extra layer of limitations in website design voluntarily by using simple structure and by shunning complexity and redundancy as far as possible.

You can be a die-hard blogger but that does not necessarily mean that your blog will be flooded with visitors who will keep visiting your blog for finding interesting information for time and again. No, it is not that easy. Your blog needs to acquire a distinct identity otherwise, it will likely to get sidelined by other blogs who are into the same field. Therefore, it is quite clear that you need to make your weblog look interesting and elegant if you wish to create a niche for your blog. Now, you do not need to spend sleepless night for giving your website design blog a different look. Here we have compiled a list of common tips that can help you to cruise though some common problems:

Keep It Simple: Making a website or a blog overtly complex is certainly not an ideal option. You need to work hard to make your website look simple yet elegant. You should never try to experiment with the navigation systems of your website since it can have serious backlash later on. Try to keep the overall structure of your website as simple and as straightforward as possible.

Keep The Content Clear: Do not use any fancy fonts just for sake of giving it a visual twist. Try to use web safe fonts since people will come to your website for gathering information. The information has to be presented in an organized way. The bottom line is that texts should be good to read at otherwise, your visitors are likely to bounce back anytime soon.

Try a Different Color Scheme: – Color scheme of your blog needs to be pleasing to the eyes and therefore, you need to give it an aesthetic touch. Use of bright colors is a big turnoff for most of the visitors and therefore, you should try to use a sober color combination that will encourage visitors to spend more time on your blog. However, if you are not sure about the color scheme, you can try some other options.

Use White Space Judiciously: – White space in a website plays an all-important role by shifting the attention of the visitors to some other important elements and therefore, you need to be a little careful while using white space in your website.

Feature Images: This is probably the most vital thing that you should not overlook. Texts, no matter how well written it is, are bound to make people bored unless you are using it with some relevant images. Images are like sauce to a curry; they give a post an interesting twist that can go long way to keep the readers engaged for a long time.

About us page is the most important yet the most overlooked page in website design industry. But it serves a vital purpose. It informs the readers who you are, what are your achievements and most importantly how you are going to serve them. So, basically it is like an open page where you describe about your company in true words and the main purpose is to win their trust and nothing else. Now, people do not have enough time go through your life history to garner information about you company. What they are looking for is information that is presented in a perfect structure and in a well-organized way. About Us page of your website needs similar level of attention and care if you want to reap long term benefits.

Treat It As An Asset: – About Us page has to be treated as an asset and not an appendage. What most website designers do is to design an elegant structure for the home page but they scribbled away the about page with some rudimentary details about themselves. They do not care much about the structure of the about us page and tend to give it some hasty brush strokes and therefore the outcome is quite apprehensible. But if you want to make your About Us page something different this time around, here are some unique About Us page design samples that are good enough to inspire you.

Make It Look Unique: – You can make your About Page a little bit different from the rest of the others by taking a sudden break from the rational and traditional route. Try to do something different this time around with your About Us page. It may appear wacky but remember one thing, people do appreciate wacky ideas since they lead to innovation.

Take this about us page for example:

The idea is really funny and innovative and the message is quite clear.

Use of Big Photograph: – Small is beautiful but big is always the best. If you believe in this philosophy, this option is for you. The idea is quite simple and straight cut. You just have to larger then life size image in about us or about me section of your website and there you go. However, you should not make it look like a large passport sized photograph. Just make it look interesting and nothing else.

Just take a look at this about us page. It looks ultra cool and funky. The approach is certainly different but the image is large enough to ignore.

Give it An Organized Look: – Use of huge information can cause a disaster since the page can cave in anytime given the massive weight of texts and other graphical elements. This is a good approach for corporate website since people would like to see everything featured in a neat and clean structure.

Make It Your Home Page: This option is not for the faint-hearted. If you are sure about yourself and if you have an impressive online presence, featuring About Me section in the home page of your website can give it a dramatic twist. It is good option for personal website but this trend is now gaining currency in other sphere.

You may or may not like it but there is no escape from the fact that HTML5 is here to stay. Either, you have to develop your website design and development skills or you may find your skills not good enough for meeting the complex requirements of your clients. As HTML5 is slowing making an inroad and setting a new web standard, it is becoming a concern for website owners since it is becoming imperative for them to change the structure of their sites if they do not want to get tagged as obsolete as far as the web standard is concerned. Inline semantic tags, API specs, new semantic structural tags etc are some of the innovative and groundbreaking features of HTML5 that can give transformational touch to a website. Moreover, it can make a website load faster than ever.

These and other revolutionary features of HTML5 have made it almost a bare necessity for website designers to learn all its aspects by their heart. However, the problem is that, there are not many good HTML5 tutorials available online. Good resources are hard to come by and even if you can manage to find them, you might find them mindless repetition of the same idea. Being aware of this issue, here we have compiled a list of HTML5 tutorials that you may find highly interesting and truly helpful.

HTML5 Tutorial: – Here you are likely to get a daily dose of HTML5 tutorials in an all-new and interesting format that you will certainly like to explore. Besides publishing HTML5 tutorials, it also publishes HTML5 references and HTML 5 examples for the benefits of its visitors. In short, here you can get all the latest updates on HTML5 tutorials for honing your HTML5 skills.

W3schools: – If you are into website design and development, you are certainly familiar with the name “W3schools”. It is fabulous and probably the most authentic website where you can get genuine information on HTML5. It has incorporated a vast collection of step-by-step tutorials that are enriched with ample examples.

Trust IBM: This is probably the Holy Grail of HTML5 tutorial. This tutorial is from none other than IBM and here in this ebook (ibm.com/developerworks/web/tutorials/wa-html5/wa-html5-pdf.pdf), you will learn how to develop a website in HTML5 from the expert author: Joe Lennon. By going through this ebook, you will able to utilize the advantages of HTML5.

HTML5 Trend: – This is the best platform for keeping yourself updated with the latest HTML5 trends that are doing the round. You need to visit this website on regular basis, if you want to keep yourself updated with all that happening around you.

Start Coding With Smashing Magazine:- This is a step by step guideline for all those who are finding it hard to get the hang on HTML5. Since it is featured on Smashing Magazine, you can put your trust on it without showing any signs of hesitations.

Lets face it. Flash sites are heavy and they take time to load all its content that may include sound, animation, text, video and so on and that simply means, it requires a good deal of patience from the viewers. However, it is your moral responsibility to inform the visitors how much time is actually left to get the website design components loaded completely. Previously, website designers usually feature a clock or something of that kind to inform the readers but time has changed and so are the visitors. Visitors are no longer interested in watching a watch clicking. They are now looking for something more interesting and engaging. And the only way, you will be able to make intro of your website interesting is by adding a fascinating flash preloaders that are powerful enough to give your flash site a facelift.

Do They Serve Any Purpose: Yes of course. Besides adding a startling visual twist to your flash website, they serve an aesthetic purpose. If you can make it look interesting, it quells the urge of closing the window and this is exactly what you need the most. Use of growing bar, percentage value or incrementing counters are passé. You need to make it look different so that viewers do not lose their focus while your site is getting loaded in the background. A boring look of flash preloader can serve as a deathbed to your marketing campaign.

Now, if you are running short of creative ideas, just check out some of the best flash preloaders to get some creative nourishment:

Water Filling Flash Preloader: – The approach is mind blowing. Though the concept though not novel, it is still good enough to keep the viewers engaged by creating a suspense. The structure of the design is something to take note of.

A Smooth Flash Preloader: This flash preloader is mainly aimed at its consumers who are looking forward to healthily nutritious collections of smoothies. This flash preloader goes perfectly with the theme and the animation is good enough for retaining the interest of the viewers.

Flash Preloader With Numbers: – This preloader is starkly different from the rest of other of its clan since its numbers do not give any ideal of the loading time but the animation is dame good to keep you hooked on to it until the very end. The cleaver use of numbers is the in thing of this animation that you can hardly ignore.

Flash Preloader With A Smile: – Say hello to happiness with this amazingly designed flash preloader that will certainly give enough reasons to smile. Though it takes time, it really worth it. It does not have any grand animation and it mainly rides on its simple message and interface which is a good riddance from the others clumsy and over-crowded flash preloaders.

Simplicity At Its Best: This is what you may term as super simple. However, we found it too simple to keep the attention of the viewers for a long. We believe that this flash preloader is seriously lacking a creative touch.

CSS is a remarkable language that gives website designers unlimited scope to modify a large number of pages instantly without opening and editing them manually. However, despite having a series of mind-blowing features, it has some serious shortcomings that can drive a website designer literary crazy. Now, if you are finding it difficult to manage with these shortcomings, here are some CSS preprocessors that are powerful enough to parse the variables of CSS into regular style sheets. Here in this article, we have included a long list of some of the most efficient and powerful CSS preprocessors that you can give you enough opportunity to speed up the development time. So, just start exploring it:

Sass: – CSS is really a fun if we go by the philosophy of Sass. This particular CSS preprocessor allows the use of variables and offer a simplified syntax that can prove highly effective. A truly amazing experience is waiting for you and all you have to do is to explore it at its earliest. Though it is a great tool for both the website designers and developers, it is only available for Ruby.

Turbine: – If you are hardcore PHP lover, here is something that you will certainly like to have. Turbine can help you reduce time of the project as it allows minimal usage of syntax, multiple CSS, cross-browser compatible, automatically gzip and many more. So, if you are into PHP here is something for you that you should keep in your exclusive collection.

Less CSS: – It is probably the best and the most effective CSS preprocessor that offers a simplified syntax and variables can be used with it. It is ideal for Ruby but if you are muddling with a PHP project, you can still try out this one.

CSS PP: -It is still in the development stage but the developers believe that it can get released soon. The most interesting aspect of CSS PP is that it is likely to be available for Ruby, Python and PHP. So, if you are making experiments with all these three powerful languages, this news is certainly going to cheer you up.

Switch CSS: – It is a highly powerful and feature rich CSS preprocessor that can prove highly effective while working with Apache and other similar applications.

DT CSS: – DtCSS is another popular CSS preprocessor that is widely employed for speeding up CSS coding by extending some of the common features of CSS such as color mixing, nested selector etc. DtCSS is good for reading CSS file and it gives standard CSS outputs. If this is not enough, here is something more. It is offering a smart caching system that can come in handy while continuing your tryst with a website design and development project.

CSS Cacheer: – It is another CSS preprocessor that can be utilized for creating plugins. To make it work, you need to have PHP and Apache with mod_rewrite and mod_deflate.

Use of texture in modern website design industry has become a common practice among seasoned website designers since it gives ample scope to them to try their designing skills and to explore new avenues. One of the main reasons of its immense popularity is its immense versatility that will give you an opportunity to unfurl your creative wings. What is all the more interesting about textures is that they can be used in countless different ways and that means, you will be able to give each single design a different style altogether without getting overtly repetitive.

Importance of Texture: – As texture is highly versatile in nature, you can utilize its power to give your design a different twist. It can be subtle or can be made prominent by cleverly positioning its elements in the final structure. Moreover, it can be used with some other designing elements such as colors, lights and topography without making the design look clumsy or ungainly.

How To Apply Texture to Your Design: – There are a number of ways to apply texture to your design. However, each different technique comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages that you should not ignore blatantly. Here we are going to discuss some of the popular methods of designing a texture for your upcoming website design project:

Creation From The Scratch: If you have a passion for creativity, just start off your project with your old and trusted friend – Photoshop. It has all the ingredients to create a perfect cocktail for a mind-blowing texture and all you need to do is to master the art. Of course, you are not going to create a masterpiece at the first attempt. This is simply not feasible but if you strive hard for a long time, you will definitely be able to make a difference in this regard. If you are newbie and finding it hard to overcome the teething problems, you can check some cool tutorials that are easily available over Internet.

Use of Free Stock Images: – If you are not comfortable with the above-mentioned option, you can try this one. All you have to do is to find out a fabulous image from a stock image website and then add some layer effects on it to give it a different look. Thankfully, there is no dearth of stock images if you are willing to spend some extra bucks for that.

Scan Texture: – This is the most innovative kind of technique that you will certainly like to explore. It is more or less similar to that of designing your own images right from the scratch. Here you have to scan something; it can be a piece of wood or something else and then you can make some modification in by using tools of Photoshop.

Try Photoshop brushes: – Textures can be created easily if you have a certain level of authority over Photoshop. All you need to do is download some free Photoshop brushes that are easily available and try out some brushstrokes and we are sure that you will able to explore a different streak of your character sooner or later.