In this post, I have collected 26 useful jQuery navigation menu tutorials. Enjoy!

Mega Drop Down Menus w/ CSS & jQuery

As a web designer/developer, I’ve found that there exist several common (if not nearly universal) truths when it comes to clients. One of these is that they love to talk about functionality. I have had several clients whose initial approach when they contact me is to provide me with a complete list of functionality – in other words, a listing of what they think that their website needs to do.

What I tend not to get quite so often is a description of what the purpose of the site is.

To my way of thinking, that is a problem. Recently, I wrote an article entitled “HTML (and CSS) do not a Website Make,” in which I discussed some of the things that I thought constituted a website. Obviously, part of the argument that I make is that a website is more than just its HTML and CSS, and one of the areas that I touch on is the notion of purpose. I think that some of what I wrote there has an important bearing on what I want to discuss in this article, so instead of rewriting it, I will simply quote my original words:

Every website should have a purpose. It may be to inform potential customers about your business (probably one of the most common types of websites). It may be to function as an informational resource. It may be to connect people with other people. It may be to showcase yourself, or even simply to entertain. Whatever the purpose is, it is ultimately the core of the site, the nucleus around which everything else that we have looked at so far is ultimately wrapped.

The purpose of a website is, in a very real sense, also its heart. It is the very reason for its existence. Every other element should be built, created and designed to support that purpose in some way. This of course, includes the basic (or advanced) functionality. In fact, I would even go far as to suggest that this relationship of support between functionality and purpose is actually more important than the actual design–which is not to say that the design is not important (because it most certainly is).

In this roundup we showcase the ultimate collection of bokeh textures. Enjoy!

12 Grungy Bokeh Textures

Thanks to smartphones, you no longer have to be sitting in front of your computer to upload, manage, publish and monitor your website. We’ve brought together a collection of applications for both iPhone and Android users.

WordPress

If you have a WordPress website, then you can manage comments, upload images, and write, publish and edit posts all from your phone. Both these apps are free and are offered by WordPress.org.

Left: WordPress for iOS. Right: WordPress for Android

Today, designers are faced with the incredible benefit of having an absolutely massive library of digital stock art that can be downloaded (either freely or for a fee) and incorporated into a design in a matter of minutes. Stock photography sites like iStock or Shutterstock provide photographs, videos and illustrations, while some really amazing companies out there are providing stunning stock vectors, like GoMedia’s renowned Arsenal or the various packs available from Designious.

Add sites like GraphicRiver, MediaLoot and hundreds and hundreds of others, and we have a virtually limitless supply of vectors, icons, brushes and other graphical resources right at our fingertips. This is, ultimately, an amazing privilege and an undoubtedly valuable resource.

But it’s not a substitute for good design.

In order to help promote themselves, many sites that are selling stock art of some description will partner with blog owners to sponsor giveaways, in which one or more lucky entrants will actually win licenses to download and use specific graphic files. This is an awesome way to get added exposure. I’ve run a few such giveaway over on the Echo Enduring Blog, and there have been some here on DesignM.ag in the past too.

The other day, however, I was pursuing some of the comments on one such giveaway, and I couldn’t help but notice (as I had on other such contests) that many of the entrants were suggesting that they would love to win this particular vector pack because they thought it would help them become a better designer. They may not have said so in those exact words, but that’s pretty much the sentiment that lurked beneath the surface of many of the comments.

In this roundup we have collected 500+ free smoke photoshop brushes and few photoshop tutorials of smoke effects. Enjoy!

Particle Smoke Photoshop Brushes(126)

Here are 43 free social media icon sets. Enjoy!

freebie 30 fresh social media icons

Twitter is most definitely one of the best forms of online marketing, and we all know it. It offers a way to mingle with your fans in short and sweet messages, as well as promote your sites content, your companies promotional deals or something completely different! For this reason, it is generally a good idea to have an account. But is Twitter for designers really a helpful resource that we need, or is it just another way to get distracted and find excuses to not do work?

Sometimes, when I’m brainstorming ideas about what to write an article about, I like to turn to Twitter and just ask my followers what they would be interested in reading about. I did that last week, and got a number of different answers. The one that really struck me the most came from Jason Gross, who suggested that I write “A post about giving your clients what they need, whether they ask for it or not”.

Actually, that’s something that I’ve been thinking about for a while, and probably something that a lot of designers struggle with – especially freelancers like myself, whose clients tend to come primarily from the world of small enterprise. When it comes to websites, for example, I’ve found that many of these clients are just looking to get a site up and running. They are either new businesses that are just launching, or sometimes established businesses that have not had a web presence, or who have a website that is clearly old and outdated (both in terms of content and design)

Check our giant collection of 2000 free photoshop brushes. If you like this post also consider these popular resources. Enjoy!

500 Watercolor Photoshop Brushes
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25 Ink Brushes