Web Developer Blog

jQuery Cycle Plugin is a lightweight jQuery plugin which offers an easy way to create a slideshow of images for your website.

The plugin provides a bunch of different effects for cycling between each slide, from a simple fade to the more elaborate ’shuffle effect’, you can choose to cycle through each slide on a time delay or for it to be initiated by the user through a click.

The jquery Cycle Plugin does not only cycle through images but it can also cycle through <divs> which can contain text and images, allowing for more freedom of what goes into each slide of the slideshow.

I prefer the fading option and mainly use it for small advertisements on a page or sometimes as the main focus of a website (such as small accommodation sites). The effect is not as clean or visually sharp as a flash movie but it takes a lot less time to implement and does not require flash, therefore it will display in android devices and on the iPhone with no problems.

Implementing the code is easy, list the images inside a <div> and then specify the plugin to cycle through that <div> by using the small piece of code provided on the jQuery Cycle Plugin website.

jQuery Cycle is easy to set up, run and configure, while the end result can help give a website that extra feel of professionalism. I am a big fan of the jQuery Cyle plugin and have used it in quite a few websites to great effect.

Download jQuery Cycle Plugin at:

jQueryCycle

The video below shows a conversation between a graphic designer and a client, if you are a web designer or developer you may find this type of conversation strangely familiar, very funny and often true. The video does contain strong language.

The video is an advertisement for a company named Xtranormal and shows-off their text-to-movie making process. Xtranormal’s philosophy is “If you can type, you can make movies”. The idea being that anyone can type in something (such as a short script) and Xtranormal will make your text into a movie, simple (well actually quite clever).

You can find out more about Xtranormal and their text-to-movies at:

http://www.xtranormal.com/

HautStyle is a blog created by a very talented graphic and web designer friend of mine Christophe Duhaut. HautStyle is a journal showcasing artistic creations from all over the world purely for your inspiration.

A very wide range of artistic design topics are included such as digital art, hand drawings, paintings, street art, multimedia and anything artistic from upcoming and well-established names in the design world. If you get your work showcased on this blog, you have done very well for yourself.

The site itself is well designed (I especially like the repeated background using the HautStyle logo) and optimised for search engines, posts are added almost daily with 4-6 new and original posts per week as well as the author offering up their own graphic wallpaper designs for free download every month.

HautStyle has quickly built up a very large base of followers in the design community (I’ve seen the number of subscribers) and has a large catalogue of posts and content for you to browse through. If you are looking for quality and truly unique design inspiration that is not repeated over and over on other design blogs, have a look at HautStyle.

You can view HautStyle at:

http://www.hautstyle.co.uk/