Back in August I wrote an article about My Top 10 People to Follow on Twitter and I’ve decided to expand on that and narrow the field down my Top 10 people to follow in the design and web industry. This list includes designers, developers, social media folk and much more, it’s list of people that I draw inspiration and learn from on a daily basis.

I use Twitter not only as a social communications tool but also as a resource for learning more about the industry and with the amount of people posting on it, it’s very easy to keep up with the latest trends and learn new techniques. So, without much more rambling, here is my list (in no particular order).

Naldz Graphics / Ronald Bien

URL: http://www.twitter.com/naldzgraphics
Why: Naldz Graphics is a design blog for designers and design lovers. They showcase the best tutorials, freebies, inspirations and other useful and informative resources to help and give love to design community.

Smashing Magazine

URL: http://www.twitter.com/smashingmag
Why: Smashing Magazine is an amazing source for design techniques, inspiration and new lines of code. They’re always updating their Twitter with not only site updates but also useful posts from around the web. Following them has helped me improve my design skill and coding ability a lot.

Site Point

URL: http://www.twitter.com/sitepointdotcom
Why: The official Twitter for Site Point, they generally keep users updated with what’s going on on their own site, not that that’s a bad thing. Site Point is a fantastic resource for designers, developers and anyone in the industry.

Unmarketing / Scott Stratten

URL: http://www.twitter.com/unmarketing
Why: Unmarketing is the Twitter account for Toronto based marketing and social media guru Scott Stratten. Scott is always giving great advice on new social media trends.

Orange Sprocket / Bill McGrath

URL: http://www.twitter.com/orangesprocket
Why: Bill McGrath, the CEO of Orange Sprocket, is a social media addict. Being very into tech and web trends, Bill is always updating his Twitter account with industry news. Following him on Twitter has helped me keep up to date with a lot of new things in the industry.

Carter McLaughlin

URL: http://www.twitter.com/carter_vagrant
Why: The personal Twitter account of Vagrant Web Services owner/operator Carter McLaughlin. Like Bill McGrath, he’s always updating his Twitter with industry news. Following him has been a great way to improve my knowledge and skills.

LogoMotives / Jeff Fisher

URL: http://www.twitter.com/logomotives
Why: LogoMotives is the Twitter account for Portland, Oregon based designer and author Jeff Fisher. Jeff’s creations have been an inspiration for me since I started following him on Twitter and watching what he does has definitely helped me improve with my logo design.

Mashable / Pete Cashmore

URL: http://www.twitter.com/mashable
Why: Mashable’s CEO Pete Cashmore is a social media/networking guru. Following him as helped me improve my knowledge of the industry(?) ten fold. With over 1.3 million followers, the guy definitely knows what he’s talking about. If you want to learn anything about Twitter and/or social media, this is the guy to follow.

Colorburned / Grant Friedman

URL: http://www.twitter.com/colorburned
Why: Colorburned is the Twitter home of the website of the same name as well as owner/creator Grant Friedman. Colorburned is a great design resource featuring tips, tricks and tutorials. If you want to learn any of the new design techniques floating around the web, chances are that these guys can help. Check them out.

Radian6

URL: http://www.twitter.com/radian6
Why: Founded in 2006, Radian6 was created with the idea that companies need to be listening to the social web in order to effectively participate. Intelligence about online conversations is critical: companies need to know what’s being said about their brand, industry, and competitors online. So, they built a listening platform designed to help companies do just that.

Oh, and don’t forget to follow me @ http://www.twitter.com/robbclarke.

Did I miss anyone? Thoughts? Feedback?

Sick and tired of boring old underlines to show that a bit of text is a link? Here’s a really quick bit of CSS to show a dotted underline on your links (like this).

It’s so easy to do this that it hurts. We’re just swapping the underline for a border.

Dotted Underline on Hover Only

a:link, a:visited {
text-decoration: none; }
a:hover {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #000; }

What this does is remove the underline from the text so that when it’s not being hovered over there’s no underline. On hover, the dotted border appears.

Dotted Underline At All Times

a:link, a:visited {
text-decoration: none;
border-bottom: 1px dotted #000; }

This removes the underline and replaces it with the dotted border at all times.

Obviously a dotted border isn’t the only option out there. Play around with the other options and see what looks good and fits your site the best. Here’s the list of all of the types of borders that you can do.

CSS Border Types

p.solid {border-style: solid; }
p.double {border-style: double; }
p.groove {border-style: groove; }
p.dotted {border-style: dotted; }
p.dashed {border-style: dashed; }
p.inset {border-style: inset; }
p.outset {border-style: outset; }
p.ridge {border-style: ridge; }
p.hidden {border-style: hidden; }

Having to know numerous languages isn’t anything new to website developers so it’s no wonder that bits of code get forgotten about or just plain over looked. I recently came across a handful of pretty useful tags that I wanted to share.

#1 <acronym>

The <acronym> tag is fantastic if you want to define an acronym displayed on your website but don’t want to have it displayed in the content. Simply wrap your acronym in this tag and when hovered over it will display the definition (provided you fill it in).

<acronym title="Search Engine Optimization">SEO</acronym> is essential for building a "findable" website.

Demo
SEO is essential for building a “findable” website.

#2 <abbr>

On a related note, <abbr> is great for displaying the definition of abbreviations that you may be using in the content of your site.

<abbr title="Mister">Mr.</abbr> Robb Clarke

Demo
Mr. Robb Clarke

#3 <wbr>

Ever had a long word hyphenated in a really awkward spot when you view your content? The <wbr> tag solves that problem by allowing you to dictate where the line break, if needed, will happen in that word.

antidisestablishmentarianism

Demo
antidisestablishmentarianism

#4 <ins> and <del>

If you ever need to display editing corrections in your content, the <ins> and <del> are the perfect solution for that. The <ins> tag underlines the word(s) that you wish to insert into the text whereas the <del> strikes through the word(s) that you have deleted/changes. Just wrap the word(s) that you want to add/remove in the appropriate tags.

District 9 was a <del>horrible</del> <ins>great</ins> movie.

Demo
District 9 was a horrible great movie.

None of these tags are going to change the way that you code sites or revolutionize the world of website design but they’re neat little tricks to add and display more information on your website.

Were these useful? Let me know.