jQuery Air is a new way to learn jQuery directly in the browser. Learning jQuery for the first time should be fun, and jQuery Air allows you to get your feet wet in the most practical way possible.

You’ll watch five videos, each followed by code challenges where you’ll learn to code jQuery and apply principles directly in the browser.

The basic jQuery course is free however Code School offers advanced paid courses as well.

Today on September 23, 2011, as we are observing International Freelancers Day, Greepit! is sharing a few useful ideas for freelancers and solo professionals.

The inspiration for this pose came from observation that most of the freelancers (very talented and creative) tend to work as ‘invisible professionals’ who deliver a lot of superb work but forget to establish their own identity. Ideas shared in this post are for all those modest freelancers to help them grow professionally and established their identity as visionaries, entrepreneurs and creative individuals; not just as ghost developers.

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The biggest challenge for web marketers, brand managers and organizations targeting at more sales and brand loyalty via Web is engaging their website visitors. By engaging, we mean getting website visitors to spend time on the website and get involved in it. The ultimate purpose is, of course, conversion.

What most marketers and brand promoters miss is the fact that the goal should not be keeping website visitors (prospects) engaged with ‘cool’ graphics; the goal should be getting website visitors to involve, and understand the message, and become a customer. There is no denying that good a copy, decent color scheme and attractive graphics grab the attention of website visitors but what makes them stay or come back to the website is something else. ‘Something else’ – that creates the desire to know more about the brand or own the product.

This post is intended to give you an insight into ‘something else’ that works.

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appendTo was founded based on the growing need for quality jQuery training and support and this site was created specifically to fulfill that training need.

appendTo helps developers to learn jQuery and JavaScript and level up their jQuery and JavaScript skills with on demand, pragmatic training solution.

Learn at your own pace with on-demand content, you only need 10 minutes to catch a free screencast. Go interactive and write some code, review your progress and decide what to learn next.

Done with your latest and the greatest web design?

Do you know that a large number of people in your audience would not be able to view your design as you intended. Imagine how a person with vision deficiency (like color blindness) would experience your website. According to an estimate, among adult computer users of the USA alone, 1 user in 4 has vision difficulty, 1 has dexterity problem and 1 in 5 has hearing problem. By ignoring these users, we not only reduce the number of users but also limit the scope of our products.

Today’s post is all about designing accessible websites/ web applications. Accessibility is the measure of ease with which users with physical disabilities, say visual impairment, can use a product efficiently and perform the required tasks satisfactorily. In other words, accessibility means that every user in his own context can operate a system and get required output without any constraints.

Here, it is very important to understand that many end-users may be using the product in a context that is very different from the context in which it is designed. For example,

• The user may not be able to see, hear, move, or may not be able to process some types of information easily or at all.
• The user may have difficulty reading or comprehending text.
• The user may be colorblind.
• The user may not have or be unable to use a keyboard or mouse.

These and many other contexts should be taken care of when designing or developing a system. The following is a set of basic rules of accessibility that you should understand and comply with when designing websites or web applications.

Use Colors Wisely

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How do you advertise yourself as solo designer, small business or a freelance developer?

If you are relying on traditional methods like word of mouth, social networking, emails etc., simple mathematics will tell you that you are converting only a fraction of your audience into your customers. (Just compare your facebook fans or Twitter followers with the number of new customers).

Fortunately, there are a number of ways small businesses or solo professionals can advertise their products or services without having to hit their pockets – take the example of Quick Response (QR) Codes. Initially used in automobile manufacturing, QR codes are gaining popularity as an effective medium for advertisement and brand promotion.

Marketing yourself with QR codes is easy, quick and simple. All you have to do is create a free QR code and place it at all interesting places – elevators, bus stops, conferences, business cards, blogs, websites, avatars, display picture etc. Your audience would need a smart phone with a tiny QR reader application to read your message and trace back to your website.

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Recently, we have seen the entire landscape of web design transforming from traditional design and layouts to creative experiments in all directions. Most recent tends included rich imagery, table less layouts, interactive interfaces and extensive use of jQuery, CSS 3 and HTML 5 to minimize Photoshop and Flash.

For the rest of 2011, we can expect a number of new trends as basic requirements of good web designs.

Here is how Greep It! foresees the future of web design for the rest of 2011.

Touchable Designs

With rapid proliferation of iPad, tablet computers and touch screen phones, web designs are transforming rapidly to catch up with the new generation of mobile users. Web pages and applications, now, have to be ‘touch-enabled’.

You should design interfaces that render flawlessly on traditional PCs as well as on touch screens of multiple sizes and resolutions. On the same note, your applications and pages should load fast on mobile devices with lower bandwidth. Hence, web pages and applications have to be simple, fluid and lightweight.

Splash Pages

The trend of photographic splash pages would continue to grow for the rest of 2011. You can see a large number of one-page designs on WordPress and all other platforms on the web especially since the launch of services like about.me. You can expect more and more creative experiments with splash pages/one-page designs with a lot of imagery, portrait pictures and animated background.

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JavaScript Garden is an awesome and growing collection of JavaScript documentation about the most quirky parts of the JavaScript programming language.

It gives advice to avoid common mistakes, subtle bugs, as well as performance issues and bad practices that non-expert JavaScript programmers may encounter on their endeavours into the depths of the language.

Former knowledge of the language is strongly recommended in order to understand the topics covered in this guide. In order to learn the basics of the language, please head over to the excellent guide on the Mozilla Developer Network.

For any site, Search Engine ranking is an important aspect to get traffic. As a blogger, I can understand the worth of getting listed in first 10 results against a Google search.

There exists many strategies to improve website Search Engine Ranking (Create and join groups, join social sites like Facebook and Twitter, join forums, etc… ) but some are more appropriate to the design niche than others and Link Building is one of them.

What is Link Building?

Link Building is the process of creating inbound links to get more traffic; to improve your site’s ranking in Search Engines and to be popular. It is one of the best ways to make your site well-known. Link Building can be achieved by reciprocal links, being listed in design galleries, sponsoring a contest, etc.

Followings are very good strategies for getting inbound links.

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AddyOsmani has recently released a Free Ebook for JavaScript developers, titled Essential JavaScript & jQuery Design Patterns For Beginners.

Design patterns are reusable solutions to commonly occurring problems in software development and are a very useful tool to have at your disposal.

This Free Ebook is very helpful for those JavaScript developers who may not have had a chance to explore just yet.