Ajax

That's according to the Speakeasy test. 8mb speed..that connection must be so fast you don't notice images loading anymore. they just appear instantly. lol

Yeah, the image is a bit small... Anyway, from what I can see of your design (which is very little lol), the colours look pretty good. I'm looking forward to seeing more of it. *hint hint*

Eskymo, you do have a great style. I'm more of a coder than I am a designer. When I do design sites, I try to go for visually appealing sites that aren't wrought with too many graphics; I like simplicity, but with elegance, best. I also try to make sure the site is easy to follow with the eyes of the visitor.

I redesigned my personal sites a month or so ago. The current layout for my portfolio can be seen here, and the current layout for my personal blogsite is here.

Oh lord; I feel like I'm repeating myself, but I'm not French. That's just how I introduce myself in the cyberworld. Anyway, I can't really claim to be a professional in the web designing trade at all; I learned everything by reading tutorials and my own little projects with XHTML/CSS and the like. Web designing/coding is something I do more as a hobby. This "hobby" of mine has lasted 4 years now. I'm a fan of AJAX, can you tell? haha My name, interestingly enough, is also Ally, although I'm not quite the same Ally that posted a thread three topics before this one. lol I was wondering why the forum wouldn't let me use "Ally" as my display name. My expertise is mainly on WordPress themes and how to port them, or so I like to think. What can I say? It's an excellent publishing tool. Also, like every wannabee designer/coder out there, I have my own portfolio. I'm too embarassed to show a link at the moment as it still needs work (and an actual domain, but we'll get to that later on). I'll stop blabbering on now...

To go about planning a layout, I just make a simple pen and paper-type sketch as a first step and analyse how the content should flow as I sketch. Then I become more detailed as to how things should align and use graph paper (which is REALLY helpful) and a ruler. Then, I use Photoshop to create a simple layout with coloured boxes that contrast a bit. It's only as a set of final steps do I actually go and create all the nice little effects (gradients, etc.) that go into website design. I value the way things are aligned and placed over aesthetics sometimes...or perhaps both to a certain degree.