A new WordPress theme is currently in development for mode3media.net. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be working on some new designs for the blog. The new style will be more open, and is likely to include some rich illustrations for the header. I also intend to focus more on readability and managing focus on the page. Maybe some kind of Javascript gadget to control the sidebar and links content sections tool.

Keep an eye out!

Currently I’m working on a mobile version of my portfolio website, in my research into this increasingly popular format I’ve found a great resource, none other than the W3C Mobile Web Initiative. There you’ll find a great range of development tools to help you create a killer mobile website. The W3C mobileOK Checker is extremely useful for testing, giving your website a compatibility score out of 100.

My mobile portfolio is currently up to about 85% on most pages, have look on your smart phone and let me know how it looks!

http://www.mobile.isaacrankin.com

Here’s a great looking development framework for Flash. I haven’t tested it out yet but I intend to use on my current project and hopefully speed the development up somewhat.

http://www.gaiaflashframework.com/index.php

Also, check out this great introduction to Gaia on Adobe TV:

While reading an article in Web Designer Magazine I stumbled across this odd-ball website. Probably one of the strangest things I’ve seen online in a while and definately one of the ugliest things too.

Its worth a look so check it out:

Check out Android and Me for everything to do with the mobile OS.

I just installed a new WordPress plug-in to help with SEO for the site. I’m trying out Platinum SEO Pack; I’m liking the nice page titles. Last week I added the site to Google and installed Google analytics, now I just have to wait for Google to crawl my site, come on spiders!

Lately I’ve been working on a new portfolio website, I’m using Flash and AMFPHP for the actual portfolio section. Below are a couple of excellent video tutorials on how to use AMFPHP with your Flash project. It enables your SWF to communicate with a database, its really very simple and adds another dimension to working in Flash. Also, its apparently very fast too.

http://gotoandlearn.com/play.php?id=78

http://gotoandlearn.com/play.php?id=79

PS: If you haven’t been to gotoandlearn.com before, you can find dozens of excellent Flash video tutorials. Enjoy!

Here is an excellent introductory article about Flex: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/flex_php_architecture.html. It explains the structure of a Flex application and benefits of using this technology.

The authors website contains a great deal of information about Flex and Flash development. Check it out!

At the moment I’m in the middle of re-designing my portfolio site. As a part of my research I have naturally been scouting the web for great examples of digital portfolios, so here are a few I like:

www.ramasaxdesign.com

www.shaunutter.com

www.jaredigital.com

www.guitouxx.com

Or, visit www.foliostars.net for “A showcase of exquisite portfolios”.