CSS Button Styler Preset Throwdown!

I won't name names :) , but some of you out there in our Beta Tester and WebAssist Community Expert groups have been a little less than enthusiastic regarding our WebAssist Design Presets (they're starting points, people!).

Well, some of our designers have in turn thrown down the gauntlet in response! They want to see YOU do better.

So here it is:

Create a new CSS Button Styler Preset that is the bee's knee's, the cat's meow, or just something you think is better than OUR presets and submit it to me via email:

jhood@webassist.com.

*Include a Preset name with your preset (how you would want it to appear if it was an option in the Preset list).

*Include 1 or 2 screenshots of your button (2 if there is a mouseover/hover state). These screenshots can be on any background of your choosing.

*Explain to the us why it is the best button preset ever.

On July 3rd, we will stop accepting submissions and I will consult with Ray, as well as a secret panel of judges, and we will select 1 preset to rule them all. That Preset will be included with CSS Button Styler at launch. The designer of that Preset will receive a free copy of CSS Button Styler at launch.

A few things to note:
The 'winner' will not receive any compensation beyond a free copy of CSS Button Styler Version 1.0.0.
We don't have to pick a winner if we decide not to.
We don't have to include the winner's preset in the product (though we'll still award the winner a free copy at release).
We can pick more than one winner.
We can refuse your preset name for any reason we choose (we'll ask you to pick another).
If your preset wasn't chosen, it doesn't mean it wasn't good. It simply means that we could only play so much Rock-Paper-Scissors on company time.

Good luck WCE and Beta Testers!

Oh geeze, I guess I opened my mouth too wide :-) Being a programmer, though, and not a graphic designer, I often can't come up with good designs myself, I guess I just know what I like if someone shows it to me. However, for me, its not so much that Im not overly thrilled with the current themes, I think its there are some common aspects that I dont care for, and am always editing the css after the fact.
I would probably lean tward more gradients and rounded corners, and less padding. One thing I always end up removing or reducing is what I consider is excess padding inside of all form elements, including buttons. This is a pretty minor inconvenience I guess though, and you should create styles that the majority of your users prefer.

One suggestion I might make though is how you skin your objects, and apply those skin styles.
Currently a login page created might have a form that starts like this

<div id="LogIn_Basic_Default_ProgressWrapper">
<form class="Basic_Default" id="LogIn_Basic_Default" name="LogIn_Basic_Default" method="post" action="">
<fieldset class="Basic_Default" id="Log_In">

In this case I chose the basic default skin.
Personally, long class names like this drive me nuts, and they make changing a skin later difficult.
I would prefer if you gave your classes and IDs more generic names like waProgressWrapper or an id like waLogin etc. Prefacing the class or ID with a brief 'wa' to differentialte it from similarly named generic classes we might already use.

You can then have your skins, or themes in different directories with master css files, and then you can just attach a different stylesheet to totally change a theme.
Or even have a master stylesheet, and then pull a theme into that stylesheet with @import.

Putting all of your extension includes in a single includes folder (or in your case webassist folder) was something I pushed for a couple years ago, and I am glad that has been implemented. It really helps tidy up a site.

Anyway, a little more that you probably wanted, but I wanted to express my opinion.

Thanks!
Tom

Originally Said By: AlaskaTom

  However, for me, its not so much that Im not overly thrilled with the current themes, I think its there are some common aspects that I dont care for, and am always editing the css after the fact.
I would probably lean tward more gradients and rounded corners, and less padding. One thing I always end up removing or reducing is what I consider is excess padding inside of all form elements, including buttons.  

You're right Tom, and we'd love to support any number of new buttons. However, these are the buttons that we've made available in a couple of our other applications and in the interest of consistency, we've made them available here. It really comes down to having to test each design in up to five browsers across platforms and the more we add, the harder Justin's job becomes...

Originally Said By: AlaskaTom

  One suggestion I might make though is how you skin your objects, and apply those skin styles.
Currently a login page created might have a form that starts like this

<div id="LogIn_Basic_Default_ProgressWrapper">
<form class="Basic_Default" id="LogIn_Basic_Default" name="LogIn_Basic_Default" method="post" action="">
<fieldset class="Basic_Default" id="Log_In">

In this case I chose the basic default skin.
Personally, long class names like this drive me nuts, and they make changing a skin later difficult.
I would prefer if you gave your classes and IDs more generic names like waProgressWrapper or an id like waLogin etc. Prefacing the class or ID with a brief 'wa' to differentialte it from similarly named generic classes we might already use.

You can then have your skins, or themes in different directories with master css files, and then you can just attach a different stylesheet to totally change a theme.
Or even have a master stylesheet, and then pull a theme into that stylesheet with @import.  

Again, you're right, but sadly, we also have to support people using more than one integration both in a single site or even a single page. It was my decision to go with the long names for differentiation purposes, allowing people to do multiple things on a single page without all kinds of stacked tag / class definitions. The longer and more precise the name, the less chance there is of overlap and the issues that may come of it not only within a product like CSS Button Styler, but when our products team up together as well.

Originally Said By: AlaskaTom

  Anyway, a little more that you probably wanted, but I wanted to express my opinion.  

Nonesense! It was exactly the right amount and your points were very valid. We definitely appreciate your opinion. :)

Best,
Dave Hoffman
Senior Engineer

Zero button preset submissions so far. :(
The good news is that almost any submission that comes in could win a free copy of CSS Button Styler at this point...

Let's see some buttons!

OK, well I'll start it off then.
Northern Lights
Living in Alaska and all, it seemed appropriate, and its a button style I made for a site Im currently working on.

Here is the CSS

.northernLights {
background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #83B97D, #1E293F);
background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #83B97D, #1E293F);
background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(#83B97D, #1E293F);
background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear,left top, left bottom, color-stop(0, #83B97D), color-stop(1, #1E293F));
background-image: linear-gradient(top, #83B97D, #1E293F);

filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Gradient(StartColorStr='#83B97D', EndColorStr='#1E293F', GradientType=0);
color: #FFFFFF;
font-weight: bold;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
border-radius: 5px;
border: 1px solid #FFFFFF;
padding: 5px;
cursor: pointer;
}
.northernLights:hover {
border: 2px solid #FFFFFF;
padding: 4px;
}

The screen shot is the up state., on a dark background. On over , the border just gets a little bigger.

Anyway, I dont know about the 'best button ever' But it is a nice looking button that fits very well in this site, and just changing the start and end colors of the gradient could make it work in a lot of situations.

Thanks!
Tom

I know we have passed the date, but will have a go at submitting something soon - I've not been about to see this...

Here is a go from me...

Normal state on the left, Hover over on the right...

You can see them here.. css_buttons.php

An Apple type button...

Although I'm still not 100% with the colours...

Added this one to css_buttons.php

Adobe/iphone type button

Unfortunately, you have to have a different transparent overlay to add text to the button...

Thank you for the submissions, Daryl and Tom.

Unfortunately, Tom is the only one to get a submission in on or before July 3rd. So, congrats, Tom. Northern Lights will be in the CSS Button Styler at launch and you'll be receiving a free copy at launch.

Perhaps we should have a running thread in the CSS Button Styler forum after launch for everyone to submit and exchange button designs?