designm.ag - Archives (juin 2013)
Back just a few years ago it was required for web developers use JavaScript/jQuery to perform animated effects in-browser. CSS3 has dramatic
People have the tendency to get things stuck in their heads. Mostly things that they like but can’t find the second time. It’s that cool tune you heard on the radio while driving but it didn’t say what it is called, it’s that cool pair of sneakers that someone has but you don’t know from where he bought it from, it’s that awesome font you found the other days while surfing the web and really want to use it in your next project but there isn’t anyone who can tell you what it is. Well, designers, I have good news for you, unfortunately I can’t help those of you out there still searching for the song they heard on prom night when they almost kissed their high school sweetheart. Your search for recognizing fonts that are stuck to your retina and won’t go away is over because of Whatfontis.com, an website that can basically identify every font that’s out there, with the exception of custom made fonts. This website is a free and easy to use font identifier that allows you in just 3 steps to uncover the font you are looking for. And if somehow it doesn’t recognize the font that you’re looking for, it will show you a lot of similar ones from their library of more than 280,000 fonts. You will see in the images below that the site is really easy to use, but you should keep in mind that the results won’t be accurate each time because sometimes the font you want to identify isn’t in its database, but still it will show you a selection of similar fonts from which you can choose and I find this to be a really good feature.
There have been a number of recent open source plugins for lazing loading images. A popular choice is Unveil.js which was just recently published onto Github. It is meant to be a lightweight version of the original LazyLoad plugin built over jQuery. After testing out a number of different features I am a huge fan of Unveil.js.
Interface design is incredibly simple once you understand the basics. It will take some practice getting used to the code samples and writing your images properly. However the lazy load plugin can showcase tremendous support across all typical web browsers. Not to mention the popularity among users who are transferring data over slow Internet connections. The lazy load plugin will shave off latency times and still provides an exhilarating user experience.
Live Demo - Download Source Code
Do you allow yourself enough time for creative brainstorming? Most designers don't. In fact, many designers don't allow themselves any time for brainstorming. Then they wonder why they feel uninspired. Maybe you feel uninspired because it takes time to be creative--time that most freelance designers don't work into their schedules. The true creative cycle looks something like this:
But many designers act like this is the cycle:
No one is a never-ending fountain of creative ideas. We all need inspiration sometimes. In this post, I share seven great brainstorming techniques that you can use to improve your creativity and solve problems. If you've ever suffered from creative block, this post is for you.
If you liked this post, you may also like My Best Ideas for What to Do When Your Freelancing Creativity Fails You.
Do you allow yourself enough time for creative brainstorming? Most designers don't. In fact, many designers don't allow themselves any time for brainstorming. Then they wonder why they feel uninspired. Maybe you feel uninspired because it takes time to be creative--time that most freelance designers don't work into their schedules. The true creative cycle looks something like this:
But many designers act like this is the cycle:
No one is a never-ending fountain of creative ideas. We all need inspiration sometimes. In this post, I share seven great brainstorming techniques that you can use to improve your creativity and solve problems. If you've ever suffered from creative block, this post is for you.
If you liked this post, you may also like My Best Ideas for What to Do When Your Freelancing Creativity Fails You.
I have seen countless launches of amazing WordPress magazine websites. These have been gaining more traction over the past few months and now there are so many brand new premium themes being created. With more demand comes more supply, and it should be obvious how many webmasters are launching their own online magazines.
In this gallery I want to present 25 extremely high-quality WordPress magazine & blog themes. You can utilize these for any content niche as long as the site is maintained like a blog. The frontpage will always feature new posts, along with some other extra widgets. Plus the more complicated themes will generally have a unique settings panel located within wp-admin. Check out this collection and see if you can use anything for yourself.
The Oracle
The Oracle theme is a blog/magazine style website using a homepage image slider. This is fairly common among other magazine themes, but the content loads very quickly. You will also have access to button shortcodes and custom page widgets. The design is more tech-based than anything else but it does look fantastic on-screen.
Both personal and corporate portfolios require careful attention to detail. There are lots of new user experience techniques which can offer a seamless interface for designers. And when presenting your work online it is worth spending a bit of extra time to ensure your strategy will impress visitors.
I want to share a few ideas for when you are crafting a new portfolio layout. These trends will obviously advance as time goes on. Digital creatives are often the first people jumping onto new trends, and so it is reasonable to assume portfolios may resonate newer design ideas in the future. But not every idea is going to be perfect for your website. It takes a bit of critical thinking to determine which design styles would fit best into your own personal or company portfolio layout.
Lots of resources exist online for digital marketing. By working with printed material you are opening your world to a number of similar topics which could draw attention from users or advertisers. But how do you know which print services are worth the time and effort? Well in this article I want to outline a few online resources which I feel are great for print marketing.
If you’re looking for a fast way to learn WordPress, LearnWebDevelopment.com has created the perfect program. It’s their WordPress Bootcamp – a training course that will teach you how to build a fully-functioning WordPress website in just 8 weeks! And, because they give all their students weekly feedback as they go through the course, you’ll [...]
The online webfont service Typekit by Adobe is a fantastic business model. Their premium accounts are very affordable in yearly billing cycles and you have access to over 700+ different fonts. These can be loaded directly into your CSS and used as a regular font-family value. Typekit is a quick way to dramatically improve the layout of your website.
I have put together this showcase of 30 personal favorites from Typekit. You can use these fonts in so many different places like your navigation, footer, header text, and even body content. Custom typefaces will take a bit of time to load - so there is a tradeoff for using all custom web fonts. However when used sparingly the Typekit library is a colossus unmatched anywhere else on the web.
Proxima Nova
A look at real A/B tests across several large enterprises suggests: everything. Designing a navigation bar can be a humbling exercise. We want to consider our visitors’ natural orientation when browsing a site, along with their short attention span, and lay out a navigation structure that’s logical yet elegant. So what’s most important when designers think about navigation bar and sub-navigation usability practices? In this post, we’ll examine several A/B tests conducted by large enterprises with plenty of resources, great attention to detail and a hunger for answers flanked by scientific method. Looking at this type of data, it quickly becomes clear that minutia such as link style, sub-nav structure, list order and the like, aren’t minutia at all. They can prove critical to the success of the site. To sub-nav or not to sub-nav? That was Dell’s question. In this first case study, a clever and meticulous team of Dell marketers discover that 5 pages in particular on their website correlate highly with visitors who complete a lead form. Their hypothesis becomes: if we put these pages in front of new visitors, perhaps they, too, will be more likely to convert, as it seems something about these 5 pages is compelling to them. The A/B test Dell ran involved a baseline version of the site as it was already set up, with the B version offering visitors the 5 critical pages as sub-nav items. That move yielded 39% more leads.
Version A
There are some websites online that just scream branding. You immediately recognize the site based on their logo design, the font style, the icon symbol, even vector artwork. Branding is a crucial part of the design experience because your company and its brand is all you need to draw in some attention. Many popular brands such as Microsoft and Apple demonstrate what a good logo can do for your company.
But having a good logo is only the first step. Then you need to work this into your website layout gracefully, in a manner where users are impressed and invigorated by the design. I have put together this showcase of 34 various website layouts featuring beautiful website branding. I hope this collection may provide inspiration for other designers who are launching a new project online and need a quick fix of design ideas.
MongoDB
Our natural world is truly a beautiful place. Photographs are often times not enough to do our Earth justice. But so many photographers have worked to capture the beauty which can be found everywhere. And in this gallery I want to dedicate a series of images which are easily worth 1000 words. Natural stock photography is a big component of news articles and online magazines because they are easy to fit into headlines. Readers will very easily relate to this imagery and so it can even help to drive inbound traffic deeper into your website. Check out some of these examples and see if you could use any related photographs in your own projects.
Magical Waterfall
People who have managed their own startup or websites online will know the stressors which come along through the job. It will require some finesse and a lot of research online. To install a CMS, create your own theme, back up the database, and fix bugs will require a whole toolbox of knowledge. But there are some helpful resources to be found online which may expedite the process of creating new website launches.
I want to present a small collection of webapps and tools online for startup founders and webmasters. These are each unique in their own right but should not be underestimated as a beneficial product. One of the most difficult tasks when managing a startup is to keep the company above water, and not to lose yourself in debt. I think that by focusing on the free options available it will provide a wider margin for saving money.
If you like awesome textures we’ve got just the package for you. DesignM.ag has partnered with Callum Chapman to offer this great set of 100 textures. These high quality artist textures are for both personal and commercial use in your projects, featuring handmade and expertly crafted paint and paper textures. All textures are at least [...]
It seems as though every day there are new freebies to be released online. I am usually forcing myself to check out new websites once in a while to see what I am missing. The amount of networks online are simply tremendous! It would suck up at least an hour or more to go through all of the latest releases.
I want to focus on a list of the more popular resources for locating design freebies. The list obviously includes freebie PSD and AI files to use in Adobe software. But icon sets are also typically common among designers. PSD/AI freebies are certainly the most demanded and will provide the best results when creating a website layout. I hope to share a few resources which will benefit web designers and developers around the globe.