Carrie Cousins

Photoshop Actions / 19 Jun 2019

How to Create Actions in Photoshop in 5 Minutes

A Photoshop action can save time and effort when you perform some of the same edits and tasks repeatedly. You can record almost any command into an action that you can replay for later use on different files.

Here, we have step-by-step instructions so you can learn how to create actions in Photoshop. (It really only takes five minutes.)

In no time at all, you’ll have a helpful Photoshop action that can save you time every day!

Reviews / 12 Jun 2019

Jumpstart Your Career With This UX Design Bootcamp

The next level of your career starts now. If you’ve been looking to enhance your skills or break into UX design, formalized training might be the next logical step.

Springboard, an online school designed for skills that today’s workers need, is accepting applications for the next UX Design Bootcamp. This is more than an online class, it’s an intensive course that includes a design project in the industry, one-on-one mentoring, and even a guarantee that you’ll find a job in the field.

Here’s how the program works.

PowerPoint Templates / 12 Jun 2019

How to Start and End a Presentation: 10 Unique Ideas

A good presentation leaves you wanting more. It engages your thirst for information. These presentations are a mix of killer content, striking visuals, a charismatic speaker and—crucially—a memorable start and end.

And with the right tools, almost anyone can give a great presentation. When every minute matters, how you start and end your presentation can have a huge impact on what people take away from the time you’re talking to them (and whether it makes a lasting impression!)

Today, we’re breaking from traditional visual design techniques to think about how to craft a dynamic presentation, with a memorable beginning and ending.

UX Design / 5 Jun 2019

How to Design a Perfect Website Onboarding Process (With Examples)

Think about the last time you downloaded a new app or landed on a new website. Did you know exactly what to do? Did the design help you engage with the site in a meaningful way? A simple onboarding process can make all the difference.

It’s important to think about website and app design in terms of onboarding visitors to create the best experience possible. This can include anything from helping someone find an item in your online shop and understanding how to make a purchase, to playing a game, or signing up for an email.

Onboarding is the process of integrating any new user into the design flow so that they can have the best interaction possible with your website, app or digital product or service. Here’s how you design it (with examples for inspiration).

Trends / 5 Jun 2019

Isometric Design & Illustration: An Eye-Catching Trend

Icons form an integral part of any website design. From use in informational and navigational elements, to eye-catching parts of a larger design, icons and icon-based elements can be an attractive and interesting way to draw in users.

While icons have used a dramatically flat aesthetic for a while, more projects are shifting to isometric icon usage. This trend is appearing on websites and print projects across plenty of different industries.

It’s gaining popularity because isometric icons have a more realistic look while still using flat layers. It’s an almost perfect mix of flat and depth. Here’s a more in-depth look at this design trend and how you can make the most of it.

Business / 3 Jun 2019

Self-Care for Designers: Don’t Burn Out

In a world where work never seems to turn off, there’s a growing movement to prioritize self-care. It’s way too easy to neglect yourself when you have work and meetings and then all of the “life” things after work, from networking events to taking kids to soccer games.

The time to start practicing self-care is before you start to burn out. You’ll stay fresher and have greater mental capacity to tackle projects with creative spark.

But how do you do it? How (and where) can designers find time for self-care? We have a few ideas for you.

Reviews / 27 May 2019

Core: Jump Start Your Website Design

Have you ever started building a project with a user interface kit and wished there were more to it? Core might be the fix to that common problem.

Core is a front-end feature kit packed with essential project building blocks, and you can get it free from Mason. Usability is the key feature of this kit. So many UI kits look great but fail in the actual use department. Not Core. It’s beautiful and usable.

Here’s a look at Core and what it can do for you.

Business / 27 May 2019

10 Ways to Make Women More Welcome in Your Design Space

Take a look around. How many women work in your creative space? (If you are a freelancer, think about how many women are part of your referral network.) What does that ratio look like? The design industry is not known for equal numbers in the workplace.

A study late last year by Design Museum showed that only 1 in 5 designers in the UK are women. Another study by AIGA showed that women were just 36 percent of the “design leaders” to speak at the world’s biggest design conferences. (It was even tough to find stock images to represent women as designers for this article.)

These trends just aren’t acceptable. And change starts with you.

If you want to see more ideas, more creative concepts, and more diversity of design, everyone needs to be welcome in the same design space. It can be tough to be the only woman in the room (and it happens a lot).

Here are some ways you can make women more welcome in your design space.

Reviews / 23 May 2019

FilmHERO: Stock Video Made Easy

Do you find yourself asking where other websites find such amazing video clips?

You don’t need a monster budget to get high-quality video for your website. With the right stock video, you can create a custom website experience that uses one of the trendiest and most engaging elements out there.

FilmHERO is a good place to start. The video provider has a huge collection of video clips that you can download and use in any number of projects. Here’s how it works.

Trends / 20 May 2019

5 Design Ideas That Never Get Old

There are some design ideas and concepts that never get old, no matter how many times you see them. Today, we’re exploring these timeless design ideas that you can incorporate into your own work.

These classic concepts are often deeply rooted in design theory. They might be trending styles that cycle in and out over time. They all incorporate elements that make a website design easy to look at, interact with, read and understand.

And for that reason, these design ideas never seem to get old. In fact, you can call them timeless design styles.

Reviews / 15 May 2019

IP Geolocation API: Better Understand Website Visitors

Where are your website users coming from? That’s a common question that many website owners don’t always know the answer to. Understanding where users come from—and information about their location—can be important to the functionality of your website.

Just think, you could push notifications at time zone appropriate times, or adjust language, design, or layout based on the location of a website visit.

Geolocation data can help you create a more valuable experience for website visitors. And the free IP Geolocation API is a tool that can help. Here’s a look at it and how it works.

Inspiration / 15 May 2019

20+ Best Photoshop Tutorials for Designing Posters + Flyers

What makes a great poster design? It’s often a mix of creativity and design elements that have a certain panache.

Poster and flyer design can be a lot of fun because you can often stretch your design muscles and try things you wouldn’t for other projects. It’s an opportunity to do something attention-grabbing and unique!

With that idea in mind, here are twenty different poster/flyer tutorials that you can try out. Plus, you’ll get a chance to try out some new design techniques along the way!