Carrie Cousins

CV & Resume Templates / 4 Mar 2019

Choosing a Resume + Cover Letter Font? 10 Tips & Examples

What is the best font for your resume? It’s not a loaded question. Too often people over think typography choices for resumes or cover letters because they think the type has to look “designed.” The reality is that it just needs to be highly readable.

So where do you start? Today, we’ve got ten great options to help you choose a readable, well-designed typeface to help your resume or cover letter stand out.

All these fonts stand out from the crowd, while also keeping your resume clear, classy, and readable!

Reviews / 1 Mar 2019

Create Banner Ads Online With Bannersnack

Building banner ads doesn’t have to be a chore. From static ads to animated HTML5 banner ads, Bannersnack is a tool that allows you to create quick and visually appealing ads for any application.

Here, we’re going to look at this tool and how you can make the most of creating stunning banner ads in just a few minutes with Bannersnack.

Forget firing up Photoshop, figuring out ad dimensions, and starting from scratch. This is a new way of approaching the whole process.

Reviews / 1 Mar 2019

How to Create Your Own Stock Photos With Photo Creator

The problem with stock photos has always been that they are never quite what you envision. The new Photo Creator tool from Icons8 solves that dilemma.

This neat tool actually allows you to create stock photos with elements that you can choose, move, and place inside a basic scene.

The result is a “semi-stock” photo that does exactly what you need to tell a story in your design project. Here’s how it works, and how to use it to create a stock photo that perfectly fits your needs.

Layouts / 27 Feb 2019

10 Unique + Innovative Website Layout Ideas

The idea has been floating around for a while – web design has a sameness that’s just kind of boring. Let’s dive into some unique and innovative website layouts that can break the mold!

Blame user patterns, too many projects for too few designers, or just the desire of clients to have their site looks like something they’ve already seen and understand. But all is not lost. Even though some people are snoozing at what’s out there, designers are still experimenting and having fun with website design.

Today, we’ll break the routine and dive into ten website designs that feature unique or innovative ideas. If nothing else, it should break you out of any creative rut you might be having.

Reviews / 25 Feb 2019

Need a Logo Fast? Try Logobee

Rush jobs. We all know how they can sneak up on us as designers. The real pickle is one of those rush jobs includes a logo. Logobee provides a quick tool to help designers – and even beginners – create a quick, simple logo in just a few minutes.

Here’s a look at the tool so you can decide if it will work for you.

We’ll walk you through the features, how to use it, and explain where and when it can be helpful for designers and non-designers alike.

UX Design / 20 Feb 2019

15 Tips to Improve Your UX Writing

There are so many micro elements that are a big deal with it comes to user experience design. A lot of focus has been put on micro-interactions and engagements, but what about micro-copy?

UX writing is a big deal. The words, language, and composition of sentences and phrases throughout a design can make it or break it. (Think about how many times you’ve turned away from a website or app because directions were unclear, or a typo made you angry.)

Today’s the day you should vow to improve your UX writing. It’ll make your website or app better. And it’ll definitely make users happier. Here are a few ways to do it.

Business / 4 Feb 2019

7 Tips for Sending Better Email Newsletters

Email marketing is one of the top ways to communicate with an audience. You can inform users with stories and information, send discounts and coupons to encourage shopping, and help direct traffic back to your website.

But not every email newsletter is created equally. My inbox is just as full of poorly designed messages as ones that I’ll actually read. With so much inbox clutter, designing an email that will stand out—and is easy to read—increases your chances of success. (Open rates hover in the teens to 20 percent range for many industries, so you have to work hard.)

Starting with a well-designed email newsletter is the start. Here are seven tips for sending better emails, that more users (hopefully) will look forward to opening.

Reviews / 30 Jan 2019

Userstack: Detect Browsers and Devices in Real-Time

Behind every good website is a set of powerful data and tools that ensure that you are connecting with users in a way that creates targeted experiences and conversions.

One of the best ways that you can ensure these user experiences are the best they can be is to tailor content to the users’ device type. You probably know that already, but do you know how to get that information and use it well?

Userstack is an instant, secure user-agent string lookup JSON API that detects any browser, device and operating system in real-time so you can deliver optimum content to users. Here’s a look at this tool and how it works.

UX Design / 28 Jan 2019

What Are Dark Patterns? (And Why You Shouldn’t Use Them)

Dark patterns are website interfaces that cause users to interact with a website in a way that isn’t what they intended. They cause users to click through to a page, or even add an extra item to a shopping cart, without intending to.

From sneaky clicks to straight-up poor website practices, dark patterns are in more places than you might expect. Today, we’ll look at what dark patterns are, how to identify them and why you shouldn’t use this technique in your website or app projects.

If you think a dark pattern is a cute background image, you need to keep reading.

Instagram Templates / 7 Jan 2019

How to Use an Instagram Template

An Instagram template is a kit of pre-made designs to help you share different types of content on the highly popular social media channel.

While there are plenty of Instagram templates out there – for individual posts or to create stories – getting started can seem intimidating. How do you most effectively use an Instagram template to create engaging content?

Here, we have a guide that breaks it all down so you’ll be creating Instagram posts like a pro in no time.

Reviews / 4 Jan 2019

Indigo.Design: One Tool for Design, Prototyping & App Development

Designers, rejoice! There’s now one tool that can help you create a visual design, do the UX prototyping, generate code and develop apps. And it all happens in one environment.

Indigo.Design, from Infragistics, is made so that you can take designs from Sketch and get Angular apps to create modern and fast mobile experiences. Here’s a look at the tool to help you decide if it is right for your projects.

Inspiration / 26 Dec 2018

20+ Creative Project Ideas to Get You Out of a Design Rut

It happens to everyone at some point – creative block. You know you’re in a design rut when nothing seems to work as you expect. Designs aren’t coming together. You’re frustrated and un-energized.

While these stages are completely normal, it’s important to have a few tools at hand to break out of a design rut. Here, we’ve gathered a list of creative project ideas to re-engage your brain and get you thinking more creatively again.