Carrie Cousins

Layouts / 26 Sep 2018

Infinite Scrolling: Pros and Cons

One-page websites are a major design trend. Especially when it comes to one-page designs packed with content, thanks to infinite scrolling techniques that allow designers to continue a webpage indefinitely.

This technique is great for some sites and content types, while for others it can be cumbersome and frustrating. Like any other design technique, you shouldn’t do it just because you want to try something new; it should be a strategic part of your design framework. So how can you decide? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of infinite scrolling websites.

Reviews / 20 Sep 2018

Stay on Top of Website Feedback With Hotjar

By now you probably know that if you have a website, you need a way to monitor how it is working. The problem with many of these feedback channels is that they can be complicated to set up or difficult to understand.

The incoming feedback tool from Hotjar is different. It gives you all the feedback you need to manage and grow your website in a visual format. (So you don’t have to be a data scientist to understand it all.) Here’s a look at Hotjar and how it works.

Reviews / 13 Sep 2018

Drag and Drop Your Way to a Website With WP Page Builder

Do you ever find yourself looking for an easier way to build a website? WP Page Builder is a drag-and-drop plugin for WordPress to help you create a website quickly without a lot of coding.

It’s made for designers who want to get a website finished fast or beginners that want to play with a website but don’t have design or coding experience. Here’s a look at the tool and how you use it.

Background Textures / 12 Sep 2018

Design Trend: Bubble & Blob Backgrounds

Have you noticed all the fluid, boundless shapes in design projects recently? The use of bubbles and blobs is trending. From simple circles to interconnecting loops, to full-screen blobs that move and shift, to simple “blobby” animations, this trend is popping up everywhere.

The nice thing is that while using bubbles and blobs is a trendy design element, there are so many different ways to do it, and you won’t end up with a design that looks like you are just trying to add a fashionable element.

Here, we have a collection of mini case studies of website designs featuring the bubble and blob design trend.

UX Design / 10 Sep 2018

7 Tips for Better Contact Form Design (With Examples)

Better contact form design starts with usability. The goal of a form is obvious: you need information from the user. The form has to be intuitive enough so users know exactly what to do and don’t get sidetracked in the process of completing that action.

The best contact forms are easy to look at and include highly usable elements that users can engage with without thinking about them. (It sounds a little easier than it is sometimes.) But thankfully, we have a selection of tips to help you design better contact forms.

How to Design a Logo / 5 Sep 2018

5 Quick Tips for Fixing a Bad Logo Design

How many times have you walked into a project where the logo is a mess? Bitmap designs. Poor color choices. Lack of contrast. Inappropriate typography. A shape that doesn’t work anywhere. Here’s how to fix a bad logo design.

There are so many issues when it comes to bad logo design. And you’ll know one the minute you see it. These poor instances of design tend to stick out like a sore thumb.

But is there anything you can do? If the client isn’t in love with the miserable mark, you can make some quick fixes to at least turn the logo into something a little more usable. Here are a few tips (starting with a collage of bad logos!) and examples of quick fixes that can help improve a logo.

Reviews / 5 Sep 2018

What’s That Font? Find Out With WhatFontIs

Do you ever get stuck spinning your wheels on a project because of missing font information? From elements with missing source files to clients that want a font that “looks like (insert company name here)”, you need a font identification tool.

WhatFontIs is the best identification service to help you find the fonts you need. Today we’re diving in to see how it works, and what you can accomplish with it.

Typography / 3 Sep 2018

Is Your Website Font Size Too Small? Large Text Is In

The standards for typography on the web have shifted. Designers are going with bigger, easier to read typography that is more seamless and consistent across devices. The trend toward bigger web typography started with oversized treatments above the scroll, from headlines to more artistic hero header text elements.

Body text sizes concurrently started to increase on mobile devices to enhance readability. And from there, the trend started to trickle down to almost all aspects of web type. If you haven’t thought about the size of copy on your website recently, it’s time to revisit that 12 or 14-point/pixel body copy. Large text is in!

CSS / 20 Aug 2018

The Best CSS Gradient Generators for Designers

We’re taking a look at ten of the best CSS gradient generators that you can use to create a variety of gradient styles (and have the CSS output directly!). Coding a gradient by hand is no fun (especially once you get past a simple two-color gradient), so these tools are a must-have in your bookmark folder.

One of the trendiest elements in website design is using a gradient background or color overlay. A two-color linear gradient is the most popular variation of this trend. And while gradients might look fancy and complicated, they are actually quite easy to create and deploy… if you are using the right tool!

Business / 20 Aug 2018

5 Tips for Making Better Video

Everywhere you look, there’s video. From social media sites to full-scale web projects, a video can be an integral part of today’s online user experience. We have five tips to help you make any web video better, and improve the quality of what you publish.

While some projects require the time commitment of a professional production, other uses are perfectly suitable for DIY. How can you create better video to use in web projects yourself, without a full crew or large investment?

Reviews / 15 Aug 2018

Adobe Stock: A 101 Introduction

Navigating the world of stock images can be tough. There are a lot of sources and even more photos to sort through. Finding a reputable vendor for stock images that’s easy to use can be a lifesaver.

That’s where Adobe Stock comes in. Adobe – the same company you know for making software that you probably use daily – also offers stock photos, templates, and 3D assets to help jumpstart your projects. And the best part is that that assets are high-quality; you’ll actually want to use them.

Here’s a look at how Adobe Stock works.

Graphics / 13 Aug 2018

Black and White Design: 10 Stunning Examples (+ Tips)

A black and white design scheme can be one of the most striking combinations for a project. The deep contrast and simplistic nature of these colors (or lack thereof) provide plenty of opportunities to explore other techniques to make the most of the design.

Black and white designs have always been pretty popular, shifting most recently to more minimalist styles with a mostly white background and black elements. But as you’ll see from this collection of stunning black and white design projects, there are so many other options to explore.