Carrie Cousins

Business / 9 Jun 2016

Billing Is a Breeze With Invoicely

While one of the best parts of the job for a small business or freelancer is getting paid, one of the worst parts is the paperwork you have to do ahead of that payment. If you are still creating manual invoices, it might be time to look at a cloud-based system that can help you keep track of clients and streaming invoicing.

Invoicely is a powerful online invoicing tool that many small businesses can use for free. The software has been used to send more than 2 million invoices in the past 30 days. Today we’re going to take a look at how it works, and decide if it’s a good solution for your freelancing business!

Reviews / 8 Jun 2016

Showcase Your Work With Adobe Portfolio

Is updating your portfolio a chore? Is it one of those tasks you can never find time to do? Adobe Portfolio might just be the answer.

Adobe’s new portfolio tool – yes, the same Adobe behind industry standard graphic design and editing software – is easy to use and can help you get your work online in short order. Today we’re taking a look at how it works, why it’s a solid contender in this space, and how it can help you build a professional online portfolio.

UX Design / 6 Jun 2016

How to Create Memorable Micro-Moments

How many times a day do you look at your phone? Its a statistic that always amazes me, but the average person looks at their phone 46 times per day.

Every one of those glances is an interaction between the design and the user. These micro-moments are a vital part of the user experience. How an interaction such as a notification or alert works can make the difference between retaining a user and losing one. It’s your job to design these micro-moments in a way that is usable and memorable. Here’s how to do it.

Business / 1 Jun 2016

What Needs to Be in Your Style Guide? (And How Do You Enforce It?)

Everyone with a website needs a style guide. It’s that simple. If you’re wanting to instil more consistency in your project, and get everyone on the same page, your style guide will become invaluable.

Now that we have that out of the way, what exactly do you put in that guide? And how do you make sure other people on the team follow the rules so that your visual presence maintains consistency? That’s a little more complicated. Let’s dive into the topic today.

Graphics / 30 May 2016

Working With 3D Visuals in Web Design: A Primer

The hottest — and possibly most-talked about — gadget out there these days is the 3D printer. It’s a tool that is likely to revolutionize the way products are made. But there’s another three-dimensional topic making waves in the design world as well — 3D visuals.

Even though website design actually lives in two dimensions, it’s not stopping designers from flexing their creative muscles and pushing the limits of the screen with more objects and projects that have a real-life feel. Let’s take a look at how you can make the most of the 3D trend.

Graphics / 23 May 2016

What’s Flat 2.0 and Why Should You Care?

Just when you thought you had flat design figured out, everyone has shifted to talking about Flat 2.0. If you never took the leap into designing a flat project, now is the time.

Flat 2.0 is easier to use because it combines the best of flat design with additional user interface cues to help you create website design that’s beautiful and functional. It’s also highly adaptable and works with almost any concept. Unlike some of the purest flat designed websites, Flat 2.0 combines elements of flat with subtle additions to enhance user-friendliness. Let’s take a look at a few examples!

Graphics / 16 May 2016

Design Trend: The Modern Retro Touch

You’ve probably heard the saying “everything old is new again.” The same can be said about design and design trends. While the medium might change, many of the old styles can come back into fashion.

One example of this is modern retro design. Today, we’re going to take a look at what modern retro is all about and how you can make this most of it in your design projects. What’s really nice about modern retro is that it works across mediums. While we are seeing a lot of it in website design right now, modern retro adds a fun touch to print projects from business cards to poster design to party invitations.

Business / 10 May 2016

Data, Data, Data: How Do You Design It?

You are probably swimming in a sea of data. Analytics, reports, metrics and data-based facts are the new norm, and people can’t seem to get enough.

But how do you design with data? How do you take something that can be complex, requiring explanation, and break it down into something smaller and digestible without ruining the meaning of the information? It can be a tough task. Today, we’re going to look at different approaches to designing with data and hopefully provide some usable tips!

Reviews / 9 May 2016

Optimizer WordPress Theme: Designed to Make Website Building Easy

Need a new website? Chances are if you have not redesigned in a while that you probably need a visual – and user experience – refresh. A website based on a WordPress platform is a good place to start.

An even better place to start is with the Optimizer WordPress theme. The theme is made so that even if you don’t feel comfortable coding, you can build a great website. It is light enough to work for one-page sites and includes enough robust features for almost any full-scale website design project. Today, we’re going to take a look at Optimizer and how you might be able to use it for your projects.

Reviews / 4 May 2016

Speed Up Your Design Feedback Workflow With CuePin

One thing that every design team needs is a better way to collaborate and comment on a project in a central forum. Collaboration helps move a project forward and allows everyone on the design team to contribute, even if they can’t make a meeting or are located in a remote location.

CuePin is a tool that helps foster this collaboration with an easy way for designers, freelancers and project managers to work together and provide feedback on a variety of different design projects in a centralized hub. Here’s a look at CuePin, how it works, and how you can make the most of this feedback and collaboration tool.

Inspiration / 4 May 2016

19 Newly Released Examples of Beautiful Pre-Built Websites

Today we’re featuring a collection of beautiful Be Theme pre-built websites, designed to make your website building efforts much easier. Not only that; the things you will be able to accomplish with them can’t help but make you look good, and make your clients exceedingly happy.

These pre-built websites aren’t simply a collection of attractive, professionally-designed images. Examine one or two of them in depth, and you’ll discover a wealth of useful features, plus each one is completely customisable.

While you can use a pre-built website for any online enterprise you might have in mind, those shown here are primarily intended for creating small business websites or blogs. You will also see how easy they are to install, and how you can build your website down to the finest level of detail, one-click at a time, without any need for coding.

Freelancing / 2 May 2016

How to Live Life as a Hustling Freelancer (And Get S#%! Done!)

I came across this tweet not too long ago and couldn’t stop thinking about how much I hustle every day. The post was a simple image and outlined “good hustle” versus “bad hustle.” And it got me thinking… am I hustling all wrong?

We all know that freelancing could be described as the life of a hustler. There’s always so much to do, and so many things going all the time. But how can you hustle the right way and just get s#%! done? Today, I am expanding on the outline presented by Meg Robichaud to help explain better ways to manage it all.