Articles - Page 148

Business / 11 May 2015

Code Free Web Design With Webydo

Web design can sometimes be frustrating for those who are not fluent in HTML or JavaScript or other programming languages. This is especially true of responsive web design. Webydo is here to help.

The website building platform offers designers (and pretty much everyone) the opportunity to create a responsive website with a great design without knowing the first line of code. Without any technical knowledge, just about anyone can publish a website backed by a full content management system.

Software / 6 May 2015

Get to Know Hiveage and Make Invoicing Easier

Work. Bill. Grow. That’s the motto for Hiveage, an online billing and invoicing tool for freelancers and small businesses.

The tool can make life easier with a well-designed interface that’s easy to use and manage – especially for those who don’t have a lot of time to focus on billing. It’s a platform that can help you handle all your business basics in one place. Today we’re taking a look at how it works, and what you can expect from the app.

Tumblr Themes / 5 May 2015

How to Make a Budget Wedding Website With Tumblr

Having a wedding website or blog is all the rage, and it can be a great way to keep your friends and family up-to-date with your wedding planning for the special day.

There are lots of services out there to help, but many are quite expensive or complicated. Today we’re taking a look at how you can build your own wedding website in a few simple steps, using the Wedding Tumblr theme.

You’ll have a wedding website to be proud of, in no time at all (here’s an example). All for the price of a couple of wedding magazines!

UX Design / 4 May 2015

How to Design Content for User Experiences

Content is a major part of the user experience. Content is more than search engine optimization; it’s more than blogging. It is part of your site, brand identity and why users interact with your design.

Every day it becomes even more important to design for content as part of the overall function and user experience in website and app design. But how can you do it? (We can help you with some case studies and examples, such as The Hen House, which uses a variety of design and user engagement techniques to keep you scrolling.)

Tumblr Themes / 29 Apr 2015

30 Premium Tumblr Themes With Beautiful, Minimal Design

There are thousands of Tumblr themes all over the web. To be perfectly frank, most of them aren’t great, and won’t do your creative work justice. Today we’ve collected thirty of our favourite premium Tumblr themes from across the web.

All of these cost a few dollars, but all of them will take your Tumblr blog to another level. From stylish, minimal Tumblr themes, through to those featuring big colours and bold images — we have a full selection. All of them are available to buy straight from Tumblr directly, and can be set up on your blog in a few minutes!

Inspiration / 28 Apr 2015

How to Design the Perfect Award or Certificate

Do you ever catch one of those oddball assignments in your design career? Creating a great award or certificate design is one of them. The piece seems like a small task, but has a long shelf life, and is of high value to the recipient, making it important to design well.

But how do you even design a good award? Where do you start? Here’s a primer that takes a look at a few of the most important things to consider with award and certificate design.

Graphics / 21 Apr 2015

4 Simple Tips for Writing Copy That Matches Your Design

When it comes to design projects, sometimes we (designers) get caught in a trap: creating a design without understanding the content. The first step to creating an outstanding project – before you ever open a piece of software – is to read over the content. Then think about the design and how the copy goes with it.

Does the copy actually need to match the design? Should designers help write the copy? Yes, most definitely. (As a bonus, all images in this post are examples of great copy and design pairings from the Design Shack gallery.)

Business / 13 Apr 2015

Introducing Media Temple’s WordPress Hosting

We’ve hosted Design Shack with Media Temple for years. So we were very pleased when they came to us, and asked us to take a look at their new managed WordPress hosting solution.

Media Temple’s new full-featured WordPress hosting solution features four new, customizable and scalable plans. Whether you’re a photographer, web designer or creative agency, there’s a plan that should work for you. Today we’re taking a look at this new hosting product, to see how it stacks up!

Typography / 30 Mar 2015

7 Tips for Choosing the Best Web Font for Your Design

There’s no way to quantify all of the font options available for website designers. Almost every day a new typeface shows up in my inbox or Twitter feed. But not every one one of these typefaces – no matter how beautiful – is right for designing a website.

When it comes to selecting the perfect font, you have think about a variety of things including compatibility, load time and design purpose. Today, we have seven tips to help you select and use the best web font for your design project.

Inspiration / 25 Mar 2015

10 Tips for Delicious Menu Design

Have your ever thought about the way food items were presented to you on a menu? Can something as simple as a menu design determine what and where you will eat? Creating a design for a restaurant menu – paper copies for the table and online versions – is a vital part of the food industry because the way things look can impact sales.

The topic got recent attention thanks to Brian Wansink, who wrote “Slim By Design” and a recent paper for the International Journal of Hospitality Management, asserts menu design can impact exactly what someone orders. And it is all based on simple elements that we use every day from bold lettering to images to creating hierarchy on the canvas. Here are 10 ways you can use some of that information and other techniques to create an absolutely delicious menu design.

Business / 23 Mar 2015

5 Ways Freelancers Can Actually Make Money

Many designers dream about the freelance lifestyle. What’s not to love about taking only projects you love, or working in your pajamas, or being your own boss? But it can be a hard road. Many freelancers break off on their own only to later return to a firm or company because it can be tough to make enough money to support your lifestyle.

Building a reputable freelancer business takes time, work and a lot of dedication. While the pay is not always steady, you can earn a living off freelance projects.

Layouts / 18 Mar 2015

The Complete Guide to an Effective Card-Style Interface Design

Card-style architecture is one of the biggest things in web design, and mobile design in particular. From apps to responsive websites, the card-style format is popping up everywhere.

And for good reason. Mobile card design looks nice, works well on a variety of devices and creates distinct organization and a method for content delivery. That’s why many large, well-known brands are using the card format and many smaller design and development groups are following suit.