Articles - Page 174

Browse hundreds of articles, tips, and inspiring design collections. Find helpful design advice, or the perfect resource for your next project.

Layouts / 22 Dec 2014

How to Balance Text and Visual Content in Design

We’ve all heard the phrase “sex sells” but when it comes to design, what does the selling? Text or images? The reality is that both are essential parts of almost every design project. What makes the difference between a project that works and one that falls short is striking the right balance between the two.

While visuals are often processed faster, text can provide greater understanding. Creating balance between text and visual content is a combination of understanding your project and the best method of delivery for content, audience expectation, weighting of elements and delivery.

Software / 18 Dec 2014

How to Make Stock Art Work in Your Design Projects

Sometimes it’s hard to create just the right image, texture or illustration for a design project. It might be a result of resources or time, but there is an option – stock art. There are plenty of places where you can buy and download photos, textures, illustrations and user interface elements that can be used or adapted for your projects.

But how can you most effectively use stock art and ensure that you don’t end up using the same images as another company or website? Here we’ll look at some ways to help you choose the best stock images or vectors for your projects and a tool, GraphicStock, where you can find some great images.

Freelancing / 9 Dec 2014

Freelancing 101: What Does It Cost to Be a Freelancer?

Working as a freelancer is not all cash profit. There are a lot of costs that are associated with working for yourself that you need to be aware of from the start. From one-time expenses to taxes and insurance, understanding how much freelancing can cost can be just as important as landing clients.

Costs associated with freelancing that impact almost every worker (regardless of location) include equipment and tools, taxes and insurance, marketing and promotion, legal and accounting, training and development and a few additional hidden costs. Today we’re going to be exploring some of the costs to watch out for, so you don’t find yourself facing an unpleasant surprise!

Freelancing / 3 Dec 2014

Freelancing 101: 10 Things People Forget to Tell You About Freelancing

I have been freelancing for the last decade and there are plenty of days when the words “I quit” slipped through my lips. (Although I took it back pretty quickly.) Life as a freelancer isn’t just working from home and flexible schedules and being your own boss when things are easy. It is sticking with it when those things are tough too.

As a career choice, freelancing comes with plenty of ups and downs. It takes a certain personality to withstand those changes and find success. (Personally, I have found much more success the older I get; freelancing was no fun right out of college.) There’s a lot that I have learned along the way. Here are ten things people forget to tell you about freelancing!

Business / 1 Dec 2014

How to Design a Brand Persona for Your Product

They’re on hundreds of websites, in advertisements, and fill the airwaves – fictional characters that help you relate to a brand or company. These personas are representations of the type of people who use products or services, and are designed to relate to potential users or buyers.

A persona is more than just a face in the design. It is a well-planned and thought-out part of the design process. Designers have to think about the persona during all aspects of a project so that the personality matches the brand and design. From copy and how the persona “talks” to color, typeface choices and other design elements, creating a persona can be an important part of design projects.

Graphics / 26 Nov 2014

7 Tips for Designing a Better Checkout Page

With the holiday season right around the corner, many of us will be doing some shopping online. (OK… maybe a lot of shopping!) The checkout page of a website can make that experience one to remember, or one you wish you could forget.

If you are designing a checkout page, there are so many considerations – functionality, usability, security and design. The last element is something every designer can have impact on. A checkout page should not be designed as an afterthought; it is arguably the most important page in the online shopping experience.

Accessibility / 24 Nov 2014

Website Design for Kids: Tips and Advice

Designing a project for children is a rather common assignment. From websites to packaging to other images, creating something that is kid-friendly will likely be asked of most designers at some point. But how can you make something kids and adults will appreciate?

That’s the real trick. Kids and adults have to feel engaged by what they are seeing. There are some things that you can do in the design process. Consider elements such as color, typography, gamification, language, animation, storyline and age group for the best success. Today we’re offering some advice and insight into this very topic!

Software / 19 Nov 2014

Getting Started With BootstrapBay (Plus 3 Theme Giveaways)

BootstrapBay is a new theme marketplace where you can buy and sell premium themes and templates. Every theme on the site is packed with features, customization options and features a fully-responsive design.

Here we’ll take a look at BootstrapBay, and what you can find on the site from available themes to pricing to selling your own designs. Plus, BootstrapBay is giving away three themes to three lucky winners. Read on to find out more!

Accessibility / 17 Nov 2014

What Makes a Great 404 Error Page?

No one wants to think website visitors are spending time on error pages, but it happens. The 404 error page is one place that these interactions happen rather frequently. Design it in a way that speaks to users rather than encouraging them to leave your site.

More memorable and less frustrating 404 error pages are the most successful. They can also be the most fun to design. So what can you do to create the best 404 page for your site? Here are a few tips, tricks and gallery of great examples.

Competitions / 13 Nov 2014

Form Building From a Designer’s Perspective

When people think of beautiful web design, form building isn’t usually the thing that comes to mind. But for the crafty designer, form design creates a unique opportunity to show off some serious skills. Executed well, it can singlehandedly elevate your site’s look and feel.

JotForm has always allowed users to create custom form designs using CSS, but their new Form Designer feature hands web designers their time back with incredibly simple functionality. Starting from basic black on white, your form can be fully customized using dozens of preset click options, with changes appearing in real time. The only thing required is your artistic touch, and just a few minutes to spare.

Layouts / 10 Nov 2014

Empathy and Design: What You Should Consider

Do you need to think about empathy when you design? (The answer is yes.) It may seem like a pretty common sense answer, but too often we get caught up in the design and message and not the user.

Who are you creating the design for? How will they connect with it? That’s where empathy comes in. Thinking about it from the start of the process can help you put together an even more successful project. (As you read through this post, look at the examples and think about the emotions these sites make you feel.)

Graphics / 3 Nov 2014

The Designer’s Guide to Visual Punctuation

Punctuation is more than just periods and exclamation points. In terms of design, punctuation can be anything that causes a reader or user to stop or pause. It can happen while reading text or as the eye moves from one element to another. These bits of visual punctuation are everywhere and are vital parts of any design concept.

The key elements of visual punctuation include common readable punctuation marks as well as space, lines, rules, icons and color.