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8 Design Tips for a Stellar Email on Small Screens

Mobile / 17 Apr 2017

8 Design Tips for a Stellar Email on Small Screens

How many users are opening emails from you on a phone or tablet? It might be a higher percentage than you think. According to Litmus, which provides email tracking software, 54 percent of all emails were opened on a mobile device in 2016.

That means that most of your emails are being seen on a phone. Are you designing an email that makes the most of it? Here are tips to make your email design more mobile-friendly.

14 Useful Tools & Websites for Designers

Business / 7 Sep 2016

14 Useful Tools & Websites for Designers

We thought we’d do something a bit different today, and feature a collection of some useful online tools and websites that we’ve recently found ourselves using more and more.

We’ll be looking at a design marketplace, a wire-framing tool, a HTML conversion service, and even a few lighter pieces, including a geeky comic. A broad range of different tools and services, but something for everyone. Hopefully you’ll stumble across something that you find useful in your next week at work!

Bushel: A Better Way to Manage Your Apple Devices

Reviews / 24 Jun 2016

Bushel: A Better Way to Manage Your Apple Devices

Managing devices is one of those business problems that you don’t hear a lot about. But how do you keep up with all your Apple devices across your agency or business? Do you know which users have what equipment and apps?

Bushel is a tool that makes this inventory process that much simpler. It is a cloud-based Mobile Device Management solution for the iPads, iPhones and Macs in your workplace. Bushel makes device management accessible and affordable for everyone, so businesses can support their users without help from IT. Here’s a look at how it works.

The Complete Guide to an Effective Card-Style Interface Design

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.

Building a Custom CSS3 Pagination User Interface

CSS / 28 Nov 2013

Building a Custom CSS3 Pagination User Interface

Website pagination is a crucial aspect to any layout with repeating content. Blogs are often a consideration, but also portfolio listings or related news/feed links or any other types of archive. Organizing a blog post into many pages helps to cut down on reading time – especially with particularly in-depth articles.

In this tutorial I want to demonstrate a collection of CSS techniques for designing pagination. Once you combine these designs with content systems like WordPress you can see how the interfaces really work in action. To get an idea of the final product take a look at my live sample demo below.

Simple Tips for Designing a Newsletter Template That Stands Out

Business / 29 Apr 2013

Simple Tips for Designing a Newsletter Template That Stands Out

Almost every business has an email newsletter these days. From retailers promoting sales, to organizations showcasing information and events, the email newsletter is one of the most popular marketing tools out there. And for it to really be effective, it must look good.

An almost unlimited number of free email templates can make it easy to just download something and send out an email, but you should really take the time to create a custom template for communications that represents your business and who you are. Your newsletter represents your work just as much as a website or printed product. Although getting started can be intimidating, it’s fairly easy to create a newsletter template, choose software for distribution and send your first group email. It is important to keep in mind that most people get a lot of email every day, so you must work to make your newsletter stand out.

The End of Keyboards: A Question of “When?”

Business / 17 Apr 2013

The End of Keyboards: A Question of “When?”

On Wikipedia, the definition of a keyboard is a “typewriter-style device, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches”. In an age where technology is seemingly magical in its state of advancement, our beloved peripheral is starting to feel more like a relic than a modern input device.

As attached as I am to keyboards, I have clear vision to the light at the end of the tunnel. With the prevalence of pen inputs, touch screens, voice commands and other new ways of using technology, its time for us all to admit; The keyboard era is coming to an end.

Business / 25 Mar 2013

5 Important Lessons I’ve Learned About Mobile App Interface Design

I have been designing for a living since 2009 and, in the past three years, I have been focusing my skills on both web and mobile user interface design. During this time I’ve experienced the good and bad of the industry. Good clients, bad clients. Good ideas, bad ideas. Good developers, bad developers. There have been app approvals and app rejections.

Sometimes it can be frustrating, and although these so-called “bad experiences” can suck, they’ve taught me some important lessons. These lessons not only speed up my day-to-day workflow but also help me design a better user experience for the target audience.

Understanding the Three Question Limit as a Designer

Business / 13 Mar 2013

Understanding the Three Question Limit as a Designer

Have you noticed when you ask someone three questions in a row, their eyes glaze over and they stop paying attention? It’s a psychological defense mechanism to keep our privacy to ourselves. It’s one reason so many people choke up when taking a test.

The human, by nature, is a questioning animal. We question our existence and future but when it comes to giving answers, that’s just not in our biological nature. This is one of the problems with planning a design project. Questions have to be asked – numerous questions. There is, however, a way to ask questions and get all the answers you need…

30 Brand New Creative VIP PSD & CSS Design Resources

Freebies / 12 Feb 2013

30 Brand New Creative VIP PSD & CSS Design Resources

Loads of new freebies and open source codes are placed online every day. Web & mobile designers can learn a lot by studying newer interface trends and design layouts. Creative VIP is one such website which publishes freebies and premium content. This is an excellent resource for designers who want to dig a bit deeper into constructing usable layouts for the web.

In this roundup I have put together 30 of the latest freebies from Creative VIP. You will find both PSDs and HTML/CSS codes mixed in with each other. Some resources actually offer both graphics and the code together! But no matter what items you’re looking for, this showcase is bound to have something cool.

Top 10 Apps for Designers Right Now

Software / 28 Jan 2013

Top 10 Apps for Designers Right Now

If you are like me, apps are becoming an essential part of your workflow – from mapping out sketches, to gathering ideas, to taking notes and filing invoices.

But there are just so many options out there. How do you filter through them all to find applications that work for what you do?

I have a handful of “old faithful” apps that I use on my phone, iPad and online as well as a few app only tools that are rather new. By using a mix of software applications, I have been able to work more efficiently and hopefully save time. Here are 10 great apps for designers – some may be familiar but hopefully you’ll find something new that you love.

Create an Animated Share Menu With CSS

CSS / 18 Dec 2012

Create an Animated Share Menu With CSS

Sharing is an integral part of the web experience and designers are always looking for new and interesting ways to highlight or show off the sharing portion of their pages.

Today, we’re going to build a simple sharing menu that integrates an icon font as well as some animations. The final product is inspired by Disqus, but has a unique twist of its own. Let’s jump in and see how it works.