20 Freshest Web Designs, March 2019

Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.  The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week. Note...

In an increasingly competitive market, every freelancer and agency needs a way to stand out from the crowd. One of the simplest options is to commit to only ever working with quality assets; not least high-quality stock images. Quality stock images help your design stand out by reducing the high cost of art direction. Stock images can be used for banners, background images, to add a human touch to otherwise impersonal user experiences; often,...

A lot of very smart people have said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Other people say that nostalgia bait…ahem…“retrospectives” get a lot of clicks. They’re both right, and I thought it might be both fun and educational to take a look at some of the dead UI conventions of yesteryear. It’s good to remember why they ever lived, and how and why they died. It gives us insight into how best practices were born,...

Building a learnable website is much tougher than it sounds. One thinks one’s design is clear and comprehensible; however, a design that might be obvious for you, might be perceived totally different by a user with a different set of experiences. Therefore, the goal is to design a clear user path that visitors can quickly pick up and understand. Why Learnability Matters Learnability has a strong correlation with usability. It is vital for...

It’s the first day of Spring! As you look to clean up other parts of your life (e.g. your home, your refrigerator, your yard) make the cleanup of your web design business a priority as well. If you’re anything like me, you set aside time later in the week or month, promising yourself that you’ll finally take care of “business stuff”. And if you’re also like me, you often have to postpone those business maintenance tasks because new...

This month we are all about tools that make life easier. And that’s exactly what you’ll find in this roundup of new things for designers – from color tools to workflow enhancers to code snippets to fonts that will make you smile, everything here can make your design life easier. If we’ve missed something that you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments. And if you know of a new app or resource that should be featured...

Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.  The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week. Note...

Ah, kids…The light of our lives. They bring joy, fulfillment, laughter, and love. Then they start crying, and I hand them right back to their parents. Don’t get me wrong. I like children in the abstract. I believe they are the future, and so they should be protected and nurtured…elsewhere. I’ve even been given responsibility over large numbers of them for hours at a time, back in my old missionary days. It still happens sometimes, because...

In 2014, I was a busy, young software engineer working full-time for a tech company in London. On a quest to be hyper efficient, I was always was on the hunt for user-friendly tools that would streamline my workflows and cut back on paper usage, which proved to be a challenge. I fell right into a market gap when I needed to edit and modify PDFs but none of the tools on the market offered a user-friendly interface with the functionality I needed or wanted....

As a UX writer, it’s my job to know how to create web copy that convinces readers to take action. That said, it doesn’t matter how engaging of a story I craft for my clients’ web pages or blog posts. If what I’ve written looks terrible on the page, no one will bother to read it. Here’s the problem though: UX writers are not designers. No matter how many short sentences we write to succinctly communicate a point or jargon-free copy we craft...

It’s March, dear Readers, and here in Monterrey, the weather can’t seem to make up its darned mind. Is it Spring? Early Summer? Are we getting a plague of groundhogs? None can tell. On the whole, it would be best to stay inside, grab a nice beverage that could be hot or cold depending on your weather, and browse through some portfolios. We’ve got a rather varied mix, and a continuation of the amorphous blob trend, which I’m still not tired...

Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.  The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week. Note...

Minimalism is a trend that has largely defined the best part of the last decade. Its rise to prominence came as a reaction to the abundance of heavy styling which preceded it. It offered a simpler and cleaner design direction for websites and interfaces. Web and app designs became less complex in terms of styling, speeding up development time and resulting in digital products that loaded quicker. As a design direction, minimalism has been around...

So you’re designing a new website or online store, and you need a web developer. You might need them to develop a site from scratch. Or maybe you just need them to work through some tweaks, changes, issues, or extra functionality. Either way, your relationship with your web developer can be difficult to manage. I’m a developer, so I know that there are so, so many ways the relationship can fall apart: Missed deadlines Lack of communication...

Social media is an interesting thing. As web design professionals, it can be a great opportunity to share your work and get in front of prospects who might otherwise never find you online. But for as much good as social media can do to propel your marketing efforts, it has the potential to be just as harmful to your business. Social Media Mistakes That Can Harm Your Web Design Business CareerBuilder surveyed over 1,000 people involved in the hiring...

The WordPress community officially has Gutenberg fever. While there has been some grumbling (and not without some cause), the blocky little editor that could, has gone mainstream. People have been building, writing, collating, and generally just adapting to the changes, and I’m here to show you some of what they’ve done… Enjoy! Plugins As is usual, the WordPress community has gone wild, and has already developed loads of plugins...

Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.  The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week. Note...

The somewhat controversial topic of the usefulness of gamification in business has been sparking debates recently. One claim is that it’s a great business tool that helps engage and retain clients, as well as lead them in the right direction. The opposite view holds that there are few real successes in gamification. Today we’re going to the consider the case for gamification in interactive design, and illustrate it with some great examples....

For web designers today, creating a website can mean a whole lot than just functionality, usability and aesthetic appeal. Today, every new-born website requires a thorough integration of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) protocols to become crawlable and get indexed by search engines such as Google. A good website can attract great amounts of traffic. However, to make sure your traffic is relevant, geo-specific, and hails from the target...

It’s all in the title, really. I am no stranger to dogmatic thinking. I was once a very religious missionary, and currently am an open source enthusiast, a web designer, and a gamer. Of all the dogmatic thinkers I’ve encountered in each of those fields, I’m not actually sure which scare me the most. Some are easily identified from a distance, but you never know who compiles their own UNIX-based OS from scratch until it’s too late. No, it’s...

Typography, color and distinct layouts are all elements that contribute to any design project. They are also elements of design that can trend over time. That’s exactly what we are seeing this month as bold design elements are just the things that are making certain website designs come to the forefront. Here’s what’s trending in design in this month. Bold Sans-Serifs Big, thick lettering can draw attention and tell a story. And that’s...

Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.  The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week. Note...