6 Ways to Speed Up Slow Clients

At least once every day, some designer somewhere in the world will look at something made months or years ago; failing that, some executive will get the bright idea that they can make their mark on a company and the world by changing something that already exists, instead of making something new. One or both of these people might get this sort of itch in the back of their head, accompanied by a sense of dissatisfaction and ill-defined purpose. The...

Welcome to our roundup of the best websites launched (or relaunched with major updates) in the last four weeks. September marks the beginning of Fall in the northern hemisphere, and reflecting that change, we’re seeing fewer light, airy, minimal designs, and more rich, warm, comforting designs. There’s been a flood of new design agency sites, and a ton of new season fashion sites launched this month—we’ve included the best. You’ll...

I love the hamburger menu. I hate the hamburger menu. I am constantly contradicting myself about this tiny website element; whether I think it works beautifully…or just makes a mess. And I’m not alone. While this icon has exploded in popularity, there’s still significant debate as to whether it is the right choice for tucking navigation menus into websites. It’s a debate I have with myself (and team) every time we approach a new project...

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...

Worldwide, retail e-commerce sales totaled $2.29 trillion last year. By the end of this year they’ll have reached $2.8 trillion. If the trend continues apace, e-commerce sales will reach a whopping $4.479 trillion by 2021. The message is clear: Consumers love the convenience of e-commerce; the reduced prices compared to real world stores, with their real world overheads; the greater range of products. With a simple click, or tap, you...

A little less than three years ago, Uber rebranded as the cab-service of choice for dystopian sci-fi pac-man fans. It was a move reportedly intended to recast the startup as the choice of every day people; it actually stripped the brand of all personal connections. This week, a little less than three years longer than it should have waited, Uber have unveiled a far more coherent, far more appealing identity. Designed by the “Uber Brand Experience”...

The market is overcrowded with web tools and services, today it’s easy to launch your own product and everybody is playing the game. It’s good to have competition but some of these solutions are far from being excellent in terms of functionality, safety, and support, but the pricing is the same as premium solutions, so it’s hard to judge which to use. Testing them all, and picking the best takes time and money. That’s why we’ve handpicked...


If WordPress is the world’s favorite blogging platform, then WooCommerce is surely the most popular e-commerce solution available. WooCommerce is currently leading the WordPress e-commerce market and in popularity exceeds its nearest rivals—Shopify and Magento—roughly 4 times over. In this post we’ll learn how to capture and recover abandoned shopping carts in WooCommerce and how to create a successful abandoned cart...

The hotly anticipated Smashing Book 6: New Frontiers in Web Design, is released today. Dedicated to some of the thorniest problems we face in our professional lives, it takes a swing at some of the biggest headache-triggering issues in contemporary web design, from the accessibility of single-page apps in React and Angular, to designing for Smart watches. You’ll find solutions to problems with CSS’ latest layout tool CSS Grid, as well...

Development time is a precious resource. In order to be more efficient and responsive, product teams continuously try to use advanced techniques for product creation. One of the most popular frameworks that help the product team to achieve this goal is a design sprint. A design sprint is a framework that helps answer critical business questions through rapid prototyping and user testing. Basically, it’s a shortcut to learn without building...

This month’s collection of new tools and elements for designers has a common theme – productivity. There are so many things here to help you do work better and more efficiently. But there’s fun too…make sure to look for some of the hidden design gems deep in this article. They’ll bring a smile to your face for sure. 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...

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...

Have you ever visited a website, looked around for a bit, and then headed straight to the footer to find the information you were looking for? You’re not the only one. Footers are unique pieces of screen real estate that offer a number of benefits. They house important information (like contact details and copyright statements) and navigation options that make it easier for users to find what they’re looking for. In this article, we’ll...

Businesses have more options today in terms of how they get their goods and services out to customers: strictly brick-and-mortar, 100% online, or a combination of the two. Because of this, web design isn’t necessarily as straightforward as we’d like it to be. Of course, there will always be certain best practices to abide by—abundant white space; responsive and mobile-first design; easy-to-find CTAs; streamlined user flow; consistent...

Creating great UX is a primary goal for all product designers. It’s up to the designer to make a process of interaction with a product as simple as possible. Modern products try to achieve simplicity by following a fundamentally different approach called Anticipatory Design. This article is intended to make you familiar with the concept of anticipatory design, as well as share a few excellent examples of how anticipatory design can be used...

Hello Readers. It’s September, so as soon as your kids are off to school, maybe you can finally have a five-minute power nap. Take that power nap with equal parts gusto and relief, dear Reader. You’ve earned it. Last month, one of you asked for less “ultra-modern” designs, and the design gods have seen fit to provide. We still have some of that ultra-modern goodness — because apparently now that it’s been started, we can’t make...

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...

No, it’s not a clickbait title and yes, starting with $100 can get you an actual running store. In this article I’ll go through every step you need to take to get your store up and running and explain the costs involved. Granted, to keep the costs down you’ll do all the heavy lifting but hey, nothing worthwhile ever comes easy so let’s dive right in… 1. The Product It might feel odd for some that I would go about explaining how to launch a $100...

Much is made of the need for inspiration in design work. While most of a designer’s job is sweating the details, we all still need that little spark to get us going. We need (or at least enjoy having) that one initial idea or concept to get us started on the path to design greatness. And so we binge. We read articles that show off cool things other people have designed, watch videos of new and innovative products being unveiled, and generally seek...

Including high quality blogs and other forms of useful, interesting content is a great way to boost SEO and encourage repeat visits to a website. However, with everyone playing the same game, getting visitors flowing to a new site can still be touch and go — even if you do everything right. Increasingly, targeted advertising on Google and social media helps bring new eyes to every lovingly crafted website, and companies relying purely...

While this tends to be the time of year when things start to slow a bit in the design world, there are still trends that are worth paying attention to as you plan future projects. One element that stands out quite distinctly is the use of the color purple in projects. This trend deserves a mention of its own (see No. 3) but also note the use of the color in examples from other projects in the other featured trends as well. Here’s what’s trending in...

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...