Have you ever encountered a website with confusing navigation? Been sent down the wrong path by misleading labels? Or needed your best detective skills to find a particular piece of content? It’s frustrating, isn’t it? What can companies do to ensure that users can find what they are looking for on a website? Usability...

Google’s minimal search page has consistently been heralded as a minimalist masterpiece since it first appeared in 1996. It’s been argued by numerous designers—myself included—that it was the perception of Google as a ‘pure’ unadulterated search was more central to Google’s rise and eventual dominance,...

When I go to any website, I’m looking for something. I may want to buy a product, or find information, or browse random memes, but whatever it is, I have a goal in mind. That goal could even be subconscious, but it’s there. Human beings never do anything without a reason. Whether or not they know what that reason is, or can articulate...

Transitions are a powerful way to communicate a change in a user interface. They can be used in apps to help offload a lot of the cognitive work into the visual cortex: they help transport users between navigational contexts, explain changes in the arrangement of elements on a screen, and reinforce element hierarchy. Consequently...

Designing fun, visually appealing party banners can be a complicated task if you don’t have enough graphic design experience or know how to use image editing software, such as Photoshop or Sketch. Buying and installing an image editing software, installing custom fonts, designing the graphics and figuring out how to...

2017 looks set to be the year that augmented reality (AR) moves firmly into the mainstream. As the next big technology trend, it looks set to have a massive impact on user experience and, by extension, user experience design. The good news is that augmented reality has the potential to solve user problems that have challenged...

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...

Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD. The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers. These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile...

Ghost is a newer blogging CMS placing simplicity over all else. It’s one of the easiest platforms to install and learn on your own. But it certainly doesn’t have as large of a community as WordPress so theme selection is limited. Thankfully there’s a big open source community around Ghost so developers who do create...

UX patterns are design solutions that can be repeated for common problems. Their aim is to make user accessibility much easier, which leads to better performance in terms of conversion or retention. However, sometimes these patterns can actually become quite a nuisance for your users instead of benefitting them. That’s...

Hello WDD Readers. It’s July, and is it hot in here, or is it just these awesome portfolios? This month, it seems that post-minimalism and brutalism are giving way to our love of things that look pretty and designery. That’s a word now. Oh, you’ll still see a few sites that embrace the "artist" aesthetic pretty hard, but...

We’re not sure what happens…perhaps it’s the Summer heat, or a birthday mood that makes TemplateMonster so generous, but they’re launching a giveaway of WordPress themes that is simply unmissable. If you’re a WordPress fan—like a fifth of the internet—then this is your chance to grab a free theme for your...

This month’s collection is a mashup of functional finds and fun gems, such as a tool that can help you find stolen images and a website filled with terrible color combinations. There are also tools to help you find APIs, design or development tweets, and new typefaces. Plus, almost everything on the list this month is free,...

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...

Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD. The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers. These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile...