How to Add Innovation to UI Design Patterns

Welcome back, readers! My favorite thing about you all is that you’re all much too classy to put up Christmas decorations this darned early. Yes. You are. I insist. I could also insist that you have a look at these portfolios, but you already clicked, and we all know what you’re here for: a mix of minimalist, corporate, and super artsy designs! Note: I’m judging these sites by how good they look to me. If they’re creative and original, or...

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...

Many, if not most designers will at some point encounter this scenario: they’ve just completed a digital wire-frame for a new project, with a new client. They’ve thought long and hard about the placement of everything, and they’re ready for feedback. They figure it’ll be a short conversation, just enough time for the client to say, “Yeah, that looks fine. Can’t wait to see it with the details filled in!” The client will take a...

Halting climate change; distributing wealth around the globe; achieving social, racial, sexual, and gender equality; ending violence; there are so many challenges in today’s world. The web can be an incredible vehicle for change, and Adobe are lending a helping hand with an incredible, free UI kit for Adobe XD. The UI kit has been created by Florida-based designer, Meagan Fisher. Her goal was to help non-profits publish better websites;...

At its core, the concept of interaction was always about communication. Human-Computer Interaction has never been about graphical user interfaces, which is why Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) are the future of user interface design. An interface is just a medium people use to interact with a system—whether it’s a GUI, VUI or something else. So Why is VUI So Important? Two reasons: Firstly, conversational interfaces are so fascinating...

After an extended wait, Zurb have finally released the much anticipated version 6.5 of its popular Foundation framework. (This is in place of the originally intended 6.4.4 release.) So, what has changed? Well, this is not a major release so we’re not getting CSS Grid yet, but the changelog is pretty long. The folks behind this release have grouped the changes into 3 categories: improved stability, improved accessibility, and improved...

Few of the current crop of page builders are as simple as Mozello. You don’t need any previous experience, Mozello takes care of everything for you. Just run through the quick set-up and you’ll have a working website, online, in minutes. Mozello is a surprisingly easy-to-use platform that offers you the opportunity to create a personal or business site, with no design or code knowledge. But where it really excels is in lowering the entry-level...

Designers and developers are hard at work creating tons of new goodies to make work life easier. This month’s roundup of tools for designers includes a smorgasbord of resources that includes everything from productivity and collaboration tools to icon and design kits to fonts that you’ll love. 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...

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...

Okay, how in the heck do you make something “cute”? Now maybe you’ve grown up in an environment where getting in touch with your feelings was anathema. Maybe you just naturally gravitated to Max Steel over Hello Kitty. Maybe you’ve never had a problem with any of this, and freely make high-pitched noises whenever there’s a puppy in sight (as is appropriate). Whatever your background, attempting to turn a web design into “something...

A visual language is just like any other form of communication. Where “language” refers to spoken or written communication, visual language goes a step further to connect with a certain community. Elements from color to style to type of photos or illustrations establish what a brand or company is. These visual elements tie together a group in a structured and conventional way that people understand. A visual language includes both the...

There’s something very special about social media marketing and how it compels consumers to engage with it. The Hootsuite 2018 Social Media Barometer says there are now over 3.2 billion global consumers who are active on social media. With such a large part of the population actively involved in social media, it’s no surprise that 67% of business executives surveyed in the report said that social media marketing improves their bottom...

A colleague recently said to me, “I’ve heard that you’re a client relations guru. Are there any tips or tricks that you have for starting to build up those relationships?” I always love a question like this—something that makes me stop and reflect. It’s true. Working with people and developing new (or existing) relationships is something I have a knack for. Even though I self-identify as an introvert, I love doing it because genuinely...

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...

There’s a moment that every tech nerd in every corner of the tech industry knows all too well. It’s that moment when you see that some movie or TV show has decided that your area of tech is relevant to the story, and by golly they plan to butcher it in the cheapest and most simplified way possible. (This is your yearly reminder that CSI: Cyber was a thing, and that NCIS once had two people type on the same keyboard to “hack faster”.) Oh dear God…why?...

In a recent post, I discussed how caution needs to be taken when designing websites for a global audience. Different cultures perceive things like color quite differently from one another. Devices that might be popular in one region of the world might not be used in another. And the customs each country has—even for something as seemingly insignificant as filling out a contact form—can vary greatly. Needless to say, global web design...

Winter is coming, and so is WordPress 5.0. From some of the chatter about Gutenberg—the new content editor in WordPress—you might be led to believe that it’s worse than White Walkers. Others of us are more cautiously optimistic. We can all agree on two things: dragons are cool, and a lot of theme developers are going to have some work to do. The WordPress developers themselves are leading the way with a brand new theme they’re calling...

Friends, I come with a warning…not to alarm, but to assist. Grab your crucifix, gather your silver bullets, prime your chainsaw, because I’m about to shine a light on nightmare clients that will chill the heart of the most experienced web professional. Nightmare clients everywhere, await the unsuspecting designer. They’ll suck the time from your day, relentlessly pursue you, and trap you in a project that you’ll never escape. My...

When looking at good design, I often look for things that aren’t totally obvious. There’s an instinct that you like something before you know why. That’s the common thread among this month’s three essential design trends. From animations that delight and take projects to the next level, to white space that makes a design so approachable, to dark color overlays that enhance readability, these trends contribute to better user experiences....

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...

Before you ever sit down to design a website for a client, you develop user personas that are representative of their target audience. Once you’ve established an identity for the main user (or users), you can more easily shape an experience that caters to their needs and motivations. But what do you do when the target audience isn’t so clearly defined into one or two neatly packaged personas? Take a website like Zappos, for instance. Zappos...

WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal; these are perhaps the three biggest names in the world of the consumer CMS. They are known, they are loved, they are behemoths for a good reason. There’s no escaping them. We are all WordPress, now. No, but seriously, there’s almost nothing they can’t do, with the judicious application of plugins, themes, and coding knowledge. Yeah, believe it or not, I’m not here to rag on them. Kudos to their developers....