Jakob Nielsen’s How Users Read on the Web is 25 years old this week, and one glance at an eye-tracking study will tell you its key observations are still relevant today. Simply put, users don’t read a web page; they scan it for individual words and sentences. A typical pattern shown in eye-tracking reports is that users will rapidly scan a page, scrolling down to do so. Then either hit the back button and pump your bounce rate, or scroll to...

There were mixed reactions on Thursday morning when Adobe announced it had acquired Figma. Excited press releases extolling the benefits of the “collaboration” followed the news. Dylan Field, founder and CEO of Figma, said: “There is a huge opportunity for us to accelerate the growth and innovation of the Figma platform with access to Adobe’s technology…” The reaction from the design community has been a little less enthusiastic....

Apple has released an OS update. Packaged in with it is the latest version of Safari, 16. Expected to be released ahead of next month’s macOS 13, Safari 16 is packed with updates, making it one of the most capable browsers available. For web designers, the significance is the forward momentum in web technologies that enable freer design work and fewer hacks to achieve complex layouts. Little by little, CSS recommendations are being implemented...

Typefaces give expression to text, communicating personality in a way that no other design element can. And so, we put together this collection of the best new fonts we’ve seen on the web each month. This month’s collection of fresh new fonts includes some typefaces that push boundaries in subtle but irresistible ways, a few retro fonts that evoke specific eras, and some exceptionally well-drawn examples of classic themes. Gazzetta...

Three weeks ago, you started a web design agency. Then over the last two weeks, you’ve taken a leap toward making your business viable by defining who you are as a business and putting together your documents. This week, we’ll tie up loose ends so that you’re a fully functional agency able to pick and choose the work you accept. Day 22: Pitch Deck Over the next few years, you’ll be doing a lot of pitching: walking into a room and trying to convince...

Two weeks ago, you started a web design agency. Last week you began to define your agency by choosing clients, setting red lines, and writing your elevator pitch. This week, we will implement some practical solutions before problems occur. Remember one task per day; it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Day 15: Terms of Service In the rush of excitement surrounding a new project, it’s too easy to skip the preliminaries and jump into work. Before...

Last week, you started a web design agency. This week we’ll help you take the next steps toward making your agency viable. The first couple of days were spent on legal checks and taxes. After that, you’ve picked a niche to specialize in, an awesome name, worked out how much you’re going to charge, and set up business accounts. Then, finally, you took a day off to prepare for this week. (If you skipped any of those steps, go back and catch up now.)...

There’s nothing like a new font or two to breathe new life into your designs. And so, every month, we put together this collection of the fonts that have caught our eye in the past few weeks. This month we’ve got traditional slab-serifs, some original scripts, a couple of workhorses, and plenty of characterful display faces. Enjoy! Canora There are plenty of calligraphic typefaces available, but Canora is a little different. Alongside...

Many designers and developers dream of starting their own web design agency. Most don’t try because it seems too challenging, but getting started is simple. To start a web design agency, you decide you’re the boss of a web design agency. That’s all there is to it. Now, let’s talk about the tricky part: making your web design agency sustainable over the short, medium, and long term. Over the next few weeks, we’ll walk you through the...

Your brain is extremely fast. It’s capable of processing data and making a decision with unparalleled speed. Macro decisions, like product purchases, may be considered, but micro decisions such as whether to tap the back button or to sign-up for a newsletter are impulsive. In the case of micro-decisions, reasoning, logic, and past decisions are processed so quickly you don’t even notice the decision — we call those processes “gut...

Typefaces give a voice and a character to our text. As a result, they influence our designs more than most design elements. But with so many typefaces available, selecting one (or two!) can be one of the most challenging decisions in any design project — which is probably why so many big brands opt for inoffensive geometric sans-serifs. In our monthly roundup, we give you a selection of new options, including variable fonts, updated classics,...

UX laws are an invaluable tool, providing guidelines for designers that ensure we don’t have to continually reinvent the wheel when crafting experiences for the web. However, UX laws tend to be devised by scientists and psychologists — people who are more than comfortable with the exceptions and allowances of academic language. By the time they filter down to us in the trenches, the language has invariably been over-simplified, and...

WordPress 6.0 has been released, and another niche jazz musician will be enjoying extra Spotify royalties next month. WordPress 6, named for latin-jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill, is the realization of a change of direction the WordPress Foundation adopted several years ago.  All versions of WordPress now power around 42% of the web. That’s approximately 810,000,000 sites. If you looked at each site for a single second, without...

Designing for user experiences is what all designers do. UX is often thought of as the preserve of app or web designers; however, even a print designer laying out a magazine anticipates reader reaction to the scale of type, the placement of adverts, and the art direction of successive stories. Because all designers design user experiences, the role of UX Designer has come to mean someone focused on creating a product or service utilizing research...