Interactive Design articles

Today we’d like to demonstrate how to build an interactive HTML5 banner ad. This was a project we did for Carlsberg a while back, which we think can be useful for designers and programmers interested in front-end design work. Carlsberg is a multi-billion dollar, global beer brand that employs over 40,000 people around the world. Besides the household Carlsberg brand, they also house other brands such as Tuborg, Somersby (cider), Kronenbourg,...

Gather ’round, ladies, gents, and children. Lo, before your very eyes, we shall reveal several freaks of the Internet! Behold! Websites that don’t need JavaScript to display their god-given content! Oh, you think I’m kidding? Websites that are presented by plain old HTML and CSS are becoming increasingly rare. At this juncture, I don’t know who to blame, and is it really worth blaming anybody? I could point finger at whomever or whatever...

Unlike mobile applications, the web has no set design guidelines to which a designer can refer. Instead, each web project tends to be a blank canvas. There are frameworks like Material, Bootstrap, and others which provide a base, but no set guidelines which span the web as a whole. The result is a wide-ranging and diverse web, but one with a lack of cohesiveness, particularly in terms of user experience. Navigations differ in placement, structure,...

Using a living style guide (LSG) to drive development is a practice that is gaining a lot of popularity because it has many advantages, including code efficiency and UI consistency. But, how can you create one? What should you include? And where do you even start? In this tutorial I will delve into the nitty-gritty details of creating a living style using DocumentCSS. The Beauty of Living Style Guides Similar to a standard style guide, a living...

From simply ordering food to booking appointments, hiring services, and or even making bids, customers use online shopping as a friendly, and efficient way to shop. Establishing an online store as unique in its niche is essential for staying ahead of competitors. As the number of consumers increases on a daily basis, online stores have started deploying chatbots to engage customers. Here are 10 ways chatbots can be used to meet the needs of...

Happy New Year! At this time every January we try to predict what’s going to happen in our industry over the next 12 months. I hope that 2018 will be a great year for inclusive design, for standards-compliance, for ethical practices. I hope for those things every year, and annually it does feel like we’re inching closer. However this post is about unexpected trends, changes, and an attempt to predict the landscape ahead of us, because it feels...

I might have noticed a trend or two in web design this last year. Let me rephrase that: I spend the vast majority of my time online. I do my shopping, here, and my work, and a lot of my leisure reading. I browse the Internet mid-gaming, whether to look up information on the game I’m playing, or just to entertain myself some more because my ADD is really that bad. I even spend a huge amount of time browsing portfolio sites, where designers get to live...

Beef up your photo toolbox with more than 250 beautiful, high-quality photos covering a slew of subject matters and settings! This collection of 280 free CC0 images can be used for your website or print projects without limits. The images from FreePhotos are just perfect to use on your latest project, including background images, sliders, posters, flyers, apps, articles, Website design, and just about anything else you're working on....

Traffic is among the deciding factors which determine the ultimate success of an e-commerce website. As it brings potential customers to the businesses, it also helps maintain a robust rank among competitors in Google SERPs. Visibility is the key factor that ensures a website remains displayed on SERPs and keeps attracting users towards its products and services. By upholding SERP rankings, an e-commerce website can generate profitable...

Now why on Earth would you want to make anyone angry? Angry people are unpleasant to deal with at the best of times. Getting users angry seems awfully counterproductive. Why did you even write this stu... Well, you don’t want them angry at you, of course. I wrote a whole article about that. Anger, temporary as it might be in most circumstances, is a fantastic way to inspire action. More specifically, it’s a great way to inspire social change....

Symmetry is safe. It’s comfortable, non-threatening, and aesthetically pleasing. It can also be very dull. Using ‘asymmetrical balance’ can make things more interesting while still sticking to a grid to keep things ordered. In design, as in so many other things, the higher the risks the greater the potential rewards. Symmetry has long been considered a good thing precisely because it is aesthetically pleasing and unchallenging...

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) myths are usually created by people who either make common sense assumptions that are completely wrong, or they are created intentionally by good/bad people because it is more fun than sticking a carrot up their nose. The algorithm that Google uses is now so complex that some people are giving up on SEO because it is too difficult to see any meaningful results, but even though you don't have to be as strict as you...

Macromedia has a lot to answer for. Flash may be on the way out; but flashy websites reminiscent of the ’90s are very much alive and kicking. They just use JavaScript now. And they take up a lot of bandwidth. Okay, I promise that this won’t be yet another rant extolling the virtues of minimalism, and websites that are hard to break. I mean, I prefer them. I always will. However, I am coming to realize that we minimalism-loving designers are outnumbered...

Celebrate the great outdoors by grabbing this nature-loving freebie pack from Noa Nvrro.The Adventure and Travel Graphics Collection is jam-packed with 26 free graphics (vector shapes, dividers, sunbursts and icons) for use in both personal and commercial projects.  Also, you'll get 4 editable logo templates easy to customize. Target a new crop of clients by whipping up travel and adventure emblems, badges, posters, labels, logos...