UI articles

Personalization; it’s probably one of the most important design trends to emerge in recent years.  As consumers in all industries become more demanding, they’re increasingly searching for online experiences that are customized to suit their individual needs and expectations.  Today, personalization exists in virtually every digital interaction, from adverts on social media to PPC campaigns and email marketing efforts. ...

How can your customer reach you? If a client arrives on your website after searching on Google, what can they do to take the next step in a relationship with your brand, without buying anything? One of the primary aims of any website is to drive conversions. However, it usually takes between 5 and 8 touchpoints to generate a viable sales lead. People don’t want to convert straight away. Since building a relationship with customers is crucial...

Today, great design isn’t just about conveying the right amount of information in a certain number of pages.  There’s more to creating the perfect website than experimenting with visuals and sound. Designers need to think carefully about how each element of their site impacts the overall user experience.  After all, with billions of websites available to explore, it takes something truly immersive to convince your client’s audience...

Dark themes are everywhere these days.  As human beings continue to spend more of their time interacting with technology, dark themes provide a more relaxing way to engage with the digital world. More often than not, these themes are easier on the eyes, more attractive, and perfect for the dedicated user.  Throughout 2020, countless leading brands have debuted their own version of the dark theme. Google has a solution for your Drive, while...

And it does this 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year without ever asking for a pay raise. But this is true only if your website landing page is designed well, maintained, and optimized to the gills. The art and science of a flawless landing page is beyond the scope of a single article, but we can start with helping you spot seven of the most common – and damaging – trouble spots. 1. Unclear Value Statement Typically, new visitors to your...

When it comes to increasing sales for your ecommerce store, there are 3 levers you can pull: You can increase your average order value; You can increase the amount of traffic to your site; You can increase your conversion rate. While all of the above are important, the cheapest, most effective way to grow your sales is by improving your conversion rate. For most online stores, low conversion rates are typically the result of a poor design or a bad...

Web design clients come from a wide variety of backgrounds. One day, you’ll be designing a portfolio website for a voiceover artist, the next you’ll be creating a comprehensive ecommerce site for a leading retailer. In an ideal world, you’ll get to a point where you eventually specialize in a niche. However, you’ll need to master both avenues first. The more time you spend in this industry, the more you’ll learn that every client...

If we don’t question this kind of design homogenization, do we put ourselves at risk of perpetuating the same mistakes in the years to come? Or is it even a mistake to begin with? Today, I’m going to look at four things that are likely causing this, and what you can do to break the mold. 1. Education We used to have a design school in every city in the world, each with its own design style or, at the very least, the encouragement of its designers to...

You’ve been working away at your latest design project, and the client has given the go-ahead on your lovingly created digital concepts. Now it’s time to bring those designs to life, and you have a developer queued up to do just that. So your part’s done, right? Not quite. You’re going to want to make sure your developer has the best head start they can in order to create the site as you imagined. Below are a few tips to make that handover process...

Web designers could be forgiven if their eyes glazed over at the mere mention of building a custom website. Creating an advanced website used to require programming knowledge and hours of coding. But thanks to Gutenberg, even those who don’t know their HTML from their CSS will be able to create professional websites that stand out from the competition. The initial feedback to the release of Gutenberg certainly was damning: “…Useless…A...

Taking a stab in the dark is taking on a new meaning with the rise of dark mode design. One of the most requested features over the past few years, both Apple and Google have made a dark theme an essential part of their UI. But why is this? What are the benefits? Are there any pitfalls? These are the top things to consider when designing for dark mode… Why Use Dark Mode At All? We are on our phones almost constantly. The average person spends over four...

Wearable devices are some of the hottest tech on the market today. We’re living in a world where people want access to endless information as quickly as possible. Glancing at your watch and being able to check everything from your heart rate, to your text messages can be incredibly convenient. As of 2019, the latest numbers revealed that around 1 quarter of adults used a wearable device at least once a month in the US. What’s more, the number...

The first global pandemic of the digital era is upon us. We’re living in unprecedented and uncomfortable times. For our senior citizens, these past several weeks have been particularly discomforting. According to the CDC, men and women over the age of 65 are significantly more likely to develop complications from COVID-19. As we seek to restrict the spread of coronavirus, it’s critical that we protect one another, especially our elders,...

Today, we’re going to look at what web standards are, why we have them, and what you actually need to do with them as a web designer. What Are Web Standards? When we talk about web standards, what we’re referring to are formal specifications that the Internet and everything on it should adhere to. So, this is frequently less about how the frontend of a website appears and more about how the backend of it is structured. Web standards aren’t...