Tools & Resources articles

Are you one of those designers who loves to test new stuff? Then this month’s collection of what’s new will be a treat! New tools and resources are everywhere this time of year, here are a few that you’re sure to enjoy. 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 should be featured next month, tweet it to @carriecousins to be considered! FirstSiteGuide...

We can never get enough of the icons drawn by Iconshock, and this awesome free set is no exception. Designed to honor the thousands of animals that are extinct, or endangered, the set depicts some of the creatures we have sadly already lost. Included in the download you’ll find 15 animals that have gone extinct on our watch, including the Chinese Paddlefish, and the Tasmanian Tiger. Each icon comes in three variations: color, filled, and line...

Regardless of what kind of WordPress website you’re running, chances are an RSS aggregator plugin can help you deliver more value through it. RSS feeds give you the option to curate content from multiple sources and share it with your site’s readers. This way, you don’t have to worry about creating original content regularly or risk losing traffic to your blog because you don’t have enough content on it in the first place. In this post,...

Google Web Designer just released its 3.0 beta version for public consumption and testing. Despite the product’s name, you still can’t design websites with it. For those of you who figured that out when it first released—and have ignored it ever since—here’s a refresher: Google Web Designer is an app that makes it easier to create interactive content with HTML5, Canvas, and the like. Specifically, it’s designed for creating...

With free tutorials you can teach yourself almost anything online. But premium video libraries are often much more detailed with pro-level instructors. These videos are very helpful when you’re just getting into web design or development. There’s so much to learn in both areas and it can be super confusing if you’re new to frontend code, backend code, or general UI/UX design. Below are our picks for the best online video libraries for...

All modern browsers support the SVG filetype and it’s quickly becoming a favored choice among web designers. You can design beautiful icons as SVGs and scale them to any size without quality loss. This is one of the biggest benefits of the SVG format considering retina displays are on the rise. If you’d like to animate or manipulate your SVGs that’ll take a little more work. But these free libraries offer the best tools for the job if you’re...

Sometimes you need to practice a little self-care. When it comes to self-care for work and design professionals that often means spending a little time to learn something new and re-energize yourself. This month’s roundup has some great options for doing just that. Not only are these items new, but they are almost guaranteed to make you better at your job. From learning how to create better web type, to a design conference you can attend in...

Sometimes you run across a website or app that just blows your mind. You sit there for a minute, wondering just how in the heck they pulled that off. How indeed? Well, good news for everybody! There’s this thing you can do where you can right-click on a page and... I kid. Inspecting the source available in the browser can only tell you so much. Sure, you can extrapolate some aspects of the design and development philosophy by looking at what’s...

Start 2018 by deleting some of those old tools from your computer that you never use in favor of some fresh, new options. While old favorites can be great for a while, there are so many great new elements out there that can streamline your workflow, or help add more creative spark to projects. 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 should be featured...

Businesses looking for online marketing and web services are rarely looking for one provision. Typically, they are looking for an agency that can act as a one-stop-shop for all their internet-based projects. Pay-per-click advertising is one such service that businesses are interested in. The ability to promote their company on search engines like Google and Bing is integral to earning revenue online. But if you’ve never delved into...

The holiday season is upon us, and that’s the perfect time to give yourself a few design goodies. While the season for new releases has slowed some, there are still plenty of news design tools and beta releases to test out. Take the opportunity to play with some of these great new elements for designers. 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...

Even if your WordPress website is mobile-first and responsive, you could still be missing out on a huge chunk of traffic by not offering your visitors a mobile app, and the smooth user experience that comes with it. The only problem is that it’s incredibly difficult (and expensive) to build a native mobile app from scratch. Thankfully, there are a number of high-end plugin solutions that can help you turn your existing WordPress website into...

If huge discounts at the mall aren’t enough to drag you away from the turkey leftovers, then we’ve got the perfect solution for you: We’ve put together the 35+ best crowd-funding projects that are live right now, so you can spend your hard-earned green with the least effort possible. Crowd-funding sites are packed with tempting offers, from must-have gadgets, to community projects you’ll be proud to back. Take a look at some of the...

With everyone getting excited (on a positive or negative note, depending on who you’re taking to) over Gutenberg launching in WordPress 5.0, it’s easy to forget that WordPress had another major version update that went live in the past week. WordPress 4.9 officially launched in November, 2017 after a slight delay from the original anticipated launch. Announced on the official WordPress website, developers are calling the update...