The 20 Things Users Want Most From Your Mobile Site [New Google Data] Still trying to make the case for mobile optimization of your company's website? Or worse -- have you gotten the green light, but are so overwhelmed by the project that you don't know where to begin? Makes sense. Starting from square one is hard. Google probably figured as much, and they graciously conducted a study to help make mobile marketers' lives a little bit easier: "What Users Want Most From Mobile Sites Today. " The study, which we found via Marketing Land, reports on two helpful perspectives. With this data, you can build a case and actually make a user's dream scenario happen! How Smartphone Users Feel About the Mobile Browsing Experience 1) 96% of smartphone users have encountered sites that weren't designed for mobile devices. 2) 67% of users are more likely to purchase a product or service from a mobile-friendly site. 3) 74% of users say they're also more likely to return to a site in the future if it's mobile-friendly.
Smartphone Users' Ideal Browsing Experience. Download Free Repeat Patterns. Creating Reusable & Versatile Background Patterns. I haven't written any Photoshop tutorials for a while. Today I'm going to share a simple tutorial on how to create reusable background patterns with Photoshop and CSS. I learned this trick from designing WordPress themes. The trick is to create one reusable transparent PNG background and use CSS background-color property to create various color skins. It is particularly useful for creating customizable and dynamic templates (see demos).
What is so cool about this? With transparent pattern image, users can easily customize the background color by altering the hex color. Photoshop Trick: Extracting Pattern This Photoshop trick works on most pattern images. Step 1 First you have to turn the image layer to black & white (go to Image > Adjustments > Destaturate). Step 2 Now you should have a black & white pattern. Step 3 Go back to the Layers palette. Shortcut tip for loading the Channel selection: hold down the Cmd key and click on the Channel layer thumbnail. Opacity Final (see demos) Design Gallery, Deals, Tutorials & Community. Weekly Freebies: 30 Terrific Typographical Textures. This week’s collection of freebies is an awesome selection of photographic textures featuring typography. Some depict old grungy type, others are faded and handwritten, all will prove extremely useful the next time you need a good texture.
Let’s jump in and look at these amazing resources! Permissions and Use All of the images in this post met the following use criteria: Creative Commons-licensed content for commercial use, adaptation, modification or building upon. This means you have freedom to use the images pretty much however you want, as long as you drop in a line of credit for the original author. Be sure to check each image to see the specifics. Free vintage handwritten letter texture for layers Free Texture #158 Reality Free Texture #159 Letter blue Free jumbled type texture for layers Free mixed numbers texture for layers Letter 2 Free Texture 16 Etude Grenoble – Rue de Bonne free to use texture- old cash register Write me a letter Manu Script Free Texture #12 Français Free Texture 15 “245″
Type is the backbone of good web design. Ever since launching my Information Portfolio, BrianHoff.net, I’ve received many emails with similar variations to the question “How do I become better with typography on the web?” Or “Why does your type look nice on your site?” Below are a few techniques I generally go with when styling my type and aspects I considered and incorporated while designing BrianHoff.net. Line height First off if you are not specifying your type size in ems you should be. Another reason I set my type in ems is because it’s easy to find a good line height, which I usually set as 1.5em. Your CSS should look something like this: All caps and small caps Whether you are dealing with print or web, a string of capital or small capped letters should have some additional letterspacing.
I’ve always used a 1px letterspacing for most all caps and small cap type — it’s a nice balance on the web. Comfortable reading measures [code example courtesy of: Hierarchy and contrast Layout Readability Embrace differences. On Web Typography. There are many books and articles on typography, but considerably few explore typeface selection and pairing. With the floodgates poised to open and the promise of many typefaces being freed up for use on websites, choosing the right face to complement a website’s design will need to become another notch in the designer’s belt. But where do we start? Until now, using any typefaces beyond those installed with computer operating systems by default meant using images, Flash, or some other workaround. But browser makers have put the ball in our court by implementing the @font-face CSS property, which allows designers to link to any font file and pull it into their pages.
This exposed the elephant in the type foundry: Type makers have largely refused to license their raw typefaces on webpages out of concerns about piracy. Brave new world#section1 We’ve been spoiled. The technical problems with web type also run deep. Context and meaning#section2 Picky, picky#section3 Contrast#section5. 70 Useful Free Web Design Elements PSD Files for Download. Instead of paying thousands of dollars to the web designers, there are several web design templates available for free downloading in the internet. You can very well use these elements to design a site and it would be great if you have some technical knowledge about the Photoshop, CSS, HTML, etc. You can open the PSD files with the help of the Photoshop and this graphic designing file allows you to modify your website or image. They are mainly used to create images which are eye-catching and impressive and then the buttons, icons, web design layouts and the other elements. For any business person, the web design elements save a lot of effort and time and enable him to easily design a website.
Usually, the PSD files are not compatible with web but they should be made compatible by converting it into HTML. 7 Styled Tickets Mini Clouds Set Upload to Cloud Pretty Little Red Ribbon (PSD) Form Message Buttons Seek Bar Simple Pricing Table (PSD) Stitched Fabric Horizontal Accordion (PSD) 50 Essential Web Typography Tutorials, Tips, Guides and Best Practices. Web typography is the most undervalued and misunderstood aspect of web design. There are many reasons for this, probably, the most frequent factor is it is ignored purely for simplicity. Why over complicate something that works fine as it is? Web typography is all theories and opinions, that is the point. The evolution of web design relies on opinions and ideas, otherwise we would be stuck with the repulsive web designs we had 10 years. So, yes, good web typography is crucial, and you cannot afford to ignore it anymore. In this post we have collected great reources to help you understand and implement successfully web typography on your web pages.
CSS Typography Tutorials Create a Letterpress Effect with CSS Text-Shadow The letterpress effect is becoming hugely popular in web design, and with a couple of modern browsers now showing support for the text-shadow CSS3 property it’s now simple and easy to create the effect with pure CSS. Typographic Contrast and Flow – Emphasizing Text Fontdeck. Handpicked free fonts for graphic designers with commercial-use licenses.
Adobe Photoshop Tutorials from Beginner to Advanced. Web Fonts. 7-Step Process All Designers Should Follow To Complete Every Project. As a graphic designer, you know your job entails helping your client sell their service or product. Your ultimate goal is to help viewers understand a message and, in turn, reap benefits for your client.
Developing a process to follow each time you take on a new project can help tremendously in achieving results you and your client are happy with. Whether you’re a graphic designer, web designer, programmer or otherwise, having a system set up will help you get the work done faster in addition to keeping things organized and the designer/client relationship a positive one. Project Initiation One of the most important steps in the design process is accumulating the information you’ll need. This is usually achieved by either a face-to-face meeting with the client, a questionnaire, or even a Skype meeting if you really wish to establish a personal relationship with your client.
At this stage it’s also a good idea to accept a deposit for the first half of the project. Research Strategy. 10 Great Google Font Combinations You Can Copy. The average man considers which flavor of Doritos will taste good with his Heineken. The sophisticated man considers which cheese will pair well with his choice of wine. The designer of course considers which two fonts will look great on the same page. Today we’re going to use the Google Font API as a playground for mixing fonts and finding ideal pairings. You’ll be able to skim through and instantly grab out selections that you think are appropriate for your projects.
The best part? You need only to copy and paste our code to implement these fonts on your site. A couple of times each month, we re-publish one of our popular posts from the archives. Why Google Fonts? The web font game was up in the air a few years ago. Here’s why @font-face wins. Now, within the @font-face world there are many competitors. However, I’ve used this solution several times on Design Shack before so I wanted to switch things up today and use something else. Quick Tips for Combining Fonts Use Font Families. Backgrounds In Web Design: Examples And Best Practices - Smashing Magazine. Advertisement Web design has come a long way since its beginning, especially in terms of styling. Take a look at a website from 10 years ago and compare it to one from today. The differences are enormous. One of the major changes you will notice is the background.
Today, backgrounds are one of the core features that determine how visually interesting a website is. The background holds the theme of the website, and there are a vast amount of possibilities when designing a website background. You may also be interested in the following related posts: The Basic Background Structures Before talking about how to design a good background, we need to go over basic background set ups. Body Background The body background is the most “distant” background. Content Background The other level of the structure is the content background. Option 1: Content and Body Background Layered The first structure is multiple layers of backgrounds. This is one of many styles that use a layered approach.
Following A Web Design Process - Smashing Magazine. Almost every Web designer can attest that much of their work is repetitive. We find ourselves completing the same tasks, even if slightly modified, over and over for every Web project. Following a detailed website design and development process can speed up your work and help your client understand your role in the project. This article tries to show how developing a process for Web design can organize a developer’s thoughts, speed up a project’s timeline and prepare a freelance business for growth. First of all, what exactly is a ‘process’? A Web development process is a documented outline of the steps needed to be taken from start to finish in order to complete a typical Web design project. It divides and categorizes the work and then breaks these high-level sections into tasks and resources that can be used as a road map for each project. A Typical Process Link Here is a standard process that was put together using examples from around the Web as well as my own experience. 1. 2. 3. 4.
Kuler. Kuler -Liquid Courage. Expression Engine vs WordPress — Design Pepper. WordPress vs. ExpressionEngine: Apples and Oranges? This post has been a long time coming. Whether on Twitter or in the blogosphere, the question often arises, and I have been asked numerous times for my opinion on the ExpressionEngine vs. WordPress debate, and why one would choose one content management system (CMS) over the other. My usual answer is that they cannot be compared. While WordPress had made huge strides in usability, for anything other than a blog it is an apple. ExpressionEngine, with the release of version 2.0, makes for a lovely platform that is, as we will see, an orange. Handling Content The biggest difference between WordPress and ExpressionEngine is the way in which content is handled.
In WordPress, we all know that you can create a new post. So, when you create a new post, the content will be displayed in different ways, depending on the category chosen and whether the category is a parent or child (i.e. sub-category). The items chosen by the user determine how the content is displayed. Changing Channels An Example. The Shimmering Set Design Behind CNN's Newest Star, Piers Morgan | Co.Design. The shimmering blue and green wall of the set behind Howard Stern's mop of unruly curls was so mesmerizing I nearly lost the thread of his discussion, yet again, about the size of his penis. ("Hung like a raisin") Yes, folks, it's kick-off week for Piers Morgan Tonight, CNN's replacement for Larry King Live and the high-profile guests just keep coming: Oprah, Howard Stern, Condoleeza Rice. So, along with casting aside the aging broadcaster and his suspenders, the top dogs at CNN decreed a set remodeling for their new golden boy, and called in the King of All Set Design: Jim Fenhagen of brand experience agency Jack Morton.
Fenhagen, whose New Jersey den is stuffed with 17 or 18 Emmys ("I'm embarrassed to say, I don't know for sure," he confessed), is the wizard behind sets for The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, CBS's NFL Today, Martha Stewart, The Early Show, ABC's World News Tonight, the Golf Channel, and MLB Network, as well as last fall's "Rally for Sanity (and Fear)". 365psd ‹ Download a free PSD every day.