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How to learn more in 2014. Albert Einstein once said, “Any fool can know.

How to learn more in 2014

The point is to understand.” It’s one thing to be aware of what’s new in web design, quite another to be in the thick of it actually producing usable designs that solve problems. To keep up in this industry, You need a heightened sense of curiousity and a desire to keep learning. As a user-centered designer, I literally spend half of my days meeting with stakeholders, peers, and subject matter experts. Finding enough quiet time just to deliver what’s expected of me consumes the remainder of my day. As the Kano Model reminds us, today’s delights rapidly transform into tomorrow’s minimum expectations from users. It’s not easy keeping up. So what’s your secret, or not so secret, weapon? Let me start by sharing what has worked for me personally, and in turn invite you to reveal where you go when you need to stay up to date. Two of my longtime favorites are lynda.com and teamtreehouse.com depending on which side of my brain I’m using.

20+ Websites to Download Creative Commons Music For Free. Editor’s note: For a newer, updated version of this post, check it out here.

20+ Websites to Download Creative Commons Music For Free

If you’ve wondered where many of those YouTube videos get their background music from, you’ve come to the right place. Music with Creative Commons licenses are music compositions written, produced and shared by people who do not charge anything when you use their music for your own use, commercially or non-commercially. Basically, they make the music and keep ownership and copyright of it and you get the permission to use it for your videos, film or small multimedia productions, as long as you credit the creator properly. 40 Free and Useful GUI Icon Sets for Web Designers. Icons are everywhere in a website and their primary purpose of guiding and giving out information to visitors is a highly important one.

40 Free and Useful GUI Icon Sets for Web Designers

Other than words themselves, these little graphics within a website that tells you how you can move to the next page, cancel a transaction, checkout the cart and the likes, basically the entire navigation. In a general sense, they act as symbols that allow easier and smoother communication between the webpage and the person interacting with it. Depending on the web context, icons should be designed in a manner that are pleasing to the eyes, and most importantly, communicate what it is suppose to communicate. Here’s a showcase of 40 Free and Useful Icon Sets for your reference. Full list after jump. Function Icon Set | Download128 Icons, they are only available in 48×48px.

Onebit Free Icon Set | DownloadA total of 50 icons. Onebit Free Icon Set 2 | DownloadTotal of 30 icons, 48×48 in PNG format. Bright! MinIcons | Download [via kyo-tux] 70+ Free Icon Sets You Should Have in Your Bookmarks. Editor’s Note: This is a contributed post by Pavlushka, the author of CrazyPixels web design blog.

70+ Free Icon Sets You Should Have in Your Bookmarks

He writes inspirational articles about web design technologies and useful web design tutorials, about how to create amazing web design artworks. Feel free to follow him on Twitter. Icon design is ignored sometimes when creating a website layout. The simplest method to catch the interest of your visitors is by creating a good user experience through attractive icons. An icon is a small, but critically important detail that defines the aesthetic look of the whole website design.

19 Websites to Download Free Stock Video Intros & Footage. A creative video intro leaves a lasting first impression on your viewer. If you need examples, do check out Nancy’s 60 Beautiful Examples Of Websites With Full-Blown Video Backgrounds to get an idea. A good video intro not only draws attention but also gives the right impression to prospective clients.

Videos can also better engage new readers. 55 Great Websites To Download Free Sound Effects. Imagine a movie or video without sound effects. Even a magnificent film like Titanic would look nothing more than a joke if there are no ‘Wham’, ‘Bam’ and ‘Smash’ sounds in it. Background music and sound effects are important for making a video (or even an audio production) engaging and in its full essence. Vecteezy! - Download Free Vector Art, Stock Graphics & Images... 85 Free High Quality Silhouette Sets. Initially silhouette was applied on portraits or pictorial which were be used for thin black card.

85 Free High Quality Silhouette Sets

But nowadays, we can easily find silhouette images in many media forms like artworks, illustration, photography, movies, graphic design or even fashion and fitness. Modern designers use silhouette to create dramatic effect in many art works because silhouette emphasizes the outline and view of an object. The mystery of silhouette objects create a space for viewers’ imagination. Apple’s iPod advertisement is a successful example of using silhouette. This week, we’ve managed to compiled 85 free high quality silhouette sets to speed up your designing job.

People Businessmen Silhouettes Pack 01 (12 shapes) Businessmen Silhouettes Pack 02 (12 shapes) Business People Pack 03 (41 shapes) Business People Pack 04 (40 shapes) His Res Male Silhouettes (22 shapes) Businesswomen Pack 02 (24 shapes) Businesswomen Pack 01 (23 shapes) 30+ Free Online Multimedia (Photo, Audio, Video) Editors.

We tend to rely heavily on our favorite desktop applications like Photoshop, GIMP, Audacity, Adobe Premier and so on when it comes to dealing with multimedia files.

30+ Free Online Multimedia (Photo, Audio, Video) Editors

That’s fine on our desktops but what if we need to use an editor on a friend’s computer, or a public one at the workplace? That is where web applications come in handy. Web applications provide ubiquity, convenience and ease of use . Login and Registration.