Cool Tools are a Must-Have for Web Designers. Admit it, as a designer you are always looking for cool new tips, tools and tricks to enhance your projects and make your life a little easier. Thankfully, new tools, products, apps and even great user interface kits hit the market almost daily. There are also a host of old favorites out there a well – some you may know about and others that you might think about trying for the first time. Here (in no particular order) are a dozen we think you’ll like. Responsive Design Testing We are all thinking responsive design, right? Designmodo’s tool is a great way to see how your site will look in a variety of environments in just seconds. It can be super-difficult to have all the devices you need on hand for visual testing – which is what this tool is. The responsive design testing tool is free!
Fake Images Please If you are anything like me, you have a hard time leaving spaces in design projects in hopes that the holes will make sense to others that look at your mockups. Webnote app Stride MyScriptFont. Daily Inspiration #1416. Create Demo: An Easy Way To Present Adobe Fireworks Design Prototypes. Advertisement With its structured approach to organizing assets, Adobe Fireworks can be a pleasure for designing and prototyping. But demonstrating your designs on a wide range of devices can be time-consuming and could even require some degree of coding.
The Create Demo extension addresses some of these issues. It automatically converts your Fireworks documents into portable presentations, which can then be easily presented in any browser — desktop or mobile. Overview Why Is It Needed? This extension makes the process of preparing and exporting your Fireworks PNG files as presentations quick and painless.
The only thing you will need to think about is where to upload the presentation (i.e. whether to present it online or on your iOS or Android device). A Bit Of Background The “Demo Current Document” used to be a great feature in Fireworks that I often used to show off website concepts and designs to clients. Installation And Requirements Download Create Demo from Adobe Exchange. Basic Use <! Free UI Elements. Top 5 Tips for Successful Logo Design | Web Design Principles. Wallpaper of the Week by Guilherme Marconi. How to Design a Unique and Unforgettable Logo [Infographic] When it comes to logo design, you ultimately want it to convey your brand in the best possible manner. At the same time you don’t want it to take up too much space. That is the greatest challenge – to be able to create a winning impact within the space constraints. 1.
Research always helps in effective logo design Never make the mistake of rushing into creating a logo design. 2. You would obviously want your logo design to catch the attention of the customer. 3. One of things you need to really focus on is to make sure your logo design is not too cluttered or too fancy. 4. There are so many companies who invest a fortune on their logo design only to realize later that their logo doesn’t work on a product wrapper! 5. One critical mistake people make is to cram in too much information in their logo design. 6. You might select a font that looks great on paper but when you use it in the logo it hampers readability. 7. Note: Click the image to view full size. Did you enjoy this infographic? Flipping Book in CSS and jQuery. The tutorial of this week is about HTML, CSS and a little bit of Javascript with jQuery. As the rule of trend now is mobile first and any designer who wants to really understand the media will have to be able to create quick prototypes of his/her work, we decide d to write a few basic prototyping tutorials.
The first one will be about create a simple flipping book, like a 3 fold brochure, using HTML, CSS and JS for the events. For this tutorial you will have to have some knowledge of HTML and CSS. You can also just copy and paste and change the values to see how it works. I am still learning and improving my CSS and jQuery skills but I think it's good to share and will try to do that in this post. Feel free to leave comments with suggestions on how to improve our coding skills. Step 1 The first step is to create the design. Step 2 Now let's create the basic HTML for the document. <! Step 3 Let's start add some visuals with CSS. Step 4 Here's the full CSS code Step 5 Here's the code for that. 30 Minimal Logo Designs for your Inspiration. Your logo is your face. It is how you present your brand to your audience. It is how you want people to see you.
Designing the right logo is a very tricky process, especially because you want to visually impress your audience without overwhelming them. You want to get their attention for the right reasons. This is why I love minimal logos. About the Author Gisele Muller loves communication, technology, web, design, movies, gastronomy and creativity. Related Posts 641 shares 11 Inspiring Typography Focused Web Designs We all know that typography is a very important element of a good design. Read More 694 shares Examples of Well Designed Contact Pages Often, with websites, the contact page is one of the most neglected pages on the site. Wallpaper of the Week - Old Signage. The Art Of Storytelling Around An App. Designing For The Multifaceted User. Advertisement Designing with users in mind is a tricky thing.
Not only does it require of us a sound understanding of who our users are, but the actual act of translating what we know about them into a well-designed product is not always an obvious or easy path. Currently, our user experience tools tend to focus on “who” users are. I believe this is a hangover from how we traditionally approached marketing and market research. A couple of years ago, I stumbled across a somewhat different method, which has proven useful in a few of my own projects. It has been particularly handy for building value propositions and for clarifying assumptions we make about our users’ behaviours. Most of all, I like how it helps with prioritizing product design decisions. So, first, let me explain where I think our current toolset falls short, and then I’ll walk you through an example that uses this newer technique. We Are Multifaceted Put yourself in the shoes of a user for a moment. Modelling User Groups (al)
60 best iPad apps for designers | iPad. We've gathered together the very best iPad apps in Apple's App Store – and many are free. You're sure to find a timelessly brilliant app that meets your needs, saving you the hassle of searching through the hundreds of thousands available. Whether you're looking to design on your iPad, carry out research, find inspiration, or improve your task management and productivity there are tons of iPad apps in our list. So here goes, in no particular order... 01. Adobe Capture CC Price: Free Packed with useful features to work alongside apps like Adobe Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC, Adobe Capture CC lets users extract colour themes from photos and convert images into vector graphics. 02.
Price: Free Generate native prototypes and preview your ideas as if they've already gone live with the help of Pixate. 03. Skala lets users iterate faster in the seemingly endless struggle to arrive at a better design. 04. Price: $3.30/ £2.29 05. Price: Free 06. 07. 08. Price: $2.99/£2.29 09. 10. Price: $6.99/£4.99. How to send large files to clients: 5 free tools | Design tools. The age of the web may have connected continents and allowed the world to function around the clock, but we still haven't quite mastered how to send large files by email. But there's no need to spend vast amounts of money on a solution. These free tools will help you send large files to design clients without the hassle of bounced emails and hours of frustration with FTP connections. And some even have iPhone apps and free Android apps to make your life even easier. 01. Google Drive Google's so ubiquitous these days that it's easy to overlook it, so we'll remind you: Google Drive gives you 15GB of free online storage, and it's easy to share absolutely anything you like, be it individual files or entire folders.
You can set your own sharing options too, for anything from a download link that anyone can use, up to sharing with specific people and giving them editing rights. 02. 03. You need to install a small client to make it work, and files are shared via a unique URL. 04. 05. 06. 07. 08. Down with Boredom: 5 Pattern Generators for Background Designs. Mar 17 2013 If you want the background of your website to consist of more than a color, you’ll be thinking about a background image. If there’s no obvious image you should use or if you don’t want to get determined by your imagery, while at the same time being able to serve different resolutions more or less effortlessly, you’ll soon turn your thoughts on textures or repetitive patterns.
Creating repetitive, seamless patterns is not easy. Pattern generators are there to help you achieve just this. We have aggregated the five most promising tools… Pattern Cooler If “subtle” is not for you, you’ll probably love Pattern Cooler. 225 different patterns are available. If this still doesn’t suffice, Pattern Cooler lets you add a texture to the pattern.
Patternify Patternify is an excellent tool for pixel-pushers or 8bit aficionados. Besides offering a download in PNG format, Patternify can provide the pattern as a data URL complete with CSS code. Patternizer Patternizer ist no classical generator. How To Sell Your UX Design Solution To Clients. Advertisement How do you convince clients to trust you with their valuable and much-loved product? In my experience, the best way to sell work to clients is to apply user-centered design not only to the work we produce, but also to the clients who commission that work. We have to understand who our clients are, what is important to them and what their goals are. And then we have to deliver work that not only meets the needs of end users, but also satisfies the personalities within the company itself. Michael Bierut recently wrote a great article titled “Graphic Design Criticism as a Spectator Sport.”
“The basic starting point of Graphic Design Criticism as a Spectator Sport is “I could have done better.” This resonates with me, because last year I made the move to an agency after years on internal product and design teams. But when you do client work, you don’t have that kind of time, so a different strategy is needed. The Visual Client We’ve seen huge success with this approach. (al) Designing Great Feedback Loops. Advertisement The products we build are full of feedback loops, whether we know it or not. People who study human behavior agree that feedback loops play a critical role in what we do. From biofeedback to the quantified self, designers and psychologists alike are discovering the real power that these cyclical interactions play in shaping our day-to-day choices. Designing for behavior change can increase user engagement, create business value and improve lives. Whatever you’re designing, it probably involves feedback. What They Are, And Where They Live Feedback loops consist of a few simple steps: A person takes an action,The action has one or more effects,The important effects of this action are presented back to the person,This loop is repeated regularly.
There are many natural feedback loops. There are now many man-made examples of these as well. So, let’s dive into improving our own feedback loops! Discover Your Product’s Basic Feedback Loops But they can also be harder to see. 1. 2. 3. Tuesday Total Textures 161. Account Creation, Standalone Mobile Websites, And Dealing With None-UX Designers. Advertisement Editor’s note: Welcome to Smashing Magazine UX Design Q&A. It works like this: you send in questions you have about UX Design, and each month we’ll pick a handful of questions asked by our readers about best practices in designing smart and usable experiences. They will be answered by Christian Holst1, a regular author here on Smashing Magazine and founder of the Baymard Institute2. Prior to cofounding the Baymard Institute in 2009, he worked as a usability engineer in the hearing-aid, credit-card and consulting industries. Location Of Registration Form During Checkout Sheri asks: “If an [e-commerce] site offers guest checkout, where is the optimal place to put the account creation fields (that is to say, the password and password hint fields)?
We generally recommend the latter option: making the password field optional and moving it to the order confirmation page (sometimes referred to as the “Thank you” page). Standalone Mobile Websites Michael Meininger asks: DMC_ asks: (al) Web Design Trends in 2013. The past few years have seen a tremendous shift in the way developers are building websites. More users have switched onto mobile platforms, along with newer browsers which support HTML5/CSS3 web standards. There are so many unique ideas flowing out of the design community – it seems like new thresholds are being replaced every few months!
In this article I would like to go over some of the most recent trends we have seen evolving. Many of these design ideas have been around for a long time. But I would argue that over 2012 and moving into 2013 these unique ideas will flourish. Mobile First Design The idea of responsive design isn’t just limited to full websites scaling down smaller. It is often much easier to plan your most important interface elements first and squeeze each of them into a mobile layout. There is a small book published by A List Apart which is called Mobile First. Infinite Scrolling Designers may be asking why this is even useful in the first place.
Big Photography. Today. 10 things HBO?s Girls can teach you about design. Even if you haven’t seen the show, you’ve almost certainly heard of HBO’s hit Girls, created by and starring Lena Dunham. The show follows four 20-something women living in Brooklyn and all that that entails.
Because it’s aired on premium cable, Girls doesn’t pull any punches, and has a lot of adult content. But at the same time, it also has some great lessons for designers and developers. Here are ten of the best lessons Girls has to offer. There are more, for sure (just check out the set and costume designs for some great visual inspiration), but you’ll have to check out the show for yourself to see them. 1. One thing Girls had going for it right from the get-go was Judd Apatow as one of the executive producers. What this illustrates is that if you want your project to be a success, to get the support it needs, and to have a fighting chance, it really helps if you can get an industry heavyweight to back you. 2.
And you know where it gets her? Nowhere. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Free Download: Soft UI Set. Free PSD UI Kit: Super Buttons. This beautiful free PSD UI kit is an assorted combination of big app and social media buttons that you can use in your user interface designs. But wait! There’s more! This UI kit also comes with an editable e-book cover graphic template, hand-sketched arrows, and calls-to-action text. Preview This free PSD UI kit is by Josh Katherman, the founder of ThemesEngine. The design motivation for this UI kit was initially to create slightly 3D app buttons. Download superbuttons_freebie (ZIP, 2.11 MB) Related Content About the Author Josh Katherman is the founder of ThemesEngine, a site that aspires to collect the best and most easily editable WordPress themes for companies and developers.
How to create a simple CSS3 tooltip. ByPeople: Download Your Free 5GB Bundle Of Templates, Icons, Logos, Banners, Backgrounds And More Today. Tuesday Total Textures 151. Wallpaper of the Week - Terminator 2 Judgment Day by helloMuller. The Anatomy Of A Web Designer [Infographic] Super Useful Photoshop Tips: Feather Shape Layers, Keyboard shortcuts and more... Daily Inspiration #1299. Will Mobile Internet Replace Desktop Use? [Infographic] Should you learn to code? Create a Portrayal of a Human Transitioning Into a Statue. Logo Design: Crowns. 30 Free PSD Web Design Templates. Awesome Magneto Digital Painting Case Study by Eric Vasquez. The Concept Art of Jamga. The Photoshop Styles Bundle (over 400+ styles) Beautiful Illustrations by Charles Santoso. Wallpaper of the Week by Von Glitschka. 30 Artistic and Creative Résumés. 45 Creative Resumes to Seize Attention. The Creative Way To Maximize Design Ideas With Type.
New High-Quality Free Fonts. Mind Blowing Illustrations by Alexis Marcou. 51 Clever Camera and Photography Logo Designs. 55 Pleasant Examples of Bird Logo Designs. 40 Entertaining Animal Photo-Manipulations. 20 Valuable Treasures of Ceramic Art. 25 Unconventional Wooden Business Cards. The Designer Will Make It Pretty. 49 stunning examples of letterpress printing. JavaScript Events And Responding To The User. Useful Print And Online Magazines For Web Designers. The Best Designs / Best Web Design Awards & CSS Gallery.
Stylish Illustrations by Twistedfork. "I Draw Pictures All Day" 13 Tips to Designing Websites for Teens. 35 Inspirational Grid Based Website Designs. 45 Mind Blowing Colorful Logo Designs. Playful UX Design: Building A Better Game. The Work of Ars Thanea. Designing For Android: Tips And Techniques. Infographie : Que serait le monde sans internet ? Spring / Summer | A Beautiful Design. Photoshop Quick Tips: Advanced Techniques for UI Design. Solve Problems. Win Contests. Make Money. Mobile Considerations in User Experience Design: “Web or Native?” Freebie: Academic Icon Set (10 Icons + PSD Source) 30+ Awesome jQuery Image and Slider Plugins from 2012. Leading: space is just as important as words. Mobile Considerations in User Experience Design: “Web or Native?” Beautifully Webdesign Links. Logotype. Repro | CONSEILS | Typo: Les polices de caractères. Leading: space is just as important as words.