One of the few very frustrating errors you’ll ever encounter when using WordPress is the ‘503 Service Unavailable’ error. This error can be quite confusing to most WordPress users as it could completely render your website offline without giving you any clear reason to what caused the error. There can be a few different causes… Continue reading How To Fix ‘503 Service Unavailable’ WordPress Error
Tag: happens
How to Make a Beating Heart Animation for St. Valentine’s Day With SVG
* { box-sizing: border-box; } body {margin: 0;}*{box-sizing:border-box;}body{margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;} Let’s get into the spirit of St. Valentine’s day, getting all pink and smooshy in the process, and code ourselves a simple beating heart animation with SVG. Here’s what we’re going to create: This is a great exercise for familiarizing yourself with SVG syntax and authentic animation.… Continue reading How to Make a Beating Heart Animation for St. Valentine’s Day With SVG
Create Style Variations for WordPress Gutenberg Blocks: Part 2
In the previous post we learned all about block style variations and how they’re used in the brand new WordPress 5.0 editor to switch between predefined styles easily. We’ll take things a little further in this post by providing more examples to give you a solid base for implementing block style variations in your own… Continue reading Create Style Variations for WordPress Gutenberg Blocks: Part 2
Should You Sell Web Hosting Services to Your Clients?
Web design is an industry that is loaded with opportunities for upsells and extra revenue. Odds are that your clients will benefit from services that go beyond basic design and development. However, just because you can offer extras doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. One such area is web hosting. While there is the potential… Continue reading Should You Sell Web Hosting Services to Your Clients?
Best Selling UX and UI Kits For Sketch, Photoshop, Illustrator, XD, and Figma
UX and UI Kits help designers in all kinds of ways, and at different stages in the design process. In this roundup I’ll show you some of the best-selling UX and UI kits available from Envato, to get you started wireframing, prototyping, and designing your next website or app. What Are UX and UI Kits?… Continue reading Best Selling UX and UI Kits For Sketch, Photoshop, Illustrator, XD, and Figma
An Introduction to Photoshop Selection Tools
Your Photoshop selection tools are perhaps the most powerful part of the application. By making effective selections, you unlock the power of the rest of the application. This includes localized image adjustments, compositing, and accurate mockups and object placement. Sloppy selections always show in the final product, so it pays to learn to make a… Continue reading An Introduction to Photoshop Selection Tools
Trigonometry, Random Numbers and More With Built-in PHP Math Functions
Basic maths is used a lot during programming. We need to frequently compare, add, multiply, subtract and divide different values when writing code. Sometimes, the maths required in a program can be more involved. You might need to work with logarithmic, trigonometric or exponential functions. In this tutorial, I’ll discuss how to use each of… Continue reading Trigonometry, Random Numbers and More With Built-in PHP Math Functions
How to Use Sessions and Session Variables in PHP
Session handing is a key concept in PHP that enables user information to be persisted across all the pages of a website or app. In this post, you’ll learn the basics of session handing in PHP. We’ll start with an explanation of how sessions work and how they are related to cookies. Then we’ll look… Continue reading How to Use Sessions and Session Variables in PHP
Understanding The Meaning of Webpage Not Found or 404 Error
Page Not Found Errors I’m sure I’m not the only person who has come across this error during their Internet browsing sessions: And of course, whenever this happens, you might say to yourself, “What the hell does that even mean?” Well, think of your place of residence. Whether it be a house, apartment, car, cardboard… Continue reading Understanding The Meaning of Webpage Not Found or 404 Error
The importance of Design QA in digital product design
Great customer experiences don’t happen by accident. In digital product design, the customer experience encompasses everything that the product team does; development, design, DevOps, and QA — everyone’s role impacts the customer experience but especially the design and user experience. Since I’m a product designer, there’s a particular part of the process that I’m obsessed with, and… Continue reading The importance of Design QA in digital product design
Competitive analysis is a method, not a solution
Pineapples might look cool, but that doesn’t mean that every fruit should be spiky. (source) We all have been there: you have been with your team in a room for a couple of hours now, and it seems you hit a dead-end while discussing one design problem. Suddenly, someone brings up the solution for it all:… Continue reading Competitive analysis is a method, not a solution
Must-know Skills For Web Designers
It’s easy to get demotivated. Not that it always happens. There are times when you feel you’re on a run, your work is going well, your clients love you, and you get a lot of referrals. Then there are times when your work halts, you feel uninspired and you lose motivation. This is particularly true… Continue reading Must-know Skills For Web Designers
Design Conferences are broken, but we can fix them
I just got back from a design conference. It was just one in a sea of poorly-designed design conferences I’ve attended over the years. I wont beat around the proverbial bush. Here are 3 easy ways for organizers to step up their game and put on an impactful, memorable, and successful design conference. Speakers are… Continue reading Design Conferences are broken, but we can fix them
Which WordPress Website Builder Is for You? Try the #1 WordPress Theme Builder
Posted · Category: Tools Finding just the right WordPress website builder to fit you needs can take time. First, you must determine what it is you want. Then you must take the time to research what’s available. Your research may require the skills of a Sherlock Holmes since you often need to read between the… Continue reading Which WordPress Website Builder Is for You? Try the #1 WordPress Theme Builder
Web Designers, Stop Wasting Time on Billing and Accounting When You Don’t Have Too
Posted · Category: Tools Keeping a small business running is hard work. You have projects to negotiate, emails to answer, and deadlines to meet. You have to find the time to explore new trends and methods. Sometimes, you have to take whatever time it takes to learn how to use new tools of your trade… Continue reading Web Designers, Stop Wasting Time on Billing and Accounting When You Don’t Have Too
How does design strategy work within a large enterprise?
Courtesy Dilbert Last October, I visited my alma mater, the School of Visual Arts Masters in Branding program, which teaches graduate students about the intersections of business & design. Whenever I visit, there’s always students that have questions about what I do, both as an IBM’er and a Design Strategist. Most recently, I was asked… Continue reading How does design strategy work within a large enterprise?
These 5 UX Mistakes Drive Visitors Away in Less Than 5 Seconds
Posted · Category: Best Collections The longer you can keep a visitor tuned into your website the better. But the time needed to fully engage a visitor is quite short. If your website UX isn’t up to snuff, you’ll be fortunate if a visitor sticks around more than 5 seconds. That isn’t much time to… Continue reading These 5 UX Mistakes Drive Visitors Away in Less Than 5 Seconds
Stop blaming your digital tools for your problems
Jira, Trello, Basecamp, Sketch, Invision, Zeplin, Jenkins, Google Analytics — I could go on, but no matter the tool or how good it is there will always be a problem with it. Your tools are not the problem, your reliance and attitude towards them is. I’ve seen so many teams complain that “Jira doesn’t let me do this”… Continue reading Stop blaming your digital tools for your problems
Five analytical components for a better user experience
User Behaviour Whatever someone does while on your website is called user behaviour. It includes the journey within your website’s pages, interaction with page elements, page scroll, form submissions, link/button clicks, and others. Analytics will help you understand the user behavior of your website better. How far are they scrolling down the page? Which forms… Continue reading Five analytical components for a better user experience
Inclusive Design Mindset
At the end of a 72-hour race to complete the Student Design Challenge (SDC) hosted by Microsoft at IxDA this year, I was prompted to think about how my experience could not only benefit future designers, but also public school teachers. The challenge was to design an interactive way to teach rhythm to a student… Continue reading Inclusive Design Mindset
Some of the Best WordPress Plugins That You Should Use in 2018
Posted · Category: Best Collections Creating a website that gives its visitors exactly what they are looking for is not that easy. It often involves a certain amount of trial and error, the use of analytics, and other approaches. Sometimes, the difficulties you experience in your work to please visitors are not what you think.… Continue reading Some of the Best WordPress Plugins That You Should Use in 2018
How to Properly Load Test a WordPress Website
WordPress is without a doubt the most popular content management system in the history of the web. The power and versatility of the combination of technologies like SQL, PHP and web browsers have made it possible to produce a system that can be adapted for nearly any purpose including photo galleries, online comic books, and… Continue reading How to Properly Load Test a WordPress Website
A Reflection on Product Design
Though all good products must function and provide a benefit to the end-user, I believe the magic of a truly inspiring or great product happens in the realm of user experience. As designer and writer Joshua Porter writes, “The experience is the product.” Spotify is one example of a great digital product, as it provides… Continue reading A Reflection on Product Design
Serious products don’t have to be serious
In industries like financial services, we have learned to expect that all communication will be formal, stern and, quite frankly, boring. It’s all insider jargon and confusing acronyms — any sort of personality is a rare sight. But it doesn’t have to be that way… At TransferWise, we have recently launched instant transfers, allowing you to send… Continue reading Serious products don’t have to be serious