For those of you working from home right now (willingly or unwillingly), you can’t allow your surroundings to have an effect on your work and, more importantly, your client relationships. Clients don’t care where you are. They just want you to get the job done, and get it done it well. By that same token,… Continue reading 5 Tips for Working with Clients When You’Re at Home
Tag: Here’s
Online Stores Design Examples to Emulate in 2020
The US economy was on an upswing — in fact, the United States GDP expanded by 2.3% in 2019. 2020, however, is not looking so hot for the labor force or online retailers. There’s no question that the online shopping world has always been competitive, but the recent economic downturn has turned the competition up to 10.… Continue reading Online Stores Design Examples to Emulate in 2020
Email Personalization: Your Secret To Better Engagement
One of the struggles that marketers face is how to send the right message at exactly the right time to target people in a way that will appeal to them. To solve the problem, businesses need to get themselves acquainted with new technologies and the power of personalization. In the past few years, digital marketing… Continue reading Email Personalization: Your Secret To Better Engagement
How to Build a Simple Toggle Switch Component With the CSS Checkbox Hack
In this short tutorial, we’ll learn how to build a CSS-only switch component by taking advantage of the “CSS checkbox hack technique”. Along the way, we’ll also look at other switch implementations on Codepen. Sound like a good challenge? Our Switch Component Here’s what we’ll be building during this tutorial–a simple todo checklist: For design… Continue reading How to Build a Simple Toggle Switch Component With the CSS Checkbox Hack
Creating an Accessible Range Slider with CSS
April 29, 2020 I’ve always loved exploring how to make semantic, accessible elements aesthetically pleasing. And yes, it is possible. Challenging myself to do this has improved my CSS skills. Today we are going to talk about input[type=”range”]. These inputs where you select a value from a slider that has a thumb on it. You… Continue reading Creating an Accessible Range Slider with CSS
7 Deadly Graphic Designer Sins (And 4 Ways to Atone)
As a designer, you’ve probably wished you could know exactly what your clients were thinking at one point or another. Maybe it was when they were vaguely describing how they wanted their design to “pop”. Or maybe when they were trying to express exactly why the fifteenth revision still wasn’t quite right. Or maybe it… Continue reading 7 Deadly Graphic Designer Sins (And 4 Ways to Atone)
The Latest Research for Web Designers, February 2020
In the following roundup of the latest research for web designers, I’ve included reports and surveys that shed light on: The battle between mobile and desktop, Why so many websites keep getting hacked, What’s keeping ecommerce business owners awake at night, and What Google is now saying about mobile-first indexing. Hootsuite Puts a Spotlight on Mobile Although Hootsuite… Continue reading The Latest Research for Web Designers, February 2020
20+ Best Chiropractor & Physiotherapy WordPress Themes for 2020
Did you know that as many as 90% of consumers google a local business each year—and 33% say they do so every single day? With stats like these, it’s obvious that setting up and maintaining a quality website is essential in order to give your business every chance of success. How frequently did consumers search… Continue reading 20+ Best Chiropractor & Physiotherapy WordPress Themes for 2020
20+ Best eCommerce Website Templates: Updated for 2020
Adding an online store to your website or creating one from scratch is a great way to increase your business revenue and reach new customers. This is especially true if you’re a small business owner looking to expand your customer base without the big budget needed for another physical location. Incorporating an online store, or… Continue reading 20+ Best eCommerce Website Templates: Updated for 2020
The Art of Persuasion: How to Handle Clients With Mad Ideas
We’ve all been there. It’s 4pm on a Friday afternoon, you’re already in your “weekend outfit” (underwear and hoody combo) and you get an email. It’s Client X: Hey, erm, I’ve just had a couple of thoughts, can we talk? Wearily, you reach for the phone. Sure enough, the “couple of thoughts” become a rambling… Continue reading The Art of Persuasion: How to Handle Clients With Mad Ideas
Metatags 101: A Simple Guide for Designers
One of my mottos in life, and in business is this: “If Google tells you to do something, you better get it done.” And when it comes to using HTML meta tags for SEO, none of us should be messing around. That said, you know how it is with Google search. The algorithms are always… Continue reading Metatags 101: A Simple Guide for Designers
How to Build an Animated Bootstrap Landing Page With Material Kit
In a previous tutorial, we discussed how to build a responsive landing page with Bootstrap 4. Today, we’ll learn how to create an animated landing page with Material Kit, a free Bootstrap 4 UI Kit based on Google’s Material Design. To implement it, we’ll use a combination of Bootstrap 4’s helper classes, Material Kit’s additional… Continue reading How to Build an Animated Bootstrap Landing Page With Material Kit
Is There a Viable Alternative to Javascript?
The short answer to the title question is “no.” The long answer is more complex, and begins with, “kindof…” There are several JavaScript alternatives for developers, but (for now) they have to be transpiled into JavaScript before they’re deployed. People Love to Hate JavaScript This is not a surprise, if we consider some obvious drawbacks… Continue reading Is There a Viable Alternative to Javascript?
How to Create a Print-Ready Pocket Folder
A pocket folder professionally organizes your documents. When customized with a design to match your brand, it can be the cherry on top of your marketing collateral. However, it can be a long road to that perfect presentation folder if your design isn’t print-ready. What type of file do you have? Is it the correct… Continue reading How to Create a Print-Ready Pocket Folder
How to Build an Accordion Component With the CSS Checkbox Hack
What You’ll Be Creating In this short tutorial, we’ll learn how to build a CSS-only flexible accordion component by taking advantage of the “CSS checkbox hack technique”. Most importantly, our component will be fully responsive and its layout will switch between horizontal and vertical depending on the viewport size. Along the way, we’ll discuss how… Continue reading How to Build an Accordion Component With the CSS Checkbox Hack
Dark Mode Looks Good, But Is It Actually Hurting You?
Over the last few years, everyone’s been talking about Dark Mode. It’s said to boost productivity and focus while reducing eye strain. It’s also supposed to be better for your battery life. But is that the whole story? Research into the matter suggests that Dark Mode might not be so healthy for us after all.… Continue reading Dark Mode Looks Good, But Is It Actually Hurting You?
How to Add Sound to Your Site, Without Infuriating Users
Once in a while, every professional comes across a challenge so great, so ridiculous, that they just can’t help themselves. They just have to go for it. It’s like the story of David and Goliath… if David was just bored and Goliath wasn’t threatening his entire nation. As for me, I’m about to argue for… Continue reading How to Add Sound to Your Site, Without Infuriating Users
How to Build a MouseOver Navigation Slide Effect
Have you ever used the Slider Revolution WordPress plugin in a project? If the answer is “yes”, you might have noticed the mini toolbar that appears in the right corner of the plugin’s configuration page. Initially, only the icons are visible, keeping the whole thing nice and compact. Then each time you hover over an icon, its… Continue reading How to Build a MouseOver Navigation Slide Effect
Are You Too Old to Be a Web Designer?
There’s nothing nice about asking the question “How old is too old to …?” So, I’m going to start by getting the answer out of the way, right now: You’re never too old to… …become a web designer… …transition from web designer to UX designer… …become a full-stack designer-developer powerhouse… …or do whatever the heck… Continue reading Are You Too Old to Be a Web Designer?
Solving Problems With CSS Grid: The Gantt Chart
We recently published a tutorial explaining how to build a JavaScript-driven Gantt Chart. I think it’s the perfect case study for CSS Grid, so in this tutorial we’ll see how well suited CSS Grid Layout is for building a flexible Gantt Chart. Our CSS Grid Gantt Chart Here’s what we’re building. It uses CSS Grid… Continue reading Solving Problems With CSS Grid: The Gantt Chart
What’s the Best Way to Share Your Work Online?
Thankfully, you no longer have to rely on a resume to try to communicate how talented you are to others. Your skills as a freelancer should be shared with others through visual media. It makes a lot more sense than writing up a one page summary that says, “I graduated from so-and-so university in 2010… Continue reading What’s the Best Way to Share Your Work Online?
Answers From a Panel Discussion
A few months ago I ran a panel discussion for the Swedish organisation DataTjej that included four panelists, plus an audience of forty women and non-binary people to dig deeper into the potential of role models. The discussion gave us a huge amount of insights and showed that everyone can work together to overcome the… Continue reading Answers From a Panel Discussion
Create Amazing Prototypes in No Time with the Envato Elements Sketch Plugin
The rise of prototyping tools in recent years is undeniable. Designers are harnessing these powerful, yet easy-to-use programs to build functional models of both websites and mobile apps. As such, they have become a vital part of the design process. Among the most widely-used and well-known prototyping apps is Sketch. This Mac-based program… Continue reading Create Amazing Prototypes in No Time with the Envato Elements Sketch Plugin
Build an Advanced Responsive Menu Inspired by Netflix
The other day I visited the Netflix Jobs website from my phone and had a look at its off-canvas menu. I really liked the staggering animations that fired every time you hit it. So I thought it might be a good exercise to take this menu as inspiration and show you how to build a similar responsive… Continue reading Build an Advanced Responsive Menu Inspired by Netflix