How IBM revolutionized corporate America with design

For more than 100 years, IBM has been one of the prominent names among computing giants, dominating the early global market with technical and service superiority. They forged a path of innovation leading to Nobel Prizes, lucrative defense contracts, and they even helped to put a man on the moon. IBM CEO, Thomas J. Watson Jr.… Continue reading How IBM revolutionized corporate America with design

3 Essential Design Trends, July 2022

There are a lot of dark, retro vibes trending in website design right now. Although there are still some light projects popping up – including a pastel trend below – a lot of what we are seeing has a quite moody feel. Here’s what’s trending in design this month.   Pastel Color Palettes Let’s start… Continue reading 3 Essential Design Trends, July 2022

Stealing like an artist — design heuristics in creative ideation

Stealing like an artist — design heuristics in creative ideation Mental shortcuts and cognitive frameworks aren’t only useful in everyday judgments and problem-solving. When faced with creative challenges, we can also tap into our “design brain” to channel previously encountered ideas into our own work. At their core, design heuristics are the combination, exploration, or transformation of often already… Continue reading Stealing like an artist — design heuristics in creative ideation

Gestalt psicology for dataviz

Understanding why specific data visualization techniques work better than others may not be so simple. Visual Pattern — Credits: Omar Flores on Unsplash We easily perceive a design that catches our attention, or elements that are out of place, but then we hardly know how to identify and evaluate them accurately, almost as if their effect acts at the… Continue reading Gestalt psicology for dataviz

3 Essential Design Trends, June 2022

Are you bored with some of your current design projects? This month’s collection of website design trends can help break you out of that rut with some fun and funky alternatives. And all of these options are anything but boring. From visual display to technique, these trends present a different set of challenges. Here’s what’s… Continue reading 3 Essential Design Trends, June 2022

Are we going to need food in the Metaverse?

A vision for how the world of food could evolve with web3. I was skeptical. I shouldn’t have been. Last week, I had the opportunity to attend YFood’s Insights & Innovation event, which took a deep dive into rising trends in the food tech space, specifically web3 and automation. As a UX designer, I’m interested in… Continue reading Are we going to need food in the Metaverse?

Make Smooth Transitions with Easing in Figma and After Effects

I love creating smooth transitions in Figma, both for concepts and final designs. But for extra finesse and control over easing types, you should export from Figma into Adobe After Effects and finish the job there—let me show you! Smooth(er) Transitions in Figma and Adobe After Effects Smooth transitions in apps and websites are where… Continue reading Make Smooth Transitions with Easing in Figma and After Effects

Storytelling as a service in SaaS

Rather than solely focusing on product characteristics and features, an authentic and creative narrative can convey brand values and connect with the target audience in a more strategic way. We are all the heroes of our own stories, and building a narrative around our experiences courses in our veins. Binging on stories is one of… Continue reading Storytelling as a service in SaaS

Why component properties will save your design system

Figma dropped some huge new features this month and you need to embrace them A design toolkit is only as good as the tools in it. New Figma features just gave your tools a lot more power. Photo by Cesar Carlevarino Aragon on Unsplash Figma has had a big year. Sure, it surpassed 4 million users and… Continue reading Why component properties will save your design system

10 Best Free Open Source JavaScript Lightbox Widgets and Plugins

Images are crucial, whether you’re running an e-commerce or portfolio website. How many sales you make or new clients you get depends a lot on the quality of the images of your products and services that you can showcase through your images. So it makes sense to highlight your images with a lightbox. Lightboxes make… Continue reading 10 Best Free Open Source JavaScript Lightbox Widgets and Plugins

10 Reasons You Should Upgrade to Elementor Pro

Elementor is a powerful website builder plugin that anyone can use to build attractive, responsive websites without writing a single line of code. There’s a reason why the free Elementor plugin has over 5 million active installations and an average 4.5-star rating.  Like many freemium WordPress plugins, you can get by with the free version… Continue reading 10 Reasons You Should Upgrade to Elementor Pro

12 Best WordPress File Managers

Are you looking for a file manager to help manage your files and folders for your WordPress website?  When running a WordPress website, you continously will add files and media. Eventually you’ll end up with thousands of images and other files. However, the built-in WordPress media manager is poorly equipped to organize these files in… Continue reading 12 Best WordPress File Managers

7 Basic Rules for Using Icons in UI Design

Icons are tiny pictograms that you’ll find in almost any app. They help us save screen space, communicate efficiently, and make interaction with a product more fun. But despite their size, creating and using icons in UI design isn’t easy. Since icons directly impact feature discoverability and the number of errors users make when they… Continue reading 7 Basic Rules for Using Icons in UI Design

Choosing a WordPress Website Builder and Why You Should Use One

There are a lot of tools and services for creating websites today. However, none of them are as popular as WordPress. In fact, WordPress powers around 43% of all websites: that include hobby sites, official government websites, and the biggest news websites. Some examples of websites built with WordPress are The White House, Rolling Stone,… Continue reading Choosing a WordPress Website Builder and Why You Should Use One

Web Design for Beginners (Epic Free Course!)

If you’re new to web design, this free course on web design for beginners will teach you everything you need to know. “How do I pick typefaces, how do I pick colors, what the heck is whitespace, and how do I position and size elements correctly?” These are exactly the kinds of questions… Continue reading Web Design for Beginners (Epic Free Course!)

How to Create a Sticky Toolbar With CSS and a Bit of JavaScript

In this new tutorial we’ll learn how to create a sticky (or fixed) toolbar—also referred to as a vertical navigation menu—with animated tooltips that you can use on your sites for all sorts of things. For example, if you are a store owner, you can use it to include a quick links feature for promoting… Continue reading How to Create a Sticky Toolbar With CSS and a Bit of JavaScript

Advanced File Upload and Content Management With Filestack

We live in the information age. From communication to shopping to finances to work, we handle most of our interactions digitally through websites and apps. Yet even though the bulk of our information is digital, the sites and apps we use still need to access our data to manage it. As a developer, the thought… Continue reading Advanced File Upload and Content Management With Filestack

How to Crop or Resize an Image With JavaScript

It’s very easy to show a resized or cropped version of an image on a website using CSS. However, this doesn’t change the original image data. What if you want to create an actual cropped or resized version of an image for your visitors or clients? We’ve already published a couple of tutorials on how… Continue reading How to Crop or Resize an Image With JavaScript

Decolonizing typography: creating a font for Afrikan writing systems

The driving force behind my relentless mission to create digital fonts for Afrikan writing systems, one letter at a time. In this case study I’ll walk you through the process of designing a font for the Bassa Vah Alphabet. The name ‘Bassa’ and a Bassa proverb. Background Bassa language is spoken by about 600 000 Bassa… Continue reading Decolonizing typography: creating a font for Afrikan writing systems

5 Best Comment Plugins for WordPress

An active comments area underneath each of your posts is a great way to increase the interaction on your website. Comments offer value to your content, show that your readers care about your site, and give visitors a reason to return. However, you must first make a space where your readers want to hang around… Continue reading 5 Best Comment Plugins for WordPress

8 Best WordPress Forum Plugins

Do you want to add a forum to your WooCommerce website? Forums can create a high level of engagement for users of your site.  Example of forums include:  question and answer platforms discussion boards peer to peer support, especially for software  To add a forum to your website you will need a… Continue reading 8 Best WordPress Forum Plugins

The 5 types of Questions

The kick-ass framework for every Product Manager In my previous post, I had shared my story of how my manager taught me the greatest ‘a-ha’ lesson of my professional life. 👇🏻 My first ‘aha’ learning of my career TL;DR — The stakeholders are mostly clueless about their own needs, and they are totally allowed to be so. As a… Continue reading The 5 types of Questions

How to Customize the WooCommerce Shop Page

People who have created WordPress websites know that there are different kinds of pages that you can create in WordPress. WooCommerce follows a somewhat similar structure. There are single product pages like single post pages and then there are archive type pages to show a list of products. The WooCommerce shop page falls in the… Continue reading How to Customize the WooCommerce Shop Page

Using a WooCommerce Related Products Plugin

When you run an online store, there’s no such thing as selling too many products. Just because the customer has found what they’re looking for, doesn’t mean you can’t convince them to throw a few more items into their cart. If you’ve ever spent any time on sites such as Amazon, then chances are you’re… Continue reading Using a WooCommerce Related Products Plugin