With more and more digitalization, there are more requirements for mobile and mobile apps that we use daily. The increase in mobile storage spaces raised to 256 GB, which is sure to increase as we meet customer needs, add new features, and support apps on different screen sizes.
Based on the report, 74% of the world uses Android, and around 70% of users look for the app size before installing any app.
Automation is the theme of this month’s collection of exciting new tools for designers and developers. There are tools to make your images better, tools to create illustrations, and tools to make your workflow more efficient. Plus, a whole host of tools that are just plain fun.
Here’s what is new for designers this month…
designstripe lets you create beautiful illustrations with no design skills. Drag and drop different elements into place, then customize them for your brand.
DesignMaestro is a free keyboard extension app that lets you automate the tasks you repeat daily. Set up a macro with a keyboard shortcut, and tap the shortcut to perform the action.
Ghost is one of the best personal blogging platforms around, and version 5 enhances it with custom code, support for video, and performance upgrades.
Yep is a new search engine from the makers of Ahrefs. Built from the ground up, Yep will give 90% of its ad revenue to content creators.
The CTO Field Guide is a free ebook for anyone newly promoted to a technology officer role or looking for a tech leadership role. It’s a simple guide to making the most of your first 90 days on the job.
ASCII Art Paint is a free, open-source web app for creating images made up of text characters and hieroglyphs. It’s a great way to add pictures to text-only formats.
Make your own fun, wallpaper art at up to 8k resolution using Effekt, a mix between an image editor and a visual toy.
Animatiss is a fantastic collection of CSS animations that you can use for free. Tailor the speed of the animation, preview it, then copy and paste the code into your project.
Skiff Mail is an email app that features end-to-end encryption. This means your email stays private and secure, so you’re free to discuss sensitive matters.
Super Designer is a collection of design tools for performing simple tasks. There’s a background generator, a pattern generator, a blob generator, and more—all free to use.
Web UI is a collection of UI kits and templates for Figma and Adobe XD. Most designs are free to download and use for projects, and some require payment.
Use this free online background remover to quickly and easily delete the background of photos, leaving you free to paste the foreground over flat colors, gradients, or even different backgrounds.
Untitled UI Icons is a set of clean, consistent, and neutral icons made for Figma in Figma. There are 3,500 icons in total. The line style is free to download.
Turn your Mac or iPhone into an old-school Macintosh with this retro wallpaper and icon set, and transport yourself back to 1984. OS is a premium download.
Shrink.media is a free app for web, iOS, and Android that lets you reduce the size of your image file size and dimensions to reduce its footprint.
This big library of 3D avatars is perfect for any project that needs staff images. There are different ethnicities, clothing, facial expressions, and accessories, so you never run out of options.
Felt is a modern map maker for the web that gives you more control, more design options, and easier sharing than Google maps.
SureScan is a helpful app that hunts through terms and conditions for dubious conditions on your behalf, so you can spend your time doing something less boring.
Reform is a no-code form builder that you can use to create clean, branded forms for your business without any design or code skills.
Discover how the best brands evolve their messaging over time with Copy Foundry, a brand positioning, and copywriting library to help your products stand out.
The post Exciting New Tools for Designers, June 2022 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
There are long-standing patterns in design that help us understand what the user wants and which solution will work best. These are referred to as design patterns. This article will explain how patterns help us appropriately construct an interface. We’ll dissect features like buttons, navigation, accordions, and date selection with examples.
This article will be helpful to both new and experienced designers who want to learn more about how to use interactive features and when to use them. If you’ve been in the industry for more than a year, you’ll know that nothing is black and white and that multiple ways can address the same problem depending on the situation.
First, consider the following question: which of the buttons depicted in the graphic is better?
The first button will appear to be the obvious choice for many people. Indeed, it is a well-known pattern that most people will recognize; it is the perfect solution for many projects. However, if customers understand the context, they are less concerned with the shape; therefore, there is no need for the designer to think in stereotypical terms. The context or states of a button can demonstrate that it is a button. When we place the cursor at an interactive feature on one website, it turns into a circle. “View” will be written inside the circle. The interface will be less cluttered as a result, and you will be able to clearly show the user that they are dealing with an interactive interface.
Next, which of these two Skip and Sign Up buttons, each with a distinct design accent, is better?
Many people would most likely vote for the first couple. That was something I used to do as well. However, put yourself in the shoes of a user and observe what this interface expects of you. They also want us to collect data at registration, which they emphasize. You can, however, skip this step. Is it up to par? Yes, because many users are hesitant to register on the site and provide personal information. We decide for the user which action is a priority when we show this hierarchy of buttons. But why not let them make their own decision? This is becoming a more prevalent strategy nowadays. For example, we see two identically filled buttons at Nike: Register and Learn more.
Apple uses the Learn More and Buy buttons the same way. The latter isn’t a large red button that screams, “Buy now! Buy now!” The user also can decide what is more important right now.
And here’s another question: if you had to choose between Cancel and Save, which would you put first?
It’s difficult to say whether Cancel should be displayed first or Save. Assume I issue a command. Which is more important: having a button in the interface for the desired action or seeing all of the answer alternatives and then deciding? Designers frequently choose the second choice, but it is unimportant.
According to Nielsen Norman Group research, both the first and second patterns are understandable for customers. Android and iOS are two examples of this, as they use both methods. They all have their own set of benefits.
I enjoy how Apple handles this in macOS. The emphasis is on canceling the action if you are assigned an irreversible task (such as deleting data from the recycle bin). The user must fully comprehend that they cannot retrievd anything they delete.
So, when working with buttons, do the following:
I’ll also begin the navigation section with an example question. Consider a site’s navigational block and a logo (a circle on the slide). Is it better to put the logo in the middle of the navigation or on the left side?
Both options appear to be equivalent. However, according to various research, the upper left corner is still preferable. There are numerous explanations for this. Because we read from left to right, the logo is the first thing we see. It’s also a marker that tells the user where they came from.
The NNG research center conducted an interesting experiment on this topic. Users were tasked with purchasing a specific item from an online store. At the same time, the list did not include any well-known stores, only local businesses. Some sites’ logos were on the left side of the navigation, while others were in the middle. Commodities were purchased, but the users had no idea what was being tested in the trial. After a while, they were asked for the company’s name from which they purchased the merchandise on the internet. People remembered both the brand and the company name better when the logo was on the left. As a result, having the logo on the left is likely to be significantly better—especially for well-known organizations. Of course, this doesn’t stop a lot of websites from putting their logo in the middle of the navigation box.
Consider a site that displays page links in a burger-style menu. Is it better to hide all navigation in the burger or remove part of the elements and display them to the user?
According to research, it is preferable to highlight a part of the navigation. If you know what sections users visit first, you might be able to show them those sections immediately. However, the user must click on the icon and search through a comprehensive database for specific information. Therefore, it makes sense to expedite this process and immediately provide them with what they require.
This is true not only for mobile interfaces but also for desktop interfaces. In the example below, a directory must be opened independently to be viewed. When the focus of a user’s attention shifts, it irritates them. If a drop-down list displays when you open a menu, users are not always comfortable. After that, it must proceed from left to right, and so on. Therefore, it’s preferable to display the complete menu if possible.
When it comes to navigation, the issue of the menu’s number of items cannot be overlooked. The fewer options a user has, the easier it is for them to decide. It is suggested that 7-9 things are ideal on the internet. However, when there are a lot of sections, subcategories, and sub-subcategories (as in a marketplace), fitting everything into a minimal number of items isn’t always feasible.
There are various options in this instance. There are multiple tiers of menus that can be created. The website of the New York Times is an example. There is horizontal navigation and another burger on the upper left of the home page. A wide menu appears when you click it, with more sections at the bottom and more sections at the top. The fact that the New York Times is a vast resource justifies this. That is why the website’s designers placed the essential items on the horizontal while also indicating that there are other components. The menu is accessed using a button in the upper left corner. If the user is dissatisfied with the primary navigation, this placement enhances the likelihood that they will see the menu and click.
According to the three-click rule, the user must reach the needed information in three clicks. There is, however, no data to back this up. Users today are willing to spend significantly more time looking for information. For example, if we’re looking for a product at an online store, we browse to the appropriate department and then dig further into many subcategories until we find it. Then there’s more filtering, sorting, adding to comparisons, adding to cart, checkout, shipping, etc. This does not appear to fit within three clicks. As a result, don’t limit yourself to this guideline. It’s preferable to keep the navigation simple and obvious so that the user may rapidly reach his objectives.
Perhaps you could divide the interface so that the user chooses from 7-9 categories first, then another 7-9, then another 7-9, and so on till they reach the end. Although you shouldn’t make it too complicated by creating a hierarchy with ten to twenty levels—this is scarcely practical. Five catalog segments, in my opinion, are quite acceptable.
But what if there are a lot of subcategories, and you can’t sensibly divide them into 7-9 items? Here are two basic strategies to assist you: The first is a list of names in alphabetical order. The second point to consider is terminology. This may be seen with Amazon. Take a look at their home decor area, which is organized alphabetically by subcategories. This makes finding things much easier for the user. The essential requirement is that the name be correct and recognizable to the user. You should not use jargon, slang, or professional vocabulary.
In some places, I genuinely admire Amazon’s approach. The creators placed a couple of the most popular subcategories at the top of the list, then let the rest of them go in alphabetical order. This is an excellent solution to the problem because it allows you to display the most popular things first.
Avic follows suit. Apple products account for the majority of the company’s revenue. As a result, breaking up or hiding such products makes no sense; instead, they are removed from the catalog and relocated to the top, increasing the number of categories on the main page. Again, it appears that the user will have difficulty making a decision. However, if Apple is the primary source of revenue, it seems logical to feature this section right away.
The examples considered are based on simple navigation. However, not every task is like this in practice. You might want to do something entirely out of the ordinary in some circumstances. For example, you may have seen a developer’s website in France where you have to use the arrow keys on the keyboard to drive a car that rides between menu items to traverse between sections. This is a rare occurrence, and even though it appears to me to tackle a slightly different problem, it succeeds—and in the process, it generates an environment around the project.
Here’s another example of an impressive menu from the Warsaw Puppet Theater’s website. All navigation is done using symbolic images that appear to be on strings and move as you point at them, much like puppets. As a result, the user becomes more engaged in the navigation game. In the tradition of puppet theater, this approach produces a delightful ambiance.
Go over the following items before beginning to work with navigation:
Let’s get to the accordion now. First, let’s look at two different versions of this interface element: one with the chevron pointing down and one with the plus symbol. Which version of the icon do you think is better? Then there’s the question of whether the icon should be placed to the right or left of the text, independent of its type.
According to studies, users recognize accordions and are more likely to click on the text. They click on the icon 25% of the time when it’s on the right and 75% of the time the text it’s on the left. Does this mean there’s no need for the icon to be on the right? No, it’s pretty acceptable to put it there. In truth, it doesn’t matter where we put it; the important thing is that we put it somewhere and make it big enough to click on.
The only difference is that the procedure takes a little longer when you click on the icon. This is because individuals aim and try to click on the icon accurately. As a result, it is vital to create such an element large enough to work with comfortably. I would even propose enlarging the clickable area rather than the icon itself. The project “Dia,” in which the icons are as large as the accordion itself, appeals to me. This site is, I believe, simple and convenient for all users. Each cell is clickable and takes up the entire screen width in this example.
When it comes to the arrow’s direction, you shouldn’t always aim it right. Many users have learned that pointing the arrow to the right indicates heading to another page. Only the tiny area, text, and icon in the example below are clickable, and there is a button at the bottom with an arrow that points in the same direction as the accordion’s equivalent. However, the acts are distinct. When you click the accordion, it will open block down, and when you click the button, you will be redirected to another page. People may be perplexed by this.
Giving the user an accordion with no identifying signs is likewise not good. A person must know which aspect of the interface they are interacting with. You must either use an icon or demonstrate that the element is clickable. The only thing that indicates clickability in the example above is the changing appearance of the cursor when hovering over the text. However, it is not visible; it must be larger, or a term such as “Read” should be used. Without that, the user won’t be able to tell the accordion apart from the bold text selection.
As I previously stated, you must think out all interactive features in terms of states. If there was a positive, for example, it should change—or at least become a minus. As a result, the user will realize that the drop-down box can be hidden.
It’s inconvenient when the icon vanishes after you click on it. The user anticipates being able to close the block at the exact location where they first opened it. After all, they may not like the response that appears and may want to delete it right away. He’ll have to re-aim now that the button has been repositioned. Here’s an unusual example of an accordion plus that isn’t clickable. This is only true for mobile navigation. If the user has previously dealt with the desktop version, they may not recognize what’s wrong and believe it’s a bug when switching to the mobile version.
Imagine you’re charged with deciding whether to keep the open items or conceal them when the user opens others. On the one hand, if the items don’t shut, the symbol will not move because no items are transferring. On the other hand, if there is too much text, the user may have trouble navigating to the following question. As a result, it may be preferable to close superfluous blocks automatically. However, consider the number of responses in a specific accordion.
The accordion is a multipurpose element. Not only may it be utilized for the FAQ area, but also the checkout page. According to Baymard, more than 30% of online retailers worldwide accept payments through accordion-style checkouts, with the percentage in the United States being considerably higher at 56%.
This solution has several benefits. The user can first view the following steps to complete (say, which payment systems are accepted). You don’t even have to click “Next” or navigate to another website to accomplish this. Second, the accordion makes it simple to navigate from block to block to check data without having to reload the page and risk losing it. After all, if the user made a mistake in the first area and discovered it in the second, it’s simple to correct it here. You’d have to return to the previous page in a typical checkout and risk losing the information you’d filled out but hadn’t sent to the server.
You can also use an accordion to create menus. However, you must exercise caution in this situation. The parent accordion category in the example below has no content. As a result, if you repeatedly click on the items to collapse the accordion, the entire content area remains empty. In this situation, it’s also a good idea to include some information in this page section.
The fantastic, beautiful accordion on hover is another example. It is quite adaptable. Although there is no accordion in the mobile version, it is essentially just banners that translate to other links.
Another more extreme example created by evident admirers of such a solution is an accordion within an accordion. The entire site can be navigated using these blocks. It’s amazing.
In mobile interfaces, accordions are also essential for website design. They make it simple to conceal information. All navigation on The Guardian’s website is done through these blocks. The only thing that bothers me is that the parent categories aren’t clickable. A user does not have the choice of seeing all of the sports news. Only the subcategories “Football,” “Cricket,” “Rugby,” and so on are available. On the other hand, The Guardian has moved the parent categories on the front page, which is a reasonable answer to such an issue.
The Wall Street Journal, on the other hand, took a very different approach. They didn’t post the categories on the main page and instead crammed everything into a single block. When a user visits a category, however, there is the Main section. This allows you to navigate to the main parent section or a specific subcategory.
Let’s summarize the accordion:
The choice of date is the next crucial factor to consider when discussing design patterns. I’ll begin with a comparison, as is customary. Users of iOS 14 who have set the alarm clock time will be familiar with this scenario. What is the better option?
I like the first choice since it is more attractive and does not distort the font as much as the second. However, the first variant has a potential issue: it is difficult to modify and twist. After all, the space is limited, and the user must fit precisely into the spot. It’s worth noting that Apple decided to leave both alternatives open.
Consider what you’ll use the Date Picker for a while you’re creating it: a date range for booking hotels or planning excursions, a date to set a birthday or reminder, a date to indicate the time for a movie session, or for ordering a cab. This will impact the rest of the process of envisioning and designing this feature.
It’s critical, in my opinion, to describe the many ways in which the user obtains information right now. The four options are a calendar, a drum (more of a mobile solution), a conventional input area, and a drop-down list. Let’s look at a few distinct solutions that all deal with airline tickets. Wizz Air, for example, utilizes a calendar, but it’s a double one so that the customer can see two months at once.
But, if so, which start date should be specified? It seems it should be the next day, and the website shows this. However, studies have shown that users are not always happy when a date has already been set. People rarely purchase next-day plane tickets. Therefore this “default” setting will almost certainly need to be modified.
Qatar Airlines went even further by announcing a start and end date. Today is the first day of the program. Is that choice required if the user logs in at 23:58? The second issue is that there is no differentiation between the start and end dates and all days in between. Everything is painted in the same hue. Users want to see anchors for dates if they plan a long trip that begins in one location and concludes in another. People are used to being told that we begin and end at specific places. As a result, the user can be certain that the dates are correct.
Today, UIA puts both the departure and return dates on the calendar. We’ve already established that this isn’t ideal. It’s also challenging to select a destination because you have to first click on the list, then go to the dropdown, search for the country, etc. It’s a long and winding road. But, it appears to me that the main blunder is something else. The search results output is blank. If I select two destinations and dates, I may be informed that that destination has no available flights. If I go on to the following date on the calendar, there are no flights available. Overbooking is the only method to find out when they will arrive. I’m likely to use a third-party aggregator that gathers data from numerous airlines straightforwardly and conveniently.
SkyUp’s calendar is one of my favorites. It includes large fields that open up a large calendar, and it’s simple to set the trip’s start and end dates. It indicates days when there are no flights for a specific location, and you can view the price for each ticket right away. This is quite useful because it allows you to choose a day and a flight even before you click confirm.
Let us now turn our attention to the drum. You can enter nearly any information into such an element, including time, date, and other lists. Users may easily navigate this tool and jump between values.
The input field follows. We must consider the format if we allow the user to enter a date using the keyboard. For example, in different regions of the world, “12.10.2021” may be interpreted differently: for some, it may be October 12, while for others, it may be December 10. This is especially significant in the case of the following example site for renting a car in another country. The user must be aware of the format they are dealing with. In this circumstance, several experts advise that the user writes in text. However, there is the issue of localization: would the system recognize that the language is not global English but rather a more non-standard language? After all, the user can use abbreviations when writing. You must either instruct the user on how to do it or use other solutions, such as placing a calendar icon next to it. In this method, the user controls how the data is entered.
If the drop-down list is modest, such as months, there is nothing wrong with it. However, you may accumulate an excessively long list over time. Consider the website Ukrzaliznytsia. The time limit is one hour, and there are 24 items on the list. Perhaps a mixed approach is best here, where the user enters a few digits and then selects from a list.
This is precisely the approach used in Google Calendar. If you start writing 16 in the input box, the sub-options appear at 16:00, 16:15, 16:30, and 16:45 (according to the system’s set step of 15 minutes).
Let’s summarize calendars:
If you summarize everything above, the main recommendation is simple: before applying any design patterns, make sure you know what tasks the user should complete and how to solve them. Based on this, you can build an interface with gorgeous and, more significantly, human-friendly buttons, navigation, accordions, dates, and other features.
The post Design Patterns: How to Create Simple Interfaces first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
Todoist is a to-do list app that 25 million people rely on every day to keep their lives organized. As part of the Doist design team’s goals for 2021, we aimed to redesign the Todoist Android app to take advantage of the latest Google Material Design guidelines.
In this post, we cover the design decisions and processes behind redesigning the Todoist Android app for Material Design. We explore the Design and Android team’s collaboration practices that brought the app update to life, which resulted in winning the Material Design Award 2021 in the large screen category. Let’s get started!
When we started the project, our design implementation on Android was ready for a major overhaul. The last milestone redesign on Android was initiated after the release of the first Material Design guidelines in 2016. Since then the team successfully worked on continuous improvements to the Android app, but we saw the opportunity to improve Todoist on Android on a more holistic level.
We set out to clean up instances of older UI components, colors, and text styles and update them with the latest Material Design components. We observed that some interactions and navigational patterns had become inconsistent with what users were expecting on newer Android devices and were eager to modernize this experience. With new hardware and software changes in mind, we set out to make the experience on larger phones and tablets even better, so Todoist could take full advantage of the latest generation of devices. Material 2 and 3 provided an incredible new framework to rethink the current app experience. With this in mind, we set out to challenge what a modern Android app should look like and innovate on top of the default user experience.
The team set itself the goal of redesigning our Todoist Android app and aspiring to make it the best-designed productivity app on Android. The project was ambitious and scheduled to take several months to complete. We set ourselves the following targets while working on the project:
The project was kicked off by reviewing the current Todoist Android app implementation, noting down what areas needed to be fixed and what was up to date. While reviewing, we took screenshots of the app implementation for reference. This way we could easily see the current state of the app and compare it to the new design proposals that would be created. Once the review process was finalized, we had a comprehensive overview of the current state of the app and the layout, component, and styling changes we wanted to make.
We continued the project by studying the latest Material Design Guidelines, assessing the components and practices that were most relevant to Todoist.
When the project kicked off in February 2021, Material 2 was the most recent version of their design system. Since Material 2 had already been released for quite some time, we anticipated that design changes to Material would be announced soon at the Google I/O event in May 2021. Rather than wait, because we expected the changes to be iterative, we pushed ahead with our work.
We identified 25 components and UI patterns that we wanted to change across the app. The changes included buttons, forms, menus, sheets, navigation drawer, app bar, system bars, text and color styles, and more. We started by creating a table view in a Dropbox Paper document with the component changes and references links to Google’s Material Design Guidelines.
This components list was a starting point for discussion to plan the scope and complexity of the changes. Close async discussions between the design and development team in Twist and Dropbox Paper comments helped us make decisions about scope and complexity early on and set a solid foundation for the project.
In the initial Material Design study, we also researched inspiring Material Design apps, Material studies, Play Store apps, and Google Workspace apps to learn from their execution.
We started out by studying the Material Design Award Winners 2020 and tested out the products that were showcased. The showcased winners struck a good balance between implementing the Material Design Guidelines while maintaining their own product’s brand within the system. This balance between Google’s guidelines and the Todoist brand was also key for us to get right and so we strived to find this mix across the work we created and implemented in the project.
Along with the MDA winners, we researched the Material Studies that Google produced to showcase what apps could look like with branding and Material Design guidelines applied. It was a great reference to see how far components could be customized while maintaining the core platform principles. The Reply case study in particular offered valuable insight to us as its content type and layout came closest to Todoist. It showcased how components like the app bar, navigation drawer, and large screen layouts worked while being customized.
We continued our research by searching the Google Play store for inspiring app examples. Google Tasks, Press, Periodic Table, and Kayak stood out to us as the level of polish and quality of the apps were on par with the experience we were aspiring to create.
Sometime later in the project when Material You was released (more on that later), we stumbled upon the Google Workspace apps blog post which previewed Material 3 changes that Google was introducing to their own products. It offered a great glimpse at what was to come before the Material 3 Design Guidelines were officially released. This post sparked new internal discussions and further design explorations that we considered for future Todoist Android updates.
As we started to define the new Todoist Android app design language and document the changes, we opted to create a design framework, focusing on creating components rather than designing every screen in the app. This allowed us to consistently apply the design system in the app. We did so by using the previously defined component list that we created during the review and study process.
Core screens from different areas of the app were chosen to demonstrate how the components could be applied. We chose to mock up the Todoist project view, navigation drawer menu, project view edit screen, settings, and project detail view, among others. These screens gave us a good overview of how buttons, forms, drawers, lists, and other components would work together and in different states; selected, pressed, disabled, etc.
During the project, we were transitioning our Doist design system to Figma and started creating our first components in the new Doist Product Android Library. We started by using some components from the Material Design UI kit – Components library from the official Google Figma resource file and added them to our Doist design system. We then continued to build up the Product Android Library file with our Todoist-specific components such as task list & board views, detail views, sheets, colors, typography, etc.
We continued by documenting color and typography changes that were based on the Material Design guidelines. The design team opted to implement a new Design Token framework that would share the same values between our design system and the development implementation. The development team would output the values they had in the current implementation and the design team would analyze which values were needed and which could be merged, changed, or deleted. This informed the new Design Token color and typography system which we then documented and discussed with the team to implement. Later in the project, we were happy to see a similar token system introduced by Material 3 in the latest guidelines which validated our thinking and principles behind the new design system.
The design documentation expanded to hold other edge-case mockups that could sit alongside the design system. We documented different responsive screen experiences between phones and tablets against the previous implementation. Additional sections were created to document the motion that should be used for certain components and screens by referencing existing Material Design guidelines examples or prototyping custom motion in Principle and After Effects. The design spec also touched on haptic feedback that should appear on touch targets, how dark mode should work across the new components, documenting Todoist themes within the new design language, and more.
At Doist, the benefit of the squad is that cross-team collaboration is built into the make-up of the team. Designers, developers, support, and product managers work together in a squad to deliver the project. This close collaboration from the start is key to bridging the gap between scope, estimations, design, development, and delivery. The squad discussed their findings on a daily basis and came up with the best plan of action together.
Designers started by creating components in Figma and shared them with developers in Dropbox Paper. We used screenshots to document the current implementation next to the new designs and linked to the default Google Material Design components. This allowed the team to compare all references in one place. Developers shared their feedback, adjustments would be brainstormed together as the designs were iterated.
Designers on the project would share their work in progress on a weekly basis with the rest of the design team in a design review Twist thread. Here details about the designs were discussed, alternatives mocked up and bigger picture plans made. Design reviews brought up topics like FAB (Floating Action Button) placement, theme options, accent color usage on components, consistency with other platforms, navigation options, and shadow elevation. After thorough discussions and alternative mockups were presented, the design team aimed to find the right balance between Material Design and Todoist brand guidelines. The development team, also part of the design reviews, gave their feedback on the solution and raised technical complexities early on.
Eventually, the design was stabilized and consistencies updated across components and mockups. The design spec was kept up to date so the development team could always review the latest designs in Figma.
As soon as the development process started, the Android team provided early screenshots and videos in Twist threads while they were implementing the design spec. This practice allowed us to review the app implementation early and often. Designers could review the development work and share feedback in Twist, which resulted in getting the implementation to a high quality. Alongside Twist discussions, the team set up a Todoist project to track ongoing issues and fix bugs. Designers logged new issues, developers would solve them and share the new implementation for designers to review.
When the team had the first stable version of the Android app, we shared it internally at Doist to get more insight and feedback. Other Doisters could access the redesign via a feature flag that could be turned on in the app settings and test the new version for however long they wanted. The feature flag system allowed people to give us early feedback on the design decisions we made and report bugs. Feedback was submitted by the wider team through a dedicated Twist thread and designers and developers could discuss how best to address the feedback during the active project implementation.
After we refined the app implementation further and addressed early feedback we opened up the app update to our beta users. Here users had access to the new Android redesign and were able to give us feedback. Our support team gathered feedback and shared it with us in a dedicated Twist thread. The squad aimed to analyze every comment and looked for patterns where we could make tweaks and improvements to the user experience.
As part of these tweaks, we made changes to how the bottom bar and navigation drawer worked. Some users reported frustrations with the way the new bottom navigation and menu drawer worked. In its first implementation, the drawer was half raised when opened and had to be swiped up to be raised again to see the full content list. This was an issue for some users as it was slower to get to the content below the list. So we decided to fully raise the drawer by default when opening. We also made it easier to open the navigation drawer by sliding up from the bottom app bar. This was a small shortcut but it enabled users to get to their content faster.
While we were in the testing phase and about to wrap up the project, Google unveiled Material You, and sometime later the Material 3 Guidelines were published. With the newly announced resources, we went back to study the latest guidelines and references we could find to see where the Todoist Android app redesign fits in and which adjustments we might need to make now or in the future.
Dynamic Color was a big new feature that was announced as part of the Material You update. As Todoist supports many different themes the Material You Dynamic Color feature seemed like a good fit for our product. We decided to prioritize this feature and implement Dynamic Color light and dark themes as part of our Todoist theme settings options.
To implement Dynamic Color, the development team started off by creating a demo prototype that utilized the Dynamic Color system and showcased how we could select from a range of color choices that the system defined based on the wallpaper choice. From there, we tried to incorporate system behavior in our design mockups. We designed a range of different color mockups and components to see which ones could fit with which components. We then came up with a color system that worked for the Todoist app and the new themes. These new Dynamic Color themes would sit alongside our current theme options in the Todoist app settings. From here users could choose between Dynamic Color Light and Dark themes.
Along with Dynamic Color, the team also created a customizable bottom app bar, allowing users to set up the app in a way that’s most convenient to their workflow. The location of the Dynamic Add Button can be changed to the center, left, or right corner of the screen. The order of the Menu, Search, and Notification buttons can be rearranged to best fit the ergonomics of the user’s dominant (left or right) hand and optimize their navigation patterns.
As critical beta feedback was addressed and stability tweaks were made, the squad felt ready to release the new Todoist Android app to the public. The team logged the issues that could not immediately be addressed for future reviews and updates.
The design and marketing team readied the launch by creating What’s New banner artwork and copy that are displayed within the app when launching the update. The Doist marketing team also created release notes and shared the app update announcements on our social channels. The brand and product design team worked together to create custom image assets and copy that summarised the project work in a simple and beautiful way.
After a successful launch of the redesigned Todoist for Android app, Google contacted Doist to announce that Todoist was selected as the Material Design Award 2021 winner in the Large Screen category. The team was excited to be recognized for their hard work and it felt like we achieved the goal we had set out to accomplish.
Internally, designers and developers continued to study and discuss the Material 3 updates. The design team started exploring mockups and design changes inspired by Material 3 and Google’s Workspace app updates. Some of our current Todoist explorations include changing the FAB styling, updating the app bar, further removing elevation shadows, and more. Here is a preview of what a future Todoist update could look like.
We hope these insights into Doist’s design process and collaboration practices have sparked your interest. Thank you for reading and stay tuned for future design updates!
The post Case Study: Redesigning Todoist for Android first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
Combining minimalist aesthetics with the ongoing trend for digital art, PureNFT is an awesome new app that lets anyone break into the lucrative NFT market.
The app aims to lower the bar for prospective NFT creators by creating a minimal artwork from a single-pixel captured anywhere on your viewport. You can mint your NFT directly in the app — the process of recording your artwork on the blockchain — and list it for free on PureNFT’s dedicated marketplace.
Using PureNFT’s ArtPicker tool, hover the tool over any part of your screen, click a pixel to generate your NFT, and then click the “Mint Now” button to mint it. The app will upscale the pixel to a solid-color artwork with an ultra-high resolution of 5,000 x 5,000px. On the pro plan, PureNFT will automatically generate a 250 x 250px thumbnail to ensure your artwork isn’t pirated.
One of the best features of PureNFT is that you don’t need any drawing ability to break into the exciting NFT trend. Just point your mouse at a pixel and click, and the app will generate a pure high-resolution version of the pixel for you.
Unlike most marketplaces that favor Ethereum, PureNFT is powered by the Solana blockchain, which is far more energy-efficient, and, consequently, environmentally friendly. Despite this, PureNFT’s tokens are platform-agnostic, which means you can mint them on the native platform and then transfer them to popular marketplaces like OpenSea and Rarible.
The potential for NFTs created with PureNFT is limitless. You can literally click any pixel, mint it as an NFT, and wait for the money to start rolling in.
NFTs are a hugely popular way of monetizing artwork, but they are limited in scope; you can only sell one unique NFT of the Mona Lisa, and even then, you have to be the Louvre to do it. But with PureNFT, anyone can visit Wikipedia and open an image of the Mona Lisa that is 7,479 x 11,146px. That translates to 83.3 million potential NFTs; if each pixel sells for an average of $1,000, you might make enough to buy the actual Mona Lisa!
Minting an NFT on PureNFT currently costs 1 SOL (approximately $125 at the time of writing). The first NFT minted by PureNFT — an azure pixel from an unknown screen grab — has an asking price of 375 SOL (approximately $46,875 at the time of writing), but not all PureNFT users have been so lucky, with some early beta users complaining of returns as low as 300%. Nonetheless, the potential for substantial financial gains is evident.
According to Brendan Lewes, co-founder and CTO of PureNFT, the team is interested in introducing AI-powered automation in the near future: Imagine an automated tool searching for popular images, breaking them down into pixels, minting them, and selling them for you, while you live your life. NFT mining could be the next big area of crypto.
However, automation isn’t likely to come anytime soon, according to Lewes:
For now, we’re focussed on maintaining a stable platform. But…we’re super excited about the journey we’re on, and [co-founder Max Schriebport ] and I can’t wait to see where it take us.
PureNFT is currently in beta on macOS, Windows, and iOS, with an Android version on the way. There’s a free plan that allows you to preview up to 5 NFTs, and pro plans start at $399/month.
The post PureNFT Disrupts the NFT Market first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
Même dans les périodes difficiles, certaines choses demeurent inchangées. La musique est pour beaucoup un exutoire et le moyen de partager des moments uniques. Dans un même temps, la réduction des émissions carbone est une priorité essentielle pour tous, et ce dans le monde entier. Pour répondre à cet enjeu, Coldplay s’associe cette année à SAP afin que sa tournée mondiale « Music Of The Spheres » soit la plus neutre possible en carbone.
Quand la date du concert tant attendue approche, vous vous demandez probablement comment vous comptez vous y rendre. La réponse à cette simple question peut avoir un impact important sur le déroulement de votre soirée, mais elle pourrait avoir un impact encore plus grand sur votre empreinte carbone, et par conséquent sur notre planète et ses habitants.
Croyez-le ou non, les déplacements du public pour aller et revenir d’un concert contribuent largement aux émissions de carbone et s’accumulent à chaque tournée. Tous les fans n’en ont pas conscience mais en les sensibilisant, nous pouvons en responsabiliser des millions.
Coldplay, l’un des groupes de musique les plus célèbres et engagés, s’est fixé une mission pour sa prochaine tournée mondiale : la rendre la plus éco responsable possible. Pour y parvenir, ils souhaitent réduire leur consommation globale mais également avoir davantage recours à des technologies vertes, dans le but de réduire les émissions totales de CO2. Ce projet est aussi le moyen de sensibiliser la communauté de fans à une cause qui concerne tout le monde.
Coldplay souhaite ainsi continuer d’offrir une expérience de concerts unique à ses fans tout en leur donnant la possibilité de s’engager à ses côté. Pour donner vie à ce projet, le groupe avait besoin d’un peu d’aide ; c’est là qu’intervient SAP.
“Grâce à notre technologie et à nos solutions, nous donnons aux organisations du monde entier les moyens de favoriser le développement durable“, a déclaré Christian Klein, PDG et membre du Conseil Exécutif de SAP SE. “Coldplay et SAP partagent un engagement commun et profond pour le développement durable, et nous sommes ravis d’unir nos forces pour rendre leur tournée aussi écologique que possible.”
SAP a collaboré avec Coldplay pour développer et lancer l’application Coldplay Music Of The Spheres World Tour. Cette application combine des expériences interactives et immersives avec des fonctionnalités qui permettent aux fans de prendre des décisions plus respectueuses de l’environnement lors de leurs déplacements. Une fois que les utilisateurs auront téléchargé l’application, ils commenceront leur voyage et exploreront différentes sections qui offrent toutes des moyens uniques de faire partie de l’univers Coldplay tout au long de la tournée.
Les fans peuvent commencer par l’axe durabilité dans la section “Voyage” de l’application. Ils peuvent y visualiser et mieux comprendre en quoi leur mode de déplacement impacte leur empreinte carbone. En choisissant parmi sept modes de transport différents – voiture, taxi, train, transports en commun, vélo, à pied ou en avion – les fans peuvent voir en temps réel l’impact de leurs décisions sur l’environnement. Et pour promouvoir des modes de transports plus durables, l’application offre des récompenses sous forme de codes promo sur la boutique en ligne de Coldplay à tout spectateur qui s’engage à utiliser les transports à faible émission carbone.
L’application comporte également d’autres rubriques :
Pour donner vie à cette expérience d’envergure mondiale, SAP a exploité deux solutions de premier ordre : SAP Business Technology Platform et SAP Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises. Coldplay utilise également SAP Analytics Cloud pour obtenir des informations sur l’empreinte carbone des fans qui voyagent, à partir des données capturées dans l’application, ce qui aidera le groupe à déterminer comment la tournée compense les émissions de carbone calculées.
“Ces dernières années, nous avons cherché à placer le développement durable au cœur de nos tournées et l’application joue un rôle important dans la concrétisation de cette vision et de cet engagement. Nous sommes très fiers de la collaboration avec notre partenaire SAP, qui a créé une application à la fois efficace et attrayante permettant à nos fans de choisir des moyens plus durables pour se rendre à nos concerts“, a déclaré Coldplay.
Les difficultés rencontrées par Coldplay pour gérer les émissions de carbone liées aux déplacements du public ne sont pas propres à l’industrie musicale. Partout dans le monde, les entreprises sont confrontées à la gestion des émissions de carbone qui ne font pas partie de leurs activités ou qui ne sont pas sous leur contrôle direct, autrement dit, les émissions de niveau 3. SAP aide ainsi les entreprises du monde entier à devenir des entreprises durables et intelligentes, en leur fournissant des solutions et des outils numériques pour gérer de manière optimale leurs performances en matière de développement durable, à tous les niveaux de leur activité.
Ce n’est qu’en s’engageant collectivement que nous pourrons commencer à améliorer notre impact sur l’environnement. Avec l’application Music Of The Spheres World Tour, nous sommes heureux de montrer au monde entier que lorsque nous travaillons conjointement, nous pouvons sensibiliser, agir, et surtout changer les choses.
Pour vivre vous-même l’expérience, l’application Music Of The Spheres World Tour de Coldplay est déjà disponible en téléchargement sur iOS et Android.
The post Quand la technologie donne le LA à la tournée eco-friendly de Coldplay appeared first on SAP France News.
Adobe has launched Creative Cloud Express to help anyone make beautiful, stand-out content for the web.
Unlike Adobe’s other products that need a little training and practice to make the most of, Creative Cloud Express is aimed at those with no prior design experience as part of Adobe’s mission to enable creativity for all.
Creative Cloud Express is a series of web, and mobile apps (iOS and Android), that uses a templating system to allow anyone to create social media posts, logos, ads, and more. Simple to use, Creative Cloud Express uses guided tools that hold the user’s hand throughout the process, making it easy to achieve beautiful results with no previous experience.
Creative Cloud Express makes producing creative work a viable option for anybody, regardless of experience. However, it is most suited to social media posting — even though it’s possible, it’s unlikely anyone is seriously going to use Creative Cloud Express to design a logo, given the extensive design insights needed to approach that task.
Creative Cloud Express is great for anyone who wants to dip their toe into Adobe’s product range but isn’t ready for the full Create Cloud Suite of tools. However, it’s really beneficial to companies whose design teams are tied up producing assets for the marketing department. It’s perfectly suited to marketing teams that need to output a lot of professional-standard design assets quickly; designers can make brand assets once and leave the marketers to create the content they need, safe in the knowledge that they’ll end up with professional-looking results regardless of skill.
Adobe describes Creative Cloud Express as being “template-first,” meaning that the starting point for your design will be one of the thousands of professionally designed templates included in the app. Once you have your starting point, you can add your images, content, and videos using a simple drag and drop interaction. In addition, creative Cloud Express has thousands of high-end illustrations, brushes, stickers, and fonts. Creative Cloud Express even gives you access to the entire Adobe Stock photo collection. So, even if you don’t have an extensive set of company assets ready to go, you can still create something truly unique.
Professional designers will also benefit from Creative Cloud Express thanks to the tight syncing with the Creative Cloud Suite. You can quickly toggle between rich and straightforward tools, allowing you to take advantage of powerful apps when needed and fall back on fast automation when suitable.
Powered by Sensei, Adobe’s proprietary AI and machine-learning technology — the same tech that powers design-app giants like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro — Creative Cloud Express takes the hard work out of producing design assets with quick actions. For example, you can remove the background from photos, trim or merge videos, and export PDFs, all in a few clicks.
One of the must-have features of any design app these days is collaboration, and Creative Cloud Express has it built into the core experience. Adobe’s Shared Libraries, Shared Templates, and Shared Brands are all built-in so that teams can work seamlessly together.
Creative Cloud Express is already an impressive tool, but it’s just the beginning for Adobe. Future updates will include even tighter integration with Creative Cloud apps, more quick actions, and new templates. Adobe plans to release new features every week, making for an exciting learning curve.
Creative Cloud Express is all about enabling creativity and helping those professionals that haven’t previously thought of themselves as designers to build a career as part of the creator economy.
Creative Cloud Express is free on the web at adobe.com/express and can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store or Android Store. Premium features can be added for $9.99 per month.
The post Have You Tried Adobe Creative Cloud Express Yet? first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
WALLDORF, Allemagne – 16 novembre 2021 – SAP SE (NYSE : SAP) a annoncé aujourd’hui de nouveaux produits et services qui permettent aux développeurs, civils ou professionnels, d’accélérer la transformation numérique. Depuis la pandémie, la recherche de talents sonne comme un défi majeur à relever pour les organisations du monde entier. Selon IDC*, la pénurie mondiale de développeurs à plein temps passera de 1,4 million en 2021 à 4,0 millions en 2025. Les annonces de SAP répondent à cette pénurie de talents avec de nouveaux outils, fonctions, de l’IA intégrée et des programmes d’apprentissage pour aider les employés et les candidats à acquérir de nouvelles compétences pour aborder l’ère du « cloud-first ». Ces annonces interviennent pendant le SAP® TechEd, la conférence mondiale des développeurs de SAP, qui se déroule en ligne du 16 au 18 novembre 2021.
« Pour nos clients et partenaires du monde entier, l’avenir est dans le cloud « , a déclaré Juergen Mueller, directeur technique et membre du comité exécutif de SAP SE. « Dénicher les bons talents, avoir les bonnes compétences et les connaissances est un vrai challenge pour mener à bien ce projet.. Les annonces de SAP permettent non seulement de donner aux développeurs civils les moyens d’agir, mais aussi de soutenir les développeurs professionnels dans leurs efforts de formation continue, pour que les clients puissent continuer à innover aujourd’hui et construire les bases de leur réussite de demain. »
Tout le monde peut être un développeur
SAP a annoncé une expérience unifiée de développement low-code/no-code sur SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), qui permet aux développeurs professionnels et civils de créer de nouvelles applications, d’améliorer celles existantes et d’automatiser des tâches complexes. En ajoutant le développement no- code et l’automatisation avec l’environnement de développement SAP AppGyver®, en améliorant le développement low- code avec SAP Business Application Studio et en proposant une avant-première de la solution SAP Process Automation, SAP offre à ses clients de nouveaux moyens d’en faire plus en s’appuyant sur les talents technologiques de l’ensemble de leur organisation, que ce soit au sein ou en dehors des départements informatiques traditionnels.
DHL, l’un des leaders mondiaux du secteur de la logistique, utilise SAP AppGyver pour numériser les processus et rationaliser les opérations des employés pour la gestion de la flotte. « Avec SAP AppGyver, nous avons créé une application mobile sur iOS et Android pour mieux gérer les rapports de dommages pour notre flotte de remorques à travers l’Europe« , explique Ilari Aarikka, Director, Trailer Pool & Fleet, DHL. » L’appli nous a permis d’accroître la fiabilité des rapports tout en rendant les inspections plus pratiques pour les employés sur le terrain. »
Pour les développeurs professionnels, SAP propose également un ensemble gratuit pour SAP BTP qui inclut désormais SAP HANA® Cloud et SAP Integration Suite, ainsi qu’un aperçu de son nouveau thème visuel « Horizon » pour son système de conception SAP Fiori®.
Vers des solutions d’entreprise composables
SAP a annoncé plusieurs mises à jour afin d’aider les clients à mieux intégrer et étendre leurs activités grâce à des solutions modulaires et agiles qui répondent à des défis individuels. La dernière mise à jour de SAP Integration Suite, la couche d’intégration de SAP BTP, fournit du contenu d’intégration et des adaptateurs prépackagés supplémentaires – disponibles sur SAP API Business Hub – pour intégrer des applications SAP et non-SAP. D’ici la fin de l’année 2021, SAP Integration Suite sera disponible sur Google Cloud Platform. SAP lancera de nouvelles fonctionnalités d’extension dynamique dans SAP HANA Cloud pour aider les clients à déplacer leur charge de travail vers le cloud, depuis leurs propres systèmes sur site, en temps quasi réel. SAP présente également de nouvelles façons d’aider les migrations des systèmes SAP BW sur site vers la solution SAP Data Warehouse Cloud et des options de localisation étendues pour SAP S/4HANA® Cloud.
Offres d’intelligence artificielle embarquée dans l’ensemble du portefeuille
SAP a développé des fonctionnalités d’intelligence artificielle (IA) embarquées qui permettent aux développeurs et aux clients d’exploiter plus facilement l’IA et de stimuler la productivité. Les nouvelles fonctionnalités du service SAP Conversational AI simplifient la création et la surveillance des chatbots qui automatisent les tâches et les flux de travail. SAP a prévu de lancer le service Personalized Recommendation, un nouveau moteur de recommandation basé sur un réseau neuronal qui fournit des recommandations hautement personnalisées, et ce dans un large éventail de scénarios commerciaux. De nombreux produits et services SAP utilisent désormais la puissance de l’IA, par exemple pour automatiser la correspondance des documents interentreprises, recommander des actions dans les flux de travail, extraire et traiter des données à partir de documents commerciaux ou fournir des recommandations d’apprentissage.
La formation, de la salle de classe à la salle de réunion
SAP a lancé un tout nouveau site SAP Learning. Il s’adresse aux développeurs SAP de tous niveaux. Sa conception simple et intuitive facilite le perfectionnement ou le recyclage dans des domaines d’innovation clés, gratuitement. Cette nouvelle expérience comprend une gamme complète de contenus de formations disponibles dans différents formats : des sessions dirigées par des experts et des formations pratiques aux vidéos de micro-apprentissage. SAP a également lancé un programme d’enseignement de l’IA pour les écoles ainsi qu’ un programme visant à fournir des solutions de cloud computing de SAP aux universités et aux professeurs.
48 heures de contenu en direct à SAP TechEd en 2021
Inscrivez-vous pour suivre l’événement avec plus de 100 sessions de renforcement des compétences, 25 ateliers, 8 pistes techniques et 48 heures de discussions techniques en continu sur Channel 1, accessible avec votre inscription à la conférence SAP TechEd.
SAP TechEd News Guide 2021
Plus de détails sur toutes les nouveautés, les lancements et les mises à jour sur http://sap.com/teched-news-guide
*Source : « Quantifying the Worldwide Shortage of Full-Time Developers, » Doc # US48223621, IDC, Septembre 2021
À propos de SAP
La stratégie de SAP vise à aider chaque organisation à fonctionner en “entreprise intelligente”. En tant que leader du marché des logiciels d’application d’entreprise, nous aidons les entreprises de toutes tailles et de tous secteurs à opérer au mieux : 77 % des transactions commerciales mondiales entrent en contact avec un système SAP®. Nos technologies de Machine Learning, d’Internet des objets (IoT) et d’analytique avancées aident nos clients à transformer leurs activités en “entreprises intelligentes”. SAP permet aux personnes et aux organisations d’avoir une vision approfondie de leur business et favorise la collaboration afin qu’elles puissent garder une longueur d’avance sur leurs concurrents. Nous simplifions la technologie afin que les entreprises puissent utiliser nos logiciels comme elles le souhaitent – sans interruption. Notre suite d’applications et de services de bout en bout permet aux clients privés et publics de 25 secteurs d’activité dans le monde de fonctionner de manière rentable, de s’adapter en permanence et de faire la différence. Avec son réseau mondial de clients, partenaires, employés et leaders d’opinion, SAP aide le monde à mieux fonctionner et à améliorer la vie de chacun. Pour plus d’informations, visitez le site www.sap.com.
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SAP News Center. Suivez SAP sur Twitter : @SAPNews.
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The post Tout le monde peut devenir un développeur : SAP présente des outils pour les développeurs citoyens et professionnels, l’IA intégrée et une expérience d’apprentissage gratuite appeared first on SAP France News.
Need inspiration for an upcoming web design project? Want to learn how to add live chat functionality to your site, or which trends you should be aware of as you pursue new projects? Leading web design blogs could be the solution to your problems.
Just as marketers follow posts on websites like Search Engine Land and Mashable, and tech enthusiasts read up on Hacker Noon and TechCrunch, designers have plenty of blogs worth following too. The top web design blogs are incredible sources of inspiration, information, and guidance for today’s budding professionals. You can find insights into recent web design news stories or learn how to use new components in your website content.
As one of the best resources for any designer, a good web design publication can expand your education, act as an instant muse, or give you some much-needed entertainment.
Here are our top choices for the ultimate must-follow web design blogs.
You’re already here, so obviously, you already know that Webdesigner Depot’s a comprehensive hub of tech tips, news, thought leadership posts, and inspiration. Webdesigner Depot stands out among the most popular design blogs in the world. Frequently updated with content from a series of experienced authors, Webdesigner Depot is the go-to place for designers. Here, you’ll find the latest design news, explore the pros and cons of different coding systems, and discover some of the best design resources around.
We have many categories to choose from, including coding, news, resources, SEO, inspiration, content marketing, and user experience. You can even find the occasional “funny” post or poll to take part in too.
Many of the articles produced by Webdesigner Depot also go above and beyond the competition in terms of detail and depth. If you’re learning about freelance project management apps on this site, you can expect a complete overview of each of the available apps covered, along with notes on how to choose and use these tools correctly.
Webdesigner Depot also has a newsletter you can subscribe to in order to stay informed about recent posts.
Another excellent publication popular among web design professionals, Smashing Magazine, covers all kinds of helpful content. To make finding the right posts a little easier, the company organizes content by category, covering topics like user experience, web design, React, JavaScript, CSS, and accessibility. You can also search through articles with the search bar at the top of the page.
Alongside standard blogs, Smashing Magazine also produces eBooks and guides for those who need more extensive information about a specific topic. All of the content shared on this website is designed to be easy-to-read and informative. You’ll find plenty of sketches, screenshots, and images to guide you through learning experiences too.
Notably, the blog has been around since 2006, so although it has a lot of material to explore, some of the content might be a little outdated. If you want to stay up-to-date with Smashing Magazine’s latest posts, you can also subscribe to their email newsletter for once-a-week messages.
While many of the top design blogs on the market today focus on sharing a combination of inspirational and informative content, The Design Blog is explicitly intended for inspiration. The site shares a “designer of the week” every Monday, and that person’s content is featured on the web and social networks of TDB. There’s also a quote of the week, featured video, and free resources every week.
Most of the design blog’s content is split into sections according to the days of the week. Web design Wednesday is a great section to check out if you’re looking for inspiration. The segment covers a range of well-designed websites from different niches to help guide your next project.
On Thursdays, the design blog covers UI and UX designs from around the web, as well as well-designed apps from budding creatives. Every Friday, there’s a “freebie” offered on the site in the form of an available download or digital resource.
The design blog also covers recommended books and websites you should visit, leading Dribble profiles, and more. The biggest downside is navigating through all the available content can be quite a complicated process.
Beautifully organized and packed with helpful information, the Web Design Ledger is an excellent site for designers to visit. The website splits into various segments depending on the kind of design you’re interested in. For web designers, there are content categories for portfolio work, mobile design, business development, ecommerce, and even wearable devices.
You’ll also find several sub-categories for sections like User Interface design, graphics, and web development. For those looking to learn from thought leaders in the industry, Web Design Ledger has a range of fantastic interviews to explore. There’s also a review section, where you can check out some of the latest tools available for design professionals.
The “Inspiration” section of the site also includes many great ideas for people who need a little creative boost for their next project. You can check out some top-rated WordPress themes, explore tips about branding and design for specific industries, and even get advice on logo creation.
Mockplus is more than just a blog producer. The company offers tools to make design teams faster and more productive through unified collaboration, interactive prototyping, and scalable design systems. If you’re using Mockplus’ cloud technology for your design projects, there are plenty of tutorials and articles on the website tailored specifically to you.
The Mockplus blog, alternatively, delivers easy-to-consume content to designers from all environments, using various kinds of tools and software. You can find guides on how to experiment with new web design strategies and tips on how to master things like navigation menu design.
Many of the most popular posts on Mockplus are lists of useful resources, websites, and downloads you can use in your design tasks. For instance, you can use this site as inspiration when finding Android UI systems or wireframing tools. The site has a subscription form available for people who want to sign up for regular blog updates.
Design Bombs is an attractive and reliable source of blog content for the design world. Easy to explore for beginners, Design Bombs even has a helpful “Start Here” section, where you can find beginner articles on how to start a blog, make a website, or use WordPress hosting. If you already know what you want to learn about, there are plenty of categories to choose from.
Content covered on Design Bombs ranges from the top WordPress plugins and themes on the market to news stories about recent design events and guides on coding or design. The “inspiration” section of the website is excellent for those who need a little creative refresh before working on the next part of their project, and Design Bomb also offers freebies and deals to readers too.
You can check the website regularly to see what kind of offers are available for popular design software and tools, as well as what sort of resources you can access for free. For beginners, the “glossary” section covering common design language is fantastic for your bookmarks.
Otherwise known as Webdesign.org, Web Design Library is a simple but attractive blog environment for design professionals. The site includes a lot of valuable information for beginners and professionals looking to hone their skills. There’s a search bar to help you sort through content quickly at the top of the page, or you can choose your content focus through the “categories” section.
The Web Design Library has various categories to choose from, including web design basics, design principles, website usability, typography, Photoshop tutorials, web layout guidance, and HTML or CSS tips. You can also find plenty of inspiration in the “Showcase” section of the site.
Like many of the top web design blogs available today, Web Design Library offers access to extensive tutorials and guides for pros and beginners. You can learn everything from creating your first web page to how to shave someone’s head in Photoshop. The “Freebies” section on the site is a great place to visit for budget-friendly resources too.
A community-focused website built for people who want to master the user interface, Hacking UI is a brilliant blog for all kinds of creative professionals. This laid-back website contains all sorts of different content for designers, including thought leadership articles, opinion posts, and even a regular podcast, where David Tintner and Sagi Shrieber discuss all kinds of design questions.
Hacking UI covers simple and complex topics alike. You can learn how to accelerate the performance of your web-design side project and how to make the transition from freelancer to a business owner. There are also topics like how to improve your workflows. Hacking UI covers a lot of content from worldwide events like the Global Innovation Forum too.
You can find information about upcoming events, conferences, and classes on the “Event” page, ideal for developers and designers who want to improve their skills. There’s also the Hacking UI “Master Class,” which constitutes a series of live conversations and lectures with experts in development and design.
One of the most attractive things about 1stWebDesigner, is its commitment to sharing ideas from a range of different designers and experienced creatives. Though still relatively new, 1stWebDesigner is a growing platform for sharing all kinds of design insights, including news, guides for learning, and lists for design inspiration.
The 1stWebDesigner site is wonderfully easy to navigate, with a search bar for those who want to find content on specific topics and keywords and a range of categories to choose from. You can check out collections of content on things like WordPress design, CSS, JavaScript, UX, Mobile UI, and Typography. There are also sections dedicated to things like Photoshop and how to succeed as a freelance designer.
1st Web Designer is a valuable source of inspiration for beginners and a great way to top up your knowledge as the design industry evolves. The “Learn” section is home to a host of guides and tutorials perfect for design enthusiasts from different backgrounds. Make sure you check out the site’s YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook pages too.
Design Shack is a simple blog for beginners in the design landscape. Here, you’ll find many in-depth guides and tutorials to walk you through the basics of design. There are thousands of articles to explore, listed under several categories, including User Experience, app creation, and Photoshop. You can also search for specific content with the search bar.
Design Shack is particularly good at producing long-form content for designers in search of inspiration. Their lists of things like mock-up templates, photo collages, and premier pro templates are excellent. It’s also worth checking out the “Trends” section on the website, where you can find content written about some of the most appealing trends for design leaders.
Design Shack has a subscription available for those who want to stay up-to-date on the latest blog posts with regular emails. You can also interact with the community on sites like Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter.
Created by the Envato+ company, Web Design Tuts+ is a website offering learners in the design world all the information they need to excel in their projects. The website is packed full of free tutorials and learning guides, as well as online courses you can follow in your own time, to help you learn more about various aspects of web design. Tutorials and courses cover everything from interface design strategies to front-end development, UX (User Experience), and accessibility.
To help you figure out where to get started, Envato sorts all of its available guides and resources into sections based on the kind of design information they cover. You can also check out a list of the most popular and featured eBooks, courses, and tutorials on the homepage.
One thing Web Design Tuts+ does exceptionally well is translating complex ideas into simple guides. You don’t have to have a lot of coding knowledge or understand design-focused language to benefit from this site. Everything is written in an easy-to-digest format, with plenty of pictures and examples to guide you.
As web design and development continue to thrive as a crucial skill in the digital world, there’s no shortage of blogs out there to help inspire and educate professionals. Whether you’re a beginner learning about the techniques required to start your first WordPress site, or you’re keen to know more about specific aspects of CSS code, there’s plenty of content to help you.
With a wide range of fantastic websites to choose from, there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to picking the best web design blog. Many designers devote an entire folder in their bookmarks to blog pages, news sites, and other resources they can visit when they need information or inspiration. You may find yourself using various blogs throughout your career.
Our advice? Start with a website capable of covering many different topics in the web design world, to begin with. Resources like Web Designer Depot are packed full of content to sink your teeth into. Then, as you develop your knowledge in the industry, you’ll begin to find other more focused sites offering specific guidance into your chosen niche or specialty.
Featured image via Unsplash.
The post 11 Must-Follow Web Design Blogs first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
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