Articles

The Potential of AR in Web Design

Over the years, experts have repeatedly discussed the possible impact of mixed realities on web design. Concepts like AR and VR are expected to have the potential to change the way that we interact with websites on a fundamental level.

Now that we’re in the year 2021, however, discussions about AR aren’t just observational anymore. The age of mixed-reality interfaces is here, in everything from Pokémon Go, to Snapchat filters.

The question is, how do web designers create incredible user experiences in a world where there are now multiple digital realities to consider?

The Benefits of Experimenting with AR

Before we look at some of the steps that web designers can take to enhance their projects with AR, it’s worth examining the benefits of interacting with augmented reality in the first place.

While virtual reality replaces the typical world around us completely with digital components, AR augments it. This means that developers and designers need to learn how to thrive in an environment where the real world and the digital one work together.

The most common AR application for website owners is to provide a solution for real-time and remote product visualization. Imagine being able to try on a pair of shoes before you buy them online. That’s a service that the Vyking brand can deliver by creating technology that “reinvents” the digital shopping experience.

This test functionality plays a massive role in purchasing decisions. In a world where people can’t see a shade of make-up in person when they’re shopping online, or check how an item of furniture looks in their home, AR has a crucial role to play.

In simple terms, AR helps shoppers to make more informed purchases.

Here’s how you can use augmented reality to deliver incredible UX.

1. Focus on Real-Time Feedback

Augmented reality is all about connecting the real world to the virtual world.

Doing this provides users a unique experience – one that’s filled with real-time feedback that can deliver crucial and insightful information. For instance, an augmented reality system in a GPS app can calculate the average time before reaching a destination based on previous trips.

Another option is for an augmented reality to use solutions like face-mapping to help customers determine how a certain makeup product will look before they buy it. For instance, that’s the case for the Mary Kay Mirror Me app, which simplifies the process of shopping for make-up.

When designing for AR, experts need to consider how they can provide customers with real-time information that they can use to make better purchasing decisions.

2. Define input and output

Although you’ve probably performed similar exercises when designing for traditional websites and applications in the past, defining inputs and outputs of UX in AR environments can be tough.

Defining inputs and outputs allows you to determine which elements of an interface your user can actually interact with, in your interface. This gives you a better idea of what to “augment.” For instance, you might decide that physical gestures like a swipe of the hand will be essential for AR inputs. However, you’ll also need to consider how each mobile device offers different input possibilities.

Outputs are a little simpler. For instance, you could offer a three-dimensional model of a product that your customers are interested in. Once you have that output, you can think about how the customer will interact with it by changing colors or position.

3. Embrace Customer-Friendly Performance

Another feature at the heart of AR applications is interactivity.

Good designs in the augmented reality world need to be simple to access and use, otherwise customers will end up avoiding them. For instance, 60% of customers say they want to use AR when they’re shopping for furniture. However, they’re only going to use your app if it actually works.

The Décor Matters website and app mix gamification with home decorating features that help customers get a better view of the home goods they’re planning on buying. The website even has inspiration pages available to help users find and try new design options with their AR technology.

When designing for AR, think about how you can make your applications or technology as simple to use as possible, so customers actually want to interact with it.

4. Address the Environment

In augmented and virtual reality applications, it’s important to remember that interfaces aren’t bound by physical screens. The viewport will move with the user, shifting perspectives in response. Most AR designers will use four different signifiers to describe AR environments:

Public environment: The entire body of the user is involved as a controller, like with the Xbox Kinect or Nintendo Wii;
Intimate environment: Where a user can be seated – often in a desktop environment;
Personal environment: AR on smartphones, mobile devices, and tablets, like Pokémon Go;
Private environments: Completely private spaces, such as with wearable technology like the Google Glass solution.

The environment that you’re designing for will be crucial for your project outcomes. Remember, spatial considerations need to be carefully considered when accounting for how users will interact with objects in a frame.

5. Remember User Fatigue

Another thing to keep in mind when designing for AR technology is that user fatigue is likely to be a much more significant consideration. After all, people interact with websites and applications in a much more intimate and in-depth way when AR is involved.

AR applications can often use the entire body of a customer as a controller. Because of this, designers need to be careful about exhausting interactions. High-effort and repetitive interactions could tire the user out mentally and physically, causing them to give up on the interaction.

When designing, you’ll need to consider how you might over-stimulate the user with too many interaction-focused elements at once. Keep it simple.

6. Remember the Essential Principles of UX Design

Remember, just because you’re tapping into a relatively new technology doesn’t mean that you should abandon all the basic tenets of user experience design that you’ve come to understand over the years. Although UX is constantly evolving and changing, it’s always going to keep a few fundamental principles in mind.

For instance, you’ll always strive to give users the best digital experience in exchange for the lowest amount of effort on their part. Additionally, you’ll need to think about how you can make end-users as comfortable as possible when they’re interacting with new types of technology on websites and apps.

For instance, since AR is most commonly associated with gaming in the current environment, it might be a good idea to implement gamification concepts into your AR design. What can you do to make sure your customers are having fun?

For instance, Inkhunter is an app that allows users to try on tattoos just like using a filter on Snapchat. The experience feels familiar, comfortable, and exciting.

Unlocking the Potential of AR Web Design

Augmented Reality technology has come a long way over the years. Today, developers and designers can access simple plug-in tools like WordPress VR, allowing designers to upload 360-degree videos into WordPress sites and other unique web extensions.

Augmented reality is becoming much more readily available on sites and apps of all shapes and sizes. Additionally, customers are accessing more ways to unlock AR’s power through everything from headsets to mobile interfaces.

However, just like any new technology in the web design world, designers need to think carefully about how they will overcome the challenges in user experience that AR can present. For instance, though AR can offer more information for a customer and help them make purchasing decisions faster, there are also risks. For instance, add too many interactive features to a single website or application, and you could scare users off with too much information.

In the short-term, web designers need to explore the new tools that are available to them and think about the customers they’re designing for. Only this way will we be able to make any considerable advances in the possibilities of AR.

Are You Ready to Embrace AR?

Designing for augmented reality applications and websites can be an intimidating concept – even for seasoned designers. However, this is just another technology that creatives can use to drive better experiences for end-users.

Learn how the latest technology works and get an insight into your customers’ needs, and you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish in the AR world.

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Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

31 décembre 2020/par Service comm.

9 Easy Ways to Deal With Difficult Clients

Actualités, Actualités

Naturally, there are bad clients out there, but 90% of the time, it’s not really the client who is at fault. Poor communication, a lack of setting expectations, and a failure to qualify clients beforehand is usually the problem.

If you’re dealing with a problematic client, there’s usually not a lot you can do to ‘fix’ things — you should focus on finishing the project as well as you can. However, what you can do is ensure this situation never arises again.

We’ve been taught that the customer is always right. But to be honest, that’s not always the case. It’s your job as a designer and brand consultant to help your client grow their business. Because of that, you may think you have to make every idea a client has — but if these ideas do not serve their business and their brand, you have to speak up! Remember that you were hired for a reason, and that reason is that you can help them build their brand, not because you can design anything they think of.

So, to avoid the ‘difficult’ client scenario, here are a few things you can do.

1. Be Selective With Your Clients

Figure out who your ideal client is and determine that you will only work with them. Ideal clients are usually people who understand you and respect you and your expertise. A client who hires you because they know what you have to offer (i.e., working towards their business goals) will be more receptive to what you present to them — they will also be more receptive when you push back ideas.

you have to be willing to decline projects

Your ideal client is not someone who wants to dictate the whole process to you (clients who already have an idea in their head and want you to make it into reality for them).

This means you have to be willing to decline projects. This can be super difficult — saying no to a paying client always is — but the mental toll of working for a non-ideal client is never worth the money!

Be selective with your clients and ensure you are on the same page before accepting any projects. To work only with your ideal client, you can have a method of qualifying them ahead of time. Some people use questionnaires; others sit down and have a chat with potential clients. If they meet your requirements, that’s great. If not, then let them know it might not be the best fit for both of you. You can also refer them to another freelance designer, who you know would be glad to have their work.

2. Remember: You are NOT an Employee

People usually become freelancers because they have a set of skills that doesn’t tie them down to one employer — you may have even developed this skill set deliberately to avoid being stuck in one office, working for one company!

So don’t forget that you are not an employee. Your clients don’t get to send you to non-productive meetings, have you in the office at certain times, or dictate any other part of your working life to you. As a freelancer, you work for yourself — don’t get caught up in the idea you are ‘employed’ by your clients.

If your client starts acting like an employer, you need to gently remind them that you are a freelancer. They chose to work with you because of your skills and talents, and as long as you deliver it on time and budget, they can’t complain about how you do it!

3. Have a Specific Scope of Work

One of the most frustrating parts of freelancing is over-demanding clients: it happens to us all, but it happens because we let it happen!

When you start a project, define exactly what you will and won’t do as part of a contract. Then, if the client wants more than you said you would give, you can refer them to the scope document and offer the additional work at an extra fee.

Documentation saves you a lot of hassle!

Having a fixed scope for all your work will free you from the ‘demanding client’ problem. Before you start working for them, sit down with them and ask them exactly what they want from your design. That way, you know exactly what you should do and what you should not do. You can then document the services you will provide and get a written confirmation from them. Clients will sometimes forget what they told you before — which is why having written documents to show them is useful.

If they ask for additional services, you can update the document stating these changes and send them a copy. Documentation saves you a lot of hassle! It’s your responsibility to be organized and professional at the end of the day, even with over-demanding clients. Always treat them kindly — never be rude, as this will cause them to give you a bad review and hurt you in the end. Act like a professional from the start, and your clients will treat you as such.

4. Document Agreements

You may find yourself with a client who is forever changing their mind or forgetting the details — so make sure all your agreements with them are documented, and both of you have copies. Just like the scope of work documents, you can refer to these agreements in the future, and it will resolve any issues you have.

5. Set Clear Expectations

You need to set clear expectations both before and after someone becomes your client — tell them what they can expect in the project and what is included and what’s not included. Remember that your time is valuable: you cannot work indefinitely, so it is okay to set limitations in a project. One way to do this is to offer two rounds of revisions on a project. This is more than enough to come out with a design a client is happy with. Most clients will understand these limitations as long as you communicate them from the get-go.

6. Set Benchmarks

Rather than taking your design brief from the client and going off on your own to design everything, set some project milestones or benchmarks. Don’t be that designer who goes radio-silent until the final design is presented (we know, creatives like the idea of the ‘big reveal,’ but remember this is business, and communication is key!).

Benchmarks are important for a few reasons. Firstly, presenting the final design may sometimes work out, but other times, the client doesn’t like it or the direction they had in mind. Secondly, it saves you time – you don’t need to design a whole project only to have to go back and revise it all!

creatives like the idea of the ‘big reveal,’ but remember this is business, and communication is key!

Plan regular check-ins with your client, include them in the process, and ensure you are on the right track.

Take a branding project, for example. You can present to your client two or three logo concepts, providing them with options. This decreases the number of times a client is unhappy with the project’s direction because they can choose which one they want. Remember to make each design unique, rather than just a small variation of the other. Think of them as three different directions to explore with your client, and take it from there.

Ensure each concept you provide is top of your game, too — that way, whatever your client chooses, it will be a great design. Imagine you make two okay concepts and one great concept, and your client chooses the weakest design!

7. Don’t Take Offence

Imagine the scene: you go to a meeting with your client to talk about the final design. You arrive, and as well as your normal contact, the CFO is present at the meeting. They take one look at your design and decide it doesn’t work.

Don’t get mad! For a start, you don’t know if the CFO has the final say on the design, and even if they do, you have an agreed scope of work, and this is now an opportunity to move the goalposts (for a fee) and renegotiate the scope of work. Look at this as an opportunity, not as a setback!

Also, remember that you can’t please everyone all the time. Not everyone will love your designs, and it’s not a personal attack.

8. Match Your Client’s Energy

Think before you open your mouth — communication is crucial in the freelancing world, and you need to be on par with your clients’ energy and vocabulary. Imagine you have just agreed on a project with a new client, and after the meeting, they say, “I cannot wait for you to knock this logo out of the park!” And you reply hesitantly, “I’ll do what I can.”

This has already made your client doubt you, and that’s a red flag. Now your client may leave the meeting wondering if they chose the right designer for the job. What you and your body language need to say is, “Hell, yes! We’re going to knock this logo out of the park!”

This is why matching a client’s energy is so important. If they are aggressive in articulating themselves, you should be, too; obviously within limits — always be professional, but don’t be afraid to sound excited and confident!

9. Be Honest With Yourself

Sometimes, you don’t get on with someone. It happens. We can’t be best friends with all of our clients! If there’s a personality conflict that’s causing problems, it can be impossible to resolve. You may want to have someone else handle the client relationship or transfer the project to another freelancer.

being afraid will never get you anywhere as a freelancer

What makes being a freelancer great is that you actually have all the power — you can fire a client if it’s really not working for you. An employee cannot fire his or her boss. If the relationship between you and your client has turned sour, you hate the work, and it’s causing you too many headaches, you can get rid of them. No one can make you work for someone!

Even if your client represents a huge chunk of your income, don’t be afraid to fire them. There are always more clients — being afraid will never get you anywhere as a freelancer. You also need to remember that your quality of life is just as important as your income! One cannot exist without the other — there’s no point in having a huge paycheck if your sanity is suffering due to it.

Conclusion

‘Difficult’ clients in freelancing do exist, but a lot of the time, you’ll discover they could have been avoided if you, the designer, took a few key steps.

You should always be selective with your clients and ensure they fit your ‘ideal client’ model; if they don’t, you can gently refuse their project and send them on to another designer who is a better fit.

When you do start working with a client, remember they are just that, a client. They are not your boss or employer, and you are a freelancer. They don’t get to dictate your working hours or appearance in meetings. They agreed to work with you, for your skills and talents, as long as you deliver quality work on time, they don’t get to tell you what to do.

Always have a scope of work in a written contract and set expectations before you begin. This saves you hassle later when a client becomes overly demanding. Along the design process, document all agreements in paper and have benchmarks wherein you check-in with your clients.

Finally, take care with how you handle your clients in person – don’t take offense if they don’t like a design, match their energy, so they have no room to doubt you, and if it really just isn’t working due to a personality conflict, remember you are free to leave!

Featured image via Pexels.

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Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

25 décembre 2020/par Service comm.

Hands-On GitOps With OneDev and Kubernetes

Actualités, Méthodes et organisation des process IT

Set Up Kubernetes Cluster

First, we need a Kubernetes cluster. You may use an existing one or set up a new one. For this tutorial, we chose to use GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine).

Just follow the quick start to create a cluster. To save your money, the default pool with only one node is sufficient for our testing. For node image type, use the default Container-Optimized OS; for machine type, please select one with at least 8G mem. After creating the cluster, go ahead to configure kubectl to connect to the cluster following this guide.

Source de l’article sur DZONE

24 décembre 2020/par Service comm.

5 Ways to Boost Engagement With Animation

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Animation is a fun and interesting way to bring life to a website. Used correctly, it can capture audience attention, make your website more engaging, and even improve your chances of delivering conversions for your clients.

Unfortunately, like many things in the web design world, it’s also easy to get too carried away with animation. As professional designers and developers, it’s up to us to find the line between making the most of animation on our website projects and creating a site that’s overwhelmed with too much activity.

Fortunately, by the time you’ve finished reading this article, you’ll have a deeper insight into how you can use animation in web design, without going too over the top.

Introducing Animation in Web Design

Animations are virtually everywhere on the web today.

In the past, when designers first discovered that they could embed movement into their websites, the amount of animation we saw was often higher than it needed to be. It wasn’t uncommon to find some websites running entirely on Flash, where every element could be animated.

Fortunately, the trends of modern web design have left those practices behind. These days, it’s a lot more common to make animation a part of the overall user experience, rather than focusing on them as a centerpiece attraction. For instance, you’ve probably noticed plenty of animated sliders showing off pictures in a gallery, or transition animations when people hover over a button.

Since it’s entirely possible to construct an entire website with no animations at all, the key to creating an engaging website today is making sure that every animation you use serves a specific purpose. Your animations should make a website more attractive, easier to use, and better for navigation. Add too many, and you could even risk slowing down a site.

So, where does it make sense to use animation for web design?

1. Loading Animations

One of the best ways to use animations in a website is to distract and delight users as a page loads. You can use the animation to deliver a unique experience, or even just highlight the playful nature of your brand. For instance, just check out this classic load animation called “Tightrope.”

You can also use things like particle animations to capture a customer’s attention and help your visitors relax when they visit a website. Particle animations can be interactive or non-interactive, and they’re a great way to stop visitors from feeling frustrated when a page takes too long to load.

A website by Edan Kwan called “Particle Love” shows you exactly what kind of experience you can create with real-time animations.

The more you can delight visitors with experiences that keep them engaged while the information they need is loading, the less likely people will be to hit the “back” button.

2. Microinteraction Animations

Microinteractions are quick and simple animations that come with specific use cases. Usually, this animation works to provide visual feedback and information when you interact with a specific element.

For instance, this microinteraction design from Colin Garven encourages users to enter their email address and password into a login field:

Ideally, the best way to use microinteractions is to make them as subtle as possible. These tools aren’t here to steal the spotlight from other information on the page. However, they can sometimes encourage your viewers to take the next stage in their conversion journey.

Animated microinteractions can be as complex or as basic as you choose. For instance, you could use them when:

Highlighting if a feature is switched on or off;
Letting users know when actions were successful (like sending a message in a contact form);
Showcasing important information, like prices on a table;
Animating icons on your site to encourage action;
Depending on your experience with animations, you can even find themes and plugins that come with options already built-in.

3. Dynamic Backgrounds

An animated background can be an excellent way to make your website stand out from the crowd. However, it’s important to remember that excessive animation has a habit of making your site slower and more clunky than it needs to be.

The animated background on the mystaticself.com website is fantastic for introducing customers to new information with a handy dynamic menu.

Often, the only reason that you should create your own dynamic background for a website, is if it’s going to improve your customer’s experience in some way.

Remember, ensure that the animations that you’re using on your website aren’t going to make any aspect of your site more difficult to use. Animated backgrounds need to offer a compliment to your existing website, rather than distracting customers from what they want to do.

Before you go all-in with your background animations, focus on animating small sections of an image, one piece at a time. You can also animate components with very small motions too.

4. Reveal Hidden Messages

Another excellent way to use animation in web design is to harness it for showcasing important information. For instance, a navigation menu is an important component in your website design, but it can also take up a lot of valuable space.

In some cases, a hidden menu that appears when a customer scrolls over a small box or icon could make a lot of sense. You can also think about animated drop-down menus if you’re working with a website that has a large number of pages.

Check out this fun example of an animated CSS3 menu:

The sections change color and move as you hover over them, making it easier to see exactly where you’re clicking.

It’s up to you exactly how creative you want to be when you’re playing with animated menus. The easiest option is often just to have a component that changes color or shape with a hover effect. However, you can also expose hidden menus and extra information too.

For instance, with some websites, you can create pictures that turn over to show information on the other side. That means that you could create an about page with pictures of team members, which flip to show biography information.

Just make sure that everything works smoothly, both on desktop and mobile.

5. Try Carousels

Finally, we come to perhaps the simplest and most popular way of using animation in web design. Carousels are a common component of almost every theme on the web today. They’re great for showing off useful information, such as what a website has to offer, or which deals are available.

When creating a carousel, you can either give your users control over how quickly an image transitions, or you can implement automatic movement. On the heathfield.co.uk website, the designer has added buttons to let you flip backwards and forwards between photos, while also ensuring that the animation is automatic.

Without the animation to show you the pictures sliding into space, the transitions between each picture would be instant – which is a little more jarring for viewers.

Sliders are such a common component of web design today that customers almost expect to see them on many websites. That means that you can enjoy a very effective experience if you want to avoid doing anything too dramatic with your websites.

You can use sliders for everything from showing off products, to displaying testimonials from customers and more. It’s a great way to compress a lot of useful information into one small space on a site.

Use Website Animation Carefully

The most important thing for most designers to remember with animation and web design is that it’s entirely possible to have too much of a good thing. When it comes to creating amazing designs for your clients, you can take advantage of animation to encourage more engagement and a unique experience. However, you shouldn’t allow yourself to go too over the top.

Rather than animating every aspect of a page to constantly grab visitor attention, think about how you can make the visitor experience more compelling with the right animation choices. If an entire page of animation on the background isn’t right for your target audience, perhaps custom animations on a navigation bar or a slider would be a good option instead.

At the same time, remember to make the most of the latest technologies on the market for adding animation to web design. A good combination of CSS3, JavaScript, and HTML5 often makes it easier to create more immersive, high-quality animations that users can interact with on desktop and mobile alike.

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Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

18 décembre 2020/par Service comm.

Display the Latest News on Your Site With Mediastack

Actualités, Actualités

What an extraordinary year 2020 has been for the news! From the ongoing coronavirus crisis, to a turbulent US election, to the unrelenting march of Bitcoin, this year like no other we’ve been glued to our phones micro-analyzing every tidbit of news.

Which makes this the perfect time for mediastack, an awesome REST API that allows you to embed a customizable news feed, sourced from the world’s top news agencies, and updated by the minute, right on your site.

Integrating Global News with Your Site

News is the beating pulse of so many global industries. From political decisions that affect stock prices, to natural disasters that interrupt goods and services, to the whims of celebrities who overnight transform brands from unknown to must-have.

Whether you’re building a site for a non-profit in Louisiana that cares deeply about both Washington politics, and hurricanes in the Caribbean; or you’re building an app for a golf course in Halkidiki that’s focused on both local news, and golf around the world; delivering real-time news content to those users elevates UX.

Tightly integrating the news with your site makes it a hub for users hungry for that very news. The only limit is your creativity.

Display Up-to-Date News on Your Site

When news breaks around the world the top networks scramble to catch up; they simply can’t maintain correspondents in every town and city in the world, and so they rely on affiliates. mediastack pulls in news from over 7,500 different sources in over 50 countries worldwide, giving you access to exactly the same affiliates frequently used by big news organizations like CNN, MSNBC, BBC, or ABC.

When it’s one of the big players in news that breaks a story first, mediastack still has you covered because as will as covering smaller, lesser-known sources mediastack delivers real-time news from CBS, Sky News, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, USA Today, and a host of trusted names across the industry.

If your site targets users that are only interested in certain types of story — like sports, or Hollywood celebrities — then you can even pull in stories from ESPN, TMZ, or Fox News.

Get Started Quickly with mediastack

Getting started with mediastack couldn’t be simpler, and there’s a free plan that’s more than enough to prototype your project.

Full documentation is provided with code examples for PHP, Python, jQuery, Go, and Ruby. To start integrating all you need to do is register for a free access key.

Once you have your free access key, you connect to the API, then customize the results you receive with simple parameters. You can specify the types of news, the precise sources (including omitting sources), languages, countries, and most importantly your keywords.

For example here’s how you’d request science news from CNN, but not TMZ:

https://api.mediastack.com/v1/news
?access_key=[ INSERT YOUR ACCESS KEY HERE ]
&categories=science
&sources=cnn,-tmz

Let’s say you want to display Spanish language crypto news on your site, it couldn’t be easier:

https://api.mediastack.com/v1/news
?access_key=[ INSERT YOUR ACCESS KEY HERE ]
&categories=business,technology
&languages=es
&search=crypto,bitcoin,btc,xrp,ripple,etherium,altcoin

The API sends back simple JSON data that’s easy to run through. Each news item includes the author, title, description, url, source, image, category, language, country, and a published_at timestamp that records when the story was posted.

Once the feed is setup, sit back and relax. It’s all automated from now on.

The Best Source of News for Your Website

mediastack is delivered by apilayer, quite rightly one of the most trusted names in APIs, and is capable of handling millions of requests simultaneously.

Fast, updated by the minute, highly customizable, reliable, and sourced from the biggest names in the news industry, mediastack is an amazing API.

There’s a free-forever plan that allows you to use the API without charge, for up to 500 API calls per month, that’s perfect for trying it out.

For commercial use, plans start at just $19.99/month, and can handle up to 250,000 calls per month. Commercial plans also include HTTPS encryption, live news delivery, access to historical data, and — should you ever need it — technical support.

Head over to mediastack today, to prepare your site for whatever events 2021 throws at us.

[– This is a sponsored post on behalf of mediastack –]

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Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

16 décembre 2020/par Service comm.

Exciting New Tools for Designers, December 2020

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Jumpstart your next design project or speed up a workflow with some of these new tools and resources. With so many new tools being developed all the time, you are almost certain to find something that can help you with projects.

Here’s what new for designers this month.

Everypixel Patterns

Everypixel Patterns solves a common design problem: Creating seamless patterns with graphic editors is such a long and exhausting process. That’s why some people choose to get patterns from stock websites but that can be a challenge too (and difficult to search). This tool makes getting patterns less time-consuming. It includes a gallery of well-designed content, which you can customize and edit as needed.

Multiavatar

Multiavatar is a free and open-source multicultural avatar maker. Type something in the input field and generate one of 12 billion avatars. (Everything is randomly generated and free to use.)

Lobe

Lobe is a machine learning app from Microsoft that helps you create and train models. Start by showing the app examples of what you want it to learn and it will train a model for you. The tool is pretty easy to understand and you don’t need or experience or code knowledge to use it and you can train an app for free on your computer.

Laser Cat

Laser Cat is a silly and fun Google Chrome extension that adds a cartoon cat to your browser that allows you to zap away anything you want to remove in the browser window. It’s light and fun. Go play!

Pattern Collect

Pattern Collect is a curated gallery of patterns by various designs and illustrators. You can download patterns for use in projects or submit your own to share with the design community. The library is searchable and you can get new patterns via email if you subscribe.

FarbVelo

FarbVelo is a color palette generator that shows a new and random scheme with every refresh. The color choices are fresh and could work for a variety of projects, too.

CSS Clip Path Editor

CSS Clip Path Editor is a cool little pen by Mads Stoumann that puts an image inside of almost any clip path you can imagine. There are presets to choose from or you can adjust the settings and paths to create your own image shape.

Responsive & Configurable SVG Waves

Responsive & Configurable SVG Waves is a soothing pen by Jhey. Change the background and wave elements for a simple and cool animation in SVG.

Veed

Veed lets you host, edit, and deliver videos in the cloud using a REST API. It works on any browser, device, and bandwidth, and keeps your website light, even when delivering heavy video content.

Overlay

Overlay is a plugin for Figma or Sketch that transforms components and symbols into clean and reusable React, Vue, or HTML code. The benefit? Use it to create more consistent websites and design systems more quickly and in a pixel-perfect manner.

List.js

List.js is a library for adding search, sort, filters, and flexibility to tables, lists, and other HTML elements. It is built so that it will work on existing HTML and be invisible. Plus, it is simple to install and use.

What Are Design Tokens?

Design tokens are a “hot term” says Andy Bell. So, he wrote an explainer that breaks down what they are and how they might look in a standard data format like JSON. Read the explainer and you’ll be able to identify design tokens and understand them.

SVG Path Editor

SVG Path Editor makes it easy to manipulate paths for any SVG element. The grid – if you choose to use it – helps edits stay symmetrical and easy to manage.

Operator Lookup

Operator Lookup is a practical and fun tool. Enter a JavaScript operator in the search box to learn more about what it does. (You can also choose from a “keyboard” of options.) Thanks for the tutorial, Josh W. Comeau.

Beacon

Beacon is a tool designed to help you write, run, and share SQL in Slack. It makes collaboration easy so you can work on and run queries, debug, and resolve issues all in a single platform.

Plaiceholder

Plaiceholder transforms your images into lightweight placeholders using pure CSS or SVG.

Machine Translation

Machine Translation is available as Cloud API, on-premise translation server, and SDK that can be easily integrated into lots of business cases. Both solutions work with 110 languages.

Draggable Blend Generator

Draggable Blend Generator does just what the name implies. Change the blend mode of a background and foreground using a draggable tool so that you can see the changes in real time. Just enter the URL of a background image or pattern and color swatch and you are ready to go.

Jam Wand

Jam Wand is a “magic wand” for making changes on your website, starting with copy. Click on any text, edit it, and submit the change to GitHub to be merged into the code. Copy changes as easy as click, type, and click again. (This tool is still in beta.)

Boost UI Kit

Boost UI Kit is a collection of elements and components that will help you finish website design projects using a bright and airy style. It works with Figma for easy integration.

Romanizer

Romanizer is a fun game that tests your knowledge of Roman numerals. With two modes – a randomizer and a challenge you can participate in – you’ll learn to convert numbers visually in minutes.

Itmeo Market

Itmeo Market is a new online graphics marketplace with exclusive and ready-to-use templates for a variety of projects. Templates include elements for logos, UI kits, graphic elements, Instagram templates, landing pages, and more. (This is a paid/subscription-based resource.)

Bellmoco Handcola

Bellmoco Handcola is a beautiful decorative typeface with fun swashes and serifs. The free version is for personal use only.

Bondie

Bondie is a handmade brush typeface with fills in many of the letterforms. It contains 106 characters and is free for personal use.

Bovino

Bovino has multiple weights that can work for display or body text. The modern serif is free for personal use.

Estilistica

Estilistica is a thin modern style sans serif with smooth lines and a vertical profile. It is best suited for display use and is free for personal use.

Source

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

14 décembre 2020/par Service comm.

2 Smartest Ways to Structure Sass

Actualités, Actualités

Sass – the extended arm of CSS; the power factor that brings elegance to your code.

With Sass, it is all about variables, nesting, mixins, functions, partials, imports, inheritance, and control directives. Sass makes your code more maintainable and reusable.

And now, I will show you how to make your code more structured and organized.

The organization of files and folders is crucial when projects expand. Modularizing the directory is necessary as the file structure increases significantly. This means structuring is in order. Here is a way to do it.

Divide the stylesheets into separate files by using Partials
Import the partials into the master stylesheet – which is typically the main.sass file.
Create a layout folder for the layout specific files

Types of Sass Structures

There are a few different structures you can use. I prefer using two structures — a simple one and a more complex one. Let’s have a look.

Simple Structure

The simple structure is convenient for a small project like a single web page. For that purpose, you need to create a very minimal structure. Here is an example:

_base.sass — contains all the resets, variables, mixins, and utility classes
_layout.sass — all the Sass code handling the layout, which is the container and grid systems
_components.sass — everything that is reusable – buttons, navbars, cards, and so on
_main.sass — the main partial should contain only the imports of the already mentioned files

Another example of the same simple structure is the following:

_core.sass — contains variables, resets, mixins, and other similar styles
_layout.sass — there are the styles for the header, footer, the grid system, etc
_components.sass — styles for every component necessary for that project, including buttons, modals, etc.
_app.sass — imports

This is the one I usually use for smaller projects. And when it comes to making a decision of what kind of structure to be used, the size of the project is often the deciding factor.

Why Use This Structure?

There are several advantages why you should use this organisational structure. First of all, the CSS files cache and in doing so, the need to download a new file for every new page visit is decreased. In this way, the HTTP requests decrease as well.

Secondly, this structure is much easier to maintain since there is only one file.

Thirdly, the CSS files can be compressed and thus decrease their size. For a better outcome, it is recommended to use Sass/Less and then do concatenation and minification of the files.

In case files become disorganized, you would need to expand the structure. In such a case, you can add a folder for the components and break it further into individual files. If the project broadens and there is a need for restructuring the whole Sass structure, consider the next, more complex pattern.

The 7-1 Patterned Structure

The name of this structure comes from 7 folders, 1 file. This structure is used by many, as it is considered to be a good basis for projects of larger sizes. All you need to do is organize the partials in 7 different folders, and one single file (app.sass) should sit at the root level handling the imports. Here is an example:

sass/
|
|- abstracts/
| |- _mixins // Sass Mixins Folder
| |- _variables.scss // Sass Variables
|
|- core/
| |- _reset.scss // Reset
| |- _typography.scss // Typography Rules
|
|- components/
| |- _buttons.scss // Buttons
| |- _carousel.scss // Carousel
| |- _slider.scss // Slider
|
|- layout/
| |- _navigation.scss // Navigation
| |- _header.scss // Header
| |- _footer.scss // Footer
| |- _sidebar.scss // Sidebar
| |- _grid.scss // Grid
|
|- pages/
| |- _home.scss // Home styles
| |- _about.scss // About styles
|
|- sections/ (or blocks/)
| |- _hero.scss // Hero section
| |- _cta.scss // CTA section
|
|- vendors/ (if needed)
| |- _bootstrap.scss // Bootstrap
|
- app.scss // Main Sass file

In the Abstract partial, there is a file with all the variables, mixins, and similar components.

The Core partial contains files like typography, resets, and boilerplate code, used across the whole website. Once you write this code, there is no further overwriting.

The Components partial contains styles for all components that are to be created for one website, including buttons, carousels, tabs, modals, and the like.

The Layout partial has all styles necessary for the layout of the site, i.e., header, footer.

The Pages partial contains the styles for every individual page. Almost every page needs to have specific styles that are to be used only for that particular page.

For every section to be reusable and the sass code to be easily accessible, there is the Section/Blocks partial. Also, it is important to have this partial so that you don’t need to search whether particular code is in the home.sass or about.sass files in the Pages partial.

It is a good idea to put each section in a separate .sass file. Thus, if you have two different hero sections, put the code in the same file to know that there you can find the code for the two sections. And if you follow this pattern, you will have the majority of files in this folder.

The Vendors partial is intended for bootstrap frameworks so, if you use one in your project, create this partial.

I recommend you use app.sass as the main folder. Here is how it should look:

// Abstract files
@import "abscracts/all"; // Vendor Files
@import "vendor/bootstrap.scss"; // Core files
@import "core/all"; // Components
@import "components/all"; // Layout
@import "layout/all"; // Sections
@import "sections/all"; // Pages
@import "pages/all";

Instead of having a lot of imports in the file, create an all.sass file in every folder. Each all.sass file should contain all the imports for that folder — and to make it more visible and understandable, create a main file.

Organisation

The biggest benefit of this structure is organisation.You always know where to check if you need to change something specific. For example, if you want to change the spacing on a Section/Block you go directly to the Sections/Blocks folder. That way, you don’t need to search in the folder to find the class in a file.

Facilitation

When the code is structured, the processes are promptly facilitated. They are streamlined and every segment of the code has their own place.

Final Words

Organizing code is essential for developers and together with all other skills, it is the most effective way to improve the functioning of the site. And even though there are multiple ways of organisation and different strategies, opting for simplicity helps you avoid the dangerous pitfalls. And finally, there is no right or wrong choice since everything depends on the developer’s work strategies.

Featured image via Reshot.

Source

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

11 décembre 2020/par Service comm.

How to Prioritize Speed with a Mobile-First Design

Actualités, Actualités

By the end of the year, the number of global smartphone users is expected to reach 3.5 billion. That’s a significant 9.3% increase over the last 12 months.

In a world where everyone is constantly connected to their mobile devices, it makes sense that web developers and designers would need to consider new rules for how they create engaging experiences. After all, most of us find browsing from our smartphones to be much more convenient than sitting down at a laptop each day.

With a little luck, you’re already taking steps to mobile optimize your website but standards are changing all the time. To make sure your website is up to scratch, here’s your guide to prioritizing your site for mobile, ready for the new year.

Understanding Mobile-First Design

The first step in updating your web design and development principles, is understanding the concept of mobile first design, and how it’s changed.

With a responsive website, you create something that adjusts to the screen size of any device; with a mobile-first site, you’re focusing first-and-foremost on the user experience that people get when they’re on mobile, taking that as your starting point, and building from there. Instead of building your website for the desktop and using mobile as an afterthought, you start with a consideration of mobile.

Even Google is highlighting the demand for this process lately, with the mobile-first indexing algorithm. If you can’t design for mobile-first, then you could risk your clients being unable to rise up the search engine ranks.

So, how do you get started?

1. Start With the Right Tools

Web developers and designers are nothing without a great toolkit.

The good news is that there are solutions out there that can help you to master the right skills for a mobile-focused user experience. For instance, Skeleton is excellent for small-scale projects that require fluid grids and minimal compiling.

Alternatively, Bootstrap can offer a one-size-fits-all solution for the front-end development for mobile devices. There’s a default grid system available, plenty of components, and JavaScript plugins to work with.

With the right tools, you can minimize and prioritize the content that’s most valuable for your website projects. This is crucial for maximizing website speed and creating clarity when it comes to content and imagery.

For instance, check out the ESPN website; it’s split into very easy-to-follow categories of content that are perfect for scrolling on a smartphone. The grid of videos makes it feel like you’re using a tool like YouTube.

2. Prioritize Mobile-First Elements

Once you have the right tools to assist you, it’s time to begin building your mobile-first website from the ground up. Rather than jumping straight into considerations of the latest design trends, it’s important to start with the foundations.

For instance, navigation within a mobile page is usually hidden under a hamburger button. However, you can take this concept to the next level too. For example, the Shojin mobile website only demonstrates the most important website options within the navigation bar to avoid overwhelming users.

The key here is to keep things as simple as possible, without restricting what your audience can do when they visit your website. Although you want to keep the number of interactive elements on your site small, you also need to ensure that those elements are easy to find and use.

All buttons and CTAs should be clear and tappable. Fonts need to be large enough to read from any screen, and your navigation system needs to be 100% simple, without slowing anything down.

On average, we recommend making all clickable elements at least 48 pixels in height.

3. Use Responsive Imagery and SVGs

Images are a crucial part of any website. They add context and appeal to your design. However, they can also seriously slow down your website if you’re not careful.

Remember, different devices have different demands when it comes to imagery. A desktop page may need a 1200px wide image, while a mobile-only needs the image to be 400px wide at most. The old way of making your images work was to load a large resolution image and use the same file on every platform. Unfortunately, this slows downloading time significantly.

Instead, it’s better to have at least two different versions of the same image for your mobile and desktop solutions. You can also consider SVG.

SVGs are incredibly scalable – more so than bitmaps. With SVG, you can ensure any icon or graphic continues to look sharp and clickable across all devices. Because these files are often smaller, your site loads quicker too! Hubspot is great at using SVGs.

Intricate illustrations are a massive component of HubSpot’s brand. If those images were saved as PNGs or other alternative files, then they would take forever to load. Because they’re all SVGs, you can enjoy the same consistent experience across desktop and mobile.

4. Get the Typography Right

It’s not just the big graphics and images that make a huge difference to your website when it comes to mobile-first design. You also need to think about the legibility and clarity of your website across all devices and platforms. If people can’t read the value proposition of the company that you’re designing for, you’re going to have a major problem.

Focus on making your content as easy to read as possible. Look into the typefaces that seem most appealing on a range of devices.

Remember to balance the body and heading font sizes for the device size too. You’ll need to ensure that the experience feels consistent and smooth as your users scroll through each page. Just take a look at the mobile version of the IMPACT website, for instance.

The headings aren’t as huge as they are on the desktop version of the website, and they’re displayed below, rather than above the featured image. However, this helps to give a more immediately eye-catching and structured experience to mobile users.

There’s even a handy “Search Engine Optimization” tag included, that users can click on if they want to find more related articles.

When it comes to typography, remember that it’s not just size and clarity that matter, but how things are structured throughout your website too. Your type should naturally guide your visitors along the page.

5. Master Available Device Features

Finally, on smartphones, you can accomplish a range of amazing things that you might not be able to do when using a desktop device. Your users can make calls, open apps, send messages, and more, all from within their mobile browser. They can also move their smartphone around a room, taking advantage of concepts like AR and VR.

Taking advantage of the unique capabilities that smartphone design can offer gives you a chance to get unique with your user experience.

Making the most of the mobile experience can be much simpler than you’d think. For instance, on a desktop site, you could list your phone number on a contact page. On a mobile site, the number can begin a call when clicked. You can also take the same approach with email addresses, and social media icons too.

Depending on how experimental you feel, there’s also plenty of opportunities to go above and beyond with your mobile features. You may decide to create a mobile app version of a website that your customers can download onto their phones.

Alternatively, you can look into things like AR technology. This could allow your users to practice placing items of furniture that they may be thinking of buying from an online retailer into their house, so they can see how well they work with their other interior design choices.

Making the Most of Mobile-First Design

Ultimately, having a responsive website that works on both mobile and desktop devices is mandatory in the modern world. However, going above and beyond with mobile-first design is a great way to get ahead of the game.

If you can focus on building a website that puts the experiences of mobile users first, then you can create something that’s much more likely to grab audience attention and deliver amazing experiences.

If nothing else, showing your clients that you have what it takes to design for mobile is an excellent way to ensure that you can gain as many new project opportunities as possible.

Source

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

9 décembre 2020/par Service comm.

Answers to 5 Kubernetes CKAD Practice Questions

Actualités, Méthodes et organisation des process IT

While doing some work with Kubernetes (K8s) and studying for the CKAD exam, I came across a page on Matthew Palmer’s website entitled “Practice Exam for Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) Certification” and which contains five practice questions, which I’ll go over here. If you see a problem with anything I’ve done below, including inefficient solutions, please let me know in the comments.

We will focus on not just showing a possible solution to each problem but also verifying our work.

Source de l’article sur DZONE

8 décembre 2020/par Service comm.

3 Easy Ways to Use Emotion in Web Design

Actualités, Actualités

As human beings, we like to think that we’re rational creatures.

We tell ourselves that we make our decisions based on fact and logic. However, that’s rarely the full truth. As much as we try to make choices guided by rationality, the truth is that we’re often highly emotional people, driven by the way that things make us feel.

So, what does that mean for a website designer?

Though designing a functional and logical website is important, it’s crucial not to forget about the emotional impact of each interaction that your customer has with the sites that you build.

Sites that don’t elicit any kind of emotional response aren’t just boring; they’re forgettable.

A forgettable website is poison to any website designer’s portfolio.

That’s why we’re going to introduce you to some easy ways to use emotion in your designs this year.

Getting to the Bottom of Emotion in Web Design

First, you need to understand the part that emotion plays in user decisions.

Don Norman’s book Emotional Design says that there are many things that designers can do to make their designs more emotional. Even something as simple as focusing on the aesthetic impact of your website can make it more likely that you’ll reach your audience on an emotional level.

One important thing to remember about emotional design, is that it’s not just about making your customers feel good. Emotion can be both positive and negative. Sometimes negative emotion is more impactful than positive feelings – it all depends on the kind of site you’re trying to create.

A website selling health products to customers needs to make that audience feel comfortable and confident that they’re buying a trustworthy item. However, it may also need to trigger small feelings of worry or concern in the audience about what might happen if they don’t buy.

Knowing how to walk that balance between positive and negative feelings is how a designer takes a simple website design and turns it into something incredible.

So, where do you get started?

Step 1: Use Visual Elements to Trigger Emotion

Visual elements are one of the easiest points to get started with when you’re designing for emotion. That’s because visuals are fantastic at drawing out feelings.

An animation can create an emotional connection with your audience by helping them to understand how your product works or making them laugh when they land on your page. A genuine photograph of your team working together can inspire trust and feelings of affinity.

One of the most common visual elements used to trigger emotion is color.

Shades like blue and green in the digital design world are more likely to drive feelings of calmness and comfort. On the other hand, red and yellow often encourage feelings of enthusiasm and happiness.

The way that you use color can make a massive difference to how users feel when they arrive on a website. For instance, the Barclay’s website would have been pretty boring if it was just a basic black and white screen. However, a banking site can’t afford to go over the top with animations or illustrations in most cases, as this can detract from its professional image.

Adding small patches of blue in a way that complements the brand’s color palette is a great way to generate feelings of trust. Combined with the image of a genuine real-life person, and calm tones, the bank instantly presents itself as something approachable and honest.

At the same time, the clear hierarchical layout of the bank’s website, with an easy-to-follow navigation bar, easy-to-read font, and clear headings and buttons comfort the customer. Users get exactly what they expect when they come to a financial website, and that makes users feel as though they’re in the right place.

Step 2: Create Engaging and Emotional Interactions

Visual elements are a great way to embed emotion into digital design. However, they’re just the first step. The emotional aspects of your web design choices should also appear throughout the interactions that customers have with the website.

A good interaction on a website or app needs to be simple and straightforward enough that users feel comfortable taking the next step in their journey. However, it also needs to drive the right emotional response from users too.

For instance, when you sign up for a free account trial from Box.com, you don’t just get a form full of information that you need to fill out.

Next to the form, you also get information about what you’re signing up for, complete with small checks next to each of the free features you’re getting. This helps to put the customer’s mind at ease and remind them that they’re in the right place.

The use of a box, including discount information next to the sign-up form also helps to make the interaction more emotional, by reminding customers that they’re getting something for free.

Every time a customer interacts with a website, there’s another opportunity to engage them on an emotional level. On the Firebox website, when a customer adds something to their cart, there’s a small animation on the cart icon that informs them that something is waiting for them.

When they click through to the checkout, they get instant information, including what they can do to “gift wrap” their item, and buttons showing the various payment options available.

Whenever you’re designing a page for a website, whether it’s the checkout page, a product page, or something else entirely, think about the interaction that the visitor is having at that moment. How can you ensure that each customer feels more comfortable, delighted, informed, or engaged?

Step 3: Leverage Microcopy and Detail to Express Emotions

Visuals are an excellent way to express emotions.

However, they’re not the only option.

As a designer, you’ll need to think about how you can combine web design with the use of microcopy to connect with customers on a deeper level.

Rather than drawing attention to tedious, dull, or impersonal instructions, notifications, and error messages on a site, how you can you make sure that everything on the website delivers the same emotional impact?

The simple addition of a tiny illustration is enough to provide a much more emotional experience to customers. Compelling micro copy and illustrations on 404 pages can also strengthen the connections that customers have with the sites they visit.

Just look at how Google added a dinosaur game to the page that customers are sent to when they don’t have an internet connection.

The right micro copy and interactions can instantly transform even a negative experience, like not being able to connect to the internet, into something emotionally engaging and positive.

When it comes to making an emotional connection between your customer and their end users, web designers need to remember that often the smallest details can make the biggest differences. Little extra features, like implementing a way for customers to have fun when their internet connections aren’t working, are the things that make websites more memorable from an emotional perspective.

Don’t Choose Emotion Over Functionality

Although emotional impact can be an essential aspect of a fantastic website design, it’s important not to get carried away. Adding too much to a website in the form of little extra graphics and unique interactions could end up weighing down a site and making it slow to load.

Although it’s valuable to think about how every interaction an end-user has with a website will make them feel, it’s important not to overlook the basics of web design when you’re at it. You’ll still need to ensure that the finishing design is easy to use, engaging, and attractive.

Pay attention to the basics of user experience design, and make sure that the extra emotional elements you’re infusing into your sites aren’t going to damage the experience that end-users get.

If you can get the blend right between emotional impact and functionality, then you could create the kind of website that audiences will never forget.

It pays to implement emotion into your design portfolio.

Source

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

3 décembre 2020/par Service comm.