What Do Modals Do?

The post Are Modals In Web Design A UX Disaster? first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

7 septembre 2022/par Service comm.

How to Start a Web Design Agency in 28 Days: Week Four

Three weeks ago, you started a web design agency. Then over the last two weeks, you’ve taken a leap toward making your business viable by defining who you are as a business and putting together your documents.

This week, we’ll tie up loose ends so that you’re a fully functional agency able to pick and choose the work you accept.

Day 22: Pitch Deck

Over the next few years, you’ll be doing a lot of pitching: walking into a room and trying to convince someone to give you their business.

Here’s the good news: if you’re in the room, you’ve probably got the job. Stakeholders in successful businesses are usually very busy, so if they take the time to see you, they take you seriously.

The best way to allay their doubts and secure the work is to walk in with a pitch deck. Pitch decks are usually associated with startups but work well for design agencies.

Consider your pitch deck a portfolio formatted for business concerns. Include work samples if you have them, your elevator pitch, and as many provable facts about the service you offer as possible. Keep it short, and use it as a framework for meetings.

Day 23: Kick-Off Checklist

No one is going to suggest that web design is painting by numbers. You can’t knock out websites with a checklist as if you were doing your laundry. However, some stages of the process are repetitive, one of which is the kick-off process.

Far too many projects are derailed by a slow start. You’ve probably agreed to a deadline, and making sure you have everything you need to make progress is vital in hitting that deadline.

As with any repetitive process, creating a document, in this case, a checklist, is advisable to speed up this stage of your projects.

Day 24: Find Some Backup

Whether starting as a freelancer, in a partnership, or with a skeleton crew, you can’t do everything yourself.

This doesn’t mean hiring staff — that is a costly step that you should only consider if you have the financial resources to guarantee a stable cash flow.

Instead, reach out to your network or even freelance boards and see who’s available if and when you need assistance. For example, it is always helpful to have the contact details of an experienced server admin — you’ll only need them once or twice a year, but when you need them, they’re worth their weight in gold. It’s also worth having a couple of contacts who can do simple, time-consuming tasks like image processing.

Outsourcing means focusing on the parts of the job that maximise your profits. Don’t wait until you need them; start developing these networks now, so when the need does arise, you know who to reach out to.

Day 25: Website

OK, 25 days in, it’s finally time to build your website. Yes, in one day.

You already have your elevator pitch, logo, and the niche you intend to target. You also have the terms of service and a link to your social media. That’s everything you need to get a simple business card design online.

Naturally, as you begin to onboard clients, you will develop a portfolio that will allow you to improve your site. But right now, you need a presence quickly.

You picked up your hosting on day 19; today’s the day to put something on it.

Day 26: Client No. 1

The biggest challenge for any web design agency is acquiring good, paying clients.

I know an agency that burnt through seed money for a whole year, waiting for clients to knock at the door. I also know an agency that was only founded because one high-profile client turned up at the creative director’s dorm room. Those are the extremes, but no matter your story, your clients will define it.

Way back on day eight, you wrote a list of potential clients. Today, you’re going to approach one. Your goal is to set up a meeting at which you can sell your service to them. You don’t have to telephone or visit in person; it’s OK to email or message them on social media if those are your strengths. Then, invite them for coffee and an informal chat at the coffee shop you picked on day twelve.

Most of you are going to get knocked back. That’s the nature of the business. The key is to get back on the horse. Try to learn from your approach, and take steps to improve next time.

Your first cold approach is nerve-racking; if it isn’t, then maybe you aren’t taking this seriously enough. But I can promise that approach number two is more easier, and by the time you’ve done a few dozen, you may even start to enjoy it.

Day 27: Quit

A wise man once said, “You’ll never make money working for someone else.” Twenty-seven days ago, you started this process, hoping to seize control of your destiny.

The last step is to quit whatever dead-end job you’ve been tolerating up until now. You don’t need to burn your bridges; you don’t need to punch the boss and kiss your office crush on the way out the door; you do need to take a mental break from your old life to focus on the future.

If you can’t afford to quit, then it’s fine to quiet quit. Just make sure you find the mental space to give your agency the attention it needs.

Day 28: Rest

Over the past four weeks, you’ve manoeuvred yourself into the best position possible to launch your new agency. You’ve decided who you are, who you plan to become, and how you’ll communicate that to the world.

Whether this plan is viable long-term is entirely up to you. You make your own luck in this life.

Today, do what you always do on the last day of the week and rest. Then, tomorrow, you’ll start forging your path to success.

Featured image via Pexels.

The post How to Start a Web Design Agency in 28 Days: Week Four first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

31 août 2022/par Service comm.

3 Essential Design Trends, September 2022

As the season starts to change, so do some of the trends that web designers are using in projects. From a return of blur to interesting frame edges for images to neon color, there’s a lot to get excited about.

Here’s what’s trending in design this month.

1. Blur is Back

Blur as a design element is gaining traction in a big way. This web design trend can look like a lot of different things and be used in a variety of ways.

From backgrounds to blur in images to blurred elements in the foreground, there’s a use case for almost everything.

The thing that makes blur a highly usable design element is that it is easy to create and use. Blur can be created in Adobe Photoshop or similar software, with CSS, or be part of the way an image is created. It can be soft or hard, with or without color, and any size or shape.

The versatility and flexibility make it a popular choice for backgrounds and foreground elements, as you’ll see below.

Future London Academy uses blur in a bit of an unusual way with a blur element in the foreground that blurs the edges of some oversized lettering. The technique is repeated on the scroll and on some images as well.

Outcrowd uses blur in the background with animation to help create visual focus as you scroll. The colorful blurred circles get smaller and less blurred as the user moves down the page to contribute to the story the design is trying to communicate.

Bricklayer Dao uses blur in the background, almost as a red “sunspot” to help create a focal point on the center of the screen. Note how the blur here does not have a distinct shape; it’s almost a swash that leads the eye across and down the screen.

2. Interesting Edges

Most containers that you see for images and videos online are either rectangular or circular. Straight lines help separate content elements from one another.

But more designers are thinking outside the box – literally – with interesting edges for content elements. (Note this website design trend is pretty tricky to pull off and you’ll really have to think about these shapes work together, especially when you switch from horizontal to vertical orientations.)

The commonality with all of these projects that use interesting edges is that images are tucked in behind an element that isn’t a shape you’d typically expect. Most include some element of motion as well, from a load or scroll animation to video. (You should click through to see how each of these examples works.)

Lenka Daviesova has an image behind two cut out shapes that includes a simple load animation. What makes this interesting is that you don’t feel like anything is missing from the parts of the image you can’t see. Your brain fills in the blanks for you.

Ho Daigi Mountain Resort has moving images behind a foreground element in the shape of a mountain. This shape helps provide information about the location and is a clever way to tuck the logo into the lower third of the home hero area. The mountain edge is carried through every scroll on the homepage design.

Kafeaterra uses interesting edges in a totally different way. While the shape is a common rectangle, it’s highly dramatic and text elements encroach into the space. It’s so unexpected that the overlap of elements with no real space of their own, sets a very specific tone for the content.

3. Neon Yellow

One of the most difficult color choices to portray on screens is trending – neon yellow.

Neons are traditionally difficult because they can create visual and contrast challenges and not always look as intended due to user settings. Neon yellow is showing up everywhere right now with black or dark backgrounds though. (Maybe because of the popularity of dark mode.)

The commonality for most of these trending designs is that the yellow is an accent and is not used widely, for the most part. Too much neon can get difficult to read or result in eyestrain.

There also seems to be a consistent vibe with these projects that feels somewhat masculine and stark.

Metaluxe uses neon yellow for text accents and a giant QR code on the homepage. The hue is designed to help move you through content with ease from top to bottom to the call to action.

Robbert Lokhorst uses neon yellow – two shades here, actually – in the logo, as a button highlight, and for keywords in the all-text hero area. Note how the logo and button hues are more yellow than the primary text.

Tortoise & Hare CX Agency uses neon yellow on a black and white video roll as a text and button accent. While this could be a tricky combination, the extra shading over the video helps create enough contrast for it to all come together. Generally, it is not advised to use a neon yellow over white or light colors because there isn’t enough contrast to read it. Here, though, they do a great job of pulling the pieces together.

Conclusion

One of the things that’s interesting about this collection of trends is that we are seeing new iterations of things that were popular in the not-so-distant past. Blur was a major trend just a couple of years ago and seems to be re-emerging again. Neons seem to come and go pretty regularly.

If nothing else, these “recycled” trends are a good reminder to file work well so you can dig out some of those old ideas when they come into fashion again.

The post 3 Essential Design Trends, September 2022 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

29 août 2022/par Service comm.

What Customer-First Web Design Looks Like

The purpose of a website is to reach new customers and keep current ones engaged. Therefore, customer-first should be at the top of your list for design features. After all, without your clients, your business won’t grow or succeed.

Customer-first has been a buzzword for a few years now. In a nutshell, it’s easy to imagine what customer-first design means. The needs of consumers come before anything else. However, the concept isn’t quite as simple in practice. A lot of nuances enter the equation.

Just what does it mean to have a customer-first web design? What are the must-haves to reach users on their level and keep their attention for the long haul?

Embracing quality customer experiences has driven loyalty for as long as anyone can remember. However, we now live in a time of uncertainty, and when people leave companies on a dime if they’re dissatisfied with any aspect. So you must hit the high notes on every song – your website is your purest online persona and must engage users and keep them entertained.

Whether you embrace causes that matter to your customers and share information on them or tweak your design to meet accessibility guidelines, many factors come into play with a customer-centric design.

In a recent report, researchers found that about 88% of company leaders feel customer engagement impacts revenue. You can’t control every variable, but you can ensure your website hits all the strong points for a customer-first web design that grabs them and keeps them on your page.

Here are our favorite tips to create a customer-first approach. You may already be doing some of these things. Pick and choose what makes the most sense for your business model. Even small changes can have a big impact.

1. Know Your Customers

Before creating a website centered around your customers’ needs, you must know who they are. What are the demographics of your typical clients? Survey them and find out what their needs and expectations are. How can you best help them?

You may also want to survey them about your website. What’s missing that might help them? Is there anything they love? What do they hate? The more you know, the better your design can match their expectations. Create buyer personas based on their preferences.

At the same time, buyers will sometimes say one thing but actually feel another way. No one is quite sure why people do this when being surveyed. One way around that issue is to do some A/B testing to see how they actually feel about various changes. Do they respond the way you thought? What other adjustments need to be made?

2. Find the Right Color Palette

Different industries trend toward various hues. For example, businesses in the banking industry trend toward blues and occasionally reds. Blue elicits trust from users and has a calming effect. On the other hand, the fashion industry might tap into brighter shades, such as lime green. Think about what colors people expect in your industry, and then find your color palette.

Each hue has its emotional impact. For example, red is a color of power and can elicit excitement in the viewer. Choose your shades accordingly to get the most emotional punch possible.

3. Accept Feedback

One of the best ways to improve your site over time to match the needs and preferences of your audience is by allowing feedback. Add reviews, place a feedback form in your footer, and even send out requests for feedback to your mailing list.

It’s also a good idea to find a mentor who has been successful at running a business. Ask them to look at your site and give you advice. You might also enlist the help of a marketing professional.

4. Stick With the Familiar

Have you heard of Jakob’s Law? The rule of thumb states that people prefer common design patterns they’re most familiar with. So when they see a pattern they know, such as a navigation bar layout, it boosts their mood and improves their memory of the site.

When making edits, don’t make significant changes. Instead, implement minor adjustments over time to give your followers a chance to acclimate to the shift.

5. Cut the Clutter

If you want users to feel wowed by your page and engage, you have to limit their choices. Add in too many options, and they may not know where to go first.

Start by choosing an objective for the page. Cut anything that doesn’t point the user toward the goal. Ideally, you’d have a little info, an image, and a call to action (CTA) button. However, this may vary, depending on where your buyer is in the sales funnel and how much information they need to decide to go from browser to customer.

6. Choose Mobile Friendliness

Recent reports indicate about 90% of people use mobile devices to go online at times. With phones gaining greater capabilities and 5G bringing faster speeds to communities, expect people to use their mobile devices even more frequently for internet browsing.

Making sure your site translates well on smaller screens makes sense for your company and for your customers. Be sure to test everything. Click through all links. Fill in forms. Ensure images and text auto-adjust to the correct size, so people don’t have to scroll endlessly.

7. Make Multiple Landing Pages

Like most businesses, you probably have several buyer personas as you segment your audience. Don’t just create a single home page and expect it to fulfill the purpose of every reader. Instead, create unique pages for each persona to best meet their needs.

Make sure each landing page speaks in the natural language patterns of your specific audience. Think about the unique needs of each group. How do their pain points differ? How can you best meet their needs?

8. Keep Important Info Above the Fold

People are busy. They work, have families, and might visit your site on the 15-minute break they get in the afternoon. Most consumers want the information they need to decide and don’t want to dilly-dally around with other things.

Place the essential headlines and info they need above the fold, so they see it first. Make it as readable as possible by using headings and subheadings. Add in a few bullet points. People also absorb information easier in video format, so add a video highlighting your product’s or service’s main benefits.

You should also place a CTA button above the fold if it makes sense for your overall design. Keep in mind people may have visited and already read some of the information. Some users return just to sign up and want to find the CTA quickly.

Step Into Your Customers’ Shoes

Look at your site through the eyes of your audience. What works well? What needs to be adjusted? Over time, you’ll develop a customer-first web design that speaks to those most likely to buy from you. Then, keep making changes and tweaking your site until it hits the perfect balance for your customers.

Featured image via Freepik.

The post What Customer-First Web Design Looks Like first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

24 août 2022/par Service comm.

20 Best New Websites, September 2022

This month we’re seeing websites that are very conscious of the design trends they’re following. Designers are making conscious choices to adopt styles, and opting out when it doesn’t suit the site. What we end up with is a crop of sophisticated, well-designed websites that use style as a technique to further their aims.

Here are the sites that caught our eye this month, enjoy!

Seen

Seen uses conversations to explore themes surrounding ethnicity and racism in creative fields. Displaying these conversations as online chats creates a sense of intimacy.

Baboon to the Moon

There is a lot of color in Baboon to the Moon’s product shots, so the rest of the site is kept simple, with good clear navigation too.

Fleava

There is a strong sense of luxury to digital agency Fleava’s glossy brochure portfolio site.

Baunfire Portfolio Review 2022

This site for Baunfire digital agency’s creative networking event is bold, personable, and fun.

Laesk Kombucha

There is more than a touch of Wes Anderson’s style to this site for Laesk Kombucha; somewhere just out of sight is Bill Murray in a red beanie.

Viso Haus

Viso Haus doesn’t do anything hugely groundbreaking here with their brutalist-style portfolio site, but they do it very well.

Mario Carillo

Artist/programmer Mario Carillo has opted for a minimal approach, allowing the work to do the talking.

Symbol

There is a warmth to Symbol’s site, created by the color tones and combinations used here.

Contekst

Interior architects Contekst favor a brutalist visual style for their site, but with some nice little animated extras.

Arcane Type Fair

No, you haven’t missed the font lover’s answer to Comic Con: the Arcane Type Fair is fictitious and a clever showcase for Rain Foundry’s Conacher typeface.

Capsul’in Pro

With lovely scrolling animation and soothing colors, this site for Capsul’in Pro manages to turn coffee pods into objects of desire.

Wanderful Chalet

Random illustrations and a quirky display type add character to Wanderful Chalet’s brochure site.

Stone Cycling

Bricks made from rubbish don’t sound like the most exciting thing ever, but this site evokes a lovely clean feel: like an old building gleaming in the sunlight after all the soot has been scraped off it.

Lazarus Forms

Lazarus Forms is an API for AI document processing. This site succeeds in being transparent in its explanation without being overly technical and pleasing visually.

Nathan Riley

An excellent example of masonry combined with variable scrolling speeds creates tension in digital artist Nathan Riley’s portfolio.

Evi O. Studio

Sometimes the simplest things, like this full-screen image transition for Evi O. Studio’s portfolio, can be so well done it’s an absolute pleasure to scroll through.

Sundo

Sundo has created SMOTSpots – smart sunscreen dispensers for public areas. The tone of the site is suitably utilitarian with a soft edge.

Blue

The Blue experience from Rossinavi luxury boat builders is a pleasing immersive microsite showcasing their new hybrid-electric boats.

Cased in Time

This site is an excellent example of how to make a single product commerce site that doesn’t feel lacking in content.

Educated Guess

Educated Guess is a podcast for creatives by creatives. The accompanying website is pleasing to use, easy to navigate, and allows the user to focus on the content.

The post 20 Best New Websites, September 2022 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

22 août 2022/par Service comm.

How to Start a Web Design Agency in 28 Days: Week Three

Two weeks ago, you started a web design agency. Last week you began to define your agency by choosing clients, setting red lines, and writing your elevator pitch.

This week, we will implement some practical solutions before problems occur. Remember one task per day; it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Day Fifteen: Terms of Service

In the rush of excitement surrounding a new project, it’s too easy to skip the preliminaries and jump into work. Before you know it, you’re halfway through the job, and it’s too late to set terms.

Your terms of service document is a formal statement of the terms under which you agree to work. This document is best prepared by a legal professional with experience in your jurisdiction, but you can write it yourself with a bit of guidance. Fortunately, as a web design agency, you’re not supplying physical products, which simplifies the document considerably.

You should include a statement limiting your liability. You need to assert your intellectual property rights. Unfortunately, you also need to include details of what happens when a client fails to pay an invoice.

Write the document in clear, friendly language. Don’t use marketing speak, and do not try to disguise anything onerous. A good client will respect you for being upfront in a professional manner.

Your terms of service should be on your website and sent to potential clients alongside any quote — I know some people who send their terms in the same PDF as the quote, so the client can’t overlook them.

Day Sixteen: Project Management

Project management is probably the most crucial skill you’ll have to master. Meeting deadlines, bringing in enough work to cover the bills, and not pulling all-nighters depend on effective project management.

A huge and ever-growing number of apps promise to help you with project management. We have a list here of some of the best. However, if you already have a tool you use to manage your work that you’re comfortable with, consider sticking with it. Do not fall back on a notes app or a pen and paper.

Remember: organizing your work days is not billable. The more you can automate this process, the better.

Day Seventeen: Quotes & Invoices

Up until now, we’ve deliberately done one thing per day. Today, we will do two because they’re so closely related.

There are all kinds of business documents that pass money back and forth between companies, for example, purchase orders or credit notes. For a small web design agency, you’ll need two: a quote document and an invoice document.

Invoices are documents requesting payment and providing the details for payment. Quotes are previews of an expected invoice.

Some people like to have a receipt document that they send out to acknowledge payment. However, in my experience, sending a hand-written email is better; it’s an excellent opportunity to personalize your communication and foster a good relationship.

There are legal requirements that vary by jurisdiction, but an invoice typically includes: your trading name; the invoice number — an incrementing number code; your tax code if you have one; your address; the time the client has to pay — “Net 14,” meaning the total amount within 14 days is standard; the date issued; the client’s name and address; a list of services provided together with the rate for each service and the total; the pre-tax total; the total amount of tax; the total; and most importantly a way of paying.

Back on day two, you contacted your tax department to determine your liabilities. You may or may not have to charge sales tax or VAT. Always include the amount of tax on your invoice, even if the total is $0, so it’s clear whether or not it has been charged.

A quote document is virtually identical to an invoice, except that you remove the payment requests. You should also add a note stipulating how long the quote is valid — 3 months is standard.

Plenty of services will create these documents for you as part of an accounting system. For example, Xero, FreshBooks, or Bloom. Even PayPal will allow you to send invoices. If you prefer, you can create your own quotes and invoices and send them as PDFs — this option is best if you want total control over your documents’ design, but it will take longer, and it’s worryingly easy to make a mistake.

Day Eighteen: Social Media

Start today by researching social media accounts. Look at the list of target businesses you made on day eight; which social media channel do they use the most? For example, if the niche you picked on day three is restaurants, they probably use Instagram. If you chose retirement communities, they probably use Facebook.

Once you have a clear picture of your clients’ channels, pick one (yes, 1) and register an account.

Social media is a significant drain on your time and provides considerably less return on investment than you might expect. So, choose one service that your prospective clients use and start building your profile. It’s far better to invest your time and effort in a place your clients will notice you than to spread yourself too thin.

Day Nineteen: Domain & Hosting

It’s another two-task day. We’ve grouped these together because domains and hosting are frequently rented together.

Back on day nine, you selected your tech stack. You’ll be building your own site with the technology you offer clients, so it’s important to ensure your hosting enables this. If you intend to develop with WordPress, you need WordPress hosting. If you intend to build with Wix, you need a Wix account. If you’re planning on offering any kind of web app, you probably need Netlify.

Whatever you choose, choose something appropriate for your tech stack. The only exception is if you plan to specialize in a niche service like Shopify, which is entirely inappropriate for an agency portfolio.

There are endless debates over whether or not you should register a domain with the same company that hosts your site. Everyone seems to know someone who knows someone who registered a domain, and then something improbable happened to cause them to lose the domain that wouldn’t have happened if they’d hosted separately.

Back in the real world, simplicity is a gift you give yourself. Choose a reputable company, register a good domain, host in the same place, and let their support sort out your DNS for you — many good hosts will even give you free domain rental for a year to entice you to take up their hosting.

Good hosting is reliable, with plenty of room to grow. If it can be cheap too, that’s a bonus. It’s common to start with bottom-end(ish) shared hosting and expand to a VPS (Virtual Private Server) at some point in the future.

Day Twenty: Email

Despite the massive growth in messaging apps over the last decade, email is still your most important business tool.

Depending on the hosting you set up yesterday, email inboxes may have been included. If not, you’ll need to set up a separate email provider.

You’ll need a general email address. Traditionally this has been info@, but hi@, hey@, hello@, and ciao@ are a little more friendly.

You need a personal email address that’s just for you. For example, I use ben@.

You also need a separate account for finances that you can use for invoicing and services like Stripe and PayPal. accounts@ or billing@ are fine.

Finally, you’ll need to set up a catch-all email forwarder for all the times people guess your email, mistype your email or assume you used info@. Forward those emails to your general address.

Once that’s done, set up an email signature for each account. Include your logo, contact details, and the social media address you set up a couple of days ago.

Finally, update your email address with your hosting company, social media account, and business accounts.

Day Twenty-One: Rest

That’s it for this week. So shut down your machine, go outside, ride a bike, go on a hike, learn to skateboard, and relax with family and friends.

We’re approaching the sharp end of this process, and next week will be busy, so do whatever you do to recharge your batteries.

Featured image via Pexels.

The post How to Start a Web Design Agency in 28 Days: Week Three first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

19 août 2022/par Service comm.

How to Start a Web Design Agency in 28 Days: Week Two

Last week, you started a web design agency. This week we’ll help you take the next steps towards making your agency viable.

The first couple of days were spent on legal checks and taxes. After that, you’ve picked a niche to specialize in, an awesome name, worked out how much you’re going to charge, and set up business accounts. Then, finally, you took a day off to prepare for this week. (If you skipped any of those steps, go back and catch up now.)

This week, we’ll start defining who you are as an agency. The process is the same as last week: focusing on one task per day. By the end of the week, who you are as an agency will start to become apparent.

Day Eight: Choose Your Clients

For any new business, the temptation is to grab any work you can get to keep the money flowing in. However, chasing money is counter-productive; you end up clutching at opportunities instead of taking a targeted approach.

Last week you selected your niche. Today, you will choose the clients you intend to work for. And we mean that literally: draw up a list of target clients.

Do you want to work for Nike? Fine, add it to the list. Think Apple would look good in your portfolio? Add it too. Make sure you add a few that are more realistic but don’t aim too low.

By the end of the day, you should have a spreadsheet of companies to target.

Day Nine: Tech Stack

Now you know who your agency is planning to work for, it’s time to identify the technology stack you’re planning to offer them.

It may be that you will be a full-service agency handling everything from branding to custom apps. Alternately, you may perform better handling one aspect of the job well and outsourcing the rest.

However you plan to approach the actual work, you’ll need a full-stack solution for most clients. That means brand design, web design, marketing and content, front-end code, content management, and SEO.

The best advice is to focus on your existing strengths and develop a skill to an expert level. Then, once you’ve done so, you can expand sideways to plug any gaps.

For example, moving into WordPress development is a good option if you already know HTML and CSS. On the other hand, if you’re more design orientated, a site builder approach using SquareSpace or Shopify might be a better fit.

Technologies change, so you shouldn’t expect your core technologies to stay with you throughout your career. But these are the solutions you’ll become an expert at over the next few years.

Day Ten: Define Your Red Lines

All companies have brand values, whether they define them or not. So at this stage, it’s more practical to look at what you’re not prepared to do.

Everyone has red lines that they’re not prepared to cross. Would you work for a pornography company? Would you work for a radical political group? Would you work for a controversial religion? Would you work for a company with a patchy human rights record? Would you work for big pharma?

There’s no right and wrong answer to this; it all comes down to your personal values. However, you will be asked to cross the line at some point. It’s easier to say “no thanks” if you know where the lines are in advance.

If you don’t have red lines, that’s valid too. But be aware that once you’ve crossed a line, that line will stay crossed; you’ll attract more of that type of work, which will define you.

Day Eleven: Write Your Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is a short couple of lines that can be delivered to a prospective client on a (hypothetical) elevator ride between two floors.

When someone asks you what you do, “Um, well, you know, mostly just websites and stuff.” Is not a good answer.

Your language should be natural, non-technical, and self-assured. Something like, “We help startups like yours outperform their competitors on Google.”

Once you’ve settled on a good elevator pitch, practice it over and over. Write it on a post-it and stick it to your monitor, screenshot it and use it as your phone’s wallpaper. Say it over and over in the shower, in the car, and in the elevator. Learn it so that when someone asks, it trips off your tongue effortlessly.

Day Twelve: Pick a Coffee Shop

You don’t need fancy offices to start a web design agency, and in fact, the first agency I worked for tanked primarily because they couldn’t afford their office lease.

People are used to remote work now, and most meetings can be conducted by video call. But you will still find clients who like to meet one-to-one, especially for a kick-off meeting.

It’s always best to visit a client’s premises if you can, but coffee shops are a good alternative, and every new agency should have one.

Consider your coffee shop your meeting room. If you’re lucky enough to be in a town or city where there are a few to choose from, try to pick one that matches your values: quirky and independent, efficient and corporate, etc.

Check when the quiet times are (you don’t want to be shouting over the buzz of rush-hour orders). Make sure you know where the nearest parking or public transport is so that you can direct clients. Ensure the wi-fi is OK, preferably free, and find out the password in advance.

Day Thirteen: Start Your Branding

Two weeks in, you finally get to do something creative: design your logo.

If you’ve been matching days to the days of the week, then it’s Saturday. That should give you more time for this task, but don’t go to town. Your logo is going to change and evolve. It is far too easy to get wrapped up in tiny details like logos and lose sight of the bigger picture.

Remember: no logo, no matter how cool, ever won a pitch.

If you’re a designer, you probably ignored us and started the logo on day one. In fact, you’ve probably had something knocking around in a sketchbook for a while.

If you’re not a designer, type out your name in a geometric sans-serif, tighten the tracking, and call it a day.

Either way, by the end of today, you’ll have something that fits your niche, ties into your elevator pitch, and appeals to your target clients.

Day Fourteen: Rest

Hopefully, you learned the benefits of a rest day last week, and this week was easier as a result.

It’s time to do whatever you do to relax. If you can, do it outside away from your computer. Create some distance and recharge your batteries.

Next week, we’ll start putting together the assets you will use to present your business professionally.

Featured image via Unsplash.

The post How to Start a Web Design Agency in 28 Days: Week Two first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Actualités, Méthodes et organisation des process IT

10 août 2022/par Service comm.

Automatically Creating Microservices Architecture Diagrams

In application development, microservices is an architectural style where larger applications are structured as a collection of smaller, independent, yet interconnected services. While this allows for highly maintainable and testable applications (as each service can be maintained independent of the larger application), the problem with this method is the inherent complexity of interactions between microservices. It can be difficult for developers and team members to visualize how these microservices are connected to each other. We have been looking for ways to produce architectural diagrams that illustrate these interactions. We found that GraphViz helped us to solve part of this problem, as it can take the microservices structure of an application in the DOT language and convert it into a PNG format. However, we wanted this process to be even more user-friendly and more automatic, so that the user would not have to manually generate a DOT file of their microservices architecture.

In-Browser Tool

As we could not find such a tool, we decided to create one ourselves. We decided that the most user-friendly interface would be to create an in-browser tool that allows the user to upload a jar file containing a packaged service, and to have an image automatically rendered. This article discusses how we went about creating this tool and includes an example of what happens « behind the scenes » of this interface.

Source de l’article sur DZONE

4 août 2022/par Service comm.

Quiz: The Super-Difficult Website Speed Quiz

Users expect websites to load quickly. As a result, companies like Amazon and Target spend millions of dollars optimizing their sites to make them load as fast as possible because there is a direct correlation between site speed and conversions.

Websites typically don’t have load bars, so a user waiting for a site to load cannot know that it will be one more second or even that the site will load at all.

The best load time for a website is 0 seconds, an instantaneous load. However, that’s not possible with current technology. So how fast is fast enough? What will users really accept? Take our website speed quiz and see if you know…

Featured image via Unsplash.

The post Quiz: The Super-Difficult Website Speed Quiz first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

8 juillet 2022/par Service comm.

10 Great Places to Find Music for Videos

Creating videos for social media or to embed on your site can be a fun and creative way to promote your brand or business. More importantly, time spent on a page is a significant SEO ranking factor, so providing a video to watch is of enormous benefit.

However, coming up with the music for your videos can be challenging. You want something catchy that fits your video’s tone but don’t want to violate copyright laws.

Music licensing can be tricky, but if you’re smart about it and know what license your needs fall into, things will go swimmingly. Many different types of licenses cover differing budgets or use cases.

Public Domain: Public domain music is music that is not protected by copyright and can be used by anyone for any purpose. This includes traditional folk songs, classical music, and works released explicitly into the public domain.

Creative Commons: Creative Commons is a license that allows you to use someone else’s work for free, as long as you give credit to the creator. There are several Creative Commons licenses, so read the terms before using any music in your videos.

Royalty-Free: Royalty-free music is music you can use without paying royalties. This means you can use the music in your videos without getting permission from the artist or paying for a license. You can usually find royalty-free music on stock audio websites.

10 Places to Find Music for Videos

Below you’ll find the ten most common places to find music for your videos, including Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok videos.

1. YouTube Audio Library

The first place to look for music is YouTube’s Audio Library. This is an excellent resource for finding free, high-quality music for your videos. You can search by genre, instrument, mood, or duration and preview the tracks before downloading them.

You can use music from the YouTube Audio Library in your Instagram and Youtube videos. Just make sure you follow the copyright guidelines specified on the YouTube website.

2. AudioJungle

AudioJungle from EnvatoMarket is an excellent resource for finding high-quality music for your videos. You can search by genre or mood and listen to previews of the songs before you download them.

AudioJungle offers a variety of paid plans that give you access to more features and higher-quality audio files. Prices start at $12 per month for the basic plan and go up to $48 per month for the premium plan.

3. Free Music Archive

The Free Music Archive is another resource to search for free music. It’s a little more eclectic than the YouTube Audio Library, so you’ll find a broader range of genres and styles here.

However, all of the music on the site is licensed under Creative Commons, so you’re free to use it in your videos. In addition, you can search by genre or artist and even listen to previews of the songs before you download them.

4. Incompetech

The next website to find royalty-free music for videos is Incompetech. You can search by genre, mood, or instrument, but also read about music licenses. Besides, the site has a handy “music for video” section that features tracks that are specifically designed for use in videos.

Incompetech is free for users, but the company still earns money on display ads and Patreon donations.

5. Bensound

Bensound is a website where you can find high-quality music for your social media videos. It has a library of music that you can choose from, and you can also create custom playlists. The site is easy to use, and you can search for music by genre, mood, or artist.

All of the music on the site is licensed under Creative Commons, so you’re free to use it in your videos. Prices start from approximately $12/mo subscription, or you can pay $34 per track.

6. ccMixter

ccMixter was created as a Creative Commons Project. It is a collaboration platform for musicians who want to promote their work. The site also has a handy “music for video” section that features tracks that are specifically designed for use in videos.

ccMixter offers a variety of paid plans that give you access to more features and higher-quality audio files. Prices start at $12 per month for the basic plan and go up to $48 per month for the premium plan.

7. Epidemic Sound

Epidemic Sound is a music company with a rich history dating back to 2009. They provide high-quality music for social media videos, and their library is constantly expanding. Epidemic Sound was founded by three friends working in the music industry. They were frustrated with the quality of stock music available, so they decided to create their own.

Epidemic Sound has since become a go-to source for high-quality music. In recent years, the company has been working hard to expand its library and make it easier for people to find the perfect song for their videos. As a result, they now have over 30,000 tracks available.

Epidemic Sound’s monthly subscription service starts at $15/month. This gives you access to all of the site’s music, and you can download as many tracks as you want.

8. Musopen

Musopen is a perfect website for finding classical music for your videos. The site has various tracks to choose from; you can filter them by composer, orchestra, period, mood, length, and more. In addition, all of the music on the site is licensed under Creative Commons, so you’re free to use it in your videos.

Musopen offers a subscription plan that gives you access to high-quality music for your social media videos. You can choose from three different pricing plans, and each plan comes with a different number of downloads per month.

9. Jamendo Music

Jamendo is a website where you can find royalty-free music for your social media videos. The music on the website ranges from rock to electronica, and there is something for everyone.

You can either browse the music by genre or use the search function to find the perfect song for your video.

10. StoryBlocks

StoryBlocks is a website created by two brothers, Aaron and Evan Sharp. It has a royalty-free music library with various music genres to choose from. You can find everything from pop to classical on this website.

There is also a section of the website devoted to social media-friendly tracks. This means you can find music perfect for your videos without worrying about copyright issues.

Featured image via Unsplash.

The post 10 Great Places to Find Music for Videos first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.