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Popular Design News of the Week: April 25, 2022 – May 1, 2022

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Every day design fans submit incredible industry stories to our sister-site, Webdesigner News. Our colleagues sift through it, selecting the very best stories from the design, UX, tech, and development worlds and posting them live on the site.
The best way to keep up with the most important stories for web professionals is to subscribe to Webdesigner News or check out the site regularly. However, in case you missed a day this week, here’s a handy compilation of the top curated stories from the last seven days. Enjoy!

Tailwind Fast Started Template

Are these the Worst Logos of 2022 so Far?

5 Open Source Tips to Reduce Waste in Web Design

Introducing Material Symbols

Should I Use a Carousel?

What’s Coming in WordPress 6.0 (Features and Screenshots)

20 Best New Sites, May 2022

Choosing a WordPress Website Builder and Why You Should Use One

What if Our Sliders Actually Slid?

A New Future for the Interface

6 Web Design Trends to Look Out for in 2022

The Best Free Tailwind CSS Components for 2022

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3 Quick Tricks to Boost Customer Retention

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Acquiring a new customer is difficult, but retaining an existing one is even more challenging. Yet, statistics show that efforts focused on retention bring way more value. 

For instance, according to SmallBizGenius, 82% of companies agree that customer retention is cheaper than acquisition. Apart from that, 65% of a company’s revenue comes from existing clients, and increasing the investment in retention by only 5% already gives you a boost in profits by 25% to 95%. Impressive, right?

So what should you do to reach such results? 

One component that impacts brand-client relationships is website design. This article will give you three design tricks that will encourage your customers to come back to your site more and more. 

1. Rethink Your Website Structure

It is hard to imagine a website visitor who would spend more than five minutes (usually it’s way less) trying to figure out the navigation system on your website. If you have a loaded, complex site structure, you will not retain a customer. 

Take Craigslist, for instance. Its navigation is not user-friendly, not to mention that it took over 30 seconds to load when the acceptable average load time should be no more than 1.7 seconds:

Here’s what proper website navigation presupposes:

  • Subordination should not go deeper than three levels.
  • A website should include eight horizontal categories max. 
  • The structure should be symmetrical. 
  • The menu should not be overstuffed with too many locations. 

Since we mentioned Craigslist, let’s take a look at its competitor AdPost, which has a better website structure:

Instead of listing all the product categories on the front page, like Craigslist, AdPost added them to the search menu, thus making the design more user-friendly and making the navigation cleaner. 

2. Make Your Site Multilingual

If you have visitors coming to your website from around the world, you should not assume they know English. A survey by Weglot found some interesting results regarding the attitude of buyers to shopping on international websites:

  • 52% of websites are in English, but English reaches only 25% of global users.
  • 56% of visitors say the website information in their language is more important than the price.
  • 73% of customers say they prefer to shop on sites in their own language. 

So, there is no doubt that having your website localized to several languages can increase customer retention, especially considering the last stat. 

To understand the proper practices of making a website multilingual, look at the examples of the best language learning apps. For instance, Preply has a drop-down menu where you can choose from multiple language options, including Polish, Ukrainian, German, and many more:

Translating your website to different languages will help the visitor understand the value of your product better. However, before you invest in localization, make sure you study the data on customer behaviors to understand which languages your audience speaks. 

3. Invest in Custom Illustrations

Some companies don’t bother much with designing their websites, especially when it comes to custom elements, such as visuals. However, research has shown that the focus on branding in website design increases customer commitment and e-loyalty, as a result. 

Moreover, in the world of billions of websites, you need something that would help your business stand out. And custom illustrations are among those features that contribute to your site’s uniqueness. 

Just take a quick look at the Emiozaki Web site. It includes personalized illustrations and animation created in the form of a tablet that substitutes the navigation menu:

This website reflects the brand’s tone and style, and animation adds emotion to UX. Apart from that, it’s also an excellent example of structuring a website. 

Or, if you would like an example of a less loaded design, take a look at this personal portfolio by Victoire Douy. It also includes animations that add interactivity to the design. For instance, you can play with the shadow of the girl’s hand:

So, if you want your website to attract more customers and encourage them to hang out for longer, take the creative approach. Hiring an illustrator is, of course, costly, but it will help your site stand out. 

Wrapping Up

As you can see, you’ll have to put in a lot of work to bring forward website design that increases online customer retention. You just have to employ our three best practices. Let’s quickly recap them:

  • Rethink your website structure; it should make the navigation easier. 
  • Consider making your site multilingual; you’ll retain more international visitors. 
  • Invest in custom illustrations to help consumers differentiate your brand from your competitors. 

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Side Hustles for Web Design Professionals: How to Make Some Extra Cash

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A career as a web designer can be extremely lucrative. The average web designer in the US makes around $50-55,000 per year, equating to an hourly rate of around $25. Of course, not every designer will automatically get a full-time, high-paying job as soon as they earn their web design credentials.

Sometimes, you might need to generate a little extra cash, perhaps to supplement your part-time income or keep the lights on while you’re taking some new courses. You can even use your web design skills to earn some extra money on the side while working a standard 9-to-5.

Today, we will be looking at some of the most effective ways to make extra cash on your web design skills.

1. Freelance

Starting with the simplest option, working as a freelancer is one of the best ways to start making cash with your design skills. There are dozens of websites out there to help freelancers find clients these days. Some of the best options include:

  • Toptal: For web developers, designers, and software experts;
  • Upwork: For all kinds of design freelancing;
  • 99Designs: Excellent for selling your designs whenever you like;
  • Dribbble: Display your work and find new clients;
  • Behance: Sell everything from animations to videos;
  • Envato Studio: Sell packages for web design.

As a freelancer, you’ll be able to choose which hours you want to work, and which projects to work on. You can make money from all kinds of design skills this way, from making pages for a website to designing widgets and applications.

However, you’ll also be responsible for tracking down potential leads, building your portfolio, and managing your own taxes, so keep this in mind.

2. Sell Design Assets

As a web design professional, you’ll end up with a lot of assets over the years. Whether you’re working freelance or full-time, not every asset you create is going to be picked up by your customers. Sometimes, you’ll end up with unused content sitting on your computer.

Fortunately, you can leverage these assets for some extra cash. You can sell things like icons, backgrounds, UI assets, and more. You can even sell themes on sites like ThemeForest if you’ve built something your clients weren’t happy with.

There’s a market out there for just about every asset, from icons and PSD templates to documents, fonts, UI assets, backgrounds, and brushes. You might even build your own website where you can sell assets in the future.

3. Design and Sell NFTs

Feel like getting in on the cutting-edge of a new marketplace? NFTs are probably one of the hottest topics in the digital world today. As concepts like Web 3.0 and the metaverse gain traction, NFTs will only become more valuable.

Countless companies and innovators are looking for people to design their NFTs for them these days. If you don’t mind dedicating some of your free time to creating digital graphics, you’re in for a significant amount of earning potential.

If you learn enough about the NFT landscape and blockchain, you could even create your own NFTs. However, this would probably require a lot of time and research. You can learn more about the NFT design and art landscape here.

4. Become a Consultant

Don’t have time to build endless new websites right now? No problem, just help other people build their sites instead. Consultants are people in any industry with expertise and insights they can share to support other people. As a web design consultant, you can offer your expertise to other upcoming freelance designers or business leaders.

You’ll need to invest some time into building your personal brand as a consultant. This means developing your social media pages (like LinkedIn) and creating a portfolio. It also helps to have an air of thought leadership. This usually means you’ll need to share at least some content online.

Consulting can be an excellent way to share your skills with other people without having to do all the work of building a design course.

5. Teach Web Design

On the other hand, if you like the idea of being a teacher, you can make money almost passively with web design courses and webinars these days. While you do have the option of selling one-on-one education to students, this will usually take up a lot of your time.

If your focus right now is on a side hustle to increase your earnings, it’s often much easier to use a site like Udemy or Skillshare. The great thing about teaching web design these days, it’s much easier than you might expect. The majority of solutions on the web allow you to drip content to your clients automatically. This means you only have to create the content once.

You can create a handful of videos, quizzes, and downloadable assets, and make money off your educational resources while you sleep.

6. Create a Web Design Blog

Blogging is still a surprisingly lucrative way to make money. If you have a creative streak and you know how to write about web design in a way other people can understand, you can turn this into an excellent side hustle.

Start by building your own website using your design skills, then start publishing regular blogs with the content you know your customers would be interested in. It’s a good idea to cover a range of topics, from Photoshop, to how to design widgets and more. You can even share reviews of various web design tools and add affiliate links to earn money that way.

Make sure you use SEO strategies to improve your chances of customers actually seeing your blog and promote your content as often as you can across social media. Once you have your blog, you can make money from it by:

  • Working as an affiliate and promoting design products;
  • Showing banner ads or sponsored posts on your website;
  • Selling digital products through your blog (like themes).

If you decide to take the affiliate route, here are some excellent programs to consider.

7. Contribute to other Websites

If you don’t have time to launch your own website and build a following for your blog, you can still make money from writing in other ways. Becoming a freelance web design writer means you can sell your blogs and content to other leading publications.

Many popular websites are constantly looking for new content to add to their blog. If you develop a strong relationship with some of these site owners, you could get yourself a regular gig.

Contributing to other sites as a writer helps you to develop your thought leadership. Many companies will even allow you to link back to your social media pages or profile.

At the same time, you get to earn some extra money writing about things you enjoy.

8. Sell Themes and Templates

A lot of web designers today rely on other themes and templates created for WordPress to help them build their websites. Access to themes and templates can make building a new website a much easier, straightforward process.

If you’ve got some excellent coding prowess, you can develop and sell a host of website themes and templates, and sell them wherever you choose. As mentioned above, there are a number of websites available for selling web design assets. Alternatively, you can sell your own packages and templates on your website, depending on your needs.

If you create a particularly valuable theme, you can actually earn a full-time passive income over time. Placing your themes and templates on marketplace sites will also get you a lot of attention from potential clients in the future.

9. Flip Websites

If you’ve ever seen one of those shows where someone buys a house, makes it look great, and then sells it for a higher price, you’ll understand the basic premise of flipping websites. The idea is to purchase an existing website for a low price (preferably with a good domain name), then fix it up to sell on a website selling directory.

If you want to earn a decent amount of money for your website, you’ll need to dedicate a decent amount of time to building traffic, improving the appearance of the site, and so on. However, it can be fun to take on these projects in your free time if you’re looking for a way to hone your skills.

You might learn some important lessons about how to make websites more profitable while you’re flipping your various sites, which could make you more appealing to customers in the long term.

10. Write a Book

Similar to flipping websites or producing an income from a high-traffic blog, writing a book isn’t something that’s going to give you a lot of extra income overnight. However, it can be an excellent source of passive income in time if you know how to use this strategy correctly.

If you have a specialist skill in web design, or you serve a specific niche, you can generate a lot of attention for an eBook or physical book sharing plenty of accurate and specific information. Remember, writing about web design, in general, will usually make it harder to earn money because there’s already a lot of competition out there.

Writing a book is a fantastic way to create a possible extra source of income as a side hustle, and it can also make you more credible if you decide to go full-time with your web design skills in the future. It’s definitely more impressive to present yourself to clients as a published author.

Remember to advertise your book whenever you can to improve your chances of additional sales.

Find Your Side Hustle

Web design skills are highly sought after in various parts of the digital world. If you’re willing to devote a little time and creativity to exploring the various avenues above, they can all deliver an excellent source of income to you and your potential business. All you need to do is figure out which side hustle makes the most sense for you.

Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all. In some cases, you might even be able to run multiple side hustles at the same time, particularly if you’re using strategies for passive income, like writing your own book or selling your own course.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

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20 Best New Sites, May 2022

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Sometimes it’s easy to feel like the world is going to pieces all around us, especially when we’re doom scrolling Twitter between news alerts every few minutes. But if we step back a little, things may not seem so bad.

On the web, we see companies and individuals taking a positive stand, making changes, and carrying on despite challenging circumstances. So in this month’s collection, we celebrate confidence and accentuate the positive, as the song says. Enjoy!

Plastic Bionic

The ‘change view’ option is well used in this portfolio site for Plasticbionic design studio. The grid view is especially pleasing.

Fabricca

Creative agency Fabricca has gone for a simple look, with some appealing illustrations and custom icons.

Normand

The color scheme and display font choice (Knockout) make a strong statement here for law firm Normand.

Dumpling Delivery

We all need some bored-on-a-slow-friday-afternoon distraction from time to time, and Mailchimp delivers the goods here.

OTR

OTR is a mental health service for young people aged 11-25. The site does a great job of feeling approachable and friendly to younger users while not being condescending, cutesy, or childish.

neueMeta

Good use of block color adds extra depth to this otherwise brutalist portfolio site for neueMeta design studio.

Vitra Chair Finder

This interactive questionnaire helps the customer identify the best chair for their needs. The animation is done well here, and a page of swirling Vitra chairs is a lovely thing to see.

Chia Studios

A good balance here of serious and fun in Chia Studio’s portfolio site, professional but friendly.

Sagmeister 123

The concept behind this limited clothing range designed by Stefan Sagmeister is that, taking the long-term view, the world is actually getting better. As such, the Sagmeister 123 site has an overall feeling of quiet positivity. And a koala.

RecPak

RecPak is a meal replacement shake designed for taking during outdoor activities. The site has an active, dynamic feel that works well to convey a sense of rugged outdoor adventure.

Alicia Moore

This site for Alicia Moore clothing brand oozes style and sophistication with soft colors and beautiful fashion photography.

Think Packaging

Think Packaging’s website has a bright, bold, fun feel. Case studies are well presented visually but keep text to a minimum.

BP&O

Brand design and packaging blog BP&O has added extended content for subscribers, and their new site is a pleasure to browse.

The Future Factory

The Future Factory is a business lead generation agency, which doesn’t sound, well, a bit dull. But, some funky animation and slightly quirky type certainly do not convey dullness.

Polybion

Polybion’s new website has a spacious feel with a rich color scheme adding a sense of confidence and brand maturity.

The Empathy Experiment

The Empathy Experiment is an interactive ‘game’ from digital agency media.monks that examines empathy and inclusivity in the workplace while at the same time showcasing some technical skills.

Belle Epoque

The opening scroll on Belle Epoque’s site is really pleasing, and the random floating shapes are intriguing.

Richard Ekwonye

Richard Ekwonye’s portfolio site is clean and straightforward. Skills are on display, but without intruding on the content.

SND

SND has created UI sound kits. The site is as simple as it could possibly be, and yet it is impossible not to investigate all the sounds and start imagining where you could use them.

KMZ Industries

Regular readers will know how much we like technical/industrial-made-interesting sites, and this one for KMZ grain storage systems is a perfect example.

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When UX Goes Bad (and How to Fix It)

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Designing for user experiences is what all designers do. UX is often thought of as the preserve of app or web designers; however, even a print designer laying out a magazine anticipates reader reaction to the scale of type, the placement of adverts, and the art direction of successive stories.

Because all designers design user experiences, the role of UX Designer has come to mean someone focused on creating a product or service utilizing research and testing to guide decision-making.

To research and test anything, you need metrics: a baseline and a target against which to measure. No one set of metrics is suitable for all projects, but because UX tends to be for financial profit, the Pirate Metrics Framework — Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue — is a good starting place.

You might seek out very different metrics in some cases. For instance, a museum might measure the success of its education program based on how many students go on to study paleontology. However, those types of metrics are notoriously difficult to quantify. Excepting a few niche cases, successful UX increases user productivity, decreases errors, reduces the cost of support, and increases sales.

So if it’s as easy as counting dollars, why does UX go bad?

UX vs. Design Principles

To understand what UX is, you need to understand what UX is not.

One of the most straightforward design principles to understand is hierarchy: bigger is more important, i.e., a heading is visually stronger than a sub-heading, a sub-heading is visually stronger than the body text.

Design principles stem from one thing: human-centered design. At the most basic level, bigger is more important because the bigger a saber-toothed tiger appears, the more likely it intends to eat me.

The evolution of human beings is so slow that had a smartphone existed at the time, a neanderthal would have been able to tap a button with the same level of precision as me. Prehistoric man shares the same minimum button size as modern man: 48 x 48px. Design principles don’t change, don’t require research, and don’t need verifying with tests.

On the other hand, a neanderthal would not have understood a smartphone, let alone an app. You only need to step back by a single generation to find perfectly intelligent people baffled by a commonly employed design pattern.

Unlike design principles, user experience is a house built on sand. When the sand shifts, the walls crack. The bricks are still solid, but the rain gets in.

Because effective UX is temporary, so is the ROI.

Technology Breaks UX

Technology unfolds at a rapid pace. As technology develops, the user experience defined by that technology changes.

The classic example is the mobile revolution, but technological change does not necessarily mean hardware. One of the most significant shifts in UXD (User Experience Design) in my career has been the popularisation of AJAX — the process of using JavaScript to load new data without refreshing the page. This seamlessness has been around since the early 2000s, but it’s only in the last ten years, as the code to achieve it has simplified, that it’s been widely used.

Jakob’s Law states that users spend most of their time on other sites and, as a result, prefer your site to function like other sites by following familiar design patterns.

Even if your UX is rigorously tested and optimized, when other sites and services carry out their own research, they are testing against the background of younger technology, and the “other sites” Jakob Nielsen refers to begin to change. As a result, the UX of your site is gradually eroded.

The consequence of continual technological change is that user research is constantly invalidated. The UX of an app, site, or service begins to degrade as soon as it is created.

User-Experience Lifecycle

Human beings have two deep-seated motivations: survival and procreation. The most important, survival, depends on discovery — new food sources, new routes through dangerous territory, new ways to skin a mammoth. We are biologically programmed to seek out the new.

A typical user passes through three phases of a relationship with a site, app, or service: discovery > comfort > boredom. Churn, or drop-off, tends to occur in the discovery phase (if the comfort phase is too slow in developing) or the boredom phase. The sweet spot is the comfort phase. That’s the part of the business-customer relationship in which the customer requires minimal support and is least likely to drop off.

The most effective form of UX — meaning the one that satisfies most metrics — rapidly moves a user from discovery to comfort and then continually eases the user back to the start of the comfort phase without tipping back into discovery.

This can be achieved with numerous micro-discoveries, tiny chunks of new experience, from simple functionality tweaks to style revisions.

Summary

All UXD, regardless of the quality, level of investment, and skill of the practitioner, begins to degrade the moment it is created.

Design principles like simplicity are good indicators of successful UID (User Interface Design) and are timeless; comprehensive design systems, brand assets, and content offer good ROI.

The most effective UX is broadly familiar and continually refreshed in small ways, allowing users to enjoy the comfort of the familiar while also experiencing the excitement of discovery again and again.

 

Featured image uses photos by Wolfgang Hasselmann & Shainee Fernando.

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Popular Design News of the Week: April 11, 2022 – April 17, 2022

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Every day design fans submit incredible industry stories to our sister-site, Webdesigner News. Our colleagues sift through it, selecting the very best stories from the design, UX, tech, and development worlds and posting them live on the site.
The best way to keep up with the most important stories for web professionals is to subscribe to Webdesigner News or check out the site regularly. However, in case you missed a day this week, here’s a handy compilation of the top curated stories from the last seven days. Enjoy!”

33 JavaScript Concepts Every Developer Should Know

Zas Editor: A Capable and Fast Code Editor for macOS

Exciting New Tools for Designers, April 2022

Picture Perfect Images with the Modern Img Element

CSS Animation Examples

Eight Colors

The Coolest Graphic Design Trends of 2022, from Y2K to Anti-design

Basic Types of Buttons in Web and Mobile User Interfaces

OpenAI’s New Image Generator Sparks Both Excitement and Fear

One Million Broken Web Sites – And a Way to Prevent that

How to Set up a Local WordPress Development Environment (3 Options)

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Popular Design News of the Week: April 4, 2022 – April 10, 2022

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Every day design fans submit incredible industry stories to our sister-site, Webdesigner News. Our colleagues sift through it, selecting the very best stories from the design, UX, tech, and development worlds and posting them live on the site.
The best way to keep up with the most important stories for web professionals is to subscribe to Webdesigner News or check out the site regularly. However, in case you missed a day this week, here’s a handy compilation of the top curated stories from the last seven days. Enjoy!”

10 Modern UX Design Techniques You Should Know About

Killed by Apple, Google and Microsoft

Homepage Examples: 8 Inspiring Ideas for your Next Web Design Project

Refactoring HTML and CSS

Killed by Microsoft

20 Best New Sites, April 2022

A Complete SEO Checklist for Website Owners

Comic Helvetic, an Unholy Combo of Comic Sans and Helvetica

5 Social Media Trends to Definitely Pay Attention to in 2022

How to Simplify Your Web Design Business

The 3 Major Programming Paradigms You Should Know

10 Excellent Design Blogs to Follow for Endless Inspiration

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20 Best New Sites, April 2022

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This month’s collection of the best new sites released in the previous four weeks might seem like a mixed bag, but if you look carefully you’ll see distinct themes emerging. Full-page images and videos are back with a vengeance, and designers are embracing large-scale 20th century-inspired typography from Art Nouveau to ’80s corporate.

Here are the sites that grabbed us this month. Enjoy!

I Killed a Cactus

I Killed a Cactus is a beautifully rendered 3D site that guides the less-horticulturally inclined of us in the best ways to care for our houseplants.

Aris Hotel

After a couple of years in which travel has been restricted, we’re itching to get moving again, and this elegant site for Aris Hotel is steering us in the direction of Crete.

Emergence Magazine

With excellent writing and great photography, Emergence Magazine is dedicated to stories that intertwine ecology and spirituality. Its bold typography epitomizes its ethos.

Milton Textiles

Milton is a textiles manufacturer with an eye for design. Its site showcases its art-inspired collection with big, bold, colorful photography.

Brutally Human

Brutally Human is the one-page portfolio/pitch of designer Stanley Vaganov. He has an impressive client list, and his site exudes the confidence that comes with that.

MAAP

MAAP uses a billowing flag to grab your attention as soon as you land on the site. The whole site is clean, efficient, and cool; exactly what you’d expect from a cycling apparel company.

Diabla

Outdoor furniture is typically presented as minimal and sophisticated. Diabla throws surrealism into the mix by introducing brand colors to its large-scale photography.

Steffie de Leeuw

The site for designer and artist Steffie de Leeuw features large typography that appears to be woven through layers of intricate illustration.

Garden Eight

What could be better than Garden Eight’s gaggle of 3D-rendered cartoon creatures floating around a page, twisting and transforming into new shapes?

Circus Shanghai

The site for Circus Shanghai uses a rich mid-century illustration to reference both the solar system and the Chinese flag; it’s an arresting combination.

Moooi

Ever inventive, the new micro-site for Moooi asks you to defy gravity with an engaging scroll through collages based on its product range.

Josephmark

More full-page motion, this time for design studio Josephmark. The site blends rich colors with a brutalist layout and minimalist typography to create its own identity.

Tony G

We love the infinite scroll on the homepage for creative agency Tony G. It’s a great way to add a slideshow to your homepage without the flaws of slideshows.

Estudio Piedras

This site for furniture design studio Estudio Piedras uses bold lettering mixed with product shots. The straightforward site is punchy and mimics the solidity of the materials used.

The Fleur

The Fleur is a botanical encyclopedia of fictional flowers that Ondre Jzunka has created as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.

Gloutir

Gloutir is the site for a “subscription-based workhorse design and development studio” that breaks all the rules of typography, and yet somehow it works.

Sophias

The rich blue and bright cream of the site for Sophias urban bistro and city garden echoes the welcoming real-world interiors and ties the brand together.

Lucalem

Lucalem is the portfolio site of designer and developer Lucas De Melo. A little more fun than the typical freelancer’s site, it features a disturbingly phallic character.

Soft Power

Soft Power is a creative design studio with an eye-popping list of international clients. Its advertising-style site uses a trendy glitch effect expertly.

Aather

Pastel colors and subtle textures evoke a calm mood, ideal for candle company Aather. It’s challenging to visually present smell, but this site does it well.

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SAP IBP permet au semencier Lidea de se recentrer sur la demande client

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Afin de mieux piloter sa production et répondre à la demande client, Lidea a mis en place un processus S&OP à l’aide de la solution SAP IBP. Un projet, mais aussi un challenge pour ce nouveau semencier issu de la fusion de deux entités.

Lidea est un semencier français issu du rapprochement entre Euralis Semences et Caussade Semences Group. Il se classe dans le top 10 mondial des semenciers grandes cultures. La société propose une offre étendue, allant des céréales aux légumes secs en passant par les plantes fouragères. Elle référence plus de 500 variétés de semences.

Lidea dispose de 8 sites de production situés en France, en Roumanie, en Ukraine, en Espagne et en Russie, avec une surface cultivée totale de 45.000 hectares. La société réalise un chiffre d’affaires annuels de 360 millions d’euros, pour 2100 collaborateurs. 73% de son activité sont réalisés à l’export.

Le rapprochement d’Euralis Semence et de Caussade Semences Group a doublé la taille de l’organisation, ce qui se traduit par un important effort d’intégration et de transformation. “C’est un choc des cultures, avec des processus, des méthodes et des stratégies différentes, explique Sébastien Monaco, CIO et CDO de Lidea. Notre challenge est de faire de cette fusion un succès, d’aligner les équipes, la culture et les processus, puis de préparer la croissance sur de nouveaux territoires. Nous voulons également poursuivre notre effort d’innovation continue, sur les produits, mais également sur les technologies numériques à destination des agriculteurs.”

Lidea souhaite ainsi se tourner plus largement vers ses clients, les distributeurs et fermiers, en adoptant un modèle consistant à ajuster ses plans de production en fonction de la demande.

Le besoin de se structurer… autour de solutions SAP

Si Euralis Semences disposait d’un ERP SAP ECC, l’outillage au niveau de la supply chain restait réduit à sa plus simple expression, avec de nombreuses tâches réalisées manuellement. Du point de vue IT, Caussade Semences Group partait d’encore plus loin. “Avec le doublement de l’organisation, nous ne pouvions plus laisser la situation en l’état”, constate Sébastien Monaco. De multiples projets ont donc été lancés, dont l’extension du périmètre de l’ERP d’Euralis Semences, ainsi que la mise en place d’un CRM et de SAP IBP.

L’utilisation de SAP Integrated Business Planning a comme objectif premier la mise en place d’un processus S&OPau sein de Lidea. “Un quick win était nécessaire sur ce projet, afin de montrer aux actionnaires que nous étions capables de concrétiser la fusion en menant à bien un projet d’envergure portant sur un processus clé de Lidea.” Ce projet est donc doublé d’un challenge stratégique.

“Notre objectif est de créer un core model qui puisse être déployé à l’échelle de Lidea (32 pays couverts) et qui puisse se connecter très facilement aux master data de nos briques financières et industrielles. Le choix de SAP IBP est assumé: nous voulions prendre une brique de la cartographie S/4 HANA de SAP, afin d’anticiper le futur, dont notre migration de l’ERP SAP ECC vers SAP S/4HANA. L’une des raisons du choix de TeamWork est qu’il dispose déjà de références clients dans notre industrie. C’est essentiel pour nous, car nous travaillons dans un secteur particulier et nous avions fixé un délai très court – 6 mois – pour mener à bien ce projet.”

SAP IBP adopté pour le processus S&OP

Le projet a démarré en avril 2021, avec comme impératif un démarrage de la solution en septembre de la même année, lors du lancement de grosses campagnes annuelles. Un délai très court, compte tenu des autres travaux réalisés en parallèle sur le système d’information du groupe (ERP, CRM, datawarehouse…). Afin de tenir ces délais, Lidea a choisi de rester au plus près des standards proposés par SAP IBP. Le projet a également été découpé en deux vagues, la première se concentrant sur la mise en place d’un processus S&OP élargi, la seconde abordant les aspects financiers.

“Notre processus S&OP réconcilie demande et offre, détaille Sébastien Monaco. Les données des commerciaux sont remontées, avec la prise en compte de particularités, comme la gestion des campagnes. Les marchandises disponibles sont réparties, par BU, puis à des niveaux plus fins allant jusqu’au client. Le demand shaping permet de pousser des offres ou de contraindre la demande suivant la capacité de production. Enfin, les données sont remontées dans l’ERP SAP ECC, afin de planifier la production.”

Un démarrage effectif en septembre 2021

La livraison du premier lot et la formation des utilisateurs ont été réalisés dans les temps permettant ainsi de mener les campagnes de rentrée avec SAP IBP.

“Ce projet ambitieux a été réalisé pour un coût très modéré. Sur le terrain du ROI, l’OTIF (on time, in full) est monté de 90% à 98%, améliorant ainsi la satisfaction client. Les gains de productivité internes sont également importants. J’estime que la solution SAP IBP devrait être rentabilisée d’ici 12 à 15 mois.” Le second lot se concentrera sur la finance : scénarios PIC, forecast P&L. Il devrait être livré en fin d’année.

Mais plus que tout, ce projet a permis de fédérer les équipes des deux coopératives autour d’un objectif commun, créant ainsi une dynamique d’appartenance au nouveau groupe. En quelques mois, un des processus clés de l’entreprise a été déployé sur plusieurs pays. “Nos différents sites sont les premiers bénéficiaires de SAP IBP, qui leur donne une vision globale des productions démarrées et de comment est servie la demande client. Le flux S&OP proposé par SAP IBP est le maître des ordres de fabrication de nos sites de production,” conclut Sébastien Monaco.

En savoir plus

 

The post SAP IBP permet au semencier Lidea de se recentrer sur la demande client appeared first on SAP France News.

Source de l’article sur sap.com

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6 Simple Steps to a Career in Web Design

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No one likes talking about money. Most of us got into web design because we loved it. But the fact is, we’ve all got bills to pay.

If you’re a half-decent designer or a relatively competent developer, then there’s no reason you can’t make a living as a web designer. Here are six simple steps towards earning a living using the skills you already have.

Step 1. Freelance Work

Many individual bloggers and small company owners require websites to reach a larger audience. You might exploit this opportunity to begin a side business as a freelancer.

One of the most efficient ways to start is to look through employment networks and online classifieds. Eventually though, you’re going to need a portfolio. Building your freelancing company website could be your first opportunity to demonstrate your web development talents. As you embark on new projects, this website can display client testimonials that demonstrate your expertise. Ensure that it’s up to date, relevant, and follows current design trends. Also, make sure your website is linked to your social media profiles. 

Even though you are responsible for finding clients, you have a great deal of flexibility: you can choose your working hours and exercise more freedom and creativity. However, you’d still be accountable for your work and have to execute assignments on time to keep your clients satisfied.

It’s also important to remember that you’ll have to keep track of your taxes and other financial paperwork. Furthermore, you would not have a standard employer who will provide you with health insurance and other perks.

Step 2. Specialize

Today’s market offers a wide choice of web design services most suited to our needs. From designing and building custom websites to creating social media websites to managing SEO and PPCs, web design services offer various services. And while it is beneficial to have a general understanding of what all these services entail, it is always good to identify and refine your expertise. Becoming proficient in one aspect of web design will give you more confidence and direction regarding the kind of work you would like to do.

Allowing yourself to land repeat clients specializing in one type of service will make it easier for you to create processes in your business to complete work accurately and quickly. These processes will also help you build a team should you need one.  

Step 3. Networking Effectively

You should leverage social networking sites such as LinkedIn, practical tools for engaging with colleagues and potential customers. Ensure your profile is updated with all the services offered and all talents you deliver. Make sure you include links to any past projects you’ve worked on. There’s also a career board on LinkedIn that can help you avail yourself of many freelance projects. Registering and engaging with relevant organizations can allow you to acquire more visibility.

Freelancers are generally matched with modest design/development assignments through these websites. Although some developers heavily vouch for them, getting work from these websites when you’re just starting may be exceedingly challenging, considering most of your time will be exhausted in securing billable employment. 

Step 4. Start Your Own Blog or Podcast

Blogs and podcasts are an excellent way to organically acquire fresh customers and other relevant parties. A well-written blog is a terrific source of amusement and knowledge for potential clients. Aside from showcasing your services, a blog may be used to earn money in various ways. Once the blog grows large enough, you can incorporate backlinks, ads, or author-sponsored content. Many popular blogs eventually grow into fully-fledged businesses.

When you start a blog from scratch, it can take a long time to see a return on investment. Consider producing freelance articles for a blog with a constant stream of traffic to help you get started. This will enable you to demonstrate your skills while also getting compensated for them. 

Step 5. Work at a Design Agency

Working at a design agency or in-house could be an ideal option if you desire a more traditional job title. It also helps you build your portfolio with larger and more recognizable clients than those you can secure as a freelancer.

Instead of stressing about the management side of things, you can focus on serving clients and constructing websites with this approach. You wouldn’t have to look for new clients, and you’ll get all of the paid benefits that regular employees get. However, you’d have to work under strict supervision and have less creative control over your projects. There will also be harsh deadlines looming over your shoulder. And this procedure will also set a wage ceiling for you. On the other hand, obtaining employee insurance and securing a source of income can be very reassuring.

Step 6. Start Your Own Agency

Once you feel you have enough relevant experience and are confident in your abilities to perform and manage things well, you can start your own agency. It’s like freelance work, but on a much larger scale. The flexibility to employ others to do your work is the fundamental advantage of having your own agency. You can recruit additional designers and eventually recruiters to help you secure clients.

Having your own agency allows you to do the work you want and how you desire. As a general rule, start as a freelancer and gradually create the foundations for your agency as you gain expertise. You can eventually automate the entire process with hard effort and an innovative business plan.

You must actively network with other people in your business and reach out to new clients in addition to working on your skills. If you can create a solid customer base and take measured chances with your chosen projects, you can procure meatier projects and become prominent in the corporate sector.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

Source

The post 6 Simple Steps to a Career in Web Design first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot

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