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If you’re doing your job right, most of your time and your team’s time should be spent actually building things. That means conversations should be reserved to the very important ones.
When you hear the word “leadership,” do you think of a particular person?
If you’d been asked that question anytime before the 1900s, chances are you’d think of an accomplished politician or a battle-tested general. These were the people leading society for most of recorded history. Today, you might have someone else in mind.
Since the industrial era, the US has birthed a pantheon of founders who’ve arguably led our society as much as any statesman or president. We put Rockefeller and Ford right next to Lincoln and Jefferson. Think about it; these guys haven’t just changed the US; they’ve changed how the entire world lives and does business.
Founders of successful companies today command even larger amounts of capital and power than JD and Henry. With the rise of social media, they are often thrust to the forefront of their brands and the public, whether they like it or not. Some manage the responsibility better than others.
In my opinion, the best businesses use all that capital, manpower, and name recognition to do more than simply make a profit. By leading with authenticity, inspiring positive action, and influencing their brand’s vision for innovation – they try to make a change.
I wanted to take a minute to reflect on some modern founder-led brands I think are doing a killer job of creating unique, world-changing businesses and company cultures. I also want to discuss the lessons I have learned from them.
When talking about founder-led brands of the 21st century, it’s hard to pass over electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla and its outspoken CEO, Elon Musk. Love him or loathe him, he belongs in any conversation on influential founders.
While Musk isn’t technically the founder of Tesla, he is one hundred percent responsible for the company’s direction over the past decade. I think two of the strongest leadership points for Musk are his focus on branding and innovation.
Tesla created showrooms and charging stations long before his business had the sales to justify the expense. People saw the name Tesla everywhere, got curious about it, and now that’s paying off big time. Tesla today is at the forefront of the EV industry while all the other car companies play catch-up.
Behind the scenes, Tesla was also early to create a vertically-integrated supply chain – giving it almost complete control over its product and logistics. That’s another feature with a hefty upfront price tag but paid off when the pandemic hit. Now the biggest automakers in the world are rushing to copy that model.
Musk arguably even convinced China to deregulate foreign ownership of automotive companies. That’s hard to prove. However, China changed its rules around foreign ownership of EV companies shortly after he refused to enter the country.
Arguably, Tesla today is one of the frontrunners in redefining how traditional companies run. Musk is known to hate bureaucracy and traditional hierarchies. He hires other people to take care of bureaucratic processes for him.
Musk is also known for hiring relatively young, hard-working employees into high-power management positions in the company and letting them prove themselves. That inspires extreme loyalty from his employees from an early age. Musk’s focus on efficiency and rejection of traditional hierarchies has sparked a small revolution in tech companies.
Finally, I respect Musk because he has goals beyond showing year-over-year growth to shareholders. That’s hard to do day in and day out.
Sara Blakely is an example of a founder with her hands in every part of her business, from product creation to sales. Most importantly, she created an authentic company culture with values she felt the business world lacked.
For those who know her story, Spanx very nearly didn’t happen. Blakely pitched her slimming undergarment to multiple women’s brands run by men. Most told her it would never work.
It might seem silly now, but men used to think they knew women’s fashion better than women. It wasn’t until one executive gave Blakely’s product to his daughters to try out that he agreed to start stocking Spanx. It’s a great example of how businesses can make a lot of money by listening to their customers.
Besides founding a women’s clothing company that sells products women want, Blakely strived to bring “feminine energy” into the workplace. I saw this poignant quote from her in an article:
“Twenty-one years ago when I started Spanx, I ended up in the paper in Atlanta, and I was at a cocktail party and a couple of guys came up to me and they said, ‘Sara, we read about you. Congratulations! We heard you invented something.’ And I said, ‘Yes I did, I’m so excited.’ They said, ‘Business is war,’ and then they pat me on the shoulder and they kind of laughed at each other. I went back home to my apartment that night. I was 29 and I just thought, I’m not going to war. I’m going to do this very differently. I’m going to honor a lot of feminine principles — intuition, empathy, kindness. Just allowing myself to be vulnerable through this process. And of course, a lot of the masculine energy has helped me also — it was a balance. But I wasn’t going to do it by squashing the feminine.”
Blakely worked hard to create a sales-oriented company culture that was purposely welcoming from that point forward. She regularly scheduled “oops meetings” where employees could stand up and say how they messed up and turn it into a funny story. At Spanx, it was okay to make mistakes and learn from them.
Blakely wanted everything about her product to be fun, including the way it was sold. She created a mandatory boot camp for salespeople, which, among other things, requires employees to perform standup comedy. Little things like that resonated with people and made Spanx synonymous with “fun.” Even famous actresses were flashing their Spanx on the red carpet.
The lesson we can all learn from Spanx and Blakely is that fun and positive energy are great marketing tools for any business. Many companies try to push a fun culture publicly without any authentic leadership that genuinely exemplifies that narrative, they won’t have the same effect. Blakely’s story of Spanx is not just a story of the brand but a story of her life and the experiences that shaped her vision and goals.
While better known for founding Twitter, Jack Dorsey has recently been in the news for his move to solely running payment processing business Block. I admire Dorsey because he radically encourages his teams to think differently about how they work.
Dorsey is known for optimizing ways to stay productive and focused throughout the day. He manages through unconventional tactics like communicating only through voice memos on his phone that he runs through transcription apps. He says this prevents him from being sidetracked by distractions on his computer. I think that kind of mindfulness is necessary now more than ever.
Dorsey tries to bring this level of focus to his interactions with his employees too. I saw a great quote from him in this article discussing computer-less meetings at Block.
“When phones are down and laptops are closed, the team can discuss any issue at hand without distraction. We can actually focus and not just spend an hour together but make that time meaningful — and if that time is 15 minutes, then it’s 15 minutes and then we move on with our lives.”
Besides limiting distractions, Dorsey is known to walk five miles to work daily, theme each day, and create detailed agendas and goals for each team meeting. In his former company, Twitter, the culture was frequently described as a space where employees could speak freely to management about things they wanted to change.
On that subject, Dorsey has been known to push hard for employee control in his companies. Perhaps ironically, he was also quoted saying he wants Twitter to break away from its co-founders’- vision and control, calling founder-led companies “severely limiting.” However, it still seems he has some sort of vision for the world that he wants to bring around via Block.
His business goals are visionary, pushing the boundaries of innovation in the financial world.
Dorsey is a known cryptocurrency enthusiast but had pushback from the Twitter team, including his CFO, about making a crypto-centric product. His move to payments processor, Block, seems to be a bid to follow his passion and exert his vision on the world.
Block has since made headlines for being extremely bullish on cryptocurrencies, while many have expressed doubts. Dorsey even changed the business’s name to Block to better reflect its focus on blockchain and famously purchased $50 million worth of Bitcoin in 2020. All the while, Dorsey has been quietly creating arms of his business in the hopes of improving BTC’s usefulness. That may pay off down the line.
I identify strongly with Melanie Perkins, co-founder of graphic design SaaS, Canva. Besides being roughly the same age, we both came from nondescript beginnings with no background in entrepreneurship or tech.
Canva is an excellent example of a business created by becoming intimately familiar with a customer problem and executing. Perkins spent years teaching people how to use design platforms like Adobe Creative Suite because they were so complicated. Taking that knowledge, she started a simple product to help customers create high school yearbooks. That expanded into a super app covering every aspect of design.
This super-app has unlocked a way for millions to learn design and produce high-quality content at any skill level. The cost to use Canva is many times lower than anything else on the market.
While Canva is an amazing product, what I like most about Perkins is that she believes business serves a higher purpose than maximizing profits.
When she was suddenly thrust into the limelight with a $40 billion valuation, people were even more impressed by Perkins’ philanthropic goals. She vowed to donate a 30 percent stake in Canva to a charity dedicated to eliminating poverty (about $12 billion). She is also known to regularly fundraise for 25,000 different nonprofits through her app. She doesn’t just inspire people with words, but by actions, she’s actually taking.
Canva is very public about its ethos. I like their values because they are general yet avoid the jargon many companies fall into. They are:
Besides revolutionizing how modern businesses design and harness goodwill marketing, Canva was also one of the forerunners of the remote work trend.
Most of Canva’s “Canvanauts” worked from homes worldwide even before the pandemic. Canva showed a lot of tired old businesses that you could still run a successful company without having employees in the office 24/7.
Finally, I want to talk about what I am trying to contribute to my team and society with my current business, startup acquisition marketplace, MicroAcquire.
As I’ve mentioned, I think it is very much on myself as a founder to set the tone of my business – and that starts with who I hire. When I’m searching for new employees to join the “#Micromafia” I not only look for productive workers, I look for people I genuinely enjoy spending time with. It’s the best feeling in the world to go to meetings where you leave thinking, “That was really fun.”
Besides creating a great team, I’ve tried to address another problem I see again and again at major tech companies: employee burnout. There’s a reason the average tenure of a tech employee is three years.
I love working on startups. It’s like playing a video game for me, and it’s probably why I’m a founder. That said, I know my employees don’t always feel the same way. As CEO, I make sure my team knows I want them to live their lives outside of MicroAcquire.
On the business side of things, I take cues from the best. Like Musk and Dorsey, I want to preemptively create features that I know our customers will love. I knew people wanted an easy way to sell their startups because I wished I’d had one back when I was doing it.
Like Spanx and Tesla, I also strongly believe in the power of innovative branding – and I make sure we spend in areas that will give us significant returns down the line.
For example, we’ve made it easy to get MicroAcquire merchandise online completely free. The extra exposure we get from tech people rocking MicroAcquire t-shirts is more than worth the cost. We also created our own media publication Bootstrappers.com to tell the founder stories we thought major publications had missed. That’s been a huge hit with our customers, who also happen to be founders. These people traditionally have had to spam inboxes and pay for press because they didn’t raise billions in funding.
Finally, like Blakely and Perkins, I also want to actively listen to customer feedback and make sure we create a necessary and desired product. That’s why I make sure we’re constantly engaging with our community both on our website and social media. Many of the features we’ve added are just things we’ve heard mentioned multiple times from customers.
So far, I love the community we’ve created online and in the office. I don’t claim to have the winning formula, but I feel we are making a real difference out there. We’re lucky to live in a world with so many smart people getting their ideas out and making a positive change in the world.
Featured image via Unsplash.
The post 4 Founder-Led Brands That Are Done Right first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
The NonNullable type is a utility type in TypeScript that creates a new type, whilst removing all null or undefined elements. It lets us take existing types, and modify them so they are more suitable in certain situations. Let’s look at how it works.
This article covers custom types. To learn more about custom types, read my guide about it here.
A breakdown of a simple app, from UI design to deployment, that shows off why coding is a magic tool for designers.
Figma, Adobe XD, Photoshop, Wacom Tablet, sketchbook… all tools for interfaces and web designers, yes? Take 2 minutes, and try to remember why you want to become a designer and why you enjoy designing stuff.
Chances are it’s because you like to create; you’re a creative person. Maybe you started with artistic experiences as a child, then turned that creative energy into problem-solving while continuing to express it visually: You became a designer, a creative problem solver.
Today, I’ll try to show you how coding is an underrated tool to express your creative problem-solving mindset by building a real SVG generator from scratch. So let’s get into it!
We didn’t go into deep business considerations here, but seeing problems you face and deciding to solve them yourself is a great way to start.
During client work, I needed some SVG waves for illustrations. So I looked for a wave generator: There were a ton of wavy colorful wave generators with parametric inputs but no simple, perfect sine waves generator. I decided to draw it on my math tool GeoGebra and then export it to SVG.
Okay, but not fast. And we like to get our jobs done quickly. But wait… Why don’t we create a perfect sine waves generator? Without equations & boring math software to open, just a curve and an export button. You got it, now let’s design it.
Quick tips: If you are looking for a problem, look for memes in your field. They always show a deep, painful, well-known problem.
Two main rules: First rule, think about who will use it; the second rule, predict what they expect from how it works. So who? Front-end developers. What are they waiting for? A curve that can be edited with direct feedback and an export button.
Wireframe design
High-Fi design
A quick tip: You can grab the Figma design of the app for more technical tips on the design.
As a designer, stopping at step two is perfectly fine. But imagine if you could build what you design! You already know you can create everything you want.
You can see coding as a way to translate your UI that will surely end with a .com application that is usable by everyone. This is why “best languages” don’t matter; coding is just a tool to express your creativity and build stuff for others. And as a designer, a creative person, this might sound…interesting.
UI to functional app
Every web app interface can be translated from UI design to code with HTML/CSS/JS. There is how we can see the role of each of those 3 “languages”:
HTML: I want a button.
CSS: I want my button to look rounded.
JS: I want something to happen when I click on my button.
To build our app, I’ll use Svelte. Svelte is a JavaScript compiler that allows us to use all those three “languages” in one place. So, let’s see how code can translate our UI to functional things.
HTML button code
“Hey web browser, I want a button named “exportButton” and everything in a function named “downloadSVGpath” to be carried out when someone clicks on the button :) Thanks”
CSS style button code
“Hey web browser, I want you to apply these style rules to my basic HTML button: I want a beautiful rounded corner at 16px, a mouse pointer when we hover it, I don’t want any borders, but I want a cool color gradient as a background color. Then, I want the font inside the button to have its color set to #fcfcfc and use the Inter typeface (bold, please). Like my Figma design, I also want to center stuff in the button and add padding. Oh, and add a subtle shadow :) Thanks.”
Drawing SVG curve function
“Hey, web browser, each time our slider moves, I want to run this function: I want you to draw a curve inside a frame that I have defined inside my HTML code. I also want my curve stroke to look rounded at each cap and have a color and width I’ve defined inside variables. You will take the sine function parameters from the stored values of the sliders. Finally, while your x variable hasn’t reached the total width in the x-axis of our frame, you will solve the y-axis point position of the sine equation and draw the curve :) Thanks.”
Quick tips: You can grab the source code files of the app to explore them.
The post Designers Should Code: Build an App From Scratch first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
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At LinearB, we like to think we spend all our time figuring out how to unlock developer potential. To find ways to let devs do more of the work they love and reduce the amount of time they spend dealing with needless hurdles, idling and churn.
Do you find yourself stuck when finding new web design clients? Whether you own a web design company or work as a freelancer, expanding your audience and attracting clients can be challenging.
Talking from experience: there are times when I can not find people interested in my work. If that’s the case for you right now, let me tell you not to worry.
This guide will analyze the best practices I use to attract new web design clients and how you can easily customize them to fit your needs and preferences. First, we will explore why it’s essential to use more than one way to acquire clients in 2022.
Let’s start with a personal conviction: There are enough customers to cover our niche’s supply. A common mistake most web designers make is looking in the wrong place.
Do not get me wrong, the quality of your work is always the most important thing. The better your services are, the more clients you will eventually get. But if you want to prove your talent online, you need to expand your audience.
Remember that the market is highly competitive. And so you need to follow certain steps and choose the best platforms.
Although there are many ways to attract web design clients online, some prove to be more effective than others. Let us explore them one by one:
Whether you own your web studio or are just getting acquainted with being a freelance web designer, marketplaces for freelancers are a great way to attract new clients. The same goes for well-known web design job boards like Dribbble, Twine, and WordPress Jobs.
But in general, marketplaces for freelancers are more effective as these platforms attract thousands of buyers/clients every day. The best way to attract clients is to create and polish your profile and respond to relevant job offers.
However, it is equally important to choose a platform that is not exploitative but also has numerous clients in the web design niche. Although Upwork and Indeed are the two most popular, several other platforms meet these requirements, including Freelancer, 99 Designs, Guru, Upstack, TopTal, and PeoplePerHour.
Many would argue that social media platforms are the best way to attract web design clients these days. While this is true to a certain extent, not all social networks have the same impact on professionals. I have found that LinkedIn is the number one platform that a web designer should invest time and effort into.
The reason is simple; the platform’s goal is to bring professionals together. So, if you create a top-notch LinkedIn profile, you can quickly expand your audience and find people interested in buying services. The process is quite simple because all you need to do is:
This may sound like a lot of work, and believe me, it is. Still, if you want to attract more clients via social media platforms, LinkedIn is the best way to go.
Regardless of how many connections you have on LinkedIn, clients need to trust that you are the best person for a project before hiring you. And there’s no better way to do that than to have a comprehensive portfolio and website.
Websites like Dribble and WordPress allow you to create portfolio websites quickly and efficiently. As a web designer, you can treat your website like a personal project and use your UI and UX knowledge to outshine your competitors.
In a few words, social proof is a way to prove to new clients that they should mimic the behavior of your existing clients by hiring you for their project.
To do this, you can create a page with Google reviews, collect testimonials/references, take screenshots of your conversations with clients and capture their feedback. Then all you need to do is present them on your portfolio website, in your social media posts/stories, etc.
Apart from asking your existing clients for referrals, you should try to build a deep professional relationship with them. This will automatically help them to recommend your services through word of mouth.
In many cases, word of mouth has proven to be much more reliable than traditional advertising methods (email marketing, SEO tactics).
Say you are an experienced web designer, and all you need is to expand your target audience. In this case, speaking at events is a fantastic way to build authority. Of course, becoming a public speaker is not easy, especially if you’re a beginner.
This is where podcasts come in handy. By appearing as a guest on podcasts (or webinars), you can easily get your name out there, connect with people interested in web design, and eventually attract new clients.
Start by finding communities (e.g., Facebook groups for web design) and communicate with active (or just interested) people in the web design niche.
Don’t get me wrong, I know that offering something for free is not the best thing. Still, by creating free content and offering free advice, you can make people take notice of your talent.
Likewise, answering questions on social media platforms and creating valuable content is a great way to convert your website/social media visitors into customers.
Remember that the most important thing in attracting new clients is the quality of your work. This may sound obvious, but believe me, it’s more than just a rookie mistake.
Let’s close with this; the tips listed above will allow you to work harder but smarter. After all, that’s all you need to build authority as a web designer and attract new clients.
Featured image via Pexels.
The post How to Find Web Design Clients in 2022 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
There are long-standing patterns in design that help us understand what the user wants and which solution will work best. These are referred to as design patterns. This article will explain how patterns help us appropriately construct an interface. We’ll dissect features like buttons, navigation, accordions, and date selection with examples.
This article will be helpful to both new and experienced designers who want to learn more about how to use interactive features and when to use them. If you’ve been in the industry for more than a year, you’ll know that nothing is black and white and that multiple ways can address the same problem depending on the situation.
First, consider the following question: which of the buttons depicted in the graphic is better?
The first button will appear to be the obvious choice for many people. Indeed, it is a well-known pattern that most people will recognize; it is the perfect solution for many projects. However, if customers understand the context, they are less concerned with the shape; therefore, there is no need for the designer to think in stereotypical terms. The context or states of a button can demonstrate that it is a button. When we place the cursor at an interactive feature on one website, it turns into a circle. “View” will be written inside the circle. The interface will be less cluttered as a result, and you will be able to clearly show the user that they are dealing with an interactive interface.
Next, which of these two Skip and Sign Up buttons, each with a distinct design accent, is better?
Many people would most likely vote for the first couple. That was something I used to do as well. However, put yourself in the shoes of a user and observe what this interface expects of you. They also want us to collect data at registration, which they emphasize. You can, however, skip this step. Is it up to par? Yes, because many users are hesitant to register on the site and provide personal information. We decide for the user which action is a priority when we show this hierarchy of buttons. But why not let them make their own decision? This is becoming a more prevalent strategy nowadays. For example, we see two identically filled buttons at Nike: Register and Learn more.
Apple uses the Learn More and Buy buttons the same way. The latter isn’t a large red button that screams, “Buy now! Buy now!” The user also can decide what is more important right now.
And here’s another question: if you had to choose between Cancel and Save, which would you put first?
It’s difficult to say whether Cancel should be displayed first or Save. Assume I issue a command. Which is more important: having a button in the interface for the desired action or seeing all of the answer alternatives and then deciding? Designers frequently choose the second choice, but it is unimportant.
According to Nielsen Norman Group research, both the first and second patterns are understandable for customers. Android and iOS are two examples of this, as they use both methods. They all have their own set of benefits.
I enjoy how Apple handles this in macOS. The emphasis is on canceling the action if you are assigned an irreversible task (such as deleting data from the recycle bin). The user must fully comprehend that they cannot retrievd anything they delete.
So, when working with buttons, do the following:
I’ll also begin the navigation section with an example question. Consider a site’s navigational block and a logo (a circle on the slide). Is it better to put the logo in the middle of the navigation or on the left side?
Both options appear to be equivalent. However, according to various research, the upper left corner is still preferable. There are numerous explanations for this. Because we read from left to right, the logo is the first thing we see. It’s also a marker that tells the user where they came from.
The NNG research center conducted an interesting experiment on this topic. Users were tasked with purchasing a specific item from an online store. At the same time, the list did not include any well-known stores, only local businesses. Some sites’ logos were on the left side of the navigation, while others were in the middle. Commodities were purchased, but the users had no idea what was being tested in the trial. After a while, they were asked for the company’s name from which they purchased the merchandise on the internet. People remembered both the brand and the company name better when the logo was on the left. As a result, having the logo on the left is likely to be significantly better—especially for well-known organizations. Of course, this doesn’t stop a lot of websites from putting their logo in the middle of the navigation box.
Consider a site that displays page links in a burger-style menu. Is it better to hide all navigation in the burger or remove part of the elements and display them to the user?
According to research, it is preferable to highlight a part of the navigation. If you know what sections users visit first, you might be able to show them those sections immediately. However, the user must click on the icon and search through a comprehensive database for specific information. Therefore, it makes sense to expedite this process and immediately provide them with what they require.
This is true not only for mobile interfaces but also for desktop interfaces. In the example below, a directory must be opened independently to be viewed. When the focus of a user’s attention shifts, it irritates them. If a drop-down list displays when you open a menu, users are not always comfortable. After that, it must proceed from left to right, and so on. Therefore, it’s preferable to display the complete menu if possible.
When it comes to navigation, the issue of the menu’s number of items cannot be overlooked. The fewer options a user has, the easier it is for them to decide. It is suggested that 7-9 things are ideal on the internet. However, when there are a lot of sections, subcategories, and sub-subcategories (as in a marketplace), fitting everything into a minimal number of items isn’t always feasible.
There are various options in this instance. There are multiple tiers of menus that can be created. The website of the New York Times is an example. There is horizontal navigation and another burger on the upper left of the home page. A wide menu appears when you click it, with more sections at the bottom and more sections at the top. The fact that the New York Times is a vast resource justifies this. That is why the website’s designers placed the essential items on the horizontal while also indicating that there are other components. The menu is accessed using a button in the upper left corner. If the user is dissatisfied with the primary navigation, this placement enhances the likelihood that they will see the menu and click.
According to the three-click rule, the user must reach the needed information in three clicks. There is, however, no data to back this up. Users today are willing to spend significantly more time looking for information. For example, if we’re looking for a product at an online store, we browse to the appropriate department and then dig further into many subcategories until we find it. Then there’s more filtering, sorting, adding to comparisons, adding to cart, checkout, shipping, etc. This does not appear to fit within three clicks. As a result, don’t limit yourself to this guideline. It’s preferable to keep the navigation simple and obvious so that the user may rapidly reach his objectives.
Perhaps you could divide the interface so that the user chooses from 7-9 categories first, then another 7-9, then another 7-9, and so on till they reach the end. Although you shouldn’t make it too complicated by creating a hierarchy with ten to twenty levels—this is scarcely practical. Five catalog segments, in my opinion, are quite acceptable.
But what if there are a lot of subcategories, and you can’t sensibly divide them into 7-9 items? Here are two basic strategies to assist you: The first is a list of names in alphabetical order. The second point to consider is terminology. This may be seen with Amazon. Take a look at their home decor area, which is organized alphabetically by subcategories. This makes finding things much easier for the user. The essential requirement is that the name be correct and recognizable to the user. You should not use jargon, slang, or professional vocabulary.
In some places, I genuinely admire Amazon’s approach. The creators placed a couple of the most popular subcategories at the top of the list, then let the rest of them go in alphabetical order. This is an excellent solution to the problem because it allows you to display the most popular things first.
Avic follows suit. Apple products account for the majority of the company’s revenue. As a result, breaking up or hiding such products makes no sense; instead, they are removed from the catalog and relocated to the top, increasing the number of categories on the main page. Again, it appears that the user will have difficulty making a decision. However, if Apple is the primary source of revenue, it seems logical to feature this section right away.
The examples considered are based on simple navigation. However, not every task is like this in practice. You might want to do something entirely out of the ordinary in some circumstances. For example, you may have seen a developer’s website in France where you have to use the arrow keys on the keyboard to drive a car that rides between menu items to traverse between sections. This is a rare occurrence, and even though it appears to me to tackle a slightly different problem, it succeeds—and in the process, it generates an environment around the project.
Here’s another example of an impressive menu from the Warsaw Puppet Theater’s website. All navigation is done using symbolic images that appear to be on strings and move as you point at them, much like puppets. As a result, the user becomes more engaged in the navigation game. In the tradition of puppet theater, this approach produces a delightful ambiance.
Go over the following items before beginning to work with navigation:
Let’s get to the accordion now. First, let’s look at two different versions of this interface element: one with the chevron pointing down and one with the plus symbol. Which version of the icon do you think is better? Then there’s the question of whether the icon should be placed to the right or left of the text, independent of its type.
According to studies, users recognize accordions and are more likely to click on the text. They click on the icon 25% of the time when it’s on the right and 75% of the time the text it’s on the left. Does this mean there’s no need for the icon to be on the right? No, it’s pretty acceptable to put it there. In truth, it doesn’t matter where we put it; the important thing is that we put it somewhere and make it big enough to click on.
The only difference is that the procedure takes a little longer when you click on the icon. This is because individuals aim and try to click on the icon accurately. As a result, it is vital to create such an element large enough to work with comfortably. I would even propose enlarging the clickable area rather than the icon itself. The project “Dia,” in which the icons are as large as the accordion itself, appeals to me. This site is, I believe, simple and convenient for all users. Each cell is clickable and takes up the entire screen width in this example.
When it comes to the arrow’s direction, you shouldn’t always aim it right. Many users have learned that pointing the arrow to the right indicates heading to another page. Only the tiny area, text, and icon in the example below are clickable, and there is a button at the bottom with an arrow that points in the same direction as the accordion’s equivalent. However, the acts are distinct. When you click the accordion, it will open block down, and when you click the button, you will be redirected to another page. People may be perplexed by this.
Giving the user an accordion with no identifying signs is likewise not good. A person must know which aspect of the interface they are interacting with. You must either use an icon or demonstrate that the element is clickable. The only thing that indicates clickability in the example above is the changing appearance of the cursor when hovering over the text. However, it is not visible; it must be larger, or a term such as “Read” should be used. Without that, the user won’t be able to tell the accordion apart from the bold text selection.
As I previously stated, you must think out all interactive features in terms of states. If there was a positive, for example, it should change—or at least become a minus. As a result, the user will realize that the drop-down box can be hidden.
It’s inconvenient when the icon vanishes after you click on it. The user anticipates being able to close the block at the exact location where they first opened it. After all, they may not like the response that appears and may want to delete it right away. He’ll have to re-aim now that the button has been repositioned. Here’s an unusual example of an accordion plus that isn’t clickable. This is only true for mobile navigation. If the user has previously dealt with the desktop version, they may not recognize what’s wrong and believe it’s a bug when switching to the mobile version.
Imagine you’re charged with deciding whether to keep the open items or conceal them when the user opens others. On the one hand, if the items don’t shut, the symbol will not move because no items are transferring. On the other hand, if there is too much text, the user may have trouble navigating to the following question. As a result, it may be preferable to close superfluous blocks automatically. However, consider the number of responses in a specific accordion.
The accordion is a multipurpose element. Not only may it be utilized for the FAQ area, but also the checkout page. According to Baymard, more than 30% of online retailers worldwide accept payments through accordion-style checkouts, with the percentage in the United States being considerably higher at 56%.
This solution has several benefits. The user can first view the following steps to complete (say, which payment systems are accepted). You don’t even have to click “Next” or navigate to another website to accomplish this. Second, the accordion makes it simple to navigate from block to block to check data without having to reload the page and risk losing it. After all, if the user made a mistake in the first area and discovered it in the second, it’s simple to correct it here. You’d have to return to the previous page in a typical checkout and risk losing the information you’d filled out but hadn’t sent to the server.
You can also use an accordion to create menus. However, you must exercise caution in this situation. The parent accordion category in the example below has no content. As a result, if you repeatedly click on the items to collapse the accordion, the entire content area remains empty. In this situation, it’s also a good idea to include some information in this page section.
The fantastic, beautiful accordion on hover is another example. It is quite adaptable. Although there is no accordion in the mobile version, it is essentially just banners that translate to other links.
Another more extreme example created by evident admirers of such a solution is an accordion within an accordion. The entire site can be navigated using these blocks. It’s amazing.
In mobile interfaces, accordions are also essential for website design. They make it simple to conceal information. All navigation on The Guardian’s website is done through these blocks. The only thing that bothers me is that the parent categories aren’t clickable. A user does not have the choice of seeing all of the sports news. Only the subcategories “Football,” “Cricket,” “Rugby,” and so on are available. On the other hand, The Guardian has moved the parent categories on the front page, which is a reasonable answer to such an issue.
The Wall Street Journal, on the other hand, took a very different approach. They didn’t post the categories on the main page and instead crammed everything into a single block. When a user visits a category, however, there is the Main section. This allows you to navigate to the main parent section or a specific subcategory.
Let’s summarize the accordion:
The choice of date is the next crucial factor to consider when discussing design patterns. I’ll begin with a comparison, as is customary. Users of iOS 14 who have set the alarm clock time will be familiar with this scenario. What is the better option?
I like the first choice since it is more attractive and does not distort the font as much as the second. However, the first variant has a potential issue: it is difficult to modify and twist. After all, the space is limited, and the user must fit precisely into the spot. It’s worth noting that Apple decided to leave both alternatives open.
Consider what you’ll use the Date Picker for a while you’re creating it: a date range for booking hotels or planning excursions, a date to set a birthday or reminder, a date to indicate the time for a movie session, or for ordering a cab. This will impact the rest of the process of envisioning and designing this feature.
It’s critical, in my opinion, to describe the many ways in which the user obtains information right now. The four options are a calendar, a drum (more of a mobile solution), a conventional input area, and a drop-down list. Let’s look at a few distinct solutions that all deal with airline tickets. Wizz Air, for example, utilizes a calendar, but it’s a double one so that the customer can see two months at once.
But, if so, which start date should be specified? It seems it should be the next day, and the website shows this. However, studies have shown that users are not always happy when a date has already been set. People rarely purchase next-day plane tickets. Therefore this “default” setting will almost certainly need to be modified.
Qatar Airlines went even further by announcing a start and end date. Today is the first day of the program. Is that choice required if the user logs in at 23:58? The second issue is that there is no differentiation between the start and end dates and all days in between. Everything is painted in the same hue. Users want to see anchors for dates if they plan a long trip that begins in one location and concludes in another. People are used to being told that we begin and end at specific places. As a result, the user can be certain that the dates are correct.
Today, UIA puts both the departure and return dates on the calendar. We’ve already established that this isn’t ideal. It’s also challenging to select a destination because you have to first click on the list, then go to the dropdown, search for the country, etc. It’s a long and winding road. But, it appears to me that the main blunder is something else. The search results output is blank. If I select two destinations and dates, I may be informed that that destination has no available flights. If I go on to the following date on the calendar, there are no flights available. Overbooking is the only method to find out when they will arrive. I’m likely to use a third-party aggregator that gathers data from numerous airlines straightforwardly and conveniently.
SkyUp’s calendar is one of my favorites. It includes large fields that open up a large calendar, and it’s simple to set the trip’s start and end dates. It indicates days when there are no flights for a specific location, and you can view the price for each ticket right away. This is quite useful because it allows you to choose a day and a flight even before you click confirm.
Let us now turn our attention to the drum. You can enter nearly any information into such an element, including time, date, and other lists. Users may easily navigate this tool and jump between values.
The input field follows. We must consider the format if we allow the user to enter a date using the keyboard. For example, in different regions of the world, “12.10.2021” may be interpreted differently: for some, it may be October 12, while for others, it may be December 10. This is especially significant in the case of the following example site for renting a car in another country. The user must be aware of the format they are dealing with. In this circumstance, several experts advise that the user writes in text. However, there is the issue of localization: would the system recognize that the language is not global English but rather a more non-standard language? After all, the user can use abbreviations when writing. You must either instruct the user on how to do it or use other solutions, such as placing a calendar icon next to it. In this method, the user controls how the data is entered.
If the drop-down list is modest, such as months, there is nothing wrong with it. However, you may accumulate an excessively long list over time. Consider the website Ukrzaliznytsia. The time limit is one hour, and there are 24 items on the list. Perhaps a mixed approach is best here, where the user enters a few digits and then selects from a list.
This is precisely the approach used in Google Calendar. If you start writing 16 in the input box, the sub-options appear at 16:00, 16:15, 16:30, and 16:45 (according to the system’s set step of 15 minutes).
Let’s summarize calendars:
If you summarize everything above, the main recommendation is simple: before applying any design patterns, make sure you know what tasks the user should complete and how to solve them. Based on this, you can build an interface with gorgeous and, more significantly, human-friendly buttons, navigation, accordions, dates, and other features.
The post Design Patterns: How to Create Simple Interfaces first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
Healthcare has been at the epicenter of everything we do for two years. While the pandemic has been a significant driver of the conversation, healthcare technology—artificial intelligence (AI) specifically—has been experiencing explosive growth. One only needs to look at the funding landscape: more than 40 startups have raised at least $20 million in funding specifically to build AI solutions for healthcare applications.
But what’s driving this growth? The venture capital trail alone won’t help us understand the trends contributing to AI adoption in healthcare. But the “2022 AI in Healthcare Survey” will. For the second year, Gradient Flow and John Snow Labs asked 300 global respondents what they’re experiencing in their AI programs—from the individuals using them to the challenges and the criteria used to build solutions and validate models. These are the top five trends that emerged from the research.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
If you decide to take the affiliate route, here are some excellent programs to consider.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The post Side Hustles for Web Design Professionals: How to Make Some Extra Cash first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
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!
The ‘change view’ option is well used in this portfolio site for Plasticbionic design studio. The grid view is especially pleasing.
Creative agency Fabricca has gone for a simple look, with some appealing illustrations and custom icons.
The color scheme and display font choice (Knockout) make a strong statement here for law firm Normand.
We all need some bored-on-a-slow-friday-afternoon distraction from time to time, and Mailchimp delivers the goods here.
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.
Good use of block color adds extra depth to this otherwise brutalist portfolio site for neueMeta design studio.
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.
A good balance here of serious and fun in Chia Studio’s portfolio site, professional but friendly.
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 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.
This site for Alicia Moore clothing brand oozes style and sophistication with soft colors and beautiful fashion photography.
Think Packaging’s website has a bright, bold, fun feel. Case studies are well presented visually but keep text to a minimum.
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 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’s new website has a spacious feel with a rich color scheme adding a sense of confidence and brand maturity.
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.
The opening scroll on Belle Epoque’s site is really pleasing, and the random floating shapes are intriguing.
Richard Ekwonye’s portfolio site is clean and straightforward. Skills are on display, but without intruding on the content.
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.
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.
The post 20 Best New Sites, May 2022 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
