akashamichelleblog

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Just a Little Life Update

Hey guys.

It's been a while since I've posted a blog post and I'm sorry for that. Life has caught up to me and it seems likes I have no time. Between full-time grad school and work, plus trying to keep up a social life and moving my life has been chaos. I hopefully plan to start trying to share interesting things again with you guys on a weekly basis. We will see how that goes. For now now I'm going to post a couple school projects I've been working on the last couple weeks, that will hopefully be added to my portfolio eventually (that takes time to update as well).

This first piece is a vlog style promo piece I created for me WNM 613 class. I went and shot video at Woodgrain, a local brewery here in Sioux Falls. I then took the video and put it together, added some music and graphics and called it good. For my first time doing a video like this I feel like it turned out pretty well. I think this may be something I want to continue doing and maybe make a series out of.

This next piece was also created for my WNM 613 class. We had to create a video using moving graphics. I decided to create an infographic style piece about plastic in our oceans. This piece still needs some work before I am completely comfortable with adding it to my portfolio, but I want to share it with you guys here as a blog post.

Hopefully you guys enjoyed this sneak peek into upcoming portfolio pieces. Keep checking back as I plan to update the blog more often.

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Want to Be a Successful Designer By Age 30? Here's A Plan...

No matter what level you’re at in your design career, there’s always room for improvement. In this article, I’d like to offer some tips to younger designers at the start of their career. If you’re under 30, this article’s for you. I’ve gathered a few tips (from around the world wide web) that I think will help you become as successful as possible before you turn the corner into your third decade. If you’re over 30, stick around, you still might find some useful tips within.

Gather Inspiration

The first place to start if you’re looking to up your design game is the web. In particular, blogs, Tumblrs, Instagram feeds, and any other place that serves up design inspiration. A few favorites include Designspiration, Art of Type and Archillect.

There are many more out there, but these are as good a place as any to begin. Crafting beautiful imagery and breathtaking visuals will always be the aim of any young designer. But honing your taste and deciding what you appreciate comes first. This phase of your career is all about setting the bar. Good creativity also comes from absorbing as much inspiration from as many sources as possible. Having all this stuff in your palette of possibilities broadens your horizons when it comes to making stuff on your own.

Create, Create, Create

Next up, you need to hit the canvas. The Photoshop canvas that is. Once you’ve soaked up inspiration, it’s time to start churning out stuff of your own. More so than at any other time in your career, early on is a time when you should aim to maximise your work output. At this stage, try not to worry about whether your work is as “good” as you’d like it to be. It’s more important to create rather than to refine. It’s also a good idea to create stuff across as many mediums as possible. Specializing can come later in your career. For now, delving into photography, sketching, UX design, hand lettering and more will help you cross-pollinate your skill base.

Seek Feedback

After you’ve got a few pieces of solid work under your belt, gather as much feedback as possible. This can come from people you know or work colleagues (if you work in the industry), or from relative strangers in communities like Dribbble. You don’t have to follow every piece of feedback to a tee, but if a large majority of people like or dislike your work, the consensus may just be right. In any case, try not to be defensive about the things you’ve created, as garnering advice and applying it to your design field of view is an almost guaranteed route to improvement.

A special note on awards: the design industry is rife with glitzy ceremonies and shiny trophies with which to tempt you every step of the way. As a young designer, it can be easy to focus on winning metal and gaining the approval of others in the form of a page in an awards annual. There’s nothing wrong with awards per se, but try to treat them as an end rather than a means in themselves.

Chase Down Experience

Immersing yourself in experience in all its forms is another must-do when you’re starting out in your design career. Work for big agencies as well as small studios. Freelance or go full-time. Get big brand work in your portfolio as well as charity pieces. All of it is grist for the mill.

Study

An essential part of finding success as a young designer is education. This doesn’t have to be at a school, as there are as many elite designers that have been to college as those who have not. Rather, try to learn and educate yourself on as many aspects as design as possible. Read books on type, browse the art section of your local library, take a photography course. Anything you can do to up your design IQ, do it.

Find A Mentor

An excellent way to get where you want to be? Find someone who’s already there. Seeking out a mentor is a mutually beneficial way for you to get better in your design skills. Mutually beneficial in the sense that you get to learn from someone more experienced than you, and your mentor gets the satisfaction in teaching someone lower on the ladder.

Define What Success Means To You

Finally, remember to take time to think about what your own definition of success in the design industry actually is. For some people, this will mean financial compensation, for others it will be peer recognition. Do you crave your work for a glamorous multinational being seen on a billboard by thousands of people? Or will you find more satisfaction in helping out a local cafe with a unique, hand-crafted brand identity? Wherever you’re aiming, remember to take pleasure in the steps along the way. Be sure you enjoy the work itself, because that’s one of the few constants in an ever-changing industry.

Any Other Tips?

There you have it, a few helpful tips that will hopefully assist you on your way to a successful design career by the time you hit the big 3-0. What other tips would you offer? Let us know in the comments below.

These are totally some tips I am and will be following.

Source URL: Creative Market

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CUSTOM CODED SITES VS TEMPLATES

For many business owners, it can be tempting to look for as many ways to save money with all the expenses that come with running a company. A common decision that comes up in the web design and development phase is to figure out whether to go with templates or get the website custom coded. There are pros and cons of both that you need to consider. Here are some points of both options to help you make a decision.

Pros of Using Templates

You can find a great look template for free on many design websites. If you are looking for templates with some additional features, there are many that can be bought from as low as $20 to $100.

Some templates are set up in a way that makes it easy for anybody to plug in their graphic design, pages, and other elements to quickly create a website.

There are many plug-ins and tools that are created for popular templates. If you are looking for something simple, this can be very useful.

Cons of Using Templates

Templates come with limited functionality. Adding custom applications can be difficult or costly. Compatibility can also be a big problem.

There may be a security risk. Many hackers study templates because they know many websites use them. There are many exploitable holes that can be found in templates.

Your site will look similar to others that are using the same template. If you want a unique brand presentation, customization is essential.

Pros of Getting Website Custom Coded

You will have a unique design and layout that people will remember you by. You can create the look you’re going for rather than conforming to a certain structure.

Custom coded websites are flexible and can adapt with your business. In the future, you may need to make vast changes to design and functionality of your site.

You can build the website to be more search engine friendly and better suited to responsive design.

Cons of Getting Website Custom Coded

It will take time to work with a designer and developer to custom create your website.

Getting a website custom coded obviously costs money. How much you need to spend depends on what you’re looking for.

You’ll need to pay for custom functionalities as opposed to being able to find and install publicly available ones online.

Ultimately, which choice you go with depends on where you are in your business. If you’re looking for something simple and have a very small budget, templates can be a great way to start out. However, if you’re looking to focus on the long term, the best bet is to go with a custom coded website. In most cases, you will find that investing into your web design and development will save you money because you can add and customize functionalities that can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of how you do business online.

Source URL: Website Design Talk

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Why Social Media Should Now Be Seen As Traditional Media

It's unusual to find a business that is not on social media, although it's not unusual to see many businesses doing social media in inefficient, time wasting ways.

The recent Sensis Social Media Report found that while 69 percent of consumers use social media, only 49 percent of small/medium businesses are making the effort –- compared with 79 percent of big businesses.

So, with social media such an important business tool, why are many companies still getting it wrong?

In the recent past, there was a huge division between what was seen as 'traditional media' compared to 'social media.' Global futurist and author Anders Sörman-Nilsson told The Huffington Post brands who still believe there is that separation, aren't taking social media seriously as an important business tool.

"Understanding that social media is now considered traditional media is more important than ever for businesses. The customer journey is no longer linear and a large chunk has already been completed by digital due diligence by the time they interact with a brand's sales representative, making well-executed online touch-points absolutely essential," Sörman-Nilsson said.

"Don't divide digital and traditional market budgets. Don't create internal friction and politics by having digital and traditional silos who are adversaries. The two need to play together - seamlessly. The CMO or marketing director should oversee all aspects and ensure the digital and analogue channels complement each other."

Marketing expert Fleur Filmer told HuffPost that digital and traditional marketing methods should be mutually supportive.

"Twenty years ago, we wouldn't have separated the print media, television and radio budgets as they would all have formed the total marketing mix and were all complimentary. As digital technology is part of our everyday lives, digital marketing is simply one more element and can't be used as a marketing silo or in a marketing vacuum," Filmer said

"The marketing budget must include all facets of the marketing mix that are relevant to your business. If you are serious about marketing, you will utilise all of the tools available to you and relevant to your target market."

But marketing experts often have to persuade businesses to take social media more seriously, or they'll risk being left behind.

"Many businesses start with misconceptions such as, 'Everyone is on social media so we must be on social media,' or 'Social media is a cost free, easy way for us to automatically attract more customers/clients," Filmer said.

"It doesn't take long for the reality to hit home to those businesses and it is at that stage that their social media presence is relegated to the 'too hard basket. Where businesses come unstuck is their misunderstanding of their marketing strategy. Without a strategy that incorporates the tools required by businesses to 'speak to' their target market, they'll soon find that their token social media presence will do them more harm than good."

Businesses are advised to operate social media messaging in the same way as traditional media; in an organised fashion. Sörman-Nilsson said you must still allow for humanity and responsiveness.

"It's all about order, discipline, and a bit of cheekiness. Tools like Hubspot, Hootsuite and Buffer enable companies to schedule tweets, LinkedIn Updates, and blog promotions in a disciplined fashion," Sörman-Nilsson said.

Sörman-Nilsson's Tips

A picture says 1,000 words. While keywords and great, engaging content is still important for the SEO algorithms in Google, the way to success is through HEO (Human Engagement Optimisation)

Video is king. Mobile video distribution is growing exponentially and for good reason. If a picture says 1,000 words, video says 1,000 pictures.

Radio isn't being killed by the video star. Podcasts are a great way to tune into audiences who are on the move. A mobile person on a commute may not be able to view a video, but they will gladly listen to inspirational or mind-shifting content, interviews, and rants.

Make it strategic and inspirational. Whether B2B or B2C, as customers, consumers all crave transformational and deeply empathetic content that educates and empowers businesses to make smarter decisions.

Seamlessness. Social media is only one aspect of the deeply empathetic design of customer journeys, which should be moving customers and prospects from awareness to engagement to evaluation to decision, and finally, to usage and loyalty, whereby both digital and analogue media augment each other.

Source URL: Huffington Post

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Sketch vs Photoshop: Which Design Tool Should You Use?

When it comes to creating digital art and web designs, Photoshop (now part of Adobe's Creative Cloud) has been the go-to tool for years. But this doesn't mean it's the only software for the job. In recent years, Sketch, a proprietary vector graphics editor, has risen through the ranks to become a serious rival to the mighty Photoshop.

With an Apple Design Award to its name, as well as being named app of the year by  net magazine, there's clearly something special about Sketch. How does it compare to Photoshop, though?

To guide potential users and old hands through the pros and cons of both Sketch and Photoshop, MonsterPost has created this handy infographic. Covering everything from workflow efficiency to tools on offer, this head-to-head infographic doesn't pull any punches. But who emerges as the winner? Find out below.

Source URL: Creative Bloq

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The Dos and Don’ts of Reaching Millennials via Social Media

Today’s marketers have countless options when it comes to social media. Some platforms peak in popularity and then quickly disappear. This makes it difficult to determine which channels to invest time and budget in.

For digital marketers specifically targeting millennials, this adds an extra challenge. Millennials are always looking for the “next big thing.” By the time marketers decipher which platform millennials are currently using, they’ve moved on.

Do videos, not text

Video is one of the most effective marketing mediums. 85 percent of millennials currently use video in their marketing strategies, and almost one-half (45 percent) dedicate more than one-quarter of their budget to it, according to recent research from Magisto.

Video is an extremely powerful medium. It can be effortlessly incorporated into social media platforms. It can help showcase brands’ personalities. It can increase brand engagement and awareness.

Consumers no longer want to read about a brand—they want to see it. They want to watch the brand story unfold. They want to see the newest product being used. They want to watch a designer sketch a new piece of clothing.

Text prohibits how far a consumer can be brought into a brand’s world. Video invites the consumer in and allows them to be a part of it.

Do Snapchat, not Facebook

In the beginning, Facebook was exclusive to college students. Soon after launching, the platform opened its doors to high school students and beyond. However, the primary users were still young adults—no parents, no grandparents.

Now, it has become a popular social media platform for parents and a handful of digital-savvy grandparents. News Feeds are cluttered with posts from older generations, and millennials are not interested. They are looking for a new platform—probably to avoid those embarrassing comments from mom and dad.

And many moved on to Snapchat. According to a Nielsen study commissioned by the company, Snapchat reaches 41 percent of all 18- to 34-year-olds in the U.S. daily. Big brands such as Taco Bell and Nike have been testing opportunities with Snapchat since last year. Digital marketers, especially those targeting millennials, should follow suit and take a break from Facebook.

Snapchat offers a variety of opportunities for marketers. Video ads can be placed within Snapchat’s Live Stories, which are collections of curated Snaps taken by users at events, or Discover, which is where media companies have dedicated channels.

Another option is sponsored geofilters, which allow brands to target users based on their location. The targeted users can then choose to overlay the brand’s filter on top of their own image or video. Taco Bell’s Cinco de Mayo geofilter made headlines last year. The filter transformed people’s heads into a giant taco drizzled with sauce. It shattered Snapchat records.

Do Instagram, not Twitter

Today’s consumers are visual. Most prefer to look at images or watch videos rather than reading articles. This is demonstrated through the influx of listicle articles and online videos, but it is also apparent within social media platforms.

Instagram entered the market in 2010 and continues to see exceptional growth. Users can’t get enough of its visual-only feed. One quick glance at an image and they know if they want to like it or not, and it’s on to the next image. Twitter, on the other hand, involves reading text—only 140 characters, but text nonetheless.

Marketers need to focus on Instagram, especially if millennials are the target. According to a recent Pew Research Center report, nearly 60 percent of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 29, and around one-half of Instagram users visit the platform at least once per day. In contrast, only 36 percent of Twitter’s users are between the ages of 18 and 29, and 42 percent of its users visit the site at least once per day.

Instagram offers marketers the opportunity to connect with current fans of the brand, but also to reach those outside of their networks through sponsored ads. This platform can boost brand relevance and engagement, and increase revenues, without large budgets.

The lingering social channels: Google+ and Pinterest

We would be amiss if we didn’t discuss two social media channels that linger in the background behind the major players.

Google+, often deemed a failed social network, still boasts a large following. It is a popular destination for certain online communities, including photographers. The platform recently announced a redesign, and changes include zoom functionality for photos and bringing back an events feature to allow users to create and invite others to events.

Pinterest boasts 70 million U.S. users. However, according to Pew, only 36 percent of them are between 18 and 29 years old, and only one quarter of its users check the platform daily.

Similar to other social channels, Pinterest offers the opportunity to create Promoted Pins.

That said, neither of these social media platforms is being flocked to by millennials. If millennials are your target, these are not the social platforms to utilize.

Do paid, not organic

Leveraging social media is often presented as a way to increase brand awareness and engagement for free. But you won’t see the needle move much if you don’t invest. Yes, you can set up social media platforms for free. Yes, you can post as much as you want. Yes, you can incorporate hashtags to help users find your content. This won’t yield strong results.

The good news? Social media advertising can be executed with virtually any budget. Social media allows you to have an immense reach at a low cost. By utilizing paid social media advertising, you can reach an audience beyond your followers. You can get very specific with targeting, which allows you to reach consumers that will have a genuine interest in your brand.

Allocating budget to social media advertising is a necessity, but this does not mean you should ignore organic posts. After all, your current followers will want to hear from you through more than sponsored posts. It is important for brands to find a balance between paid and organic—but plan on spending some extra time on your paid strategy. It will be worth it.

Although social media marketing may seem like an easy strategy to leverage when targeting millennials, it is not without its challenges. Marketers need to think about which platforms to use, which to invest in and the type of content they are sharing.

Millennials are attuned with what they like to see and not see on their social feeds, so monitoring what type of content performs well is imperative. Digital marketers need to keep an eye on trends and the demographics of social media platforms to ensure they are on the right platform for their target audience.

Source URL: ADweek

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15 Things They Didn't Teach You at Design School

Design school is great. It gives you the opportunity to mature as a designer, illustrator, website builder or artist, prepares you for your future career, and helps you develop the beginnings of a design portfolio. But it can't teach you everything.

With that in mind, I've researched some successful creative professionals and found out what they wished they had known when they were in art school – so you get a head-start on your course mates.

01. How to Actually Find Work

 “The one key thing I don't remember being taught was how to actually find work,” says seasoned pro Ben the Illustrator. “How to market ourselves, approach potential clients and so on. Whether we were going for full-time jobs or freelancing from the outset, nobody really knew what to do once we left college. 

"The upside of this is that I learnt it all myself, and due to naivety actually had original ideas, but when the chips are down and the workflow is unstable, it would have been good to feel like I'd been taught some kind of foundation in self-promotion. This was late 90s, so slightly pre-internet. I know there are good colleges now that have students putting together amazing portfolio sites before they graduate, but I still hear from students who have a killer folio, and yet don't know what to do with it.” 

02. How to Accept Commissions

“For me, I would say there is a major void in higher education,” explains illustrator Aaron Miller. “You are taught about unrealistic deadlines and creative outputs from the start. But a huge part of the job that was never explained to me was the ins and out of accepting a new client. Do I send an acceptance of commission doc, do I ask for a percentage of payment upfront? What do I do if it all goes wrong? Does the client really need that editorial illustration at 5:30pm on a Friday night?” 

03. How to Manage Clients

"I wish they'd taught us about clients,” says creative director of Knight Studios Christian Day in now what’s becoming a common theme. “How to identify them, how to connect with them. Granted, this has changed wildly since I was at university, but networking is networking!” 

He continues: “How to get in front of them, how to get them interested in you and your ideas, how to present and sell your ideas, how to service clients and build those relationships... you can go on and on. Having the skills and ideas is one thing, but if you can't get them in front of those clients, you'll be sat alone in a dark room.” 

04. Why Associations are Important

Illustrator and designer at Empire magazine Olly Gibbs joined the Association of Illustrators to help boost his career and client list. At art school, he feels he missed out on advice for turning yourself into a product that could actually sell. 

“It was great for helping people refine their ideas and find out which pathway of design they wanted to follow, but it didn’t give enough of an understanding of the real world," Gibbs explains. "I was lucky enough to have done a lot of freelance previously and during my time at art school so that helped. It just would have been great to find out more about the money side.” 

The moral here? Join an association that can help you sell yourself! 

05. That Personality Counts (Maybe More Than Your Diploma)

"Despite what your teachers or parents tell you, your diploma won’t necessarily get you a job," says Toronto-based web designer Janna Hagan. "Proving what kind of work you are capable of producing through your portfolio, or demonstrating passion and potential will more likely catch a potential employer's eye; compared to a student who has more formal education. Having a killer portfolio and personality will land you a job anywhere."

06. Software Skills

Jeffrey Bowman is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer based in the mountains of Hemsedal, Norway. Formerly of Studio Output and a lecturer at Shillington College, Bowman has worked for numerous clients around the globe. So what does he know now that he wished he'd learned at art school?

"Software skills," he says. "This is probably the most important thing to really focus on when you're at college." When Bowman was at university, this was something he had to teach himself, because there was no real help available. 

"Being software-savvy is only going to help when you get out into the industry, because the way the industry is, these kind of skills will set you apart from the next person applying for an internship or junior job."

07. Real-World Processes

T3 magazine's art editor Jo Gulliver has been working in magazines for 15 years, during which time she's worked with the world's top illustration talent, photographers and designers. When she was at college she knew she wanted to be involved in magazines, but was never taught the process of putting together a magazine to be printed and exported across the globe.

"It would be good to explore the industry you want to go into in depth," she says. The best way to do this is through seeking out work experience while you're studying. "Also consider visiting printers, agencies, photoshoots and so on," is her top advice. "Make the most of your work experience placement and ask to see all processes of the business. It will make you much more employable when you come to get a job."

08. Commercial Knowledge

"The main thing I know now, that I never realised at college, is that there is a market for good quality drawing," says Abigail Daker – a freelance illustrator known for her stunning perspective cityscape pencil drawings.

"There was a lot of theorising about drawing on my course and plenty of discussion about the merits of drawing and its place within the contemporary fine art world, but nothing about it as a commercial product, and no advice about how to tailor your artwork to be better suited to commercial projects." Daker's advice is to scope out the latter – no matter what your intended specialism.

09. How to Stay Creative

Ian Wharton, creative director at AKQA and an advocate of young talent (he's regularly involved in judging, seminars and publications promoting young creativity). So what does he know know that he wishes he knew at art school?

"How difficult, yet entirely necessary it is to hang onto the innate creative spirit of youth," he says. "It's something I took for granted." And his advice? "Explore endlessly. Every facet of creativity that excites you – dive in and don't worry about right answers. You have the time, agility and resources to do so. When you leave school, never stop learning and waste zero time making things you don't want to be known for."

10. How to find your niche

Wildlife artist Jonathan Woodward's beautiful, textured animal illustrations have led him to commissions from the likes of Penguin, Transworld Publishing and Random House. What did he wish he knew?

"I'm probably the same as most other illustrators in that the biggest gap in my art college education was the business and marketing side of things. I've had to learn all of this as I've gone along.

"One of the most important lessons I've learned is to find a niche rather than trying to be all things to all people. It was only when I really focused on combining my two main passions for nature and illustration, specialising in being a wildlife illustrator, that things started to move forwards and the right type of commissions started come in."

11. Not to be Precious

James Wignall is an animator and motion graphics artist working in London. He wishes he'd learned not to be too precious with his designs.

"Inevitably the client will want changes, and inevitably you'll think they are for the worse. Your job is to do the best you can for your client, not for your portfolio. There are occasions that you and the client will be on the same wavelength and you'll end up with a project that will take pride of place on your website, but these jobs are few and far between.

"Behind every amazing project you've seen on a designer's website, there's probably 10 more that you don't see that pay the bills. Once you've given it all and appeased your client, boss or bill payer, you can always rework it to a state that you're happy and call it a 'directors cut'!"

12. How to Take a Step Back

Freelance art director, illustrator and graphic designer Radim Malinic has been responsible for some stunning campaigns.

"Education encourages you to be good at one thing only," he says. "When you get out into the sharp-toothed world of client work, it's easy to get consumed by focusing on small detail in your designs and not worrying about any other essential parts of the commission.

"Whether you are a freelancer or part of a bigger team with the additional beady eyes of account managers or creative directors, it is about projecting your voice through the project. By taking a little bit of extra time and stepping back for short moment to oversee what has been done, you can not only scrutinise all aspects and find any errors, you can also discover potential ways of making the project go further.

"Clients can have a limited vision and creative teams can play it safe to keep them happy. Great work just does not happen by accident, it is the ever-present hunger to create fresh work which makes it succeed."

13. How to be Humble

James Wignall didn't take the traditional route into the creative industries – he's a Bachelor of Science rather than of the Arts. However, there is some advice that applies to everyone. 

"The first thing you should learn when going into the work place is a little humility – seriously it goes a long way!" he says. "A number of people from my course assumed that because they achieved a first class honours they were God's gift to the industry. Wrong! There is always somebody who's better than you and employers have no time for that kind of arrogant attitude. A workplace needs people who are easy to work with, to collaborate and bounce ideas back and forth with."

14. That It's Not All Self-Indulgent

"At college most of the projects are pretty self-indulgent," says Jo Gulliver. "You don't really experience what it's like working for a client. It would have been good to get some live client work while I was at college – working for someone would give you an insight into how the industry works.

"It would also have been useful as a learning experience on how to manage a project – pricing it, time management and so on. These are real-world things that you often discover when you're in the real world – not before!"

15. How to Choose Your Career Carefully

"My main advice for art college students today would be to really think about the type of work they want to be doing," says Jonathan Woodward. "To think about the type of commissions they really want – rather than what they think they should be doing – and then create a career and portfolio that reflects this.

"If you show the type of work in your folio that you don't want, you can be sure that is the type of work you'll get," he adds. It's an interesting point – make sure only your best and most relevant work (if you're going for an interview) is in your portfolio.

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6 Key Terms Every Graphic Designer Should Know

Whether you're a newbie, a student or just in need of a refresher, read this guide.

Graphic design, like any profession, is littered with jargon and phrases you may not be familiar with. Here are just some of the key terms you should know, and a brief explanation in words you can understand – plus where to go to learn more.

01. Raster Images and Vector Images

Raster Images

Raster images (sometimes referred to as bitmap images) are made up of thousands of pixels that determine colour and form. Photos are raster images. Photoshop is the most common raster editor, enabling you to manipulate the colour and other properties of the pixels. 

Because raster images are made up of a finite amount of pixels, resizing can be tricky. If you give a raster image larger dimensions in Photoshop, the software has to make up data in order to add the size. This results in a loss of quality.

Vector Images

Vector-based images (such as those created in Adobe Illustrator) are made up of points, each of which has a defined X and Y coordinate. These points join paths to form shapes, and inside these shapes you can add colour fills. Because everything you generate is based around this, vectors can be blown up to any size without any loss of quality.

In recent times, Illustrator has progressed so much that vector graphics have become incredibly complex. You can now add gradients, complex shapes and more to create highly detailed, scalable vector images. Because vectors can be resized, they are often used for  logos and other graphics that need to be used across many different outputs (from leaflet to billboard, for instance). 

02. CMYK and RGB

CMYK is the standard colour mode for sending documents – be they magazines, newspapers, flyers, brochures, annual reports and so on – to the printers. It stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and key. 

'Key' in this instance means black. It's referred to as key because in four-colour printing, cyan, magenta and yellow printing plates are carefully keyed, or aligned, with the key of the black key plate. 

When you send a job to the press, cyan, magenta, yellow and black plates are made (on a traditional press, anyhow) and then aligned to print on paper. You can add Pantone, or fifth colours, as separate plates.

Colour options

When working in Photoshop or Illustrator, you have the option to set your document's colour mode to CMYK or RGB (red, green, blue; for screen output). There are some other colour modes, but CMYK and RGB are the two you really need to know about.

Because CMYK has a more limited colour gamut than RGB (which is essentially what the eye sees and how screens output) you can experience a loss of colour when converting from RGB to CMYK in these applications.

03. DPI and PPI

Resolution is another key term that is often confused. There are two main acronyms used when dealing with resolution: DPI and PPI.

The former is only of concern when you're creating work for printed output. It stands for 'dots per Inch' and refers to the number of dots per inch on a printed page. Generally, the more dots per inch, the better quality the image. 300DPI is the standard for printing images.

PPI stands for 'pixels per inch' and, as you'd expect, refers to the number of pixels per inch in your image. If you make an image larger Photoshop you will increase the number of pixels per inch (with Photoshop making up the data) and you will lose quality. There's an excellent explanation here.

Bear in mind that resolution only applies to raster graphics, because vectors do not work in pixels. And for a comprehensive guide to printing terms, this app will serve you well.

04. Typography

Put simply, typography is the art of arranging type. It's one of the fundamentals of graphic design and one every designer should read into in great detail.

The difference between good type and great type is often what sets brilliant designers apart. And being able to spot a kerning (the space between two characters) error from a distance is somewhat satisfying!

05. Grids

The best way to describe a grid in graphic design is a series of intersecting vertical and horizontal lines used to organise and structure content. Whether you're working in InDesign, Photoshop or Illustrator, setting up a grid enables you to get your composition right and balance your type and imagery.

Grids typically include a large header across the top of the design, with equally sized columns beneath, but there's no real limit on what can be created. The Grid System provides an excellent resource including lots of further reading and templates. Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Muller-Brockmann is also an essential read.

06. Logo design vs branding

Logos are powerful things; a great logo works as an instant reminder of a company or product, and for designers they represent the challenge of distilling a brand's essence into a single graphic. The best logos can live for a long time, and a new logo design can be a jarring event for customers, as the familiar is replaced by something new.

What logo design isn't, though, is branding. While the logo is usually the stand-out part of a brand, there's much more to branding than a logo. A good brand identity is carefully built out of a number of elements, and the logo will reflect these elements and work within the brand system.

Designing a great logo is by no means easy, but creating or simply refreshing a brand can be a massive undertaking, involving a deep understanding of the brand's personality, how it's perceived, its history and function and much more.

[akashamichelleblog]

11 Tools Every Graphic Designer Should Have in 2017

If you’re new to design and want to get off to the best start, here are the tools you need at your disposal.

If you're just getting into graphic design, or think you want to be a graphic designer, here's what you need to invest in. You may not need the latest hardware or software – ideas and execution are far more important than the latest equipment – but it's worth investing in the best kit you can afford!

Here are 11 must-have tools to get you started...

01.  iMac/MacBook or Surface Studio/Book 

Of course you’ll need a decent computer that’s capable of running your software at the same pace as your brain. Whilst Macs have traditionally been the choice of graphic designers, the landscape is changing at a pace.

Sure, the new MacBook Pro Touch Bar with a 4K screen from say, LG, is a fantastic set up, but put it against Microsoft’s revolutionary Surface Studio and you have a few questions to ask yourself. Why? Because the Surface Studio looks to be a true artists’ tool – it can be used in regular desktop mode or laid flat so you can design directly on the touchscreen. It’s not available quite yet, but when it is the 28-inch touchscreen desktop could be well worth a look – even if it’s likely to cost over $2,500+.

And then there’s the Surface Book; an ultra-powerful laptop/tablet hybrid more than capable of running Creative Cloud apps. Microsoft has really upped its game in the creative space whilst Apple has arguably focused on the consumer a lot more. It could be an exciting time of transition – and maybe you should be at the forefront of it?

02. The right software for you (and your budget) 

Adobe’s Creative Cloud is the industry standard for design professionals, the range and depth in its suite of tools unrivalled by any other company. But it comes at a cost. As an individual designer, prices for the entire suite start at £50 per month if paid annually or nearly £80 per month if paid on a monthly basis. It’s a lot of cash. Still, you get Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects and loads more. If you’re looking to be truly multi-disciplined and are confident of the work rolling in then it’s the way to go. 

But if your work revolves purely around vector design (illustration, logos and so on) and photo-editing/manipulation, there’s another option you could plump for. Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo are both excellent tools from Serif – believe us, they even top Photoshop and Illustrator in some areas – and they only cost around $50 each. No monthly subscription and free updates. What’s more, superb file compatibility means you can work with others using Photoshop or Illustrator with very few problems.

03. Wacom tablet/interactive pen display

Using a mouse is just not natural – when you learn to write and draw at school you don’t just move a pencil around with your wrist, do you? A Wacom tablet (Intuos) or more expensive Interactive Pen Display (Cintiq) is therefore critical for design and illustration work. 

You’ll get pressure-sensitivity in Photoshop, Illustrator and the like, but more importantly you’ll be creating in a more intuitive, natural way. Plus there’s health benefits – using a stylus rather than a mouse is proven to reduce RSI. 

04. Pantone Reference Library 

If you’re doing a lot of print work, you’re likely to be asked to use (or want to use) a fifth colour at some point. The only way you can really get an accurate idea of how your special colour will print is to invest in a Pantone Reference Library – a series of swatch books and folders containing chips that show you a printed representation of each colour. So not only will it show you how the colour you select in say, Illustrator or InDesign, will print, but it will also enable you to tear a swatch out and pin it to your proof for the printers – so everyone’s clear on what colour you need.  

There are also swatch books that enable you to match a fifth colour to a CMYK value – perfect for situations where your client’s budget doesn’t stretch to a fifth colour for a certain job.

The Pantone Reference Library isn’t cheap, however: It’ll cost you over $1,400. That's for all 14 books plus a storage and display stand, though – you can buy books individually if you just need, for example, a metallic colour guide. And you can always add the individual cost of a book to a particular job if needed.

05. Top-end smartphone 

OK, so you may not need a top-end smartphone for your daily design work, but when dealing with clients, replying to emails and viewing images and soft proofs on the go, you want a smartphone that’s easy to use, sports a vibrant, large screen and has the power to do everything you need it to do at once. 

Of course, the iPhone has long been the choice for designers – mainly thanks to its integration with Mac OS. And whilst the 7 Plus is a cracking phone, there are other options. The Google Pixel XL is lightning fast and offers a completely native Android experience – with no ugly add-ons or skin. And Samsung’s S7 Edge is a beautiful piece of design (soon to be superseded by the S8, so look out for that). 

All of these are stellar devices, and you can even run cut-down versions of Photoshop and Lightroom on them. Oh, and of course all have great cameras for shooting on-the-fly reference material. 

06. Calibrated Monitor

Following on from the Pantone Refence Library, it’s vital that your colour workflow is as accurate as possible. The last thing you want is for your hard work to look completely different at output than it did during the design process. Calibrating your monitor isn’t hard, but it does require a specialist tool.

One of the best is the Datacolor Spyder 5 Pro. This tool hangs on your monitor and creates a unique colour profile (or the profile your printers are using) adjusting the monitor’s brightness level based on your room lighting. Calibrating your monitor is the only way to guarantee complete accuracy when moving from print to screen – so you should invest as soon as possible. 

07. Variable Desk

Sitting down all day is just not good for you. In fact, it’s terrible for you. Whilst we’re not suggesting a Silicon Valley-esque treadmill desk or anything, using a desk that can raise up so you can stand or sit down depending on your preference is a no-brainer. 

Varidesk is the undisputed king of, er, variable desks, and offers a few different models depending on your equipment. Just stick the Varidesk on your own desk, pop your laptop and/or desktop on it and you can raise it or lower it with sublime ease. Expect to pay in the region of $400+, but your back and health are worth far more than that, right? 

08. Ergonomic Chair

We all know designers work long hours – hands up if you've ever pulled an all-nighter to meet that deadline! With more and more cases of back pain and RSI occurring in office environments, it's hugely important to have the right chair. And the Herman Miller Aeron chair is pretty much the gold standard when it comes to offering ergonomic comfort (adapting naturally to your body and seating position) in a stylish design. The one drawback? Some models will cost you over $900.

09. Compact System Camera

There was a time where we’d say ‘go for a DSLR’ but the times they are a-changing, and compact system cameras are now almost on a par. Plus, there’s a raft of uber-stylish retro CSC cameras on the market from all the big players – and us designers love a bit of retro styling, right? 

Just take a look at Fujifilm’s X-Pro2, for instance. Compact, beautiful, water-resistant and rugged… and with a 24.3mp sensor it’ll do you for all of your creative needs, even if you need to take some pro shots for a client job. It’ll cost you around £1350, but it’s a great investment. 

10. An (interactive) Sketchpad

A sketchbook is the staple of every designer – whether it’s for creating quick wireframes, doodles or simply taking notes. You may want to opt for a Moleskine or product from Field Notes if you’re a traditionalist (and we wouldn’t blame you – they’re beautiful) but there’s another option – which combines the fluidity of a traditional sketchbook with the ease of getting your ideas into a digital format. 

And the option is Wacom’s range of smartpads. For instance, the Bamboo Slate is a sketchpad that enables you to move your handwritten notes to files that you can open in Photoshop or Illustrator with a touch of a button. The Bamboo Slate comes in A4 or A5 sizes and will only cost you around £100. For that kind of productivity, a ton is nothing! 

There are plenty of other innovative options, too. 

11. Reliable Solid-State Storage

Have you ever lost files due to a creaking hard drive or because your computer failed without you backing up? If so, you'll know how soul-destroying this can be. Our advice is to get a reliable, fast hard drive that you can quickly back up to – either manually or using automated systems such as Mac OS's Time Machine.

Solid state drives are still relatively expensive, but because there’s no moving parts they’re less likely to fail. And in the case of Samsung’s T3 range, they’re portable enough to take anywhere – kind of like a mahoosive thumb drive.

Source URL: Creative Bloq

[akashamichelleblog]

John Maeda: If You Want to Survive in Design, You Better Learn to Code

SILICON VALLEY FINALLY UNDERSTANDS the essential role of design. Products look better than ever, interfaces feel intuitive, and companies are hiring designers at an increasing rate. But the designer’s role in tech is changing. It’s no longer enough to iterate and understand your user. What companies need now are designers who can empathize and bang out lines of Javascript.

These computational designers exist in a hazy middle ground—not quite pure engineers, not quite pure designers—but their hybrid status is increasingly attractive to technology companies that are looking for employees who can both identify problems and build solutions. “When you can do both, you can do things that no one else can do,” says John Maeda. “Technology companies that innovate tend to have these unique people.”

Maeda is to design what Warren Buffet is to finance—a seasoned technologist who spent more than a decade at the MIT Media Lab before becoming president of the Rhode Island School of Design, a partner at VC powerhouse Kleiner Perkins, and now the head of computational design and inclusion at Automattic, WordPress.com’s parent company. Every year, Maeda travels to South By Southwest to deliver his Design in Technology report, a sprawling presentation that outlines the field’s growing impact on technology and business.

One takeaway: Design is still having a moment. Since 2004, corporations like Accenture, Capital One, and Deloitte have scooped up more than 71 independent design consultancies, with 50 of those multi-million dollar talent grabs happening in the past two years. Meanwhile business schools, starting with the Yale School of Management, have begun adding design classes to their core curriculum. Companies like McKinsey and IBM have promoted designers to the top level of management, an acknowledgment that design has, in many ways already proven itself.

But design’s role in this world is constantly shifting. In his 2017 report Maeda makes the case that the most successful designers will be those who can work with intangible materials—code, words, and voice. These are the designers who craft experiences for the chatbots and voice interfaces people are increasingly interacting with. Maeda cites a blog post from last spring, in which UX designer Susan Stuart makes the case that writing and UX design aren’t so different. “Here’s where I’d like to draw the parallel with writing — because a core skill of the interaction designer is imagining users (characters), motivations, actions, reactions, obstacles, successes, and a complete set of ‘what if’ scenarios,” she said. “These are the skills of a writer.”

This year, Maeda goes deep on this idea of skills, focusing his own on the growing field of computational design (a field he’s pioneered since the mid-1990s). In the report Maeda makes the distinction between “classic” designer, the makers of finite objects for a select group of people (think graphic designer, industrial designer, furniture designer) and “computational” designers, who deal mostly in code and build constantly evolving products that impact millions of people’s lives.

Take Instagram, which from the start had to balance engineering and design constraints. In its infancy, the company was too computationally expensive to allow for both landscape and portrait mode; instead of limiting the interface to one or the other, Instagram’s designers decided to make every photo a square. “By being square you didn’t have to choose anymore,” Maeda says. “It was a great design decision.”

Designers who can code and write have always been attractive to tech companies, but Maeda’s report foretells an inflection point for the field. As the distinction between engineering, writing, and design becomes blurrier, design’s role in technology only stands to become more ingrained in the product development process. In the end, design, as a singular field, could become less visible but more relevant. And someday, design might not need Maeda’s 50-page reports to extol its virtues.

Source URL: Wired

[akashamichelleblog]

Spending the day editing photos. This one is perhaps my favorite image I took this morning. • • • • • • • • • • #akashamichelledesign #photography #photo #flower #photographer #graphicdesign #graphicdesigner #photoediting #editing (at Landscape Garden Centers)

[akashamichelleblog]

10 of the Best Notebooks for Designers

Keep track of your thoughts and musings with one of these stylish and practical notebooks.

Few tools are as useful to creatives as a trusty notebook. They might appear pretty simple on the surface – just sheets of paper bound together inside a cover – but they've survived through the years for a reason: they just work.

Notebooks don't have to be charged (well, most of them anyway), they're inexpensive and they're one of the easiest things to use – simply open them and start writing. Even the most sophisticated digital tools have to pack a serious technological punch to appear this intuitive.

But just because notebooks are straightforward doesn't mean they're all the same. I've rounded up 10 of the best notebooks for designers that show off how the same concept can be pushed in interesting directions. So if you're after a new place to record notes or pencil drawings, maybe one of these notebooks is just what you're looking for.

01. MOO Hardcover Notebook

Famous for its frankly dizzying array of business cards, MOO has recently branched out into notebooks. Built by the company's in-house designers with the same care and consideration as its business cards, MOO's Notebooks come in six colours (split into classic or bright) and are filled with crisp, non-glare, ruled paper. There are also 16 pages of shaded paper in the middle that break up the notebook and give you a space to jot down those sporadic, unrelated thoughts that spring up from time to time.

Thanks to their binding the Moo Notebooks can be laid perfectly flat. This is welcome news for left-handers, who need no longer be hindered by spines creating impractical bulges under the pages. Topped off with a quality cloth cover and a slipcase to keep the notebook protected, this is a premium journal with an accessible price of just $19.99.

02. Moleskine

Well, it wouldn't be a list of the best notebooks if we didn't mention Moleskine, would it? In the world of stationery, Moleskine are the Apple of notebooks, with its products generating the same kind of enthusiasm and loyalty as the latest iPhone release.

It's funny to think that the Italian company has only been running since 1997, but its relatively rapid success is the result of a commitment to creating quality products. With a straightforward and practical design, plus a luxurious finish that makes them a joy to write on, Moleskine notebooks have really earned their place at the top of the notebook food chain.

Even the most basic of Moleskine notebooks feel like something special, and with a variety of different styles, including coloured notebooks, memo books, and two-go notebooks to name but a few, it doesn't look like they're going to be knocked off the top spot any time soon.

03. Lockbook

Remember what I said about notebooks not needing to be charged? Well, here's one exception: meet Lockbook, a nifty little notebook that keeps all your secrets safely locked away, for your eyes only. Sealed with a biometric lock that needs the owner's fingerprint to open, the Lockbook is one of the most practically innovative journals we've come across.

However its unique security system doesn't mean you have to use Lockbook to record your darkest thoughts. Once you've opened it up, you'll see that Lockbook's ring binder lets you personalise it in any way you want. With a range of inserts, pockets, sticky notes and more, you can tailor the Lockbook to be as personal as – well – your fingerprints!

The Lockbook is an Indiegogo-funded project which backers can expect to receive in June 2017 at the earliest.

04. Rocketbook Everlast

Another notebook that uses technology in creative and useful ways is the Rocketbook Everlast. Bringing the concept of a journal bang up to date, the Everlast lets users take what they've written on the page and upload it to the cloud with the help of the Rocketbook app.

Once your writing has been sent to a digital location, you can wipe your words off the page and start all over again. It's Rocketbook's aim to cut down on the amount of ideas get lost between different notebooks, as well as making the world a tidier place for creatives. Just like the Lockbook, the Rocketbook Everlast has been crowd-funded and should start rolling out in April.

05. The Bound Book

Writing from the safety of your home or studio is all well and good, but what if you need to work outside, exposed to the wrath of mother nature? Where most notebooks would wilt in the rain, the Bound Book from the rugged Rite in the Rain company is capable of standing up to storms, grime, and even laundry mishaps (they can happen to the best of us).

With a glorious yellow cover made out of an imitation leather material called fabrikoid, the tough pocket-sized Bound Book comes with sewn-in pages coated in a unique moisture shield. This allows users to write in pen and pencil, even if the pages have been soaked.

06. Field Notes

Field Notes is a collection of smartly-designed, vintage-styled pocket notebooks, created by the Draplin Design Company and Coudal Partners. The small notebooks, which measure 3.5x5.5in, come with 48 pages and a saddle stitch binding. And best of all, the Memo Books come in a mixed three-pack, so you're spoilt for choice when it comes to page design.

Available with plain, lined or graph paper pages, the Memo Book collection is ready to suit any task. Inspired by the "vanishing subgenre of agricultural memo books, ornate pocket ledgers, and the simple, unassuming beauty of a well-crafted grocery list", this trio of journals is an essential on-the-go option for designers.

07. UI Stencils Everyday Carry Kit

One for the web designers amongst you now: Let us introduce you to the Everyday Carry Kit from UI Stencils. Just like the Field Notes Memo Book bundle, this set includes three pocket-sized notebooks with 48 pages each. However unlike the entry above, each book in this set contains gridded pages ideally suited to creating digital prototypes.

What sets this collection apart from other notebooks, though, is the unique Pocket Stencil. Complete with cut-outs of frequently used UX shapes, such as touch and swipe icons, phone symbols and social media logos, this stencil makes it quicker and easier for web designers to jot down layouts for the latest groundbreaking app.

08. Leuchtturm Master Classic

Small notebooks are all well and good, but sometimes you want a big beefy notebook that's going to last you a while. That's what you get with the formidably named Master Classic notebook from Leuchtturm. Larger than A4, the hardcover comes stuffed with 233 numbered pages that are either ruled, plain, square or dotted depending on your preference.

If you're not after something quite so substantial, Leuchtturm offers lots of other alternatives in different sizes and thicknesses. To give you an idea of the quality on the table, the company has been running since 1917 and its main rival is the new kid on the block, Moleskine.

09. Baron Fig

We've seen lots of different notebooks on our list so far, each satisfying a different niche depending on what you're after. With so many different demands being placed upon notebooks, Baron Fig decided to ask the design community what they want out of a notebook and go from there.

The result is the Confidant notebook, which from the ground up has questioned what a notebook is and what it can achieve. Pithy sales soundbites aside, the Baron Fig notebooks are truly gorgeous. Available in a soothing light grey or charcoal, the Confidant notebooks can open flat and contain plain, ruled or dot grid pages.

Its quality acid-free fine grain paper makes the Confidant a dream to write in, whether that's with inks or pencils, plus this means the books are safe from degradation. They might be modest to look at, but Baron Fig lets its high-standard products speak for themselves.

10. CIAK Pitti

Bit of a wild card to finish on. Take a look at the CIAK Pitti from Fiorentina, a European specialist in leather products and accessories. They're beautiful to look at and are extremely soft to the touch, and are sure to be one of the most luxurious places you can put your pen to paper.

With contrasting elastic straps to keep the books secure when they're shut, and a dazzling lining that makes them pleasant to look at as well as use, the CIAK Pitti line really is in a league of its own in terms of style.

The only catch? These books are only available to order as a wholesaler, with minimum orders set at $300. However, unless you're desperate enough that you want to order these books in bulk (and we really couldn't blame you), the kind folks at Fiorentina are happy to guide you towards the nearest retailer if you get in contact with them.

It sounds like a bit of a hassle, but it sort of makes these elusive notebooks feel even more valuable if you happen to get your hands on one.

Source URL: Creative Bloq

[akashamichelleblog]

7 New Graphic Design Tools to Make Your Life Easier

You may not have heard of these tools, but they could make your design work easier in 2017.

The graphic design software scene is very dynamic right now, with new tools being released all the time. Some of these new and updated apps could really improve your workflow and potentially save you time, effort and money. 

But the pace of change is so great, it’s often tricky to keep up, and some of the latest tools might have passed you by completely.

To help you catch up, I’ve pulled together some cool new graphic design tools that are causing a stir right now, which you may not even be aware of.

01. Mental Canvas

Mental Canvas is a tool for Windows that aims to make designing in 3D as easy and intuitive as using 2D software like Sketch or Illustrator, rather than having to learn complex 3D software such as Maya or 3ds Max. 

The tool isn’t finished yet (it’s currently in a closed beta), but when it is, you’ll be able to use it to draw, change perspective, add depth, tour a scene, incorporate imagery, and more. Support is included for the Surface Studio’s Dial hardware control wheel, and it will also work with other pen and control systems such as Wacom’s.

02. Vaunt

If you want to plan a colour scheme that will match a photo you’re using in your design, Vaunt is a free app for iOS that can help. Quite simply, it extracts the dominant colours from any image and lists them for you. Simply open the Vaunt app on your menu bar, drag and drop an image, and click on a colour of your choosing.

03. Color Supply

If you want help coming up with new colour combinations, this app provides a simple way to do so, just by turning the colour wheel on your screen. The app is free to download, although there’s also a premium version which includes access to entire sets of colours from working artists and great artists from history, as well as themed sets. 

04. F37 Foundry Type Testing Tool

F37, the font foundry established by design studio Face37 in London, has recently launched an online tool for type testing. Created by owner and graphic designer Rick Banks and colleagues Francis Smith and Tom Duncalf, it allows you to experiment with the foundry’s fonts within the browser, in an environment that’s similar to Adobe Illustrator. You can, for example, move, resize and rotate text, while also adapting leading, kerning, tracking and colour – all before making a purchase decision.

05. Project Felix

It’s an increasingly common but often tedious task given to graphic designers: create a photorealistic image that combines both 3D brand assets, such as logos and 2D photography. Project Felix is a new tool from Adobe that does a lot of the grunt work for you. 

Using a sophisticated machine learning algorithm, Adobe Sensei, it automatically ensures that (for example) lighting and shadows are properly aligned and in perspective. Best of all, you can preview your design, which means you can experiment and try out different ideas without having to render a final image to see your work.

06. QuarkXPress 2017

Yes, QuarkXPress still exists! The once-dominant page layout software, which was eclipsed in the early 2000s by the rise of InDesign, has soldiered on with a diminished but still loyal following. In recent years, the wider design world has started to pay attention to it again, as a pay-once alternative to taking out an Adobe CC subscription. 

The latest version, now available for pre-order, brings QuarkXPress right up to date, including responsive HTML5 digital publishing features and app creation tools for iOS. Also note that another InDesign rival, Affinity Publisher, is due to be released later this year by the makers of Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer.

07. Adobe apps for Chromebooks

Although there’s a lot for designers to like about Chromebooks, until recently you haven’t been able to use Adobe design apps on them. But that’s all about to change. As long as your Chromebook supports the Google Play Store, you should soon be able to download and use six Adobe apps for free: namely Photoshop Mix, Lightroom Mobile, Illustrator Draw, Photoshop Sketch, Adobe Comp CC and Creative Cloud Mobile. Read the full Adobe release here and you’ll find a complete list of compatible Chromebooks here.

Source URL: Creative Bloq

[akashamichelleblog]

Will Designers Be Replaced by Robots?

Adrian Shaughnessy, writer at the Creative Bloq, discusses how automated processes could threaten the role of the designer.

"During my time as a graphic designer, I've experienced nearly everything – short of physical violence – that working life can throw at you: recessions, legal disputes, defaulting clients, and of course, the thrill that comes with completing a successful project.

But two events – both of which turned the practice of graphic design on its head – stand out as life changing. The first was the arrival of the Macintosh computer. For all practising designers at the time, computerisation necessitated an extensive rethink of the craft: no more mechanical artwork, no more paste-up, no more typesetters, no more expensive retouchers. Many of the tasks previously done by repro houses were taken over by designers sitting in front of computer screens. It was the beginning of a new age of digital self-reliance and a period of massive reorientation. 

The second event was the arrival of the internet. Here was a new way of thinking about, and making design. Suddenly, designers no longer had complete control over how their work was received. The inability to control browser use, screen ratios and fonts had a decisive impact and old rules such as the number of characters per line length rule became redundant. Even the users themselves could mess with the appearance in ways unthinkable to designers trained in print design, where layouts were fixed once they left the designer's hand. 

Is VR the future of design?

These two events threatened to shrink the role of the designer, but the opposite happened. There are now more graphic designers and students than ever before. Design is a global industry embedded in, and inseparable from, business and culture. For many, graphic design is as much a lifestyle choice as a career choice. We do it because we love it.

The rise of automation

If design and designers can be said to have benefited from these two shocks in the long run, there are concerns that the craft and the profession might not survive quite so well. Is design about to meet its Uber moment? Is AI about to take on the role of the designer? Is the surge towards a fully automated world about to engulf design? 

It might seem that automating the design process is impossible. You might assume that the creative imagination is the least likely arena to be taken over by machines, that bots are for routine production, not conceptual thinking. In reality, the process is already underway.

"It might seem that automating the design process is impossible... In reality, the process is already underway"

Social media has usurped many of the roles previously done by designers. You can start a business with a Facebook page (or as one expert calls them "Facebook pages … the new small-business homepage"). For many, access to a Twitter or Instagram account is all the design they need.

The automation of countless realms of everyday life is already at an advanced level: entire factories are operated by robots; legal contracts and stock market trading are routinely done by bots; automated warehouses, ATMs, and user operated supermarket tills mean fewer jobs in industries once regarded as high volume employers; driverless vehicles signal the end for the millions of people who drive for a living. Why should design be any different? 

In the book, Inventing the Future, Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams state that: "anything from 47 to 80 per cent of jobs are likely to be automatable in the next two decades." They also note that the "roboticisation of services is now gathering steam, with over 150,000 professional service robots sold in the past 15 years. Under particular threat have been routine jobs – jobs that can be codified into a series of steps." 

The demise of web design

Surely this lets design off the hook? We can't expect machines to make the irrational, gravity-defying leaps of imagination that designers make, can we? What about the designer's ability to capitalise on accidents and unforeseen coincidences? Surely this sort of cognition is beyond the bot? 

Not so. We live under the dictum that anything that can be automated will be automated. And nowhere in the design world is this idea more advanced than in web design. In a post titled Why Web Design is Dead, on the website UX Magazine, designer Sergio Nouvel notes: "Most of the content you see on the web today is run by some framework or service – WordPress, Blogger, Drupal, you name it. Frameworks provide you a foundation and shortcuts so you spend less time struggling with the creation of a website, and more time creating content. As a consequence of the ubiquity of these frameworks, a world of free and paid templates lets you start with a professional-looking design in minutes. Why hire a web designer if you can achieve a fairly acceptable design for a fraction of the cost using a template?"

The Grid, a San Francisco and Berlin-based startup, was the first to announce that it has created a website builder that uses artificial intelligence. It enables users to upload images and text or make use of its library of colour combinations and images, and then, using AI, it performs all the key design functions: positioning of images, placement of text, selecting colours and sculpting a unique, customised website. The Grid says it doesn't use templates, but 'layout systems', which it claims offers greater flexibility.

With The Grid, if you don't like what you see, you hit the Redesign button and in seconds a different layout appears. The Grid's promotional video gives the impression of effortless, nearly instant success. It's a seductive pitch. But not everyone is impressed. 

Various webinars offer a less convincing glimpse into The Grid's AI approach to web design. Watching these critical takedowns, I was reminded of the early days of DTP design – gap-toothed typography and bitmapped images. But the painful DTP birthing phase didn't last long. Designers mastered the software, the software improved, and so did computing power. You wouldn't lose money betting on AI websites becoming much better in the future. 

A grit-free process

It's easy to see why clients would be attracted to this grit-free process. There's no more time spent listening to pesky designers defending their design decisions, no more waiting around for new designs to arrive. And here's the clincher: no more redesign fees. Instead, clients inhabit a fragrant world of endless iteration and seemingly limitless choice.

The Grid is not alone in its quest. In September 2016, the website Tech Crunch reported that Canva, a design platform for web and mobile, had announced a new infusion of $15 million in funding and a doubling of its valuation in 12 months. This added capital was reported to have brought Canva's valuation up to a whopping $345 million.

What makes Canva so attractive to the guys with the money is the fact that it can be used by non-designers. Canva claims it only takes 23 seconds to become a proficient user of its software. 10 million people are allegedly using it to design business cards, posters, presentations, and graphics for social media. 

Looking at the formulaic design featured on the site, it's hard to take seriously claims that 'anyone can become a designer' with Canva. It's easy to laugh at some of the work these sites post as examples – most of it looks as if it has been designed by someone on autopilot. But will we be mocking in five years' time? When we look at what is happening in AI, it seems foolish to dismiss attempts to automate design. 

AI-driven design

When I talk to designers about the likelihood of AI taking over the tasks of designers, I'm met with scepticism. But this strikes me as short-sighted. In a detailed account of Google's work in AI, published in the New York Times Magazine, the journalist Gideon Lewis-Kraus writes about the company's use of artificial intelligence to transform Google Translate. Anyone who has used the translation service will know that its results are hit and miss, always require correction, and are rarely idiomatically correct.

All that is changing. In its new AI-driven version, Google Translate is producing astonishing results. Developed by the Google Brain team, 'artificial neural networks' (much like those in our skulls) are offering an alternative to traditional computer programming and represent a move towards self-learning machines. Using these networks, robots can then acquaint themselves with the world via trial and error in the same way that children do, giving machines "something like human flexibility." 

Lewis-Kraus reminds us of Alan Turing's famous test for an artificial general intelligence: "A computer that could, over the course of five minutes of text exchange, successfully deceive a real human interlocutor. Once a machine can translate fluently between two natural languages, the foundation has been laid for a machine that might one day 'understand' human language well enough to engage in plausible conversation." 

If Google's new translation service is close to fulfilling Turing's criterion, then it's not much of a stretch to imagine AI tackling more sophisticated design problems than shifting elements around on a webpage. Most of the everyday design we encounter can be broken down into a simple set of principles that can be codified, and it seems highly probable that a machine can learn the rules of typography, the golden ratio and the rule of three. And it's no gamble to assume that cost-culling businesses will latch onto the money saving benefits of AI design. 

Adapt to survive

What should designers do? AI-driven design already has the potential to remove some, or most of the production based tasks that designers do. Need 100 web banners for a global ad campaign, all with different information and numerous different languages? No problem. Robots capable of handling such routine tasks will result in fewer design production people.

But will the sharp end of design be affected? Eventually, yes, and just as human beings have learned to do since the introduction of industrialisation, we must adapt. It's my belief that designers are well equipped to do this. Teaching flexibility and a willingness to learn may be the biggest challenge facing the world's design schools. 

In the information age, we may be looking at a world without paid work

Of course, this doesn't only apply to design. In the information age, we may be looking at a world without paid work. This takes us into the political realm, and subjects that governments are avoiding. It poses questions such as adopting a basic income, and the relearning that will be needed when the post-industrial world is replaced by one of unlimited leisure. These topics are discussed in academia and future-gazing think tanks, but we all need to be thinking about them sooner rather than later.   

Halfway through writing this, I had a sudden, sobering glimpse into a machine-driven world. My five-year-old iMac died. The screen went black, none of the usual remedies helped and it was Christmas, so there was no chance of emergency repairs. It was a personal mini-disaster. But this is what happens to machines: they break. Perhaps their fallibility is the only thing between us and an AI future.

This article originally appeared in Computer Arts issue 263; buy it here!

Source URL: Creative Bloq

[akashamichelleblog]

The 10 Best Wireframe Tools

With more wireframe tools to choose from than ever, I've selected some of the best.

Wireframe tools make the process of knowing how to create an app or website fundamentally easier, by visually stripping the product down and allowing all involved to focus purely on functions and user interactivity.

Clients need to understand how your proposed app or website will work. But simply explaining to them verbally or in writing leaves the vast majority of functions down to their imagination. Wireframe tools can be extremely helpful in squaring that circle.

Choose a website builder: 16 top tools

There are more wireframe tools on the market than ever, each offering varying levels of functionality. Some software can be used purely for simple wireframes, while others will allow you to create a working prototype.

Taking advantage of trial downloads or free software and finding the one that fits in with the way you work is the only way of finding out which one is right for you. Here I've selected 20 of the best wireframe tools to get you started. Enjoy!

01. Wireframe.cc

Platform: Web-based

Price: Free-$99/month

Wireframe.cc offers a simple interface for sketching your wireframes that eschews the toolbars and icons of a typical drawing app. There's a limited colour palette to help you avoid that particular avenue of procrastination, and UI elements are context-sensitive and only appear when you need them. Whether or not you enjoy this is a matter of personal taste. 

02. Moqups

Platform: Web-based

Price: Free-€49/month

This tool is designed to take you through the whole process of roughly sketching your wireframes; collaborating on them with others; creating site maps, flowcharts and storyboards; and building functional prototypes. 

03. UXPin

Platform: Web-based

Price: $19-$99/month

You can put together wireframes in UXPin at top speed by dragging and dropping custom elements. There are regularly updated libraries for Bootstrap, Foundation, iOS and Android, and your wireframes can be quickly converted to high-fidelity mockups. From there you can create fully interactive and animated prototypes of your final product. 

Alternatively, you can also start your designs in Photoshop or Sketch and import into UXPin for prototyping. To support the full UX process, you can then create and pin documentation to your prototypes and auto-generate specs and style guides for developers.

04. Fluid UI

Platform: Web-based

Price: $8.25-$41.58/month

Fluid UI has 16 built-in libraries for iOS, Android, Windows and more, and pages are created by dragging in elements from these libraries. This app provides a great way for you to map out your projects visually by creating links to join screens, forming a diagram of how everything fits together. Hovering over a link gives you the option to change the kind of transition you're using. 

05. Balsamiq Mockups

Platform: Mac, Windows, web-based

Price: Various

Balsamiq Mockups includes several drag-and-drop elements, from buttons to lists, each styled as a hand-drawing. The basic premise behind this wireframing tool is to keep the mock-ups 'intentionally rough and low fidelity', to encourage as much feedback as possible.

06. Axure

Platform: Mac, Windows

Price: $29-$99/month per user

As well as creating mockups, Axure allows you to add functionality to your layout and create an interactive prototype. Features of this wireframing tool include sitemaps and various widgets in the form of various UI elements. Interactive HTML mockups can be created for both websites and apps, and you can even view your app design on your phone with a built-in share function.

07. Pidoco

Platform: Web-based

Price: $12-$175/month

Pidoco is similar to Axure in that it includes library of various drag-and-drop interface elements, as well as the ability to add multiple pages and layers. Your prototypes can be shared online with clients, and includes functions for collaborative feedback and discussion. Viewing your prototypes on your phone is as easy as downloading the Pidoco app.

08. Visio

Platform: Windows

Price: £9.80 or £11.70 per month

Viseo's real strength lies in technical diagrams rather than wireframing; however, for those already accustomed with other Microsoft apps such as Word or Excel, the interface will be very familiar. It is quite clunky, Viseo does offer add-on tools such as Swipr, which allows you to create and export a usable HTML prototype.

09. InDesign CC

Platform: Mac, Windows

Price: From $16.44/month as part of Adobe Creative Cloud

By including animations, video and object states, InDesign can be used to create an interactive PDF that acts as a wireframe for your website or app. The software also includes the ability to create libraries of page elements, so you can create collections of various reusable interface graphics.

10. Photoshop CC

Platform: Mac, Windows

Price: From $16.44/month as part of Adobe Creative Cloud

Photoshop doesn’t offer libraries of interface elements, but for straightforward, fast wireframing, it is a very easy choice for designers. If you're familiar with Adobe products, it's simple to sketch out quick ideas, group various elements and layers, and build an effective wireframe.

To view this full list go to the source URL below.

Source URL: Creative Bloq

[akashamichelleblog]

Designers: Are You Working Proactively?

For years, the typical mindset and prevalent behavioural characteristic of many designers towards agency-client relationships has been ‘reactive’ and not ‘proactive’. Why, and to what extent has this changed? With the right guidance, working proactively can transform work-life experiences for the better, and put designers more in the driving seat.

The Trouble with Conventional New Business Exploration

New research published by Design Week (20 March 2017) reveals that 70% of clients still expect designers to free pitch.

The What Clients Think 2017 report, which is based on interviews with 455 clients of design consultancies, shows that while nearly 90% of clients surveyed value design as important to a brand’s success and see the standard of design consultancies as “very high”, almost 70% of clients say they would not expect to pay for a creative pitch.

If you’re a designer, you’ll know that agencies have, for years, invested significant business development time and resources in the tendering process and pitching for new business, whether paid, free or otherwise. There are obvious benefits here: primarily, the agency knows there is a real opportunity of winning a fee-based project and the potential of a new ongoing client relationship. But there are obvious downsides too.

The tendering process is time-consuming, and pitching usually involves three to six agencies, often including the incumbent who can be better informed and often hard to dislodge. Based on agency research I commissioned in 2007, the average win rate was one in five – I doubt this rate will have changed a great deal. That’s a lot of work for often modest returns, so is there another, better, less conventional way of exploring new opportunities?

Well there is, but how naturally it fits with the typical mindset and behavioural characteristics of many designers I’m not sure. Allow me to explain.

The Trouble with Being Reactive

Simon Teer worked with designers in different ways for over 30 years – as a client, in agencies and as a design agency owner. As a consultant, mentor and coach to designers since 2002, it soon became clear that designers were quite often found somewhat stuck in conventional and quite ‘transactional’ client/agency relationships – invariably sitting back waiting for client-initiated projects to be handed out or tender invitations to land and react to.

This reactive behavior would often lead to unsatisfactory project experiences for designers with clients (and vice-versa) and general discontent: ill-fitting client relationships, unrealistic project budgets and/or timescales, clients lacking ‘ambition’ in projects, differing strategic or creative ideas and opinions, and more. Things needed to change.

The Opportunity with Being Proactive

His thoughts around this time seemed logical – that if designers had more clarity about themselves and their purpose, and they worked more proactively, they could elevate their standing in the relationship and, in doing so, potentially enhance their work-lives.

Designers are naturally creative and curious – their skillset is perfectly suited to working proactively. For him, it made sense that designers invest more time to applying their natural skills to self-initiate research and idea development. So, from around 2005 he set about encouraging design firms to embrace and integrate a more proactive way of working into their behaviours and activities.

What is Proactive Working?

Proactive Working is designers taking more control over their destiny and making things happen more on their terms.

It’s self-initiating research to inform, shape and own ideas and intellectual property. It’s proactively reaching out to and instigating conversations with selected clients (existing and new) that designers are potentially well suited to working with. It’s ‘partnering’ in the true sense of the word – in a co-venturing commercial context. It’s putting the designer more in the driving seat. It’s being less client-led. It’s leading and hunting, and not just being conveniently fed. It’s elevating the designer in the agency-client relationship by building perceived value through your actions.

Proactive Working is shaping your future, not allowing others to shape it for you.

Working proactively is a mindset and a behaviour that can be effective and rewarding, but it takes courage, and won’t be for everyone. The challenge for designers with establishing and running a programme that explores the potential of Proactive Working is largely the commitment to and recognising the need for; discipline, open-mindedness, perseverance, determination and not making premature judgements about whether it works or not.

As for the rewards, well, they can be transformational.

The Benefits

By working more proactively, designers can enhance their work-lives in many ways. It’s an uplifting and dynamic experience to be the driver of a new initiative. The new skills, knowledge, confidence that can be acquired. The clarity of purpose, sense of freedom and controlling your own destiny is exciting.

Proactive working done well can be a powerful and purposeful new business driver. A great idea can propel a design business past the gatekeepers and typical barriers. The tables can be dramatically turned. Suddenly, the designer can hold the purse strings and choose which client they want to do business with, not the other way around. The potential rewards that can be derived from embedding this way of working – either in part alongside your more conventional business development activities, or as the standalone activity – are plain to see.

The Example

In 2010, Teer found himself working with a small design firm to help them explore how they might develop their business and new opportunities. As part of this, and they took ourselves on a ‘journey of proactivity’. The results were fascinating. A big idea took shape and within just a few months we had secured the interest of a significant new client in a co-venture proposal, and my client had secured its place on their agency roster. The journey, experience and insights we gained are captured in this blog post.

How the Land Lies Today

Armed with this uplifting example of how effective proactive working can be, the endeavor to encourage more design firms to embrace and integrate a more proactive way of working into their behaviours and activities would seem worthwhile and likely to click.

What I experienced, for the most part, was a reluctance to trial this approach, and so its potential was rarely tapped and explored. Six years on from this experience, ways of working may have changed and design firms Teer's had worked with recently had been distinctly proactive by nature, but he asked these questions to hopefully shed more light on how the land lies today:

To what extent has the typical mindset and behavioural characteristics of many designers changed? Outside of fee-paying day-to-day client projects, are many design firms still working reactively?

How much time, effort and money does working conventionally – in the pursuit of new business tenders, pitches and growth – cost agencies today? What is the typical conversion rate and return?

Are alternative ways of working given the time and money they need to succeed?

Getting Proactive

At this point, Teer's recalls the inspirational words of Seth Godin who says, firms need to avoid playing it ‘safe’, think differently and be less risk-averse. These are qualities that drive Proactive Working to transform work-life experiences.

Clearly this is challenging for even the bravest among us. Intrinsically linked to the act of ‘proactive exploration’ can, for some, be a significant change of mindset and behaviour. Embracing a complete change or shift in how you try to win new business can be uncomfortable, unsettling, even scary.

So how can designers set about embracing change? A starting point might be to ask yourself;

How accepting and comfortable do you feel with the familiar and typical client/agency dynamic of ‘client holding the purse strings’?

And is the uncertainty in the conventional tender/pitch process – not knowing whether your firm will be ‘the chosen one’ – really the best way to explore new opportunities going forward?

Objectively reviewing your current business development activities, outputs and behaviours is a logical next step. Who this applies to includes those that may be enjoying a margin of success with their outbound activities – be warned, complacency is the silent killer!

Are you Working Proactively?

Designers that strive to be more proactive, and less reliant on ‘client-led’ initiatives and project commissions, can open doors to more opportunities for leadership in their market sectors. And pave the way for building reputation!

After all, the client-agency relationship benefits when both sides put into it. Clients look to designers for inspiration, in fact they expect them (at times) to take the lead with fresh ideas for discussion and fuel the relationship more. But how often is this happening today?

In this dynamic, exciting, uplifting way of exploring new opportunities, imagine how clients could (in time) find themselves making more of the running to ensure they are on your shortlist to see and hear your reflections, ideas and visions and to be your preferred partner.

Teer is not saying you can win all your new business by working in this way, but if designers mix up their approach, think differently and take the initiative more they’re likely to see big results. Working proactively can transform day-to-day work-life experiences, raise external perceptions and profile, and it can elevate designers in agency-client relationships.

  Source URL: Teer On Design

[akashamichelleblog]

Common Usability Mistakes That Most Designers Make

A good web design can leverage the overall usability of a website. No matter what platform you are using for your web project, make sure that you follow a determined web design standard to give rich experiences to your web visitors.

A design of your website should appeal to the eyes of a web visitor. It should leave a long-lasting impression on their minds. You can achieve all this by improving the usability of your site.

What is usability in web design?

Web usability is all about making your site accessible so that web users can find what they are looking for quickly and easily. In simple words, it means creating a user-friendly website. Both the design and development processes are executed with the ultimate goal of rendering a navigating experience to their end users. A usable website not only drives potential web visitors but also helps you generate quality leads for your business.

But the problem normally occurs when web designers make silly mistakes while designing a website. They overlook the practicality and usability of a site and thus keep on losing their potential visitors. In order to boost the conversions of your site, you need to address the blunders you made during web design and development process. This will take your website to the new heights of success.

Here, in this post, we will encounter the seven common usability mistakes that most of the designers do while creating a website.

1. Messy and confusing content layouts

The content of a website reflects your business goals and messages to your target web audience. It means you should focus on creating quality, engaging and relevant content if you want to drive more traffic towards your site.

Apart from quality content, make sure you structured them in a well-organized manner. Most of the web designers create a mess while structuring the content on the site. They just add a block of text on the web page and forget about using headings, sub-headings, paragraphs, keywords, bullets, etc – this gives annoying experiences to those who read content on your site.

If you want to boost your site’s usability, use a well-structured content layout, add page title for each of your web pages, make a use of whitespace, add headings, sub-headings, etc to encourage visitors to read your content, without any distraction.

2. Too small clickable areas

As a web designer, you should always concentrate on making usable hyperlinks that can easily be clicked by the web visitor, without any distraction.

A good web designer always focuses on making usable hyperlinks that can easily be clicked by a web visitor, without any distraction. But, sometimes, they create tiny clickable areas – that are harder to understand and click by a user. Instead, you can add a link with a larger clickable area to make it easier for web visitors to hover the mouse cursor over the link.

In order to get a larger clickable area, then you can either make the entire link bigger or increase the padding across the link by making the use of CSS “padding’ property. Consider the following coding for this:

<a href=”http://www.mysite.com” style=”padding: 5px;”>My Site<a>

Tip: Add the above styling to your CSS file by rendering the link a class or id and targeting it with your styling.

3. Issue with search box

A search box is one of the most crucial parts of a site or a blog that allows visitors to search for the information they are looking for within your site.

Instead of spending hours to find a relevant information, they just type a word or a keyword in the search box to get the desired results instantly. But while setting up a blog or a website, most of the designers create complex search box, which directly affects the usability of a site – this creates problem for people to enjoy rich experiences on your site.

Well, you can fix this issue by integrating the Google Custom Search. It is a clean, simple, and effective way that helps you improve the search functionality of your site. It allows visitors to find your site in a matter of few seconds. For that, you need to copy the HTML code from the control panel and paste it on your site- this will take the search functionality of your site to the next level.

The best part is that you don’t need to create a code for your default search feature because most of the popular search engines, such as Google have already indexed most of your web pages (if you submitted the XML sitemap of your site). If some of the web pages are not being indexed, you can choose the one you want to use and add in a search box. Use the following code for using Google as your search engine platform:

<form action=”http://www.google.com/search” method=”get”>

<fieldset>

<input type=”hidden” name=”sitesearch” value=”mysite.com” />

<input type=”text” name=”q” size=”31″ maxlength=”255″ value=”” />

<input type=”submit” value=”Google Search” />

</fieldset>

</form>

4. Poor Navigation structure

There are many beginners who create complicated navigation on their sites in order to make them stand out from the crowd. But this can badly affect the usability and accessibility of your site.

Although there is no determined standard for navigation structure, make sure that you provide simple, intuitive and consistent navigation experience to your visitors. Allow them to stay longer and explore more pages of your site by creating a neat, clean and user-friendly navigation. Also, try to be consistent while designing navigation structure for other web pages. Consider the following tips:

The text in your navigation should be clear and concise.

Never add dead links

Use textual descriptions for your web pages links

Create user-friendly navigation

A smooth and quick navigation encourages visitors to browse more web pages of your site, which directly improves its usability and readability.

5. Using duplicate titles for web pages

Web page titles hold a great importance when it comes to creating a usable website. They are basically the chunk of content we write between the <title> tags right in the <head> section of the HTML code.

Most of the times web designers forget to give a unique title to the web page while working on a site’s template and then reuse it across all web pages. This creates a mess not only for web visitors but also for search engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc.

Therefore, it becomes essential to create a unique and relevant title for each of the web pages. Make sure your title gives the relevant information about your web page.

Since the title of your web page is the first and crucial aspects, ensure that you create a page title that can leave a long-lasting impression on the web audience’s mind – this will improve the CTR (Click Through Rate) of your site quickly and efficiently.

Also, make sure you optimize your page titles for search engines. For that, you need to add the main keyword in your title and improve the visibility of your page across the web.

7. Getting tricky with registration forms

A registration form can help you convert your web visitors into potential customers and subscribers. But most of websites use a resignation form where they make most of the fields mandatory and even validate too many fields which encourage visitor to abandon your site, without even completing the registration process.

Instead of creating complicated and tricky forms, focus on creating a simple, clean and intuitive registration form that allows visitors to fill out the form, without any abandonment.

Bottom Line

Keep the design of your site simple, clean, and user-friendly. Rather than going for complicated web design, consider basic principles to make your site usable and accessible. Try to focus on giving top-notch user experience to your potential visitors as this can boost the conversions and revenues of your website.

Source URL: Creative Beacon