5 Things You Can Learn From a Poorly Designed Website

My son has just started middle school, and along with becoming oriented to an unfamiliar school environment, he now has “homework like never before,” and it is not just the amount of homework.

His teachers no longer send home printed homework sheets. Students are expected to visit the teachers’ individual websites to download assignments, study guides, and watch lectures. And while going online is not normally a problem for technophile middle schoolers, it becomes a problem when the websites are poorly designed.

Visitors come to a website to satisfy goals, to perform tasks, and to get answers to questions. If users cannot find what they’re looking for on a website, they will go elsewhere. But my son can’t go elsewhere. He has no choice but to muddle through the unclear navigation and bad design to find what he needs. It is maddening.

Still, you can learn a lot from being forced to use a poorly designed website, including ways to improve your own or a client’s.

  1. Do everything you can to reduce the number of clicks.

From the “Sixth grade homework” page, where he was told all assignments would be linked, he has to click through three pages to reach the math assignments. Those math assignments should be directly linked from the main page. When navigating, site users don’t want to stop and read along the way. They want to keep moving until they find the right link.

  1. Make the links meaningful.

Links should be descriptive. Don’t tell readers to “Read more,” “click here,” or “more.” Tell them what they will read if they click. “Math homework October 6-10” is an example of a descriptive link.

  1. Make copy easy to scan with subheads and bullets.

Lists make information easy to grab and help people skim through the information. If possible, keep lists short. But if your list must be long, use white space to break it up.

  1. Heading content should be concise and descriptive.

It should stand out from the rest of the text. Well-written headings facilitate scanning so users can find exactly what they need. They can also make the information less dense and more readable, allowing users to get a quick overview of the page.

  1. Keep in mind that less is often more on the Web.

Eliminate distracting site features such as flash animation or scrolling text. Use animation where it helps, not just for show.

 

 

TEN REASONS DESIGNERS SHOULD BE FLUID WITH THEIR SKILLS AND BUILD THEIR OWN SITES

1. It’s never been easier

Now here’s where the definition of ‘build’ is going to get a bit loose and people are going to get angry, but when I say it’s never been easier I mean because of the existence of apps and software like WordPress, Squarespace, Tumblr, et al. It’s easy to make something and get it out there into the world, and these are all gateway drugs to hard coding!

2. You’ll understand how it feels

How it feels to be so proud that something actually works that you momentarily don’t notice if the kerning is off or the padding is inconsistent. How it feels to see your site appear when you’ve redirected a URL. How it feels when you just can’t work out where that one extra space is in a line of PHP that has killed your whole site.

3. It makes you a designer

Not a better designer, it makes you a designer when you are designing how things look and how they work.

4. You learn about movement

Photoshop and Sketch just don’t cut it yet. Until you see your site in a browser or your app on a phone, it’s hard to imagine how it moves. Building your own sites shows you that it’s not just about how the content looks on the screen, but how it moves, interacts and feels.

5. You make techie friends

All the tutorials and forums in the world can’t beat your network of techie friends. Since I started working in web design I have worked with, sat next to, and co-created with some of the greatest developers. Developers who’ve shared their knowledge, encouraged me to build things, patiently explained HTML, CSS, servers, divs, web fonts, iOS development. There has been no void, no versus, very few battles; just people who share an interest and love of making things.

6. You will own domain names

When something is paid for, online and searchable then it’s real and you’ve got to put the work in. Buying domains has taught me how to stop procrastinating, but also about DNS, FTP, email, and how servers work.

7. People will ask you to do things

Learning about code and development opens a whole new world of design. When you put your own personal websites and projects out there people ask you to do more things. OK, so sometimes those things are “Make me a website for free”, but more often it’s cool things like “Come and speak at my conference”, “Write an article for my magazine” and “Collaborate with me.”

8. The young people are coming!

They love typography, they love print, they love layout, but they’ve known how to put a website together since they started their first blog aged five and they show me clever apps they’ve knocked together over the weekend! They’re new, they’re fluid, and they’re better than us!

9. Your portfolio is your portfolio

OK, it’s an obvious one, but as designers our work is our CV, our legacy! We need to show our skill, our attention to detail and our creativity in the way we showcase our work. Building your portfolio is the best way to start building your own websites. (And please be that designer who’s bothered to work out how to change the Squarespace favicon!)

10. It keeps you fluid!

Building your own websites is tough. You’ll never be happy with it, you’ll constantly be updating it to keep up with technology and fashion, and by the time you’ve finished it you’ll want to start all over again. Perfect for forcing you to stay up-to-date with what’s going on in the industry.

Personal Branding Guide for Designers

Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. Being good at your craft is not enough these days, being unique and authentic will make the cut, but only if enough people know about you. As Michael Simmons writes, authenticity is key in the digital age. Having a strong personal brand and following can lead to enormous opportunities and recognition.

Personal branding is becoming one of the most important key factors in any industry. Skills and boring resumes are not guaranteeing you anything anymore. You have to really start developing your own brand and building a tribe, or in other words an audience that will help you getting jobs, supporting you, sharing your work and getting recognition.

In today’s article I’d like to share some personal branding guidelines I’ve been experimenting with in the last couple of years. The techniques and methods used led me to speaking engagements, interviews on Forbes and Fast Company, business growth and business leads, not to mention the connections and friendships I’ve made.

Why should you care about building a personal brand?

There are numerous of reasons why you should consider strengthening your personal brand. The thing is your personal brand exists anyway, it’s how people perceive you, your work and your actions. To make sure that your brand goes together along with your values and how you wish to be perceived is to manage it. Moreover, building a recognizable personal brand will help you with the following:

  • Professional opportunities;
  • A better job;
  • Better contacts and clients for your company;
  • Industry recognition.

Vision

Develop a strong vision and make sure that you use it everywhere you go. Whether it’s to go to the moon or sail around the world, make sure it’s something big and bold, people remember these things. If you haven’t watched Simon Sinek TED talk “How great leaders inspire action” presenting “the golden circle” and “start with why” theory, make sure to check it out and come up with your own vision.

Personal branding is no way rocket science but it takes years to develop and maintain. Hopefully my experiences and experiments I’ve shared with you in this article will help you in developing your own personal brand that leads to professional opportunities, meaningful connections and industry recognition.

I am curious to hear your thoughts on personal branding. What are your strategies in engaging more people, how do you network and promote your work?

Web Hosting Features

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E-commerce Ready: Our professional team makes your website e-commerce friendly so that it could attract more visitors and convert them into permanent customers. You can contact us for free samples or tools for your website.

24/7 monitoring: We are there for your website to monitor it as it is our duty to protect it from any data theft and hacking. We constantly keep observation and perform tasks whenever required. We always keep it updated and user-friendly.

wordpress optimized: We have optimized our servers with word press friendly because better performance leads to good visitors and later turn them into great customers. WP runs extremely good on our servers, so that you don’t have to worry about anything.

Secure network: As it is about the professional and personal data about anything on your website. So there is a tight security on our servers with lot of safe and secure methods. We make your website threat free so that the visitors can roam around easily on it.

24/7 support: Our customer care executives are always available to help you out with any problem. We are always pleasure to hear from you about anything. So if you have any query regarding your website or coding, call us without any hesitation.

Trustworthy infrastructure: Infrastructure of a website is the base of all tools which must be powerful as to make it safe from any suspicious activities. Our all hosting plans are protected with responsive and easy to use cPanels on all of our servers.

Dominating cPanel: A good quality of cPanel is a gateway of all the information and data which you are going to upload on your website. So we do it in a proper and protective way. You can request for free samples on our website.

Applications optimization: We provide updated content management system which is much responsive as compared to other websites. We are always ready to deal with any difficulty for our customers to make their website more efficient.

Support system always available: We are always glad that we can assist our clients whenever they want. We always believe in full satisfaction or our customers which is also the motto of our company. If you have any query then it would be a pleasure to hear and solve it.

15 Cool iOS 8 Design Concepts You Should See

15 Cool iOS 8 Design Concepts You Should See

Finally, the long wait is over and the most intriguing event of this fall was held – Last week Apple unwrapped it’s brand new smartphone, the iPhone 6 – the eighth generation of iPhone – at a special event in Cupertino.

While waiting for release of new iOS on 17th of September, some creatives have taken the liberty to create their own iOS 8 designs concepts. Of course, most of them are moderately realistic, some are futuristic and bold. But wishful thinking is always welcome these days, and who knows, maybe these concepts would be seen someone from Apple and taken into account while designing the real iOS 8. So, let’s get closer to the topic: I collected here 15 really cool iOS 8 design concepts you should see. Feel free to name your favorite concept in the comment section in the end.

iOS 8 redesign

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration

iOS 8 & iPhone 6 Concept

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration

iOS 8 Icons Concept Design

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration

iOS 8 Icons Concept

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration

Vendor Profile (concept)

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration

Ios 8 Infinity (Home Screen)

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration

Concept address book in iOS 8

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration

iPhone 6 & iOS 8 Lockscreen Concept

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration

iOS 8 Music Player

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration

iOS8 Design Concept

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration

iOS Redesign

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration

iOS8 Calling Screen Redesign Concept

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration

Instagram IOS 8 Redesign Concept

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration

iOS 8 Quick Reply – Lockscreen Concept

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration

iOS 8 homescreen concept | fine gradient style

15 iOS 8 Design Concepts for Your Inspiration