About AlphaSnip - New Website with Free Alpha Components
New start-up AlphaSnip is a wholly owned subsidiary of UK-based software-developer DataDrivenSystems(www.DataDrivenSystems.co.uk). Headquartered on the the island of Java, AlphaSnip has focused on nurturing the talents of the brightest Indonesian hitech graduates, bringing them up to speed so that they can now hold their own with any of their peers in Silicon Valley.
To develop lasting relationships with an ever-broadening and ever-increasing client base by offering high-end quality, value-for- money services. We do things fast. But good. Because we want our clients to come back. Again. And again.
Alpha Anywhere developers can upload their Snip to our website, from where members can download them for their own use (according to their license agreement). Snip are built with Alpha software, so they need Alpha WAS. Snip will only work within the Alpha software environment. Please note that we have reviewed these Snip but make no guarantee about their functionality.
Being able to organize data and information is a skill not to be overlooked. The way you organize content and text, generally referred to as copy, has a direct effect on how that content is received by users. You must find a way to organize information so that it is scannable and can be quickly absorbed by the reader. One way to organize information in a clean way is to use data tables. Data tables provide a structured way of showing large amounts of information.
Data tables have been in use since the beginning of Web development. The structure of the table hasn’t changed — and will not change, because, well, it’s a table. But even though the structure has stayed the same, styling has come a long way; and recent tables are just as readable as the early ones.
Common Uses Of Data Tables
Tables make organizing information in a clean and readable way very easy. They can be used to store and show large amounts of information, small amounts of information, static data and even data that is constantly changing.
Because of the chart-like layout of tables, they are extremely useful for making comparisons. Many websites use them to compare products, services and, as mentioned, pricing plans.
Data tables are often used to compare pricing plans. They provide space to show the names of plans, prices and the unique features of each plan. Most often, tables showing pricing plans contain a column for each plan and a row for each feature. Then, inside each cell is a marker indicating whether the plan comes with that specific feature.
Snip from Alphasnip; Pricing Price works in Alpha version 12
Custom pricing component featured static data, HTML code of list propeties control,and local CSS definitions. All these elements already configured in the component but you can edit each elements as needed. The snip need Alpha Web Aplication Server version 12 (www.alphasoftware.com). Alphasnip itself is a place for Alpha Developers to share snips for free as it will be online in two months.
You can Pricing List Snip here http://alphasnip.com/detail.a5w?project=45766
What you need is extract the downloaded file and open in Alpha version 12. Download your Alpha version 12 here :http://server.alphasoftware.com/alpha-anywhere-trial and follow instruction to set up in HOW TO tab in Alphasnip.com
Most developers are familiar with CSS floats and clearfix hacks to get
proper multi-column layouts. These are still in use today because they work
and have great support among a variety of browsers. However in 2009 a new
display style named flex appeared on the map.
Since then flex has undergone a few changes to reach its current iteration.
Theflex value is an alternative to block elements floated and manipulated
using media queries.
Instead developers can build a flexible container, flexbox for short. It’s
great for mobile screens and responsive content for dynamic layouts and
webapps. This guide will cover the fundamentals of CSS flexbox usage and
some helpful resources for digging deeper into the topic.
What is the Flexible Box?
The flexible box layout is a way of using CSS’s display property in a whole
new manner. Block elements stack vertically while inline elements stack
horizontally(until they break onto a new line).
Flexbox elements can stack vertically or horizontally based on your setup.
They can be evenly spaced across the page or squeezed tight up against each
other. The point is offering more control to developers who want to build
naturally responsive layouts.
Any element referenced as a flexbox is a container element. This container
holds internal elements known as flexbox items. I recommend skimming the
first part of
this
Mozilla Dev Network article for details.
The display: flex container may have a fixed or fluid width, but it makes
sense to leave it fluid, so the content adapts with the page. The internal
elements are not given specific width values but instead display based on
proportions.
The above video does an excellent job of explaining the details. In short,
you use a CSS property named flex to define a ratio between boxes (mostly
HTML div elements). flex: 1 represents a 1:1 ratio where each internal flex
item displays at the same width regardless of screen resolution.
The Keys to a Flexbox Layout
Naturally the first important part of a flexbox is the container itself.
This container is given display:flex so its children behave in the expected
manner.
Items inside the flexbox can flow vertically or horizontally by using
theflex-direction property. This takes a value of either row or column with
reverse options as well. Note this property is applied to the parent, not
the children.
Another important property is
justify-content which also applies directly to the parent. This defines how
space behaves when internal elements don’t fill the container. Flexbox
elements can be centered, aligned left/right, or spaced evenly as
appropriate. Check out the
Codrops reference for
more info.
Description:
02-flex-justify-content-design-style
Both of these properties are crucial when customizing a flexible container.
But you also need to setup properties for defining how internal elements
should behave.
Flexbox uses the flex property which is shorthand for a few different
settings. CSS flex can take three options which individually define
flex-grow,
flex-shrink,
and
flex-basis.
The first two properties define the growth and shrink ratios for internal
items.
Values are unitless so flex: 1; is valid syntax. The value of 1 would define
each box at a flexible value of 1 ratio based on all other boxes.
At first this property may seem confusing but with practice and
live examplesyou’ll come to
realize how it all works. The shorthand property flex is really how you
structure sizes and behaviors of internal content boxes.
The only part of flex that takes a unit is flex-basis. This optional setting
defines the internal box’s default size(width if row, height if column). By
default it’s set to 0 but you can choose anything with any unit from pixels
to rems.
If you want a complete guide of the major flex properties check out
this post on
CSS-Tricks. It covers all the main properties and how they function in the
browser.
When you first read that flex has no units it can seem daunting. But the
best way to understand how this works is by analyzing a bit of code.
Flexbox Examples in CSS
The flexbox model has gone through a
series of changes with
revisions and simplifications of code standards. Be aware that some
tutorials and live demos may use outdated syntax and require some updates
before use on another project.
Take a look at the below CodePen snippet made by Chris Coyier. It’s a
bare-bones basic layout with a fixed center container bookended by two fluid
containers. The fluid containers only need a single line to define their
behavior:flex: 1.
If you want a more diverse example check out
this flexible layout on CSSDeck.
The main content box is flexible while other columns are fixed. Resizable
elements remain fluid until the sidebar column eventually breaks down.
Everything in that sample layout is built using flexbox. There are no
floats, there are no media queries. This
square grid snippet illustrates the same point that responsive flexbox
layouts do not require media queries.
But perhaps one of the coolest uses for flexbox is
vertical & horizontal centering.
Web designers have always used margin: 0 auto for horizontal centering with
a fixed width. But flexbox allows both vertical and horizontal centering on
a fluid-width container. I know, crazy junk.
These examples only touch the surface of what’s possible with flexbox. You
may want to jump in and start dropping flexbox layouts into every new
project - but it’s a good idea to first learn which browsers fully support
this technique.
Description: tuts_logoTuts+ have published a flexbox video course, entitled
CSS: Flexbox
Essentials, that will show you all the fantastic things Flexbox can do, from
setting up rows and columns, to understanding the properties of Flexbox.
Common Usage & Support
The modern flexbox specs have been
updated many times since the original release in 2009. Current 2015 specs
have been adopted by all modern browsers including Internet Explorer.
But the problem of common usage lies in Flexie.js,
but polyfills do take a while to render.
Description: flexie js flexbox library
Developers also need to consider browser prefixing. While IE10 is a nuisance
there are A
Visual Guide to CSS3 Flexbox Properties
Fonts can be the difference between a beautiful, sexy site and a generic, template-looking site.
We don’t want template-looking sites. We want sexy,
slick sites. So lets cover the big three of fonts:
font-size
The font-size property obviously defines the size of the font. The two most
common units of CSS font-size measurement is *px* and *em*. Pixels (*px) *are
an absolute unit of measurement whereas ems (*em*) are relative. I think
this is best explained by example: 1em is the current font size and 2em is
two times the current font-size.
Ems can be beneficial for people who are visually impaired and like to
change their settings so that the default font-size of a site is bigger. In
other words the default paragraph font size might be 12px, but a
visually-impaired person may have their settings so that it is 20px. With
ems the font-size will adjust to their settings. For example if you do
*font-size:
1em;* then in the default settings the font-size will display as 12px
whereas with the visually-impaired settings it would display as 20px.
Another example when using ems is beneficial is if you know the exact
proportions you want a certain text to be relative to another chunk of
text. In other words say in our jumbotron section we want the h1 to be
twice the size of the paragraph text. We could do *.jumbotron { font-size:
16px; } *to set all text in the jumbotron div to 16 pixels and then you
could do *.jumbotron h1 { font-size: 2em; } *to set the h1 to twice the
size (32px) to all the other text in the jumbotron section.
Which you choose to use is up to. I use pixels for the most part so that I
know exactly what the font-size is, but its different for each situation
and their is no absolute answer for which to use in every case. That’s the
beauty behind it. So experiment, inspect elements from your favorite sites,
and see how they do it. Then try out different methods for yourself. There
are no exact rules in art.
font-weight
The final two are much easier to understand. Font-weight determines how
thick characters in a text will display. You will see this in action in a
couple lessons, but for now we’ll go over the values. The simplest values
are: normal, lighter, bold, bolder. So *p { font-weight: lighter; } *will
display the skinniest text, then normal is thicker, then bold, and bolder
are the thickest. You can also use a more specific scale of 100-900
(rounded to a hundred number). So *p { font-weight: 100; }* is the lightest
possible whereas *p { font-weight: 900; } *would display the thickest
possible characters. See it in action here
.
line-height
Line-height specifies the line height. You can use pixels to give it a
specific height of pixels. Or you can use a number to give it a relative
line height multiplied by the current font-size. In other words *.jumbotron
h1 { line-height: 1.5; } *would make the line height 1.5x the the h1 size -
for example. 30px * 1.5 would equal a line height of 45px. Another
example: *.jumbotron
h1 { line-height: 2px; }* would give a line height of 2x the h1 size. See
it in action here
.
You now have a solid basis for changing fonts. Lets move on to learn about
the Box Model and keep killing it!
There are good ways to start a website, and then there are better ways.
When it comes to building your brand, what many people don’t understand is that getting off on the right foot is half the battle. If your site isn’t supported by the right tools and software, you might be setting it up for failure.
This is why I generally recommend WordPress as the perfect platform to set up a blog or website, especially for small to mid sized businesses. It’s easy to set up, easy to manage and is very powerful.
I’ve been asked dozens of times so here’s my step-by-step walkthrough of how to set your own WordPress site up for success, along with a great deal.
It’s really simple to set up and will take less than 5 minutes, no joke!
Step 1: Select a Hosting Account
Hosting is a must-have. Why? You’ll need a large amount of digital space to store all the images, text, and other files that will make up the core of your website.
I recommend to my clients to host their website with BlueHost (as does WordPress themselves) as they give you a free domain with the purchase of an account, plus it’s the perfect price point for a small to mid-sized business. Plus they have great support and performance.
To get your hosting set up, go to Bluehost.com and click the “get started now” button (see above). The next page will allow you to select from a few different packages. If you’re not sure which one you need, just select the cheapest plan – Basic. You can always upgrade to a bigger one later once your site needs more capacity.
*Special Promo Offer* (One Day Only!)
On April 27th, BlueHost’s prices will drop to $2.95/month for 12 months on the Basic Plan and $4.95/month for 12 months on the Plus Plan. This is the best price you ever get.
*Promo Offer *
Starting on April 25th and ending on May 2nd, Blue Host are offering $3.49/month on their 36 month starter plan.
Step 2: Choose Your Domain
This is the fun part. Choosing your domain comes hand-in-hand with choosing the name of your blog, brand, or business… so choose wisely!
If you already have a domain, see here on how to transfer the domain.
Type your selected domain into the “new domain” box and hit “next”. A notification will pop up if the domain is unavailable, so make sure to test it out before getting too attached to a URL.
After choosing your domain name, the next step is simply to fill out your account, package, and billing information.
Pay special attention to the package section as this is where you’ll choose the length of time you want to pay for.
After you’ve filled in your billing information, hit “next”. You’re already almost there!
Step 3: Install WordPress
Last piece of the puzzle? Installing WordPress. I don’t take WordPress lightly – it can significantly improve your online experience and I manage all my websites with it.
After you’ve logged in to your new Bluehost account, go to your dashboard and find the “Install WordPress” button.
This will take you to MOJO Marketplace where you can click “Start” to begin the download process.
Now you’ll simply need to select the domain you are installing WordPress on and hit “Check Domain”.
Last of all, enter in the name of your blog, your preferred username, a secure password, and your email address. Click “Install Now”.
Now the installation is ready to go!
Step 4: Install Themes & Plugins
Easy, right? Your new site is up and running. Your next step is to choose a theme. I recommend MOJOThemes. Browse and download a theme there, then install the theme (instructions will be inside the theme). After installing, add the appropriate plugins for your site. See my post on the Top Essential WordPress Plugins of 2016 and you’re golden.
Your site is now ready to be infested with good, quality content!
Man accidentally 'deletes his entire company' with one line of bad code
A man appears to have deleted his entire company with one mistaken piece of code.
By accidentally telling his computer to delete everything in his servers, hosting provider Marco Marsala has seemingly removed all trace of his company and the websites that he looks after for his customers.
Mr Marsala wrote on a forum for server experts called Server Faultthat he was now stuck after having accidentally run destructive code on his own computers. But far from advising them how to fix it, most experts informed him that he had just accidentally deleted the data of his company and its clients, and in so doing had probably destroyed his entire company with just one line of code.
The problem command was "rm -rf": a basic piece of code that will delete everything it is told to. The “rm” tells the computer to remove; the r deletes everything within a given directory; and the f stands for “force”, telling the computer to ignore the usual warnings that come when deleting files.
Together, the code deleted everything on the computer, including Mr Masarla’s customers' websites, he wrote. Mr Masarla runs a web hosting company, which looks after the servers and internet connections on which the files for websites are stored.
That piece of code is so famously destructive that it has become a joke within some computing circles.
Normally, that code would wipe out all of the specific parts of the computer that it was pointed at. But because of an error in the way it was written, the code didn’t actually specify anywhere – and so removed everything on the computer.
“I run a small hosting provider with more or less 1535 customers and I use Ansible to automate some operations to be run on all servers,” wrote Marco Marsala. “Last night I accidentally ran, on all servers, a Bash script with a rm -rf {foo}/{bar} with those variables undefined due to a bug in the code above this line.”
Mr Marsala confirmed that the code had even deleted all of the backups that he had taken in case of catastrophe. Because the drives that were backing up the computers were mounted to it, the computer managed to wipe all of those, too.
“All servers got deleted and the offsite backups too because the remote storage was mounted just before by the same script (that is a backup maintenance script).”
Most users agreed that it was unlikely that Mr Marsala would be able to recover any of the data. And as a result his company was almost certainly not going to recover, either.
“I feel sorry to say that your company is now essentially dead,” wrote a user called Sven. “You might have an extremely slim chance to recover from this if you turn off everything right now and hand your disks over to a reputable data recovery company.
“This will be extremely expensive and still extremely unlikely to really rescue you, and it will take a lot of time.”
Others agreed that perhaps Mr Marsala was on the wrong forum.
“You're going out of business,” wrote Michael Hampton. “You don't need technical advice, you need to call your lawyer.”
Many of the responses to Mr Marsala’s problem weren’t especially helpful – pointing out that he could have taken steps to stop it happening before it did.
“Well, you should have been thinking about how to protect your customers' data before nuking them,” wrote one person calling himself Massimo. “I won't even begin enumerating how many errors are simultaneously required in order to be able to completely erase all your servers and all your backups in a single strike.
“This is not bad luck: it's astonishingly bad design reinforced by complete carelessness.”
Mr Marsala’s problem is far from the first time that someone has accidentally destroyed their own system by missing a mistake. Indeed, responses to his post mostly referenced a similar thread posted two years ago, with the headline “Monday morning mistake”.
That error saw someone accidentally lose access to their entire server, after they didn’t notice a stray space in the code. Source
Summary:
-r specifically removes directories and their contents (recursively, so it includes directories within directories). -f forces deletion and bypasses errors, so an FNF error would not show up either, since (with -r) it would just bypass the file and continue recursively deleting everything within the specified directory. If the command is run from the root, this would ostensibly delete "everything." - jblenman
6 Reasons Not to Test with Users (and Why to Test Anyway)
Every design ever made has a user – but not every experience is designed with the user in mind. Sometimes it’s because designers don’t know enough about their users; sometimes it’s because deadlines are too tight to bother. But in the end, users are the ones who interact daily with designs, and users are the ones who can help make designs better.
Usability testing catches sticky user problems when the product is still in the design phase. So why are so many organizations reluctant to get started? Anecdotally speaking, it seems as though every UX practitioner has one—or a dozen—stories of higher ups and team leads who said “we can’t usability test. It’s just….
too expensive
a waste of time and resources
biased and artificial
impossible to test enough users
unnecessary, since users aren’t experts
redundant, since we have market research and competitive analyses.”
In this article, we’ll respond to all of these objections, and give UX practitioners the ammunition they need to convince any doubters that usability testing is, in fact, right for every project.
Objection #1: User testing is too expensive
While we’d love to do limitless user testing, we do have to acknowledge project constraints, and budget is often a huge one. Sometimes, it’s enough to say “usability testing will save us from possibly producing a product no one wants,” but when the budget absolutely can’t be expanded, that’s ok too!
Some user testing platforms can be incredibly expensive, but they’re not the only options. Platforms like UserTesting.com are expensive because they allow us to customize every detail of our test, including the demographic of people we’re testing. For highly specific products or services, a narrow user field is perfect—a divorce attorney isn’t interested in a happily married person’s opinion of his website. However, for the local coffee company trying to sell delivered-to-you coffee, their customer base will range from a 20-something hipster who’s into the newest thing to a house-bound retiree who can’t get out to buy groceries.
Assuming user demographics vary, we can run cheap, DIY user tests early and often. We call these impromptu tests guerrilla testing, which is exactly what it sounds like: testing in the wild with randomly selected users. It can reveal blind spots in the project before too much money or time is spent creating something users won’t want in the end. All it requires is brief coffee shop sessions, where a team member asks a variety of customers to offer their thoughts on the website or product in exchange for a cup of coffee.
For teams operating in a digital-only environment, it can be hard to do guerrilla testing. But cheap testing can still be done. Affordable programs like Qualaroo allow testers to use surveys or questionnaires to capture opinions from current site visitors. And UsabilityHuboffers quick initial impressions, preference tests, and navigation tests at a reasonable cost. The possibilities for quick user feedback are only as limited as your imagination. Just be sure to approach potential testers with clear respect for their time and opinions, and a defined goal behind each question.
Objection #2: User testing is a waste of time and resources
Really?! Did they not just hear us say that user testing prevents the launch of unwanted, unusable projects?
Whether a test succeeds or fails, if the team learned something about how they could improve the website, app, business, or product, they came out ahead. Sure, we could save some money and time by not testing, but how else will we learn if users like what we’re offering? Even just running the product by three actual consumers will turn up obstacles that the team may never have recognized on their own.
For example, Drupal developers at Digital Loom were tasked with rebuilding the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) website, and were on the fence about user testing. One of the primary purposes for NEFA’s website is collecting donations for the foundation. After a few user tests, it quickly became obvious that people were overlooking the “donate” button, even when they were tasked with making a donation. If Digital Loom hadn’t bothered to watch a few users run through the site, they would never have caught the button blindness and could have cost NEFA donations.
When it comes down to it, “wasted resources” is only a good objection if the team has no intention of fixing the issues that come up in testing. And if the team isn’t interested in improving the product, then there are bigger problems at hand.
Objection #3: User testing is not objective, so the results are unrealistic
We know that many user tests are administered in settings that feel contrived for the user, and the moderator might not be an impartial observer based on her role in developing the test project. Plus, the test questions will never be perfectly neutral, no matter how much time we spend on them. But that’s ok!
As the founder of MeasuringU, Jeff Sauro says,
Usability testing is artificial.
We do the best we can to simulate a scenario that is as close to what users would actually do with the software while we observe or record them.
However, no amount of realism in the tasks, data, software or environment can change the fact that the whole thing is contrived.
This doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.”
There are lots of resources to help overcome common moderating biases, and simple tactics for avoiding them. Sauro offers nine of the most common user testing biases and UX Agony Aunt highlights some copywriting tips to help you avoid bias in your test questions.The key is not to give up because all tests are flawed. Let go of your perfectionist tendencies for just a minute, and focus on ways to improve the objectivity.
Objection #4: We’ll never be able to test enough users to reach statistical significance!
This is an easy one. The idea that we need to test hundreds of users in order to understand usability issues is a myth. It comes from the comparisons between user testing and market research: market research identifies preferences and facts, and therefore we need to talk to a huge number of people in order to find the overarching patterns. However, user testing is intended to find usability issues.
The Nielsen Norman group has actually found that we don’t need to test more than five users to identify usability issues. At that point, key design problems begin to repeat. If we test three users, we’ll find most of the major flaws right away; if we test with five or more, we’ll see the major flaws repeated and likely not learn anything new.
Photo source: Children’s Ministry
Consider the story of the rocks and pebbles and sand in a jar: if you put the sand in first, the rocks won’t have room to fit. But when the rocks go in first, there’s plenty of room for the sand. This applies to testing priorities as well. User testing is the rocks—the obstacles to conversion, the missing information, the form that doesn’t make sense—the largest problems a user will face with your website or product. The pebbles and sand are all the copy improvements, FAQ articles, and A/B tests you’ll conduct after the product is launched. There is time to fit them in later, but usability testing identifies the rocks, which need to be taken care of immediately.
Objection #5: Users aren’t experts—why do I need their opinions?
This is probably my favorite objection. It assumes I have somehow managed to absorb millions of personalities, preferences, and patterns into myself and can look at a website or product through the lens of all of them. I have a lot of research under my belt, and I have performed a lot of tests myself, yes, but all this tells me is that no one user test is the same as another.
Now, let’s be clear for just a moment—user testing is inherently biased. It is one emotional, unpredictable human asking another emotional, unpredictable human for an opinion. But, we can use that humanness to our advantage. Our goal is to identify user biases, and find out where the emotional, unpredictable, human aspects need to be accounted for in our designs. Because, after all, our end users are also humans—and they’re not design experts.
Plus, by watching a user manipulate designs, we learn short cuts they’ve developed to find buried or hidden content, obstacles they can’t overcome, as well as goals, pain points, and missing information. We don’t want advice from experts—we want advice from the people who know nothing about code or design but have to use our website every day.
Working closely on building a product or website, we tend to develop what I call “website blindness” — we’re so involved in the back end functionality, in the details, and the layout that we can navigate it better than anyone else. Think about your house: after you’ve lived in a house for a few years, you can find your way around in the dark without ever stubbing a toe or missing a light switch. Your website is like your house—you have a deep understanding of how it goes together and how to navigate it, but your users are completely in the dark. User testing helps you identify where people are stubbing their toes, and where you should put a light switch, so to speak.
Objection #6: Why can’t I just use market research and competitor research?
As we mentioned before, user testing is not the same as market research. Market research largely measures how consumers feel about your brand or product. That’s why it requires enormous sample sizes, like those mail-in surveys you get once a year to explore your shopping habits. User research can work with market research, but has a different goal entirely: user research looks at behavior. Focus groups, mail-in surveys, phone quizzes—all are asking users what they want (see Objection #4) but user research watches how they behave in real time and makes decisions off of this information.
One example that most of us can relate to is Apple. Apple is famous for not using market research, according to Jobs himself. But that doesn’t mean the iPhone in your back pocket just happened to be great the first time around. Apple has made a point of not asking users what they think they want, but giving users product designs and observing how they use the design.
Legend has it Apple once packed a pizza box with bricks to simulate the size and weight of a portable computer, and then followed the users around, watching how and when they used the “computer.” The prototype and resulting observations led them to develop a more manageably sized product.
Think about this: how can users with no design experience or understanding of the possibilities of technology dream up answers to “What should a smartphone do?” They don’t have the capacity to even guess at what they would want the device to do for them. But if you provided them with a device that did 75 things, and watched which tasks they performed and which apps they never used, you’d have a better sense of users’ true intentions for technology.
Go research the competition, and when you’re ready, and you think you’ve got an equally great or uniquely better product, then watch your users test both products.
What Comes Next?
Overcoming objections isn’t the end of the project. It’s just the beginning! Now that the higher ups are on board, it’s time to actually do user testing. So in Part 2, we’ll talk through how to prepare for user testing and set the team up for success.
Have you experienced other objections to user testing? Check out these resources:
Here’s a list of 17 more quick objections and answers.
If you haven’t seen UXMyths.com, the whole site is valuable. Here’s a myth (and the debunking thereof) about the cost of usability testing.
Apple doesn’t do usability testing, you say? That’s not entirely true.
Still not convinced? Here’s a great case study outlining how usability testing turned a four-star app into a five-star success.
Contact me on Twitter or in the comments below, and maybe we’ll build a follow up article around the objections you’ve heard!
The most inspirational things are often right in front of us. It might be the typography on a book cover, the colors of your favorite music album, the opening titles in that movie you saw yesterday. To celebrate all those little moments of inspiration, we have compiled some resources for you which honor the beauty of everyday graphic design and the ideas behind it. Perfect to squeeze into a short coffee break. Enjoy!
Artworks On Your Bookshelf
Link
We learned not to judge a book by its cover, but, honestly, there is nothing quite like browsing through a bookstore, soaking up covers, their colors, their typefaces, their layouts, every little detail. The variety is endless, and sometimes you’re lucky and find a little piece of art shining through the sheer mass.
To show their appreciation for excellent book cover design, Ben Pierrat and Eric Jacobsen brought the Book Cover Archive to life, a showcase for unique cover designs. It’s inspiring to see how designers boil the idea behind a book down to the limited canvas space of one rectangle. What will it inspire you to? Perhaps something extraordinary, like your own series of book covers made with HTML and CSS?
The Magic Of Film Titles
Link
Until 1955, cinema audiences didn’t get to see the title sequence of movies. Then a note on the film reels for Otto Perminger’s The Man With The Golden Arm changed everything: “Projectionists — pull curtains before titles.” Theopening titles which Saul Bass created for the movie wrote history and marked the birth of an entirely new design field. Fortunately, because without this change of thinking, a lot of treasures wouldn’t exist today.
If you want to dive deeper into current and past film titles, into the stories and the creation process behind them, make sure to check out Art of the Title. The site was founded in 2007 to honor film title makers and is run by an enthusiastic team of three. A fascinating place that preserves and celebrates the history of this craft.
The film titles that changed everything: Saul Bass’ intro to The Man With The Golden Arm. (Opening title credit: Saul Bass; Image credit: Art of the Title)
The Forgotten Art Of Album Covers
Link
The album cover was once an important part of music culture, with artists specializing in them and gaining fame with their work. Today, in times of digital downloads and streaming, the covers have lost their original purpose and live rather unnoticed in the corners of our smartphone screens. Unfortunately, because there are still some real gems out there.
The project Album Colors Of The Year by Marcos Rodriguez and Zé Felipe draws attention to this design genre by showcasing the best covers of 2015. But the site is much more than only a showcase: the covers are arranged by color and hovering over one of them reveals the hex color value of its dominant color. A treasure chest for any designer. Could there be a better source for some fresh color inspiration?
Graphic Design On A Square Inch
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A stamp series from the UK, featuring British fashion designers. (Image credit: Punk Philatelist)
An assortment of stamps from around the world. (Image credit:postxwayk)
Stamps are boring? Not at all. They are the perfect example that great design doesn’t need a lot of space to fully unfold. For a fresh view on stamps, one that breaks with the widespread idea of a stamp collecting nerd, the Punk Philatelist is your place to go. The blog celebrates the passion with which artists create those tiny works of art and looks at the stamp collectors community with a wink. And if that’s not enough inspiration yet, the Postage Stamps collection on Flickr will keep you busy for quite a while, too. Eye candy par excellence.
A recently-released banknote from the Maledives, merging tradition and modernity. (Image credit: Banknote News)
Paying With A Piece Of Design History
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We use them daily without paying a lot of attention to them, yet they are one of the most challenging things to design: banknotes. If you take a look around the world, they couldn’t be more diverse. But, let’s be honest, did you ever get the chance to hold a banknote from the Maledives in your hands? (Probably not, which is a pity, because they are actually very beautiful.) While world travelers are lucky enough to catch a glimpse of all those unique, sometimes exotic, designs, the rest of us can find their dose of inspiration in onlinebanknote showcases which turn out to be a rich source of color, typography, and pattern inspiration.
Another source for brilliant banknote design is the recent redesign of the Norwegian Krone bills. The Norwegian Bank called out competition to find the design for the country’s next banknote series and released a catalog (PDF, 3.1MB) showcasing all entries for us to indulge in. The PDF is in Norwegian, but the designs are worth taking a look as they tackle the given maritime theme in so many different ways, ranging from black-and-white photography to collages and children’s drawings. A very unconventional approach to banknote design. The winning design, by the way, merges Norway’s past und present with a rather traditionally designed front and a pixelated back.
What’s more left to say as: Keep your eyes open! The best kind of inspiration might indeed lie where you least expect it.
PHP has become one of the most widely used languages among developers for developing web applications, such as Facebook, WordPress, and other popular resources.
However, you might find coding in PHP challenging and a daunting task, especially when you're just a novice. So, to save you from making mistakes when writing PHP code, I've listed some great tips that will help you work on PHP language a lot easier.
MASTERING PHP
1. Ditch the Use Of <? … ?>
When starting to write a PHP script, the standard code declaration blocks use “<? php … ?>” script delimiters. However, beginners can make the mistake of writing the script delimiters as <? ... ?> instead of <?php ... ?>. Make sure to avoid such a situation. That's because, <? ... ?> when used in a PHP script may work on your server, but fails to work on other servers.
Secondly, you must avoid the use of shortcut tags when echoing a variable. That's because, those tags aren't supported everywhere. You may find it hard to prevent the use of shortcut tags, but doing so can help in making your code more portable.
Basically, you just need to avoid writing your PHP script only with shortcut tags such as <?=$Var?>. You should rather write it as <?php echo $Var ?>.
2. Understand the Difference Between Comparison Operators
Comparison operators are an extremely useful part of PHP. But let's face it, some programmers fail to determine the difference between comparison operators, such as '==' and '==='. Remember that == is for equality and checks whether the value on the left and right side are equal. On the other hand, === not only looks for whether the values on both sides are equal, but also checks whether the variable type is the same on both sides or not.
Let's have a more detailed understanding of when you need to use the === comparison operator. For this purpose, consider an example of PHP code that requires using the strpos() function – that may return 0, which means that the string you've been looking for is located at the 0th index. Or else, it will be present at the first position of another string. Now, since zero is considered to be equal to FALSE in PHP, clearly from the result of strpos() you won't be able to tell if something is at the beginning of a string or the function couldn't find anything.
12345678910
//This is an example of bad code
if
(
strpos
(
$inputString
,
'abc'
) == false ) {
// do something
}
//This is an example of good code
if
(
strpos
(
$inputString
,
'abc'
) === false ) {
// do something
}
3. Replace If/Else With Ternary Operators
Rather than making use of an if/else statement, it would be better if you use a ternary operator instead. Here's a line of PHP code that explains ternary operator usage:
1
$todo
= (
empty
(
$_POST
[’todo’])) ? ‘
default
’ :
$_POST
[’todo’];
This line of code is equivalent to the following if/else statement:
123456
if
(
empty
(
$_POST
[’todo’])) {
$action
= ‘
default
’;
}
else
{
$action
=
$_POST
[’todo’];
}
?>
So, as you can see in the code above the ternary operator helps in making the code clutter-free and saves plenty of space, by writing the same code using the if/else statement in a single line.
4. Use Relevant Variable Names
This is the most obvious step you should follow when writing PHP code, ensure using variable names that add some value. Furthermore, include details about the data that those variables will store. Let's assume, you need to use a variable as an integer. In that case, you must use a variable name with an “i” at the beginning. In fact, this is a crucial factor you must consider when writing PHP code, since we don't require specifying a type during variable declaration in PHP.
Note: Though you can choose to use a variable name in caps or small letters, it is recommended that you focus on capitalizing the first letter of your variable.
Below is a list of some meaningful variable names:
123456
$iNum
= 12;
// For Integers
$fPi
= 2.121956;
// For Floats
$sName
=
"Mac"
;
// For Strings
$bIsMember
= false;
// For Booleans
5. Add Comments Alongside Each Important Action
Adding comments side-by-side to each important action will help you identify the need for any specific PHP code snippet, especially when you are handling a large size project. In addition, commenting helps make the code look neat and easy to understand to other programmers working on the same project as you.
123456
// Function to Check Login
if
(!
$user_login
){
header(
"Location:http://www.yoursite.com/"
);
die
();
}
6. Use “str_replace()” Instead Of “ereg_replace()” and “preg_replace()”
If you need to improve the efficiency of your PHP code to replace strings, consider using str_replace() instead of using functions, such as: ereg_replace() and preg_replace(). In fact, according to an online report, “str_replace() is 61 percent more efficient compared to other regular expressions.”
But, in case you are using regular expressions, then ereg_replace() and preg_replace() will work faster compared to str_replace().
7. Consistent Naming Convention
Using consistent naming conventions is considered good coding practice. Mostly, writing classes, objects, etc. consistently makes it easy for your team members to work on your project without much confusion. Besides this, make sure that the files saved in local directories have an easy-to-understand name.
8. Use isset() Over strlen()
When checking out the length of a string, consider using isset() over strlen(). That's because, the isset() function will help in making calls 5 times quicker. Another great advantage of using isset is that your function call will remain valid regardless of whether the variable exists or not.
Here's a simple example to demonstrate the use of the isset() function:
123
if
(isset(
$username
[8])) {
// The username is at least nine characters long.
}
9. Prefer Using Single Codes Rather Than Double Quotes
While both single, as well as double quotes, serve several purposes, it is advised that you should use single quotes over double quotes. This is because the first option helps in executing the loops a lot faster. Let us see two different ways of printing long lines of information:
12
//Using double quotes
print
“WorkStatus :
$workstatus
. Location:
$location
”;
Now, let's check how the above line of code can be written using single quotes:
12
//Using single quotes
print
‘WorkStatus : ‘.
$workstatus
’. Location‘.
$location
’.';
10. Utilize a Framework
And lastly, the best way to work on a PHP project is to make use of a PHP framework such as Laravel,CakePHP, Yii, Symfony, CodeIgniter and many others. Using any one of these frameworks can help reduce the time in performing repetitive tasks when developing a site or a web application. Moreover, less code means you can debug and test your built web solutions quickly.
In essence, PHP frameworks help get rid of the overheads in building web apps.
CONCLUSION
Hopefully the tips discussed above will help you write efficient PHP code in a neat and more organized way. The tips included in this post are simple, so make sure to explore the topic more to have better familiarity with each concept. source
What can be better than a lovely hand-made script font that would become an excellent addition to your professional toolbox? Exactly! That's why we're so excited to bring you Arabella, a font perfect for various purposes: headings, signatures, logos, wedding invitations, t-shirts, etc.
First impressions are important. Here are 15 that top the list. When looking at any business branding, specifically their web presence, the first thing you notice is the splash page. It is absolutely critical for any website to have an attractive splash page that draws the viewer into the site.
If you you don’t devote a good amount of time for the development and aesthetics of the splash page, users will presume that the rest of the site is equally poor. To make sure you don’t fall victim to the same fate, here are 15 fresh splash screens of 2016, with explanations as to why they make for effective branding.
1.Blue Dolphin Charters
The reason that Blue Dolphin’s splash page makes it onto the list is obvious: its imagery. The splash screen tells a beautiful “swimming with dolphins” story through the use of the dolphins and the diver. The text has been carefully considered to accent the imagery, but is not the dominant feature.
2. Pollen
There is something very 50’s about the photography and composition of the Pollen splash screen. Yet, at the same time, there is a clear modernization of the model. The right aligned composition helps to draw the viewer across the entirety of the page, where the angled ledge hints that there is more content below (or to come).
Color has been limited to keep the focus on the brand name, and the white on blue has done well to build a strong contrast.
Overall, the splash screen resembles the marketing and branding of the iconic We can do it! campaign, from the blue outfit to the red bandana. It is this clear and well thought out association with iconic branding that makes this part of the top 15.
3. The Charles
This splash page epitomizes the concept that less is often more. The beauty of this splash screen is that the image relies solely on the text choices and the black and white contrasts.
True, there are a few smoke accents on the screen to help draw the eye up and down, but these are so subtle that they tend to blend into the background.
Businesses should take note that there does not have to be a ton of images and an overextension of fonts and graphics in a design. The Charles has achieved a dramatic presentation using standard fonts and simplicity.
4. Sailing Collective
Icon and logo meet photography in this splash screen. Interestingly enough, the splash screen does not have a single sailboat on the page. The logo has a very abstracted image which may constitute as the sails of a boat, but it is left up to the viewer to decide. Or is it?
The blue water and open space make the viewer want to see a boat on the water, especially since the brand is sailing collective. Since there is no vessel on the water, the only association can be with their icon. The viewer is therefore forced to associate the logo / icon with sailing.
5. Heck House
The splash page for Heck House is based on television series of the 60’s, when BLAM and POW were used to accent action points. If you look at the composition of the splash screen, you will see that there is a very distinctive layout that resembles that of the detective and office settings found in shows such as Perry Mason orRacket Squad.
The result of this imagery on the design is a beautifully constructed splash page which gives the business more credibility and history than it actually has, given that Holy Heck was established in 2010. However, if you look at the splash page, you immediately associate it with being around since the 50’s and 60’s based on the image and font choices.
6.Let’s Wander
One of the primary reasons that this company makes it onto the list is that their content is multiplied depending on which page you seek.
Yes, there is a main splash page which draws you in and houses an image that just screams “let us go exploring”, but the website also uses other splash screens which encourage exploration and “wandering” as well.
I really enjoy the use of open spaces and the vast expanse of territories not yet charted. Even the cities have an infinite appearance with the use of bird’s eye perspective, 3 point perspective, and the never-ending road.
7.Yttrium
Aurelio Costarella has presented a splash screen with Yttrium that accents the concept of the fashion being presented. In the 2015 splash, the viewer sees that the concept is more to the urban rather than the upscale, luxurious, catwalk style of fashion.
Currently, the splash screen merges an industrial look with a high fashion model. The use of models for the splash screen is not new to the fashion industry.
However, the composition and the beauty captured by Yttrium leans more to the artistic and less to the “buy my product” side of things, which makes this a superb and beautiful page.
8.Garrison
As the clothing and textile industry is a large market, it is essential that companies present a visage that relates quality and dedication to the craft. Garrison has used the image of a worker perfecting the process of making shoes. Opting for a black and white image over a colorized splash screen gives the viewer a sense of tradition and history.
What makes the splash page so ideal for a footwear business is that the machine is just vague enough to keep anyone outside the industry from saying it is modern or classical in its design. All you see is a dedicated worker.
9.Schmoll Creative
Generally, I avert away from pages that overuse the graphics of computers and laptops, as they are cliché. However, when you’ve hired a web designer who can tie in the functionality of their non-digital skills with a computer image and do so artistically, I am impressed.
Schmoll Creative has accomplished a very beautiful and modern page by incorporating not only the laptop (with coding on the screen which is a nice touch) but also with a grid sketchbook.
The image is monotone, and is then reduced in its dominance to give the splash screen a more artistic feel over the digital media feel. The bright blue and modern logo only helps to accent and draw attention to the brand.
10.Lab Case
At a first glance, the splash screen does not appear to have much thought, but when you notice what the company is about, the splash screen becomes ingenious. Digital labs and equipment are sophisticated and often complicated devices.
The use of a simple image and simple text on the page makes the view feel as if the product they are offering is not as complex as it really is.
11.Acne Studios
The design and imagery used on this splash page are great prequels to the product, making this a top 15 page. The models are presented in highly dynamic compositions that showcase the fashion.
As the line tends to lean on more non-traditional fashions, it would make sense that the splash page shy away from the traditional poses and capture the models in a more lively and emotionally centered pose.
12.Bacchica
The beauty of the Bacchica splash screen is the use of the slideshow and the antiqued look of the photographic images. The images are specifically placed in a progressive layout, so that the viewer is introduced to the business and then goes on a journey with the barber through the process of a shave and cut.
The blurred background keeps the attention on the close up shots, while the focused images invite the viewer to see more. Unlike many other sites, the font is a focal point of the splash page, and a selection that is both traditional and modern has been used.
13.Robert Vinluan
If you are going to use bold colors in your splash page, you need work with designers who are user experience-oriented. Bold colors make the user anticipate an action. Whilst there are many companies that have jumped on the Windows 10 simplistic image wagon, many companies have not made their own branding, but have merely copied the theme with the hopes of achieving success by riding the coattail.
Yet, Robert Vinluan has added his own touch to the bold colors that is not only stylish but engaging. Upon opening the site, you are introduced to a geodesic design over the simple but bold color.
Whereas the font does cater a bit to the Cortana software in Windows 10, the engaging mouse and the animation on the page make this a beautifully constructed and executed design.
14.Failsworth
A truly beautiful splash page has been created by merging the old and the new. The use of the caps worn during the industrial revolution combined with women’s style from the 1920s gives tribute to an older fashion.
However, showing the tattoos on the arm as well as the arm warmers give the site a modern appearance. Neither element is overpowering the other, as the images work together and the hues have been dulled to give a calm effect overall.
15.Wild
Nothing says that you are a bit on the extreme side like a giant astronaut and some dynamic font. The interactive web company is known for going to the extremes and their splash pages convey that. Even while their site is being updated, they provide viewers with images, quips, and music.
Your Splash Screen
These are just a few of the sites that have used the splash page effectively to create a beautiful design. Remember, a beautiful design is not just images, but how you use the images and branding to relate your company to the public.
4 Beautiful Pre-built Portfolios Examples and Basic Rules To Follow
Having an online portfolio is important in so many ways that selecting the right portfolio content and presenting that content in the best possible way is vital. Portfolios may not be the only way to attract clients and convince them to work with you, but when presenting your work or accomplishments online they are by far the most effective.
A professionally designed portfolio labels you as a professional. It tells prospective clients that you are in business, that you are not an amateur, and that what you are doing is not merely a hobby. If you are a website designer, it doesn’t matter if you are running a large design company, or if you are a freelancer.
Let prospective clients speculate about the size of your operation if they wish. What your portfolio tells them is the breadth of your services or your niche, and your skills. This applies to creative industries’ representatives as well.
Examples of Good Pre-designed Portfolios
Image Source: Be Theme B&W Pre-made portfolio
The portfolio concept is somewhat of a newcomer in the IT world, and it is definitely so in the UX sector, but having one has become almost imperative.
Having the right tool to assist you in building an attention-grabbing online portfolio is important, but there are several rules that you need to take into account before you begin the portfolio design process.
A solid portfolio is one that gives the viewer sufficient information to assess the scope and quality of your work. Too few items may brand you as a beginner – or worse yet, as being too lazy to put much effort into the task. A portfolio consisting of dozens, if not hundreds, of examples could overwhelm a viewer, and end up serving no useful purpose. 15-20 quality examples is optimum.
Never include mediocre work, even if you can’t make your portfolio as large as you would like. Mediocre work will stick out like a sore thumb and can leave an impression that is the opposite of what you are hoping to covey.
Categorize your portfolio. If a potential client is looking for a particular topic or theme, make it easy to find.
Testimonials never hurt. Look through your testimonials and include the best ones.
Make the layout simple. Too many clicks can cost you a potential client.
Here are several examples of well-designed portfolios.
Be Digital
Be Web Design
In these two Be Theme examples, you’ll note the pre-built websites used are well organized. They offer good examples of what web designers or creative agencies look for in terms of a layout’s organization.
This includes space to introduce their unique value proposition without fear of distraction, smart menus, and well organized portfolios. Be Theme purposefully created these pre-built websites that focus on portfolios and services with the knowledge that UX designers are not necessarily also visual designers.
How do clients or recruiters analyze your portfolio?
Given suggestions on how to build a portfolio, you still need to take into account how its content will be viewed.
Let your content show the journey, and not just the destination. Explain the workings behind your deliverable. Tell the story. Explain the problem, and how you solved it. That is what your potential client is looking for.
Present your brand’s key elements. You are not settling in for a 30-minute interview. You have about one minute to present the pertinent information, hook the viewer, and land a job. Design the portfolio for skim reading, because that’s what is going to happen.
Focus on detail. Be Theme will help you present the details that matter by resolving technical issues and issues of perspective, information you can refer to in your portfolio.
Be Parallax
Why Be Parallax?
Because using it is a clever, and extremely persuasive way to show your best stuff as a UX designer and an innovator. Parallax is admittedly an illusion, but it is an extremely effective one, and it offers a delightful way to introduce or tell a story, and good online marketing involves storytelling.
One of the challenges of UX design is determining how to capture and hold a user’s interest. Parallax provides an excellent means of doing so. It is immersive, not intrusive. Be Theme’s parallax feature will be a welcome addition to your UX design toolkit.
Be Portfolio
Here is an extremely clear and straightforward example of how Be Theme helps make it possible to design a portfolio that tells a story. You could for example introduce yourself with an image and a four-word line of text; much better than a page of text. You may want to say more, but keep it simple. Once the viewer enters your portfolio, inform and entertain that user with sharp images, video, parallax, and text, while continuing on with your story.
Be Theme – the pre-Designed Websites People Love
The pre-defined website examples shown here are but a few of the many that Be Theme offers. There are in fact over 170 to choose from. Whether you are designing a portfolio, a blog, or multiple websites covering a range of themes or topics, Be Theme is the best choice you can make when looking for a premium WordPress theme to do the job.
View this short 1:45 minutes video to see how easily it is to install and edit a Be Theme pre-made portfolio website
Be, the biggest WordPress theme ever, has a vast array of useful and powerful features. You will love what the combination of features such as the Powerful Admin Panel, Muffin Builder 3 or Visual Composer, and the Layout Configurator andShortcode Generator can do for you. You will also love that fact that you can design anything you want without any need for coding skills.
Be’s pre-built websites, many of which are multipage affairs, can get any project off to a rapid start. You always have the option of starting from scratch given the grid, header, and layout options open to you. Visit the Be Theme’s website, browse through the library of pre-built websites, check out the demos, and explore the many features.
Soon you’ll be creating a portfolio that will knock prospective client’s socks off! Source
Absolutely The Best 12 Web Design and Development Tools For You
by Carol Francis
Web designers and developers love their job the most. These professionals do not even need any on-job training but, considering today’s nature of work which is really competitive, it is important for them to have knowledge about the tools that prove to be beneficial while working on projects with tight deadlines.
Every month, a new web-based application is launched on the Internet. That's why, we analyzed the best 12 web tools and we built this showcase.
12 Web Web Design and Development Tools
1. Tickera.com
Thanks to Tickera, you can now sell tickets and deliver them to your buyers digitally, throughout various payment options and gateways, including Authorize.net, Braintree, PayGate, PayPal or Mollie, that will help you process, verify, and accept or decline credit card transactions.
Tickera is a WordPress plugin which adds many features to the process of selling tickets for your events: you can design your own tickets using a simple, yet efficient drag & drop template builder, you can create them as any other product on WooCommerce, thanks to the fusion between WooCommerce and Tickera, you can add multiple ticket types and variations and control the sale time price and other details (such as stock, SKU, etc.). In addition, one of the nicest features is the ability to check-in attendees with mobile apps or barcode reader, eventually sending them a WooCommerce specific e-mail informing that the order has been completed.
Apart from these, some supported add-ons which can make the plugin even better are CSV Report, Custom Forms, Custom Ticket Template Font, Check-in Notifications and Check-in Translate. Finally, the best part is that… there are zero service fees! That means no additional costs and no commission. Plus, you control the profits with no requirement to send a cut to a third party. What could be better?
2. Backblaze.com
Some people have said that, thanks to Backblaze, you will sleep better knowing your files are safe. That’s 100% true, because Backblaze takes care of your data, even if we’re talking about one file or millions of files, at a high speed and low-cost, with extra safety that keeps everything in its place. On the one hand, the service, ranked #1 on the internet, makes sure all your files are saved and stored well, whether they are photos, music or videos.
After that, you can access them from your iOS or Android device wherever you are and whenever you want, having the possibility of downloading, saving and eventually sharing them to your friends. In addition, you can choose between some restore options, including receiving your files back via FedEx on a USB hard drive or simply downloading them. Apart from these great features, Backblaze can even help you if your computer is missing or stolen: it recovers your data, maps your computer, identifies the ISP being used, finds your IP address, sees recently backed up files, sends all these to the police and finally they help you to get it back!
3. Shrinktheweb.com
Anybody can capture website screenshots if they use Shrink the Web, a really great website with which you can capture, crop, shrink, save, upload or display them automatically with only a screenshot plugin or a single line of code that you have to copy then paste into the bar situated on the homepage of the website. It is the best thumbnail provider out there and it has great team support that can help you with any misunderstandings that you may have , but it is also really easy to install and to integrate.
With a basic, plus or enterprise account and a few dollars a month you can create a mix of pro features, the principal attraction of the website. Their features include full-length, inside page captures, wide screen, custom size or custom quality, a well requested feature, URL to PDF conversion as well as their miscellaneous features like custom delay.
4. Ultimatumtheme.com
Using WordPress theme builders can give you a very hard time, as they lack flexibility, usability, and they restrict drastically your design concept and your personal touch. But not with UltimatumTheme.com. This is more than a website builder, it is a full tool case for any kind of client, regardless of their experience in web design and development. You can turn any kind of the basic, well-known Boostwatches (based on Bootstrap, you guessed right) into an original project, dedicated strictly to your buyer, with the help of a drag-and-drop layout edit tool, that makes adding content much easier.
You can also setup template pages, to have consistency among posts or articles. Buying an account is a one-time job, as it comes with a lifetime license and a worthy experience. So don't get scared of the prices, the features totally cover the costs. You also get full plugin integration, that can give you any behavior you want and a one-click update system to enhance workflow. This being said, you should consider visiting them.
5. Simbla.com
Simbla Website Builder is an efficient website maker platform, that uses an easy-to-navigate interface which makes your job of building your site a lot easier. There is no need to install, so you just sign up and start building your site, using the top bar from which you can manage pages, configure site settings and add elements.
Furthermore, you can choose from a big set of beautifully designed templates the one that suits your project the best. Waiting to see your websites!
6. Themify.me
Have you ever looked up for any functional, but great designed themes to start with your website?
Now you can have them with Themify.me, by getting an account. Even if their prices are not that low, you can get several discount coupons in various ways, and you will get the whole pack of themes, with a WordPress drag-and-drop editor which is more than you need if you are only a newbie.
7. TeamDesk.net
How about creating an online custom database for your company to share all the important information with your team, in order to enhance the relationship between the members, to prevent delays and to improve the quality of your work, eventually reaching success?
With TeamDesk you can achieve this and even more, given the fact that it is an incredible online software which gives you the flexibility you need in creating a database without adding an extra level of complexity!
8. Hotjar.com
You can now find out about your users’ clicks, taps, scrolls and also about the pages they enjoy the most on your website, thanks to Hotjar, a great app showing you the insights and the behavior of your clients.
Therefore, you can identify which elements need to be moved on the page, you can compare taps and clicks before and after tweaks and many other benefits. Give it a try!
9. Mobirise.com
One great app that will help your website be fully responsive and mobile-friendly isMobirise, a drag and drop website builder for Windows and Mac that will help you build small/medium refined-looking websites that look amazing on all devices and browsers.
Mobirise is free for both personal and commercial use and it provides you with the latest website blocks and techniques “out-the-box”.
10. uKit.com
Maybe you are not a fan of HTML or CSS and you also do not know much about web design, but still you have a strong desire to create your own website. uKit helps you do this in the most efficient way, by using a drag & drop interface. You are given a ready to go website from the beginning and all you have to do is to choose a theme and a domain name.
After that, you can start adding all sorts of widgets that will make it look better, such as LiveChat, which will increase your relationship with clients or SoundCloud, which lets you add music to your site. Ranked as one of the best on Superb Website Builders by Howard Steele, he knows why!
11. Xfive.co
We have been delighted and impressed to see the great job Xfive does in helping people ease their web development challenges.
They do this through a good selection of options, including frond-end development or back-end development, which builds a fast, scaleable and secure web application written in Ruby on Rails or PHP. All of these help you take your website to a whole new level!
12. Imcreator.com
With IM Creator or XPRS builder, you will get a fully-responsive and Google-friendly website that will naturally adjust itself to any device: laptops, tablets, mobile-phones and even Google Glass or smart-watches.
Besides this, with XPRS you have full control over your images, so you can add top colors, set opacity and add animation and effects to them, making it so cool you will attract all your users! Feel free to discover all the other great features.
Conclusion
Whether you are a seasoned and highly experienced designer and/or developer, or a complete newbie, time-saving tools have immeasurable value when you have deadlines to adhere to. Hopefully you will find something in this round up that will help to speed up your workflow and release some of your precious time.
Do you use any of these tools already? Do any of them appeal to you to take a deeper look into? Share with us your experience of and opinions about any of the featured tools. And if you have come across a time-saving tool that you think should have made it into this list, please don't hesitate to give us the link in the comments section.
Don’t forget to visit and check our portfolio here datadrivensystems.co.uk, happy coding :)
Speaking the same language as your developers is hugely beneficial and knowing some CSS will help you do that. Having this common language aids in creating a more collaborative feel to conversations with developers versus dictating to them what to do.
That’s why we’ve asked Jenn Lukas to give a full-day workshop at the UI20 Conference in Boston, November 2–4, on Mastering CSS to Build a Living Style Guide. Recently, I interviewed Jenn about her topic. Here’s an excerpt from our conversation:
When we understand the tools that we work with, we all become better at our jobs. The same way as a developer understanding design principles can make me develop better. I know what to QA for, I know how to keep a consistent grid, I know what goes into good typography. These are the rules that make you more well-rounded.
Going the other way, to be able to know what CSS and technology is capable of really helps people to create better, stronger designs. To know where you can push the limits of design, to know where things can be scaled back, to know what goes into the building blocks of creating something.
Listen to the podcast interview or read the transcript.
In Jenn Lukas’ workshop, Mastering CSS to Build a Living Style Guide, you’ll learn how to:
Build style guidelines to communicate effectively with developers
Understand the most common styles, including fonts, colors, and background
Get everyone on the same page about how your design should look and feel
See what else you’ll do during Jenn’s full-day workshop at the User Interface Conference, on November 4 in Boston.
Chrome is about to get a lot faster with new compression algorithm
The speed of your Chrome browser is about to go up. That's thanks to Google rolling out a new data-compression algorithm, which will speed up your web browsing by reducing file sizes.
Google employee Ilya Grigorik announced on Google+ that the Brotli compression algorithm will be coming soon to Chrome. Brotli is currently in beta, and advanced Chrome Canary users can enable it now through the chrome://flags menu in.
Following Google's previous data-compression algorithm, Zopfli, Brotli is named after Swiss baked goods, meaning "small bread."
SEE ALSO: The 10 Chrome extensions you need most
The open-source algorithm was first announced in September last year, and Google software engineer Zoltán Szabadka wrote that the team wants to see Brotli used across more than just Chrome.
"We hope that this format will be supported by major browsers in the near future, as the smaller compressed size would give additional benefits to mobile users, such as lower data transfer fees and reduced battery use," he wrote.
According to a study released by Google, Brotli has the top compression and decompression speeds and smallest sizes in most cases compared to other compression algorithms. Brotli compresses to sizes 17-25% smaller than other methods and uses less processing and battery power to do so. Compared to Google's previous compression algorithm, Zopfli, Brotli gets 20-26% higher compression ratios. Compression ratios look at uncompressed size over compressed size, so a higher ratio means smaller overall size.
"The smaller compressed size allows for better space utilization and faster page loads," Szabadka wrote.
Expect to see faster load times in Chrome in the near future, and perhaps in other browsers that pick up the open-source algorithm. If you want to check it out yourself, the code is available onGitHub.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
How to Show Your MailChimp Subscriber Count in WordPress
MailChimp is one of the best e-mail marketing solutions. Once you have installed it in your WordPress website, you would want to keep an eye on your subscribers to do all the data analysis and number crunching. Not only the analytics, you can show it as a social proof to your visitors to attract more subscribers. Humans have the habit of following what the majority is doing. If a visitor reads a specific post which has no subscribers he/she would not be motivated enough to subscribe to it. And if we take another scenario where the post has, say 20,000 subscribers then your visitor would want to know why so many people are subscribing to it and hence, he/she would subscribe to your post/page. Hence, the subscriber count plays a vital role in converting business.
All in all, whatever reason you have for displaying your MailChimp subscriber count in WordPress, we have the apt solutions for it. You can either choose an existing plugin for it or create your own plugin. If you are not a developer the former way is better for you and if you want to write all the code yourself and do not want to use any other plugin, then you can go with the second way. Like, everything has an easy way and a difficult way but you need to choose one according to your preferences.
1. MailChimp Subscriber Chiclet
The easy way is to install MailChimp Subscriber Chiclet plugin in your WordPress. Once the installation is complete, you need to activate the plugin. Go to Settings and click on MailChimp Subscriber Chiclet for configuration. You will be asked to enter your MailChimp API key. Enter the key and in case you do not have it, then login to your MailChimp account and get the API key.
After entering the API key, click on Save Changes button. Your email list will be loaded from the MailChimp account. Now, you need to select the email list and then start configuring the plugin settings. At the bottom of the plugin, you will see a shortcode. You need to copy that shortcode and then add the same to any post, page or widget where you want to display the subscriber count. It was a much simpler way than the next one which is done the developer’s way. If you do not understand the code snippets and all the techy-stuff, then you should stick with this option only.
2. MailChimp API:
The other way to display the MailChimp Subscriber count on WordPress is by using the MailChimp API. When you display the subscriber count using the MailChimp Subscriber Chiclet, you will notice that under the count it is written ‘Powered by MailChimp’. The users might want to see just the count, so you can create your own plugin and here is how:
Create a folder on your desktop which should be named as mc-subscriber-count.
Now in that folder, create a file named mc-subscriber-count.php. In this file copy the below written code:
Now inside the same folder create a new folder named as logs. Inside the logs folder, create two files using a text editor such as Notepad. Name one file as lastrun.log and the other one as subcount.log.
After that, download MailChimp PHP Wrapper source code from MailChimp repository. When you have downloaded the zip file, extract the files from it. In the extracted folder, there will be a src folder which will have Mailchimp.php and Mailchimp folder.
Copy these two files and paste them in the folder that you created in the very first step.
With the help of an FTP client, upload the entire mc-subscriber-count folder on your WordPress site.
Go to your WordPress admin dashboard and in the plugin settings, activate MailChimp Subscriber Count Plugin.
Now use the shortcode: mc-subscribers in any post, page or widget to display the subscribers count.
Clearly there is more effort in the second way, so you always have another option to go by which is the first one. However, in both of the above described methods you would need the MailChimp API key. So, make sure you have the API key beforehand. You can choose either of these and get the subscribers count on your WordPress site.
