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Ali

Design Advice for a Powerfully Effective Landing Page

by Ali October 8, 2014

written by Ali

Landing pages are content specific webpages that users are directed to from AdWord or social marketing campaigns, letting them avoid having to navigate from your website’s homepage through to different product sub-categories. Because they hugely simplify the number of steps a customer has to take to purchase a product or interact with a service, landing pages are great conversion rate boosters.

Still, like creating any web page, landing pages require a bit of fore-thought and a good dose of experimentation. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at 9 pieces of design advice for a powerfully effective landing page. As always, your thoughts are welcome!

9. Call to Action

Landing pages serve one main purpose: to convince users to act on the offer you’ve made in your marketing campaign.

Make sure your offer and call-to-action is set apart from the rest of the page, so that it will attract the most attention, using plenty of white space. Under your call-to-action make sure spell out precisely what will happen when a customer fills your form.

8. Off-Page Promise

Your landing page should fulfill the promise that drives users to it in the first place. Make sure that your language is consistent with your ad, using all the same keywords, but elaborates on key points.

7. Design and Text

Landing pages tend to work best when they’re simple and direct, which may mean that they’re not as aesthetically elaborate as your website. For instance, avoid using a log of different font styles; consistency is the key. Furthermore, remove static images that you may have on your landing page. You want to focus on interaction, making use of every possibility there is for there to be interaction between your website and the potential customer. Keep your text short and to the point: Your landing page doesn’t need to go into detailed product descriptions; it should simply describe their key value propositions.

6. Images

As far as images are concerned, it is a good practice to use them, but consider the following rules:

Make sure that the images are not too large. The only purpose of any images you have is to add some color to the page, and to give a visual representation of what you are all about.
Focus on images that describe the product or service.
Use high-resolution, crystal-clear images. With IM Creator, images are automatically resized to be responsive, but make sure that your images are large enough to work on all screens.
Finally, always remember to use captions. Adding brief descriptions will help users to get an instant understanding of what you’re offering.

5. Brand Validation

Adding visual brand validation by way of customer quotes and trust seals will help put users at ease. Use logos and well-established clients that have had a nice experience with you.

4. Sharing

As with your other webpages, make sure to prominently add opportunities for social media interaction on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and even YouTube. Providing plenty of options for shareability will help your offer go viral.

3. Forms

Sign-up forms often function as the key call-to-action on your landing pages, but getting a person to fill an online form in order to register with your website is not always an easy job. This is exactly why you should stick to the basics when placing a registration form on your landing page. Stick to First and Last name, e-mail, user, password and confirm password. Other information should then be filled after a particular person is a member in cases where it is needed.

2. Alignment and Consistency

Sloppy alignment and consistency can visually translate to an untrustworthy business for users, especially when they spend a fairly limited amount of time deciding on your legitimacy. Make sure that text, lines, and images are consistently spaced and sized.

1. Test

Once you’ve got the design and content of your landing page laid out, it’s time to start testing. Ask friends and colleagues to go through each step of your conversion process, from your social media marketing campaign to check-out, and ask them to make notes on any moment in which they felt unsure or became trapped. If you still feel that you need more assurance that your landing page will convert, try out free online testing software, such as Five Second Test or EyeQuant

There you go folks, we hope we were of help. Let us know what you think via the usual medium below.

October 8, 2014 0 comment

Web Design Resources

How To Super-Charge Your Freelance Career Online

by Ali October 6, 2014

written by Ali

Thinking of becoming a web designer? This article is was made to enlighten you regarding how you can build a successful freelance web design business. By the end of this article you will have learned a thing or two about supercharging your freelance career. What you need to do is establish what sort of skills you have. Once you are fully aware of what you are capable of, you can begin researching for more info online.

There are dozens of different projects that require different sets of skills, and you are sure to fit into one of those. This is exactly why you need to establish why you are good at, what you enjoy doing and what you can do successfully. Find out below what you need to do in order supercharge your freelance career.

Learn about Websites

It goes without saying that whether you are a developer or a designer you will need to learn some basic skills and make sure you learn everything about them. For example, there is no question that you will need to learn HTML and CSS. Moreover, you would be doing yourself a favor if you learn Dreamweaver and some basics of Photoshop so you could always use it to create graphic design elements. It is probably for the best that you get yourself familiarized with the following:

PHP is your best bet when it comes to server-side programming language. Learn it, it will come in handy;
JavaScript is absolutely necessary for you to play around with the web design and interaction;
It will pay off heavily if you have know-how in the databases region. SQL would probably be the best bet;
You may want to learn to use WordPress, Drupal or Joomla. These are Content Management Systems. I would prefer WordPress if I were you. You should be aces with the Social Media because that will be your main marketing tool.

Familiarize yourself with the aforementioned and learn how you can use them with each other. This increases your productivity and frankly, you will be saving a lot of time and resources. You will get to know that later in your career. You may want to buy a hosting package and start setting up dummy websites with unique designs, just for practice. Play with everything you have learned so far and always strive to achieve new knowledge

Troubleshooting

While this may not fall directly under your domain, which it kind of does, you should learn how to troubleshoot. By that, I mean learn everything there is to know about web design. You should practice hard enough to run into all sorts of different problems, and you should be able to fix those troubles. Troubleshooting is important, if you can fix complex situations, it will give you an edge in the industry. To help you out, consider the following:

Learn how to perform a Google Search in a proper manner. You need to phrase your problems well enough for the results to be good and that is what your focus should be. It’s more difficult than it sounds.
As far as HTML and CSS is concerned, familiarize yourself with Firebug for Firefox, or similar tools if you are using other browsers.

Communication

In order to be a good designer, one thing you definitely need is good communication. Without that, you won’t even be able to get what the project is. You need to stay in constant touch with your client and make sure you get every detail right. You need to keep them updated with every tiny change you make in the design process. Consider the following:

Keep in touch via e-mails
If you are chatting on Skype, make sure you take notes. Later send them an e-mail summarizing your discussion, highlighting important points
Make note everything you have to do, also note when you need to do it, as you communicate with your client. This will promote punctuality
Check in with your clients on a regular basis and make sure you don’t forget even if the client does
Use plain and simple language when learning what the client wants

Well-designed Website

You will need a personalized website of your own that you develop yourself. This personalized website will be your strongest selling point. If you are having doubts, consider this, wouldn’t it make sense for a top notch designer to have a top notch website? If you have a well-designed website that you have designed entirely by yourself, people will naturally understand that you will be able to do the same for them. If your prime quality is web design, you can flaunt some of your developments on the website. It will function as a very well-organized and interesting resume for potential employers. It will be the prime way to market yourself and potentially bring you loads of clients.

Specialize

Let’s establish one thing straight up. Never stop learning. Trends are changing, trends are your friends, stick to the friends and always keep up-to-date. Also, this will further your knowledge in the chosen field.

There are various different aspects of web design as you all know. One thing that pays off really well, is to specialize in one particular aspect of that field. Pick out an aspect which you enjoy the most, it could be templates, layouts, themes, graphic elements, placement etc. absolutely anything you want. You just need to be able to enjoy that one particular aspect. Learn as much as you can about that aspect, and specialize in it. This will give you a certain edge compared to the other general designers out there. Take some time out to learn where the focus from clients is being laid, and specials. You will be doing yourself a favor.

Manage your Time

You don’t need to bite more than you can chew. Make sure you have a timetable, and make sure you stick to it. Do not sign off more than one client if you cannot deliver them what you promised. Instead, keep a notebook, and make notes of your activities and how long they take. This will give you an accurate measure of how much time you need for certain activities. Have a screening process for clients. Do not be greedy and sign on every single client that comes your way. Once you have developed a name for yourself, you will need clients that make you look good, that make your portfolio look good. Sign them on. Make sure the project is worth your time and don’t take up every xyz that comes your way.

Finally, build yourself a killer portfolio.

Image credit:

Joshua Honeycutt

October 6, 2014 0 comment

Design Tips Web Design

User Interface Design Concepts You Need To Know About

by Ali October 1, 2014

written by Ali

Being a web or app designer isn’t just about arranging content, it’s also about designing an interface that filters and organizes information fluidly and intuitively. A page might look beautiful, but if its interface is in shambles, it’s of little use to users.

This article will take a look at user interfaces and the laws that govern them. We hope to inspire you and help you create an amazing user interface experience but first, let’s get to the crux of what makes a good interface. Read more after the jump to find out about the concepts to have in mind when designing user interfaces.

Skim and Scan

The first concept we are going to discuss is about the amount of content that is to be displayed on a page. Think about the way someone looks for a very specific passage in a book; the reader will scan and skim through entire passages, skipping details but quickly locating the information she needs. Presenting web content is no different: Users tend to prefer to scan content rather than diligently reading top to bottom when searching for a specific bit of information. A persistent misconception is that online users simply don’t like to read, but when information is presented in digestible bites, highlighting the most sought-after content, users are far more likely to spend the time reading all the information on a page.

Familiar Controls

Certain elements, such as buttons, text boxes, and hyperlinks, simply don’t need to be creatively tweaked to perform better. In these cases, users often prefer to operate in familiar territory, where design elements are universally recognizable. Venturing into new territory when an existing control or element works well will simply confuse, as opposed to excite, users.

01-law-of-clarity

Core Controls

Among the most basic rules of user interface design (UID) is the presence of core controls; users need to be able to login, logoff, manage settings, and access tools instantly, and a good interface provides them the peace of mind that everything is within their reach.

Consistency

When it comes to usability, consistency is the key! Website consistency isn’t just about design (in the form of color, font, and spacing), but it also applies to a site’s interface. Users should never have to guess where an element is located, or find a piece of content in a completely different location on one page than it was on another. Planning is the crux of consistency: Make sure to lay out all possible navigation paths before you start designing, double checking that each button or link will be treated in the same way.

Unnecessary Elements

Websites with successful UI always have one thing in common: They’re devoid of unnecessary elements. A great UID will only have elements that a user will need, and nothing more. Put yourself in the shoes of your user and you will come to know whether a particular element is required or not. Open a similar website and see if they are using that particular element.

Thought Processes

One of the more important aspects when it comes to a UID, is simplicity or ease of understanding if you may. When a user is browsing through the interface, he should be able to get to the next step without any explanation or elongated thought processes.

Comprehension

A user should never have to memorize their way through a website, learning to find information through trial and error. User Interface comprehension is a bit like studying for a test: we are able to digest information far more efficiently if we logically understand it, as opposed to simply memorizing it. Us the following techniques to help users navigate logically:

Illustrations
Demos
In-line Hints
Visual Cues (icons)

KISS

Concise and simple is better: KISS is actually an acronym and it stands for ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’. In some variations, it also stands for ‘Keep It Simple and Straightforward’, and ‘Keep It Short and Simple’. In either of the aforementioned cases, the idea imparted is the same: UID works best when it’s straightforward and to the point.

Occam’s Razor

Occam’s Razor is often spoken about as a Usability and User Interface principle, but its origins go back to the 14th century. Simply put, Occam’s Razor avers that, if you come across a problem with multiple solutions, go with the one that is the simplest. Like with KISS, UID has adopted Occam’s Razor as a mantra for keeping things simple. A simple interface is one that requires fewer actions on the part of the user to get to the desired area.

Poka-Yoke Principle

You can think of this principle as mistake-proofing. This principle aims to prevent mistakes committed by anticipating the mistakes before they happen (think of auto-correct in writing applications).

Miller’s Law

In theory, especially in context of computers, humans too have RAM. According to psychologist George Miller, the maximum number of objects that a human can hold in his working memory is 7. In the context of UID, this translates to the notion that no interface should have more than 7 active elements at any time. Less is of course better, but more than that will tend to confuse a user. Again, the concept emphasized here is simplicity over complexity.

Signal-to-Noise Ratio

With UID, “Signal” elements refer to content of basic importance (the information that will be of most crucial value to users), while “Noise” elements refer to everything else (superfluous information). A good UID focuses on emphasizing the Signal rather than the Noise.

Conclusion

While there are many theories when it comes to a User Interface Design, all of them primarily focus on the same concept. In fact, these concepts are employed in any design aspect you come across. The concepts we discussed, and thousands of others out there focus on the simplicity and clarity. These are the two key elements when it comes to a good UID, and that is what a successful designer will stick to. We hope the article proves helpful and informational.

October 1, 2014 0 comment

Web Design Web Design Resources

Web Design Resources That Should Be In Every Designer’s Toolbox

by Ali September 22, 2014

written by Ali

Sometimes, we designers just need a little help getting started, or even getting over a hurdle in our design knowledge. For these moments, the internet has graciously provided us with a number of free resources to solve almost any problem.

In this blog post, we’ll go through a host of web design resources that should be in every designer’s toolbox.

General

Dribbble

Dribbble is a community created by designers, for designer designers, where they gather together and answer different questions and share their work. It is a place to explore, discover and promote design.

Behance

behance

Behance is an online portfolio website created in order to connect different creatives around the world from multiple industries, including photography, fashion, web development and web design.

DeviantART

DeviantArt has been offering its amazing services for a over a decade. It is a great place to look for digital art, photography and texts etc. It has a very active community offering a host of projects for your inspiration.

Ember

Ember allows you to take screenshots, remember ideas and elements that inspire you, make comments and wishlists, and iteratively improve on your design work.

Awwwards

Awwwards recognizes the talents and efforts of some of the best web designers and agencies in the world. A tremendous help if you are looking for inspiration on the subject matter.

Fonts Resources

Dafont

DaFont.com offers over 11,000 fonts for you to use. It also offers access to tools relevant to the font category, which may turn out to be very handy when you are working with different fonts.

Urbanfonts

Urbanfonts offers over 8,000 different types of fonts to its users. They are nicely divided into categories for easy navigation and to help you find what you are looking for efficiently.

What the Font?

WhatTheFont is unique in terms of that fact that you can upload an image of the font you are interested in. The website then analyzes the font and lets you know which it is so you can use it if you wish.

1001freefonts

1001FreeFonts offers a collection of free and premium fonts for you to download and use. It offers more than 10,000 fonts divided into various different categories for easy navigation and search.

FontSquirrel

If you are looking for fonts that you can use for free commercially, this is the website for you to visit. They will let you use fonts for free whether you have commercial or personal intent.

MyFonts

MyFonts has plenty of free and premium fonts, with a series of tools to help you use them in your designs.

Icons Resources

Flaticon

Flaticon is an absolutely free project which is created by and for different developers and designers. If you are a designer you can choose to collaborate with the website or use it for its available services.

Findicons

Findicons is a search engine that will help you find free icons. The ones you are looking for. They claim to have the largest database, so you can be certain you will not be disappointed.

DryIcons

DryIcons offers absolutely free downloads for the 5,000 icons and 1,700 vector graphics they have created so far. You will not have to pay a dime and use their services as you like.

IconArchive

If you are looking for icons, IconArchive is possibly the best place to start. They offer you over 32,000 icon categories to search from.

IconFinder

IconFinder has been around since 2007, and has been a pioneer in developing icons ever since.

Graphic and Adobe Photoshop Resources

Kuler

Kuler is a tool provided by Adobe so you can safely assume it is powerful. You can browse, create and share different color themes in a very easy manner. It is web-based, but you can download a desktop application.

Colourlovers

This is a creative community which allows you to create patterns, palettes and colors. You can also have discussion with other group members as to the trends and ask opinions on your work.

Color Hunter

This is a website dedicated to the sole purpose of finding different palettes from images you upload. You can also browse other user’s palettes.

Autofx

This particular website offers a host of different Photoshop plugins and filters you can use to create amazing photo effects turning regular pictures into something extraordinary. You will need Photoshop to make this app work.

Social Kit

Social Kit offers a host of different plugins with various social media templates including Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

Layrs

Layrs is an Adobe Photoshop extension and in order to use it, you will need the application pre-installed. It offers a collection of different scripts that will make the use of Photoshop a lot easier.

Cut and Slice

This is a free Photoshop plugin. You can use it to cut all your assets and export them to different devices that you use. The website offers a tutorial on how to use this, very handy, tool. drag and drop website builder really helps for development of sites.

Blend Me

If you are looking for vector assets, browse no more. This particular website will offer you one of the largest collection of vector assets for free. There are a few graphics that you will have to pay for.

CSS3PS

If you are looking to convert your Photoshop layers to CSS3 you can use this cloud based Adobe Photoshop plugin. Needless to say, Adobe Photoshop should already be installed on your device.

Textures Resources

DeviantArt Textures

DeviantArt’s texture database is as impressive as the rest of their site, and a huge resource boost for designers looking for unique textures for web-based projects.

CG Textures

CG CG Textures is believed to be one of the world’s s best when it comes to searching for textures and using them freely. You can even contribute to the already vast expanse of textures available.

Zen Textures

Zen Textures provides hundreds of unique textures, especially ones that are particularly hard to locate. They offer a mix of paid and free textures for use.

Texture Lovers

Texture Lovers archive some of the more amazing free textures from around the internet.

Finally, don’t forget our own IM Free if you are looking for free images.

September 22, 2014 0 comment

Web Design

A Step-by-Step Journey Through Website Creation Phases

by Ali September 19, 2014

written by Ali

Many first-time web designers are surprised to learn that the planning of a website takes just as much time as its implementation. Creating a website can be roughly broken down into 6 stages:

Gathering of Information
Website Planning
Designing Phase
Development Phase
Testing Phase followed by Delivery
Maintenance

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at each of these stages, and why following a step-by-step planning and implementation model with your website will guarantee a successful website.

Gathering of Information

Before digging into your design, take a moment to gather as much information as you can on your client and their demographic, market, and competition.

While there are plenty of quantitative analysis tools out there to help you make sound judgements, spending time reviewing your client’s competition is another important way to know how to orient your client’s website, as well as design meetings.

During initial meetings with your client, come prepared with a list of questions that will help you determine their needs:

What purpose will the website serve? Is it for promotional purposes, e-commerce, or to provide information?
Find out your client’s demographics. Understanding who you are designing for will help determine the structure and priorities of their website.

Website Planning

In this stage, you’ll design a sitemap. A sitemap is a list of all the topics the website is supposed to cover, as well as the likely placement – or navigation – for each area of content. The sitemap acts as a guide throughout the web design process.

Design

You’ve conducted your analyses, you’ve laid out your sitemap, and finally, you’re ready to get designing.

Outlining the steps that need to be taken during the web design process are too numerous and specific to get into here, but there is one factor that plainly rings true: Successful web design responds to a client’s needs.

Communication between yourself and your client is of key importance throughout the design stage. You will need to make sure that you are going exactly according to the needs of the client. This also ensures less trouble with regards to changes when the product is actually delivered.

Now that you have discussed all the important stuff, development of the website can start.

Development Phase

If you were to develop your website yourself, this would be the point in time that we would talk about programming languages. With IM Creator, though, there’s no need to wade into particular pond. All you need to do is decide how the website will look, compile your content, and put it in place using out WYSIWYG editor.

Testing Phase and Delivery

The testing phase of website building is absolutely crucial, and the best opportunity to make sure that each page on your new site is running smoothly. Testing can – and should – be undertaken not only by yourself, but also by colleagues, and in many cases, clients. There are also a number of tools online that help you get an objective handle on reviewing your website for bugs and glitches.

Once you are done testing the website, you can give it the go-ahead, and the website can be handed off to the client and made live. You will be using FTP servers to upload all the necessary files to the hosting server. At this stage, the domain name should have been registered along with the appropriate hosting server. Transfer all the files to the hosting server linking to the domain, and voila! The website is live.

Maintenance

The last and final phase of the website is maintenance. As mentioned before, this is one of the more important phases of the entire process. You will have to offer your support and services even after the website is delivered. If it is an e-commerce website, the client will need you to add newer products every now and then, and you should be able to do that for them etc. Moreover, if for any reason the servers are down, you should be able to ensure a backup so your client does not suffer any losses.

We hope the article proved useful to you. If you have any questions, you can get in touch via the usual medium below.

September 19, 2014 0 comment

Web Design Web Design Resources

Fresh Photoshop Plugins For Designers

by Ali September 5, 2014

written by Ali

Nearly 25 years since its release, Adobe Photoshop remains one of the most powerful editing tools available to designers, offering nearly unlimited functionality. Its endless capabilities also require a fairly large learning curve for those who want to branch out from the basics.

September 5, 2014 0 comment

Design Inspiration

Impressive Digital Painting For Your Inspiration

by Ali September 3, 2014

written by Ali

No doubt about it: Adobe Photoshop is a massively powerful software. Gone are the days when it was just used for some general retouching and manipulation. Photoshop has so many different aspects to it, that it has become quite impossible to fully master.

This particular provides inspiration for Digital Painting. There are several digital artists out there who use Photoshop and other such programs for their digital masterpieces. Photoshop is transformed into a huge canvas for them to work on. We hope they inspire you into creating and learning for evermore. Without further ado, here’s presenting the list. Be inspired. As always, your comments are welcome.

Warriors Ready to Fight With Their Swords

Sanctum

Human Inertia

Dark Future Train

The Creation of Pandora

Left on Silverlake

The Battle

Digital Paintings by Brian Despain

Beautiful Digital Paintings by RHADS

Follow Our Rules

Lopskull Hide City

The Art Of Animation

Hot Digital Paintings by Corrado Vanelli

Cretaceous Sunset

Playtime

Battle

HD Masterpieces of Digital Pain

Mothership Arrives

Spaceships Skycity Painting

Ivan Laliashvili

September 3, 2014 0 comment

Web Design Resources

Abstract Mosaic Textures

by Ali September 1, 2014

written by Ali

Mosaic art dates as far back as the 3rd millenium BCE, championed by civilizations from the Romans and the Etruscans to the Moguls. Today, it remains a ubiquitous design element, seen in bathrooms, walls, parks, kitchens – and yes, websites.

Even if mosaics abound, finding free, high quality images of them for your website is not always an easy job. In this post, we’re providing a list of mosaic patterns that can be used on your website to create an exotic, vibrant mood. In each case, be sure to read the copyright regulations carefully in order to know whether you need to attribute the author.

We hope you enjoy these, and that this article proves helpful. As always, your comments are welcome.

Ancient Spiral Seamless Mosaic

Mosaic Glass 13 Texture

Mosaic Glass 2 Texture

Dirty Mosaic Mirrors Texture

Free Mosaic Wall Texture

Mosaic Mirror 2 Texture

Mosaic Texture

Cracked Glass Texture Vampstock z

Free Mosaic Wall Textures

Mother of Pearl Mosaic

Gold Mosaic Texture

Black Glass Texture

Mosaic Blue And White

Modern Glass Mosaic

Modern Bar Marble Mosaic

September 1, 2014 0 comment

Design Tips Web Design Tutorials

What Really Makes Dribbble So Useful to Web Designers

by Ali August 25, 2014

written by Ali

Dribbble is a community of designers and creative people, like yourself, who share their work via small screenshots of their work. Not just for design inspiration, Dribbble lets users connect to design colleagues all over the world, share knowledge, find collaborations, and of course, flaunt their skills. And yet, like many a social media fairytale, Dribbble offers amateur and professional designers alike something much, much more valuable: The chance to get noticed by someone who matters.

This article will take a look at what makes Dribbble so useful to web designers, and how best to use it. Enjoy the read, and as always, your comments are welcome.

Dribbble Explained

As its name suggests, Dribbble loves the energy that sports instills in people – a mixture of competition, fun, and speed. Sports jargon is employed throughout: Once you sign up, you will be referred to as a player, and the screenshots you submit will be referred to as shots. For those of you who are wondering, shots are WIP images (or previews) of your work. You can submit rebounds, replies to other shots, in order to get communicating with other people and receive feedback.

Signing Up

Just like trying out for a team, Dribbble are serious about the quality of the work present on their site. More than just a simple sign-up sheet, users will have to go through an invitation and screening process before they can join the platform. If you are looking to post shots on the network, you have to be drafted by a member. This model ensures that the standards of designers and the work posted is never compromised.

In order for the user base to grow, Dribbble periodically sends invitations to existing members so they can invite other people. The majority of the invite process takes place on Twitter. Members usually announce that they have invitations and interested candidates can then contact and worthy applicants get it in. If you are looking for invitations from Dribbble on Twitter, you may want to keep watch on the hashtag #Dribbble. You will always have something or the other going on.

This vetting program has its kinks. Dribbble’s creators are in the process of streamlining their invitation process, but for the meantime you’ll have to go about things the old fashioned way, with helpful nudges and a favour or two from your friends.

How to Get an Invite

If you do not have a friend working on Dribbble, your best choice would be to create an online portfolio that showcases your work.

If you’re worried about getting into Dribbble and can’t manage to score an invite, you can still sign up as a prospect. This will show that you’re serious about joining the community and there are higher chances of you getting drafted. Once you’re done creating your profile as a prospect make sure you add your photo, bio, location, skills, and most importantly, a URL to your online portfolio. You would also be wise to follow people and if you like something make sure you hit LIKE – interaction is everything on Dribbble.

If you sign up as a prospect you will become visible to the existing members. Existing members can draft you directly from your prospect membership by hitting the “draft” button. If you’re lucky enough to get drafted, you will receive an email with an invitation that you can choose to accept or reject. If existing members are looking for prospects, they can visit the prospect list page.

When it comes to your prospect profile, the key is to keep it populated. Think of it as your online resume: make sure that your bio and your posts are up to date and reflect your skills. If you want to invest in a PRO page, you can also take advantage of the “find designers” page, which will help prospective clients and members to find your great work.

Shots

If you’ve managed to score an invite you have now become a player. This will allow you to upload shots of your work and also interact with other members of the community. Dribbble only allows you 24 shots in a month, which is limited to 5 shots in a day. You should also know that if you have unused shots they will not accumulate month to month. For example, if you have used only five shots in one month don’t make the mistake of thinking that the remaining 19 shots will be added on to the next month’s 24; starting the next month, your previous month’s 19 shots will go to total waste. Make sure you use your shots wisely, and most importantly make sure you use all of them. You should also know that you can post shots by means of uploading an image in a JPG format, GIF format or a PNG format. The sizes of these pictures can have a maximum resolution of 400×300 pixels, which can be cropped within Dribbble. Dribbble will post new shots on their debuts page, and if your shot by any chance becomes very popular it will be displayed on the popular page.

Rebounds

A rebound is pretty much comparable to a comment on Facebook. It is a reply to another shot and it is the way in which members can link two shots together.

Projects and Buckets

Projects are another way to gain exposure on Dribbble. If there is a particular theme going on, you can create projects in order to accumulate different shots in that particular project which relate to the theme. If, for example, you are working on a web design project, you can group shots from web design into one singular project. Buckets on the other hand, are basically groups of different shots. Any and all members can create buckets.

PRO Account

If you’re looking to get the most of Dribbble, you would be wise to sign up for an upgrade to a PRO account, which will only cost you $20 a year, or $1.67 in a month. The following are a few benefits of a PRO account:

You will be able to create projects and collect shots with reference to a particular theme.
You will be able to find different designers based on skill or location.
If you have normal account you will be able to send 5 messages per month in order to communicate with other members. A PRO account will lift this limitation.
You can also organize different members into public or private lists.
A badge that says PRO will appear on your avatar and on your network.
If a firm is looking to hire someone, they will primarily look for PRO members. A PRO member will also be able to display a ‘hire me’ button on their profiles.

Invite Others

When you start getting the hang of the network, you will notice that you have the ability to invite other prospects into the network. This is also a great opportunity for you to get more exposure, especially through Twitter.

Jobs Feed

The jobs feed is very important for you to keep an eye on. This feed will let you know if there are any hiring going on in your location. You can even subscribe to the RSS feed of the jobs page.

Tips

If you are looking to gain more exposure, make sure you keep finding new players, then follow and engage with them. The primary form of engagement that you should use his liking their shots or even submit a rebound. You can also tweet their shots or link to them. This will help you gain more followers more contacts. If you are posting a shot please do not forget to tag it, because that will make it easier for other members to search.

Rebounds are a great way to generate interest and connect with other members on the network. You can also use rebounds in order to start a project and connect additional images as the project progresses. Rebound shots are visible on the playoffs page.

Conclusion

The interface offered by Dribbble is very easy to use and it allows the designers to display their work comfortably at their own convenience. The network furthermore includes only high quality designers and is very user friendly. If you are willing to give enough time to the network you will definitely get the value out of it.

August 25, 2014 0 comment

Web Design

How to Plan a Web Design Project

by Ali August 20, 2014

written by Ali

Much more goes into web design than simply moving around blocks of content and fiddling with typography. Web design requires diligent planning and structure, but it also requires great communication skills: responding to the needs of your clients and their customers is paramount when it comes to starting a web design project.

In this article, we’ll go over the basics of how to plan a web design project, working in a bunch of helpful tips and ideas along the way. As always, your comments are welcome.

The Meeting

The purpose of the meeting is to get everybody involved in the web design project to gather around the same table. You should be comfortable with each other, make sure you know who everybody is, and make sure you understand what the agenda is. Take the first meeting for introductions, deciding on how the project will flow, and what the time frame will be. Set up a Google Doc or shared platform that everybody on the table can access for updates and modifications. This will also help in everybody stay in sync.

Following meetings involve getting everyone up to speed, and checking on performances. Of course, the meetings involve brainstorming in case there are problems and random idea generation. You should make sure that everything is clear, on the table, and accounted for before you leap onto the design and planning process.

The Information Architecture

Every project is different, and so is its information architecture. Information architecture is just a fancy word for your website’s structure, including different content that needs to be covered, branding and marketing elements that need to be considered, and design concepts that need to be implemented. Here are common information architecture components that should be covered as you plan its structure:

Branding Statement: A branding statement establishes the core ethos of a business, explaining in a couple sentences its beliefs as well as the problems it solves. Not so much a concrete element as an aura over all other aspects of a website, your branding statement sets the tone of all your other content.

Featured Content: Featured content refers to the information that you want to give a particular spotlight to on your page. Don’t be deceived by its seeming simplicity, though: Deciding on featured content is often the source of the most tension in design meetings, and should be given plenty of time to negotiate.

Navigation: Your website’s navigation is, quite simply, the path your visitors will follow as they locate information on your website. Mapping a site’s navigation is perhaps the lengthiest of all aspects of information architecture, as it needs to take into account all information. There are plenty of strategies to help with navigation mapping, but take a look at this Smashing Magazine article to give you a bit of inspiration.

Services: Understanding the value of your business is essential when listing your services. Make sure to take a good look at your competition to think about ways that you can orient what you do suit your customers’ needs.

About Us: This area will detail everything about the company including origins, purpose, values and mission etc.

Inquiry Form: If a visitor to the website has a question, he would be able to get in touch with the company by means of an inquiry form. IM Creator offers a form element that can be easily embedded into a design, but if you need a more elaborate contact area, consider using a JotForm widget.

Footer Content: This area may include important links for website navigation, legal pages and social media pages etc. Also provide the copyright information at the bottom.

The Wire-frame

Finally, we have the wire-frame. Wire-framing is an important concept, not only in web design projects, but even when designing mockups for different products. However, being specific to web design projects, you will use wire-framing to create content-free simulation of what the website will actually look like. Basically divide a canvas into various black and white boxes, and decide what content goes where. There are plenty of wire-framing tools use can use online for free, take a look at this list by CodeCondo for 11 of the best.

To get started, go for lo-fi wireframes. You are just looking for how the layout is going to set and look like finally. Furthermore, you will only decide where content will go. You do not have to get into the nitty gritty of it all and draw everything to scale with the proper hierarchy. If you are working on a responsive project (the vast majority of websites these days are responsive), then you may want to start designing your mobile version of the website first.

Chances are, the majority of your layouts will be similar or exact, and you do not need to repeat the entire process for every single page. If a particular area of a website has a completely different template and look, you should wire-frame it so that you do not waste time while actually developing the website in thinking of all the ways a particular page could be designed.

There you go folks, this is all you would need to start a web design project. It does not matter whether the project is big or small, you just need to have appropriate resources, a talented team and there has to be communication. After the wire-framing, it moves on to the developers and they take care of the rest.

August 20, 2014 0 comment

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