Did you know that self-made millionaires spend 5 hours a week on learning? If you want to be included in the list of the who’s who, well, at least in the world of web design, please take heed. Read these articles first.

Web design articles

Where it all started

[1] Internaut day: The world’s first public website went online 25 years ago today

Are you wondering how the first web page looks like? It’s built on HTTP and HTML!

[2] A brief history of web design for designers

Let’s do some digging here. Web design has a dark history, quite literally!

[3] The Evolution of Web Design

Here’s a more visual presentation on how web design progressed through the years.

[4] Web design in 4 minutes

Now let’s get down to business with web design as explained in 4 minutes. 4 MINUTES.

Web design principles

[5] The Distribution of Users’ Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think

Not all web designers understand this, but the majority of the users may not be able to understand your design. In the article are the reasons you really need to keep it extremely simple.

[6] 9 basic principles of responsive web design

When it comes to the basics, though, the rule of thumb nowadays is it has to be responsive.

[7] 5 Principles of Persuasive Web Design

It doesn’t need to be just responsive, but it also needs to be persuasive. Otherwise, the design won’t deliver any conversions.

[8] 5 Modern Web Designs That Interfere with Conversions

Done wrong, and web design will actually restrict conversion, defeating its purpose altogether.

[9] 4 Factors Lean Web Design Company Considers Important

Even a web design company, Philippines-based or not, has a list of factors important in lean web design.

Web design and SEO

[10] Understanding the Full Impact of Web Design on SEO, Branding and More

What you need to know is that web design doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It also relates to search engine optimization (SEO), among others.

[11] Improve SEO with Inspirational Web Design in 2017

The truth is, you can actually improve SEO using web design principles, and you can improve design through SEO principles. It’ll be a win-win if you do.

[12] 5 Important Considerations for Web Design and SEO

Consider these things!

Web design trends

[13] The hottest trend in Web design is making intentionally ugly, difficult sites

Other than the principles and SEO, you also need to arm yourself with knowledge on design trends. Learn an intriguing yet successful trend about web designing. At times, you really need to learn what challenging the status quo means and how to do that.

[14] Web design trends we can expect to see in 2017

Speaking of trends, some trends don’t feel like trends at all because they stay, and for good reasons. Some trends are recurring, while some others are fleeting. It’s a yearly thing also and every design-related site seems to have its own version of design trends. So expect to see some new trends in 2018 and beyond.

[15] How to Create a Web Design Style Guide

Create consistent designs within the team with style guides. Consider these important points (and do’s and don’ts when crafting a project’s web design style guidelines.

[16] Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design

For more do’s and don’ts, here are some more mistakes you should avoid when designing.

[17] 10 Examples of Pre-Built Websites for Tech Put to Good Work

Design rules, rules and rules; following them makes the life of any web designer easy. The rules for tech are different, and the article outlines such.

[18] Showcase of Creative Designs Made With Vibrant Gradients

Designers love color! Here’s the proof. Now that’s perfect for broadening your RGB spectrum!

Web design inspiration

[19] 17 Sites for Web Design Inspiration

To let the creative juices flowing consistently, you’ll need inspiration from these sites.

[20] 24 Amazing Web Design Blogs You Should Follow This Month!

Learning should be continual. Read the right blogs.

[21] The 30 Best Web Design Blogs of All Time You Must Follow

What? Twenty-four blogs are not enough? Then, let’s make it thirty!

These just some of the articles we’ve found online that are worth your while. Take a moment to visit each website and read what every web designer needs to know. Learn and learn well.

Happy reading!

The post 21 Top Web Design Articles You Should Be Reading Right Now appeared first on Internet Marketing Reach.

Image Source

One of the main focuses of most companies is improving their web page for a better user experience. Agree? That means the better their web design and their functionalities are, the higher quality traffic a website can have. However, it doesn’t guarantee that people will like the updates and improvements. There are factors and reasons as to why users have a bad or good experience with a particular website. And a user’s emotions can influence their website experience.

You will know when a person is happy or irritated through observing the way they act. Now, with the advancements of technologies, you can detect a person’s emotion through their mouse movements. A researcher from Brigham Young University, Professor Jeffrey Jenkins founds out that a person’s experience on a web page can affect their emotions. And having a better web design in the Philippines can convey a positive emotion through the way they move their mouse.

Jenkins and his team have created software that can detect, gather and process enough data points from your cursor movements to measure your emotional state. Researchers also utilize attentional control theory to explain how a mouse movement can be used as a reference for the user’s emotions. Moreover, they found out that there is indeed a change of mouse movement whenever a person is feeling happy or irritated.

To give you an idea how a mouse can detect your emotions towards a particular website, Jenkins explained that the control over your mouse movements could be an indicator of negative or positive emotions. How? When a mouse cursor is less precise, jerky and slow, that means a person is feeling down or irritated. In short, the user has a bad website experience.

For instance, when a user creates a mistake in messages and having slow download times, it can contribute to the negative emotion that increases the distance a cursor travels, and it slows the cursor speed. Moreover, instead of having or creating a straight or curving path, the mouse movements become jagged and sudden. Researchers can also identify or tell the anger level of the user, as well as the overall emotional state through the way he or she moves a computer’s mouse.

If users move their mouse in a way where it conveys frustrations towards the site, then developers can detect and have the chance to review their web design. Perhaps, there are some bugs that are still on the site, and functionalities that developers failed to implement successfully. On the other hand, when a user is happy or satisfied with their website experience, then the movement of the user’s mouse will also indicate that they are having a good time visiting the site.

Through this study, Jenkins believes that determining the user’s emotion is to website developers’ advantage. By using the data points based on the mouse movements, they can now be able to measure how a user feels towards a particular website, which can also be helpful and useful when it comes to their next update or website’s improvements. Moreover, this study also gives companies the chance to monitor their website’s traffic.

Good news! According to Science World Report that, Jenkins’ cursor-tracking concept can already be applied to mobile devices, where mouse movements can replace the usual swipes and taps. Although applications of this software to mobile devices are still in its early phases, however, Jenkins believes that phones and tablets can provide huge amounts of data.

And there’s more! Jenkins and his team are now in the process of refining its software. They also hope that the user’s interaction with the website is going to be better through good interface design.

The post Detecting Bad Web Design: How Mouse Clicks Reveal User’s Emotions appeared first on Internet Marketing Reach.

1) Mobile focus

Image source

Apparently, this year is all about mobile-friendliness. And why not? Google required that all websites must be mobile-friendly by April. Even without mandating it, the number of mobile users is growing by the day. In fact, some people are using a minimum of 2 to 3 mobile devices cause you never know when any of such devices will be handy. Not to mention, what you can do on a laptop computer, you can now do on a mobile device.

So, if your website is not yet mobile-friendly, then you are lagging behind the industry. Did you know that 67% of the consumers would purchase on a mobile-friendly site than on a non-mobile-friendly website? When it comes to mobile usage, there are 90% of people who uses multiple device screens subsequently.

2) Interactive scrolling

We’ve also seen web designs that consider having fun and interdependent features. One of these features that users can’t get enough of is parallax scrolling. It is originally a 2D video game technique that shows the depths of movements of the background images to emphasize the foreground images. Visually appealing as it is, it engages users through the use of layers of images for creating a 3D effect.

Parallax design allows developers to show a particular product or trails of products in 3D, which captures every single detail of the product. It is done meticulously by following a well-thought-out and carefully charted process. With this kind of technique, it automatically catches the eye of a website visitor that will most likely lead them and engage in a call to action on your website.

3) Flat design

Minimalist web design still works in 2015. Flat design, or the interface design without any stylistic elements such as the use of drop shadows, gradients or any other textures, is one of the lingering trends. The design focuses merely on simple elements, typographies, and flat colors, leading to a clean, polished look website that works seamlessly with responsive designs. The best part is it loads faster than websites with 3D effects, and it can be resized easily without compromising its high-definition screens.

On the other hand, a survey of web designers reveals that 68% of them believes that flat design is here to stay so we can expect more of such in the coming year. Only 9% said that flat design is only a fad that will pass anytime soon.

4) Single page

From the name itself, a single page website displays all the elements and contents in just one page. It is composed of a condensed and scannable content with all the necessary information on the same page, which can easily be navigated by the users. We’ve seen several websites embraced such a trend especially those sites that prioritize storytelling through visuals. Some websites use one-pages for product promotions, portfolios, brief announcements, etc. because they do not have much content.

What drives the brands and thus, the web developers to implement a single page website is the short attention span of the users. An adult user has an attention span of 8 seconds, and if you fail to capture his or her attention within that period, that’s an opportunity you lost to your competitor. Concise and objective contents yield better usability by up to 124%.

Evidently, the emphasis of these trends has a clean and straightforward layout that puts high-quality at the core while dismissing unprofessional-looking websites. When we say high-quality, it pertains to a user-friendly experience that the users deserved. Strategically, each web design has its own purpose and function. One might need to use a particular design to fit perfectly to the brand.

The post 4 Web Design Trends of 2015 appeared first on Internet Marketing Reach.

1) CSS3 Click Chart

CSS3 Click Chart is more of a reference tool used specifically for CSS3 attributes. The best time to use the tool is when you forget the required order of CSS box-shadow values. The tool shows you the proper way to use specific attributes through a demonstration for each attribute.

2) Spritebox

Spritebox is a system used in generating CSS sprite classes using the WYSIWYG interface. You simply have to upload the sprite image. With the use of the WYSIWYG tool, define and preview each element within the sprite. Lining up the graphics will be easier with the use of this system.

3) CodeKit

CodeKit is a Mac app, making the lives of SASS developers easier. CodeKit compiles the SASS files automatically. It also optimizes the file sizes of the images and reloads the page live while on the browser window.

4) Cloud9 IDE

Cloud9 IDE is an open-source editor mainly used as an online development environment. Cloud9 IDE is used for JavaScript, CSS, HTML, PHP, Java, Ruby and Node.js applications. You are free to write your own extensions for connecting any web-based platforms.

5) Patternizer

Patternizer is a tool that can be used in generating CSS3 stripes or checks through the use of online interfaces. The tool has its own library of available patterns. You can also customize the stripes and checks in terms of the width of gaps, angles and color.

6) XRAY

XRAY is a bookmarklet allowing the interrogation of a page through viewing the box model information regarding the page elements. XRAY must be dragged onto the bar. The next time you view a page, click the icon and then click the page element that requires interrogation. A popup will display the data about that element including its position, basic style and classes and IDs.

7) PrimerCSS

Primer is a web tool that allows pasting HTML into the window directly. Then, it come up with blank CSS on the basis of the classes and IDs used in the pasted HTML. PrimerCSS is for those developers who create their markup first prior to applying styling. What the tool does is to parse the HTML, grab classes and generate empty CSS nodes sets required for developing CSS.

8) CodeAnywhere

CodeAnywhere is an app wherein the users can simply login to access the files. The files you kept open when you logged out will still be open when you login again on the app. CodeAnywhere supports CSS, JavaScript, PHP, HTML and XML.

9) CodePen

CodePen refers to a social code sharing app. This means that frontend codes are created through sharing. Entering CSS, JavaScript and HTML is required before it can display the combined results at the pane beneath. You can save your own Pen and share it. You can also explore other Pens. CodePen is thus a great tool to show off your work, troubleshoot and demonstrate bugs.

10) Opera Mobile Emulator

Opera Mobile Emulator is a program where users can test how the app looks on Opera browsers. The program is available for Max, Linux and Windows users.

11) Adobe Brackets

Adobe Brackets is an editor built on various technologies like CSS, JavaScript and HTML. Brackets provides you with Quick Edit views that, in return, provide context-sensitive access to the contents.

12) HTML5 Boilerplate

HTML5 Boilerplate is a boilerplate template for HTML5 developers. Downloading the latest version is required though.

The list is not exhaustive. Nonetheless, the apps and tools featured above are very helpful for any developer. Meanwhile, if you think an app deserves the spot in this list, let me know.

The post The 12 Best Web Design Apps and Tools to Use appeared first on Internet Marketing Reach.

The problem is there are no simple “right” answers for most web design questions (at least not for the important ones). What works is good, integrated design that fills a need—carefully thought out, well executed, and tested.

― Steve Krug, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

Today, both offline and online business owners aim to promote their brand and product and service offerings on a global scale, enhancing the competitive edge and bottom-line in the process. This is possible with the help of a professionally-designed, highly customized website.

Business owners may not realize the importance of custom web designs in bringing in more traffic and thus more sales opportunities.

1) A customized website differentiates the business from the competition

It is a form of distinction that tells much about your brand and branding strategy. The overall design will be associated with your brand alone, so your website will always be on top of mind of the consumers when they remember an associated subject with it. Unique designs are often easily recognized and recalled by the visitors.

2) A custom site reflects the business philosophy and values

It is more than being a showroom for your products and services. Rather, the website can help the visitors in creating appropriate and favorable impressions of the brand as a whole. It won’t be difficult to encourage these visitors to invest in and transact with your business.

3) A custom-built website entails professionalism

It is more related to the reputation that the company is trying to maintain. Professional elements can be easily distinguished. In fact, any average Internet user can tell which site is professional looking and which is not. Businesses with custom sites are perceived as credible enough to do business with.

4) A tailor-made website synergizes with the overall marketing purpose

It contributes in convincing the consumers to purchase, so conversion is also easier with custom designed sites. What we’ve learned from customer psychology is that an individual will only purchase from a reputed company. Custom sites are essentially designed to suit the taste of the target market as well as the products and services that it markets.

5) A custom-made site complements optimization

It’ll be constructed to be search engine friendly. SEO elements can be integrated during the coding stage to increase the findability of your website. What good is a customized site if your target audience cannot find it? Professionally written codes are the necessary first step towards having a profitable site, attracting the right audience who are ready and willing to purchase.

The customization dilemma

Unfortunately, in most cases, the budget dictates the decision to opt for using website templates, which is the less costly option than custom websites. Custom website design and development is not as expensive as you think especially if you are going to look at it from the cost-and-benefit perspective.

Anyhow, customization also translates to adaptability and scalability which means changing the features of new business and technical requirements easily in the future when new technologies and tools came up. So for now, you can include only the most important features and incorporate other important features when the budget allows for it.

With this, your goal should be customizing the website at a cost that your present budget can accommodate. Your main goal should be setting a realistic budget. Customized websites can go as high as $5,000. Why skimp, right? After all, it is your website – the core of your online presence.

Achieving the brand personality that you want is impossible with a template! Why would you even consider using templates when customized web designs are very budget-friendly?

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