Category: web design

How to create gradients was always the domain of photo editing software and vector creating programs, but now with modern technology and css3 you can create gradients with some coding that is fairly easy to learn. This is a brief guide on what you need to know on how to create gradients in css.

Where might I use gradients?

Gradient code is most likely to be used in buttons and backgrounds of websites or navigational system but don’t restrict yourself to  just the common places that they are found, if you have a good idea for use of a gradient then go ahead and try it out, there are no limits to experimenting with code and creativity, the only limits to design is your imagination and maybe a bit of technical understanding.

Selecting colours in the Hex code for your gradient

When creating gradients it is useful to know the hex codes of colours. A hex code is short for hexadecimal numbers which are as follows : –

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

0 being obsolete of colour ( or we know it as black ) and F is white. Combining a set of these numbers together in how monitors display colour ( RGB, Red , Green & Blue ) we can create over 16 million colours. I have shown below how numbers choose the intensity of each colour, it does help if you have a little understanding of how colours mix.

#ffff00

I have shown above that two numbers given in a 6 digit hex code make up a screen colour, so for instance the first two digits, ff equals maximum intensity red followed by two more ff’s which equates to maximum intensity green but I have finished this code with 00 in the blue which means there will be no blue displayed in this code.

Do you know what colour this makes? If you are a painter you will think brown but actually we are not mixing paints here, we are mixing light together so the colour returned is in fact yellow! Watch this video below of RGB to see how light mixes, it’s quite insightful.

If you want to select colour easily then w3schools have a colour picker on their website here or if you want to understand computer colour theory further please visit this informative link from htmlgoodies.com.

I’m more a visual person, I want to be able to see the gradient

The difference between coding a gradient and visually creating one via editing tools is great and sometimes a few numbers on a screen is a little hard to understand for the novice css coder or simply for the general human being, but there is a solution! Colorzilla.

Colorzilla this is how to create gradients in css

Colorzilla allows you to play with gradients till you are blue in the face, pardon the pun, till you find the perfect visual combination. Just like major photo/illustration editing tools you have oodles of options like adding more colour stops, selecting preset designs, the orientation of the gradient, opacity and other things you can find in major applications for editing visual elements.

What is even better about Colorzilla is that once you have created your gradient

the code is also generated so you can easily copy and paste the gradient code into your css style sheet for the relevant element of your site, it even applies webkits for browser compatibility! It’s a great tool but it is also important to understand the code rather than simply cutting and pasting. You can find many reasonable tutorial websites and I recommend spending at least an hour a day on advancing your skills, the thing with our profession is that it is ALWAYS evolving so it’s important that you don’t decay when new technology comes about.

To play with the gradient website please follow the link below and secondly, please leave a link in the comment box below on how you have used gradients in your designs. Happy digital colouring in!

Create your gradients with Colorzilla today

Here is an alternative with fewer options

Linear Gradients

And finally, a gradient animator!

Gradient Animator

Free fonts for use on web are quite useful for the professional or student web/graphic designer using font face css and knowing where to find free fonts to use in your designs is even better! As a man who believes sharing in knowledge with others I have compiled a list of websites with varying free fonts for use on web below. I have also added a few where you have to pay and a couple of other tools for those who are wanting to develop websites to the latest html5 and css3 standard. If you know of any others please feel free to include it in the comment box below the post.

Free fonts websites

Please check that the fonts you are downloading are suitable for web before you use them, I know most of you will understand this but for those just starting to learn about web design check that the font will be a) compatible with all browsers and b) not slow down your site considerably.

Fontsquirrel

So you want to download fonts for free, well then fontsquirrel.com is a great starting point! A font on this site range from the fancy fonts, handwritten fonts to sans serif fonts. You can type in some text to their website and see font examples with each type face.

font files

The league of moveable type

free cool fonts are available on the league of moveable type, check them out, they believe in freedom of design!

cool fonts

Google Fonts

Google web fonts are totally free and really gaining in popularity. When choosing a font from the google fonts website make sure that its size isn’t going to effect the performance loading speed of your site. Google have also gone to the trouble of comparing different fonts with the google fonts making it easier to see google font combinations as not every font will match easily and it might look quite strange if too different but also if they are too similar this can be a problem also. google fonts google fonts download google fonts

NOT free fonts for use on web

Although its great getting free fonts sometimes paying a little fee can help you get fonts that really perfect the look and feel of your website’s brand image. Obviously there is is only so far free fonts can go and sometimes paying just a small fee for a custom font may not be so bad especially if you have many clients. The following websites are fee based but still worth a look.

Typekit

Fontdeck

Fonts.com

Webtype

Webtype is another place where you can download fonts for a fee.

http://www.webtype.com/

Other things to consider when selecting fonts for use on web

There are several things you must think about when selecting the fonts you use in your design and these are as follows : –

• Readability
• The mood the fonts give
• Font Compatibility
• Tracking/letter spacing
• Vertical Rhythm

Readability

Readability is all about how easy it is to read the font. At the end of the day it is important that the user feels that they can read the font easily, if they can’t then its kind of defeating the object of the task at hand. Make sure the free font you choose is easy to read.

The mood that the font gives

Even though readability should always be the number one reason for choosing a font ( in my opinion ) different types of typography give a mood or feel. Ask yourself is the font you have chosen given the appropriate mood or should you keep on looking for an appropriate typeface?

Font Compatbility

Font compatibility is also an issue, the modern way of typography expects two or even three different fonts to sometimes be used on a website. Making sure these fonts are compatible is really important. When I talk about compatibility I am talking about how they blend together. It is said that two font types shouldn’t be too different but at the same time they musn’t be identical either, there needs to be a good balance and on the likes of the Google Fonts website they give some suggestions of how you can pair certain fonts together.

Tracking/letter spacing

Tracking or letter spacing of a font is also important, if it is too close together it can look too cluttered and if it is too exposed it can be hard to read. I suggest that having a large space between each letter should only be used in titles if possible.

Vertical Rhythm

Vertical Rhythm is the hidden lines that make up a composition in a piece of writing. By using a vertical rhythm you will create a better UX and more likely to get the user to read your text. To find out if your website has vertical rhythm you can use a free bit of code from this website basehold.it

Earlier last year I did make another blog post about free fonts for web. Please visit the blog post here for more suggestions. I hope you find this post useful, please do share it and feel free to leave a comment in the box below.

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5 Tips For Getting Better Results From Mobile

People are using more diverse devices to browse the web than ever before and more and more of these devices are tablets and smartphones. Browsing behavior on such devices is different than on laptop and desktop computers. Because it is very likely that a lot of the traffic to your website will be coming from mobile devices and that this will only increase in the future, it is important that you devise a mobile advertising strategy that tailors ads for these devices and consequently improves your online advertising results. Here are some tips for getting better results from your mobile advertising efforts.

Make Sure That Your Website Works on All Mobile Devices

These days mobile devices aren’t limited to just iPhones and iPads. You need to make sure that your website displays correctly on a number of different Android and IOS devices. If a person lands on your website and finds that scrolling doesn’t work properly on their device or that they can’t read the text on your site because it is too small, they will quickly move on. Creating a great mobile user experience is very important so make sure to test on different devices and alter your website if necessary. A good responsive design is a must for any website these days.

Create Mobile Specific Ads

If you are using Google search ads, you can activate mobile preferred ads through the Advanced Campaigns feature in the Google AdWords backend and use specific ad texts for mobile devices.

Measure Results and Behavior

Use Google Analytics to measure how well your mobile ads are performing and how users on different devices are behaving on your site. Investigate how your ads and site performs on mobile devices compared with desktop performance. If you find that some pages on your website aren’t performing very well on mobile devices according to the key performance indicators you have identified, make some changes and measure whether your results improve.

Funnel Mobile Users Differently

Creating a specific sales funnel for mobile users can significantly improve your conversion rates. People on mobile devices don’t want to search around on a page to see where they need to click, nor do they want to click through 20 times and fill out information on 5 pages before being able to actually buy something or get the information they are after. Your mobile sales funnel needs to be easy, fast and straightforward. That way you’ll lose fewer potential customers along the way.

Leverage Location Information

Many mobile device searches have some geographical intent. People who research products want to buy often still prefer to buy them in a physical store. If possible you should take advantage of this. For example, if your business has physical stores and one happens to be near where the user is performing their search, you can show this information in your advertising message. You can do this using the location extension feature that Google AdWords offers. If your business is using online advertising, but you haven’t set up any specific ads for mobile yet, the time to start doing this is right now. Your competitors are likely already on top of this, so make sure you don’t lose your competitive edge by ignoring the importance of mobile devices. Zane Schwarzlose is an SEO Specialist at Fahrenheit Marketing, an Austin Internet marketing firm. Zane thinks that a mobile-only Internet marketing strategy could be easier to implement and quantify.

The CIW Web design Professional Certification program

As the 2014 has started and the wed designing field has become very advanced and in order to cater the demands of the increasing requirements as well as standards of the web designing sector, the need for certified and competent professionals have also accelerated so that they can handle the complex mattes and criteria for this sector. The companies, enterprises as well as the firms are in search for the professionals who can develop and design cutting edge web pages and designs for them. The CIW is a popular vendor of many webs designing certification series. The CIW Web Design professional certification is one of them. This certification is a very important and powerful web designing certification which is also recognized and accepted by the best employers of the world.

Getting the Certification

In order to get certified in this valuable certification, the individuals have to pass the two exams:

• CIW Web Design Specialist
• CIW E-Commerce Specialist

The CIW web design specialist exam is considered more important for the web designers. By passing each of these exams the individuals can get certified in each certification. But by passing both these exams successfully the individuals can get the status of CIW Certified Wed Design Specialist. This status is very important for getting several secure career options. The exam preparation is for the CIW web design specialist professional is very crucial and the individuals must prepare themselves for the certification.

The Targeted Audiences of certification

This certification is a professional and advance level certification program. The certification successfully targets the wed designers for advancement of their career. Several other individuals related to this field can also take certification for securing several higher paid designations with job security. The following are the targeted audiences of this certification:

• Art Directors
• Web and Graphic Designers
• Creative Directors
• Web Marketing Professionals
• Advertising Professionals

These individuals can take this certification program for advancing their current employment status to a secure way and can also gain several other professional advantages. By getting this certification the individuals can also increase their competency and credibility in web designing services even in the complex and critical environments.

The scope and value of the certification

We can summarize that in the current market situation, the CIW wed Design Specialist Professional Certification program can offer a wide range of occupational benefits to the individuals. This professional level certification programs are also recognized by the best employers around the world and top organizations. The employers hire and prefer the certified professionals to develop cutting edge designs. The web designing services offered by the certified professionals can provide advantages to the employers so, they provide higher salaries to these certified professionals. But in order to get this useful and important certification the candidates can take help from the Selftest Training website. This website is considered as the best certification exam preparation website. Individuals can get sample questions and preparatory references by visiting this website and can get guaranteed results.

Featured images:

•  License: Image author owned

By Mary Desilva

The Writer is Internet Marketing guru, blogger and writer, She is writing from last 3 years on many different topics, she also loves cooking, dancing and movies.

Freelance designer work in different roles depending on the skill set they possess. These days most of the designing jobs are advertised for freelance work. In this competitive industry it is not only your skills that matter. You should be alert to other aspects of the business. Although you can hire other people for help but it will take a heavy toll on your budget. Generally freelancers commit many mistakes when they are relatively new in this field. Some of these mistakes can be devastating for your career and reputation. To follow are some of those mistakes and ways of avoiding them.

Dealing Blunders

Freelancers have to deal with clients in acquiring the project, contracting and payment collections. It is suggested to bid around the average value. While contracting make sure the paper work is done. In contract deed ask for running payments from the employer i.e. paying after each phase of completion of the project. Asking for down payment is not a bad ploy provided that you have a good standing in the industry, no matter you are new in the freelancing mould.

Ignoring the Audience

This mistake is mostly committed by amateurs in this field. It is easy to forget about the target audience when you are concentrating on other design aspects. Whether you are designing for the website or a logo for a certain company the paramount factor for your success is the viewer. Take into consideration the age, gender, culture and in some cases the geography of your audience.

Not Updating Yourself

One of the dilemmas of freelance jobs which generally are home based is the lack of learning opportunities. It is very important to keep yourself updated with the latest trends in the industry. Join discussion boards, subscribe to technology newsletter and read e-magazines to keep in touch with the latest trends and practices in the industry.

In effective Communication

In freelancing the main hurdle is lack of communication. If your client can’t understand your demands and see the output then your relation can deteriorate. So don’t shy away or presume yourself to be perfect in whatever you are doing.

Absence of Planning

The basic skeleton of website design is pretty important in deciding the course of your work. You should have a clear mind about the needs of the client and how they fit into the design you made. Don’t allow for excessive information on a single page, especially on the main page. Use links to direct the user to such information.

Compatibility Issues

Another problem the cyber world faces is compatibility between hardware and software. You might have designed a website which runs perfectly in one browser but poses problems in another. Similarly it is better to work with vector format that .png or .JPEG in graphics designing.

Wrong Color and Font Combination

Choosing the wrong color mix or format will affect your design badly. Use non irritating colors to eye. Similarly use simple fonts which are easily readable. Most of the websites allow for a lot of white spaces just to improve readability.
Freelance designers who are new in the field commit certain errors in dealings and working. With the passage of time they learn from such mistakes but it is better to know them beforehand to ward off any losses.

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Anne has studied Graphic Design and she loves sharing awesome graphic designing and logo designing tips with her readers. She enjoys playing with colors and thinks learning about latest technology trends is very useful these days.

If I see another little 3d white man with a huge spherical head on a website or as a Twitter profile image I think my head will explode with creative madness ! This little man is soooo over used by small businesses that it shows a lack of understanding of just how important branding and graphic design plays in your potential customers decision making.

Why stock images are bad for business

This may sound like I am being extremely harsh on the little white man and please don’t suggest I am bullying him but your business is a unique entity, unlike this little fellow. By using common stock imagery you are : –

1. saying that you are just the same as the next business.
2. you don’t care about your company’s image and marketing message.
3. and worst of all you are also saying that your service is cheap and untrustworthy!

Consistent brand message

Most medium sized to large corporations will have what is called a branding style guide and it must be adhered to at all times. Some of the elements in the guide can include what fonts should be used, their spacing & curning, the exact RGB, CMYK colours of the brand and the typical images and marketing message that should be considered as part of the overall look and feel of any marketing collateral whether digital or offline.

I realise by using stock images that look the same you think you are being consistent but if that image is seen again and again throughout the web on different websites that aren’t your own business then you are damaging the possibility of selling your product or image to the target market.

When I see people using unaltered stock images online it really disheartens me and puts me off using that business service or product, it makes me feel I can’t trust them and I will disregard them from my retail choices.

Alter the stock images

Don’t get me wrong stock images are great in helping graphic and digital designer gather elements you need to create unique graphics but if you use them as the sole way to “picturize” your website you will simply be putting your potential customers off doing business with you as although may you think the images you have chosen look good the majority of people will see an unprofessional website that shows lack of care, does that really reflect your business goal? I doubt it, your business has personality so show it off to the world!

Other stock images to avoid

The little white man doing various activities is my no.1 thing that makes my creative blood boil to see people using on their digital platforms, I mean, why!?!

But it also gets worse, pictures of random actors trying their hardest pretending to be business people standing in line are common place, avoid them or use sparingly and never use them for your main brand image that is simply a big no no!

Hire a designer

It is probably better to have no images at all if you are going to use unaltered stock images that are damaging your online reputation with potential customers. If you need unique images communicate your message verbally through correct use of heading styles, and contextual information and then hire a graphic/digital designer when your business budget can afford it.

It may seem like an extra expense your business doesn’t need and maybe the cost will seem heavy at first but if the graphics communicate your business message in a unique and imaginative way compared to your market rivals then when people are looking for your service/product they will remember you and see that you are indeed a very highly professional business worthy of doing business with as well as increasing the worth of your business.

I am JAWILSONDESIGN a branding, web and graphics specialist that can help you improve your company’s image in a unique and imaginative way if you should need any help updating, improving or creating a new brand image please don’t hesitate to contact me.

I am regular subscriber to several marketing email newsletter from various sorts and one caught my eye. It discussed how businesses fail and half of the points raised relate to the creative industries I am in. In this post I will discuss with you why every business owner shouldn’t see designers as expensive commodities but as creative geniuses that can add real monetary value ( with examples) to your corporation and prodigious intrigue to your potential business leads.

The three creative parts of your business that if not invested in will doom your business to fail

By refusing to pay a designer for a professional logo, they looked amateurish. People don’t trust amateurs.

Before even developing an online presence, website and marketing collateral, probably the number one key element of a brand is its logo.

Without a professionally designed logo that has taken time to develop and evolve by a consummate creative professional you ARE damaging your business. Sure, you can ask your friends kid to have a go, they learn that kind of stuff at school or why not employ someone on the infamous bidding websites like freelance and get someone in India to do it for a cut of the cost a western creative would cost, they look good enough… don’t they?

The best creative professionals will have been trained in the arts by other creatives with many years expereince and taught to think differently than an average person. Everything in a creatives mind is thought about on a deeper level than just whether you like something or not. To a creative everything has a story, a meaning and a message that needs to be communicated with the medium they know best.

A great creative will know that particular symbolism will have strong influence in your business industry as will the colours and composition of your logo.

You really should value the work of the creative not as an expensive commodity but as a product enhancing necessity.

I ask you, consider three brands right now and what comes into your mind? McDonalds? Apple? Nike? Do you see a description of these companies in your minds eye or their logo when you read the above text? That is the power of the corporate logo, we are visual creatures and a logo is the heart in your business monster, without a well designed one your monetary blood simply won’t flow as easily.

By refusing to pay for a professional looking website, they lost sales leads and looked like amateurs.

Every brand or company whether providing a service or product needs a website. I don’t care whether you are an app developer, an alternative therapist or a builder and ‘things simply aren’t done that way in your industry to generate leads’ because basically that is a load of old hat!

Most people now ‘google it’ to find products or services

Most customers and businesses now look online or ‘google’ it to find what it is they need to solve their problem and if you aren’t online targeting these people then you are missing the opportunity to be found and make sales.

Not only this but your website should be generating new content weekly, if not daily so you can share it on social media ON EVERY PLATFORM. A lot of social media organisers may disagree with me and that is fair enough as some social media platforms are used more by different target markets than others but it is in my belief if you generate content and then share it everywhere you are allowing your potential customers a chance to find YOUR BUSINESS regardless of gender, creed, colour or class which surely is a good thing if not just for increasing brand awareness.

Websites are a business asset

Owning a website can seem expensive but again THATS A LOAD OF RUBBISH!!! A website is NOT expensive, the designer might charge you, for example, $2000 to set it up with a domain name, hosting, a designed UI, navigational structure that works, code it with html, css, php, add graphics and functionality, include social media AND show you how easy it is to add new content to the site without worrying you will mess up the design, look and feel of the site and NOT NEEDING TO KNOW ANY CODE!

A website might sound scary but it shouldn’t be, a website designer can sit down with you for a small fee to just show you that a website can be the best and most enjoyable part of your business to manage and you will never look back once you own it.

Website adds value to your customers but also to your business valuation

Plus it really DOES ADD REAL MONETARY VALUE to your business. My website, only 10 months old is worth around $7000…as I designed it myself I had no initial outgoing in terms of design but even if I had paid $2000 for a months work to develop a good website I would still have made made a $5000 increase in my initial investment.

(If you are interested to see what your website is worth type into google ‘what is my website worth’ into google)

By refusing to hire a copywriter for their marketing, their response rates were 100′s of percent lower than they would have been.

As a dyslexic man copy writing is not the skill I write home about ( dya see what i did!? Huh! Huh!? 😀 ) but I still see it as a creative and highly skilled talent. The right words really are the write words and these guys know how to communicate your product verbally like a master word ninja.

Work with a copywriter to get the content ‘write’

Of course, YOU SHOULD EXPLAIN YOUR BUSINESS AND WRITE THE CONTENT FOR YOUR WEBSITE but you should also consult a copywriter to ensure the words you are using are not too complex for your market. It is really important you get your message across in a simplified manner, the best website will give the visitor the information they want and need without having to think too hard. I think the key message is to explain things like you were speaking to your grandma, another words simple words, simple comparisons and simple call to actions.

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Example of a website design cost and breakdown

It may seem  that they charge the earth but if you break down what they are adding into your business then it is actually a cheap service in relative terms. For example lets use the website example again; I suggested that a website designer charges you £2000 for a website that takes a month to make. Wo! You think that is so expensive!

But let me break it down for you : –

That designer is going to spend 40 hours a week on your website, they are going to create a photoshop mockup, design navigational systems, create a backup incase of emergency, improve your website security, improve your web speed performance, help gain a basic seo score for your intial pages, they will design a UI optimised for your customers experience, they then have to create all the graphics and marketing messages, they then have to code it in html, and css as well as possibly php, java, ajax, j-query and other languages that takes a long time to learn. They then will get your approval before making changes you want to happen and they may even show you how to update it and provide you with a user guide too if you are lucky.

Good design takes time