Anybody who works in the field of marketing design will know that researching other logos and pages is critical in keeping up with the changing trends that permeate the web. Since what is popular is inexplicably decided and ever fluid, there is a risk of running behind if you don’t check regularly to see what is out there.

But in the last few years – and especially the last five or so – there are some design trends that are everywhere. This is generally because they are actually very good and easy to adapt to other changes in the marketing world. They are also able to be included in plenty of other more unique or new looks, which makes them basic style staples.

The problem is that this means they are overused. In particular, there are seven design basics that you will see all over the place, and you might want to keep an eye on if you want to try to use them yourself. Mainly because you run the risk of creating something that looks like any other logo or design that you will come across on the web. Who wants that? No one hoping to set their skills (or personal businesses and sites) apart from the pack, that is for sure.

Below are these seven trends that you have to be very careful if you decide to use them yourself.

1. Badges and Buttons

It used to be that you would see badges or buttons all over the web, and that wasn’t a surprise. It is a much more attractive way of presenting a gateway than an average link, especially with the dull, active and inactive text settings of the days or yore. You can also stack, line or place them in locations that are more pleasing to the eye, rather than just laying it out list a list or burying it in text.

Most commonly you will see these badges presented as bright, glittery boxes. They seem to shine thanks to the often-blended white gradient layers along with the block lettering and creative logo use. Since they appear to glow at you from the screen they can be really appealing.

But have you noticed who is using these the most? Companies such as Apple or social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook have more or less monopolized the use of badges in the last couple of years. Need proof? Look at app download pages or the share buttons on blogs all over the web. It is almost a shock to see them used for anything else anymore.

This overuse added to brand association spells death to the badge and button as a multi-purpose design option for others.

2. Speech Bubbles and Megaphones

Social media and networking has presented a new way of communicating to people all over the world. Since that is its primary function on a user to user level (even marketing is within this line of usage), it stands to reason that speech bubbles and megaphones would be used in logos and banners.

After all, those are direct visual representations of what these sites have sought out to do.

But the idea of showing it to be a "talking" logo has become old and stale. I have lost count of how many companies use this now, and they all seem to look the same. It isn’t that a visual showing talking and listening can’t be utilized, but perhaps something a bit more creative than the now overdone comic-era speech bubble?

3. Fun With Opacity!

I think all designers have had their fair share of fun with the lovely Multiply and Overlay features in  Photoshop? By changing the opacity of any layer you can create a really cool effect with next to no effort on your part. It can change the entire look of a logo in an instant, and might make the difference between something standard and boring and something elegant and well designed.

Possibly the most recent example of how this old technique is being utilized is in the Microsoft Silverlight logo, which was a beautifully done one that is immediately recognizable to even those who only occasionally use Internet Explorer as their browser.

Since it is so versatile and is a tool of design rather than a method, this once doesn’t have the same problem of becoming boring like some others on this list.  But it is still easy to use the wrong blend of colors or shapes, which will be less than appealing.

4. Kawaii Illustration

I keep seeing these logos all over the place, especially when it comes to apps such as Seesmic and GitHub, two very adult, industry-oriented tools for power users looking for marketing opportunities on the web.

It is not something you would expect to see advertised by adorable, fluffy, giant eyed woodland creatures.

But lately they appear to be everywhere, and that in itself shows the popularity of the trend. No one seems to know what started it, but it doesn’t look like it will be going away.

The problem with using it is that if you are not very specific about how you are presenting it, the brand you are marketing might get lost in the cuteness that is the adorable animal.

Make sure to be clear about what it is attached to, and watch to make sure it is not too similar to those used by other companies and web apps.

5. Scripts, Slabs and Other Cool Fonts

I am going to take a wild guess and say you have used Archer more than once in a logo design. I don’t think there is a single designer among us who hasn’t, or used one very similar to the point of being almost indistinguishable. Since it was probably the most popular font of the last three years it would be silly to scold you for it.

But I will tell you to step away from the Archer now. Slab serif fonts are still a great tool, but keep in mind how often they are used and the way they have a tendency to make logos all look very similar.

Instead, try to go with a more unique, lesser used alternative to the old boys. If it is something you haven’t really seen before, use it! Try building a logo to fit the font rather than the other way around. This will give an immediate creative boost and set you apart with next to no additional effort.

6. Verdant and Plant-Inspired

In this case I am not going to say "be careful when using" this design choice. I am going to say to ‘be careful not using it’, because it a really ignored look. That is unfortunate because flora and fauna are great ways to present a natural and pleasant looking logo.

Depictions of nature give people a sense of ease, and even a plant related silhouette will seem warmer and inviting than many more modern and bare looking designs that have become the norm online.

But too much of flora is still no good.

7. Quadrangles

What are these things? Seriously, they are lopsided and fit no actual shape known to man. They are somewhere between a rectangle and a trapezoid, and they are everywhere these days. Which is interesting, because symmetry was once considered a great ally to the designer, especially for logos.

The problem here is that quadrangles can appear so uneven that it gives an off-putting look to the entire logo. You have to balance it just right, and without proper color schemes, font and placement it just looks wrong. I have never personally liked one I have seen, though I can see why those who like fun and modern designs might get into it.

Tell Us Your Own!

There are so many trends out there we can’t keep up with them all. Which do you see that could be used correctly, and what ones are a flop? Let us know in the comments.

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Web designers are prone to commit mistakes while designing a website. Budding designers are more vulnerable to make such mistakes while attempting to implement new ideas. If you are a budding designer or even an experienced professional in web designing you need to be careful and alert for avoiding such mistakes. Many developers are increasingly relying on website templates for minimizing chances of mistakes in designing a site. Let us focus on some commonly made mistakes of web designing. 

Faults in Site Structure 

Many designers fail to offer balance between the space occupied by information and white or blank space. Text, images and menus should appear on a contrasting background and distances between the designing elements should give a clean and clear look. Overcrowded web pages fail to hold attention of the viewers. Check out the margin, “padding” style while creating a site.

Example of clean web design

Browser Issue 

The site should be displayed perfectly with all commonly used browsers. Many designers simply forget to check the browser compatibility or skip it in haste. Web developers relying on website templates often commit this mistake. There are several browsers and each have various versions to complicate the issue. This happens because many users avoid upgrading their browsers. Identify the popular browsers used by the website’s target group and check compatibility of your site with them. 

Miserable Navigation 

This mistake can drive out interested traffic instantly. Visitors look for desired information while visiting a site. The desired information should be maximum three clicks away. Many designers bury the content too deep and frustrate the visitors. Portion of the text and navigational elements should be properly highlighted to guide the visitors. Many designers use unconventional names for Home, Product, About and other sections that can confuse the user. Website templates are great way for small and medium businesses to develop or redesign their site with proper navigational elements in place.

Using Flash and Music

Budding designers have a fascination to use Flash and background music. This slows down the response time and page loading is disturbed. Many users don’t have access to high speed Internet connection and need to wait a long time for the page loading. This disrupts the smooth browsing experience of users and they often skip to another site. Website templates using flash should be tested before developing. 

Websites with background music are rarely appreciated by users. While it may be good for websites promoting music or audio guided tour, the viewers should be given an option of controlling the sound rather than auto-playing from the beginning. 

Unlabelled Links

All the links of a site should be properly labeled. This is crucial when you are designing a site from scratch or using any website templates. When this is not followed users get confused about the destination where the link will lead. Grouping similar links with same color or fonts, changing the color of used links, using clearly visible buttons are encouraged. Designers sometimes fail to distinguish the text links within content. 

Typographical Faults

Using too small or too large fonts creates wrong impression. Messages are best delivered through smart web safe fonts of optimum sizes. Style of the font should not be so clumsy that the user has difficulty in reading or understanding. Experimenting too much with fonts is a common mistake that should be avoided. Using website templates may minimize chances of such mistakes.  

Images Not Optimized

Images used on a website should be resized or compressed to save space and loading time. When it is not done, images take long time to load and the viewers often leave the site without waiting. Providing thumbnail view and linking those to larger images is a smart solution that many designers fail to implement. JPG, PNG and GIF are commonly used formats. Other formats of images may take a long time to load. When an image or few images are used as background the designer should be cautious about the loading time and level of optimization. 

Wrong Color Combination

Many designers fail to take into account the purpose of site and target viewers while selecting colors for a site. Colors used for designing a corporate site should be different than a health site. Using contrasting colors or too many colors is a bad practice. Most designers fail to adhere to the principle of using three primary colors. Shades of these complementary colors may be used if required. Many website templates offering excellent color combination may be used as reference.  

Poor Text Format

Visitors searching for information prefer to scan the content before going to details. Chunks of text repel them. Many designers fail to present content that can be easily scanned. Using bullets, numbers, headings, sub-headings, highlighting with bold or color are some simple steps that are often overlooked. Website templates can be a smart reference point for developing a site.  

Designing a website involves several critical stages and a designer should be careful about the errors that may happen. While some errors may happen inadvertently some are due to lack of proper knowledge. The tips mentioned above may be followed to minimize chances of mistakes. 

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Making a portfolio is the first and the most major step to draw your clients towards your business and get the work. Your portfolio is the first impression that a client would have of your work and on the basis of it he will be able to give you work. There are different types of design portfolios and you must know which type you are selecting so that the client can easily access your portfolio and can understand it.

Types of Portfolios

When trying to get a job or get acquaintance with the most well reputed organizations, your portfolio is the most solid asset to reach to the employer who will decide whether to take you or not.

Creating Portfolio by Website

In today’s world this is probably the most used way of showing your work. Online showing your portfolio is not easily accessible but also looks very dynamic and professional.

Benefits:

• Easy to send to anyone, you can just send a link.
• You can very well play with the graphics, can give it a proper designed form, can use colors and can use unlimited effects which would actually depict your own personality too.
• You can have interactive presentation of your work.

Drawbacks:

• Though it has its own positive aspects, this is the most time consuming to make.
• Since it’s completely produced on the computer you don’t know whether it will open on other systems, how it will behave, how it will appear.
• Incase you are not aware of developing a website yourself, it will be very expensive to hire someone to make it for you.
• Payment for the domain and web hosting will also be done by you.

Creating Portfolio in the Form of PDF

Creating portfolio in the form of PDF is becoming more and more popular since multiple pages, images can be sent together in one piece and the result is a brochure like file which looks professional.

Benefits:

• It’s easy to e mail.
• You don’t have to worry about the systems and browsing issues, you can actually represent it the way you have made it.
• The PDF depicts a well knitted layout and creates an automatic balance.
• It can be printed with proper and uniform results.
• It’s quick and free of cost to develop.

Drawbacks:

• It’s completely dependable on the user wither to open it or save it.
• You cannot show your web design projects in it.

The Classic Portfolio

This is in the form of small booklet and actual printed form. In today’s digital world this still looks nice and appealing. Several ways can be developed to develop the hard copy, either putting in prints in a pre made booklet or designing your own custom designed booklet.

Benefits:

• Shoes your work in its actual printed form and format, it’s a hard copy of your work
• Due to this reason the clients can consult it or look at it several times whenever needed, he doesn’t really have to open his computer every time.
• Since it’s tangible, it can be given away to show it to others.
• It can be placed on anyone’s working table and if it has a dynamic beautiful graphics, it increases the value of the table and anyone walking in or passing byy can actually have a look at it.
• No computer required, can be brought in any time anywhere.

Drawbacks:

• It can only be delivered by post and not thorough e mail. Else can be delivered in person.
• If you don’t have several copies of it, you leave it with a client and you have nothing left.
• If the printing is not upto the standard, it can destroy your very well worked and excellent graphics.
• Making several copies of it can be very expensive.

After the portfolio comes the step how to promote it

Ways to Promote Your Business

Word of Mouth

This is the oldest and most effective way of publicity. It always feels good when someone says “have you heard of that person who has designed my logo and stationer, He’s really good.” This might seem very good but actually even this needs reminders to people. This can be done in several ways, quarterly newsletters or press ads would work. Even small flyer printing can be a good option.

Design a Business Card

This is the most organized way. Giving your personal visiting card to potential clients helps you gain popularity instead of giving your contact information by writing down on some piece of paper which later might be lost. Creative cards and good business card can bring you more work. Few business cards are so well designed that even if the client does not intend to give you work, he would just keep it with him because it’s beautiful, but later some time he would definitely consult it to give you work.

Credit Line

When you work for somebody he or she will definitely promote you to his or her clients through word of mouth. But isn’t it too cool that you get through that person’s clients yourself. There is no harm in it since you are not violating anyone’s rights. It’s just you are getting the credit for your work yourself instead of involving any third person.

Get a Blog

Creating your website isn’t enough. Try making a social network where people can directly approach your portfolio and can comment on it. In this way your publicity will get social.

Along with this learn to organize your work by keeping them up to date. Use softwares to keep backups, use time tracking softwares to see how fast you can work. Meet deadlines yourself. You must organize your work in the most manageable way in order to use it for future references.

Dealing with the clients might not be as easy as it appears. But it’s important to know what to talk to clients when you meet them. Ask them

• Who is the target audience
• What is the message of the campaign
• What is their brand identity
• What are the designed items required and their specifications
• What is the budget of the client
• Is there any deadline for the project
• Does he already have any references
• Does he prefer certain colors or fonts

You must decide on the contract first, either you take a certain amount of initial advance payment or a token amount just to assure that he doesn’t run away after getting you hooked up by making several options. If you are using stock images make sure you have the copyrights or buy the images. Never cheat, never borrow or copy the images. Decide on the concept first, then work accordingly in schedule given by client. Make sure you work on the images and backgrounds so that they can be produced in high resolution later for artwork.

Web Design Portfolios for Your Inspiration

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Today, when everything is becoming so digital and online programs and online researches and online presence has become more important than daily intake of food, it has become a must to have a website from where people can have complete knowledge of company’s existence, can buy the products from that website and can recommend it to anyone. . WebcreationsUK, a website design firm, build a respected, professional and lucrative website for you with complete knowledge of web designing, they are passionate about it and their designers are really dedicated towards it. Their websites carry a unique identity and stand out from all the clutter present on internet. Apart from normal websites where they design links/buttons in a unique way, they have designers with sound knowledge of creating online registration and membership forms. They also create blogs where people can actually interact with the company/person and can comment. With the clientage over 6000 in number, they are still progressing by making e commerce websites and animated websites.

Amidst all the great work produced by them, they give special offers to their clients making them believe in WebcreationsUK and trust them for all the web solutions. They offer

• Unlimited Design revisions
• Fixed on-Off cost
• Free Logo Design
• Free Site optimization
• Free web hosting, email and domain name
• Free life time web support
• Free photos for site design
• Dedicated sales and support team
• E commerce websites
• Brochure
• Bespoke
• Flash websites
• Mobile Apps
• Advanced SEO

Timelines are their priority, they do not charge agency fee and will continue to give you options till you are satisfied. They offer FREE .co. or .uk domain name for your site. They can provide you excellent imagery of your choice with the help of all technical support. FREE search engine and FREE google advertising. Their potential clients have full faith in them that they can deliver the best for them. The list of the clients include:

• Avenue 27 (E commerce)
• Jewellery.me (Ecommerce)
• Matrix Maquees (brochure)
• Francesca Neill (Brochure)
• Alexander James Property (Brochure)
• Schofield Construction (Brochure)
• Motorcycle1 (E commerce)
• Rags for Rascals (E commerce)
• Churchill and partners (Brochure)
• Viva Productions (Flash)
• Urban Fabrik (Flash)

And many more…..

Their E-Commerce websites offer unlimited categories and products, Payment gateway integration, Shopping Cart, Advanced Search, Flash animations, secure hosting, News Letter, Multi Currency support, domain name, Google and Yahoo advertising vouchers etc. more appealing offers, more viewers of the website and more shopping. Use of credit cards or debit cards is common on their sites. In order to secure the credit cards numbers, total programming and complete technical knowledge is their foremost priority.

So don’t waste your time in looking for an appropriate team for all your website designing issues….get started and get hooked with WebcreationsUK, they bet you will never have the experience of lifetime with anyone else.

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Blue is a color which is often associated with comfort, loyalty and security, it is used quite a lot in web design to give them a welcoming and secure feel for their users. I have collected 20 blue websites which I really liked the look of and I hope you will too.

You may also be interested in:

20 Sophisticated Purple Websites For Your Inspiration
20 Magnificent Brown Websites For Your Inspiration
20 Warm and Vibrant Orange Websites
25 Sleek and Beautifully Designed Black Websites

1. Jan Pivonka

2. Luxuscreations

3. Brad Colbow

4. Hotelparadiso

5. thatgamecompany

6. Get Ballpark

7. Guifx

8. Barack Obama

9. Mooty Graphic Design

10. Serj

11. Dizzain

12. Carbonmade

13. Iceberg

14. HelpWith

15. Frisk Design

16. BountyBev

17. Established 1986

18. Critical Zero

19. Piipe

20. Iceous

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Purple is a color which often associated with royalty and sophistication, when used in web design it give websites a very sophisticated and up market feel. I have collected 20 websites which I feel use the color purple perfectly to make their website feel very sophisticated and I hope you enjoy looking at them.

You may also be interested in:

20 Beautiful Blue Websites For Your Inspiration
20 Magnificent Brown Websites For Your Inspiration
20 Warm and Vibrant Orange Websites
25 Sleek and Beautifully Designed Black Websites

1. Why Forte

2. Full Fat Studios

3. Jaxe Studios

4. Sw Graphic

5. Alexandre Prado

6. GoodBytes

7. Ronnie Morales

8. Adam McPeake

9. Forside

10. Henry Hoffman

11. Love Being Woman

12. Synergia

13. Newism

14. Corporate Image

15. Kent Covenant

16. Bjango

17. Feels

18. Diseno de paginas

19. Appear

20. Designheartsme

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A proper plan is important for each and every thing; whether you are planning to build a house, draw a design, open a new business and what ever it may be needs a rough sketch. Wireframing is such kind of plan to start a new project in designing. Without strong foundation you can’t achieve anything in designing, so this quick planning and time saving tool helps you to build a base for your future work.

Its basic elements like header, footer and sidebar gives designers a simple visual oriented layout structure of the website and its functions. To help you to sketch outline for the website we have collected some fruitful resources with good examples.

Wireframing rules

Boagworld is a blog that shares five commandments with you. That helps you to put your ideas and to keep spontaneity in your different approaches. Here you will get an idea of wireframing and with the help of it you can show vision of the site which you are building.

Wireframes for the wicked

Wireframe for the wicked, with nice slideshow shares different types of the wireframe and its purpose.

Sometimes the best wireframing tool is a pencil

A pencil is also a best wireframing tool with that you can draw your ideas. You can quickly sketch your ideas and these sketches are not perfect in alignment but it is purely about concept. So this pencil sometimes becomes better wireframing tool than other computer tools.

Why sketching and wireframing ideas strengthens designs

Here you will know the importance of sketching and wireframing to express and expand your ideas. You can also alter your ideas so that you can bring better formulated and finalized designs to the world and it is useful to strengthen your design.

The future of wireframes

This is about the evolution of wireframing from functional to visual. The functional wireframe is difficult to read so many designers made experiment with their new ideas to add information (interface) to it. The resulting future wireframe is readable and easily understandable.

Wireframing is not a religion

Wireframing not a religion is an attractive post on different types of wireframes and how it is bread and butter for the UX designers. Though there is no right way for this according to context and requirements of the project you can quickly give shape and you can produce better product.

UX 101 the wireframe

UX 101 the wireframe is a beginner’s guide that teaches you about the wireframe and how it is useful for designers. It reflects your ideas about the placement of different elements and site navigation and it is an opportunity for you to check your project as it is going in right direction or not.

The wireframe all you need to know

This is a perfect guide for beginners to know what wireframing is, why it is used and why it is important. It helps you to present your imagination about the project and to demonstrate the exact vision of your client. So it reduces the possibility of complexity in your project.

Storyboards vs wireframes

Storyboard vs wireframes is detailed discussion about the usefulness and drawbacks of both storyboard and wireframe. But anyway these are apt choice for you to make better plans and to understand the process.

The right way to wireframe

Right way to wireframe is a nice video by Will Evans and shows you a right way for wireframing. The main reason behind the creation of this wireframe is to inform design process and decision. This is a form of communication between sketch holder, team members and clients and it is helpful to improve your practices.

Guidelines tools and resources for web wireframing

This is a collection of useful tools and resources for web wireframing that allows you to visually illustrate the fundamental elements of interface. You can also make changes and amendments according to your requirements. You will get many techniques here and you can use them in your project.

The power of wireframes and mockups

A short post is about the benefits of wireframe and mockups. These two tools have the power of solving design problems and they stimulate imagination, allows you to make changes and it gives forward look to the people. So these tools are more effective than any other deliverables.

The future of wireframes

The future of wireframe is a shared experience of users over the decades. This post helps you to reevaluate and understand the wireframe. Here you will find discussion on various aspects of wireframing.

Where wireframes are concerned

Both benefits and drawbacks of wireframingvdiscussed here; this provides guidance to designer for their designing process and shows how they can be problematic. So before creating a wireframe you need to think whether it is helpful or not for your designing process and at the same time you need to think that does it represents the client’s visions that help you to overcome its drawbacks.

The value of wireframing

Leeharding web design talks about the values of the wireframing. This is an important stage in your designing process that helps you sketch your idea and you can imagin how the readers interact with your site. You can use it for your both small website and larger websites.

Wireframing is not prototyping

The prototype deliverable pretends as wireframing but there is a difference between these two. Wireframe is a visual guide and the prototype is about behavior. Wirframe is more useful than prototype for you to draw an outline for you project.

Wireframes vs prototypes

Another big article talks about the differences between wireframe and prototypes. Both are in their own way useful to you to sketch your ideas.

Wireframe magazine

Here you can get many useful resources and articles on wireframing. Along with wireframe samples it offers you UI components, job listings, 750 vector icons in illustrators, EPS, PDF and PNG flavor and a place where you can share your wireframes and tips. These articles also covered wireframe moodboard and prototyping with 960gs grid system and graph sketch layouts.

Wireframe your site

This is definitely your site that helps you to know benefits of wireframing and its process. In addition to benefits you can see forth coming potential problems of your project and offers you three steps to approach wireframing.

Ajax wireframing approaches

With bunches of Ajax prototyping elements this article covers useful wireframing techniques. It offers three brilliant methods of wireframing like keyframing, stacking and TOP it also marks both benefits and drawbacks of each method.

The importance of wireframes in web design and tools to create wireframes

This comprehensive article covers whole and sole of the wireframing from its creation to benefits and working with clients. With a quick overview of why it is better choice offers you some tools to create your own wireframing.

Get wireframing the all in one guide

In this wireframing all in one guide you will get guides, techniques, tools, examples, paper prototyping, wireframing articles and links to other sites. This is really a great resource site that meets all your needs to create an effective wireframing.

The importance of wireframing

This article talks about the importance of wireframing along with resources to help you create your own. You will find many benefits of wireframing including its ability to help the clients focus and what they can teach you about your clients and how you can save your time.

Pwireframing paper wireframig

Pwireframing is a technique that makes regular wireframing more modular and collaborative. This article shows you how this paper badsed method goes beyond the rough sketches and showcases some photos that might help you to understand the technique properly.

Shades of gray wireframes as thinking device

This article covers personal experience of author and gives designer’s reasons for using wireframing and their purpose. With example of both wireframes and final designs it shows what you can get from the wireframing.

Wireframing over the shoulder

Wireframing over the shoulder, a video shows you whole process of wireframe from start to finish. In this episode designer draws wireframe from fast forwarded scratch. This gives you an idea to create wireframe on paper.

Framing the problem

Framing the problem is a great article that defines you how to solve the problems that occurs while creating wireframe. It focuses on creating wireframe and before that it answers three questions; what types of visitors need to be persuaded, What actions do they need to tak And what information do they require to take that action.

SEO wireframing

This guide is about wireframe for search engine optimization and it describes process based purely on SEO perspective. It also reminds you to keep certain things in your mind like key functions of each pages and building navigation with relevant keywords.

The ancient art of wireframing

With out history you can not move forward so this article is about history and benefits of wireframe that helps you to know need for its creation. You can get more modern techniques suitable for your websites and it offers you new standards for your contemporary wireframes.

I need see it wireframing richer web

An article talks about some of the issues and solutions of wireframing rich web media applications. It also traces out the benefits of both interactive and high fidelity wireframes with definition for each and how it is created.

Better perspective in wireframing

This big article is a list of tips to create better wireframes. The outlining tips are like putting functionality first, focusing on the user experience, working to the deadline, organizing wireframes and more.

Wireframing using indesign

This is a downloadable guide for wireframing using Adobe InDesign and it offers you a simple file you can experiment with it. Part of its content comes from a wireframing workshop that was presented at a communication and multimedia design course at Rotterdam.

I love wireframes

This is a place for you to get example for wireframes and right place for you to checkout the methods of wireframes. This offers you a royalty free set of vector icons in ESP and flash SWF formats and you can resize them without the loss of fidelity, color and effects.

Website wireframes

This describes wireframing and why to work with it. You can find brief overviews of wirframing tools and tips that will help you to create your own wireframe.

Content wireframing ducks meet row

This detailed description is a guide for you to create your wireframing content. It helps you to create logical and connected websites and instead of structure and functionality it covers specific challenges and requirements for its creation.

How to wireframe

This video guides you to create wireframe and it includes tips like using gridlines and adding anything which you needed and removing them. This is a good resource for you to create better wireframe.

Speed wireframing with Nick Finck

Nick Finck in this video presents his wireframing process. He used OmniGraffle and a wireframe stencil kit you can download it.

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Brown is a very eccentric color often associated with nature and it also has the ability to look aged, when used in web design it can websites a very aged or nature based feel. I have collected 20 brown websites which I feel use the color brown perfectly, and I hope you enjoy them.

You may also be interested in:

20 Beautiful Blue Websites For Your Inspiration
20 Sophisticated Purple Websites For Your Inspiration
20 Warm and Vibrant Orange Websites
25 Sleek and Beautifully Designed Black Websites

1. Matt Brett

2. Perfect Order

3. Hippo House

4. Moore Family Heritage Project

5. Julius Mattsson

6. Alt Design

7. FIG

8. Tea Round

9. Redeemer

10. Classics

11. 101 Prints

12. Jon Rawlinson

13. Spiced Jack

14. Cascade Brewery

15. Clearideaz

16. BlackMoon Design

17. Andreas Hinkel

18. New Concept

19. Things That Are Brown

20. Gurada Golf

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Orange is a color which portrays warmth and energy, this used in web design to give off a very warm and vibrant feel on websites. I have collected 20 orange websites which I think are not only warm and vibrant but beautiful and I hope you enjoy them.

You may also be interested in:

20 Beautiful Blue Websites For Your Inspiration
20 Sophisticated Purple Websites For Your Inspiration
20 Magnificent Brown Websites For Your Inspiration
25 Sleek and Beautifully Designed Black Websites

1. Snapplr

2. Concentrate

3. Panelfly

4. Whataburger

5. Happycom

6. Saturized

7. Colourpixel

8. Clique Studios

9. Cubicle Ninjas

10. Grunt

11. Zipper CMS

12. Solo

13. Sticker Mule

14. Joshua Giblette

15. Big Lux Design

16. Funky Art

17. Senso

18. SethSaid

19. WPActive

20. omg!

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Black is a dark color used quite a lot in web design because can make a design really stand out from the crowd and look very classy and sleek. I have collected 25 black websites which I think are very sleek and sexy and I hope you enjoy them.

You may also be interested in:

20 Beautiful Blue Websites For Your Inspiration
20 Sophisticated Purple Websites For Your Inspiration
20 Magnificent Brown Websites For Your Inspiration
20 Warm and Vibrant Orange Websites

1. Greg Wallace

2. Made To Kill

3. Gozz

4. Pirata London

5. Vyniknite

6. Anderbose

7. Kineda

8. Lubuski Hip Hop

9. Cobra Creative

10. Cron Studio

11. 1 Minus 1

12. EyeMagine

13. ne-web

14. VisualBox

15. Jasper Aarts

16. Carbon Ads

17. Rune Werner

18. Adam Hoganson

19. BlissfullyAware

20. The Old State

21. Sofasurfer

22. Palazzodallay

23. Lewebdefi

24. Siebennull

25. Creactiva

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Cross browser compatibility is an option to test the compatibility of your web site among the oceans of other sites. There is a possibility of surfing out your web site from browser as for their wish or else lack of effectiveness in the web site. This is written for designer and developer to over come all the drawbacks of earlier testing options.

Being a web designer finding place in popular browsing option like firefox, safari,chrome, internet explorer is important. Browser testing is the part and partial of designing and development process. Many tools and resources are created to help you to test competition among other web sites. Protesting against the danger of surfing out is necessary for designers, so following are some such tools and resources to help you to check your compatibility.

Test Compatibility Online

Browsershots

Browser shot is free open online web application to provide a convenient to way to web developer to test their browser’s compatibility. It makes screen shot of your web design in different operating systems and browsers.

Cross browser testing

This is a browser testing centre to check cross browser compatibility of your web site.You can also interactively test your ajax, javascipt from any where.

IE netrenderer

Netrenderer allows you to check how your web site rendered by internet explorer. This tool is suitable for web designer who works apple imac and linux. It allows you to verify web design in all popular internet explorers.

IEtester

IEtester is a browser compatibility test for web developer. And it is a free web browser tha allows you to get rendering and javascript engine like IE9 preview, IE8, IE7, IE 6 and IE5.5 on windows 7, vista and XP.

Website viewer

Web site viewer is tool where you can view your own site as other browser.It is a source for browser compatibility testing.

Fundisom

Lixlpixl web development screenshot generator is comparison tool that allows you to see your site on Macintosh G5 in safari, MacIE or in mozilla.

Lynx viewer

Lynxview allows web developer to see how their page looks. It is a text browser for World Wide Web. You can download this and run it in your own machine.

IEtab

IEtab is a tool for web developer that allows you to see how your website in IE.

IEcapt

Iecapt is a small command line utility service that captures internet explorer which rendering a web page into BMP, JPEG or PNG image files. It is also available in C++ and C# version.

Abode meermeer

Meermeer is a wonderful testing tool projected by Abode. It lets web developer to send a code and instantly receive back the screen shot of that page by different browser.

Plugins and Tools

Litmus

Litmus is a secret weapon for web marketer to test and track their email campaigns. So you can always put your design forward.

Spoon on browsers

The Spoon Browser lets you run all popular web browsers, including internet explorer, firefox, chrome, and opera. In this tool you can directly run these web browsers, there is no need to install it.

Browsera

Browsera is a testing tool, it tests and reports cross-browser layout differences and scripting errors on your site. Here instead of checking each screenshot, you will get detailed report of problem of a particular page.

Expression web superpreview

Expression web superpreview is a browser comparison tool. It lets you to view your page in a multiple browsers page simultaneously. This allows you to test your page in designing process itself.

Multi-safari

Multisafari is a newly developed tool for web designer to test compatibility of their site. It has bundles of application inside like safari for leopard, safari tighter, safari for panther and safari for jaguar to provide various services to web developer.

MultipleIE

MultipleIE is gifted by softonic to web designer to test their web site in internet explorer.

Sortsite professional

Software professional allows web developer, owner to check standard compliance and quantity issues. It produces a report of problems after checking each page.

Lunascape

Lunascape is a triple engine browser to support web developer and web designer. It provides different services like, simple refined interface, greater extensibility and flexibility, it displays side by side with the help of split tab display and lightening fast in browsing process.

Cross browser testing with clouds

Cross browser testing offers many services for developer and tester and to website manager. Those are find issues earlier, multi browser comparison tool, no administration, reduced development times and so on…

Premium Services

BrowserLab

Broserlab is the easier and faster way for web designer to check cross browsing compatibility of their web site.

Browsercam

Browsercam is a bank of cross browser testing tool. It allows you to check javascript and DHTML. It provides different testing machines like browser capture, device capture, email capture, remote access.

Multi-browserviewer

Multibrowserviewer is comparison tool where you can test iPhone and iPad browser along with web browser. It provides multibrowser tools like standalone mobile browsers or simulators, screenshot comparison function, screen capture image browsers and so on.

Netmechanic

Netmechanic is a testing tool which displays result of comparison along with browser photo. It helps to avoid display differences, catches error made by HTML editor and also provides many more other services.

Viewlike.Us!

Viewlike is a brand new site that allows you to check your website. It is powered by Ajax and PHP so need not install anything.

Url2image

Url2image web server farm offers new service to help web master avoid display differences. It shows web designers how their web site looks in popular browsers.

Sortsite

Sortsite browser compatibility tests helps web developer to check any website for the issues like broken links, spelling errors, browser compatibility, accessibility, web standards and SEO.

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Japanese art work is always inspiring and they show that creativity in web designs too. Most of the Japanese websites are interactive, minimalist and flash based. By viewing Japanese websites you can easily understand their culture, tradition and art.

You will really enjoy by interacting these Japanese websites. Here is a collection of some creative and artistic examples of websites.

Nestle

100 Satsu

Amakusa Mura

Eye Talk Town

Jvsc

Mc Donalds

Panasonic

Asics Gunze

Boat Race Academy

Egao Saku

FT 540

Hiroto Rakusho

Kanenavi

Love & Happy

Kewpie

May Belline

Mext

Story Branding

Tutu Dress

Naruhodo Agent

Nikohan

Soc Nara

Yamada Ueda

Yellow Man

Kazurasei

Solvida

Niigata City

Ub Energy

Nikke Town

Nara Jr

Morinaga

Shop Everyday

Takuhaiwaneko

Oyu

Biwako Koyo

Subtonic Graphics Design

Okayama Ichibangai

Awa Master

Busho

Clap Taps

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With so many new details surrounding the CSS3 release it can be difficult for developers to fully grasp all of the changes. With the evolving nature of the web we’re also seeing great advances in website structures, file formats, units, and even integration with HTML5 attributes. These trends will grow into the greatest iteration of the World Wide Web we’ve ever seen!

Although there is too much material to cover all topics we will be discussing some of the major improvements to CSS3. Many new properties have been introduced which can affect the presentation of a layout in numerous ways. We’re seeing a tightening of regulations with cross-browser compatibility and a greater reach towards mobile operating systems.

If you’d like to learn more about these techniques further than this article feel free to research. Pelfusion has a nice CSS3 tag library full of informative articles and tutorials.

How is the Web Evolving?

Those who choose to stay behind with old HTML standards will not be able to benefit from the rich features available today. Support between browser rendering engines such as WebKit and Gecko has never been better. With Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari running the majority of market share it’s no surprise these standards have adapted so smoothly.

Mobile devices are also catered to nicely. New HTML5 elements allow for wrapping and new styles to be applied based on browser support. Those who have been waiting to advance should start utilizing these new CSS3 benefits today!

Working in CSS3 Media Queries

When CSS2 documentation was drafted it included a section for media types. These raised values such as screen, projection, handheld, and print. This allowed developers to create multiple stylesheets based on which view was being accessed – truly a revolutionary idea.

Media queries behave in a similar fashion but require more specific constituents. These calls can be used to check device properties and see what type of technology your visitors are using. This can include width/height of the current browser, screen resolution, and even orientation for iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

We can see a simple example below for media queries. This code would be run inside a .css file or within style tags in your HTML file.

@media only screen and (max-device-width: 480px)
{ /* styles here */ }

The value 480px is derived from the iPhone’s maximum device width when held in landscape mode. This media query checks to see if the physical device is less than 480px in width. If this resolves true then all CSS code inside will be executed and applied. This can work similar with Android and Blackberry phones as well.

There is also the option to apply media queries simply through external linkage. Below is an example of such an include statement.

link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="only screen and (max-device-width: 480px)"href="small-device.css" />

Dynamic Web Gradients

Yes, it is now possible to create background gradients on-the-fly with just CSS markup. Even better the system used to apply these styles follows rules for backup solutions. This helps with browsers which currently don’t support CSS gradients to still show something through a fallback image.

There are also two different major types of gradients called linear and radial. These options will control how your gradient dissolves into the big picture. Linear designs will span from one side to another while radial gradients start from the center and move outward to form a circle.

Generally linear are the easiest to control and will provide the best effects. Below is an example of some CSS code to apply a simple gradient to our heading division.

div.head {
    background-color: #1a82f7; /* fallback color */
    background-image: url('img/bg_1.png') repeat-x; /* fallback image */
    background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(100% 100% 90deg, #2F2727, #1a82f7);
    background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 0%, 0% 100%, from(#1a82f7), to(#2F2727));
}

Notice how we are using most of the same properties repeatedly with varying values. The first is our very final fallback to a standard flat background color. We then have our fallback image which is in place for browsers not supporting linear gradients.

From here we have a split between Mozilla and WebKit rendering engines. Both gradients created between these functions will look exactly the same and show the same results. For more details on -moz-linear check out Mozilla’s Dev Center while WebKit Gradients have more information in a recent blog post.

Box Shadow Properties

Box shadows are nothing new to web design, though they are very new to CSS3. Since the early days of Adobe Photoshop 7.0 there has always been filters for applying shadows to objects and layers.

Limits are not applied when working with the property in CSS. By this it’s implicit that any element could have a box shadow applied, although it may not look so great being overused. Below is an example piece of code used to apply box shadows in any modern browser.

div.box {
box-shadow: 5px 3px 10px 0 #000;
             }

This would apply a smaller black radius to the corner of our .box div. This property is defined by by 5 separate values which may seem confusing initially but are in reality quite simple.

• horizontal offset of shadow
• vertical offset of shadow
• blur radius which defines how blurry or crisp the shadow will appear
• spread for how far out the shadow will reach
• color of shadow

Box-Sizing

This is one of those hidden gems in the vast landscape of new CSS3 properties. Currently one of the most widely supported specs to be released which allows much greater manipulation potential for the DOM(Document Object Model).

The property itself can be applied to any element since all HTML displays are shaped by the box model. There are 3 possible values to pass in: content-box, border-box, or inherit. Each of the first two options posses new default rendering states for HTML code while the third is a generic inheritance clause from the element’s parent.

*,html,body {
box-sizing: content-box | border-box | inherit;
}

The “classic” way all browsers have rendered elements is through content-box. This ensures all margins and padding applied to the element take place outside of its boundaries. When setting this value to border-box we see just the opposite where all margins, padding, and borders are applied within the element’s width.

This isn’t very noticeable on pages without fixed widths since borders and padding will look exactly the same. However as an example let’s take a 100px box with 5px left/right margins and a 1px border. Using the classic standard we would have a 112px block. However with the border-box value set we would only have a 100px box with 12px internally taken away for the border and margins.

WebKit Supported Transitions

Lucky for those who have been patiently awaiting the arrival of pure CSS transitions. This new property allows for some very radical transitions and neat effects. Below is an example bit of code which is shorthand for transition effects on all paragraphs.

p {
     opacity: .7;
     color: #333;
     -webkit-transition: opacity 1s linear;
     -webkit-transition: color 1s linear;
}
p:hover {
     opacity: 1;
     color: #000;
}

The code for -webkit-transition is actually shorthand for describing 3 different properties needed for the transition. In order they are defined by transition-property, transition-duration, and transition-timing-function. This type of transformation can be applied to almost any property and can even manipulate multiple properties at once.

As an example above we have a paragraph element which has a text color of deep gray and a slightly opened alpha opacity. With both of our transition properties we are declaring a 1 second linear transition from both opacity and color values into the new sets.

This may seem a little confusing at first, and it’s no surprise. It would have taken at least an hour of programming and blocks of JavaScript to replicate this effect nearly 5 years ago. If you still have questions the WebKit blog has a post on animation effects.

These are some of the most notable advances in CSS3. These properties have greatly changed the way we interact with our current web and gives modern web designers plenty of flexibility. Design specs are always updating so it’s important to keep on your toes and move with the changing tides. Stay ahead of current trends and you’ll always be riding on top of the curve in a crowded sea of digital designers.

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Those days are gone when we were bound to small size monitors. Now technology is growing fast and monitor resolution is advancing with it. Even some are using dual monitors too, because of all these factors designers are using over-sized images as the website’s background. Using big backgrounds can add lots of interest to design, so to give you some inspiration and for your interest i have collected 45 Examples of Big Backgrounds in Web Design.

Aussie Bbq Legends

Sayonara

Florida Flourish

IL Frutteto

Morphix Design

Raven at Lora Bay

Gazelle Touch

Kultur Banause

Hangar Door

Innocent Village Fete

Peter Clarke

Cayena

Electric Current

Lipton Green Mint

Immersive Garden

Signal 7

Mozi Design Studio

Yodaa

Sur La Piste Carlos

Caramel Ink

Digimurai

Bently Reserve

Food Inc. Movie

Vivo Group

Wild Marsh Golf

Thorsten Van Elten

Orange Label

Home De Caramel

Patagonia

25 ah

Lonely Tweet

Marc Alcock

Benito’s Hat

Because Studio

Derek Welsh

BVD

Image Now

Believe In

Survivor

Solace Beeswax

Christina Lauer

Ecoki

Compal International

Hotel Rottnest

8th Continent

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