Every day we have new and better browser versions. Real browsers (like Firefox and Chrome) have reached their 20th version a while ago, and the awesome features list is just increasing. On the other hand, we as developers must ensure that our products work fine in older browsers (but not IE6 kind of older), since many paying customers can be using IE8 (or 7?) or even slower machines that don’t allow you massive JS or HTML5 work. (more…)
Flat design is a graphic style that aims to avoid any graphic element providing no significant value to the structure of a template. This type of visual design purely avoid any form of abstract “decorative” elements. Gradients, reliefs, volumes, realistic forms are erased to make room for simple solids. (more…)
Just like every other element of web design, color palettes follow fads that are constantly evolving. This year’s color trends are as diverse as they are compelling; brights and neons combine with greyscale to add some zing to clean, modern styles, while pastel palettes lend a softness to playful, cartoony designs. And from one end of the line to the other, color blocking in any hue has been enthusiastically employed. (more…)
We are always talking about clean and minimal designs, designs that are simple and effective, and lately, we are also talking a lot about the new trendy flat designs. So why it is so difficult to find a “pricing page” that is well designed? If designers are taking websites to a next level where usability and beauty are combined to deliver awesomeness, why when you go from a homepage to a pricing page you feel like you are entering a totally different website? Designers should pay more attention to this specific page, specially if they want better conversion rates. (more…)
When properly applied, the negative space effect can result in a clever and elegant logo. Negative space is the empty space between the main elements of a design and good designers know how to take advantage of this to create something that is memorable and captures the imagination. So, today we gathered some inspiring examples of negative space in logos to show you. (more…)
Prior to selling my web agency last year and starting uGurus, a new venture to help web professionals become more profitable, I pitched a lot of website projects. Unfortunately for a lot of freelancers, I was the “other company” that the customer decided to move forward with. Like Beatrix vs. Master Pai Mei, it wasn’t a contest. If the title of this post led you to believe that I was going to outline a fair and balanced tit for tat, you might want to adjust your sitting position at this time. But…if you think my #1 competitor, as an agency, was other agencies, think again. (more…)
For the past few years in web design, we’ve noticed a trend in moving toward simplicity and minimalism. It seems that designers are realizing that you don’t have to over design something just because you can, or because you have the software to do it. It’s become more about the content and less about the design elements.
All of this means less 3D effects and less gradients, and more solid flat colors. So to help you incorporate this style in your projects, today we have 8 beautiful and free flat icon sets for you. (more…)
It’s always nice to browse some nice and clean websites. It is a good way to get inspiration for future projects and also to see how designers are delivering clean designs. Today we gathered some inspiring examples to show you that clean layouts don’t need to be plain and boring, you can have colors, textures, illustrated elements and much more. Remember that the concept of clean design is to have something simple, striped from allegories and unnecessary elements, not something boring. So check out the examples we have here and let us know what you think of them. (more…)
Back in November we showcased here a list with 8 Books Every Designer Should Read, and to the present day, five months later we keep receiving emails from readers thanking us for the list and asking for a new round of recommendations. Based on that, I decided to gather a few more books for you to check out. Since I’m not a designer, I had to ask my friends who are designers and developers to help me out with some recommendations, and here is a new round of books we believe may interest you. Feel free to also give your recommendations in the comments. (more…)
Delivering high quality images is something every designer should worry about, especially with images being such an important part of a design. To help you with this task, we’ve rounded up ten places where you can get some really useful Photoshop actions to enhance your images. We have some premium resources and also some free, so make sure to check out all of them to get the actions that best suit your needs. (more…)
