Design

The original “anatomy of a spam page” was written in 2000, but recently, I landed on a web site that was so bad I decided to share a…

A comprehensive guide to web design that covers the visual appearance and interface (UI) of a website to how the website functions (UX).

When you work for a user experience design company for as long as I have, you start to notice the cyclical nature of industry trends. Just like fashion or art, what goes out of style inevitably resurfaces a few years down the road, only to become adopted by the mainstream, and fade into obsoletion once again. In the digital design world, there's maybe no better example of this than the rise and fall (and rise) of the gradient. Considered a lynchpin of interface design in the nineties (how many geocities sites had a gradient WordArt header?), the trend likely dates back even farther. Conside...

Smashing Book 6 is here with everything you need to know to tackle the new adventures web design and development are bringing along. No theory, just things that worked in practice.

A website is a place where a business can educate its audience about its brand. What it does. Why it does it. What they'll get out of being there. That, in and of itself, is a lot of information. When designing a website for your clients, the last thing you want is to overdo it. The web is not a place for excess and its users typically don't have the patience to sift through pages and pages stuffed full of information just to get to the relevant bits. That's why minimalism will endure as a design trend. It allows web designers to convey a lot about a brand and its message, without having to...

Beautiful gradients as placeholder images just for you

Automatic UI Color Palette Generator

Learn about 3 useful color tools to assist your user interface design needs.

Going to straight to high-fidelity is an epic waste of time, money, and resources. Wireframing and rapid prototyping ensures that we iterate and validate our ideas first.

So often we cram a load of crap onto a single web page and then play silly buggers trying to get them to load efficiently. Instead design for actual performance.

How to create a logo that responds to its own aspect ratio

Adobe XD: The Definitive Guide (FREE) What is Adobe XD? In case you are new to the UI/UX design world or you have spent the last year of your life on a desert island, Adobe XD (aka Experience Design)

In 2012 I tried out a brand new luxury vehicle at a automotive conference. It was a minimalist European model, and nothing seemed out of…

Explore a beautifully curated selection of cool backgrounds that you can add to blogs, websites, or as desktop and phone wallpapers.

Toolbox #4

Coca-Cola Red, Tiffany’s Blue, British Racing Green, Macdonald’s Yellow.

What are user flows and why you need to use them. An illustrated guide on going from “WTF, am I looking at”, to a clear design of how your…

Create and share color palettes. Color inspiration for creatives around the world.

Create beautiful duotone effects instantly in your browser. Dozens of perfect duotone pairings included.

Allowing mobile video ads to play in-line is a simple change that can help improve ad performance for publishers and provide a better viewing experience for their audiences. This is especially important in the context of the ever-growing mobile market.

In a step clearly intended to maintain dominance in an increasingly competitive market, Adobe have announced that XD CC (eXperience Design) is being released to the community as a free application. XD is amongst the most well-rounded, reliable, and innovative UX design applications available; by making it free of charge to both Mac and Windows users, Adobe are hoping to make it the de facto choice. Intriguingly Adobe executives are now openly referring to XD as Adobe's flagship product—a moniker previously reserved for its 25 year-old, raster-editing, behemoth Photoshop. We believe Adobe XD...

Most UX and product design case studies contain too much information. A well-designed case study demonstrates your talent, skills, describes an overview of your process and makes a business case for your work. In this post, we go over how to put together a UX and product design case study without overwhelming people.Learn tips to design a visually engaging presentation that brings your content to life.

Your portfolio is often a company or client's first impression of you. Yet while we would dress up and prepare our talking points for an interview, we tend to neglect our portfolio or follow design trends that don't represent us well. In my work with Semplice, a portfolio system for designers, I've seen hundreds of design portfolios over the years. And I continue to see common trends that could be holding designers back from their dream jobs. Below are five simple portfolio mistakes that can easily be fixed and make big difference in the work you do in the future. 1. All Photos, No Case Stu...

Many designers assume that center or right aligning their website logo will make their brand more memorable. Research has shown this assumption is not true at all.

Is your website making users think too hard? Could it be increasing their cognitive load and causing them to abandon your site?

What you think you’ll like isn’t always what helps you make the best decisions, Salesforce Analytics finds in a new research.