March 9, 2018 — As technologies improve and design techniques evolve, improvements in digital design are inevitable. What is truly impressive, however, is how we are now able to use design to tell a story. As attention spans shorten and visitors just want to get to the good stuff on a website, designers have to get more creative in how they communicate their website’s “story.” In this article, Suzanne Scacca suggests techniques that can be used in web design. Read more…

March 8, 2018 — Web professionals should not only think about insurance, but also understand it. Insurance is something we don’t necessarily want to budget for or consider, yet as professionals, we have to. In this article, Ashley Baxter will explore what this insurance is and how it’s designed to keep web professionals in business. She’ll also be sharing real stories of businesses who were glad they had insurance. Read more…

March 7, 2018 — The WordPress REST API is a game-changer for WordPress, which can now safely be called a web application framework — not just a CMS. If you’ve been looking for a content-driven solution, Muhammad Muhsin will explain how you can build a SPA WordPress theme with React. Continue reading this article to find out why this is a good choice for your web app’s back-end technology. Read more…

March 7, 2018 — So you think you’ve designed something that’s perfect, but your test tells you otherwise. In this article, Christopher Murphy will be focusing on usability testing, where he evaluates the design decisions made against a representative set of users to test if his assumptions are correct. User testing should be happening at every point in the process as an integral part of an iterative design process. With that thought in mind, it’s important to establish a structured framework for user testing throughout the design process. let’s explore the importance of user testing. Read more…

March 6, 2018 — Planning is essential for most businesses and organizations. Unfortunately, when it comes to websites there is often a failure to plan properly or at all. This guide aims to change that.  Always remember that a good website isn’t a one-time event, but rather an extensible communications tool. Once you’ve built a great website, keep the momentum going. Devote resources to regular maintenance, and check in with your site visitors regularly to identify areas for improvement. Read more…

March 5, 2018 — When creating free or premium WordPress themes, you’re bound to make mistakes. WordPress has its own coding and theming standards. While you can write PHP the way you want to in your template files, it’s best to actually stick to “the WordPress way,” even if it’s not necessarily “the best way.” In this article, Nauris Pūķis will show you how you can avoid them in order to save yourself time and focus on actually creating themes people will enjoy using! Read more…

March 2, 2018 — Communication failures are human problems, so they’re messy and hard to solve. Design systems are one kind of tool that people look to in order to solve problems that are fundamentally about failures in collaboration and alignment. In this article, Amy Thibodeau will include practical advice that will be useful to anyone who is thinking about creating a design system to enable harmonious, integrated, and fundamentally successful product development. Read more…

March 1, 2018 — The best design follows an iterative process. The earlier in the process you can identify and fix problems, the easier and the less expensive it is. This is where prototyping comes in. Techniques such as wireframing and prototyping have transformed how user experience designers work nowadays. In this article, Christopher Murphy will take a closer look at the benefits and the process. Read more…

March 1, 2018 — WordPress is a free and open-source software (also known as FOSS) project. There are plenty of ways you can contribute some of your time back to the WordPress project without having to look at a line of code. Pick your favorite, and you’re off! You would be surprised to find that there are many ways that people can contribute back to the project without even writing or understanding a line of PHP. Interested? Then let’s get cracking, shall we? Read more…

February 28, 2018 — For the March 2018 desktop wallpapers, we wanted to try something different. That’s why we started a little creativity challenge and asked the community to design wallpapers around the theme “Exploring New Worlds.” Today, Cosima Mielke is happy to present the result of this creative experiment, and the lucky winner, too, of course. Here are the results. Read more…