Friday, November 29, 2019

10 Popular Design Trends It’s Time to Let Die

If you’ve ever moved from one home to another, you know how difficult it can be to get rid of things you’ve owned for years. While digging through your closet, you find an old pair of pants you used to wear all the time despite the growing holes in the knees. But you tell yourself, “Maybe I’ll wear them around the house when it gets warmer” or “I bet the grunge look will come back in style”.

It’s easy to make these kinds of justifications in web design and development, too. You think:

“I’ve used the keyword meta tag for as long as I can remember. What can it hurt to keep doing so?”

Similar to how your clothes may become outdated or your appliances obsolete over time, the same thing happens with design and development trends. Rather than hold onto techniques that no longer serve you and only add more to your workload, it’s a much better idea to clear them out and make way for modern trends that’ll have a greater impact.

10 Popular Design Trends It’s Time to Let Die

When we talk about outdated web design trends, we’re not just talking about ones that have been obsolete for years. We’re also referring to trends and techniques that we know for a fact compromise the user experience and need to go away ASAP.

1. Cheesy Stock Photos

There’s nothing inherently bad about using stock photos. Many clients don’t have the budgets or wherewithal to create their own company photos and stock photos are a viable alternative.

That said, there was a time when “bad” (i.e. super cheesy and unrealistic) stock photos were all the rage. Even today, you’ll find websites that use these kinds of photos because there’s still an assumption that two people shaking hands in a well-lit conference room signals trust. (It doesn’t.)

Image via DepositPhotos.

2. Hero Sliders

Image slider technology was pretty great in its heyday. It allowed web designers to conserve space while displaying a number of promotional offers at once. In addition to sliders often slowing down page speeds, they also have a tendency to slow users down as they distract them from moving onto other parts of a website.

Verizon Wireless, for instance, has a great example of a strong but simple hero image design in 2019:

This is vastly different from the image slider it used back in 2013:

For the most part, we’ve learned to be more efficient with this space, though there are still some websites that can’t make up their minds about which offer to show above the fold… which only makes it more difficult for visitors to decide next steps. Take the initiative and do it for them with a single hero banner.

3. Autoplay

It’s not common to find websites with background audio, let alone autoplay audio, these days. That said, what you do occasionally find are websites that automatically play videos or ads with audio. Needless to say, this needs to stop. If your video (or audio) players don’t allow your visitors to take control of when they start, change that up now.

4. The 3-Click Rule

Over the years, web designers have looked for ways to decrease friction in the user experience. The three-click rule was meant to be one of the ways to do this. However, according to a recent report from the Nielsen Norman Group, there’s never been any data to back up this claim:

“In fact, a study by Joshua Porter has debunked it; the study showed that user dropoff does not increase when the task involves more than 3 clicks, nor does satisfaction decrease. Limiting interaction cost is indeed important, but the picture is more complicated than simply counting clicks and having a rule of thumb for the maximum number allowed.”

Rather than minimize for minimization’s sake, consider the complexity of the task or funnel you’re designing when determining quantity of steps.

5. (External) Links That Open in the Same Tab

There are a number of reasons to add links to your content: for navigational purposes, promotional purposes, and referential purposes. But when you add a hyperlink to your text, consider the following: Is it okay if the link directs visitors to a page in this same browser tab?

External links, for instance, should always open in a new browser tab. Your goal in designing a website is to get more visitors to convert. Letting an external link replace your website in the open tab will only decrease the chances of that happening. In some cases, internal links shouldn’t be opened in the same tab either. So, be sure to think about this the next time you add a link to your site.

6. Non-Traditional Scrolling

Although we’ve become accustomed to swipe gestures in mobile apps, horizontal and other non-traditional scrolling isn’t something that’s caught on with websites. While it’s definitely a design trend that helped many businesses set themselves apart from the pack a few years back, it’s just too gimmicky to use these days.

Robby Leonardi’s interactive resume website was one of the first I remember seeing and it was a brilliant way to capture attention — especially from those of us who grew up with Mario.

But today? Any sort of non-traditional scrolling is just impractical and unnecessary. Even Robby’s current website has broken up this side-scrolling design and turned it into a vertical-scrolling page:

If you want to keep visitors engaged with your website in this day and age, don’t make them figure out how to scroll through your website. 

7. Keyword Meta Tag

For years (we’re talking nearly a decade), the keyword meta tag has not been supported by popular search engines. Despite knowing that the meta tag is useless, some designers still take the time to add it in. But why bother if it’s an extra step that gets you nothing in return?

8. Bad Pop-ups

Although pop-ups have undergone an evolution over the years — from the super-annoying pop-up ads that appeared outside the browser to the ever-present privacy notices we now see thanks to GDPR. While there is certainly some value in using pop-ups on a website, there are just too many kinds of bad pop-ups that need to disappear.

“Bad” pop-ups are ones that:

  • Show up too early on a website (like the second someone enters it);
  • Appear too many times during a single or return visit;
  • Send users to Facebook Messenger to collect their lead magnet and then bombard them with messages there;
  • Contain two buttons. Users that accept the offer, get a friendly message. Those that don’t are served up aggressive or shame-inducing language;
  • Repeat an offer that’s already designed into the website as a promotional banner.

9. Slow-Loading Websites

Mobile websites are notoriously difficult to optimize for speed when compared to their desktop counterparts. Unlike in years past where you could’ve rationalized away speed optimizations for mobile, today, it needs to be a priority with Google’s mobile-first indexing. PWAs are one way to give your mobile site an instant speed boost.

On a related note, by designing a PWA instead of a mobile-responsive website, you’d be able to cater to users with poor or no wi-fi connectivity — a segment that’s often been overlooked in web design.

10. Flash

I cannot believe I’m having to include this last one in 2019, but it seems there are still websites using the Flash Player.

Adobe has already told us that it would be cutting support for Flash next year. Web browsers are starting to remove their support for Flash players as well. And good riddance. Flash has long had issues with security flaws and usability issues.

If you’re trying to hold out on this (or your clients are dragging their feet), keep in mind that this is what visitors will see on many browsers in 2020 and beyond:

Bottom line: If the creator of Flash is pulling support, you need to do the same for any of your websites that still use it.

Wrap-Up

It’s easy to get wrapped up in what the next big thing is in web design — AR tech, typography trends, color gradients, etc. But what about all of those trends and techniques that have become a habit over the years?

Rather than hold onto outdated design strategies that will only hinder your progress as a web designer and hold your clients’ websites back, start shedding these obsolete (or soon-to-be obsolete) practices now.

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Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Keyword Research 101: Everything You Need To Know

Keywords are essentially the bridge between a website and a search engine. They are what helps a search engine identify what your site is about, and how relevant it is when a certain term or phrase is searched for by the user. A search engine keeps a database of websites which they have filed away under the appropriate tags/topics to be able to produce fast results. 

You can make sure you have a much stronger chance of appearing in the SERPs by optimising your website for the right keywords.

However…

There can be hundreds of options when it comes to keywords. So how do you know which ones you should optimise for?

Keyword research.

The general rule of thumb is to look for keywords which have a high search volume (meaning your website will have more opportunities in the SERPs) but on the lower scale of competition (meaning you won’t be fighting multiple large companies for a piece of the pie). We will look at how you can do this a little later in the article. First, let’s take a look at what we mean by keyword optimization…

Keyword Optimisation Tips

Now when you think of keyword optimisation, you may be tempted to stuff your chosen keyword into your content as many times as possible. This may have worked a few years back, but now, keyword stuffing is a huge no-no!

When adding your keyword, it needs to be as natural as possible. But there are a few places that you want to ensure this happens. The three most important places to optimize are:

  • At the beginning of your title tag;
  • Your meta description;
  • The first 50 to 100 words in your content.

And there are still some other ways to optimize your keywords that will help when it comes to ranking your website:

  • Your image alt tags (preferably the first image on the page);
  • In the page’s URL;
  • In at least one of your subheadings;
  • 2-3 times (or more depending on your word count) throughout the content.

As you can see there is plenty you can do to fully optimize for a keyword whilst keeping your content natural.

Types of Keyword

The types of keyword that you decide to use on your website determine whether you bring in visitors who can offer you the most value. There are seven keyword types you should learn about:

1. Generic Keywords (aka Short-Tail)

Generic keywords will isolate a topic, but you won’t get any further detail. Usually known as ‘short-tail’ keywords. For example: “Shoes,” “Vacuum Cleaner,” or “Book.”

You should stay away from these types of keywords as the competition is usually very high and you have no idea around the search intent so conversions are generally pretty low.

2. Brand Keywords

Brand Keywords are pretty self-explanatory. They include a keyword relating to the brand of the product, for example: “Adidas shoes,” “Dyson vacuum cleaner,” “Harry Potter book.”

They are a step up from a generic keyword but it is still unclear what the intent behind the search is.

3. Broad Keywords

Broad keywords are more promising. They provide good levels of traffic and have much less competition.

Usually, the searcher has decided what they are looking for but may only have an approximate idea. For example: “Running shoes,” “Upright vacuum cleaner,” “Children’s books.”

These are still open to a little interpretation but the search is more specific.

4. Exact Keywords

Exact keywords show that the searcher knows exactly what they are trying to find.

This type of keyword is good to optimize for because they usually convert very well and have high search volumes. For example: “Best running shoes,” “Vacuum cleaner reviews,” “Recommended children’s books.”

There is a problem with exact keywords though: they have a lot of competition.

5. Long-Tail Keywords

In my opinion, long-tail keywords are the best type of keyword to focus on.

They generally have lower search volume, meaning they have less competition but they have a really high conversion level. For example: “Which running shoes are the best for marathons,” “Upright vacuum cleaner with retractable cord,” “Which children’s books are best for ages 8-10.”

Long-tail keywords have the right balance between competition, conversion, and traffic.

6. Buyer Keywords

Buyer keywords will have a word attached that signals the searcher is ready to part with their cash. For example: “Buy Adidas running shoes,” “Dyson vacuum cleaner discount,” “Children’s books coupons.”

If this fits with your business model, then optimising for buyer keywords can be a really smart move.

7. Tyre Kicker Keywords

Tyre kicker keywords usually indicate that the user isn’t one that’s going to benefit you in anyway (unless this aligns with your business strategy.) For example: “Free running shoes,” “Dyson vacuum cleaner exchange,” “Download children’s books.”

There is usually a word attached to the keyword which shows the are not looking to spend money.

Wrapping Up

In this article, we have reviewed what keywords are, why they are important and how keyword research is crucial for the success of your website.

We looked at the best places to optimise your keywords on your website without resorting to keyword stuffing. And you now know the seven types of keywords used, meaning you can make a decision which type is best for your business.

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Tuesday, November 26, 2019

An Inside Look at Google’s Future Plans

Everyone talks about algorithm updates, but Google does a
whole lot more than adjust algorithms.

Some of the moves they are making are really going to impact
your marketing efforts.

So, what are these non-algorithm changes?

Well before I get into them, keep in mind that you aren’t
going to like some of them, and that’s ok. Instead, I want you to focus your
energy on how you can leverage these changes before your competition.

Let’s get started…

Change #1: Google executives are big on “ambient
computing”

If you aren’t familiar with the concept of ambient computing,
here’s a quick definition:

Ambient computing is a term that encompasses many different concepts. At its core, it is the combination of hardware, software, user experience, and machine/human interaction and learning, all of these things becoming the idea of using a computer or internet-enabled device, without necessarily consciously using it.

In other words, Google wants you to use them 24/7 no matter
where you are or what you are doing. They are doing this by integrating
products everywhere.

Whether it is Nest, Android devices, Chromebooks, smartwatches, Google Home, or anything else they can drum up.

Because their mission is to spread the usage of all Google
related products, it will eventually open up new ways for you to drive traffic
and monetize.

An obvious example is to create apps on mobile devices that
work on Android phones. Uber, Netflix, and Candy Crush are all examples of apps
that work on Android devices.

You already know about apps, but I bet you don’t have one.

To give you an idea of how well you can do with a mobile
app, there are roughly 2 million mobile
apps
, and there are over 13
billion mobile devices
.

Of course, a lot of those devices are old or in landfills. But still, there aren’t that many apps for how many mobile devices that exist. Especially when you consider that there are over 1,518,207,414 websites.

In other words, there are 759 times more websites than
apps, so consider creating one. 😉

If you don’t know how you can always use services like Build Fire.

And in addition to apps, you’ll need to start looking at generating traffic through all voice devices. Phones, watches, and even the smart home assistants that Google is creating leverage voice search.

Using tools like Jetson.ai
will help you create a voice version of your website so you can collect sales
and leads.

If you don’t think voice search is that important, 50% of searches are now voice-based.

Again, just like an app, I bet you don’t a voice search version of your website.

Question is, are you going to create one first or is your competition?

Change #2: Future generations are more likely to be
hooked on Google devices

Do you have a Chromebook? Chances are you
don’t.

But if you have kids, or nieces or nephews, ask them if they
have ever used a Chromebook.

Chromebooks are not only affordable, but they are taking
over the world, at least when it comes to millennials and generation z.

Just look at the percentages
of schools that use Chromebooks
.

In some countries like the United States, 60% of the schools
use Chromebooks.

That’s a ridiculously high percentage.

Apple has also been trying to penetrate classrooms, but they
haven’t been having the same success as Google.

All this means is that kids are going to grow up using
Google devices and fall into their ecosystem.

Sure, social sites like Instagram, Tiktok, or whatever else is new will always be popular, but the chances are these young kids will get to those sites using a Google device.

Even though Google isn’t as sexy as it once was, you shouldn’t
take it for granted. It’s not going anywhere, and future generations will
continue to leverage them. Just don’t drop your eye on Google and you’ll be
fine.

Change #3: Expect Google to buy someone big in the
ecommerce space

When you think of ecommerce, what name comes to mind?

I bet you are thinking of Amazon.

We all use Amazon and, of course, every major tech company wants a slice of the ecommerce market.

Even when I’m using a search engine to find something to
buy, I usually click on an Amazon listing because we all love their Prime
shipping feature.

Google’s been trying to take a piece of that market for years. From shopping actions to Google Shopping nothing has really been too effective.

As consumers, we are just trained to go to Amazon to buy stuff.

And if you aren’t going to Amazon, you are probably going to Walmart or one of their online stores that they own all around the world.

To make matters worse, Walmart has removed all of its products from Google Shopping.

Google hasn’t made any big ecommerce or commerce purchases in general but you can expect that to change.

They may decide to buy a grocery delivery company like Instacart, but knowing them, I believe they will stick with the software, just like most things that they are doing.

Expect them to go after Amazon by helping people create
their own ecommerce site. Whether it is through a Shopify
acquisition or Bigcommerce or any other
platform out there, they want to own the ecommerce market.

It’s going to be too tough to go head-on with Amazon, and that’s I think they will take a different route and go after a platform like Shopify.

If you are selling products online you should, of course, be on Amazon, but don’t rely on them. Make sure you have your own website and look to see what platform play Google makes as you may eventually want to consider moving over to whatever they buy.

Change #4: Google will dominate the hardware industry

And no, I don’t mean they are going to create something
better than an iPad or an iPhone.

Apple, at its core, is a hardware company and they are clearly the winner when it comes to producing amazing devices that we use. But there is a big issue with Apple devices and even Samsung devices.

They are expensive.

If you want to buy a brand new iPhone, expect to drop $699 for the lowest model.

Google, on the other hand, does have high-end devices, but they also try and produce affordable devices. They also let other manufacturers use their operating system for their phones.

Their goal isn’t to make the most money per phone. Their goal is to get everyone in the world using their hardware.

Why?

Because that means they are collecting more data and that allows them to generate the most amount of money from advertising because all of these devices drive people to their search engine that is filled with ads.

It’s a pretty smart move.

I highly recommend that you watch this…

They aren’t just using this strategy with their phones, they
are trying to make all of their products affordable. That way people all over
the world can afford them.

Because if you live in places like Brazil or India, Apple
devices are too expensive, which leads people to choose a Google device.

Less than 5% of the world lives in the United States… the money is in the global markets.

If you are debating which platform to build on, consider Google, even if it isn’t the sexist due to sheer volume. Android’s market share is roughly 87% because of its affordable hardware and partnerships.

Change #5: Expect Google Ads to go offline

Right now you mainly see ads on their search engine.

Yes, you will also find ads on some of their other properties like Maps, but expect them to be everywhere.

For the first time, the 2019 digital ad spend overtook traditional ad dollars in the United States.

But still, ad dollars offline is more than a hundred billion-dollar industry, and that’s just in the United States.

Over the next few years, I bet you’ll see Google dip into offline advertising.

Just think of it this way. Google owns Waymo, a self-driving Uber type of service that is growing fast in popularity.

They have data from the Google devices in your home and the watch on your wrist and they know where you going through Waymo… essentially, they have more data on you than anyone else.

Heck, they are even starting to offer checking
accounts
.

With all of that data, who better to serve you offline ads?
They’ll be able to target people better and make them more relevant.

This will also increase the value (cost) of offline ads as
well as online ads in the long run.

Change #6: Search results won’t look the same in the
future

You are probably going to hate this change the most, but it
will also make their search engine more usable.

They are testing a lot of different ad types.

For example, as a business, you can collect leads through Google.

And eventually, you’ll just be able to book a hotel room right on their search engine without going to the hotel’s website.

The same will happen with mortgages, auto insurance, and many more industries.

This doesn’t mean that SEO will be dead or no one will go to
your site from search engines, it just means you will have to adapt.

For example, you can create educational-based content, rank highly, and when people land on your website, you can convert them through sales funnels.

You can also use tools like Hello
Bar
to create sliders and popups to drive visitors to your money pages.

Conclusion

The future isn’t going to look the same. Companies like
Tesla aren’t the only ones who are innovating, most big companies are.

Don’t expect Google to just stay the same and not adapt just
like every other tech company is trying to do.

It’s the only way to stay ahead and win.

As marketers and entrepreneurs, Google won’t be the only one
disrupting how you are growing your sales and traffic. But instead of getting
upset or complaining, accept it.

Be productive with your time and focus on adapting. Because
when you are adapting while your competition is complaining, you’ll win.

What other changes do you see Google making in the
future?

The post An Inside Look at Google’s Future Plans appeared first on Neil Patel.

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Monday, November 25, 2019

Transform Your Design with Unified UX

Unless you’ve been hiding under a tinfoil hat for the last few years, you probably know that UX and UI are not the same thing because “UX is more ergonomic”, or some such nonsense. But what about the unified part? Normally speaking, I’ve got very little patience for hipster acronyms and nit-picking, but actually it turns out there’s more to this than fake specs and chai latte.

Imagine you’re standing outside two different coffee shops. They both sell pretty much the same coffee at pretty much the same price. How do you choose? Well I’ll bet you a unicorn frappe it’s not one specific thing that sways you, more a general “feeling” that “it’s better”. And you know what? That’s UX.

It’s probably time to rethink everything

It’s probably time to rethink everything. Experience has become much more important to users than product, and from a design perspective, this puts software in pretty much the same space as coffee shops.

For the service industry, each user-brand interaction is a touchpoint. It’s not important where or how that interaction happens: seeing the shop, opening the door, speaking to someone at the counter, whatever. The aim is to create a feeling of familiarity, ease and comfort for the target user.

Now imagine scaling that experience. Say you wanted to take your coffee shop into a mobile vending unit. How can you make sure that your users get the same feeling of comfort and familiarity that they had in the high street? That’s Unified UX.

The Broader Context

Unified UX is much more than a DLS or style guide. In fact, you’d be better off thinking about tools like Atlassian and Sketch as…well, tools, to help you achieve the broader aim of unity.

It’s more than responsive design and digital ecosystem too. If you’re still thinking in terms of “mobile”, “tablet” and “desktop” configurations, you’d do well to heed the words of design guru Cameron Moll who urges us to recognise that, for today’s users:

The best interface is the one within reach

Take the Galaxy Fold, for example: Phone, tablet, phablet or plain old monstrous? What about Echo, Dot and Alexa with no screen at all? Or Apple Watch? As Cameron points out in the same talk, the concept of “TV” has also become pretty loose. Do we mean the content, or the device it’s viewed on? Is “mobile” a noun, a verb or an adjective? How is a native app different from a mobile browser experience?

The point is, from a unified UX perspective, it doesn’t matter. The job of the UX team is to create that “brand feeling” across all platforms and in all facets of the design.

Take a look at Southwest Airlines’ “Virtual Booking Desk” from — wait for it — 1998; laugh all you want, but remember that back then, most people were completely new to the internet. Seeing a familiar scene gave users a sense of confidence, which is (still) integral to the Southwest brand.

What Goes in to Unified UX?

Everything!

It starts with deep awareness of the needs, expectations and current experience of the user. Watch people using your stuff. Talk to them afterwards about what it felt like. You’ll definitely learn something. If it’s a new project, do focus groups, then do some more. Co-create if you can.

From there, develop a design principles framework. The key concerns of your user group should shine through in every single aspect of their brand experience.

Broadly, there are two key concepts to unify:

  • Form and Function – Yes, you need both!
  • Data Symmetry – Data should follow users.

Here are some questions to consider:

Available Media

How do your users want to interact with the brand?

  • Android/iOS app;
  • Voice Interface;
  • Live Chat;
  • Bot;
  • SMS integration (very popular in the US);
  • Telephone/VOIP;
  • Video;
  • Print Media;
  • Face to Face.

A website doesn’t work for everyone!

Look and Feel

Does your framework include:

  • color;
  • shape;
  • imagery;
  • story;
  • art direction;
  • icons?

Do your choices work everywhere? How do you balance unity of UX and compatibility? How do you merge native OS elements with brand-specific ones?

Layout

Guide users to the content they’re looking for. Will their needs change across:

  • platform;
  • device;
  • time;
  • user journey?

How do you balance usability and unity of UX on small screens?

Interaction

Are some features device specific?

  • Camera;
  • Location Services;
  • Accelerometer;
  • Compass.

If so, is this what users want? How will interactive behavior transfer?

Responsive Behaviour

Remember the device continuum – it’s usually best to think in terms of

  • small;
  • smallish;
  • biggish;
  • big.

(Not specific devices.)

Tone

Important for:

  • Written copy;
  • Voice Interface;
  • Phone Help;
  • Face to Face;
  • Video;
  • Text or Automated Chat.

Does the tone need to change in certain situations:

  • errors;
  • call to action;
  • feedback/complaints;
  • specific user groups?

Are you using dated words like “click” when “tap” would be a better choice?

Continuation

If the user starts an interaction on one device and transfers to another, does their data follow them? If shopping cart items, elapsed time, favourites etc are consistent across interfaces, you’re doing it right!

Single Sign-On is one of those features that’s bound to make your users smile. With this in mind, are your protocols up to scratch? If you’ve got a native app, you need LDAP or similar, for example. Don’t try and use cookies! Is the backend architecture able to handle the load?

Development Environment

As you probably see by now, unified UX isn’t something you can do by yourself. The better organised your resource repository, the easier it will be to onboard new team members and maintain consistency. Consider:

  • Toolsets;
  • Documentation;
  • Coding and File Naming Conventions;
  • Standard Elements Repo.

Upgrades and Integration

How will you update legacy material and add new elements as the design evolves?

Who’s Doing it Well?

Yes, unified UX can be a pretty large and expensive undertaking, and even the giants still get it wrong. That said, here are some nice little highlights from a few unexpected places:

Spotify

No surprises here in terms of the company’s size, and sure, their UX is (arguably) pretty slick no matter where you find it. But what really caught my eye today is their commitment to their backend and support for third party developers.

This gives Spotify users enormous scope to enjoy a highly integrated, reliable and ever-expanding ecosystem that always feels the same.

Mailchimp

Not only do they have great cross device, cross platform consistency, their famously chirpy tone and loveable mascot are instantly relatable. What’s even cooler is that, when something goes wrong, the tone subtly changes.

This isn’t surprising because they have a really extensive style guide for new writers.

Linguee

Primarily a web-based translation application, their iOS app is a real favourite of mine. It not only offers dictionary-style definitions, but use-in-context translations as well, which really helps to avoid the classic google translate failures. It’s understandable at a glance on both small and large screens… and it’s free!

Good evidence that simplicity and functionality often win out.

Conclusion – Why Bother?!

Well, in a nutshell, because it’s what your users want. Yes, to really nail a unified experience is a big undertaking, particularly if you’re coming into an old project and dealing with legacy code, but the fact is, it’s the future.

The range of available devices is growing rapidly, and users want whichever one is closest. At the same time, we’re becoming more and more sensitive to experience, and less tolerant of inconsistency or nuisance. Smaller companies must find ways to provide the kind of unified experience that customers expect, or face being swallowed by giants.

As independent developers, it’s in our interests, and within our ability, to find ways to make UX unified.

 

Featured image via DepositPhotos.

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Sunday, November 24, 2019

Popular Design News of the Week: November 18, 2019 – November 24, 2019

Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers. 

The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.

Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that were posted, so don’t miss out and subscribe to our newsletter and follow the site daily for all the news.

Diez is Now Open Source

 

Internet World Despairs as Non-profit .org Sold for $$$$ to Private Equity Firm

 

The Logos of Starbucks, Google, and More Get Redesigned by a Bot

 

It’s Time to Stop Designing ‘Minimum Viable Products’

 

Web Dev Metrics

 

20+ Color Tools for Web Designers

 

Apple Built a $1 Trillion Empire on Two Metaphors. One is Breaking

 

Enhancing Clickable Area Size

 

The Aesthetic-Accessibility Paradox

 

14 Inspiring UX Designer Portfolios

 

Designers: Ignore Best Practices

 

Why the Best Design is Sometimes Invisible

 

What Animation Taught Me About UX Design

 

Illlustrations – Large Set of Opensource Illustrations

 

Microsoft Went all in on Accessible Design. This is What Happened

 

Video Game Console Logos

 

Macro Trends in the Tech Industry

 

Framer is Going Web Based with Multi-user Editing

 

How We Scaled Our Design System to Unleash Skyscanner’s New Brand

 

The Quest for Simplicity

 

Passwords are a Design Problem

 

Design Tokens Beyond Colors, Typography, and Spacing

 

Complex Search-Results Pages Change Search Behavior: The Pinball Pattern

 

Explore Dribbble’s 2019 Global Design Survey

 

Evolving by Design

 

Want more? No problem! Keep track of top design news from around the web with Webdesigner News.

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