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5 Ways To Improve Website Performance By Combining Web Design And SEO

Website Performance

In today’s world, where approximately 93% of the buying circles start on the internet, it’s critically important to maintain a high-performing website. And, you must realize that there are several factors which should be considered while trying to improve your website performance. For starters, your website must rank high in Google search to enhance your presence. The better you rank, the more is your web traffic and conversions. People think that only focusing on SEO will fetch them high rankings. Well, it takes more than just SEO. Your website also needs to be designed well, or you risk blowing away all the organic traffic.

SEO and web design go hand-in-hand more seamlessly than many people might realize. Their components mingle and flow together so well that, when executed correctly, your visitors should simply start navigating through your site, without actually noticing anything about what you have created.

So, what are those elements where SEO and web design collaborate? Let’s check them out.

1. Mobile-Friendliness

Anyone who’s even slightly familiar with SEO or web design should already know the importance of making your website mobile-friendly. Google made mobile-friendliness a ranking factor in 2015. It then introduced mobile-first indexing in 2017. It’s obvious how much importance Google gives to mobile-friendliness. Sill, a lot of websites don’t acknowledge the importance of creating a mobile-friendly website.

Read More About Mobile-First Indexing Here

The trend of searching has changed over the last decade or so. People are searching more on hand-held devices, especially mobiles, and searching less on desktops; the number is steadily increasing. More than 50% of all web traffic is driven by mobile devices, which means more than 50% of your audience is most likely to be accessing your website through mobile phones. Without a mobile-friendly website design, you could be unintentionally squandering half of your users. If your website has a high bounce rate due to not loading properly on a phone or tablet is going to send wrong signals to Google, and your rankings will tumble down.

2. Website Speed

We all know how important website speed is for the success of a business. People on the internet are impatient, and they want answers to their questions within seconds.  If you haven’t been ranking well, it could be that your website is just too slow and people are bouncing quickly.

And, If your website loading speed is slow, you must know what’s slowing your website down? It could be something to do with your web design. Website speed is one of the most important aspects of technical SEO, and it’s a primary deficiency for many websites.

Ideally, your website should load in two seconds. When it takes longer than three seconds, half the users visiting your site are likely to abandon it. Page speed is more critical on mobile devices, where people are even less likely to spend time waiting. Web designers can consider various elements like image optimization, content suppression, CSS optimization, etc. to speed up the site.

3. Sitemaps

Web design can help with the crawling of your website in more than one way. A sitemap is a crucial element to have in place if you want search engines to be smarter about how they crawl your website. Your sitemap provides search engines with a guide of all the pages and content on your website. This gives you the chance to tell search engines what pages are most important to your site.

In addition to their benefit to search engines, sitemaps also aid in user navigation. A new visitor to your site can refer to your sitemap to get around it. Sitemaps also contain essential metadata about your web pages to give them a better chance of ranking highly.

4. Easy-to-Read Design

If you’ve been working on improving your SEO, you would have been focusing a lot on the content. Some people might not realize what a huge impact the design of a website can have on your content, or at least the presentation and structure of it. A poorly designed website can make it impossible for users to read the information on your website. Oddly placed content blocks, with a lot of hyperlinks, don’t serve a clear purpose. 

At some point, you’ve probably been on a website that had a text that was impossible to read because of the page design. Maybe it was a light-colored text on a pure white background or a dark color on black. But the issue is not always color. The text may also be too big or small or written in a hard-to-read font. Like websites that aren’t mobile-friendly, sites that are difficult to read on any device or desktop are going to turn people away quickly. 

Web designers understand how to create websites that make it easy for users to absorb your content, so you get the most for your money. White space, line length, and any extra elements such as images can all affect how people pay attention to your site. Also, remember to consider people with disabilities by going for an inclusive web design format.

5. User Experience and Trust

Unlike some other SEO factors, you really cannot measure how much people trust you or your website. However, gaining trust is still a huge part of getting your website to rank higher. There’s no doubt that most people are quick to form opinions, and once they have them, it can be challenging to change their minds. Over the years, we have gotten used to seeing perfected websites that provide phenomenal user experiences. This is what we naturally expect to see when we open a website. We want something clean, easy to navigate, and that can quickly give us the information we want. We tend to think these kinds of sites seem more trustworthy.

If a website looks old and outdated or is too difficult to use, most people will be left with a bad impression, and they could leave and not come back. You could have a product or service that might be exactly what they are looking for, but your website doesn’t convey this. A bad website will make it look like your business or organization simply doesn’t put in much effort.

Conclusion

Higher ranking in popular search engines is crucial, for which SEO is vital. But, not just SEO. If the best practices of website designing are carried hand-in-hand with best SEO practices, your website will become more efficient and perform better. Please speak to our web design experts for more details.

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Blog Brand & Identity Design Technology UI Design Web Design

5 Key Visual Elements Of A Successful Company Blog

Company Blog

Content is the king, and as a marketer, you cannot neglect the power of content. Your business’ blog is the most basic yet influential tool for sharing information, driving awareness, building trust with your audience, and most importantly garnering prospects. While purposeful content is crucial in attracting more people to your company blog and website, content alone isn’t enough for you to make a solid first impression. Visual elements are vital to the success of a blog. People are visual creatures in general, and they remember more of what they see as compared to what they read. Therefore, as a marketer and business, you need these five key visual elements to make your company/business blog a success.

1. Powerful Images, Infographics, and Videos

Articles with images get 94% more views than plain text articles. According to a survey, 65% of the marketers believed that visual content needs to be at the core of any blogging strategy. As mentioned earlier, people are predominantly visual creatures. So it would be best if you broke up the text blocks with different types of visual content. Images, infographics, and videos are amongst the most common ones. 

When it comes to images, they’re hugely beneficial since they have a high recall value. As for infographics, they’re useful when you want to present ideas or facts in an eye-catching, organized way. Finally, videos aren’t just a convenient visual tool anymore – they’re the future of the Internet. Videos substantially improve all-important performance indicators. Videos are growing, and by 2021, watching videos will make up a staggering 82% of all online traffic.

2. Branding Elements

Branding is at the center of your marketing process, and it’s the first step in setting up your business’ blog as well. Several factors are important here from a visual point of view. Your logo is your ID card; the visual reference points your customers are identifying your company with. You can use your company’s logo on your blog to help your audience identify who is the source of the published data. It’s a healthy practice to separate your blog from your main website and keep them linked at the same time. One of the ways to do it is by giving your blog a brand new name. 

Colors are also an important branding tool. You can use colors to set the tone of your blogs and ultimately your brand. They will also help you draw attention, easily separate different sections of your blog, and highlight key messages or categories.

For a brand that wants to stand out from the crowd, consistency is essential, even when it comes to blogging. How you arrange text within your blog pages is also relevant. You can try being creative and innovative regarding the typography, but the most important thing to consider is the readability and legibility of each post. Fonts, white spaces, bullets, etc., all must be carefully considered to strike a brand consistency.

3. A Captivating Author Bio Section

The author’s bio and photo are essential, considering you want to build trust with your customers and also grow awareness of your brand. People build trust faster with people they know, even when they know them only from a short bio and a profile photo. When they see the name of the author, they know that someone has invested time and professional skills into the article and that someone is a real person. 

If you are a well known and respected professional in your industry, or you are hiring authors that are well known among your peers and audience, it will serve you well to let the readers know who is the person who wrote the articles and why should they trust his or her professional opinions.

4. CTA Images

Your company blog should mainly be about content, but at the end of the day, your ultimate goal is conversions and sales. That’s why you need well-designed call-to-action buttons that will lead people to pages where you advertise your products or services. A CTA image should be clearly visible but subtle at the same time. You can either use newsletter subscription widgets, advertising banners, or sign-up forms. There are no limits on what you can integrate into your company blog design as long as they are appropriate for your goals and enable you to generate conversions for your brand.

The color of your CTA image is significant. For instance, choosing a color that contrasts the rest of the page could ensure that readers are more likely to notice your CTA image.

Read some tips to design CTA buttons here

5. Social Media Buttons

When it comes to content marketing, social media is always important. For more credibility and trust among customers, you need proof that your blog matters on social media as well. You need evidence that other people value your content and that they are willing to share your posts or positive reviews about your products and/or services.

Most of today’s blogs already use social media icons for sharing their content and display the number of shares as well. You can go a step ahead and reserve an entire section of your sidebar to show your readers how big your social community is, and how many shares your blog posts attract on social media.

To Conclude

Content marketing is an important tool, not only to increase conversions and sales but also to enhance your company’s brand image. Your company blog is a powerful marketing weapon, however, it’s not just about the content. Visual branding elements are a critical part of any successful blog and the tips above will surely help you in creating a stunning business blog. Need more insight? Talk to our experts.

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UI Design UX UX Design Web Design

Website Accessibility: More Important Than Ever In Today’s Time

Website Accessibility

The COVID-19 pandemic has shocked the world. The world is going through turbulent times, and the situation is unprecedented. For the past few months, we have been witnessing the mayhem, as the deadly virus has claimed millions of lives, and still counting. It has changed the way we think, live, and work. Countries have been forced into lockdown and most of the world’s population has been under home detention. Although the Coronavirus has struck people of every age and gender, it is the senior citizens who are more likely to develop complications from COVID-19. Isolating ourselves in a bid to stop the spread of disease is incredibly important as we aim to protect seniors, in particular.

As more of us stay quarantined at home, it’s only natural that we will become even more reliant on our connection to the digital world, the internet especially. Daily tasks like paying bills, ordering food, buying groceries, fixing a doctor’s appointment, etc. And, there is the consumption of news then. So, in a nutshell, the interaction of users with the internet and various websites has increased many times, which is likely to continue as a trend. Therefore, website accessibility becomes crucial. More and more people are engaging with your websites, and you need to ensure they don’t face any difficulties while accessing your site.

The prevalence of disabilities and impairments impacting one’s use of a computer or mobile device increases with age, so our seniors are more likely to face obstacles when websites are not coded with website accessibility in mind. The needs of our aging population overlap, in many ways, with the needs of our population with disabilities. Seniors often have impairments that make using online and web-based technology difficult. 

Digital Access Barriers

Vision

Reduced contrast sensitivity and tough color perception can make web pages particularly challenging to read when text is not crisp, clear, and significant. Someone with cataracts, macular degeneration, or any other impairment causing low vision may not be able to engage and interact with a website entirely if it isn’t created to support zooming or provide options to enlarge text.

Cognitive Function

The modern web is dynamic, interactive, and ever-changing. For example, rapid, fast-moving transitions from one block of information to the next can be too overwhelming for those requiring more time to read and process information. Controls are needed to pause highly interactive features and functions.

Hearing 

As we get older, our hearing gets weaker. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that for seniors, multimedia content such as videos, podcasts, and other formats can present barriers if captioning and transcripts aren’t provided.

Motor Control and Dexterity

Using a mouse can be difficult, painful, or even impossible for some users. Clicking that mouse or pressing that button, especially on small call-to-action buttons, can be equally challenging. Someone with severe tremors while using the mouse will only be able to access your website if measures have been taken to support visual focus and keyboard navigation.

If you’re ready to design your website with the accessibility of an aging population in mind, you’re not on your own. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) take into account this wide overlap between users with disabilities and older adults.

As we look to accommodate senior citizens and also build a web that is equipped for our future selves, here are some key steps you can take to ensure optimal and accessible user experience for all your users.

Read more about how to achieve smooth UX here

Readability

Make sure you use legible fonts with relative font-sizes and ensure text containers are resized. If at all you get confused in deciding which font to use, go ahead with sans serif fonts such as Arial, Open Sans, Helvetica, or similar. Consider color blindness and consistently use a high level of contrast between text foreground colors and background color. Ensure a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 and make sure the links are clearly marked. Using color alone is insufficient, whereas underlining helps in identify links. Lastly, avoid overuse of symbols, acronyms, and iconography. Replace it with text instead.

Functionality

It is essential to create enough space between clickable elements such as buttons and links to improve functionality. You must test your site as a keyboard user and ensure focusable elements receive focus. An option to skip navigation links enables greater keyboard navigation efficiency. Make sure that the link or button purpose is properly conveyed. Users shouldn’t have to guess where they will be taken next. Provide controls to pause auto-rotating carousels or animated content. Users may need more time to read, understand, and interact. Make sure forms are properly labeled and avoid using placeholder text that disappears on focus.

Organization

Make sure navigation is consistent, easy to follow, and predictable across the site. Spend an adequate amount of time to integrate breadcrumbs, so users can better track their location within the context of your navigation hierarchy. Avoid distracting content, excessive amounts of information and use plain-spoken language.

Multimedia

Older viewers may experience a decline in both auditory and visual perception. Be sure to make your videos accessible with captions and provide transcripts for audio-only content. 

It is important to recognize these challenges and work on them. Smooth, uninterrupted access to your website is critical and enhances the user experience. Our senior citizens and millions of individuals with disabilities deserve equal access online during these challenging times.

Get in touch with our team today for an awesome accessible website.

Categories
Technology UI Design UX Design Web Design

Top 10 Skills Required To Be A Successful Front-end Developer

Front End Developer

The field of mobile and web development is growing rapidly, creating several opportunities for both freshers and experts. If you’re creative and like to solve problems, front-end development could be of interest. Like any other professional field, front-end developer also requires a skill set, which includes both technical and non-technical skills. In this article, we have collated a list of skills that are a must for any professional Front-end Developer.

1. HTML and CSS

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are the most basic elements of web coding that act as the core foundation of web development. They are full-fledged technologies helping developers in creating useful websites. Without the knowledge of HTML and CSS you can’t even add images to a web page. Whether you want to include animations or graphical design in your site, these languages allow you to accomplish the task with ease and are one of the biggest must-have skills for a Front-end Developer. In simple words, you can’t create a website design without HTML and CSS knowledge.

2. JavaScript

JavaScript lets you add a ton more functionality to your websites, and you can create a lot of basic web applications using nothing more than HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. HTML and CSS are concerned with the style components of a web page. However, JavaScript comes under the category of a programming language that defines the function. i.e., when you are creating a web page, use HTML/CSS for the perfect look, and then use JS to coordinate the website features. HTML and CSS work for simple web pages that don’t include dynamic features. But for audio, video, chat, animations, scrolling, etc. we have to use JS. Sites like Pinterest use JavaScript heavily to make their user interface easy to use. It’s also the most popular programming language in the world, so it’s super-valuable to learn and a must-have skill for Front-end Developers.

3. CSS and Front-End Frameworks

CSS and front end frameworks do for CSS what JS Frameworks do for JavaScript; they give you a launchpad for faster coding. Since so much CSS starts with the same elements from project to project, a framework that defines all of these for you upfront is super valuable. Most Front-end Developer job listings expect you to be familiar with how these frameworks work and how to use them.

4. RESTful Services and APIs

REST stands for Representational State Transfer. It’s a lightweight architecture that simplifies network communication on the web. RESTful services and APIs are those web services that adhere to REST architecture. Let’s say you want to write a code for an app that shows you all your social media friends in the order you became friends. You could call Facebook’s RESTful API to read your friend’s list and return that data. The same thing with Twitter. The general process is the same for any service that uses RESTful APIs; just the data returned will be different. It may sound too technical and complicated, but it’s a simple set of guidelines and practices that set expectations, so you know how to communicate with a web service. They also better the performance of a web service.

5. Responsive And Mobile Designs

Responsive design means that the site’s layout change based on the screen size and device someone is using. It is a known fact that today more people access the internet from their mobile phones than from desktops. So it’s no brainer that mobile design and responsive skills are super important to employers.

People will visit websites using different platforms. Surfing only through the laptop and PC is not practical. Creating separate user interfaces is hectic, and responsive design is the best solution. Receiving the same format of the website in different devices helps users in finding the desired options easily. Expertise in responsive design is essential, and it doesn’t require additional efforts since it includes the fundamental part of CSS and an introduction to Bootstrap.

6. Testing And Debugging

Coding without mistakes is impractical. That said, a site without errors is essentially critical, whether it is a local business site or an international business site. The possible solution is the debugging phase after doing the proper testing. It can be performed in different ways, like unit testing or functional testing. In Unit Testing, we look for every single code and error, while in Functional Testing, we focus on the functionality of the website, which is the primary concern.

Various tools, and programs like Selenium, Mocha, Jasmine, etc., can complete the testing tasks following simple steps. A Front-end Developer must accept the fact that ‘bugs happen.’ Therefore, being familiar with testing and debugging processes is vital.

Read more about various testing tools here

7. Browser Developer Tools

The ultimate product will be reaching the users through web browsers, and its compatibility with the browser describes the quality of the website. It is critical to the success of any site. Every browser is now available with the browser developer tool that allows the developer to tune the pages by setting in the same browser. 

The tools give permission to watch how the runtime HTML will look like and the way CSS gets applied to the web page. You can also edit these components that will help you to see the changes live. The JS Console helps you to find errors in the code when it runs in the browser. Variations can be observed in these tools, depending on the browsers.

8. Problem-Solving Skills

If there’s one thing that all front end developers have to have, regardless of the job description or official title, it’s excellent problem-solving skills. As a Front-end Developer, you will work with the whole team. Hence, problem-solving skills are necessary. You will need to figure out how to best implement a design, fix bugs, figure out how to make your front end code work with the backend code being implemented, and many other things. In short, development is all about creative problem-solving.

9. Good Communication

It may not be on top of the required skills list, but as a Front-end Developer, you need to be good at communicating. First of all, the work between UI/UX designers, front-end and backend, has to go smoothly to finish a project. Of course, in agile software houses, you also get a project manager which helps with the information flow and a SCRUM master to help with the process. Still, without basic interpersonal skills, it won’t be that easy to work with others. Effective communication is necessary when you work with other people. It is essential to clearly state and communicates what you have in mind – both verbally and in writing.

10. Creativity

Last but certainly not least, you need to be highly creative. Building the page structures, keeping the design up-to-date, developing responsive and pleasant user experiences requires a lot of creativity and constant learning. Trends and technologies are changing; it is crucial for a developer to keep up with the latest news and not go down on the learning curve.

There are other essential skills, but the ones mentioned above are highly critical. Are you a Front-end Developer, or aspiring to be one? How do you gauge yourself based on these skill sets? Do let us know in the comments section. And, for discussing your design and development requirements, speak to our team now!

Categories
UI Design UX UX Design Web Design

7 Best Practices To Design Dropdown Menus

Dropdown Menus

Dropdown menus are an integral part of website design and user experience. A clean, well-structured dropdown menu helps navigate visitors through a website, narrow their choices and save screen space easily. It is widely used in navigation bars, search bars and tab bars. However, it’s a perplexing task to design simple, effective and attractive dropdown menus. Even the simplest looking components can be tricky some times when designing for usability. Here are some best practices for designing effective and user-friendly dropdown menus.

Avoid Long Dropdown Menus

Using dropdown menus in forms is quite apparent. Forms don’t take much space on the interface, all browsers support them, and users are acquainted with them. It’s all right if you have 10-12 option, but it could be overwhelming for users to navigate when they have to choose from more than 15 options. Users face a hard time reaching to what they’re looking for. Also, there are scrolling issues where the user has to keep the mouse cursor within the dropdown box. They may end up scrolling down the page instead. 

The most classic example for long dropdowns is the country selector which has more than 100 options typically. Generally, it sorts by alphabetical order, but sometimes the most popular countries are placed at the top. That may look like a convenient practice but can confuse the users sometimes. The dropdown menu isn’t the best choice in this instance. A text field option with autocomplete functionality is more user-friendly here. The user already knows his choice and can input it quickly.

Grey Out Disabled Options

This one is a no-brainer, but still gets missed out by many designers. If you have an option that is disabled or unavailable, it should not be removed but greyed out. If disabled items are removed, the interface loses spatial consistency, and it becomes more challenging for the user to learn. When you grey out the disabled or unavailable options, it is more purposeful and adds to the user experience. You may choose to show a tooltip to indicate the reason why that option is disabled and how to activate it.

Use Clear Hover States

Designing an “active” class for hovered menus keeps the attention where it belongs. Most designers use the ‘CSS :hover’ pseudo-class, which works great for actively-hovered links. However, keeping the main link highlighted when the user is hovering submenu links is also a good practice. It acts as a clear path of activity where users can glance at the menu and quickly determine which primary link is active and which sub-menu link hovers. You can design hover states with many techniques like font color changes, text underlines, background color changes, highlights, box shadows, and more. The primary objective is to keep the parent link active even when it’s not hovered directly.

Avoid Dropdown Menus Where Typing Works

There are many situations when typing might actually be convenient and faster than using a dropdown menu. For example, inputting the credit card expiry date or entering birth dates. It is definitely much faster to type the dd/mm/yy or mm/dd/yy formats, rather than scrolling through two dropdown menus and selecting the month and year. Although a free-form input field does require data validation, in some form at least, it’s still a better alternative from usability and convenience point of view.

Keep The Number Of Actions To A Minimum

A dropdown menu must be customized based on the information required. This ensures that the user takes a minimum number of actions. A classic example is the “date selection” field, where you would need 3 dropdown menus (month, day, and year) if a normal list menu is used. This can annoy and frustrate users. Instead, the menu components must be customized, and users must be able to enter the date using only one dropdown menu.

Make Seamless Dropdown Menus

Dropdown menus should appear seamlessly and without interruption. Dropdowns should load immediately. Many times website developers end up overloading the menu, making it too heavy for instantly loading upon hover. The last thing you want is users waiting for something to happen with their cursors on dropdown menu title. Transition effects like wipe down or fade can be the other options to display the change. They look really cool but ensure that the transition is quick and not disruptive.

Use Clear And Concise Labels

Labels on menu options initiate the action. Users choose the menu option based on their labels, so it’s vital to make them accurate and informative. It’s best to use sentence case in labels. Avoid uppercase letters. Keep your labels short and crisp. Concise labels that clearly indicate the purpose of the selection must be used. As part of best practices, use verbs for action menu items. It should describe the action that will occur. For links, use nouns to identify the page that the user will be directed to. Exclude articles in menu items; use “delete page”, instead of “delete the page”. Lastly, keep menu items to a single line of text. Don’t write a story there.

Using these best practices, you can design dropdown menus that are attractive, user-friendly and purposeful. For more, feel free to get in touch with our design experts.

Read about Mega Navigation menu here

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Blog

Top 10 Features Of The Latest Photoshop 2020

Photoshop 2020

If you’re a designer, you know how vital is Photoshop for professionally editing pictures. With loads of editing options, Photoshop opens the door to a huge number of image editing possibilities, which can enhance the visual appeal of pictures. The latest version of Adobe’s Photoshop 2020 comes packed with updated, new features to improve your image editing experience. Here’s a list of top 10 features of the latest Photoshop version, in no particular order.

1. Improved ‘Select Subject’

The Select Subject tool has been improved dramatically in terms of accuracy and speed. Users do experience a slow processing speed while using the ‘Select Subject’ tool on older Photoshop versions, like 2018 and 2019 ones. Even in terms of quality, one can clearly spot the low-quality edges, and the selection accuracy was also below par. However, the option is faster, cleaner, and much more accurate in Photoshop 2020.

Photoshop 2020 - Improved Select Subject

2. ‘Object Selection’ tool

The ‘Object Selection’ tool is one of the biggest new features of Photoshop 2020. It is similar to the ‘Select Subject’ option, however, where you get to select the areas you want Photoshop to focus on. Normally, when you use the ‘Subject Selection’ feature, Photoshop scans the entire image and determines everything which it feels is a subject. In many cases, these subjects can be more than one. So, what to do when you wish to select just one subject? That’s when the ‘Object Selection’ option comes to rescue. Navigate to the ‘Quick Selection’ group, click on ‘Object Selection’ and make a selection around the thing that you want to select. You can make a freehand selection, using the Lasso mode, or a rectangular selection, using the rectangle mode.

Photoshop 2020 - Object Selection Tool

3. Pixel layer properties

The Pixel Layer properties have also been greatly improved with a couple of new, essential features. The properties section now has way more information as compared to the previous versions. The Align and Distribute actions, quick actions like Remove Background, and Select Subject are very handy. You can make alignments according to the selection or the canvas.

Photoshop 2020: Pixel Layer Properties

4. Zoom to Layer Content

This feature is very useful, especially when you’re retouching or compositing. As the feature name suggests, it is basically zooming into the layer content. Hold the ‘Alt’ key or the ‘Option’ key and click on the element layer you want to zoom. It will zoom into the selected element, and you can work on the selection. This option not only helps you zoom into the particular layer content but also helps you in smoothly navigating through your image. Even switching from one zoomed element to another gets simplified. Instead of zooming out from one element, then selecting and zooming into the other element, you can simply hold the Alt or Option key and select the particular layer to zoom.

Layered Content

5. Photoshop 2020 – Animated GIF support

When you go to ‘File > Save as’ in Photoshop 2020, it now offers an option of saving your file in an Animated GIF format. The GIF saving options can be customized, as per your convenience. The file is directly saved in .gif format, inside the designated folder, and can be accessed directly. 

Animation GIF Support

6. Photoshop 2020 – Enhanced Transform Warp

The Transform Warp is way more advanced than before. It offers more control and allows you to add control points anywhere, or divide your image with a customizable grid. You can also transform by individual nodes or a larger selection area. You can choose ‘Split Warp Horizontally’ or ‘Split Warp Vertically’ to create a custom grid. It’s way advanced than the older versions.

Wrap

7. The updated Lens Blur

The Lens Blur is now faster than before, uses more GPU, and has a couple of new features, making it easier to work with. The access path is ‘Filter > Blur > Lens Blur’. Once the source is selected, you can enable ‘Set Focal Point’, which will allow you to click and focus on any part of the image. Click on the area, and the area will be focused, with everything else blurred out. The focus and blur can be manually controlled using the ‘Blur Focal Distance’ slider. The Lens Blur is way faster in Photoshop 2020, as compared to the previous versions.

Lens blur

8. The fancy crop tool

If there’s some distraction which we cannot get rid of by using Photoshop tools and features, we simply crop it. The crop tool has been re-designed in the 2020 Photoshop version and looks a bit fancy now. It seems much more refined and futuristic, even as the functionality remains unchanged. 

Crop Tool

9. New Text Layer Properties

A lot of new additions have been made to the text layer properties. It has so many things that the user can control. The Character, Paragraph, Type options, and the new Stylistic Sets option make it much more comprehensive. Also, you can now directly convert your text into a vector with just a click. 

Text Layer Properties

10. Support For Cloud Documents in Photoshop 2020

This is an interesting new feature and can prove very useful when you are traveling, using different computers, or working in a team. Photoshop 2020 supports cloud documents. When you go on to save your file, it will now open a new window, providing you with two options – ‘On your computer’ and ‘Cloud documents’. When the latter is selected, your file is saved as a cloud document on Adobe’s cloud. This will allow you to access the file on different devices, using the cloud. Adobe has also hinted that in future releases you’ll be able to use your files on the cloud to collaborate with others.

Cloud Document

Adobe has always tried to better its products, especially Photoshop, and the latest 2020 version proves it again. With added features and improved functionality, designers have much more freedom to play around with images and bring out the best. If you wish to create stunning graphics, speak to our creative team of designers, and get started.

You might be interested in reading a few tips for effortless UI Design. Read Here

All Picture Courtesy: PiXimperfect

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Apple Blog

The New iPhone SE 2020 Review: High-performance packed In An Affordable Smartphone

iPhone SE 2020

Apple Inc. started back in 1976, in a garage when three visionaries started their journey towards a dream. What began as a personal computer venture, has evolved over the last four decades and the firm now produces everything from laptops, to phones and portable media players. Apple entered the smartphone market in 2007 with the iPhone, and the rest is history. Apple’s most recent launch was the 2020 version of the iPhone SE, and it was very well received by the techno-heads.

What most attracts smartphone lovers about the latest iPhone model is its lower-than-standard price; it starts at $399. The iPhone SE was first launched in 2016 and flaunted a 4-inch display screen. The 2020 model has a 4.7-inch, which might not be an idle size for operating the phone single-handedly. That said, giant screens are a new norm in today’s world.

So what are the hits and misses of the iPhone SE 2020? What’s there to like and dislike? Does it really prove to be a good bargain? Let’s check it out

Pros

  • A highly competitive price; less than half the cost of top-of-the-line iOS and Android flagships
  • Super-fast performance
  • An effective, secure, and robust mobile operating system 
  • The inclusion of Apple’s A13 chip that ensures support to new apps and updates for a long time

Cons

  • Battery life below-par than other iPhones
  • A dated design
  • No headphone adapter included in the box
  • Ordinary low-light camera performance

Specifications

As we mentioned earlier, the iPhone SE comes with a 4.7-inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 1334×750 pixels at 326ppi. The display is well-calibrated and has an impressive 1400:1 contrast ratio, with 625 maximum nits of brightness.

iPhone SE Specification
Source: Apple.com

The phone is powered by the A13 system-on-a-chip, which includes a CPU, GPU, machine learning processor, image signal processor, and more. The A13 is arguably the fastest mobile processor in the market, and at this price, it’s a real bargain. The iPhone SE supports the new Wi-Fi 6 wireless standard, and Bluetooth 5.0.

As far as the photography is concerned, you get a 12-megapixel, ƒ/1.8 aperture camera with a wide-angle lens at the rear that supports Apple’s machine-learning-driven computational photography features. The rear camera can shoot 4K video at up to 60 frames per second. The front camera offers 7-megapixel and a ƒ/2.2 aperture, and it can take 1080p videos at 30 frames per second.

Accessories in the box include a charging brick, a lightning USB charging cable, and EarPods wired earbuds. There’s no 3.5mm headphone jack. Though the adapter only costs $9 when purchased separately, we feel Apple should have included it, considering the target consumers buying the iPhone at this price point. 

The iPhone SE’s battery can last up to 13 hours for local video playback, eight for streaming video, and 40 for audio playback, as per company claims. These figures are way less than the iPhone 11 performance, but we can’t expect a lot from a smaller phone, with less space, packing a big battery.

The latest iPhone SE is available in three storage configurations – 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB, priced at $399, $449, and $549 respectively. 

iPhone SE 2020 Design

By first looks, the iPhone SE 2020 looks reminiscent of the iPhone 8. It has the exact same dimensions at 5.45×2.65×0.29 inches. All the externally visible components are in the same places, from the camera to the home button. The phone has a home button, making it the only iPhone in the lineup that doesn’t use Face ID for authentication. 

There’s not a lot to say about the design since it is the same basic design we’ve been reviewing for years. It looks dated, and wouldn’t be turning heads around. Although it is one of the most tested and accepted smartphone designs ever, some users might get disappointed by the fact that Apple hasn’t brought back the 4-inch smartphone like the original SE. There are three colors to choose from – black, white, and a special red edition.

iPhone SE Design
Source: Apple.com

Camera

Preliminary reports suggest that camera hardware remains the same as the iPhone 8. That said, it is paired with the A13 chip, which claims to offer new and improved image processing, so it may take slightly better photos under some circumstances. While Apple’s current flagships offer additional lenses (telephoto and ultra-wide angle), the SE provides neither of these. The iPhone SE camera is just fine, but it’s one of the main things you’re compromising on when you skip out on paying significantly more for an iPhone 11 Pro or any other high-end Android phone.

Camera of iPhone SE 2020
Source: Apple.com

Performance

The iPhone SE performs at par with the iPhone 11 Pro. It outperforms every prior iPhone, and every Android phone, including recent releases with vastly higher price tags. This phone might be small, and it might be relatively cheap, but it is exceedingly powerful. The level of performance for this price is overwhelming. 

On the other hand, the iPhone SE can’t compete with the latest iPhones and Android phones in terms of battery life. Apple says the iPhone SE can handle up to 13 hours of local video playback, that’s quite less as compared to 18 hours for the iPhone 11. If you care the most about battery life in a smartphone, this is not the phone for you. But if you’re looking for an excellent price-to-performance ratio, the SE is the best pick out there.

iPhone SE 2020 Performance
Source: Apple.com

Software

The iPhone SE currently runs iOS 13, the latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system. IOS is the primary reason people buy iPhones. It’s relatively stable and straightforward to use, with one of the best software ecosystems that have ever existed on any platform. iOS differentiates itself from the competing Android platform through a promise of software-hardware integration and an added focus on personal privacy. We aren’t saying that this operating system is perfect, but it’s more than good enough for almost anyone.

Read about 7 most common screens of a Mobile App here

iPhone SE 2020 Verdict

If you prioritize a large screen for consuming rich content on your phone regularly and prefer taking high-quality photos with your phone, especially in low light, then go for the more expensive iPhones. But if you just want a reliable, super-fast phone with excellent software support at a reasonable price, go for the iPhone SE. Apart from a few shortcomings in terms of the camera and battery life, the iPhone SE packs in all the most important things about its flagships. Only the luxuries or good-to-have features like OLED, Face ID, and secondary cameras are excluded, which makes it affordable.

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Blog Brand & Identity Web Design

Best WordPress Plugins To Create Stunning Landing Pages

Landing Pages

A website consists of various pages. Each page has its own purpose. Some pages are created to inform, some to initiate actions, and some act as a gateway to the rest of the site. Landing pages aim to increase conversion rates and fulfill your marketing and business growth goals. They are the face of your business and brand. They represent who you are, and most of the time decide whether visitors will dive into your website or not? The first impression is often the last impression, and it can’t be more accurate in case of a landing page. That’s why it becomes critical to focus on various elements of the landing pages to make it one of the best. 

If you wish to increase your sales and conversions on your website, landing pages are one of your key weapons. Landing pages interact with customers, capture leads, market your product, and that too, without the need of you being around.

The best way to come up with a useful landing page is to get professional help. A competent team of designers and developers, like the one at Nyx Ditech, can help you create your dream website and landing page, owing to their expertise and years of experience. However, if you do have some constraints in hiring a digital agency, and if your website is created using WordPress, you can use the various WordPress plugins to create and manage your landing pages.

Here is a list of top WordPress plugins, in no particular order, that lets you create and manage landing pages effectively. They also help you in tracking and responding to leads, building forms, creating auto-responders, and generating conversions.

Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder allows users to refer to a set of content modules that assist in building layouts of the landing pages. Additionally, it also supports third-party widgets and shortcodes for creating layouts quickly. And, it supports almost all WordPress themes.

Beaver Builder lets you create responsive landing pages, that offer a better user experience across mobiles and tablets. Its plugin system can be used by developers to create custom widgets. There are additional features available in the “pro” version. One of the top features in the “pro” version is the access to additional documentation and superior support for extending the builder through custom modules.

Beaver Builder

WordPress Landing Pages

WordPress Landing Pages is a popular WP plugin that lets you design a landing page with its visual editor; it enables you to view changes on the go. You can clone the old splash pages, run A/B tests on the conversion pages, and extend the plugin using third-party add-ons.

This plugin lets you choose from many custom landing page designs or even implement your blog’s theme on the landing pages. Created with the best inbound marketing techniques, WP Landing Pages helps you acquire and convert substantial numbers of leads. Along with this landing page creator, you can also install WordPress Calls to Action, and WordPress Leads to implement and use a lead generation system.

WordPress Landing Pages

Elementor

Elementor is one of the leading WordPress page builders, that is apt for both freelancers and businesses. It helps you in creating a pixel-perfect design with 100 percent clean code. With its visual Theme Builder, you can customize your header, footer, and other areas of the landing page. It features its own page builder interface that allows you to simply drag-n-drop elements or modules – the buttons, texts, images, columns, and other sections to create a visually appealing landing page. You can even drop-in the pre-built templates, which is a huge time saver.

Elementor Landing Pages

AtomicBlocks

AtomicBlocks is a WordPress plugin that registers additional blocks to Gutenberg (WordPress’s new editor interface). It consists of pre-built components, like the so-called Spacer and Divider, call-to-action, and it also comes with pre-designed page layouts, that simplifies the process of creating a good-looking page layout on WordPress.

Atomic Blocks

Unbounce

You can use Unbounce to create custom landing pages that convert more visitors. With Unbounce, you can create and optimize dedicated landing pages that prompt your visitors with one focused goal, rather than leaving them wandering through a site full of distractions. It offers effortless page editing and instant previews. 

With more than 80 responsive landing page templates, you have a wide variety to choose from. Other actions that you can initiate on Unbounce include running A/B tests and integrating the plugin with leading marketing tools like MailChimp, HubSpot, SalesForce, etc.

Unbounce Landing Pages

Aitasi Coming Soon

Aitasi Coming Soon is a modern, beautiful, responsive, and full-width professional landing page that’ll help you create a stunning coming soon page or maintenance mode pages instantly. It doesn’t require any coding or design skills. You can create a 100 percent mobile-friendly responsive layout that works with any WordPress theme. The features include unlimited Background color changing options, company logo addition, social profiles and social sharing buttons, full browser backgrounds option, and lightweight standard code.

Aitasi

Coming Soon by Supsystic

Coming Soon by WordPress offers professional, editable coming soon templates. It has an option to edit the content, with a drag-and-drop builder, to show your visitors that your website is under construction or maintenance mode. You can create a responsive coming soon landing page that can be customized by editing the elements like page background, logo, fonts, social buttons, etc. Speaking about features, it has a subscription option, Google Analytics tracking, option to easily add custom CSS and HTML code, multi-site support, and page live preview.

Supsystic Landing Pages

SiteOrigin Page Builder

SiteOrigin Page Builder is the most popular page creation plugin for WordPress. It allows you to compose a page by simply using drag-n-drop widgets right from the WordPress post or page. It integrates well with WordPress and is built with developers in mind. Developers can quickly build a custom widget as well as a pre-built template using the API that they’re already familiar with. It doesn’t require any coding and offers live editing. SiteOrigin Page Builder is available in 17 languages.

SiteOrigin

These WordPress page builders are great for newbies and even experienced folks. Most of the features of these plugins are free, with a few of them offering superior features at an extra cost. Though these plugins are all that you require to get started, in case you wish to get your website and landing pages created by industry experts, you can get in touch with our team.

Looking for Atomic Designs? Here you have all the information you need

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Blog

Everything You Need To Know About Creating A Food Delivery App

Food Delivery App

Home delivery of food is not a new concept. With so many mobile devices around the world, there’s an app for almost everything and everything that you can think of. The food delivery system started during the early 2000s and picked up quite rapidly. Digital technologies are rapidly changing the food delivery industry. Today, it is common in almost all developed and developing countries. So, what are the basics of a food delivery app? How do we start if we were to create a food delivery app? What is the development process? Let’s find out.

There are two primary food delivery startup models – 

  • The aggregator model 
  • The food delivery platform with logistics support

The aggregator model is based on the old-school food delivery system. They manage customers and local restaurants as a third party. They serve as a platform for the user to browse through various cuisines and delicacies. The job of food delivery app aggregators is to facilitate order support and exposure. The employees of the respective restaurants do the delivery. This model requires a lot of investment and is feasible only if you are ready to invest hugely.

The food delivery platforms, providing a logistics delivery system, help to partner restaurants with their logistics support. These aggregators allow small restaurants, food joints, and home delivery services to deliver seamlessly. These are perfect for food delivery startups who can’t afford to have their own delivery system. UberEats, GrubHub, Zomato, etc. are examples of this model. 

As per the industry experience, developing a food delivery app similar to UberEats and GrubHub is always more profitable. It gives you broad coverage and thus a more user base. Let’s find out what it takes to create such an app

Competition in the food delivery business is fierce. You need to put your best foot forward to stand against your competitors. There are a lot of challenges at the beginning, like zeroing down your target audience, selecting the features to include in your app, how to partner with the restaurants, how to manage employees, services and inventories, etc.

Finding the right audience

Defining your audience is an essential step to create your food delivery app. You have to understand what differentiates you from others, and how is it going to benefit your audience. Define your target first. If you are targeting health-conscious, busy professionals who are looking for healthy food options, you can focus on delivering freshly-cooked, healthy food. Then you won’t be targeting foodies looking to explore tasty cuisines from around the globe. Likewise, If you have the USP to serve delicious fast food within minutes, you have to target busy millennials, for whom a healthy diet is not a priority, but quick delivery is. You may choose to cater to a broader audience, but limiting your target audience to one or two segments is always beneficial.

Basic requirements

There are four basic requirements to create a food delivery app which provides a logistics delivery system:

  • Customer app
  • Delivery driver app
  • Restaurant owner app
  • Restaurant web domain

Users want to browse through different restaurants with different search parameters. There must be a detailed and easy to use database for handling available orders, and GPS integration to clearly define the pickup and drop location. Also, you need to check the list of deliveries and client contacts to create the whole loop.

Customer App

The UI of your customer app must be extremely intuitive and interactive. 

Sign-up

User journey begins right at the sign-up. Simplify the user sign up process. It must be completed within seconds. Also, there should be an option for them to log in quickly through social media channels. 

Search Restaurant

Once signed in, they will search for a restaurant or a dish. Provide easy access to the user to find nearby restaurants using GPS. They must be able to search for a restaurant by its name. A detailed list of restaurant information, cuisines list, prices, special combos, and reviews must be offered. 

Place Order

Provide users with the option to add the dishes or meal in their cart and a delete button to erase a mistake. The total order value with all elements of the cost should be displayed separately – taxes, restaurant charges, delivery charges, etc. An option to apply a discount code, if applicable, must be placed where it is easily visible. Users must not be searching for it.

Secured Payment System

Everything starts when your user pays for the deal. Make the payment integration fast, safe and secured. Choose popular payment integrations like Stripe, Paypal, and CCAvenue. Developers can create a payment model similar to popular apps like UberEats and GrubHub.

Delivery Driver App

Your delivery app must cover four key tasks:

1. Assigning deliveries

Deliveries must be allocated to drivers and couriers using a dashboard, with automatic task assignment. Drivers will instantly receive an assignment on their smartphones via the app.

2. Navigating and driver tracking

Once the driver is on their way, the app’s embedded smart navigation must direct them on to the fastest route. You and the customer can track the drivers’ progress in real-time so you know when the delivery can be expected.

3. Completing the delivery

Once the driver has arrived, they must be able to access all contact information in the app. Delivery should be completed in one touch using the app’s sign-on technology. Additionally, an option to take and attach photos can be provided, if there are any issues with the goods, but that’s optional.

4. Notifying the customer

An automated delivery notice and payment receipt must be emailed to the customer, and even an app notification should be sent. Data should be transferred to your central system via 4G or Wi-Fi connectivity. With the delivery completed, the system can instantly find another job for you to assign to that driver.

Restaurant Owner App/Web domain

hough the restaurant needs an admin panel to manage a lot while handling the orders, apps can always be a boon. It is a mini version to keep a check over the happenings. A restaurant owner app must contain:

  • A simple registration process for restaurant owners
  • All relevant information regarding the restaurants like contact, address, service hours, photos, menu and everything else
  • An order handling process in place to manage order placement, order details, order confirmation to restaurants, order pickup timing and status, etc.
  • A proper payment integration system to manage all payments

The growth of food delivery apps has led to an increase in the online presence of restaurants. But there is still a huge scope to reach out to. There are plenty of restaurants yet to be registered on online portals. Also, the majority of the restaurants these days prefer to be listed on multiple platforms so that they can enjoy more orders. Creating an extensive network of restaurants in your app will be difficult initially. But if you reach out to the right market, you will find many restaurants to partner with.

Creating a food delivery app requires meticulous planning. You have to recruit employees, contact restaurants, advertise and most importantly – develop the food delivery app right. Find out more on how to create a perfect food delivery app by talking to our experts.

Read more about product management and project management here

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UI Design UX UX Design Web Design

How To Enhance Your Careers Page Design?

Careers Page Design

A Careers Page may not be on top of your list when you start planning a website. But, it is one of the critical pages of your website. Brands and designers often overlook the importance of this page and park it for the second or third stages of development. With time, it slowly fades out, and all we are left with is a generic careers page. Your careers page is the best place to attract new talent and thus needs a lot of attention.

The careers page should be visually appealing, engaging, and attractive enough to draw potential applicants. It should give out useful information to applicants and navigate them smoothly through the application process. That said, you must also be cautious of not overdosing them with information. The careers page should not look cluttered, and must not confuse applicants. The process of applying for a job on a websites’ career page is typical and is followed by almost all candidates. It’s essential to create an impact on applicants and simplifying the user experience of this page.

The first step to designing a careers page is to define its purpose. To identify the key objective of developing this page, you must ask a few questions:

  • Why are you creating this page?
  • Who is the target audience?
  • What do the candidates need and how to satisfy those needs?
  • What does your company need?

While targeting the needs of candidates and your company, always give preference to candidates, or in other words, your target audience. If you can help candidates in performing their tasks smoothly, you will, in turn, attract the best talent for your company. 

Candidates coming to your careers page can be broadly classified into two categories:

  • The ones who already know you
  • The ones who don’t know you

The needs of both would be different. The ones who don’t know you would like to learn about the company, its work culture, types of jobs available, etc. They would analyze the information provided on the page and will consider that to take a decision on whether they want to apply for an open position or not. They may have some questions too, for which they would contact you. On the other hand, people who already know your company will straight away look for the available jobs and apply for a suitable position. Your careers page must address both the groups.

Your careers page must also ensure that your HR team is happy. They should be able to segregate between good and not so good candidates easily. Through your careers page, you want to hire the best talent, turn off candidates who are not the best fit and market your company as a great place to work.

Best Practices

Use Rich Content

Content is often misinterpreted as text, and by that logic rich content translates to a lot of content. That’s not the case. Content is a mix of text, infographics, pictures, videos and more. Rich content means content that answers the most important questions of candidates. Candidates will have a variety of questions in their mind. The key is to figure out which are the key questions that should be answered and what is the best way of presenting your answers. These days, a lot of companies publish blog posts on their careers sections. The blog posts work as proof of your claim – we are the best company to work with.

Include Photos and Graphics

Don’t just use huge text blocks on the careers page and make the user read forever. It’s best to break the text into small chunks and include photos, graphics to support the text. Show original pictures of your employees working in roles similar to current openings. It enhances the credibility of your company and helps users to understand what it is like to work in a particular role in your company. Photos improve your careers page design and display your company culture. A lot of candidates look at people and culture fit when considering prospective employers.

Be Accessible

Most of the companies place the careers section on their primary menu. It’s either next to the about us section or within it. There’s a link to the career section in the footer too. People are used to locating the careers section at these places and expect them to be there. By following the industry norms you will simplify the user experience; users expect the carers section to be at these places. Don’t hide the careers page deep into other sections, or you risk losing candidates. 

Read more about simplifying and improving user experience here

Create a Mobile-Friendly Careers Page

Your potential candidates are all using mobile phones. According to a study, nearly 45 percent of job seekers use mobile devices to search for jobs. Optimize your website for various screen sizes, by using a responsive design, to offer a smooth, consistent experience. If your site is easy to use on mobiles, you’re increasing your reach to the potential applicants and encouraging the best candidates to apply from any device. 

Simplify The Application Process

The best candidates will not waste their time and energy going through a tedious, unclear application process. If your application process is not user-friendly, there’s a risk that suitable candidates will bounce off in between the process. Offer a smooth and fast application process by using auto-filled forms, CV imports, an option to save, and a friendly language throughout the process. It’s simple, why will they crack their brains when they can simply apply by exporting their Linkedin profiles at other places. 

Include Testimonials

Applicants love to hear about the company, work culture, and first-hand experiences from current employees. A message from someone currently working for you will create more impact than a generic job description. Employees can share their experiences by writing a small quote, supported by a picture, or they can feature in a short video. They can talk about their job responsibilities, current projects, work-life balance, how working in your organization is different, and a lot more.

To Wrap It Up

These tips will allow you to start designing your careers page. You can cover all the essentials of a useful, effective careers page by following these tips. The page can be periodically reviewed for modifications to stay updated and relevant. If you want to develop or re-design the careers page in the correct way, you can speak to our experts.