20 Fantastic Usability & Conversion Analysis Tools
Almost every movie has a scene in which a character pull the protagonist aside and says, “There’s something you should know about [insert another character's name here].” Most of the time, we find out some dark secret about a supposed friend of the protagonist or that the main ally is… read more
Pixmac is a (great) growing fast microstock agency with more than 10.000.000 stock photos (that cover images from Fotolia and Dreamstime).
Few weeks ago i talked with Martin Vl?ko, their e-Marketing specialist and i decided to interview him about the secrets behind Pixmac.
Enjoy this interview ;)
First of all…. read more
Last year, more than 63 million people in the United States accessed the Internet from a mobile device. It’s forecast that by 2013 there will be more than 1.7 billion mobile Internet users worldwide. With those kinds of numbers, it’s imperative that web designers and developers learn optimal development and… read more
CSS does a pretty darn good job of helping to lay out a web page… but not always. Even with all the versatility that CSS offers (including CSS3), it sometimes is not enough and, dare I say it, I really hate to say it – HTML tables are on [very… read more
Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick… read more
Though the methods used to gather website traffic statistics call into question the validity of the stats themselves, the fact is that some of your website’s visitors will have JavaScript disabled.
You could divide your traffic sources into four broad categories:
Search engines, mobile visitors, visitors… read more
Planning and communication are two key elements in the development of any successful website or application. And that is exactly what the wireframing process offers: a quick and simple method to plan the layout and a cost-effective, time-saving tool to easily communicate your ideas to others. A wireframe typically has… read more
Todays post is a guest opinion article from Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos, he shares his thoughts on how to choose the best CMS and to not be limited to only, as he calls them, The Big Three (WordPress, Joomla and Drupal). What are your thoughts on CMS selection? Which is the… read more
Each year, the battle for television ratings begins. Networks unveil their latest creations, jockeying for position in the ratings race, doing everything and anything within their means to gain and keep as many viewers as possible. Months, sometimes years of planning, preparation, marketing, shooting, and editing are laid bare on… read more
“The shoemaker’s children go barefoot.”
You’re not a shoemaker but the saying still fits. Between client projects, conferences, and social obligations (okay, okay, WOW clan meetings may count as social obligations), your site has been sorely neglected. A neglected website might not seem like a big deal if you’re flush with… read more
It’s a brand new week, which means it’s time for Mashable’s guide to upcoming social media and web events, parties, and conferences. For more upcoming event listings, check out Mashable’s Events section.
Is your event not on this list? Contact us at least one month before your event and let’s establish… read more
Are your fresh design ideas no longer fresh or are you a designer who continually re-uses the same old and trusted design patterns that have followed you for many a year? Or, you might just be a UI designer that is stuck in a rut? If you are looking to… read more
Have you gotten your copy of The Smashing Book yet? If not, it may still be worth spending $29.90 for this printed book. The book shares technical tips and best practices on typography, usability, UI design, marketing and color usage. It contains interviews with high profile designers and developers. And… read more
A post covering the availability and usability of the demonised HTML elements b and i. read more
Unleashing the Power of Website Analytics
Germany, which is situated in the heart of Europe and neighbors nine other countries, is not only the motherland of eminent philosophers, poets, composers, world-famous automobiles and great beer, but also a place where some of the most talented and highly ranked Web designers live.
German design is certainly worthy of… read more
There is an abundance of invoicing web apps available these days, capable of meeting just about anyone’s needs. The difficult part, however, can be finding the invoicing app that meets your needs and works the way you want it to. With an ever growing selection of invoicing apps available to… read more
By Paul Andrew
As many of us know, the initial 15-20 seconds of a new user’s visit to a web site will have a large impact on whether on not they are going to like or dislike the site, prompting them to decide whether they will stay or go. This means… read more
Almost every website uses a form of some kind. Contact forms and other types of forms can be enhanced with the use of a number of jQuery plugins that are readily available. In this post we’ll feature 25 useful plugins that you may be able to use in your own… read more
Despite any financial recession and economic stress, online purchasing continues to grow. Expansion of the market and evolving technology that simplifies our daily lives help to set the pace of e-commerce design. Customers want the shopping process to be quick and easy, and merchants want to increase sales by making… read more
Nonlinear Educating Inc., has been selling tutorials on a wide variety of subjects for years. Their catalog of 146 video tutorials cover just about everything from all the programs in the Adobe CS4 Suite, to iLife 09 and iWork 09, or virtually anything you could want to learn about Mac… read more
Do you ever feel like your digital life has become rather… bloated? Between social media networks, instant messaging and email, it’s not uncommon for people to have 5-7 (or more) different services to check on a daily basis. In an ever increasing web-centric world, don’t expect this count to drop… read more
By Louis Lazaris
The web form has been one of the most discussed elements in web design for more than ten years now. We can’t help it. Call-to-action functionality often leads users to a form; purchases are made using forms; users register or subscribe using forms — the uses for forms… read more
As Web developers and designers, we are spoilt for choice right now. To build a complex Web application or even just spice up a website with some highly interactive interface element, we have hundreds of pre-built solutions to choose from. Every library comes with widgets and solutions, and every developer… read more
If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable’s Job Lists section gathers together all our resource lists, how-tos and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage… read more
Forms. We all need them, yet they’re one of the elements of the web that most of us cringe at the thought of creating. They take a strong mix of skills between a developer and designer to create — forms that are a breeze to use, function perfectly and look… read more
It’s a brand new week, which means it’s time for Mashable’s guide to upcoming social media and web events, parties, and conferences. For more upcoming event listings, check out Mashable’s Events section.
Is your event not on this list? Contact us at least one month before your event and let’s establish… read more
Transitions work by changing a style over a period of time between different element states. For example, the color value of the default state of an element will pass through intermediate colors in the spectrum before appearing as the color value for the hover state.
A Simple Transition
Let’s consider… read more
Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick… read more
It’s time for our best news of this week, the first one of 2010. We have a lot of graphic and web design, a bit of architecture, ads, tech news, awesome reads and other crazy stuff! So take a look at the links we’ve selected for your inspiration and to… read more
By Cameron Chapman
Information architecture can be a daunting subject for designers who’ve never tried it before. Creating successful infographics and visualizations takes skill and practice, along with some advance planning. But anyone with graphic design skills can learn to create infographics that are effective and get data across in a… read more
When designing a large website, especially one that contains a store, you may be required to design a system for ordering online, or a multi-step process of another sort. Walking users through this process by making it easy and intuitive is key to helping increase conversion rates. Any… read more
What does all this mean? Well considering Apple recently acquired Quattro Wireless, a top company in the mobile ad space, it seems pretty clear that those crazy kids in Cupertino want to chum it up big time with the classy gents of Madison Avenue. That is, Apple is getting into… read more
If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable’s Job Lists section gathers together all our resource lists, how-tos and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage… read more
Online shopping is a great way to economize and reduce the stress of shopping, but shopping online for certain types of products can be harder than shopping in person. Recently, I looked at how well major online retailers (Macy’s, Target and Overstock.com) facilitate shopping for a deceptively complex, though very… read more
I love beautiful things. There’s very little in the world that takes my breath away quite like an object that was lovingly crafted, built with care and passion, and presented with the sort of pride that befits a marvelously well-made item.
That which is beautiful is increasingly difficult to come by… read more
Larger clickable areas make for greater usability and a higher click-through rate. Here’s how to expand a clickable area to an entire list item using jQuery. read more
CSS and JavaScript are extremely powerful tools for designers and developers. Almost every day designers and developers come up with fresh and clever CSS tricks and techniques and share them with other developers. We regularly collect all these tricks, filter them, sort them, revise them and prepare them for Smashing… read more
There are a number of elements that make up a great web design, but probably one of the most overlooked and underutilized is whitespace. Every design has whitespace, but the problem is that not every design has enough. This could be due to the fact that inexperienced designers and their… read more
There are plenty of highly-useful resources and web apps that have been created with freelance designers and developers in mind. But for many freelancers, especially those who are just getting started, pricing can be an issue. In this post we’ll feature 29 resources that are not only very useful fore… read more
Every web designer and developer should have a good and reliable wireframe (mockup or prototype) tool at there disposal. The importance of such a tool differentiates amongst web designers and developers, some use them, some don’t. Personally, I use them. It is in this initial stage of development that makes… read more
In a recent article about the unusuable and superficial beer and alcohol websites, I made the claim that using left-hand vertical navigation is an out-of-date method in modern web design. In the comments, a few people wondered why I said this. I was surprised that it got any attention at… read more
2010 will be the years of consolidation of internet usage via mobile devices. According to internetnews.com, which reports a Gartner analysis, mobile device sales will rise (9%) in 2010. This scenario will impose to internet companies, online newspapers, bloggers, to provide mobile versions of their websites to simplify the fruition… read more
By Robert Hartland
In this article, we’ll showcase website layouts and navigation structures that really break the mold. The designers of these websites have seen dozens of clone websites out there but have sought their own way. The unusual website layouts and navigation that results can either be very successful and… read more
For this Sites of the Week we have selected some great sites such as the Frish and Sutton. Also we’re featuring a nice flash site called I Make My Case, and much, much more! As usual we would love to hear from you, keep sending your suggestions to us and… read more
The beginning of the new year came with lots of plans and resolutions. In my opinion, it’s very important to share our experiences and to learn from others as well, and because of that, in this post I will show you some books that I got and that I think… read more
“Internet jukebox” Songza has finally returned us to those glorious days when the dude we dug made us a mixtape. How? With the launch of Songza Sets, a free streaming radio service that offers up an array of setlists created by a team of real-life humans.
When Songza came out… read more
Website performance is a hugely important topic, so much so that the big companies of the Web are obsessed with it. For the Googles, Yahoos, Amazons and eBays, slow websites mean fewer users and less happy users and thus lost revenue and reputation.
In your case, annoying a few users wouldn’t… read more
Millions of people start a blog every year. Conversely, many blogs die every year from lack of updates, lack of interest, not having original content, copying/stealing of content from fellow bloggers or copyright violation etc. Those that stand above the others stand far above the others.
Have you ever visited… read more
<po, what does it do? Out of the box, it offers you dozens and dozens of options for remapping keys and key combinations to potentially more useful actions. Turn your space bar into a shift key when it's pressed in combination with another letter. Turn your trackball into the world's… read more
We’re all mostly accustomed to educating ourselves by reading articles. Rare are the opportunities to attend conferences or watch live shows on subjects that we’re interested in. That’s why we are presenting here phenomenal videos and related resources on the topic of user experience (UX) by different presenters at different… read more
If you are needing a quick way of catching up on what has been happening within the design community after the festive holiday period, this is the round-up for you. Oh, and welcome back to work!
We love to share fresh design related news and resources through Twitter, this post… read more
The DesignM.ag job board has undergone some significant changes and been re-launched. If you’re not familiar with our job board, it provides designers and developers with a place to find work (freelance and employment opportunities), and helps companies to find skilled workers. To celebrate the improvements… read more
The end of 2009 marked our first full year in existence, and what a great year it was. We feel that we’ve put out a lot of valuable content that has been helpful to our readers who we greatly appreciate. So before we start publishing new content for 2010, we… read more
Five Simple but Essential Web Usability Tips
Christmas is here, and the wife has ordered me to take the next three or four days off. I haven’t had more than two days off at any given time in the past year, so perhaps she is right. I have handed over my laptop, handed over the power lead… read more
As TUAW heard during a November interview with Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote, the updated app provides local caching and searching. Any note that is created or viewed on the iPhone is cached locally for viewing and searching, even when offline. Premium users can choose to have any or all… read more
We’ve seen all sorts of augmented reality applications for mobile devices, with varying degrees of usability, but this one, created for Orange Telecom, definitely takes the cake when it comes to originality and craziness.
Created by augmented reality specialists Ogmento, the application lets you launch a simulated iPhone on your… read more
<pr the past couple of years, I've had the pleasure to write about iPhone / iPod touch apps from Tapbots. First there was Weightbot, a beautifully designed app for tracking your weight. Next came Convertbot, a unit converter calculator that featured an innovative and extremely useful interface. Now Tapbots has… read more
David Spinks is the Community Manager for Scribnia, where the world’s bloggers and columnists are reviewed by their readers. He also blogs at The Spinks Blog about business, careers and professional communities.
Attention young future professionals: If you’ve heard about this “networking” thing, and dabbled in some social media, it… read more
When working in the world of web design and development, creativity is of course fundamental. However, it is more important to follow best practices to insure greater usability, functionality, and ease for the users. read more
This is the season of giving, whether it is for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or just to exchange gifts. So, with so many people here self-employed and thus lacking a company to give out those turkey dinners, terrific bonuses, and whatnot; I thought it would be a great idea to provide… read more
Usability should be a priority for every website. Without usability, even the most beautiful design will be ineffective. In this post we’ll feature a number of resources, tools, software, checklists, articles, and more, that can help you to design and develop highly usable websites.
Premium Usability Resources:
There are a number of… read more
As the countdown to 2010 begins to loom in our imminent future, it’s a great time to look back upon what we as a creative community shared throughout 2009. It’s been a quick ride but it’s had some amazing creativity & content that could keep us fueled through the next… read more
Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick… read more
As we move forward with the Web and browsers become capable of rendering more advanced code, we gradually get closer to the goal of universal standards across all platforms and computers. Not only will we have to spend less time making sure our box model looks right in… read more
Howard Greenstein is a Social Media Strategy and Marketing consultant, and President of the Harbrooke Group. He’s also a national board member of Social Media Club.
Google Wave is an innovative new way for people to communicate and collaborate. But as Gina Tripani, author of The Complete Guide To Google Wave,… read more
Thanks to the might of JavaScript, the words “dynamic” and “illustration” no longer apply exclusively to Flash-based websites.
Now that dynamic HTML is a reality in most commonly used browsers and that a lot of fancy JavaScript libraries exist to make using it easy, CSS websites can take back some of… read more
For one reason or another, a lot of freelancers use Macs. As a full-time freelancer and part-time geek, I really like to play around and tweak with applications on my Mac too. There’s little confusion that Mac is a popular platform for web designers and freelancers as it offers an… read more
Back in 2006, end of November to be exact, my design studio was robbed and as you guys might already know the story, I lost my computer and my backup drives with all my files and endeavors in the design field… A long time has passed since then– 3 years… read more
The navigation might be the single most important aspect of a web design’s usability. Without a navigation, you would be stuck on the home page for a very long time. I believe a navigation or menu must be easy to use, but this doesn’t mean it has to be boring…. read more
The modern web developer who does not consider Ajax when planning or building their websites is potentially missing out on a powerful tool to enhance usability.
There are however, challenges in implementing Ajax functionality on a web page.
In this article we’ll discuss solutions to five of the most common challenges that… read more
No matter what type of work you do online, everyone enjoys a savvy file upload and sharing tool. It’s part of why Dropbox has garnered so much love in the past year. Another tool in this genre, Upload Robots, also gives the same great service. And with the updates they’ve… read more
The CSS Awards is a design gallery that showcases only the most prestigious CSS websites. Like most galleries, you can find plenty of design inspiration, but The CSS Awards offers much more. What I think makes it so great is that submissions are judged by a panel of people,… read more
This post is the third article of our new series “Global Web Design“. Over the next months we’ll be covering various continents, featuring web developers and web designs from different countries of the world and taking a close look of what is happening in the web design scene worldwide. We… read more
How to Stop Being a Workaholic
Let’s start by saying that there’s nothing inherently wrong with work — it can be fun, exciting, fulfilling, rewarding. I love my work in a way I never did for most of my life, until a few years ago, and work is one thing… read more
If you are interested in web design and web-development, you’ve got to buy the brand new Smashing Book. Created by the editorial team of Noupe and developed together with the design community, this book is a printed book about best practices in modern Web design.
The book shares technical tips and… read more
GIFs of spinning @s on the “Contact us” page. Common usabiltiy mistakes for the sake of visual appeal. Splash pages. Fancy search box. No whitespace. Music on page load. Home page banner of a jigsaw-puzzle globe with a piece missing. Sometimes you just know that what a client… read more
I recently had the privilege of interviewing Daimon Caulk, Principal of Modal, Inc. Daimon and his team produce great work and his responses in this interview provide excellent insight for the rest of us. I hope you find it to be helpful and that you enjoy getting to know more… read more
As seen in our previous article on the subject and examples around the web, minimalism is quite the trend.
When the theory behind it is well implemented, it makes for some beautiful, simple and yet modern designs.
Because it is a trend, everyone wants to follow it. But can it be taken… read more
By Cameron Chapman
Usability is paramount in creating a good website or web app. If your site isn’t user-friendly, the majority of visitors won’t come back, regardless of how good your content is. You need to do everything in your power to make sure every website you design or web application… read more
While product findability is a key factor of success in e-commerce, it is predominantly enabled by simple search alone. And while simple search usually doesn’t fulfill complex needs among users, website developers and owners still regard advanced search as just another boring to-do item during development. Owners won’t go so… read more
Wikipedia is currently undergoing a much needed redesign to improve the user experience.
Anyone can preview this redesign by creating an account, logging in and then clicking the “Try Beta” link at the top right of any page.
The “Wikipedia Usability Initiative” has been divided into two phases. Phase 1 was the… read more
Not having the same funds or resources of a web design agency can certainly be one of the downsides to working as a freelance developer or designer. Established web design agencies have the finance to be able to have expensive full blown usability tests on a project, they will have… read more
I was pretty excited when I came up with the idea of examining and showcasing some of the most famous beer and alcohol-related websites from a number of countries around the world. After all, who doesn’t like the odd drink now and again? (Well, besides me — I can’t stand… read more
It’s time for our best news of this week. We have a lot of graphic and web design, a bit of architecture, ads, tech news, awesome reads and other crazy stuff! So take a look at the links we’ve selected for your inspiration and to keep you updated about what’s… read more
10 Simple Web Accessibility Tips You Can Do Today
Thanks to Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, online retailers are getting more visitors and making more sales than this time last year. But which online shopping destinations are the easiest to use? Which have the fewest (or the most) usability bugs and glitches?
uTest, a service that lets software… read more
Here it is, the brand new Smashing Book. Announced several months ago in a couple of posts, it has finally arrived. You can buy the Smashing Book right now. And in case you didn’t know, it’s available here exclusively. The book is available and can be shipped right away.
The Smashing… read more
If you’re seeking a job in social media, we’d like to help out. For starters, Mashable’s Job Lists section gathers together all our resource lists, how-tos and expert guides to help you get hired. In particular, you might want to see our articles on How to Leverage… read more
By Paul Andrew
Learning CSS and how to use it effectively can be a reasonably easy thing to do for a beginning web developer. In the hands of a seasoned professional, CSS can be stretched and pushed it to its limits where it can seem complicated and yet perfect at the… read more
<phe RedEye hardware is retailing at $188US. I mention this early because the price point affected my perception of the product quite a bit. From the packaging to the construction of the unit, it doesn't really feel like high-end hardware — not the way my Harmony 1000 remote does. Granted,… read more
Digg has announced that it is revamping its API so that developers can create more feature-rich applications for the social content-sharing site and write/contribute data using OAuth. The new API will also let developers write tools that give users the ability to Digg, bury or comment on stories.
Digg has also… read more
Crime doesn’t pay when it comes to website usability. Avoid these 10 issues. read more
10 Usability Crimes You Really Shouldn’t Commit
Styling a tableless css web form requires advanced skills in CSS. Besides that, we have to consider the form accessibility and usability as well. With all these tutorials, they will show you the right way to implement web form. read more