If you’ve been surfing the web or looking for current web trends then you probably noticed that large engaging photography has become a prominent trend in more recent website design. But finding compelling photos that are high resolution and meet your target audience needs can be extremely difficult. Most stock photo sites either provide super cheesy photos of business people shaking…
If you don’t already know, a 404 or Not Found error message is a HTTP standard response code indicating that the user was able to communicate with your website server, but the server could not find the page requested. A user can come across a 404 error page for a few different reasons. Either the user entered in the wrong…
Maps are great visual, web design tools that help users get the information they need quickly. Advances in geocoding have made it easy to create beautiful, custom location and geographic specific data maps. Here are some of my favorite examples of websites using awesome map designs right now. Websites Using Custom Markers PM Environmental PM Environmental’s location page uses a custom Google…
About Photoshop Masks So, what are masks anyways? A mask is a technique that allows you to make very specific portions of an image invisible while showing another object in its place. However, you might be wondering when you would ever need to hide parts of an image. Masking is a powerful technique used by web designers, graphic designers, photographers or…
Today, we’re going to be looking at some of my favorite WordPress widgets. Many WordPress plugins provide widgets as a way to modify and extend the functionality of your site without having to touch a single line of PHP. Widgets are a great way to supercharge your website’s look and feel. Let’s take a look at 4 great widgets in…
This tutorial will show you how to select an element in a photo and remove the background while preserving fine details like hair and feathers. In this example we’ll use a free photo from freeimages.com. You can download the same image we’re using in the tutorial here. First, we’re going to use the Refine Edge tool to separate the hairs…
MailChimp is a great tool for creating email campaigns that engage consumers and drive traffic to your website. It also has a powerful template designer that allows you to create a custom design starting with a basic template. Here are step-by-step instructions on how to turn a simple layout into a great-looking design. Step 1: Creating a New Template Once…
It’s no longer necessary to create every feature that you want for your website. Now there are plenty of third party services to help you add some extra bells and whistles without spending much time at all. Third party companies, such as Olark, Boast, and Mailchimp, spend their time and money on offering a specific product and direct their focus…
There are millions of WordPress plugins for just about every function and need out there. But how do you know which ones are the best? I struggled with this question when I first started building WordPress websites. I wanted plugins that worked not only for me as a designer but were also easy for my clients to use in the…
There is nothing new about website image sliders but the way you interact with them has changed dramatically. A typical image slider usually includes a few basic controls, automatic slide transitions and the ability to cycle through slides via a pager. However, what happens when you try to interact with these sliders on a mobile phone? Or a tablet? There are…