It’s not exactly a new subject, but lately I’ve had reason to revisit the skill of content modeling in my team’s work. Our experience has reached a point where the limitations of how we practice are starting to become clear. Our most common issue is that people tend to tie themselves and their mental models to a chosen platform and its conventions.

Instead of teaching people how to model content, we end up teaching them how to model content in Drupal, or how to model content in WordPress. But I’d prefer that we approach it from a focus on the best interests of users, regardless of which platform said content will end up in.

The post Content Modeling With Jekyll appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

Adobe have recently released a new version of the Lightroom app for Android, and among other things, Lightroom on Android 2.0 happens to be the world’s first end-to-end RAW mobile photography app.

In other words, Lightroom 2.0 lets you shoot, edit and share RAW/DNG photos using your Android smartphone or tablet.

So far, Lightroom has been a simple app for photo editing, but this new version comes with an in-built camera that can capture DNG format RAW photos. The camera has presets of its own, that you can apply to your images.

Here is what Lightroom 2.0 for Android has to offer:

• An in-app camera, capable of capturing raw images in DNG format
• Custom presets available within the in-app camera
• Non-destructive photo editing
• Dehaze tool to adjust haze and fog in images
• Better sharing with one-tap access to Adobe Premiere Clip
• Tools to adjust contrast and brightness of images
• Target adjustments tools
• On-image editing controls
• Split-toning enhancements, to adjust blur and shadows

The app requires Android version 4.1 and above, and some of the custom presets will require OpenGL 3.0 support.

You can download the Lightroom 2.0 for Android app here.

Given it a spin already? How has your experience been with Lightroom 2.0 for Android? Share your views in the comments below!

There is something about beautiful lights that can mesmerize an audience. Take a fireworks show for example. It’s been around for thousands of years, yet still has the power to put looks of amazement on faces of all ages. That’s why lighting effects make such powerful design elements. They are a great way to grab the attention of your audience and leave a lasting impression.

Below is a collection of the best Photoshop tutorials for creating powerful lighting effects.

Amazing Photoshop Light Effect In 10 Steps

A smokey light effect complete with glowing particles.

Fire Lines Tutorial

This tutorial teaches you how to create stylish fire lines in only 10 steps.

Luminescent Lines

Iron Man View Interface Effect In Photoshop

This is very close to the amazing effects seen in the movie.

Luminescent Lines

Advanced Glow Effects

A Cool Lighting Effect In Photoshop

End of the World Photo Manipulation

Creating Smoke

A popular effect explained very well.

Design a Coldplay/Apple Inspired Portrait in Photoshop

This one shows you how to design portraits based on the Coldplay – Apple ad.

Magic Lighting Effect In Photoshop

Make your image look awesome with a few light effects

Flying Girl In Photoshop

Creating light motion trails & glowing sparks

A nice technique for creating light motion lines.

Awesome Digital Bokeh Effect In Photoshop

Create An Amazing Ad In Photoshop

Beijing 2008 Logo Light Painting in Photoshop

Mysterious Lighting Effect Tutorial for Photoshop

Space Lighting Effects in 10 Steps – Photoshop Tutorial

Design a Vista Styled Wallpaper

Expressive lighting effects

Really cool Eclipse Effect in Photoshop

True Flames

Create an incredible flame / solar flare effect in only a few short steps.

Super Fast – Speed Lighting Effect

Add A Sparkle Trail To A Photo

Lighting effects in Photoshop

This tutorial shows you how to jazz up a photo with creative lighting.

How to Create Brilliant Light Streaks in Photoshop

This tutorials teaches a simple technique for creating brilliant light streaks which can be used in different ways to add motion and brightness to your designs.

Adding Light Streaks To A Photo

Read More at 28 Powerful Photoshop Lighting Effects

Harry Roberts suggest very minimal styles for h1-h6, then using heading-specific class names to actually style them, regardless of what element they turn out to be.

I could get behind that. In the past I’ve done .h1, .h2, etc rather than use the tag selectors, but heck, you might as well just give them names.

Direct Link to Article — Permalink

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Managing Typography on Large Apps is a post from CSS-Tricks

An essay by our own Robin Rendle. A story of typographers gone by, the ideas they left behind, and what it all means in today’s vastly different contexts.

I don’t have as much empathy for screens as much as I do the networks that make those screens worth having.

Direct Link to Article — Permalink

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The New Web Typography is a post from CSS-Tricks

Hi everyone. Have you already built a website for your business? If you are still hesitating about how to do that the right way, we will help you to launch one absolutely free of charge. An HTML5 website will be a perfect option with which to start, and you don’t need to be a developer to make it work. Especially for this reason, we have prepared a collection of 25 of the best free HTML5 website templates that boast a compelling look and unmatched functionality.

Thanks to clean and lightweight code, the templates are incredibly flexible and will load much faster, as opposed to sites powered by any of the content management systems. Designed in accordance with this year’s most popular trends, they will be perfect tools for introducing your business to a wider audience.

An HTML5 template is also a perfect choice if you are going to build a site and use it for quite a long period of time, as it offers excellent security. The individually coded HTML site is more difficult to hack compared to the CMS powered site that requires constant security plugin updates. So, let’s take a look at the free HTML5 templates we’ve prepared. Take your time, check them out and make a point of previewing each template.

1. Cafe and Restaurant – free HTML5 Website Template

Here is a professional full-width free HTML5 template for cafe, restaurant and culinary blogs. The theme is created by TemplateMonster. It offers a clean code and incorporates minimum visual effects thus ensuring a fast loading speed and smooth performance. All the elements are quite flexible and can be customized in accordance with the specification of the business project.
Demo
Download

2. Gestpio – free HTML5 Website Template

Gestpio is a perfect solution for building a corporate or business site with a clean design and powerful functionality. The fully responsive design allows it to adapt to all screen resolutions.

Demo
Download

3.Arch – free HTML5 Web Template

Use this free HTML5 template if you need to build a site for a construction company. With its help you will be able to introduce your business to a wider audience in the most effective way.
Demo
Download

4. Retrospect

Retrospect is a great HTML5 template for launching an online blog with a clean layout, advanced navigation and smooth loading speed. Parallax images, galleries and slide-out menu give a personal touch to the template.
Demo
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5. Single Page HTML5 Template – free HTML5 Website Template

With the help of this free HTML5 website template you will be able to build a professional one-page corporate site for any kind of business. It offers a modern look combined with top-of-the-line performance and splendid navigation.
Demo
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6. Lacegant – free HTML5 Website Template

This free HTML5 website can be used for blogging or corporate websites. It features clean and well-organized code that makes it easier to customize the template and adjust it to a specific kind of business.
Demo
Download

7. Build-Up HTML5 Template

Here is a stylish corporate free HTML5 template that comes loaded with a full range of features like fixed menu, images with Parallax effect, simple slider, etc. This fully responsive design enables it to adapt to all screen resolutions automatically.
Demo
Download

8. Prism – free HTML5 Website Template

If you are looking for a simple but effective solution to introduce your business to a wider audience, here is a perfect free HTML5 website to accomplish that. It doesn’t include any heavy scripts so the result is smooth performance and fast loading speed.
Demo
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9. Marathon – free HTML5 Template

If you are looking for a good template for a website, Marathon may be the right solution. It offers a plethora of tools for advertising the business, and ensures a user-friendly interface with advanced navigation.
Demo
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10. Future Imperfect – free HTML5 Website Template

This free HTML5 template is professionally designed for bloggers. Thanks to a clean and boxed layout it offers a number of solutions for showcasing the content in a most effective way.
Demo
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11. Bliss HTML5 Template

Use this free HTML5 template for designing sites for restaurants and cafes. It offers a layout that is optimal for showcasing all kinds of content necessary for this kind of business.
Demo
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12. Escarine-Veh – free HTML5 Website Template

This template will be a great solution for automotive and tech sites. It features clean code not overloaded with scripts and visual effects.
Demo
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13.Spatial HTML5 Template

Spatial is a great template that can be used for both landing pages and online blogs. It combines a minimal layout with a modern and attractive look. It can also be adapted to other kinds of projects quickly and worry-free.

Demo
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14. Point – free HTML5 Website Template

This free HTML5 website template will be handy for freelance designers, copywriters, coders, etc. It is designed to help you showcase your skills experience, and works in a clear and organized way.
Demo
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15. Multiverse – free HTML5 Template

Multiverse is a professional free HTML5 website template for online portfolios. It offers a clean and simple design without any unnecessary elements or effects.
Demo
Download

16. Photography – free HTML5 Web Template

Here is another great solution for an online portfolio. It offers a clean layout that makes the content of the page look clear and structured on all screen resolutions.
Demo
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17. Escarine-Med – free HTML5 Website Template

This template is designed especially for medical websites. A conservative design, smooth functionality and fast loading speed is exactly what you need for this kind of business.

Demo
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18. Interphase – free HTML5 Web Template

Use this free HTML5 template for building a corporate website or landing page for any kind of business. Thanks to a clean code and simple layout, users will be able to adapt it to almost any project right away.

Demo
Download

19. Lens – free HTML5 Website Template

This template has been created for freelance designers and photographers who are constantly searching for online jobs. SEO friendly code enables the content to be seen properly by search engine machines. In this way, you will be able to find employers much faster.
Demo
Download

20. Devenna – free HTML5 Website Template

Build a high-quality business site with Devenna. This simply coded free HTML5 template is a perfect solution for both beginners and professionals as it can be used for building a site from scratch or updating a current one.
Demo
Download

21. Eventrum – free HTML5 Template

This clean and minimal template will be a perfect fit for building entertainment and corporate sites of all kinds. With minor customization you can turn it into a modern online blog in no time.
Demo
Download

22. Solid State – free HTML5 Website Template

This free HTML5 website template offers a stylish diagonal design coupled with an unmatched functionality and simple code. It also features an assortment of tools and effects like, blocks with parallax, popup menu, blocked layout, etc. that give it a touch of personality.

Demo
Download

23. Katrine Dove – free HTML5 Website Template

Here is a universal solution for a fashion blog or an online portfolio. Thanks to a number of visual effects, sliders and galleries, you can showcase all of your previous works and projects in a variety of ways.
Demo
Download

24. Zheng – free HTML5 Website Template

Zheng is a landing page free HTML5 template that comes loaded with a clean code and minimal layout. Built on Bootstrap it ensures faster loading speed and smooth performance on all screens and browsers.
Demo
Download

25. Spectral – free HTML5 Template

Build a professional corporate or business site with Spectral. It combines the latest design trends with powerful functionality and top of the line navigation.
Demo
Download

So, here are the top 25 free HTML5 website templates for any business project. Go ahead, check them out and let us know if we’ve missed something interesting.

Read More at 25 Free HTML5 Website Templates

A new version of GitLab is out, and you can now upgrade to GitLab 8.5 immediately. This version comes with a great set of new features and offerings.

GitLab 8.5 comes with faster performance, and deploying individual issues is now 3.5 times faster. Average mean performance has also been improved. Also, when you are browsing a repository, GitLab no longer loads binary files into memory, so this prevents possible timeouts.

GitLab also comes with a To-Do feature now, that lets you manage your tasks, as well as handle issue and merge requests.

Furthermore, if you have a geographically diverse team, GitLab 8.5 is meant for you. So far, GitLab would allow your instances to be in a single location, and fetching large repositories in this manner would take a lot of time. Now, with the new version, you can make use of GitLab Geo — that lets you have a secondary GitLab instance that mirrors your main instance. Thus, you can use it to clone and fetch projects, and improve load times when working with a geographically diverse team on larger repositories.

Among other things:

• GitLab Pages now support custom domains and custom TLS certificates.
• You can revert any commit with the help of git revert.
• The issue sidebar has been updated.
• You can render SVGs in diffs.
• Markdown can now be used in broadcast messages.
• OpenSSL support has been updated.

To learn more, you can visit GitLab here.

What do you think of GitLab 8.5? Share your views in the comments below!

Read More at GitLab 8.5 Has Been Released

If you want to know what you’re worth, Hired has the answer: with data from thousands of real interview requests and job offers, we’ve put together a salary calculator that can tell you what you could be making in your job based on the skills you have.

If you want to find out how much more you could actually earn, join Hired. Just set up your profile, and companies will give you job offers with salary and equity upfront before you interview. Get multiple job offers from top companies with just 1 application.

This content is sponsored via Syndicate Ads

Read More at What salary could you be earning?

When you take a close look at the ten most popular websites in the U.S., you’ll notice some patterns- some ways of dealing with color and white space that can inform your design sensibility. These companies wield an inordinate amount of capital, and can pay marketing professionals designers and market researchers to A/B Test, design, and optimize their sites at this point in their company life-cycles. There is also something to be said about their ability to get the success, and the role design has played in that.

Imagine a world where Google was dark purple and had a big yellow “I’m feeling lucky” button at the onset, perhaps we’d have an entirely different internet today. Perhaps Alta Vista would’ve turned into the meeting hub of the web and would’ve pulled the ridiculous amounts of money from ads that Google does.

Here’s the internet giant’s color palette as it stands today with HEX and RGB Values:

Here are the top 10 U.S Websites right now, and the colors they use.

1. Google’s color scheme and several other top brands go colorful, are unafraid of coming across as friendly and light-hearted.

2. Amazon’s color scheme keeps it formal with it’s blue and has a lot of freedom to demonstrate excitement on call-to-action buttons with its version of a deep yellow.

3. Yahoo’s color scheme is bold and straightforward and their website is still incredibly popular though it’s primary color, a rich purple, is statistically preferred mostly only by women.

4. Facebook’s color scheme utilizing blue is one of the most basic but yet intelligent choices as it is hard to imagine a world where it’s user interface color was orange. This color lends itself to a tendency to relaxed surfing where you lose track of time, likely you’ve heard, blue is said to elicit trust and make people feel calm.

5. Youtube’s color scheme utilizes an excitement-inducing red, which plays to Youtube’s benefit potentially keeping people revved up to watch their next video, as red is associated with excitement.

6. Ebay’s color scheme goes the route of the almost Google-esque bright colors, perhaps yanked right from Google in the early days. Microsoft has a four-color scheme like this as well, and it makes you wonder; what is the significance of these colors – we’ll get into this more below.

7. Wikipedia’s color scheme goes simple with a lot of whitespace and sparingly uses this light blue for backgrounds – and a more common blue for links.

8. Twitter’s color scheme creates the same type of impression, albeit a little brighter than Facebook. However, Twitter has given individuals the ability to control the colors a visitor sees when visiting their profile, allowing a custom look. Mind you, it hasn’t gone to the extremes MySpace did when it let everyone put up spinning gifs all over their profile, which turned MySpace into a steaming pile of internet history.

9. Reddit’s color scheme includes the laid back ubiquitous blue of these other top brands but drops in a splash of in-your-face red.

10. Live.com – Microsoft’s color scheme once again brings up these four colors, not that much different from Google and Ebay. Did these guys all have the same branding agency, or are they on to something?

If you think the three similar color schemes in the top 10 websites are a coincidence – think again.

From CBC’s “Under The Influence” the four colors used in Google, Ebay, and Microsoft’s color palettes imply the following meanings.

• Red suggests action
• Green calls to mind freshness, vitality
• Yellow makes us think of fun
• Blue indicates security, trust, productivity

According to Terry; “Color is a silent salesperson,” and marketers for years have paid attention to the in’s and out’s of what they want the audience to feel when they look at their ads – it’s no different with websites. Smart marketers will determine the key action, benefit and feeling they want to drive and what it means to the audience and build their website with those colors prominently featured.

A couple of examples of color in action:

• A Workplace with green prominently featured has that it results in less absenteeism due to illness.
• People will gamble and make riskier decisions if surrounded by the color red.
• Xerox changed their logo from a conservative blue to a bold red recently after they started offering diversified technology like printers, scanners, faxes and imaging equipment. They wanted to change their image, and red suggests action, and it fit their new and more aggressive strategy.

Don’t be afraid to follow convention with your color scheme, if you want the most conversions on your website.

57% of men and 37% percent of women prefer blue over any other color. That’s far and away the most appreciated color, the next top color being green with 14% of both, with purple having 23% of women’s votes and very few men.

Instead of getting wrapped up in people’s tastes, though, think about it this way. What will get the most people trusting the site and taking action? Use that. Don’t get wrapped up in testing 41 shades of blue like Google did, but do pay attention to how people perceive color more generally and use that to your advantage.

Nothing says outlier like a zany color palette; it just matters whether you want to take that route and try and set yourself apart or whether you believe you can follow some conventions and allow people to think about your content instead of your design.

You want to delight the visitor to the site, but you don’t need to impress them or draw attention to the design, that’s only the wrapping for most websites, not the main attraction. The main attraction for most business websites should be the photos, the information about them, the content, and the story of the company and the value they provide. This is why it’s important to use white space to create emphasis on the elements that remain, and not to fill every inch of the site with unnecessary or redundant promotion.

Color is an incredible tool, but using tried and true patterns in color will help bring a sense of familiarity, and when it comes to commerce – familiarity trumps novelty every time.

About the Author

Tim Brown is a web designer for Web Design Minneapolis and writes for his web design blog and created the resource “Top 5 Color Websites Palettes Infographic” which includes talks about why blue is used so much, and projects color trends.

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Looking for a website refresh and don’t know where to start? Some of the trendiest elements in web design right now are fun aesthetically and pretty easy to use.

Adding a trendy feature to your current design, or new build, can help create a modern vibe that can help drive visitors to your site. And what’s particularly nice about this tri of trends is that you can use them with existing elements, color and typography palettes and branding.

Here’s what’s trending in design this month:

1. Duotone color schemes

Duotone color palettes have been around for a long time, but the recent take adds a color wash effect to a duotone gradient for a full-screen, high impact effect. It’s something that trended out in a major way with flat design, but thanks to stunning usage by Spotify duotone is back.

So what exactly is duotone?

It is the use of two colors to form a palette. In the most basic form, duotone is a complementary combination from the color wheel. In more complex uses, designers are using all kinds of color combinations and breaking the rules with pairings.

Most of the duotone effects feature a brightly-colored overlay on top of an image. The duotone effect highlights darks and lights and creates visual impact with stunning color. Spotify uses it in a great way to make standard artist photos that you’ve likely seen dozens of times look just different enough to be attention grabbing.

It’s a technique that you can use in a variety of ways. It works with almost any design concept and can be used as a full-screen element, such as many of the examples above, to create dominant art. It can also be used to create an interesting background, to accent user interface elements or to help add emphasis to a specific part of the design. Duotone works best when used for a single design element. The technique can be overpowering and should be used in moderation.

2. Spilt-screen design

Websites featuring a split-screen design are growing exponentially. The design technique features two panels of content side-by-side. Most of these concepts use a symmetrical outline so that each side of the screen has the same size and shape.

The result is a cool, dual content experience on desktop computers and (when coded properly) a great screen-by-screen experience on smaller devices, where the panels collapse and are stacked scrolling elements.

The design opportunities with the split-screen trend are limitless—half and half splits, splits with cards or grid-style elements, a subtle split and the list goes on. Each side of the design can also drive users to different types of content and help you glean valuable user analytics about the type of content that people want to see and click on.

Split-screen designs are user-friendly, work well in responsive frameworks and don’t overpower other design techniques that you might want to use.

Here are a few ways to split the screen effectively:

• Pair color and typography when you don’t have strong visuals.
• Focus the attention of the user with left to right movement that results in an action.
• Use color blocking to split the screen and give your message plenty of room while increasing readability.
• Think of a split-screen as oversized cards. Stack container elements in a mosaic or masonry style pattern to showcase different pieces of content.
• Keep each “screen” simple. The trick to this design concept is the split screen. A minimal style can help add emphasis to the content therein.

3. Typography in a shared space

This is one of those trends you almost have to see, to understand: typography is extending into shared spaces in the design. Look at most websites and there are images and backgrounds and type. Elements are either made together, such as type on an image, or they are completely separated.

More designers are breaking out of that format and creating projects where type extends into the spaces of other elements. It’s interesting and fun to look at.

It can also be a challenge to create, because of concerns about readability.

The technique works best with simple typography, such as a medium-stroke sans serif. Text should have plenty of contrast to stand out from the background and any elements it crosses into or across. For this reason, most of the designs using this technique use white or black lettering.

Text also needs to have some size for this to work. Almost as important as color contrast, is contrast in size and space. You also have to take special care in how the text moves with different screen sizes or breakpoints so that letters do not cover areas of the image that are vital to your message.

One of the most stunning examples of this is from Deux Huit Huit (you’ll want to visit the site for the full effect). Lettering moves across and through the main image on the homepage. The words are readable as they “fall off” the image and cross the space between the photo and background.

Conclusion

While a lot of design trends come and go almost as fast as you start to recognize them, the ones that stick around often work well with other time-tested techniques. That’s what stands out the most about this trio of modern styles. Each can be worked into a layout for a touch of newness. These techniques are fairly easy to implement (and remove later) without destroying your entire aesthetic.

Try one of these techniques for a visual refresh. Think about getting out of your comfort zone a bit with bold color choices or a change just to your homepage. Or go a little more bold and try a combination of trendy techniques for a design that really stands out. (Did you notice the website for Stikwood uses two of the trends – split-screen design and typography in a shared space?)

What trends are you loving (or hating) right now? I’d love to see some of the websites that you are fascinated with. Drop me a link on Twitter; I’d love to hear from you.

Brian Casel’s eBook: ‘Design for Conversions’ – only $14!

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