There’s been a fairly big update to Behance, also known as DeviantArt for designers. Heck, I remember when I used DA for my portfolio. Good times.

Anyway… Behance. They’ve gone and updated what has to be the single most important aspect of their site: the portfolios. I mean, that’s what everybody is there for, no? They’re overhauled both the main portfolio view, as well as the experience of viewing individual projects in some small but important ways.

Portfolios

Customizable banners: You know those big image banners you get on sites like Twitter and Facebook? Behance has them too, now. Just upload a picture, crop it to your liking, and go. The stated purpose of these is to allow users to sort of set the tone, and get their branding right in there at the top.

Well, that’s the idea on all the other sites with the same feature, really. It’s a tried-and-proven technique. And if you don’t want a banner image, don’t upload one.

Bigger thumbnails: Not much to say, here. They took the old thumbnails, and scaled them right up. People get a better idea of what they’re looking at.

Projects

In their blog post on the update, Behance says, “… actions like Share, Save to Collection, Follow, and Appreciate are always present.” Basically, they kept this part of the UI very simple, and made the action buttons sticky, to reduce the effort it takes to interact with any particular project.

This is a simple but definitely good change. Projects tend to consist of one or more very, very long images, and scrolling can definitely take a while.

My Impressions

The whole experience is definitely tailored for desktop. That’s not to say people don’t look for designers on their phones, but if you really want to see the details, big screens make that easier. Adobe runs this show, so the decision is probably based on a fair amount of data telling them to cater to larger screens.

To be fair, any designer could probably have told them that. We might love our phones, but we work on desktops, laptops, and at the bare minimum, a big ole tablet. In fact, it would be fair to say that Behance is one of the few examples on the Internet where mobile-first design is… I’m going to say almost optional.

Beyond that, the changes just make sense to me. I do like it a lot when things are kept simple.

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Is it just me or are there other people who taught for a second that they accidentally downloaded a new game on their phones? Slack decided to evolve, but is it really an evolution? Let’s find out.

Over the past few years, Slack has gone through a few, very minor logo changes. All of them, however, had their iconic hashtag icon as its centerpiece. As of January 16, 2019, slack has announced another logo change, but this one is a little more drastic.

Why did it change?

As I said earlier, the Slack logo was well known among the digital community. It was easily recognizable. Slack starts their announcement by stating that they loved the old logo, but explained that they’ve, “Decided to evolve.”

The reason behind the change seems quite sincere. In the announcement, they explained that the logo was just hard to get right. With the large variety of colors, the logo had to be placed carefully, as any color background except white would absorb some of the colors in the logo.

They went on to explain that they tried to develop many different varieties of their famous logo, but that meant that they had many different app logos, and that simply didn’t sit well. Each logo looked great by itself, but when compared to each other, they almost looked as if they each represented a different company.

The backlash

Since Slack has a very, and I mean very large user base, it makes sense that there would be a response from them, and well, it’s not great. The logo went from a colorful, perfectly designed masterpiece that made so much sense for the app, to a standard, run-of-the-mill logo that can easily get lost in a sea of apps.

The team at Pentagram that helped design it had this to say:

“After exploring a wide range of possibilities, the designers decided to retain the equity of the hashtag, or octothorpe, rebuilding it with two basic geometric shapes, a speech bubble and lozenge, that can be extracted and used as graphic elements.”

There was a lot of thought that went into this new logo. There are many elements that make sense. Even the speech bubbles were a clever idea. But the reality is, it’s nothing but a fancy Google logo, and they thought of it first, thus the criticism.

Quite many publications wrote about the new logo and, oh man, it’s bad. Here are some:

digg.com writes: “It’s… well, it’s not great! The jaunty angle is gone. The colors are still there, but suddenly it would be hard to pick out Slack in a sea of same-y startup logos.”

thenextweb.com says: “It went from a unique, quirky logo to something that looks like it belongs at your local pharmacy. Or maybe a Web 2.0 law firm or bank. Perhaps a summer arts program at the local middle school?”

Erin Scott Johnson went viral on Twitter with an eye-opening tweet: “The negative space in the new Slack logo makes it look like a whimsical swastika. Thank you for coming to my TED talk about how the internet has ruined my brain forever.”

And from there, the new Slack logo that was supposed to be a symbol of the tool’s evolution becomes a meme.

HisReptilianMajesty? tweets: “#Slack has a new logo that I’m pretty sure is actually four ducks sewn together in an uroboros human/duck centipede. You add eyes and you can’t miss it.”

What do you think about the new logo? Let us know in the comment section below.

Read More at Slack Changes Their Logo and Designers Disapprove

Grabbing Visual Attention With The Visual Cortex

Susan Weinschenk

2019-01-17T13:15:03+01:002019-01-18T08:38:11+00:00

(This is a sponsored post.) You are designing a landing page. The goal of the page is to get people to notice, and hopefully click on a button on the screen to subscribe to a monthly newsletter. “Make sure the button captures people’s attention” is the goal you’ve been given.

So how, exactly, do you do that?

Research on the visual cortex in the brain can give you some ideas. The visual cortex is the part of the brain that processes visual information. Each of the senses has an area of the brain where the signals for that sensory perception are usually sent and processed. The visual cortex is the largest of the sensory cortices because we are very visual animals.

Recommended reading: What Is The Role Of Creativity In UX Design?

The Pre-Attention Areas Of The Visual Cortex

There are special areas of the visual cortex that process visual information very quickly. These are called the “pre-attention” areas because they process information faster than someone may realize they’ve even noticed something visually.

Within the visual cortex are four areas called V1, V2, V3 and V4. These are the “pre-attention” areas of the visual cortex, and they are dedicated to very small and specific visual elements.

Let’s take a look at each one:

Orientation

If one item is oriented differently than others, then it is noticed right away:

Size And Shape

If one item is either a different size or shape than others then it is noticed right away:

Color

If one item is a different color than others around it then it is noticed right away:

Movement

If one item moves in quickly, especially if it zooms in from starting at a small size and then becoming larger quickly (think tiger running quickly towards you), that grabs attention.

But Only One At A Time

The interesting, not immediately obvious factor here is that if you use these factors together at the same time then nothing really attracts attention.

If you want to capture attention then, pick one of the methods and use it only.

Take a look at the two designs presented below. Which one draws your attention to the idea that you should enroll?

Obviously, the image that has just one color area draws your attention more, rather than the one area that is color.

The Fusiform Facial Area

The pre-attention areas of the visual cortex are not the only visual/brain connection to use. Another area of the brain you can tap to grab attention on a page could be the Fusiform Facial Area (or FFA).

The FFA is a special part of the brain that is sensitive to human faces. The FFA is located in the mid/social part of the brain near the amygdala which processes emotions. Faces grab attention because of the FFA.

The FFA identifies:

• Is this a face?
• Someone I know?
• Someone I know personally?
• What are they feeling?

What stimulates the FFA?

• Faces that look straight out stimulate the FFA.
• Faces that are in profile may eventually stimulate the FFA, but not as quickly. In the example below the face is in profile and obscured by hair. It may not stimulate the FFA at all.




• Even inanimate objects like the picture of the car below may stimulate the FFA area if they have things that look like facial parts such as eyes and a mouth.

Looking Where The Face Looks?

You may have seen the heat maps that show that if you show a face and the face is looking at an object (for example, a button or a product) on the screen then the person looking at the page will also look at the same object. Here’s an example:

The red areas show where people looked most. When the model looks at the shampoo bottle then people tend to look there too.

But be careful about drawing too many conclusions from this. Although the research shows that people’s eye gaze will follow the eye gaze of the photo, that doesn’t necessarily mean that people will take action. Highly emotional facial expressions lead to more action taking than just eye gaze.

Recommended reading: The Importance Of Macro And Micro-Moment Design

Takeaways

If you want to grab someone’s visual attention:

• Use the pre-attention areas of the visual cortex: make everything on the page plain except for one element.

or

• Show a large face, facing forward;
• If you want to spur action have the face show a strong emotion;
• Resist the urge to use many methods at once, such as a face, and color, and size, and shape, and orientation.

This article is part of the UX design series sponsored by Adobe. Adobe XD tool is made for a fast and fluid UX design process, as it lets you go from idea to prototype faster. Design, prototype and share — all in one app. You can check out more inspiring projects created with Adobe XD on Behance, and also sign up for the Adobe experience design newsletter to stay updated and informed on the latest trends and insights for UX/UI design.

(cm, ms, yk, il)

At the beginning of each year, we need to throw our old, worn out tools, and add new, fully functional ones. When it comes to virtual tools, we have to do the same thing. Granted, there are tools that we’ve been holding onto for years now, and they never let us down. Photoshop, Sketch, Dropbox, and you can continue naming your favorites. When it comes to staying up to date with your designs, these tools are amazing, they allow you to create unimaginable designs. In a world where less is much, where any piece of art can be transformed into a kitsch with a simple extra line, we need to be extremely careful with how, what, and why we design what we design.

Same rules apply to fonts. The multitude of available fonts out there makes the decision so hard, so many times. We have hand-written fonts, serifs and sans serifs, minimalist, modernist, bold fonts, vintage fonts, etc. In this ocean of fonts, there is a specific category that designers seem to like now more than ever and more than anything else. Glitch Fonts.

This ageless font genre never ages and designers love it. For this very reason, we catalogued the best glitch fonts online plus a bonus Photoshop Glitch Tutorial.

1. Photoshop Tutorial – Glitch Text Effect

First things first, try creating your own glitch effect. Here is a comprehensive tutorial that will allow you create a font just the way you want it.

2. Corruptor LDR by Neoqueto

Corruptor make a great font for SF movies, though quite hart to read, it adds a little touch of unknown that catches the eye of the viewer.

3. Pixel Reto / Pixel Reto Shadow / Pixel Reto Outline by Gabriel Figueiredo

Pixel fonts are cool but they need to be chosen with care. They don’t favor all projects so you need to activate your professional eye when working with such fonts.

4. Laborate by Klaudia Gal

I love this font and the possibilities it comes with. How can a font look fluid and segmented? Ask Klaudia, she knows.

5. Neuro by Ludovic DELESPIERRE

While this font takes us to another dimension, its cinematic looks are incontestable.

6. Sango by Andrew Herndon

.

I see claws dragging letters where they don’t want to be. The result? An amazing glitch font.

7. Phelix Boomgartner by Michal Slovák

What makes glitch fonts so unique? The infinite possibilities of creating one. It’s quite hard to go wrong with a glitch font, and Michal’s font confirms it.

8. g l i t c h / Glitch Progressive by Will Bindley

Coded messages are always transmitted through glitch fonts. This is where Will’s font comes in play. Send that message, and send it with class.

9. Fault

Fault has no faulty features. The font creates an atmosphere that many would come for more.

10. Glitzy

Glitzy – a typeface with attitude that vibrates.

What do you mainly use glitch fonts for? Why do glitch fonts work better than others? We love the unpredictability that comes with such a oldie but goodie font. Please let us know what is your favorite glitch font, if you ever created one or if you will try after you watch the tutorial above.

At Web Design Ledger we always try to stay up to date with the design world and we try to help our readers do the same. If you like our content, make sure you visit us daily for more snippets of creativity and inspiration.

Also, if you own an agency, if you are a designer, or you created an online product that our readers could benefit from, don’t hesitate to email us at webdesignledger.blog@gmail.com for a chance to be featured on our blog. We look forward to hearing from you.

Read More at 10 Amazing Glitch Fonts for Your 2019 Projects

There were few logos more recognizable than Slack’s. In the five years since the messaging service gained traction it has become a staple on desktops—as much a part of many professionals’ daily routine as email once was—and has grown to an $8bn valuation.

So it’s entirely understandable that when Slack revealed its new logo this week, there was a knee-jerk reaction from the design community. No matter how much they might protest, most people don’t like adapting to change.

Slack’s old logomark was a much-loved plaid hashtag. No, it was not perfect; the colors were a little dirty, especially where the bars overlapped, and it really wasn’t that flexible (as Slack themselves point out in their defensive blog post announcing the change).

Yes, the old logomark had problems, but they were problems that could have been fixed; if all you want to do is tackle legibility and color flexibility, why not just type ‘Slack’ in bright blue Gotham and have done with it.

The new logo was designed by the in-house team, together with Michael Beirut of Pentagram (yes, him again) together with assorted designers whose contributions didn’t warrant a namecheck in the press release.

The new logomark is crisp, clean, very well executed, and entirely lacking in soul. It follows a very sound, scientific logic, and yet lacks the personality that truly great identities have.

Whereas the original Slack logomark was both a hashtag, and a huddle with four different elements supporting each other; the new logomark feels more like four people with their backs to each other. No matter how insistent the press release, the new logomark does not evoke a spirit of teamwork—at least not as well has the hashtag did.

We don’t know what the brief was, and as such, we can only objectively talk about our own reactions to the change. But if this was a successful response to the brief, then the brief needed rewriting. The main problem being, that the bland non-committal look of the logomark makes it look like one of those free “logos for startups” that you can download as freebies in packs of a hundred.

As well as the logomark change, the type has been changed. Slack is currently looking at going public, and I can only conclude that there is some obscure fiscal law that requires all corporations listed on the stock market to abandon their humanist sans-serifs in favor of a geometric sans, because every single company with more than 10 employees is doing it.

The new logo has already been compared to rubber ducks, a web 2.0 logo, Joomla’s identity, and even a swastika. In fairness, bland as it is, the negative reaction to the new Slack logo is born out of a love for the old identity. Give it a few days for our eyes to adjust, and we’ll probably tune-out the change.

Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!

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Have you made up your mind that 2019 is going to be a breakout year for your web design efforts? Then, the best way to start is by using the WordPress CMS as your design platform.

Unless you’re already using WordPress, the next step involves the choice of a WordPress theme. It will help you to get the New Year off to a roaring start. We mean selecting one or more themes that will best suit your needs. You can go from building better than average websites to building awesome ones.

Our short reviews are designed to make your search as easy as possible. We’ve selected the best and brightest WordPress themes for 2019. They range from multipurpose and creative themes to specialty themes. Latter are loaded with features you won’t find elsewhere.

Let’s get started with –

1. Be Theme

We’ve started with Be Theme for a reason. This multipurpose WordPress theme is big, brash, and bold in its approach to website design. Its powerful set of core features (40 of them) provide all the tools, templates, and design options you need to create any type of website you can think of and do so without the need for a single line of code.

Be Theme’s design flexibility and ease of use are due to several factors, the primary one being its library of over 400 pre-built websites. These pre-built websites, any of which can be installed with a single click, address more than 30 different website types and industry and business sectors.

Furthermore, they are professionally designed, customizable, responsive, and feature functionalities that enable you to create websites that lead to UX solutions compliant with the latest industry design trends and standards.

Tools include the popular MuffinBuilder page builder, a powerful Admin Panel, Layout and Short Code generators, and Be’s new and improved Header Builder. This WP theme is a great way to get the New Year off to a blazing start.

2. Bridge

If it’s a WordPress theme that’s oriented toward creative website designs you’re looking for, Bridge is worth checking out. This best-selling creative theme gives you loads of website building options to work with, and due in large part to its open-ended customizability, Bridge can lay claim to be the most popular creative WordPress theme on the market; that is if 100,000+ satisfied customers who’ve given it a 5-star rating have a say.

Selecting among Bridge’s library of 376 (and counting) pre-made websites will get any project off to a quick start, and this theme’s modular design approach makes it easy for you to maintain your momentum.

You’re given the tools you need to build a blog, create listings and design a magazine or an online store without any need for coding. Visual Composer, Layer Slider, Revolution Slider, and Timetable Responsive Scheduling come with the package.

Browse the pre-made websites. Then, sit back and think of the possibilities.

3. Brook

It’s not solely the features that make a WordPress theme like Brook a ThemeForest best seller, it’s the great performance resulted from the theme’s flexibility, usability, and compatibility as well. Brook’s authors have made enormous efforts to ensure that their work is pixel-perfect and squeaky-clean enough to run smoothly & seamlessly.

Brook offers a huge collection of homepage layouts, which are continuously updated to ensure they’re always in sync with the latest web design trends and standards. You’ll also benefit from the diverse styles of blogs, portfolios, and custom pages included in the theme package.

As for the tools, powerful plugins like WPBakery Page Builder, Slider Revolution, WooCommerce, Font Awesome 5 Pro, etc. all of these will be more than enough to keep your workflow moving, and most importantly, to ensure a UX that will engage new site visitors and keep them coming back for more.

4. Kalium

This WordPress theme’s impressive array of layout designs and drag and drop content elements allows you to showcase your work just as you’ve always envisioned doing so, whether your new at website design or a pro.

Kalium’s secret lies in its unique and well-organized assortment of demos and premium bundled plugins and fonts. Kalium always maintains compatibility with the latest WordPress updates and versions and is always in sync with the latest web design standards and trends.

5. TheGem

According to most users and reviewers, TheGem is the most amazing multipurpose theme on the market and the most beautiful as well. This high-performance multipurpose theme, created by the Behance network of top designers, is modern in its design, extremely flexible, and responsive.

TheGem is a complete website-building toolkit you can use for everything from businesses to non-profits, from online shops to blogs, and everything in between.

6. Uncode – Creative Multiuse WordPress Theme

With Uncode, it’s only a matter of choosing a template and customizing it any way you wish to build an attention-grabbing portfolio in a few short hours. This premium WordPress theme is flexible, extremely user friendly, and it features all the design options and functionality you’re ever likely to need.

This theme’s showcase of user-created websites is a genuine source of inspiration, plus it clearly demonstrates what you could accomplish by buying into this theme.

7. Grenada – Creative Ajax Portfolio Showcase Slider Theme

You’ll like what this innovative and elegant theme has to offer if your objective is to create websites that feature the same characteristics and are distinguished by fast performance as well. Grenada’s super-fast Ajax page load feature accounts for the speed, plus this WordPress theme is responsive and totally compatible with the latest WordPress version – 5.0

It’s also worth noting that Grenada is fully compatible with Gutenberg, the new WordPress editor.

8. Houzez – Highly Customizable Real Estate WordPress Theme

Businesses really like website and app features and functionalities that perfectly fit their business models. This is definitely true of real estate agencies that have their own unique business models to design to.

Houzez is a highly flexible specialty theme that, in addition to its advanced property search and listings functionalities, unique property management system, and many other features, can easily be customized to fit any realtor’s business model and meet any realtor’s business needs.

9. Avada WordPress Theme

Avada not only makes it possible for you to create virtually any design style; it also makes it almost ridiculously easy to do so since there’s never a need for custom coding to achieve what you want.

Avada has been atop the best-selling list for the past 5 years and shows no sign of settling for anything less. Its users particularly like Avada’s unlimited design capabilities, responsive framework, multiple design options and tools, and excellent support.

10. Real Homes

A significant number of Real Homes’ community of 17,500+ customers have, in their reviews of this specialty WordPress theme, given it a 4.66/5-star rating. Customers seldom rate a theme this high unless it offers excellent support, is easy to work with, and provides them with a set of features that more than adequately address end user needs.

In Real Homes’ case, these features include customizable property search and listing functionalities and property submission and payment gateway options.

11. Schema

With Schema in your design toolbox, SEO just got a lot easier. This WordPress theme deciphers the mysteries of what search engines look for in a website by guiding them through your website one content element at a time to help them find the features they’re looking for.

Schema takes into account page load times, code quality, and Google algorithm friendliness, and leads to both UX improvement and higher website rankings.

12. Pofo – Creative Portfolio, Blog and eCommerce WordPress Theme

Pofo focuses on three areas, ties them neatly in a bow, and presents you with the ingredients to build the type of website creatives love to have; a website that combines a stunning portfolio with an engaging blogging section and an eCommerce store.

This modern, creative theme is ideal for artists, agencies, creative teams, businesses, and bloggers. The package features 150+ pre-built design elements along with an excellent assortment of home and one-click demo pages.

13. ForumPress

The features and functionality to create a website forum is non-existent in most WordPress themes and is even lacking in most of the premium themes. The ForumPress WordPress theme is powered by the bbPress plugin, which makes it super-easy to set up a forum in seconds.

Then, it’s simply a matter of fitting your forum design the community you wish to reach, and tweaking it to match your brand.

14. KnowAll

KnowAll provides the perfect solution if your business isn’t prepared to provide customer support 24/7, or when you happen to be away from your office. This #1 in its class WordPress theme answers questions customers are most likely to ask, and even provides suggestions in those cases where a customer doesn’t know quite what to ask about.

With KnowAll, customers are not kept waiting, and the number of problem tickets to be managed can be significantly reduced.

15. MOVEDO – We DO MOVE Your World

This best-selling WordPress theme is noted for its cutting edge designs, mind-bending parallax effects, unique animations, and other attention-getting and engaging special effects.

The highly-rated MOVEDO design team recognized early on the power of movement in website design, whether that motion is real or illusionary. This theme would be worth looking into if you’ve been looking for some ideas that might add a little spark and some zest to your websites.

Conclusion

Picking a premium WordPress theme can be a problem since there are so many to choose among. After a while, they start looking the same, and you risk selecting one that doesn’t quite fill the bill.

We’ve made it easy for you with this list of 15 of the very best.

Choosing among the very best can still take a little time. But not all that much, and you’re sure to find one to carry you through 2019 and beyond.

Read More at Looking for a Change in 2019? Any of These Best-Selling WordPress Themes Can Make It Happen