Archive

Archive for April, 2020

Using CSS to Set Text Inside a Circle

April 14th, 2020 No comments

You want to set some text inside the shape of a circle with HTML and CSS? That’s crazy talk, right?

Not really! Thanks to shape-outside and some pure CSS trickery it is possible to do exactly that.

However, this can be a fiddly layout option. We have to take lots of different things into consideration, like character count, word count, typeface variations, font sizing, font formatting, and responsive requirements to name a few. One size, does not fit all here. But hey, let’s do it anyway.

Here’s the goal: we want to display a

and an author citation inside a circle shape. We also want to make the layout as flexible as we can. This layout won’t require any additional files and keeps the HTML markup squeaky clean.

This is what we’re striving for:

CodePen Embed Fallback

The shape-outside feature is not supported in Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge 18 and below at the time of this writing.

First up, the HTML

We’re going to end up needing a wrapper element to pull this off, so let’s use the semantic

as the inner element. The outside wrapper can be a div:

<div class="quote-wrapper">
  <blockquote class="text" cite="http://www.inspireux.com/category/quotes/jesse-james-garrett/">
    <p>Experience design is the design of anything, independent of medium, or across media, with human experience as an explicit outcome, and human engagement as an explicit goal.</p>
    <footer>– Jesse James Garrett</footer>
  </blockquote>
</div>

If you’re interested in a deep-dive on the HTML of quotes, you’re in luck. We’re going to set the quote itself in a

and the name of the author inside a

. We’ve got class names for the CSS styling hooks we’ll need.

Next, some baseline CSS

Let’s start with the div wrapper. First, we’ll set the minimum (responsive) square size at 300px so it fits on smaller screens. then, we’ll add relative positioning (because we will need it later).

.quote-wrapper {
  height: 300px;
  position: relative;
  width: 300px;
}

Now we’ll make the blockquote fill the whole wrapper and fake a circle shape with a radial gradient background. (That’s right, we are not using border-radius in this example).

.text {
  background: radial-gradient(
    ellipse at center,
    rgba(0, 128, 172, 1) 0%,
    rgba(0, 128, 172, 1) 70%,
    rgba(0, 128, 172, 0) 70.3%
  );
  height: 100%;
  width: 100%;
}

One thing to note is that 70% displays a much rougher edge. I manually added very small percentage increments and found that 70.3% looks the smoothest.

Notice the edge on the right is much smoother than the edge on the left.

Now we have our base circle in place. Add these additional style rules to .text.

.text {
  color: white;
  position: relative;
  margin: 0;
}

Here’s what we have so far:

Giving text the CSS treatment

Let’s style the paragraph first:

.text p {
  font-size: 21px;
  font-style: italic;
  height: 100%;
  line-height: 1.25;
  padding: 0;
  text-align: center;
  text-shadow: 0.5px 0.5px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
}

Let’s use the blockquote’s ::before pseudo-element to create our shaping. This is where the shape-outside property comes into play. We plot out the polygon() coordinates and float it to the left so the text wraps inside the shape.

.text::before {
  content: "";
  float: left;
  height: 100%;
  width: 50%;
  shape-outside: polygon(
    0 0,
    98% 0,
    50% 6%,
    23.4% 17.3%,
    6% 32.6%,
    0 50%,
    6% 65.6%,
    23.4% 82.7%,
    50% 94%,
    98% 100%,
    0 100%
  );
  shape-margin: 7%;
}

Let’s change the radial background color to red. The path editor polygon points and connecting lines are also blue. We are changing this color temporarily for greater contrast with the editor tool.

background: radial-gradient(
  ellipse at center,
  rgba(210, 20, 20, 1) 0%,
  rgba(210, 20, 20, 1) 70%,
  rgba(210, 20, 20, 0) 70.3%
);

I like Firefox’s developer tools because it has super handy features like a shape-outside path editor. Click on the polygon shape in the inspector to see the active shape in the browser window. Big thumbs up to the Mozilla dev team for creating a very cool interface!

The Firefox shape editor tool also works for clip-path and values.

Here’s what we have at this point:

Those points along the shape are from Firefox’s editing tool.

We can do the same sort of thing for the paragraph’s ::before pseudo-element. We use the shape-outside to make the same polygon, in reverse, then float it to the right.

.text p::before {
  content: "";
  float: right;
  height: 100%;
  width: 50%;
  shape-outside: polygon(
    2% 0%,
    100% 0%,
    100% 100%,
    2% 100%,
    50% 94%,
    76.6% 82.7%,
    94% 65.6%,
    100% 50%,
    94% 32.6%,
    76.6% 17.3%,
    50% 6%
    );
  shape-margin: 7%;
}

Looking good, but where did the footer go? It overflowed the

(where the circular colored background is), so we’re unable to see that white text on a white background.

Styling the footer

Now we can style the

and give it an absolute position to bring it back on top of the circle.

.quote-wrapper blockquote footer {
  bottom: 25px;
  font-size: 17px;
  font-style: italic;
  position: absolute;
  text-align: center;
  text-shadow: 0.5px 0.5px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
  width: 100%;
}

Again, feel free to change the background color to suit your needs.

This is where the fiddly part comes in. The text itself needs to be styled in such a way that the number of words and characters work inside the shape. I used these CSS rules to help make it fit nicely:

  • font-size
  • shape-margin (we have two exclusion areas to adjust)
  • line-height
  • letter-spacing
  • font-weight
  • font-style
  • min-width and min-height (to size of the .quote-wrapper container)

Adding the quote mark for some flourish

Did you see the giant quotation mark in the original demo? That’s what we want to make next.

We’ll take advantage of the ::before pseudo-element for .quote-wrapper. Yet again, this will take a fair amount of fiddling to make it look right. I found line-height has a huge effect on the mark’s vertical position.

.quote-wrapper::before {
  content: "201C";
  color: #ccc;
  font-family: sans-serif, serif;
  font-size: 270px;
  height: 82px;
  line-height: 1;
  opacity: .9;
  position: absolute;
  top: -48px;
  left: 0;
  z-index: 1;
}

There’s actually a difference between curly (“smart”) quote marks and straight (dumb) ones. I’d suggest using curly quote marks for dialogue and straight quote marks for coding.

Handling responsive styles

We should probably make our quote bigger on larger screens. I’m setting a breakpoint at 850px, but you may want to use something different.

@media (min-width: 850px) {
  .quote-wrapper {
    height: 370px;
    width: 370px;
  }
  .quote-wrapper::before {
    font-size: 300px;
  }
  .text p {
    font-size: 26px;
  }
  .quote-wrapper blockquote footer {
    bottom: 32px;
  }
}

There we have it!

CodePen Embed Fallback

We set HTML text inside a circular shape using a combination of old and new CSS techniques to make an appealing

that commands attention. And we achieved our display goal without any additional dependencies, while still keeping the HTML markup clean and semantic.

I hope this article encourages you to explore new layout possibilities with shape-outside. Stay tuned for shape-inside.

The post Using CSS to Set Text Inside a Circle appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Categories: Designing, Others Tags:

How To Create A Particle Trail Animation In JavaScript

April 14th, 2020 No comments

How To Create A Particle Trail Animation In JavaScript

How To Create A Particle Trail Animation In JavaScript

Anna Prenzel

2020-04-14T11:00:00+00:002020-04-14T22:35:45+00:00

Have you ever thought about distracting visitors of your website with a fancy, glittering particle animation for a few moments, while some data is loaded in the background? Fortunately, it’s not necessary to go very deep into graphics programming with 3D libraries like three.js. All you need instead is some basic knowledge of CSS and JavaScript and a lightweight animation library such as anime.js. In the end, we should have the following result:

A spiral shaped particle trail animation

Download And Integration Of Anime.js

You can download the anime.js library from the official GitHub site. Download the file anime.js or anime.min.js from the lib/ folder.

In my example, the HTML part looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en" >
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>Anime.js Particles</title>
  <!--or use anime.min.js-->
  <script src="anime.js"></script>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
</head>
<body>
<div class="anime-container">
</div>
<script src="script.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

The CSS file styles.css defines the background color for the page and for the individual particles. The position settings are necessary so that we can later position the particles freely on the page using the CSS properties left and top.

body {
 background-color: hsl(30, 3%, 14%);
}
.anime-container {
  position: relative;
}
 
.anime-container .dot{
  position: absolute;
  /*draw particles as circles:*/
  border-radius: 50%;
  background-color: hsl(60, 100%, 80%);
}

The content of the file script.js is covered in the following section.

Generating The Particles

As the name suggests, a particle animation consists of many small particles moving in space while following a certain pattern. All particles are generated simultaneously before the animation starts.

For the following explanation, the official documentation of anime.js will be useful.

In my example, the particles are located on an Archimedean spiral. The x and y position of a particle on the screen (aka left and top in CSS) is calculated from its position angle on the spiral:

x=a*angle*cos(angle)
y=a*angle*sin⁡(angle)

The number of angles and thus the length of the spiral is determined by the parameter l. With the parameter a, you can control the density of the spiral.

var container = document.querySelector(".anime-container");
var n = 15;
var a = 20;
var l = 110;
for (var i = 0; i 

First version of our spiral (Large preview)

This way, we get a spiral with exactly one particle per position, but a real trail effect can only be achieved if more than one particle is generated at each position. For the trail to look bushy, the positions of the individual particles must be slightly different. The anime-library provides a practical helper function for this:

anime.random(minValue, maxValue);

The size of the particles also varies randomly:

for (var i = 0; i 

The spiral with randomly placed particles (Large preview)

Here you can play around with the intermediate result:

See the Pen [anime js particles wip](https://codepen.io/smashingmag/pen/JjdqBve) by Anna Prenzel.

See the Pen anime js particles wip by Anna Prenzel.

Before the animation starts, all particles have to be invisible. So I will add:

dot.style.opacity = "0";

Animation Of The Particles

Basic Settings Of The Animation

The basic settings of my animation are made up as follows:

  • The animation is to be repeated continuously (loop: true),
  • The easing is linear (but you can try different values),
  • The targets are all elements with the class “dot”.
anime({
  loop: true,
  easing: "linear",
  targets: document.querySelectorAll(".dot"),
});

In the next step I will animate various CSS properties of my targets. The basic steps for CSS animation can be found in the properties chapter of the anime.js documentation.

Animation Of Opacity

This is what our first property animation looks like, in which all particles are slowly made visible within 50ms:

anime({
  loop: true,
  easing: "linear",
  targets: document.querySelectorAll(".dot"),
  opacity: { value: 1, duration: 50}
});

And now I will finally reveal the trick that creates a spiral movement of the particles! The idea is to make the particles visible with a certain time delay (e.g. in an interval of 2ms). The particles in the middle of the spiral are made visible at first, followed by all the other particles from inside to outside. The stagger function of anime.js is perfectly suited for this. In my opinion, staggering is one of the biggest strengths of the library that allows you to achieve great effects.

opacity: { value: 1, duration: 50, delay: anime.stagger(2) }

To create the illusion of a flying trail, the particles must start disappearing slowly as soon as they have appeared. Fortunately anime.js provides a keyframe notation for properties:

opacity: [
    { value: 1, duration: 50, delay: anime.stagger(2) },
    { value: 0, duration: 1200}
  ],

Here you can see the intermediate result:

See the Pen [anime js particles wip 2](https://codepen.io/smashingmag/pen/ZEGNjjv) by Anna Prenzel.

See the Pen anime js particles wip 2 by Anna Prenzel.

Animation Of Size

My comet trail should appear larger at the front end than at the back end. For this purpose, I let the particles shrink within 500ms to a diameter of 2px. It is important to choose the same time delay as for the opacity animation, so that each particle starts to shrink only after it has appeared:

width: { value: 2, duration: 500, delay: anime.stagger(2) },
height: { value: 2, duration: 500, delay: anime.stagger(2) },

Individual Movement Of The Particles

The typical thing about a particle animation is the individual, unpredictable behavior of the particles. I finally bring the particles to life with an individual movement in the x and y direction:

translateX: {
    value: function() {
      return anime.random(-30, 30);
    },
    duration: 1500,
    delay: anime.stagger(2)
  },

translateY: {
    value: function() {
      return anime.random(-30, 30);
    },
    duration: 1500,
    delay: anime.stagger(2)
  }

Again, it is important that the movement starts with the same time delay as the appearance of the particles.

Furthermore, it is absolutely necessary in this case to have functions calculating the values for translateX and translateY. Here we are using the parameters as function-based parameters whose values are determined for each target individually. Otherwise all targets would be shifted by the same (albeit randomly determined) amount.

Final Thoughts

You can see the final result over here:

See the Pen [anime js particles](https://codepen.io/smashingmag/pen/yLNWqRP) by Anna Prenzel.

See the Pen anime js particles by Anna Prenzel.

You can modify the animation to your own taste by simply tweaking all the values. I have a little tip for the final touches: Now that we are familiar with function-based parameters, the opacity animation can be improved a bit:

opacity: [
    { value: 1, duration: 50, delay: anime.stagger(2) },
    { value: 0, duration: function(){return anime.random(500,1500);}}
],

The duration before a particle disappears is now set for each particle individually. This makes our animation visually even more sophisticated.

I hope you are now as excited as I am about the possibilities that anime.js offers for particle animations! I recommend a visit to CodePen where you can see many more impressive examples.

Further Reading on SmashingMag:

(ra, yk, il)
Categories: Others Tags:

What is Word of Mouth & How it Helps Increase your Sales?

April 14th, 2020 No comments

Daily, as a customer, we come across lots of products in the market, but we choose only those products that are recommended by our friends and family.

We tend to purchase those because of trust recommendations, and this kind of marketing is known as word of mouth marketing. It is the oldest form of marketing because we are using it for a long time.

Word of mouth, as its name suggests, means to refer or share personal experience regarding any product or service with a friend or family member. Word of mouth can be positive or negative as it depends upon the customer experience with that particular product or service.

Word of Mouth Marketing Strategies for Business Growth.

1. An authentic product.

We all are aware of the fact that the quality of the product is the essence of any business. If you want people to talk about your product, then its quality should fulfill the customer’s expectations. If they find your product good, then they will do positive word of mouth marketing for your product or vice versa. Make sure that you have the right product for your customers. If you have an authentic product, then word of mouth marketing is for you.

2. Sound customer support system.

Product quality is not the sole criteria to fulfil the customer’s expectations. Customers need an excellent support system so that they can feel free to get your support. When you solve customer queries they feel more privileged, and it will increase your customer trust.

These two criteria should be there while planning for a word of mouth marketing strategy.

Image Source: InviteReferrals

Now, you must be surprised to know that why we call it referral marketing? The reason behind calling it referral marketing is because the traditional word of mouth marketing has revolutionized its way and come up with an extraordinary way that can help the business to grow.

Before we move forward, let’s learn about its advanced version.

Referral marketing works like just word of mouth, but it has a purpose of promotion. Businesses intentionally encourage the customer to have a virtual conversation with their friends and refer them to their products.

Referral marketing has now widely used by startups, industries, and companies to promote their brands to others.

Companies not only intentionally encourage customers but also try to tie them with their business. They offer lucrative offers so that they can directly hit the customer’s interest.

Image Source: InviteReferrals

Suppose a company has body care products, and they want to expand their customer base. They will use word of mouth marketing Aka referral marketing, in which they will ask their existing customers to spread positive word of mouth and for doing that they will get free body care products or get discounts on them.

See how effective it is to bind your existing customers with your brand while adding more potential customers.

When we say potential customers, it means that that new customer will also promote your product to their friends in the future. It creates multiple chains of the customer, who will remain by your side for the long term.

Let see how it helps business to increase its sells.

It’s a continuous process.

Yes, you read it right. Word of mouth marketing is not a one time process; it a continuous chain of recommending the product from one person to another person, and its chain goes like this. Once your customer has started doing it, it will gradually increase your sales base without requiring any extra efforts.

Cost-effective methodology.

Unlike advertisement, it does not require a large amount of investment; you can start word of mouth marketing by investing an amount according to your business scale. You can choose those incentives that are inexpensive and still manage to make your customers happy.

How can you make it a success?

1. Freebies or discounts

Image Source: InviteReferrals

Freebies are the most attractive and straightforward way to grab your customer’s attention. Those customers who have years of trust in your brand deserve an incentive or freebies for being loyal to you. Therefore, it allows you to reward them and ask them to become an advocate for your brand.

There are different incentives for every business. A business should choose them wisely according to their budget.

They have two choices.

  1. They can give their products to their customers as a reward because their customers already know the product quality.
  2. They can give them coupons, vouchers, or something that they can use in their day to day lives.

Some businesses choose to do both. They tend to use both side gratification, which means that they will reward not only the loyal customer but also the new customer, who has joined them recently.

It is the most effective way; because loyal customers are already liked your product and giving them something different will work as icing on the cake, and new customers will get a chance to use your company product or service.

2. Keep updating your customers.

Updating your customers is a critical way to make them feel connected with you. Its a fact that if you see anything at regular intervals, then it is more likely to stay longer in your memory. Therefore, it will indirectly fulfil your purpose. Forward them an email about what kind of changes you are making in your product or service to make it better. Share your success stories with them and invite them to share their feedback as well.

3. Show gratitude towards them.

It is the right way to make your customers feel privileged. Send them a thank you message after their every purchase. Make them feel that it does not matter how many customers your brand has, but every customer is essential for your brand. Show your gratitude when they participate in your marketing campaign.

Image Source: InviteReferrals

See how these small steps and initiatives can help your business to establish goodwill among your loyal customers as well as your new customers. Word of mouth marketing has a lot of potentials to make any business a success.

Conclusion

In this blog, we have learned about the basics of the word of mouth marketing and how it has digitally changed itself. Businesses need to plan their campaign according to their need and requirements.

Every industry can use it to make a well-established business and can increase its revenue.

Categories: Others Tags:

What is Word of Mouth & How it Helps Increase your Sales?

April 14th, 2020 No comments

Daily, as a customer, we come across lots of products in the market, but we choose only those products that are recommended by our friends and family. We tend to purchase those because of trust recommendations, and this kind of marketing is known as word of mouth marketing. It is the oldest form of marketing because we are using it for a long time.

Word of mouth, as its name suggests, means to refer or share personal experience regarding any product or service with a friend or family member. Word of mouth can be positive or negative as it depends upon the customer experience with that particular product or service.

Word of Mouth Marketing Strategies for Business Growth.

1. An authentic product.

We all are aware of the fact that the quality of the product is the essence of any business. If you want people to talk about your product, then its quality should fulfill the customer’s expectations. If they find your product good, then they will do positive word of mouth marketing for your product or vice versa. Make sure that you have the right product for your customers. If you have an authentic product, then word of mouth marketing is for you.

2. Sound customer support system.

Product quality is not the sole criteria to fulfil the customer’s expectations. Customers need an excellent support system so that they can feel free to get your support. When you solve customer queries they feel more privileged, and it will increase your customer trust.

These two criteria should be there while planning for a word of mouth marketing strategy.

Image Source: InviteReferrals

Now, you must be surprised to know that why we call it referral marketing? The reason behind calling it referral marketing is because the traditional word of mouth marketing has revolutionized its way and come up with an extraordinary way that can help the business to grow.

Before we move forward, let’s learn about its advanced version.

Referral marketing works like just word of mouth, but it has a purpose of promotion. Businesses intentionally encourage the customer to have a virtual conversation with their friends and refer them to their products.

Referral marketing has now widely used by startups, industries, and companies to promote their brands to others.

Companies not only intentionally encourage customers but also try to tie them with their business. They offer lucrative offers so that they can directly hit the customer’s interest.

Image Source: InviteReferrals

Suppose a company has body care products, and they want to expand their customer base. They will use word of mouth marketing Aka referral marketing, in which they will ask their existing customers to spread positive word of mouth and for doing that they will get free body care products or get discounts on them.

See how effective it is to bind your existing customers with your brand while adding more potential customers.

When we say potential customers, it means that that new customer will also promote your product to their friends in the future. It creates multiple chains of the customer, who will remain by your side for the long term.

Let see how it helps business to increase its sells.

It’s a continuous process.

Yes, you read it right. Word of mouth marketing is not a one time process; it a continuous chain of recommending the product from one person to another person, and its chain goes like this. Once your customer has started doing it, it will gradually increase your sales base without requiring any extra efforts.

Cost-effective methodology.

Unlike advertisement, it does not require a large amount of investment; you can start word of mouth marketing by investing an amount according to your business scale. You can choose those incentives that are inexpensive and still manage to make your customers happy.

How can you make it a success?

1. Freebies or discounts

Image Source: InviteReferrals

Freebies are the most attractive and straightforward way to grab your customer’s attention. Those customers who have years of trust in your brand deserve an incentive or freebies for being loyal to you. Therefore, it allows you to reward them and ask them to become an advocate for your brand.

There are different incentives for every business. A business should choose them wisely according to their budget.

They have two choices.

  1. They can give their products to their customers as a reward because their customers already know the product quality.
  2. They can give them coupons, vouchers, or something that they can use in their day to day lives.

Some businesses choose to do both. They tend to use both side gratification, which means that they will reward not only the loyal customer but also the new customer, who has joined them recently.

It is the most effective way; because loyal customers are already liked your product and giving them something different will work as icing on the cake, and new customers will get a chance to use your company product or service.

2. Keep updating your customers.

Updating your customers is a critical way to make them feel connected with you. Its a fact that if you see anything at regular intervals, then it is more likely to stay longer in your memory. Therefore, it will indirectly fulfil your purpose. Forward them an email about what kind of changes you are making in your product or service to make it better. Share your success stories with them and invite them to share their feedback as well.

3. Show gratitude towards them.

It is the right way to make your customers feel privileged. Send them a thank you message after their every purchase. Make them feel that it does not matter how many customers your brand has, but every customer is essential for your brand. Show your gratitude when they participate in your marketing campaign.

Image Source: InviteReferrals

See how these small steps and initiatives can help your business to establish goodwill among your loyal customers as well as your new customers. Word of mouth marketing has a lot of potentials to make any business a success.

Conclusion

In this blog, we have learned about the basics of the word of mouth marketing and how it has digitally changed itself. Businesses need to plan their campaign according to their need and requirements.

Every industry can use it to make a well-established business and can increase its revenue.

Categories: Others Tags:

Procreate for Windows

April 14th, 2020 No comments
procreate for windows

Whether you are a professional or someone who just draws as a hobby, you should always use the best drawing software that fits your needs.

Procreate is one of the best drawing apps for iOS, but unfortunately, it’s not available neither on Android nor Windows.

Even though there are too many alternatives to Procreate for Windows, we’ve tried to narrow it down to only the best ones for you. Here’s the list:

Drawing Apps for Windows

AutoDesk Sketchbook

AutoDesk Sketchbook

AutoDesk Sketchbook is a great tool that features various inks, pencils, markers and over 190 brushes that you can customize. You also get to access the exclusive Copic® Color Library, which houses a selection of color swatches. It’s possible to export your drawings as PSD, JPG, PNG, BMP, and TIFF. The interface is user-friendly so you’ll be making the most of out in no time. Last but not least, AutoDesk Sketchbook used to be paid, but now it’s completely free!

Krita

Krita

Krita is an open-source painting and sketching program, and it’s free. It has a great and customizable user interface. You can move the dockers and panels and place them anywhere according to your workflow. Krita also has a color wheel and an integrated reference panel. There are over 9 brush engines to help you customize your brush. You can also use the Resource Manager to import brush and texture packs from other artists.

ArtRage

ArtRage

ArtRage is a great tool that works on Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows. Basically, you can get your work done anywhere. Another great thing about ArtRage is that it has the tools to mimic real painting tools such as watercolors, paper options and rollers. You can smear and blend thick oils to create your natural color ingredients.

Corel Painter

Corel Painter

Corel Painter is here to take care of your all professional needs. It has over 900 brushes that respond to stylus movement and canvas textures dynamically. You can also import other artist’s brushes, just like you can with Krita. They also have a system called The Brush Accelerator™ which really improves the performance of both the artist and the artist’s device. It’s great for saving time. You can improve your performance and produce great results with Corel Painter, but unless you are a professional, you might need all these features.

MediBang Paint

MediBang Paint

If you are looking for a tool to create your next comic series, MediBang Paint is the perfect solution. There are over 800 premade background options, 50 brushes, and 20 fonts that are free of charge. You can also use MediBang Paint on your tablets and mobile devices. And, getting familiar with the tool shouldn’t take too much time since there is a really active community and many tutorials that you can learn from.

FireAlpaca

FireAlpaca

FireAlpaca is also open source and available on both Mac & Windows. It’s free to use and is available in 10 languages. It’s quite easy to learn and use. FireAlpaca excels in layer effects. You can find the most popular layering tools that are available on many premium services. In addition to that, the creators have also been creating their own layering tools. You can sketch with pen and ink and also utilize watercolor, pastel colors and chalk colors. It’s a great free tool for artists.

You can create your own digital artwork with these great procreate for windows alternatives in no time. You never know when the inspiration might hit you, so it’s important to be mobile and have a device that you can draw digitally with you anywhere. That being said, if you are looking for an alternative to procreate on android, make sure to check out our guide and reviews on Procreate for Android.

Let us know which of these apps are your favorites in the comments below!

Categories: Others Tags:

4 Examples of Bad Ecommerce Website Design and What to Do Instead

April 14th, 2020 No comments

Ecommerce has come a long way and it is easy to find websites that make shopping a joy. But there’s a seedy underbelly to the Internet, too, full of bad eCommerce website design that may mask bad business practices, mediocre performance, or even outright theft.

Today, we’re going to look at four websites that show you exactly what not to do, with some hints and tips for what to do instead. Prepare for the rollercoaster that you didn’t know you needed.

Homebase: Design and Inventory Issues

Over in the UK, Homebase is one of the worst-rated eCommerce websites, according to a 2018 and 2019 survey of online shoppers. The reason customers gave it such low marks is because of its puzzling design and limited stock availability.

The website itself isn’t too bad of a design when you glance at it casually. It’s something that you might actually think about adopting until you get beneath the surface. We’re going to review just a single page, for its bathroom furniture.

See if you can spot the keyword that they’re likely trying to get the page to rank for:

Not only is that stuffing not likely helping, but it also undercuts other elements on the page. We don’t get a lot of description beyond the company telling us that they know a lot about bathroom furniture. If that’s the case, however, then we’re going to have to ask why its image for the “toilet and sink units” and the “toilet units” show the same two products, just next to each other or with a gap.

Plus, it’s just the “toilets units” section that actually shows a product with the toilet and sink as a single unit.

Your lesson here is to prioritize copy that’s useful and avoid keyword stuffing. There’s actually some good copy at the absolute bottom of the page that explains products and collections, plus they note that some of these items can be installed by you. It would also make great email content.

It’s unlikely that the reader will get all the way down there to read this copy, which is unfortunate. Even more unfortunate, however, is that the page only shows us 4 “bestselling” pieces (there are 6 categories) and two of them are on clearance, which doesn’t inspire confidence. The “in-store” service is actually for a service that occurs at your home (and the image we see here has nothing to do with the bathroom).

The advice section is a promising idea, but for some reason, the photos are especially grainy and they’re off-center. It’s not too bad, but once we realized that we couldn’t help but see that the text at the bottom of the page is aligned with sidebar elements instead of the other text box at the top of the page.

The lesson here is to test your design for style and looks, but also make sure that it gives useful and related elements that don’t cut against the page. Would you take design inspiration from a site like this?

Headhunter Hairstyling: Making Us Hunt, Slowly

Headhunter Hairstyling and Nails is a Pensacola, Florida, hair salon that’s been in the downtown since 1978. They have great reviews on Google and are a super popular location with people who find them through Yelp or walk in off the street. It seems like a wonderful place to get your hair cut or styled and they deserve credit for running a good business.

The company isn’t particularly an eCommerce business, but that’s why we’re highlighting them in this section. Because, if they were an eCommerce shop, they’d likely go out of business tomorrow. No reputation in the world will save you if your website operates like there’s does.

The first thing to note is that you’ve got a great big video of someone cutting hair and you’ll get to see it in intricate detail as it slowly, slowly loads. First, the video loads fuzzy, then comes into focus, and then slowly the rest of the site content will appear.

The lesson here is that a load time of 5-6 seconds will kill an eCommerce business. You’ve got to fight to keep it under that.

Next, look at what they do with that all-important real estate. Over the hero video, we just get a welcome and repeat of their name. Below, we get a static note about hiring — which may be the parent company’s focus but isn’t the focus of this service-oriented site (you can tell because there’s a “Services” nav at the top). In our third and final text segment, we get a welcome message that talks about the location (a small plus for a business that needs foot traffic) and a mention of services, but no hyperlink.

For you, think about what you would do with a landing page? How would you sell? Are you pushing products as soon as someone arrives or are they met with bland copy, no links, and no reason to stick around?

There’s no easy way to get to a service or stylist as we read. You’ve got to go back up to the top nav. Clicking on the “Services” tab takes us to a page with a price list.

Unfortunately, there’s no video or images here, just a straight service list. There’s also no more information because you can’t click through to anything. What all does that elusive plus “+” sign next to the permanent styling cover? Can the price double or even triple?

Then, we get to the bottom and are told that none of those prices matter. So, there’s no information here and no reason to trust anything else on the site.

Your eCommerce business can’t rely on outside sources (like Google or Yelp) for reviews to generate your sales. You need to make a good first impression and then follow it up with high-quality images, consistent pricing, and elements that help people trust you. The lesson is to ask yourself this: If you could only choose a salon based on their own website (which is what people do for your eCommerce site), would you choose this one?

Arngren: Making Eyes Hurt for Years

If you’re going to have eCommerce sites that you love to hate, Arngren.net is at the top of that list. This Norwegian classified site is like if one of those penny magazines sitting in a roadside diner was digitized, and then shoved onto a single page.

It’s a fascinating mess.

Images and text overlap each other, often obscuring essential information or making it unclear which “sale!” declaration is for which product. Some things have borders and others don’t, for reasons that are unclear. An alarm system will sit next to an RC tank, moped, and binoculars.

Clicking on an item will get you to a paid that is more structured, generally, though a fair amount of the links go to strange places on a page. And, for some reason, it pairs fake security cameras with ads for homebuilt, personal helicopters. Clicks may send you to affiliates or advertisers or direct listings, but there’s no obvious way to reason it out before you click.

All-in-all, it’s a masterclass on what not to look like. So, here are the big takeaways from it:

  • Use a consistent layout so people can follow along.
  • Minimize content per page so people understand what’s being sold.
  • Give information and context to encourage clicks.
  • Keep typography, color, image size, and other elements at least somewhat consistent
  • Go through your links and see if things are clear and that they work properly.

Your big takeaway: If it makes your eyes hurt or gives you a headache to look at, scrap the page and try again.

T-Shirt Shop: Don’t Steal

We’ve got one quick honorable mention to note: t-shirt businesses.

There’s a rather big controversy that’s been discovered by Twitter sleuths, where artists post artwork and then someone comments “This should be on a t-shirt.” Unscrupulous companies on the Internet are scraping Twitter with bots and then grabbing the artwork image files and turning them into t-shirts.

As a response, Twitter users started making images that note a website sells stolen artwork and then using the comments to get them to create a shirt with that image.

Twitter scraping is a bad practice for multiple reasons. First, it’s illegal and the point is to get a cool design without paying the artist for it. Second, you can get caught creating a lot of strange things (that are potentially illegal in their own right). And, finally, it erodes all trust.

Your eCommerce takeaway: Don’t steal. People will notice and spread the word, and it’ll hurt your store.

In an even greater twist, some companies have started creating their own t-shirts with similar messaging. This could be an attempt to cash in on a trend or to muddy the waters as bad actors try to show that they might not be doing something wrong.

All this serves to do is erode trust — an especially bad move if you are a legitimate shop and just trying to make a buck off a trend. Also, we won’t mention this site by name, but look at the product description of that item. It doesn’t inspire confidence that the listing is real.

Elsewhere, they leave a watermark from a competitor’s store on an image and show a product description that appears to be a personal comment from Facebook that includes the keyword of the product description (still bolded on their end).

So, be careful of trends and overly enthusiastic automation. If you’re not paying attention, you could end up doing something that’ll get your shop shut down by the authorities or scare away people enough that you’re forced to close your doors because of a lack of sales.

Also, don’t steal.

Bonus Tip: Google Yourself

We’ll finish up with a final tip that came up during our research on this topic. Google is a great tool to help you find a vast array of information. We wanted to highlight websites that not only performed poorly in our mind but were rated poorly by customers.

The Homebase site was a top example, and it got us to look around for more studies in the UK. That led to Google results for one particular publication, which is currently ranking well and showed up a couple of times:

Unfortunately, those links that Google still thinks are valid aren’t helping out the visitor.

So, our final lesson is to do your keyword research and learn your site. Then, see where you show up and click through those links. Because, you don’t want a popular search result to link to a page saying that you’re “Coming Soon” when, in fact, you’re already here. You might also find new reviews that show people are worried about your shipping costs or have other concerns.

No matter who you are, search results count.

So, get checking and happy selling!

Categories: Others Tags:

No-Class CSS Frameworks

April 13th, 2020 No comments

I linked up Water.css not long ago as an interesting sort of CSS framework. No classes. No

. You just use semantic HTML and get styles. Is that going to “scale” very far? Probably not, but it sure is handy for styling things quickly, where — of course — you’re writing semantic HTML but don’t need to care tremendously about the look, other than it should look as decent as it can with low effort.

This week I saw MVP.css making the rounds. Same idea. There are a bunch more!

Even Foundation, while being a big honkin’ framework, does some pretty decent stuff classless-ly™.

The post No-Class CSS Frameworks appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

Categories: Designing, Others Tags:

What is AWS?

April 13th, 2020 No comments

AWS stands for Amazon web services. It is the leading cloud service platform occupying 47.8 percent of the public cloud services market.

AWS solution architect is one of the most sought after careers in the cloud domain as many businesses are running on the AWS cloud platform. Companies are always on the lookout for professionals with competence in AWS Cloud architecture or the ones who have done an AWS Developer Associate Certification Course. So, if you are looking for a lucrative career as an AWS solutions architect, the prospects are promising.

A Cloud service architecture comprises of the front end platform, back end platform, a cloud based delivery over a network.

You will require to design a technical and practical application using the cloud platform for your business problems as an AWS associate. One example could be to build the most cost efficient systems based on cloud architecture. Global Companies like Siemens and Shell have efficiently leveraged the AWS platform to beef up their cyber security against viruses, malware and other malicious threats. This is most exciting part of becoming an AWS- associate developer. You get to creatively solve business problems by using your expertise in cloud technology.

Your skills become valuable to a business when you give them value by generating efficiencies to it. A competent AWS solutions architect can earn a maiden salary of 1 lakh dollars on an average in United States of America and Canada.

What skills do you need to become an AWS solutions architect?

Business Acumen: Understanding the needs and problems faced by your business is the first skill you need if you want to work as an AWS solutions architect. A commercial sense more or less serves you well in any career.

Great communication and interpersonal skills: AWS solution architects work within teams so having great people’s skills is of utmost importance. The secret to getting projects done lies in your ability to communicate effectively with the team and managing your time properly.

Understanding customer needs and aligning them with business goals is also crucial. Therefore one needs to be very good with customer interactions and communicating objectively.

You must be adaptable in switching between tasks that may involve writing scripts, troubleshooting, and taking care of migrations amongst other things throughout the day.

Technical expertise: You need to have a working knowledge of one operating system at least. The most preferable is Linux. Prior knowledge of specific programming languages along with understanding of network security will make the path of becoming AWS professional potentially sound.

You need to pass the AWS solutions architect certification to become a certified AWS solutions architect.

Don’t worry; it is possible to become an AWS solutions architect even if you don’t have a prior any prior experience of AWS. In any career, learning the core concepts, getting certified or passing an exam and honing your skills through practical exposure is the most standard way to becoming a professional. So, you can divide your journey to become a AWS solutions architect into 3 steps as follows:

1. Learn the fundamentals of cloud computing with deep knowledge of the AWS cloud platform

You need to learn all the cloud computing concepts to know the nitty gritties of a career in cloud computing industry. There are plenty of free and paid learning resources available online to get you started with learning the theoretical aspects for the right building cloud solutions on a AWS platform.

Cloud technology is in a state of flux. It is a constantly evolving field. Make sure you choose the right learning resources that focus on a case study based learning environment to help you understand the practical application and implications of the cloud computing concepts and AWS fundamentals.

It is very important to keep yourself abreast with the latest developments in the field of cloud technology. Learn why companies are using the AWS enabled cloud platform to solve business

problems. What kind of benefits it offers to businesses. Make knowledge of cloud technology your forte to proceed on acquiring the technical skills and competencies to become an AWS solutions architect.

2. Ace the AWS solution architect certification Exam

AWS certifications stand out as they lay emphasis on hands on experience and best practices. The evaluation is a testimony of candidate’s thoroughness in working with AWS cloud platform. There are different certifications under the AWS certification umbrella. AWS solution architect-associate certification is the most sought after one for a fresher looking to venture in the cloud solutions industry.

The test is conducted in an MCQ format and lasts for 130 minutes. it tests a candidate’s knowledge on using AWS cloud architecture for application based project implementation using best practices and design principles to address customer needs and solve business problems.

You have already done your ground work in the first step by acquiring the fundamental knowledge of how cloud technology works. Now you need to focus on acquiring niche skills and practical knowledge to get a thorough understanding of how cloud computing works in AWS enabled environment. The step may look a little challenging but it is definitely the most rewarding for starting out your developer journey in this field.

If you are looking for online courses to prepare yourself for the exam, make sure you choose the courses which blend practical hands on training along with learning the concepts. You must make it a point to cover each module included in the certification. A pro tip would be to take a one year free trial with AWS and play around with as many AWS services as possible with the trial version.

Look for resources that provide mock tests to help you practice in a real time simulation before taking the certification exam. Finding the right mentorship and learning will help you in clearing the certification exam with ease and confidence.

3. Make practical experience your priority when you start

It is advisable to get hands on experience with the AWS cloud service platform. Look out for entry level positions in the cloud architecture domain as soon as you decide to take the AWS certification.

Even Amazon recommends a desirable one year experience for taking the exam. An AWS certification can give you an added advantage at the pre screening stage of a job interview but bear in mind that it is your practical experience that takes you forward towards your dream 6 figure career from the interview cubicle.

Even after clearing the AWS certification exam, you must strive to find the right opportunities in the job market. Take the initial few months of your job as an extension of your learning. Look for training opportunities under senior solutions architect who have experience of handling a lot of projects and will give you opportunities to learn and grow.

The cloud computing field is always moving and you will always have something new to learn. It brings tremendous opportunities to grow as a professional. You can move ahead and take up the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional module after working as an associate for atleast 2 years with multi application based hands on experience of designing and deploying cloud architecture on AWS.

You should always know the pulse of the industry. Learning about other platforms like Microsoft Azure or Google cloud will help you getting a broader perspective and streamline your knowledge as an AWS solutions architect.

The post What is AWS? appeared first on Web Design Dev.

Categories: Others, Programming Tags:

What is AWS?

April 13th, 2020 No comments

AWS stands for Amazon web services. It is the leading cloud service platform occupying 47.8 percent of the public cloud services market.

AWS solution architect is one of the most sought after careers in the cloud domain as many businesses are running on the AWS cloud platform. Companies are always on the lookout for professionals with competence in AWS Cloud architecture or the ones who have done an AWS Developer Associate Certification Course. So, if you are looking for a lucrative career as an AWS solutions architect, the prospects are promising.

A Cloud service architecture comprises of the front end platform, back end platform, a cloud based delivery over a network.

You will require to design a technical and practical application using the cloud platform for your business problems as an AWS associate. One example could be to build the most cost efficient systems based on cloud architecture. Global Companies like Siemens and Shell have efficiently leveraged the AWS platform to beef up their cyber security against viruses, malware and other malicious threats. This is most exciting part of becoming an AWS- associate developer. You get to creatively solve business problems by using your expertise in cloud technology.

Your skills become valuable to a business when you give them value by generating efficiencies to it. A competent AWS solutions architect can earn a maiden salary of 1 lakh dollars on an average in United States of America and Canada.

What skills do you need to become an AWS solutions architect?

Business Acumen: Understanding the needs and problems faced by your business is the first skill you need if you want to work as an AWS solutions architect. A commercial sense more or less serves you well in any career.

Great communication and interpersonal skills: AWS solution architects work within teams so having great people’s skills is of utmost importance. The secret to getting projects done lies in your ability to communicate effectively with the team and managing your time properly.

Understanding customer needs and aligning them with business goals is also crucial. Therefore one needs to be very good with customer interactions and communicating objectively.

You must be adaptable in switching between tasks that may involve writing scripts, troubleshooting, and taking care of migrations amongst other things throughout the day.

Technical expertise: You need to have a working knowledge of one operating system at least. The most preferable is Linux. Prior knowledge of specific programming languages along with understanding of network security will make the path of becoming AWS professional potentially sound.

You need to pass the AWS solutions architect certification to become a certified AWS solutions architect.

Don’t worry; it is possible to become an AWS solutions architect even if you don’t have a prior any prior experience of AWS. In any career, learning the core concepts, getting certified or passing an exam and honing your skills through practical exposure is the most standard way to becoming a professional. So, you can divide your journey to become a AWS solutions architect into 3 steps as follows:

1. Learn the fundamentals of cloud computing with deep knowledge of the AWS cloud platform

You need to learn all the cloud computing concepts to know the nitty gritties of a career in cloud computing industry. There are plenty of free and paid learning resources available online to get you started with learning the theoretical aspects for the right building cloud solutions on a AWS platform.

Cloud technology is in a state of flux. It is a constantly evolving field. Make sure you choose the right learning resources that focus on a case study based learning environment to help you understand the practical application and implications of the cloud computing concepts and AWS fundamentals.

It is very important to keep yourself abreast with the latest developments in the field of cloud technology. Learn why companies are using the AWS enabled cloud platform to solve business

problems. What kind of benefits it offers to businesses. Make knowledge of cloud technology your forte to proceed on acquiring the technical skills and competencies to become an AWS solutions architect.

2. Ace the AWS solution architect certification Exam

AWS certifications stand out as they lay emphasis on hands on experience and best practices. The evaluation is a testimony of candidate’s thoroughness in working with AWS cloud platform. There are different certifications under the AWS certification umbrella. AWS solution architect-associate certification is the most sought after one for a fresher looking to venture in the cloud solutions industry.

The test is conducted in an MCQ format and lasts for 130 minutes. it tests a candidate’s knowledge on using AWS cloud architecture for application based project implementation using best practices and design principles to address customer needs and solve business problems.

You have already done your ground work in the first step by acquiring the fundamental knowledge of how cloud technology works. Now you need to focus on acquiring niche skills and practical knowledge to get a thorough understanding of how cloud computing works in AWS enabled environment. The step may look a little challenging but it is definitely the most rewarding for starting out your developer journey in this field.

If you are looking for online courses to prepare yourself for the exam, make sure you choose the courses which blend practical hands on training along with learning the concepts. You must make it a point to cover each module included in the certification. A pro tip would be to take a one year free trial with AWS and play around with as many AWS services as possible with the trial version.

Look for resources that provide mock tests to help you practice in a real time simulation before taking the certification exam. Finding the right mentorship and learning will help you in clearing the certification exam with ease and confidence.

3. Make practical experience your priority when you start

It is advisable to get hands on experience with the AWS cloud service platform. Look out for entry level positions in the cloud architecture domain as soon as you decide to take the AWS certification.

Even Amazon recommends a desirable one year experience for taking the exam. An AWS certification can give you an added advantage at the pre screening stage of a job interview but bear in mind that it is your practical experience that takes you forward towards your dream 6 figure career from the interview cubicle.

Even after clearing the AWS certification exam, you must strive to find the right opportunities in the job market. Take the initial few months of your job as an extension of your learning. Look for training opportunities under senior solutions architect who have experience of handling a lot of projects and will give you opportunities to learn and grow.

The cloud computing field is always moving and you will always have something new to learn. It brings tremendous opportunities to grow as a professional. You can move ahead and take up the AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional module after working as an associate for atleast 2 years with multi application based hands on experience of designing and deploying cloud architecture on AWS.

You should always know the pulse of the industry. Learning about other platforms like Microsoft Azure or Google cloud will help you getting a broader perspective and streamline your knowledge as an AWS solutions architect.

The post What is AWS? appeared first on Web Design Blog | Magazine for Designers.

Categories: Others, Programming Tags:

Styling in the Shadow DOM With CSS Shadow Parts 

April 13th, 2020 No comments

Safari 13.1 just shipped support for CSS Shadow Parts. That means the ::part() selector is now supported in Chrome, Edge, Opera, Safari, and Firefox. We’ll see why it’s useful, but first a recap on shadow DOM encapsulation…

The benefits of shadow DOM encapsulation

I work at giffgaff where we have a wide variety of CSS code that has been written by many different people in many different ways over the years. Let’s consider how this might be problematic.

Naming collisions

Naming collisions between classes can easily crop up in CSS. One developer might create a class name like .price. Another developer (or even the same one) might use the same class name, without knowing it.

CSS won’t alert you to any error here. Now, any HTML elements with this class will receive the styling intended for two completely different things.

Shadow DOM fixes this problem. CSS-in-JS libraries, like Emotion and styled-components, also solve this issue in a different way by generating random class names, like .bwzfXH. That certainly does help avoid conflicts! However, CSS-in-JS doesn’t prevent anybody from breaking your component in other ways. For example…

Base styles and CSS resets

Styles can be applied using HTML element selectors like