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Archive for June, 2023

Off To New Adventures (July 2023 Wallpapers Edition)

June 30th, 2023 No comments

Often, it’s the little things that inspire us and that we treasure most. The sky shining in the most beautiful colors at the end of a seemingly endless summer day, riding your bike through a light rain shower on a hot afternoon — or maybe it’s a scoop of your favorite ice cream that refuels your batteries? No matter what big and small adventures July will have in store for you this year, our new collection of wallpapers is bound to cater for some inspiration along the way.

More than twelve years ago, we started this monthly wallpapers series to bring you a variety of beautiful, unique, and inspiring wallpapers every month. It’s a community effort made possible by artists and designers from around the globe who challenge their creative skills to cater for some good vibes on your screens. And, well, it wasn’t any different this time around.

In this post, you’ll find their wallpaper designs for July 2023. All of them come in versions with and without a calendar and can be downloaded for free. To make the month even more colorful, we also compiled a selection of July favorites from our wallpapers archives at the end of this post. A huge thank-you to everyone who submitted their artwork — this post wouldn’t exist without you!

  • You can click on every image to see a larger preview,
  • We respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.
  • Submit a wallpaper!
    Did you know that you could get featured in our next wallpapers post, too? We are always looking for creative talent.

Under The Enchanting Moonlight

“Two friends sat under the enchanting moonlight, enjoying the serene ambiance as they savoured their cups of tea. It was a rare and precious connection that transcended the ordinary, kindled by the magic of the moonlight. Eventually, as the night began to wane, they reluctantly stood, their empty cups in hand. They carried with them the memories and the tranquility of the moonlit tea session, knowing that they would return to this special place to create new memories in the future.” — Designed by Bhabna Basak from India.

DJ Little Bird

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

In Space

Designed by Lieke Dol from the Netherlands.

Unleash Your Inner Grandmaster

“Hey there, chess champs and rook-ies! Today, we’re rolling out the red carpet for the grandest celebration in the chess universe. It’s World Chess Day, where we celebrate the brain-bending battles, knightly maneuvers, and epic pawn sacrifices that keep us coming back for more! Step into the realm of kings and queens, where the fate of nations is decided over a checkered battlefield. Chess, the ultimate game of mental gymnastics, proves that you don’t need biceps of steel to flex your strategic muscles!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

Cross The Bridge

“On this trip around the world, we return to Europe, specifically to London. We walked through its streets and decided to cross the bridge to enjoy both sides of the city. We may take one of its famous red buses or take a walk along the Thames. In any case, we have a whole month to become true Londoners.” — Designed by Veronica Valenzuela Jimenez from Spain.

Swim Swim

Designed by Rebecca Curiel.

Flat Design ’s-Hertogenbosch

“I admire artwork that is made using simple shapes and colors in Illustrator, also known as flat design. The amazing things you can make with these simple shapes are just mind-blowing. The buildings in the artwork come from my hometown ’s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands. I am most proud of the great cathedral on the left. The number of hours I’ve put into it is not normal.” — Designed by Mitch van Trigt from the Netherlands.

Motion Sickness

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

Underneath The Banana Tree

“July is the time to relax. What about having a rest underneath a… banana tree, lala la la? You know this song? Yes it’s about a mango tree, but never mind.” — Designed by Philippe Brouard from France.

Book Imagination

“Everyone’s imagination when reading books is different. One person thinks of a village and another of a city. That’s the beauty of reading.” — Designed by Britt van Falier from the Netherlands.

Oldies But Goodies

Our wallpapers archives are full of timeless treasures that are just too good to be forgotten. So here’s a small selection of favorites from past July editions. Please note that these designs don’t come with a calendar.

Melting July

“Welcome to the sweltering July — the month when it’s so hot that even the fruits are edgy. Our ice-creamy, vibrantly-colored monthly calendar is melting as the temperature rises, so make sure to download it as quickly as possible!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

Hotdog

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

Meeting Mary Poppins

“This month, we travel to London with Mary Poppins to discover the city. We will have great adventures!” — Designed by Veronica Valenzuela from Spain.

Birdie July

Designed by Lívi Lénárt from Hungary.

Summer Season

“I’m an avid runner, and I have some beautiful natural views surrounding my city. The Smoky Mountains are a bit further east, so I took some liberties, but Tennessee’s nature is nothing short of beautiful and inspiring.” — Designed by Cam Elliott from Memphis, TN.

The Ancient Device

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

Summer Cannonball

“Summer is coming in the northern hemisphere and what better way to enjoy it than with watermelons and cannonballs.” — Designed by Maria Keller from Mexico.

Eternal Summer

“And once you let your imagination go, you find yourself surrounded by eternal summer, unexplored worlds, and all-pervading warmth, where there are no rules of physics and colors tint the sky under your feet.” — Designed by Ana Masnikosa from Belgrade, Serbia.

A Flamboyance Of Flamingos

“July in South Africa is dreary and wintery so we give all the southern hemisphere dwellers a bit of color for those gray days. And for the northern hemisphere dwellers a bit of pop for their summer!” — Designed by Wonderland Collective from South Africa.

Riding In The Drizzle

“Rain has come, showering the existence with new seeds of life. Everywhere life is blooming, as if they were asleep and the falling music of raindrops have awakened them. Feel the drops of rain. Feel this beautiful mystery of life. Listen to its music, melt into it.” — Designed by DMS Software from India.

Less Busy Work, More Fun!

Designed by ActiveCollab from the United States.

Taste Like Summer

“In times of clean eating and the world of superfoods there is one vegetable missing. An old, forgotten one. A flower actually. Rare and special. Once it had a royal reputation (I cheated a bit with the blue). The artichocke — this is my superhero in the garden! I am a food lover — you too? Enjoy it — dip it!” — Designed by Alexandra Tamgnoué from Germany.

Day Turns To Night

Designed by Xenia Latii from Germany.

Heated Mountains

“Warm summer weather inspired the color palette.” — Designed by Marijana Pivac from Croatia.

Tropical Lilies

“I enjoy creating tropical designs. They fuel my wanderlust and passion for the exotic, instantaneously transporting me to a tropical destination.” — Designed by Tamsin Raslan from the United States.

Sweet Summer

“In summer everything inspires me.” — Designed by Maria Karapaunova from Bulgaria.

Summermoon

Designed by Erik Neumann from Germany.

Fire Camp

“What’s better than a starry summer night with an (unexpected) friend around a fire camp with some marshmallows? Happy July!” — Designed by Etienne Mansard from the UK.

Island River

“Make sure you have a refreshing source of ideas, plans and hopes this July. Especially if you are to escape from urban life for a while.” — Designed by Igor Izhik from Canada.

Captain Amphicar

“My son and I are obsessed with the Amphicar right now, so why not have a little fun with it?” — Designed by 3 Bicycles Creative from the United States.

It’s Getting Hot

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

Alentejo Plain

“Based in the Alentejo region, in the south of Portugal, where there are large plains used for growing wheat. It thus represents the extensions of the fields of cultivation and their simplicity. Contrast of the plain with the few trees in the fields. Storks that at this time of year predominate in this region, being part of the Alentejo landscape and mentioned in the singing of Alentejo.” — Designed by José Guerra from Portugal.

An Intrusion Of Cockroaches

“Ever watched Joe’s Apartment when you were a kid? Well, that movie left a soft spot in my heart for the little critters. Don’t get me wrong: I won’t invite them over for dinner, but I won’t grab my flip flop and bring the wrath upon them when I see one running in the house. So there you have it… three roaches… bringing the smack down on that pesky human… ZZZZZZZAP!!” — Designed by Wonderland Collective from South Africa.

Heat Wave

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

My July

Designed by Cátia Pereira from Portugal.

July Rocks!

Designed by Joana Moreira from Portugal.

Frogs In The Night

“July is coming and the nights are warmer. Frogs look at the moon while they talk about their day.” — Designed by Veronica Valenzuela from Spain.

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OpenAI Accused of Data Theft in California

June 29th, 2023 No comments

The AI community has been shaken by a class action lawsuit, launched in the Northern District of California on the 28th June, that alleges OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT has breached copyright laws by training its AI using private content without consent.

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25 Tattoo Fonts You Won’t Regret

June 28th, 2023 No comments

Tattoos are a long-term commitment. Sure, you can get them removed with a laser, but let’s be realistic: if you get inked, you will have the design on your body for the rest of your life.

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Introducing the D&AD 2023 Awards Winners

June 27th, 2023 No comments

The D&AD Awards are amongst the most prestigious in the design industry, and owning a D&AD pencil is envied across the industry. While most awards get flashed around on social media for 24 hours and then stuffed in the back of a drawer, D&AD pencils have a permanent place in the lobbies of the biggest names in the design industry.

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3 Essential Design Trends, July 2023

June 26th, 2023 No comments
3 Essential Design Trends, July 2023

While the summer season seems to be the time when trends slow down some, there are still new things happening in website design. Often this is a season of design evolution, rather than complete overhauls of standard design practices.

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Common Missteps Clients Take When Engaging with Animation Studios

June 23rd, 2023 No comments

Are you ready for a production of epic proportions? Hiring an animation company can be the catalyst that brings your vision to life. However, in the zeal to launch your creative endeavor, it’s imperative to navigate potential mistakes that could sabotage the entire process. 

From selecting an ill-suited partner to ineffective communication, there are an array of perils clients must avoid to ensure a successful outcome. In this blog, we will explore the most prevalent errors and provide insight into how to circumvent them. 

So, recline in your seat, indulge in some delectable treats, and get set to discover how to transform your animation dream into a critically acclaimed masterpiece!

Common Mistakes Clients Make When Hiring an Animation Studio

Hiring an animation studio in cities like Montreal, New York, or Sydney can be a great way to bring your ideas to life and create engaging and captivating visuals for your brand or project. However, choosing the right animation studio can be a daunting task, especially if you’re not familiar with the process. 

There are many factors to consider, including the studio’s experience, portfolio, communication style, and workflow. It’s crucial to take the time to research potential animation studios and make an informed decision to ensure that you’re working with a partner who can bring your vision to life. 

Here are the ten common mistakes clients make when hiring an animation studio:

Failing to do research

One of the biggest mistakes clients can make when hiring an animation studio is not conducting research. Many clients are eager to dive into their animation projects and may overlook the importance of vetting potential animation studios. 

Failing to research the animation studio can result in working with a company that does not possess the necessary skills, experience, or creativity to bring the client’s vision to life. Researching an animation studio can help a client avoid potential pitfalls and ensure that they are working with the right partner.

Not setting clear objectives

Setting clear objectives is key to ensuring that the animation project is successful. Without clear objectives, the animation studio may not be able to deliver what the client wants. The objectives should include the purpose of the animation project, the target audience, and the intended outcome. 

The client should clearly communicate their goals to the animation studio so that the studio can develop an animation that aligns with the client’s vision.

Ignoring the studio’s portfolio

An animation studio’s portfolio is a great way to get a sense of its style, quality, and creativity. Clients should take the time to review the studio’s previous work to determine if it aligns with their expectations. 

Reviewing the studio’s portfolio can also help the client identify the studio’s strengths and weaknesses, which can be useful when deciding whether to work with the studio.

Focusing solely on the price

While price is an important factor to consider when hiring an animation studio, it should not be the only factor. Clients who focus solely on price may overlook the quality of work or the experience of the animators. 

A low price may also indicate that the studio is not capable of delivering high-quality work. Clients should consider the studio’s portfolio, experience, and quality of work when making their decision.

Overlooking communication

Effective communication is crucial for a successful animation project. Clients should ensure that the animation studio is responsive, communicative, and open to feedback throughout the process. 

Communication can include regular progress updates, milestone achievements, and opportunities for feedback. If communication breaks down, the project can suffer, resulting in delays, misunderstandings, and a final product that doesn’t meet the client’s expectations.

Not considering the studio’s workflow

Each animation studio may have a different workflow, which can affect how the animation project is completed. Clients should ensure that the animation studio’s workflow aligns with their expectations. 

For example, some studios may provide regular updates and milestones, while others may work on the project independently and only provide updates at the end. Understanding the animation studio’s workflow can help clients manage their expectations and avoid misunderstandings.

Rushing the timeline

Clients may be eager to see their animation project completed quickly, but rushing the timeline can compromise the quality of the work. Animators need sufficient time to develop and refine their work to ensure that it meets the client’s expectations. 

Clients should allow ample time for the animation studio to complete the project and make revisions. If the timeline is too short, the animation studio may have to rush the process, resulting in lower-quality work.

Lack of flexibility

While it’s important to have clear objectives and expectations, clients should also be open to suggestions and ideas from the animation studio. Collaboration can often lead to a better end product. Clients should be willing to adapt their vision to accommodate the animation studio’s ideas and expertise. By being flexible, clients can help ensure that the final product exceeds their expectations.

Not discussing ownership and rights

Ownership and rights can be a sensitive issue when it comes to animation projects. Clients should discuss ownership and rights with the animation studio upfront. This includes who will own the final product, who will have the right to use it, and any licensing or copyright issues. 

Failing to discuss ownership and rights can lead to misunderstandings or legal issues down the line. It’s important to establish who owns the final product and who has the right to use it, whether it’s for commercial or personal purposes. Clients should also consider any licensing or copyright issues related to the animation project, as this can affect how the final product is used.

Failure to review the contract

Before signing any contracts, clients should review all terms and conditions carefully. This can include payment terms, deadlines, deliverables, and other important details. Failure to review the contract can lead to misunderstandings or disputes down the line. 

Clients should ensure that they understand all the terms and conditions of the contract, including any fees or penalties for late delivery or revisions. Reviewing the contract can help clients avoid potential issues and ensure that they are working with a reputable animation studio.

Helpful Tips to Avoid These Mistakes

Here are four tips to avoid the common mistakes clients make when hiring an animation studio:

Do your research: Before hiring an animation studio, conduct thorough research to ensure that they have the necessary skills, experience, and creative vision to bring your project to life. Look at their portfolio, read reviews, and ask for referrals.

Set clear objectives: Be clear about your goals and objectives for the animation project, including the purpose, target audience, and intended outcome. This will help the animation studio develop a product that aligns with your vision.

Communicate effectively: Establish clear communication channels with the animation studio and be open to feedback and ideas. Regular check-ins can help ensure that the project is on track and that any issues or concerns are addressed promptly.

Allow sufficient time: Give the animation studio ample time to complete the project and make revisions. Rushing the timeline can compromise the quality of the work and lead to misunderstandings or delays.

In Conclusion

Hiring an animation company can be a complex process, but avoiding these common mistakes can help ensure a successful outcome. 

By doing research, setting clear objectives, reviewing the studio’s portfolio, considering communication, workflow, and flexibility, allowing sufficient time, discussing ownership and rights, and reviewing the contract, clients can avoid potential pitfalls and work with a reputable animation studio that can bring their vision to life. 

A successful animation project requires collaboration, communication, and careful planning, but with the right approach, clients can achieve a final product that exceeds their expectations.

Featured image by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

The post Common Missteps Clients Take When Engaging with Animation Studios appeared first on noupe.

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Navigating PPC for Lawyers: How to Increase Client Engagement and Grow Your Practice

June 23rd, 2023 No comments

In today’s digital landscape, where competition among law firms is fierce, the key to standing out lies in effectively engaging potential clients and growing your practice. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising emerges as a powerful tool in this endeavor, allowing lawyers to reach their target audience with precision and drive meaningful conversions.

The significance of PPC for lawyers cannot be overstated. It presents an unparalleled opportunity to put your legal services in front of those actively seeking assistance, positioning your firm as the solution they’ve been searching for. With PPC, you have the power to showcase your expertise, connect with potential clients at the right moment, and drive them toward taking action.

Mastering the Art of PPC: Propel Your Law Practice to New Heights

To help you navigate the dynamic landscape of PPC for lawyers with ease and precision, we have compiled a comprehensive six-step guideline tailored specifically for PPC strategies in the law industry. With our expert insights and practical tips, you will understand how to optimize your PPC campaigns and unlock unlimited benefits. So, prepare to embark on a transformative journey as we unveil the secrets to PPC success for lawyers. Let’s dive in!

Identify Target Audience and High-Performing Keywords

To effectively reach and engage your ideal audience through PPC campaigns, it’s crucial to define your ideal client persona. By understanding their demographics, needs, pain points, and preferences, you can tailor your messaging and targeting to resonate with them on a deeper level. 

Once you understand your target audience, it’s time to conduct thorough keyword research. This involves identifying the specific terms and phrases your clients are using when looking for legal services. Leverage keyword research tools such as Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Moz to uncover relevant keywords with high search volume and low competition. 

In addition to broad keywords, long-tail keywords often have less competition, allowing you to target a more niche audience. Incorporate these long-tail keywords strategically into your ad campaigns to attract highly relevant traffic and increase the chances of conversions.

Moreover, using negative keywords lets you filter out irrelevant searches and ensure that your ads are shown to the most qualified prospects. Regularly review your campaign data and add negative keywords to refine and improve your targeting.

Craft Compelling Ad copy and Landing Pages

Crafting compelling ad copy and optimizing landing pages are vital components of successful PPC campaigns for lawyers. When it comes to ad copy, it’s crucial to write persuasive and concise headlines and descriptions that grab the attention of potential clients. Use compelling language, highlight key benefits, and include a clear call-to-action to encourage clicks and engagement.

Incorporating unique selling propositions (USPs) in your ad copy sets your legal services apart from the competition. Identify what makes your firm unique and emphasize those aspects in your ads. 

Moreover, optimizing landing pages is equally important in converting clicks into actual leads. Ensure that your landing pages align with the messaging and promises made in your ads. Use clear and visible call-to-action buttons that prompt visitors to take the desired action, such as filling out a contact form or calling your office.

Expand Visibility With Ad Extensions

To maximize the performance of your PPC campaigns for your law firm, it’s essential to utilize ad extensions. Ad extensions expand the visibility and functionality of your ads, providing additional information and options for users. 

Consider implementing call extensions to include your phone number directly in the ad, making it easy for potential clients to contact you. Sitelink extensions can be used to direct users to specific pages on your website, such as practice areas or contact information, enhancing the user experience and increasing the chances of conversions.

Tailoring ad extensions and call tracking specifically for the needs of your law firm is essential. Consider the unique aspects of your legal practice and the preferences of your potential clients. Customize your ad extensions to highlight relevant practice areas, specializations, or accolades that set your firm apart.

Implement Geo-Targeting Strategies  

Implementing geo-targeting in your PPC campaigns is a powerful strategy to reach the right audience in specific geographic locations. By targeting your ads to specific regions, cities, or even neighborhoods, you can tailor your messaging and offers to local audiences. This is especially beneficial for law firms with a physical presence or serving clients in specific locations.

Geo-targeting allows you to focus your budget and efforts on areas where your potential clients are most likely to be, increasing the relevance and effectiveness of your ads. It also helps you optimize your ad spend and enhances the user experience. When users see ads that are relevant to their location, they feel a stronger connection and trust in your firm.

Track and Analyze Campaign Performance 

Tracking and analyzing the performance of your PPC campaigns is essential to measure their effectiveness and make informed decisions for optimization. By setting up conversion tracking and goals, you can track specific actions taken by users, such as form submissions or phone calls, and attribute them to your PPC efforts. This data helps you understand which campaigns, keywords, or ads are generating the most conversions, allowing you to allocate your budget strategically.

Integrate PPC with Other Marketing Channels

Integrating PPC with other marketing channels is a powerful approach to maximize your law firm’s online visibility and enhance your overall marketing efforts. By synergizing PPC with search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, you can create a unified strategy that leverages the strengths of both disciplines. For example, using PPC data to identify high-performing keywords can inform your SEO keyword targeting, while SEO-optimized content can be repurposed for PPC landing pages. 

Moreover, Incorporating PPC into your social media marketing strategies can amplify your reach and engagement with your target audience. PPC ads can complement your organic social media content, providing an additional avenue to showcase your legal expertise, drive traffic to your website, and generate leads.

Final Words

In conclusion, harnessing the power of PPC advertising can be a game-changer for lawyers looking to increase client engagement and grow their practice. Embrace the opportunities PPC presents and let your law firm soar to new heights in the digital landscape. By implementing these expert tips and strategies, you’ll be well-equipped to navigate the intricacies of PPC and drive tangible results for your legal practice. Get ready to elevate your client engagement, expand your reach, and achieve remarkable growth in the dynamic world of PPC advertising.

Featured image by Mikhail Pavstyuk on Unsplash

The post Navigating PPC for Lawyers: How to Increase Client Engagement and Grow Your Practice appeared first on noupe.

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Behind The Curtains Of Wikipedia Redesign

June 23rd, 2023 No comments

Wikipedia is more than a website — it’s perhaps a cornerstone of the World Wide Web. For decades, the site has provided a model for collaborating online, designing long-form content layouts, and supporting internationalization.

One of the more endearing qualities of Wikipedia is its design, which is known for its utilitarian aesthetics that have stuck around since its 2001 inception. The site has undergone redesigns before, but they are rare and often introduce subtle updates.

This year, 2023, marks the first Wikipedia redesign since 2014. Alex Hollender and Jon Robson led the effort and were kind enough to discuss it with us. The following is an interview that delves into what changed in this latest design, getting into the process as well as design and development details that we all can learn from.

Interview

Geoff Graham: When I think of Wikipedia as a website, I think about the design first and foremost. It’s classic for its focus on function over aesthetics, yet often considered a relic along the same lines as Craigslist. How was it decided that “now” is the right time for a redesign?

Alex Hollender: You know, it’s funny, I think people sometimes assume that organizations make these super-calculated, methodical decisions, and maybe some do. What I’ve experienced more often are opportunistic decisions resulting from some combination of intuition and relationships. Nirzar Pangakar, the design director back in 2019, knew what the organization was hoping to accomplish in the coming years and understood that media and content on the internet were changing rapidly. He saw that we needed to set ourselves up with a better foundation to iterate on top of going forward. He also imagined how the website looked to newcomers and thought that making it a bit more familiar to them would offer a more inclusive experience. And I think he also sensed that in terms of the culture of the Wikipedia community, if we let any more time pass before making some changes, the conservativism and ossification would grow more and more intense, and projects like this would only become more difficult down the road.

So it’s not like something was severely broken, or data was pointing us towards a specific problem or opportunity. There were a few concrete things we knew could be improved, but the driving force was Nirzar’s intuition regarding some of these larger things. He had a great relationship with the Chief Product Officer, Toby Negrin, and our team’s Product Manager, Olga Vasileva, and found an opportunity to get the project started. And because it can be somewhat difficult to articulate these sorts of intuitions, Nirzar, Olga, and I made a little design sprint to help others envision and understand the types of changes we could start with and where they might lead us.

Geoff: Wikipedia is more than just a website, right? It’s more like 300 sites where each instance is a different language. How do you approach a design system for a large network of sites like that? Is there a single, centralized source of truth, or is it something looser, depending on the locale?

Alex: Right, so there’s Wikipedia in over 300 languages, then there’s also a bunch of sister projects, including WikiData, Commons, WikiQuote, WikiSource, and others — all of which use the same interface. I’d say the needs are maybe 80-ish percent the same across all of the experiences. Then you’ve got things where specific languages need special functionality, or the WikiData search bar needs something extra, or the WikiSource “article” page has different needs from the Wikipedia one.

There’s, unfortunately, no single source of truth — we don’t even have all of the customizations and variations documented. A big part of being a designer here is just building a catalog in your mind over time. Different people know about different little nooks and crannies and would remind us like, “Hey, if you want to put a button there, you’re going to have to figure out something for project X in language Y because they’ve got a custom feature living in that spot currently.” It’s this very organic, emergent kind of thing where it’s just grown to fit people’s needs in a very unstructured, decentralized way. Super cool but quite difficult when you want to tweak some of the more fundamental/foundational parts of the experience.

Jon Robson: Before I worked on Wikipedia, I’d never worked on multilingual sites. There’s such a fascinating depth to it, for example, how numbering systems differ in different languages, how quotation marks should be considered translated content, how certain projects have content in two scripts, and how some projects add their own cultural flavor to the design. If you look at the Navajo Wikipedia website, they use a Navajo rug pattern which they’ve had since at least 2005.

It was fascinating how during this redesign, every release risked disrupting something small, as it was impossible to audit everything that was happening in all those projects. We had to make peace with the fact that we might not be able to retain them all and that things would break, and we’d iterate and find a happy medium. Often it’s unclear who to talk to about these things within the organization. Some projects just notice our changes and adapt, while other communities are more vocal. So we have to work together to reconcile these extremes. I’ve been impressed with how Alex has remained so stoic as a designer despite the curve balls the project has thrown at him.

Geoff: I imagine there’s a fine balance when working on a redesign for a site that’s as ubiquitous and that has as a long legacy as Wikipedia. How important was maintaining a sense of familiarity with the design for users? And how constraining was that for introducing new design elements?

Alex: Ultimately, we were focused on delivering the best reading and editing experience we could, somewhat regardless of familiarity for experienced users. For example, moving the table of contents from being inline below the lead section to being a sidebar, from a familiarity perspective, was a huge shift, and a lot of experienced users couldn’t get past that. For them, it violated the platonic form of a Wikipedia article or something, like if the table of contents wasn’t inline, then the article wasn’t a Wikipedia article. And while they tried to justify that preference from a functionality standpoint, their reasons weren’t strong, and I think it was mostly about them being uncomfortable with the unfamiliar. Meanwhile, all of the testing and the functional justifications we, and some community members, put forth made it super clear that the sidebar was the better approach. So, that’s how we made that particular decision.

Jon: The table of contents going from within the article to outside the article also uncovered a lot of interesting innovations our community had made for certain articles. For example, in some articles, they’d converted the standard table of contents to a horizontal layout using some inline styles or only listed the top-level headings using display: none in CSS to hide the rest. These customizations were broken when we implemented our redesign, which has opened up interesting discussions about whether customizations should be core parts of the software and how they should work in the new design.

Alex: I think the question of familiarity came into play more in terms of the rollout and how much we could change at once. We were sensitive to the risk of upsetting this very small part of the community that has an outsized influence on our decisions. Our fear was they would try to shut the project down, which has happened with other projects, big and small, in the past. So, for example, we didn’t include an increased font size in the first version of the new interface, even though we (and many community members) strongly believed it would be a significant improvement. We know from past projects that typography is a particularly hot-button topic.

Geoff: Who else was involved in the redesign? What roles did they play, and how did you manage all the work?

Alex: As far as our team goes, it’s about 5-6 Engineers, a Product Manager, a Community Specialist, and someone on Quality Assurance. Pretty much everyone was involved in a meaningful way in terms of exploring design challenges and weighing in on various options. Olga, the Product Manager, and several of the Engineers are better than I am when it comes to thinking about certain challenges. One clear example is accessibility.

There were several community members who were close collaborators and hundreds of others who were more casually involved. The majority of that collaboration happens on Phabricator, which is our task-tracking system. Of course, the timing gets tricky because community members might jump in with ideas or concerns as we’re finishing up a feature, maybe just because they weren’t aware that the conversation had started a few months back or whatever.

And then there’s the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) design team. Each member of the design team has their own product team they belong to, so involvement, for the most part, happens via design reviews. There was a bunch of overlap, particularly between the work we were doing and the stuff the editing team worked on, so I got to collaborate closely with that designer. Also, each designer is assigned a design mentor. So, Rita, who is my design mentor — and who also happens to be an incredible designer and person — was behind the scenes all along, helping me figure everything out.

To me, the whole process felt pretty inclusive. A lot of the time, it felt like the process and the conversations were guiding things more than any one individual, which is both cool and a little scary.

Geoff: Wikipedia has been used to study online text legibility (PDF) because of its heavy focus on content. Yet, there have been so many advances in web fonts and typography since the last significant Wikipedia redesign in 2004, from variable font formats and fluid typography to even newer stuff in CSS from this past year, like the super new text-wrap: balance and a new line height (lh) unit. What design considerations went into the text in the latest redesign?

Alex: As far as I understand, there was a typography refresh back in 2014, which succeeded in some ways but was also super contentious. In terms of design ownership, there’s an unwritten understanding that the volunteer community owns the content, and WMF owns the interface. And while the typography is clearly a fundamental part of the overall user experience of the site, it’s definitely on the content side of the content-interface divide, which makes it more difficult for us to work on.

Prior to this project, a lot of great work had already been done by the Design Systems Team regarding the font stack (which is critical, given all of the different language editions of Wikipedia), how the type sizing is declared (which has a big impact on the experience if you manually change the font size), and other things like that.

For this project, from a sort of 80/20 perspective, I think 80% of the room for improvement was managing the line length by adding a max-width, and increasing the base font-size value (which is hopefully coming soon). We did spend a bunch of time looking into other refinements that are forthcoming.

Jon: I actually worked on that typography refresh early in my career at the Wikimedia Foundation. It was contentious for two reasons. First, we added a limited container width for the content and used Helvetica Neue for the font. The latter was a problem due to the “open source” nature of the project, which the community felt strongly about. We compromised by preferring an open font when available, which I think was Linux Libertine at the time.

That project was a lot shorter in terms of time, and we had more important problems to solve, such as having a functioning mobile site and a WYSIWYG editor. So, no compromise could be found on the limited width front. But I was glad we finally got that in with this redesign, even if it came eight years later. Free knowledge is more a marathon than a sprint.

Alex: I do think it’s ironic that Wikipedia, one of the most popular text-based websites on the internet, doesn’t necessarily have a super strong typography practice, at least from a design perspective. Maybe a lot of that has to do with how varied the content is, how many different templates we have, and all of the different languages we need to support. Maybe it would have to almost be a language-by-language endeavor if we were ever to pull it off. I’m not sure.

Editor’s Note: The main discussion and prototype for the project’s typography efforts are available to view.

Geoff: Speaking of the differences in web design since 2004, the term “responsive web design” was also coined in that span of time. Wikipedia has no doubt had a mobile presence for some time, but were there any new challenges to make the site more responsive, given how best practices have evolved?

Alex: We set a soft goal of delivering a great experience down to a 500px browser width. I think it’s fairly uncommon for people to be using desktop or laptop devices with browsers that narrow. But these days, it’s pretty easy to achieve a fully-responsive site with CSS alone, so there didn’t seem to be much of a tradeoff there. Plus, we heard from a few editors that they often tile two or three browser windows side-by-side, so it can get narrow in those cases. The updated interface does feature three menus that can be pinned open as sidebars or collapsed as dropdowns, which is a configuration mainly for logged-in users in order to give them more control over their workstations. And the state of those menus is managed by JavaScript, which presented a slight challenge. Jon wrote a great article a few years ago about why we still have separate mobile and desktop sites.

I think another aspect of making things work well down to 500px was that we wanted to push ourselves to see how close we might be able to get to have one site for all devices, though we’re not quite there yet.

Jon: If I remember correctly, Alex and I had a good back-and-forth about that 500px threshold. In theory, we could have supported a breakpoint below that, and Alex had the mockups ready, but I was concerned that it would slow down development. Plus, the use case was not there as most of our users were resizing browsers, and we could back that up with data.

In fact, during the redesign, vocal members of our community pushed us to introduce an explicit viewport size in our markup because they were annoyed that the table of contents component was collapsing inconsistently in browsers. If you view the source, you’ll now see .

Note: You can even read the entire discussion about the change.

Geoff: I know front-end nerds will want to know how CSS is written and managed in this latest design because, well, I’m one of them! What does the process look like to make an edit to the styles?

Jon: You have to remember that Wikipedia — and the MediaWiki software that provides it — is quite old and very large, and some of our technology stack reflects that.

MediaWiki is primarily a progressively enhanced web page written in PHP, so we tend to ship HTML with vanilla JavaScript and CSS that enhances it. Our front end is really unusual in that we have no build scripts for our JavaScript and CSS. We write ES6 code without transpiling it, and we use LESS compiled at runtime in PHP, with heavy caching, for our CSS. HTML is provided by Mustache templates.

We are very conservative about what libraries and technologies we use, particularly if they are likely to have an impact on others in the stack. We use TypeScript in the project to validate our code using JSDoc blocks but do not write our code in TypeScript as many of our volunteers do not know the language, and we don’t want to alienate them.

There was talk about replacing LESS with a different CSS preprocessor, but we decided to retain the status quo we’ve used since 2013 because we don’t want to fragment our codebase. We currently use Mustache templates because that’s what we’ve used since 2014, but we hope to eventually phase those out and replace them with Vue.js templates.

All our code is open-sourced, which is pretty unusual and cool! So, if you ever see some visual thing that looks off or could be improved, we’re always happy to take PRs with CSS that fix it.

Geoff: Another nerdy but key question for you: how important were performance considerations to the redesign? What specific things do you look for in Wikipedia’s performance, and what tools do you use to measure them?

Jon: Performance is really important to us, as Wikipedia is global, and we have many projects growing in areas with slower internet connections. We have a performance dashboard that we monitor where we collect global data from our users using the NavigationTiming API. And we run automated synthetic performance tests using Sitespeed.io. This is all public, and anyone can dig into the data!

One of the biggest concerns for this redesign project was how replacing the internal search feature might lose users if it became too slow or unresponsive. We added instrumentation specifically designed to monitor this, and there’s a detailed write-up on how we analyzed the findings with synthetic performance tests.

Besides thinking about performance for specific features, we monitor bundle sizes of our render-blocking CSS assets, and our CI pipeline blocks anything that goes over our performance budget. We also run spikes to see if there are additional ways to improve performance. For example, in a quiet period, we ran a spike, which made our mobile site 300ms faster.

Given that we have hundreds of volunteers and staff collaborating on the codebase,

It’s a challenge to uphold our own high-performance standards. We’re currently working on implementing a performance budget across all our projects to formally enforce this and share the knowledge more widely for everyone to reference.

Geoff: Alex, you’ve noted that one of the goals you defined for the project was to “develop a more flexible interface with an eye towards future features.” What makes the new interface more flexible compared to how it was before, and what future features are you anticipating?

Alex: A small example of a new feature is the sticky header, which is currently only available when you are logged into the site. We built it knowing that for different types of pages, like article pages versus discussion pages versus help pages, et cetera, we would want to put different types of tools in the sticky header. That forethought can save a lot of time and complexity in terms of development.

Another aspect of flexibility, or maybe more specifically, extensibility, is information architecture. The previous interface had two different places for page tools: in the sidebar menu on the left and then above the article title. So, whenever we worked on a new page tools feature, we had to decide where it would go. Creating a clearer and more structured information architecture for the site means there’s one place for page tools, one for global navigation, and so on. I think this will make it easier for us to design new features in the future.

In terms of future features, we’re thinking about reading settings: dark mode, the ability to increase and decrease the font size and line height more easily, and maybe even themes like the Wikipedia apps have. We’re also thinking about ways to help people discover more knowledge related to what they are reading. Other things we might consider are reading features, like the ability to take notes and create collections of articles.

Geoff: Thanks so much to you both for spending some time to share your work with us! Is there anything especially interesting about the design or the work it took to make it that might not be immediately obvious but that you are proud of?

Alex: I think it’s cool to think about super small things that have a big impact. Links are a critical part of the reading experience, and following from that, knowing which links you’ve already visited is important. Previously, there was so little contrast between visited links and black text that this whole sort of navigational wayfinding benefit was missing from experience. Changing the color of visited links was about as simple as a change can be from a technical perspective, with an outsized impact on the user experience.

Another thing I’m interested in and excited about is prototyping, specifically how additional fidelity in prototypes affects the design process. I reached a point where I was predominantly making prototypes with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to work through design challenges rather than relying on mockups. It’s maybe impossible to know what impact that had in terms of the ability for us to have discussions about the designs, evaluate them, and include community members across many languages, among other things. There’s no way for us to know how the project would have turned out or how much longer it would have taken us to arrive at certain decisions if I hadn’t taken that approach, but my inclination is that it was super helpful.

Jon: The thing I’m most excited about is that the redesign project gave us the time to really pull apart a system that was 21 years old and build the foundation for something more sustainable. Fundamental things like introducing design tokens across the entire software stack are going to be powerful tools that we can use to support user customizations that allow people to change font size and enable a dark mode, the latter of which has been a popular request. So hopefully, we can finally deliver that.

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Will AI-Powered Chatbots Shape the Future of ChatGPT Plugins?

June 22nd, 2023 No comments

Have you ever pondered how artificial intelligence may transform how we communicate online? 

Prepare to be astonished, then! In this post, we’ll delve into the interesting world of AI-powered chatbots and examine how they can influence ChatGPT Plugins in the future. That’s accurate. Today, we go into a fascinating subject that has been circulating in the IT community: the possible effect of chatbots driven by AI on the development of ChatGPT Plugins.  

We’ll uncover 

  • How these intelligent bots can enhance user experiences,
  • How they can streamline communication, 
  • And unlock a whole new level of efficiency. 

So, grab your virtual seats and join us on this exciting journey where human-like conversation meets cutting-edge technology.

Let’s unravel the mysteries together and discover if AI-powered chatbots are indeed the game-changers that will shape the future of ChatGPT Plugins!

The Evolution of ChatGPT Plugins

Let’s start a fascinating voyage through the ChatGPT Plugins’ dynamic terrain.
These plugins have changed dramatically over time, pushing beyond straightforward text production and embracing the potential of AI-powered chatbots.

It is nothing short of astounding to see the smooth, lifelike discussions they can currently conduct.

It’s crucial to investigate another fascinating subject as we study the intriguing development of ChatGPT Plugins: the ethical issues raised by AI technology.

Investigating the ethical ramifications of AI in many businesses provides insight into the prudent and ethical usage of these potent technologies. So let’s move on from the development of ChatGPT Plugins to the ethical environment of AI, where we may engage in critical debates and get sobering new perspectives.

Exploring the Benefits of AI-Powered Chatbots in ChatGPT Plugins

Enhanced User Experiences: ChatGPT Plugins now include a higher degree of interactivity and engagement thanks to AI-powered chatbots. By comprehending customer inquiries and quickly and appropriately responding, they design customized experiences that meet specific requirements.

Enhanced Efficiency: AI-powered chatbots can manage a larger volume of interactions at once, resulting in quicker response times and shorter client wait times. higher customer happiness and higher productivity are the results of this improved efficiency.

24/7 Availability: AI-powered chatbots may offer round-the-clock support, enabling consumers to get help whenever they need it. By guaranteeing continuous service independent of time zones or business hours, this availability makes ChatGPT Plugins more approachable and user-friendly.

Cost-Effectiveness: ChatGPT plugins combined with chatbots powered by AI may effectively manage massive amounts of interactions without sacrificing quality. Chatbots’ automated nature enables companies to respond to many customer inquiries at once, removing the need for extra staff and cutting expenses.

Data-Driven Insights: ChatGPT plugins with AI-powered chatbots gather useful information on user interactions and preferences. To learn more about user behavior, preferences, and pain spots, this data may be analyzed. These insights support organizations in making wise choices, improving their goods and services, and providing a better-tailored customer experience.

Continuous Learning and Improvement: AI-powered chatbots may learn from user interactions and feedback to adapt and improve. Over time, they can provide more accurate and pertinent information as they continue to develop their replies and their comprehension of user inquiries.

AI-driven chatbots that offer multilingual support can help users get beyond language obstacles. They can speak fluently in a variety of languages, serving a wide range of users and extending the usefulness of ChatGPT Plugins.

Overall, incorporating AI-powered chatbots into ChatGPT Plugins has several advantages, including:

  • Better user experiences,
  • Increased efficacy,
  • Scalability,
  • Cost-effectiveness,
  • Data-driven insights,
  • Ongoing learning, and multilingual assistance.

Businesses may improve customer service, streamline processes, and offer a more engaging and fulfilling user experience by taking advantage of these benefits.

Leveraging AI Development: Strategies for Integrating Chatbots into ChatGPT Plugins

There are various sensible approaches to take into account while using AI development to include chatbots in ChatGPT Plugins. 

First, companies may concentrate on identifying specific goals and use cases for the chatbot integration and coordinating it with their overarching aims. 

Next, it’s critical to choose the best AI development business with knowledge of chatbot technology. Businesses may define the required chatbot functionality and user experience in close collaboration with the development team. 

A chatbot’s ability to understand and efficiently reply to user inquiries is further enabled by the integration of natural language processing (NLP) capabilities. 

The functioning of the chatbot is consistently evaluated and improved to guarantee top usability and user happiness. Businesses may easily incorporate chatbots into ChatGPT Plugins, improving user experiences and effectively fulfilling their goals, by strategically using AI development.

Choosing the Right AI Development Company for ChatGPT Plugins: Key Considerations and Best Practices

There are important factors to take into account and best practices to follow when selecting the finest AI development firm for ChatGPT Plugins.

Businesses should first evaluate the firm’s knowledge of chatbot technology and AI development in general. Successful chatbot initiatives in the past and pertinent experience are indications of their ability. It’s also critical to assess the company’s knowledge of ChatGPT and its aptitude for effectively integrating chatbots.

It is advisable to pick a company with good project management and open lines of communication since cooperation and communication are essential. It’s also crucial to consider factors like cost, timing, and scalability in order to satisfy corporate needs. Finally, acquiring customer feedback and reviews might reveal information about the company’s standing and level of client happiness.

Businesses may select the finest AI development firm for ChatGPT Plugins by adhering to these fundamental criteria and recommendations, resulting in successful deployment and improved user experiences.

Conclusion

Using chatbots powered by AI bodes tremendously well for the future of ChatGPT Plugins. These intelligent bots have the potential to revolutionize online interactions, improve user experiences, and simplify communication, as we’ve shown in our investigation.

For both enterprises and people, the seamless integration of AI development with chatbot creation offers up a world of possibilities.

ChatGPT Plugins may leverage the power of artificial intelligence to create personalized, effective, and engaging interactions by utilizing the knowledge of an AI development business.

A new age of intelligent, dynamic, and revolutionary virtual encounters will surely be shaped by the cooperation between people and AI-driven chatbots in the future of ChatGPT Plugins.

So, fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the thrilling adventure ahead as chatbots driven by AI continue advancing.

Featured image by Alexandra_Koch on Pixabay

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Trends that will Dominate Web Development in the Near Future

June 21st, 2023 No comments

Trends continue to dominate each and every sector. Some tend to stick in for a longer period of time while others tend to stay in for the long term. Web development has seen a rise and fall since this niche is becoming more and more investible as the days pass by. 

Having a website is like representing yourself on the internet. It proceeds to form the image that you want your product to be perceived as, this is why having the right themes and captions set is extremely important. 

Plus, the reach that web development provides to businesses is statically more than any marketing scheme would have provided. Due to the pandemic, the whole world was forced to switch to digital approaches to daily needs. 

This is why companies hire web developers who help to provide the right services to customers. They also help to create a funnel through which companies try to pursue customers to buy more than one product through psychological approaches. 

This has been shown to increase the sales profit of the company. You can also customize the way your information appears which gives more power to the seller. 

This article aims to create awareness about the trends that will dominate the web development niche in the coming years. So let us deep dive into it!

Trends that will dominate web development in the near future 

The list below is curated just for you to make you aware of the trends that will dominate the market in the years to come. It is as follows:

Blockchain

Blockchain is a big hit in terms of the exchange of commodities. It is a database that stores data with the help of integration. In the easiest way, it stores data in the form of blocks, and then these blocks are joined together to form chains. There are many types of advantages that this type of system provides. This influences high security and data integrity. It also helps to make the data error-free in all types. The main aim of this type of technology is to integrate Bitcoin which is a form of digital currency. The rise of this technology was seen in the past few years when all major transactions permitted the usage of Bitcoin. The year 2019 itself saw the opening of over 34 million across the entire world. The major significance is that this technology allows trade throughout the entire internet without the hindrances of any third party. This helped to create a more secure business environment. Hence, compies are looking to hire web developers who can integrate this technology within it. The numerous benefits of blockchain are as follows:

  • The complex algorithm that this extremely hard to crack
  • Data accessibility is extremely high
  • As the entire system is not answerable to a central authority, it is not biased
  • The data transfer is seamless without the hindrance of any third-party

Progressive Web App

Progressive Web Apps or PWAs are something that is coming back to light later in the web development market. This is a simple app that is built with the help of simple platforms like HTML and JavaScript that has been used in a very traditional form. These kinds of apps work on all sorts of browsers that are available in the market. You do not need to hire web developers for each and every platform making it extremely cost-effective. One of the reasons for its high preference is its ability that it holds to replace the old-school native apps that have been running on devices for a long time. Along with this, they offer uninterrupted services despite a lack of connection making it extremely favorable in conditions with a poor connection. It also has some cool add-on features like notifications to make the client aware of something important. The advantages of using PWAs are as follows:

  • The user experience provided by these apps are extremely immersive and is able to attract the client easily
  • The conversion rate of this platform is extremely high due to the uninterrupted services
  • They have a comparably lower development rate which makes it extremely affordable for people who are on a tight budget. 
  • The installation process of these apps is extremely easy which makes them flexible and convenient and eases the task of the web development company.

Internet Of Things

The Internet of Things or IoT is one of the fastest growing channels of web development. This includes everything that comes under daily needs and the entire system works without the interference of any sort of human activities. It has been predicted that more than 32B devices will be connected to this network by the end of 2027 itself. This has come to light since the pandemic that forced people to switch online. The main purpose of this technology is to create channels for better communications for the devices that are connected within the system. Companies have been hiring web developers who can integrate this technology within the apps that they have been paying so highly for.  It can also help to formulate the correct plan and layout for a given website. Plus, extra devices added to the network help to serve the clients better adding to customer satisfaction. The advantages of IoT are as follows:

  • It helps to create a smart ecosystem between the devices that are supposed to share and process information
  • It helps to reduce errors in the connection
  • Transfer of data is more efficient and faster
  • The security provided is high which makes sure that the data of the customer is preserved from unwanted third parties
  • Provides more insights to the developers to help come up with effective solutions

Conclusion

With the rise in technological advancements, more and more people are switching to online modes for the most basic needs. This is the reason the demand for web development has been increasing over the past few years. Companies are looking forward to hiring web developers who can keep up with the market trends. But along with this, it is also necessary to maintain a strong base that defines the company itself.

Featured image by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

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