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Even the most extensive toolbox needs a refresh from time to time, so we’ve rounded up a selection of new tools for you to try.

The social media app has suffered a monumental decline in popularity since launching last month. Perhaps Zuckerberg’s ‘Twitter killer’ isn’t set to disrupt the market after all.

Skyrocketing eCommerce sales and traffic may seem challenging. But there’s a strategy that can help: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.

PPC campaigns don’t just increase your online visibility—they are designed to convert. They position your business strategically in search results, reaching customers who are actively seeking your products. The result? More traffic, more leads, and a significant boost in sales.

This guide will simplify the process of launching your first PPC campaign. Ready to explore the potential of PPC? Let’s get started.

Understanding PPC

Pay-Per-Click, or PPC, is a type of online advertising where you pay a fee each time someone clicks on your ad. Instead of earning visits organically, you’re essentially buying visits to your site.

Here’s how it works: When someone uses a search engine to look for a keyword related to your business, your ad has a chance to appear at the top of the search results page. If your ad catches their eye and they click on it, you pay a small fee. If it leads to a sale, that small click cost can turn into substantial revenue.

It’s not just about search engines, though. You can run PPC campaigns on various platforms. Google Ads is the most popular one, putting your ads on Google’s search results pages and its partner sites. Bing Ads operates similarly but targets Bing and Yahoo networks.

And let’s not forget social media. Platforms like Facebook Ads allow you to leverage PPC campaigns to reach their vast user base, offering precise demographic targeting that can be incredibly powerful.

These platforms offer multiple options for automation, which can be amazing if you don’t have an agency or a dedicated team. If you are planning to use Google, for example, it would be wise to learn how to create a Smart Campaign in Google Ads. Those are particularly good for smaller businesses.

Setting Your Goals

When setting your PPC campaign in motion, clear, measurable goals are a must. They steer your campaign and influence every decision made, from budgeting to ad copy.

Your goals might be:

1. Drive More Traffic: Attract more visitors to your online store.
2. Generate Leads: Increase the number of sign-ups for your newsletter.
3. Increase Sales: Boost the direct sales of your products.

Each goal requires a unique approach:

1. Lead Generation: Target specific demographics to increase your sign-ups.
2. Sales Increase: Bid aggressively on high-converting keywords to boost sales.

Setting the right goals ensures you focus your efforts and budget effectively. Remember, no two PPC campaigns are the same—their success lies in the details. Up next, we’ll discuss how to allocate your budget for maximum impact.

Budgeting for Your PPC Campaign

Next, let’s talk money. Budgeting for your PPC campaign doesn’t have to be intimidating. It’s all about balancing the cost with the potential return on investment (ROI).

So how do you determine an appropriate budget? Start by understanding how much you’re willing to spend to acquire a new customer—your Cost per Acquisition (CPA). Factor in your profit margins, and consider how many new customers you aim to attract with your campaign.

Remember, several factors can affect the cost of a PPC campaign. These include your industry, the competitiveness of your chosen keywords, and the platforms you use. For instance, certain keywords in highly competitive industries tend to cost more per click.

When it comes to allocating your budget across different platforms, consider your audience. Google Ads might reach a larger audience, but Bing Ads could provide a higher ROI for a niche demographic. Facebook Ads can be highly effective if your target customers are regular users.

Ultimately, budgeting for PPC is about maximizing your ROI. Be ready to adjust and experiment as you discover what works best for your business. In the upcoming sections, we’ll discuss how to select effective keywords and create compelling ads within your budget. Stay tuned!

Keyword Research

A successful PPC campaign starts with the right keywords. They are the bridge between your potential customers’ needs and what your business provides. Hence, thorough keyword research is critical.

Several tools can help you identify the most relevant keywords for your campaign. Google’s Keyword Planner is a commonly used tool that provides data on search volume and competition for a set of keywords. Other tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs can also offer valuable insights.

When selecting keywords, consider relevance, search volume, and competition. Choose keywords relevant to your products to ensure the traffic you drive is likely to convert. High search volume keywords can drive more traffic, but they often come with more competition. Long-tail keywords—phrases that are very specific to what you’re selling—can be less competitive and closer to the point of purchase, offering higher conversion rates.

Remember, choosing the right keywords for your campaign can make the difference between attracting window shoppers or luring in ready-to-buy customers. In the upcoming sections, we’ll go into crafting the perfect ads for your chosen keywords and setting up successful bidding strategies.

Creating Your Ads

With your keywords selected, it’s time to create your ads. The right ad copy can catch a potential customer’s attention, pique their interest, and encourage them to click.

An effective PPC ad usually includes a compelling headline, a concise and persuasive description, and a clear URL. The headline should grab attention and include your target keyword. The description should highlight the unique benefits of your product or service. And the URL should give an idea of what they’ll see after clicking the ad.

When writing your ad copy, keep it simple and focused. Speak directly to the searcher’s intent and remember to include a clear call-to-action, urging searchers to take the next step.

One crucial aspect to remember is the importance of relevancy and quality score. Google Ads, for instance, rates your ad’s relevancy—how well your ad matches the searcher’s intent—giving it a quality score. A higher quality score can lead to better ad positions and lower costs per click.

Ultimately, creating successful ads is a blend of creativity and strategy. It’s about understanding your audience’s needs and presenting your solution in a compelling way. Up next, we’ll discuss targeting and bidding strategies for your PPC campaign. Stay tuned!

Targeting and Bidding

Understanding your audience is key to a successful PPC campaign. Audience targeting allows you to show your ads to the right people at the right time. You can target based on a multitude of factors including geographic location, age, gender, interests, and more. The better you understand your target audience, the more effectively you can reach them.

Bidding, on the other hand, is about how much you’re willing to pay for each click on your ad. Your bid, alongside your quality score, determines whether your ad will show up and its position on the page. While you want to avoid overspending, bidding too low might cause your ad to lose visibility.

Bidding can be done manually, giving you maximum control, or automatically, where the platform optimizes bids for you based on your set goals. Manual bidding can be time-consuming but offers precision, while automated bidding uses machine learning to maximize results but might feel a bit less ‘in control’.

The choice between manual and automated depends on your campaign size, budget, and personal preference. But regardless of the method, continuous monitoring and adjustments are key to success.

Setting Up Conversion Tracking

Conversion tracking is a powerful tool in your PPC toolkit. It allows you to measure the actions users take after clicking on your ad. Whether they make a purchase, sign up for your newsletter, or fill a form, every action is a conversion you can track.

Why is this important? Conversion tracking helps you understand how well your PPC campaign is working. It provides valuable data on which keywords, ads, and landing pages are most effective. You’ll know exactly what’s driving results and what needs improvement.

Setting up conversion tracking depends on the platform you’re using. For instance, in Google Ads, you’d start by clicking on ‘Conversions’ in the ‘Tools & Settings’ tab. Then, you’d select the type of conversion you want to track, and Google Ads generates a conversion tracking tag for your website. Similarly, platforms like Bing Ads and Facebook Ads have their own conversion tracking setup processes.

It’s worth noting that while setting up conversion tracking can seem technical, most platforms offer detailed guides and support to help you through the process. In the final section, we’ll get you prepared for launching your first PPC campaign.

Launching Your Campaign

Ready to take the leap and launch your first PPC campaign? Let’s ensure everything is on point. Here’s your pre-launch checklist:

1. Budget: Ensure it’s set appropriately and aligns with your campaign goals.
2. Keywords: Review your keyword selection. Are they relevant and targeted?
3. Ad Copy: Does your ad include a compelling headline, a persuasive description, and a clear call to action?

Now, let’s dive into the launch process:

1. Choose Your Campaign: Select the campaign you’ve prepared within your PPC platform.
2. Review Settings: Double-check all your settings one last time to ensure accuracy.
3. Click ‘Launch’ or ‘Enable’: The exact verbiage depends on your platform, but the outcome is the same—your PPC campaign goes live!

What’s next after your campaign is live?

1. Expect Learning: Perfect campaigns right out of the gate are rare. Be prepared for some adjustments.
2. Test & Optimize: Make necessary changes in bids, ad copy, or keywords based on performance.
3. Stay Patient: Results may not be immediate. PPC is a marathon, not a sprint.

That’s it! You’re now ready to embark on your PPC journey. Remember, every click is a new opportunity to connect with a potential customer. Good luck!

Monitoring and Optimizing Your Campaign

Once your PPC campaign is live, your work is far from over. Regular monitoring and optimization are crucial for success. Here’s why:

1. Importance of Monitoring: Regularly checking your campaign performance helps you understand what’s working and what isn’t. You can then make necessary adjustments to improve your results.

Here are some important metrics to track:

1. Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click on your ad after seeing it. A low CTR might indicate a disconnect between your ad and your audience.
2. Quality Score: This is a Google Ads metric that rates the relevance and quality of your keywords and PPC ads. High-quality scores can lead to more ad impressions at lower costs.
3. Conversion Rate: The percentage of users who take a desired action after clicking on your ad. Low conversion rates could suggest issues with your landing page or offer.
4. Cost per Conversion (CPC): This shows how much you’re paying for each action a user takes. High CPC might indicate that you’re paying too much for conversions.

Here are a few tips for optimizing your PPC campaign:

1. Adjust Bids: Based on your campaign performance, you might want to increase bids on high-performing keywords and decrease bids on underperforming ones.
2. Refine Ad Copy: If your CTR is low, try tweaking your ad copy to make it more compelling.
3. Improve Landing Pages: If you have a high CTR but low conversions, your landing page might need some work. Ensure it’s relevant, easy to navigate, and has a clear call to action.
4. Use A/B Testing: Experiment with different elements of your campaign to see what works best. This could involve testing different headlines, descriptions, or even different landing pages.

Remember, PPC isn’t a set-and-forget strategy. It requires time, patience, and continuous optimization to reap the full rewards. Keep at it, and you’re sure to see improvement over time.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Launching a PPC campaign can be a tricky process, and it’s easy to make mistakes. Let’s take a look at some common pitfalls and how to avoid them:

1. Not Setting Clear Goals: Every PPC campaign needs clear, measurable goals. Without them, you won’t know what success looks like or how to measure it. Before launching, define what you want to achieve—whether it’s increasing website traffic, generating leads, or boosting sales.
2. Ignoring Keyword Match Types: Using broad match keywords can lead to irrelevant clicks, wasting your budget. Explore different match types—exact, phrase, or broad match modifier—to better target your audience.
3. Forgetting About Negative Keywords: These are terms you don’t want your ads to show for. By setting negative keywords, you can prevent wasted clicks and save your budget for more relevant traffic.
4. Writing Poor Ad Copy: Even with the best keywords and budget, poor ad copy can ruin your campaign. Ensure your copy is compelling, includes your target keyword, and ends with a clear call-to-action.
5. Neglecting Mobile Optimization: More users are browsing and shopping on their mobile devices than ever. Make sure your ads and landing pages are optimized for a mobile-friendly experience.
6. Not Tracking Conversions: If you’re not tracking conversions, you’re missing out on valuable data. Conversion tracking helps you see which parts of your campaign are working and which need tweaking.

Remember, mistakes are part of the learning process. By being aware of these common pitfalls, you can better prepare and set your PPC campaign up for success. The key is to remain flexible, keep learning, and continuously optimize your campaign. Happy advertising!

Conclusion

Launching a successful PPC campaign involves understanding PPC, setting clear goals, budgeting effectively, conducting keyword research, crafting compelling ads, setting up conversion tracking, and ongoing optimization. It’s crucial to remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Success in PPC requires patience, experimentation, and learning. So go ahead—launch your first campaign, monitor the results, learn from the data, and continuously optimize. Your journey in PPC advertising begins now. Good luck!

The post How to Launch Your First PPC Campaign: A Beginner’s Guide appeared first on noupe.

AI has become an integral part of the business landscape, sparking both excitement and concerns. In a recent survey by IBM, a staggering 74% of executives shared their belief that AI will revolutionize how customers perceive their brands. That’s quite a game-changer, isn’t it? But what does it mean for UX design professionals like you?

AI technology presents thrilling opportunities to enhance user experiences. It’s not about fearing AI. No, it’s actually about leveraging it to our advantage. And that’s where we come in—to guide you through the fusion of AI and UX design.

Together, we’ll explore how AI can take your UX design skills to new heights. We’ll uncover strategies to streamline workflows, create personalized experiences, better understand customers, and foster innovative designs. So, let’s dive into this transformative world where AI and UX design converge.

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

The Role of AI in UX Design

AI is shaking up the UX design industry, offering exciting possibilities. Imagine you’re a UX designer for a cloud communication platform. AI can automate mundane tasks, like categorizing user actions or predicting future behaviors. It digs into large user data volumes, extracting valuable insights. This saves you time to fine-tune the product.

But here’s the important part: AI doesn’t replace your empathy as a designer. UX design is all about understanding human needs and creating enjoyable products based on real experiences. AI can’t do that. Plus, collaboration with stakeholders is a crucial aspect of UX design, and that’s something AI won’t take over.

Rest assured, your job as a UX designer is safe. In fact, the World Economic Forum predicts that AI will create 97 million new jobs by 2025. So, not only is AI here to stay, but it can actually make your life easier by enhancing your workflow and providing valuable insights. 

4 Ways to Leverage AI for UX Design

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

Now that you’ve got a better idea of the role of AI in your industry let’s look at some actionable ways you can leverage it in your UX design process. 

1. Creating User Personas 

With user insights at their fingertips, AI can empower UX designers like yourself to create awesome, data-driven user personas.

Let’s bring this concept to life! Imagine you’re working on a website for a call center. AI comes into play, gathering valuable insights from customer interactions. It captures details like their preferences, pain points, and communication styles, painting a clear picture of their needs.

Now, let’s meet “Sarah.” She embodies a typical user who engages with the call center AI on your website. Sarah, a busy professional, seeks efficient and personalized customer support. 

By tapping into AI to understand user behavior and preferences, you gain valuable insights that inform your design decisions. This persona becomes your guiding star as you craft an intuitive and tailored user experience for Sarah—whether it’s adding a helpful FAQs section or a video testimonial.

2. Analyzing User Data

Gone are the days of manual data sifting. Thanks to research AI tools, UX designers can now gather and analyze large volumes of user data quickly.

Let’s say you’re working on an e-commerce platform that also teaches businesses how to sell online. AI makes it easy to collect and process data on user interactions like product views, add-to-cart actions, and completed purchases. 

By analyzing this data, AI algorithms predict user behavior, track trends in page visits, and uncover patterns that may go unnoticed. These insights help you understand how users engage with the platform and their preferences for online selling.

With faster data processing, UX designers gain valuable insights into user behavior. This knowledge empowers them to make informed design decisions that enhance the user experience. 

3. AI-Powered Product Writing

Free to use image sourced from Unsplash

With tons of amazing AI-powered writing tools, like Chat GPT, at your disposal, the gap between design and content is closing faster than ever. Say goodbye to those “Lorem Ipsum” filler texts that once occupied wireframes and prototypes, and hello to meaningful, audience-specific copy that’s optimized for both search engines and users.

AI is here to lend a helping hand to designers, providing the ability to generate captivating and tailored content that brings designs to life. So, if you’re designing a website for a hospice management software company, you no longer need generic placeholders or bland text. With AI, designers can effortlessly create copy that fits the context, engages users, and aligns with the overall design vision. 

But that’s not all – AI takes it a step further. It suggests words based on the context, expanding your creative possibilities and helping you access a wider range of languages without the need for extensive research. It’s like having a brilliant vocabulary assistant that makes you sound like a wordsmith without breaking a sweat.

4. Automating Design Workflows

More and more UX designers are hopping on the AI bandwagon, using fantastic tools to supercharge their design workflows. With AI-driven automation, repetitive tasks become a thing of the past. AI can effortlessly create those common features, validate data inputs, and even assemble design elements by recognizing patterns.

The best part? AI algorithms are quick learners. They adapt rapidly to new environments, empowering designers to generate concepts faster than ever before. No more heavy design burdens weighing you down! AI steps in to lighten the load and help you build smarter workflows that maximize efficiency.

Plus, AI-powered analytics provide real-time feedback on your designs, serving up invaluable insights. This feedback loop helps you identify areas for improvement, fine-tuning your designs for optimal user experiences. With AI as your trusty sidekick, you can navigate the design process with ease and precision.

Embrace the Power of AI in UX Design

In this transformative world where AI and UX design converge, we’ve explored the exciting possibilities that AI brings to the table.

We’ve seen how AI can help create data-driven user personas, analyze user data, automate design workflows, and revolutionize product writing. AI is like a creative companion, providing valuable insights and boosting efficiency.

So, as a UX designer, embrace AI as your ally. Let it assist you in creating exceptional user experiences and leverage its power to enhance your design process. With AI by your side, you can create remarkable, user-centric products that captivate and delight. Get ready to ride the wave of AI in UX design and unlock a world of endless possibilities!

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The post AI in UX Design: 4 Ways AI is Used to Enhance UX Design appeared first on noupe.

The WWF put a unique spin on Twitter’s rebrand to X recently. The advert has been hugely successful, receiving thousands of reactions on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).

LinkedIn is currently beta-testing the integration of Microsoft Designer into its website. The tool allows users to generate unique graphic designs and visual posts straight from LinkedIn.

Web design is an art, merging technology with psychology. Your website serves as your brand’s silent representative in the digital universe, yet be wary: hidden dangers such as poor planning, user experience issues, or disregarding SEO could pose threats that undermine engagement, traffic, or reputation of your website.

What is the text over images design pattern? How do we apply this pattern to our designs without sacrificing legibility and readability?

The text over images design pattern is a design technique used to place text on top of images. It is often used to provide information about the image or to serve as the main website navigation. However, this technique can quickly sacrifice legibility and readability if there is not enough contrast between the text and the image. To prevent this, designers need to ensure that the text and the image have a high enough contrast ratio to be legible and readable. Additionally, designers should also make sure the text is positioned in the right place, away from any image elements that might cause confusion, distraction, or make it difficult to read.

“Because images play such an important role, often designers end up placing text over an image to leverage the attention-grabbing aspect of the photo while providing text-based content to communicate actual information. However, these endeavors commonly backfire, usually when the contrast between the text and the background is too low.”

— Aurora Harley, “Ensure High Contrast for Text Over Images” (NN/g Nielsen Group)

Before going forward, here are some useful resources (on how you can apply these techniques in practice with HTML/CSS) that are worth checking out:

• “7 Rules For Creating Gorgeous UI – Part 2,” by Erik Kennedy
• “Handling Text Over Images by CSS,” by Ahmad Shadeed
• “Design Considerations: Text On Images,” by Chris Coyier
• “How Spotify Makes Text On Images Readable,” a Twitter thread by Addy Osmani

How To Design A Text Over An Image

Admittedly, when I was starting my design career, and I had very little accessibility knowledge, one of the main things I used in my designs was the text over images design pattern, without me knowing that I was hurting my users who have low vision.

“A picture says a thousand words. But sometimes, images alone won’t work. This is why typography still proves to be a vital aspect of design despite the focus on more visual content. Remember that the need for visual content does not tell you to stop adding text to your designs — it simply reminds you to do so in the most tasteful and stylish way possible. And, of course, readability should not be sacrificed in the name of design. You can’t add text that people can barely understand, then argue that it’s a piece of art. Sending a message that cannot be deciphered defies the purpose of what you’re doing.”

— Igor Ovsyannykov, “10 Typography Tricks to Make Your Text Much More Readable”

Yet accessibility is a key aspect of design, and working with typography is one of the cornerstones of UX design. There are many typography principles that will help you create user-friendly designs. In the following sections of the article, you will learn more about how you can improve your design without sacrificing the accessibility aspect and how to combine text and images better.

According to WCAG Success Criterion 1.4.3, make sure that your text on images should meet the minimum contrast of

• 3:1 for large text (text bigger than 18 pt normal, or text bigger than 14 pt bold);
• 4.5:1 for body text (text lower than 18 pt normal, or text lower than 14 pt bold).

Ensure that a minimum visual contrast ratio of 4.5:1 is maintained between the text and its background. This minimum contrast ratio should also be maintained in the case of images of text.

— “Understanding Success Criterion 1.4.3: Contrast (Minimum),” W3.org

Using An Overlay Technique Over The Entire Image

Overlays are colored layers such as overlay light, overlay dark, dark gradients, or colored overlays. As a general rule, overlays are used to make images stand out less or to act as a background for the text so that it has better readability and contrast.

Examples From The Wild

• Strong App

• Huston Engineering

• Della Vite

Additional Resources On This Topic

• Optimal Overlay Finder
  An accessibility tool that calculates the ideal opacity to use against your image so that the contrast meets the WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion
• Color Accessibility Workflows, Geri Coady
  A book that will teach you what color accessibility is and why it matters

Text With Scrim Overlay

The scrim design technique uses a semi-transparent, lightweight, and semi-opaque gradient layer that helps text appear more readable against various backgrounds.

According to Google Material Design, “Scrims are temporary treatments that can be applied to Material surfaces for the purpose of making content on a surface less prominent.” They help direct user attention to other parts of the screen, away from the surface receiving a scrim.

Scrims can be applied in a variety of ways, including the following:

• Darkening or lightening the surface and its content.
• Reducing the opacity of the surface and its content.

Multiple surfaces on a screen at a time can display scrims. Scrims can appear at any elevation, whether in the foreground or background.

— Google Material Design

Furthermore, you can explore this technique by using different colors besides black or white colored layers.

Examples From The Wild

• On Running

• Solanco School District

• Soto Gardens

Additional Resources On This Topic

• Scrim That Figma Plugin
  Quickly add a scrim over a selected layer in Figma Design with the Scrim That plugin with just one click.

Strips/Highlight Technique

The strips/highlight is one of the simplest design techniques that you can apply to your design. Add a semi-transparent black (or dark-colored) rectangle strip over the image along with your text, or you can be bolder and use different colors instead. But always make sure that the colors you selected for the fonts and the graphic elements have a lot of contrast against the background!

Examples From The Wild

• Mode

• Cantos

• Estea

Additional Resources On This Topic

• Google Material Design — Legibility Standards
  All text should be legible and meet accessibility standards. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) level AA requires a 4.5:1 color contrast between text and background for normal text and 3:1 for large text. To learn more about color, contrast, and accessibility design, read this chapter on Material Design Accessibility.
• “Accessible Text on Images: Nail the Contrast Ratio”, Rodney Lab
  Creating accessible text on images on a website page is not easy. First, there are all the usual accessibility concerns when adding an image to your site. For example, you need to make sure the image has an alt text which describes the image well for partially sighted visitors. But then, you also need to remember to leave the alt text empty if the image is included for decorative purposes only. Next, as with any other text on your site, you need to make sure that the contrast level between the text color and the background color is high enough. And there’s more! This article dives into all these little details.
• Web Accessibility Guidelines v1.0 (Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh)
  Find colors that provide maximum contrast, including enough contrast between content and the background, so that text and non-decorative images are legible for anyone with low vision or color deficiencies. Best practices include: taking care of the 4.5:1 (3:1) ratio, (not) using only color as an indicator, and taking into account color blindness.

Find And Use That Space (Copy Space)

Yes, use that space to position your text, but first, make sure the space is passing the minimum contrast ratio. Space provides the perfect location for your text, especially when you balance and harmonize all the elements between the image and text.

Copy space is an area of an image that is less busy and usually has enough contrast to give you space to write or put your text on.

Examples From The Wild

• Rockwell Group

• Green IT Solution

• Villa Boisserée

Additional Resources On This Topic

• “Using Space to Create a Simple and Effective Design,” Carrie Cousins
  Sometimes the most effective design technique involves nothing at all, and it is quite intentional. Space can be one of the greatest tools in your design kit. It can make text easier to read, bring focus to certain parts of the design and help create an overall mood or feel. In this article, you will see some great uses of space and how they contribute to both simple and effective design schemes for different websites.
• “The Secret to Commercial Photography: Copy Space,” Great Escape Publishing
  Commercial photography is everywhere in our lives. Every time you drive down the highway with its rows of billboards, leaf through the glossy pages of a magazine, or visit a website with banner advertisements, you see commercial stock photography. This article explains one very important concept that helps photos sell: copy space. Copy space is an area of an image that is less busy, which means an advertiser can add text without obscuring critical parts of the photograph and choosing a stock photo becomes more manageable when the photographer has copy space in mind from the get-go.

Text Over Blurred Background Effect Of The Entire Image

Blurring an image with a variety of blurred background styles, such as blurring the entire image, or adding a blur effect to highlight only the main subject, can bring focus into your text layered on top of the image, tone down the “busy” feeling of the image, and also add more dimension and depth to the visuals.

The blurred background design technique is widely used for hero headers when combined with a bold, impactful typeface.

Examples From The Wild

• HLK Agency

• Tion Renewables

Additional Resources On This Topic

• “Blurred Text & Images In HTML CSS (Simple Examples),” W.S. Toh
  A quick tutorial on how to create blurred text and images with CSS only.

Conclusion

Thank you for joining me on this accessibility journey. So far, we covered five key techniques when designing text over images: using an overlay over the entire image, text with scrim overlay, strips/highlight, copy space, and text over blurred background effect. In the following article of the series, we will review five more — frame the image, soft-colored gradients, text styles and text position, solid color shapes, and use of colored backgrounds — and I will also share with you a few additional useful tools and resources. Stay tuned!

Further Reading On SmashingMag

• “Accessible Images For When They Matter Most,” Carie Fisher
• “The Realities And Myths Of Contrast And Color,” Andrew Somers
• “Designing Better Links For The Web,” Slava Shestopalov
• “Designing for Accessibility: Best Practices for Closed Captioning and Subtitles UX,” Vitaly Friedman

DASUNG just unveiled the world’s first full-color E-ink monitor. The new release promises to be more efficient and easier on the eyes than traditional LED and OLED screens.

On the 1st of August, Google announced a total revamp of the Fitbit app. The company has simplified the app’s design, reducing visual clutter to streamline the user experience.