Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that were posted, so don’t miss out and subscribe to our newsletter and follow the site daily for all the news.
Product Design Tools to Use in 2019
Google Photos is Making Photos Semi-public
84 Cognitive Biases You Should Exploit to Design Better Products
How Uber Redesigned its Interface for the Rest of the World
Everything You Need to Know About CSS Margins
Interaction Design Inspiration – Jul 2019
A New System for Designing Motion with Both Sketch and Figma by Google Design
Ways Web Designers Give Away their Time (Without Realizing it)
How do I Increase my Domain Authority in 2019?
DuckDuckGo Expands its Maps UI with a Few Familiar Features
Resource: The Website Directory
Building a Design System: Typography
Bamburgh UI Kit
Accessible CSS Generated Content
Managing Multiple Backgrounds with Custom Properties
The Spectrum of Maturity for Design Systems
Let’s Build a Web Server. Part 1
Creating Pixel Art with CSS
Butchery – Free Script Font
When You Can’t Find the Words, 65 New Emoji are Here for You
Dear Google, I’m Blocking You from my Website
50 Shades of Black: Effective Use of no Color
See the World’s Oldest Emoji in this New Archive of 650 Ancient Symbols
The 17 Coolest Fonts of 2019
How to Survive an Open Office
Want more? No problem! Keep track of top design news from around the web with Webdesigner News.
Whether you already have some coding experience or are starting from scratch, the good news is that you don’t have to be chained to your desk in order to learn how to code.
What’s even better is that you don’t have to spend years mastering programming either. Thanks to numerous coding apps available for both Android and iOS devices, you can easily level up your coding skills even when you’re on the go.
In this post, we’ve rounded up the best coding apps that will help you learn to code like a pro.
SoloLearn
SoloLearn is an app available for both iOS and Android devices and it also has a web app so you can use it to learn to code from anywhere. The app offers a number of different courses in languages such as JavaScript, Python, Java, and more. The app offers free trial as well as paid monthly and yearly plans.
Encode
Encode is an Android app that offers lessons in programming in bite-sized portions. The app has programming challenges that you have to solve in order to progress further. It also includes practical examples and teaches you how to program in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Python. On top of that, the app has offline mode so you can continue learning even if you aren’t connected to the Internet.
Codemurai
Codemurai offers hundreds of bite-sized coding lessons that were created by industry experts on web development, mobile app, and game development. The app has lessons for languages that include HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, TypeScript, Angular 2, MongoDB, Node, React, and more. You will learn programming through fun coding challenges and then have the ability to test your knowledge with quizzes.
Mimo
Mimo is a programming app that allows you to develop programming skills that will help you develop an app or a game, make a website or become a hacker. Based on your preferences and interests, you will get a personalized track that will teach you the necessary skills. It’s available for both iOS and Android devices and offers courses in JavaScript, Ruby, Swift, C, C++, and other popular languages.
Grasshopper
Grasshopper is a free iOS and Android app that teaches you how to code through JavaScript puzzles that you have to solve in order to progress. This app is very easy to use as it allows you to use blocks and arrange them in a logical order in order to create a working code. You also get real-time feedback and unlock achievements as you become more proficient.
Programming Hero
Programming Hero is an Android-only app that offers personalized paths towards coding mastery. The emphasis of this app is on making coding fun and it does so through teaching you how to build your own game while learning how to code at the same time. The app also offers forums where you can chat with other app users and exchange knowledge and tips.
Tynker
While Tynker is primarily geared for kids and parents or educators looking to take their children’s and student’s education further, there’s a lot you can learn from this app. For starters, the app supports not only game design but also basics of robotics and more advanced languages such as JavaScript and Python. The app offers challenges, quizzes, and even level editors and character creation. The app is available for iOS devices.
Enki App
Try the Enki app if you want a personalized track that will allow you to improve your programming skills. You can easily track your progress as you learn Python, Linux, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Java or Git. What makes this app different is the fact that you can set daily goals to learn programming and keep track of your streak. Each lesson offers a summary of the main concept for the day as well as an attached article that goes more in-depth. Enki is available for iOS and Android devices.
Programming Hub
Programming Hub was named Google Play’s Editor’s Choice app and with good reason. It supports a wide array of languages and delivers the lessons in bite-sized interactive lessons and courses. Supported languages include Java, C++, C programming, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and more. What’s more, the app was developed in collaboration with Google experts. The app is available for both Android and iOS devices.
Easy Coder
Easy Coder is an Android app that focuses on teaching Java programming exclusively. The app provides step-by-step interactive lessons, quizzes, and programming challenges which will teach you the basic programming concepts and prepare you to develop your skills even further. Lessons are short and concise so that you consume them even if you’re on the go and the app also comes with practical examples to clarify the programming concepts.
Whether you prefer serif or sans serif, new fonts are coming out all the time. And they’re going in and out of style all the time, as well. 2019 is a year of bold designs that make a statement, so each of our featured fonts in this post will focus on the emotional response they can create, as well their artistic statement.
Helios is a sans-serif font with a futuristic touch. On first glance (and thanks to the accompanying sample image) it makes one think of space. Really, this font could find a home on a video game cover, a tech company’s homepage, or as a trendy sticker. Helios feels simultaneously as clean and sterile as a spaceship’s airlock and as packed with personality as any other decorative font.
Handwritten fonts have been popular for a long time. There are a lot of situations that call for this style. But in 2019, authenticity is valued higher than ever, and nothing looks more authentic in design that a handwritten typeface. The Summer Loving font looks painted – some variants are hastily scribbled, and others look stenciled. Either way, it is full of bubbly personality.
While the name would suggest using this for summer designs, it could work during any season. It does lend itself to bright color palettes, but can definitely be used as a legible graffiti.
The Bobby Jones font checks a couple of the boxes for font trends in 2019. Namely, it has a certain sense of nostalgia and whimsy, which is in style. It can also easily be used in a brutalist-style piece, given the somewhat gritty styles available. It’s a little bit quirky, a little bit bold, and definitely versatile. If 2019 is about standing out and being different, then this is a great font to try out.
Another trend in 2019 is a smaller font size within hero images. With this decrease in font size, it’s important to find an easy-to-read type. A sans serif font is a great place to start, because they tend to look great on various backgrounds.
Self-described as “friendly and quirky”, Quinta is very readable. It has subtle rounded corners, which does make it inviting and lighthearted. A perfect choice for a corporate website header that wants to be a little more friendly and less cold.
Looking for something even more simple and clean? Whether you’re looking for a font to read on screen or in print, this easy-to-read font is great for any need. Its versatility and ubiquity will make it perfect for any modern design or logo. In fact, the designer shows off various corporate logos using the font and they all look great. They’re easily recognizable and of course very legible!
Tiempos is a serif font that looks great as a headline or as body text. The fine version was actually designed for National Geographic! The upper-case characters are the same height as the tallest lower-case characters, and it’s compact without losing any legibility.
Morganite is a tall and thin font that is great for titles and headlines. It feels like something right out of a magazine cover or movie poster. It’s bold and big, which is just what some designs need in 2019.
Coves is a sans serif font with a unique twist. For the most part, it is a pretty standard looking sans serif font, but it has some nice surprises, like the slight angle of the lower case ‘e’. It’s a little quirky, but also clean, simple, and great for businesses. It’s legible with plenty of space between elements, whether you go with the light or bold version.
Fixer features a lot of variations, including regular, inline, and 3D. This can be a bold font for a large sign, a clean and modern font for a web graphic, or a vintage font to bring out some nostalgia. The versatility means this font can be utilized for so many different projects. The options are limitless!
On to something more script-based. The Julietta Messie brush script looks like a handwritten cursive font, which would look great in a light floral setting like the example above. Whether it’s a wedding invitation, an Instagram photo, or a signature. Fonts like this are always necessary, and timeless in a way. 2019 is no different.
This unique font gives off some serious outdoor feelings, and would look great on things like maps, nature photos, or pamphlets. It has some heavy serifs, but a good designer can make the most of this.
While in some cases it could be hard to read, it has its place. Its particular look makes it a great font for 2019. Expect to see fonts like this used in unexpected ways this year.
This clean script font looks like it belongs on a vintage sign, or burned into a piece of wood. It is in fact inspired by traditional signs, and mimics the natural flow of letters that handwritten signage often has. Machineat is a great traditional font, but feels simultaneously modern and relevant for this year.
As humans get more and more technological, the more we want to get back to nature in any way possible. That is exactly the reason why fonts like Nature Spirit are going to be big in 2019. We’re still stuck on the internet, but we can at least see a more natural-looking font when we visit websites.
This font offers a rough and a smooth version, as well as plenty of alternative characters that can give your design a customized look. Customized fonts are going to be big this year, and this looks the part pretty well.
Thunderstorm harkens back to a retro 80’s or 90’s style. Nostalgia is cool (did you hear about the vaporwave trend?) and that is also reflected in the fonts we use. Expect a lot of brands to leverage “rad” fonts like Thunderstorm in order to connect with the 90’s kids of the internet (or perhaps because they are the 90’s kids).
Moving on to something a little different, let’s take a look at the Quantum font. Despite the need for retro fonts in 2019, there is also a need to look toward the future. Futuristic fonts aren’t quite as popular as they used to be, but there are still some very appropriate places for them.
Quantum would be fantastic on a futuristic video game logo, a sci-fi movie poster, or a technology company. This font is full of angular lines with bold accents.
Playfair is a serif font with some classic details. This is an elegant choice that would be perfect for a website or graphic that calls for a bit of sophistication. That still certainly exists in 2019, so you will be seeing Playfair and typefaces like it pretty frequently, where they are appropriate.
Let’s end this one with another basic sans serif font. When it comes to web design, a classic sans serif font is something that every designer should have in their back pocket. Source Sans Pro is a fantastic, simple font. There’s nothing showy here, which makes it the best font for clean webpage headings or body text.
Top Fonts for the Modern Web
Fonts are often subjective. Some people like it clean and simple, some people like it gaudy. But 2019 will have some defining font trends. Having these fonts at your disposal will enable you to be versatile and creative this year!
A long time ago on an internet far, far away, developers battled with blink tags in the Browser Wars…
For those too young to remember, the Browser Wars entailed a tech rush by, among others, Netscape and Microsoft, resulting in useless features being implemented because they were fast to bolt-on, and useful features being rushed because they were hard. After the Browser Wars, the internet entered an era of stability as the last vestiges of the old web were mercilessly hunted down and destroyed by Google.
Chrome and Chromium-based browsers have the vast majority of the market share, and with the new version of Edge being based on Chromium, only Firefox is truly left to compete. We’re already seeing the effects of this, and they’re not ideal.
Get ready, this one is going to have a lot of links, and they’re important…
The Saga of <std-toast>
On June 12th, 2019, Google developers asked for a review of a proposed new element for HTML. Specifically, they asked the Web Platform Incubator Community Group (WICG), a community dedicated to fostering open discussion about the future of the Internet as a platform. It’s run by the W3C, and generally, it’s exactly where you should be asking about potential changes to the actual foundation of the Internet.
On the same day, however, they announced their intent to include the element in the Blink rendering engine. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s going to happen any time soon, but it caused some significant consternation.
The Basic Idea
Well first, let’s talk about the element itself. It’s a pop-up notification. Literally, it’s a notification that pops up from the bottom of your screen, like toast… from a toaster, or from the top, like toast from an upside-down toaster [feel free to insert a joke about Australia here].
This notification element can show up and disappear on its own (the term used is “auto-expiring”, or it can require interaction to send it away. It’s basically an HTML element devoted just to “we use cookies” notifications.
The basic HTML could be written like one of the following examples:
I mean… besides the unfortunate acronym at the beginning of the tag? And the problem that actual toasters are not, in fact, a universal metaphor in Internet-having countries, as pointed out by the ever-brilliant Jen Simmons?
I believe new HTML elements should go through a standards process, be debated by multiple parties (not one), be useful to most websites (pave the cowpaths), and be written in language that makes sense for HTML, especially for folks who don’t speak English well. So no on this.
Ignoring those issues, it still requires JavaScript to work properly at all.
It’s additionally galling that toast is fundamentally an ephemeral UI element that is apart from page layout, and can’t work without JavaScript. Is there any other html element with those semantics? It’s a really odd precedent.
An HTML element that requires JavaScript. I’ll say it one more time for the Google devs at the back: JavaScript breaks, and it breaks a lot more often than plain HTML/CSS.
Then, it’s just gimmicky as hell. I mean, it’s something that we can already make with existing technology, and implementing it into HTML doesn’t actually make it that much easier. Nor is it particularly useful outside of a very narrow use-case. All it does is make the web’s underlying technologies “more like apps”, and while that’s not strictly a bad thing, is that really all we want for the Internet?
<toast> makes no sense to me. It reminds me of <marquee>, <blink>, and all the other gimmicky tags from before we figured we should separate styling, behavior and markup.
An additional point: even marquee and blink didn’t need JavaScript to just work. They were awful in so many ways, but they ‘worked’ on their own.
The Development and Review Process
One common perception is that a couple of employees at Google had this idea, and decided to just throw it into their browser engine, figuring that everyone else would just go with it. As previously mentioned, the whole situation is highly reminiscent of the browser wars, when browser vendors came up with gimmicky proprietary elements in an effort to compete.
Timeline: initial commit to personal repo: May 24 comment by an editor of WHATWG HTML (also a Google employee): May 28 Intent to implement email: June 12 Request for TAG review: June 12 First mention in WICG: June 12
Web standardization according to Google? “Nobody outside my team has reviewed or approved of the explainer in my private repo, but if we implement and encourage devs to use it, surely our competitors will agree to implement it [because our market dominance determines compat]”.
This has understandably upset people who very strongly believe in a community-driven approach to developing technologies as basic and open as HTML.
One of the benefits of standardization through W3C Working Groups is diversity of input. W3C requires the consideration of all feedback, requires consensus to move forward. The diversity of vendor perspectives considered matters, because different vendors have different values.
Think of all the many HTML elements that were considered and rejected over the years — and we are supposed to be on-board with TOAST? Because a couple guys at Google decided they want it. And they can. So no to <footnote> <author> <publication-date> But yes to <toast> ???
Even people who generally like and support the idea of the std-toast element are unhappy with how it was presented to the community:
Look, I get the “Move fast! Break things!” attitude. And I think it is exactly right that Google should experiment with the web. We all should! And, again, I think that <toast> is probably a useful addition to HTML.
But the way Google has gone about introducing it to the world betrays a huge lack of empathy for the poor sods who have review standards, for other browsers, for users, and for the broader Web community.
Despite everything shady Google has ever pulled [please don’t kill our PageRank, thanks!], I’d honestly like to believe that this was the mistake of a few, rather than the beginning of Google dictating the direction of web design and development as a whole. But if it is, we have a whole new problem on our hands.
Google’s priority has been, is, and always will be making loads of money. And who can blame them? But if we don’t have competition between, not just browsers, but browser rendering engines, then a couple of random people at Google who haven’t necessarily thought things through will be able to drastically change the direction of the web pretty much whenever they like.
Look, I still generally like the things Google makes, but let’s be real: they don’t always make the best decisions. I could make a joke about Google+, here, or the even more ill-fated Google Buzz, but let’s have a look at a something that more directly impacts web designers and developers:
If Google were in charge of the Web Platform, we would not have CSS Grid Layout. With the personal exception of @tabatkins, Google did not believe in CSS Grid. Microsoft and Mozilla implemented their own, but it was Bloomberg who funded @igalia to code Blink’s implementation.
When you start a web design business, there are so many unknowns and things you may not have even considered. Maybe you’re a talented designer or developer – but that’s only part of the equation.
After all, even the most talented among us aren’t going to be successful without the ability to recruit and retain paying customers. Otherwise, you career becomes one endless side project. It may sound fun, but it also leaves you wondering how you’ll pay the bills.
The future of your business depends on creating solid working relationships with your clients. In other words: You need to keep them happy. But how?
In my 20+ years as a freelance designer, I’ve had a number of experiences – both good and not-so-good. Here are a few things I’ve learned about retaining clients over the long haul.
Communication is Key
Having good communication skills is essential in this business – especially if you’re working directly with clients. But there are some misconceptions about what this entails.
First and foremost, communication during a project’s development phase is of the utmost importance. Keep in mind that no one wants to be left in the dark. Clients need to be kept abreast of progress and aware of any challenges you see in achieving project goals.
Once the project is launched, you still need to keep up with your clients. However, some designers take this to mean inundating them with upsells and other marketing. While it’s OK to send an occasional newsletter or social media post, don’t overdo it. Someone who just paid a good bit of money for your services doesn’t want be bothered with constant “offers”.
More important is to be proactive about things like software updates, security and third-party subscriptions. For example, if they’re using a commercial plugin on their website, you’ll want to let your client know when a license renewal is coming. Or perhaps a change to a search engine algorithm means that some adjustments to their content may be in order.
These may seem like little things, but they mean a lot. They show clients that you are looking out for them and aren’t simply out to take their money. In turn, this establishes a level of trust between you that bodes well for the future of your relationship.
Be Honest
Communication is only as good as its actual content. Just as it’s not wise to send a constant stream of sales pitches, dishonesty is also a huge turnoff (and, sooner or later, a deal-breaker).
It’s not that we necessarily start out with the intention of being dishonest. Often it can come from the fear of letting someone down. And it may not even be about anything very important with regards to the bigger picture. That’s all the more reason to just be honest.
Be truthful in your billing, your skills and your assessment of a situation. If you don’t know the answer to something – it’s OK. Let your client know that you need to do some further research and get back to them.
Perhaps most importantly, own up to a mistake. None of us are perfect and we’re all going to do something wrong from time-to-time. Refusal to admit mistakes can only serve to put you into a deeper hole, while harming your relationship.
Honesty has its consequences, as well. But they are often better than the alternative.
Make Them a Priority
Everyone wants to feel like their needs are being attended to. As such, you’ll want to be as responsive as you can when it comes to handling client requests. Whether their site needs maintenance or they just have a question, it’s important to take care of things in a timely manner.
Once again, it always seems to come back to communication. Even if you aren’t able to get to something just that minute (not every request is that important), it’s helpful to let your client know when they can expect it done. Just as important is to make sure that it’s done within whatever time frame you’ve provided.
The idea here is to provide a first-class experience. It’s not about getting to each and every item on your to-do list immediately. Rather, it’s making sure that your clients feel good about you and your service.
Think of it this way: In a world that is often chaotic, clients will appreciate the fact that they can count on you to get the job done. Prove your reliability and you’ll be far ahead of most of your competitors.
Build Better Client Relationships
The great thing about all of this is that it’s not inherently difficult. The main challenge comes in finding consistency in your efforts. This can take a little time, but it’s very much worth doing.
Now, some of you may be thinking that being an outstanding communicator also means that you need to have a warm and fuzzy personality. That you need to be a social butterfly. However, that’s not the case.
The tips above don’t require the gift of gab or even a witty writing style. It’s more a matter of avoiding procrastination and letting clients know that you are there for them. You don’t need to win a personality contest to do it.
And now that you know what it takes to keep clients happy, you can put it into practice. The result will be better relations with your clients, year after year.
Today, instead of ranting about politics, music, or film, the Twitterverse will be ranting about Twitter; more specifically, Twitter’s brand-new, design and codebase update to its desktop site.
After months of extensive testing, the new design is a confident, and positive change for one of the web’s biggest names, albeit with some controversy that is bound to cause a ruckus. If you’d like to be among the first to have an opinion, you can opt-in right now, or Twitter will opt-in for you in the coming days, because this change is mandatory.
the new Twitter site is self-consciously dashboard-like
Twitter’s life began as a deliberately stripped down social network, in the same way that Google began as a stripped down search interface. Throughout its history, design changes seem to have been attempts to add features, without changing the core simplicity of its timeline UI.
The new Twitter design throws that strategy out of the window, with fundamental changes to the site. Where once there was the illusion of a simple news feed, the new Twitter site is self-consciously dashboard-like. Helped, in no small part, by the relocation of the menu from top horizontal, to left vertical.
The navigation change has been an opportunity – or more probably, a solution – to expose some of the features that have been introduced, but are rarely used outside of the mobile apps; the explore tab, bookmarks, and lists are all prioritized, and direct messages now have a dedicated space.
You’ll also find the introduction of not one, but two dark modes, which is presumably intended to increase eye-fatigue, ensuring you spend less time on the site ranting about the lack of an edit button.
there’s very little new here, other than a more app-like experience for users who prefer not to use an app
There is, frustratingly, still no edit button. Anyone who spends any time on Twitter will be aware that 50%+ of all tweets are instant replies, by the same account, correcting a typo in its original tweet. Of course people can’t be allowed to edit a tweet that’s already been liked or retweeted, but there’s no reason Twitter couldn’t strip likes and retweets from any edit.
Perhaps more frustrating is the fact that verification is still limited. Pop-stars, movie-stars, politicians, et al get a little blue badge, but you and I don’t. What this means is the platform is still essentially anonymous, and will continue to be plagued by bots, trolls, and spam. If Twitter is looking for a way to monetize its main product, paid verification with the option to auto-mute anyone not verified, would make Twitter more usable, more profitable, and just plain nicer overnight.
This design feels like a long-overdue update, delivering necessary breathing room to allow the introduction of as yet unseen features. However, there’s very little new here, other than a more app-like experience for users who prefer not to use an app.
Some might suggest that a company is entitled to update its site design any time it likes, but those people must not have witnessed the meltdown some users had the last time Twitter introduced a far less substantial tweak to its UI than this. Others might question whether anyone actually uses Twitter on desktop; isn’t that what cellphones and bathroom breaks were invented for?
Are you ready to add some color to your website? Color fonts are revolutionizing web and graphic design spaces by bringing in effects that before required advanced editing to achieve.
Traditional fonts tend to be vectors; they sit on one layer and are made up of simple strokes and shapes. You can resize them, and add effects like colors and drop shadows using HTML or CSS, but that’s all. Bitmap fonts work similarly, except they can’t be resized.
Color fonts, also known as chromatic or OpenType-SVG fonts, are breaking those barriers. These fonts can contain shading, textures, bitmap images, and of course colors – even more than one color!
The results are a wide diversity of new typefaces, ranging from highly-detailed brush stroke fonts to multi-colored or gradient text to fonts that look metallic and shiny.
What’s the Big Deal?
Adding effects to text is nothing new for designers. Overlaying textures, images, or adding shading can be done in Photoshop. But what if you could just download a color font, type, and all those effects were right there in the first place?
The problem with simply adding effects to text in Photoshop is that the result must be displayed as an image online. That means that it can’t be highlighted, searched for, or indexed by search engines.
With OpenType-SVG fonts, it looks as fancy as anything you can make in an image editor, but it’s actual text on the page – not a PNG image. It can be resized if it’s a vector font, interacted with, and edited with HTML and CSS. This has huge implications for web designers and developers.
It also saves time. Instead of taking a normal font and adding effects to it, you can just find a color font that fits your needs.
While support for color fonts is currently spotty, most of these typefaces do come with fallback fonts. These are black and white versions of the font that will work on almost any browser or program.
Currently, color fonts are supported on Edge, Safari, and Firefox with Windows-only support for Opera and Internet Explorer. They’re also supported by most major image editors and design tools, except for Adobe XD, Premiere Pro, and After Effects.
The lack of Chrome support might make you wary, but it should be safe to use color fonts with fallbacks on your website.
Color Font Examples
Ready to add some color to your sites or graphic designs? We’ve compiled sixteen gorgeous color fonts here for you. All of these make full use of OpenType-SVG technology to create artistic type. See for yourself!
Technology is always bringing us forward. Now, you can do things and add features to a website that, a few years ago, seemed impossible.
All of these fonts look like they’ve been heavily edited in Photoshop, but in reality, you can type them out onto the screen and they’ll look just like they do in the preview. Not long ago, designers may never have thought directly adding effects and shading to fonts like this could be possible.
And now, font designers are revolutionizing the online world and showing off the full extent of their design skills with awesome color fonts. Though chromatic text remains unsupported in some places, with its recent popularity, the day shouldn’t be long off when all major browsers finally support color fonts.
Our monthly roundup of what’s new for designers and developers highlights the best free (or very low cost) new resources launched or updated in the last four weeks.
It’s hard to stay focused this time of year. With vacations coming up (or having recently passed) it’s easy to get distracted from work-related tasks. For that reason, this month’s roundup is full of design tools plus a few design diversions that you can have fun with.
404 Illustrations
Have you ever wanted to create a cool 404 page but didn’t have the time or inspiration? 404 Illustrations takes all the work out of it for you with funky and trendy illustrations for lost website users. Each illustration comes with a cute description as well and they are free to use. The designers promise more illustrations in the future.
Spotlight
Spotlight is a lightbox gallery library that’s lightweight, easy to run, and has no dependencies. It literally runs from the download without additional JavaScript, HTML snippets, additional CSS resources, images or assets, and no additional handling of dynamic content.
Eva Design System
Eva is a free and open-source design system that’s adaptable to your needs and team. It works with Sketch and provides symbols and style configurations. The system allows you to design and code using a quick process that can eliminate repetitive work.
Screenzy
Screenzy is a tool for creating and editing screenshots quickly. Just paste an image or URL and use on-screen settings to adjust the image, add text or choose from one of 5 pre-set options.
Drag and Drop Sticky
Scott Kellum created a cool drag and drop sticky note element with no JavaScript. It works as a textarea element and as you move it around, technically you are just resizing a the textarea and the “note” follows.
Freezeframe.js
Freezeframe.js lets you pause animated gifs and then reanimate on a hover, mouse click, touch event, or another manual trigger. The new version of this tool no longer uses jQuery and functions thanks to modern JavaScript.
Space Shooter
Space Shooter is a fun pen by Andrew Rubin that’s a good distraction when you are trying to work through a design problem and a fun bit of inspiration. You can build something like this. Why not make a game? Fork it and play around.
Pika CDN
Pika CDN is made for packages written in ES Module syntax, that runs natively in browser. Use it to distribute more modern, unminified packages that uses a proprietary package builder, putting everything into a ready-to-import JavaScript file. The tool is free and a pro version is on the way. (Sign up to get notified when it is ready.)
Swipemix
Swipemix will help you design better layouts and collages on Instagram. It allows you to sequence images with easy templates in just a few minutes from an app on your iPhone.
Source Wireframe Kit
Source Wireframe Kit helps you prototype faster with more than 500 blocks that can be moved, combined, and adjusted into a complete design system. Everything is grouped into categories to help you work faster and you can use it with Sketch, Figma, Marvel, or Invision to bring prototypes to life.
Hubcap
Hubcap is a free screen recorder that works without installing any software. It works with Chrome or Firefox and allows you to record a screengrab and share it instantly. You can record up to five minutes and Hubcap will store if for up to 2 weeks at no cost.
Brutalism Web Kit
Brutalism Web Kit is a collection of artboards to jumpstart website projects using this design trend. It includes 70 styles and works with free tools including Google Fonts.
Ant Design UI Kit
Any Design UI Kit is a collection of components for Figma based on the React UI library. It includes 2,100 components, 630 icons, 140 customizable styles, and 43 screens, making it one of the biggest component inventories for Figma.
Anggada
Anggada looks like it could be inspired by the title characters in recent Aladdin movie release. It includes a full character set that’s most appropriate for display use. The demo version is free and the full font is available from the typeface designer.
Basier Mono
Basier Mono is a modern style monospaced typeface with a free and family (premium) download option with square and circular shapes. The typeface is also packed with cool alternates, fractions, and supports multiple languages.
Bright Salkiy
Bright Salkiy is a scrawling script with thin lines that has the look of an elegant signature. The free version is for personal use only and includes a full character and number set.
Cataclysmo
Cataclysmo is a bold, tall slab serif for display use. It includes an uppercase-only character set and numbers.
Nairi Amber
Nairi Amber includes a regular sans serif, italic sans serif, and script character set for personal use with the free version. Each character set in the family works well together with a wide stance and rounded letterforms. The script is somewhat more compact.
Rise of Kingdom
Rise of Kingdom is an uppercase serif typeface that would be a great display option. It has a somewhat whimsical feel with tall letterforms on the thin side.
In a crowded marketplace, web designers need to take advantage of every opportunity to stand out. And the right domain name can play a significant role. However, the traditional .com, .net or .biz extensions aren’t necessarily the best options for those of us in the industry. They lack the context that really hits home for potential clients.
But that’s all changing, thanks to the growing popularity of .design domain names. They offer a novel and unique way to promote your business. Why, just imagine the brand synergy of using one in your printed materials and email address. It sends a clear message to potential clients about you and your business.
And to make this a truly amazing opportunity, you can now register your own .design domain name for free! That’s right, a free .design domain that you can use in any way you like. Point it to your existing website or use the available site builder to start something new.
Stand Out in Style
.design is unique from other domain extensions in that it so easily identifies with the core of your business. They provide a perfect complement to your new or existing brand.
Plus, you’ll find a number of additional benefits to owning one:
Find the Right Name (While They Last) Since it’s fairly new to the market, there are still a number of great .design domain names available. But they are going fast! Therefore, you’ll want to reserve your name in short order.
Need more proof? Companies such as Adobe, Facebook and Uber are using .design domain names right now.
Make Your Brand Memorable In general, shorter domains are easier to remember. And an industry-specific option such as .design creates an opportunity to shorten your name in some unique ways.
For example, johnsmithdesigncompany.com could be shortened to just johnsmith.design. In this case, the domain is both shorter and more memorable.
Redirect Anywhere You may consider using your .design domain name for your main business website. It’s a great strategy and can be very effective. But you also have the flexibility to redirect it to other valuable resources. For example, you might consider pointing it towards your Dribbble portfolio or LinkedIn profile. It makes sharing that much easier, while looking highly-professional.
Register your FREE .design Domain Today
We at 1stWebDesigner have teamed up with Porkbun to offer our readers a FREE .design domain name. The first year is free, and yearly renewals are just $35 – a bargain compared to the $70 offered at some registrars.
You’ll also get:
Free Email Hosting Trial Your domain comes with three months of free email hosting. Using your .design domain for email is a great way to add that professional feel to your business. For example, [email protected] or [email protected] Use any name you want!
Free SSL Certificates Get a free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate to provide your visitors with peace of mind. Porkbun will even renew your certificate free of charge.
Free WHOIS Privacy Most registrars charge for WHOIS privacy protection, but not Porkbun. They’ll protect your private contact information from scammers and marketers.
Free Website Builder Build your new .design website without code. Your domain registration earns you a free three-month trial of Porkbun’s site builder, powered by Weebly. You even get free hosting!
Connect Your Domain to Any Outside Service A .design domain name from Porkbun can be pointed to any outside service. So, whether you’re building a website with Wix, SquareSpace or WordPress, simply point the domain to your website via an easy-to-use domain management panel.
Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.
The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.
Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that were posted, so don’t miss out and subscribe to our newsletter and follow the site daily for all the news.
Web Designers Create the Most Annoying UI Ever
Ad-Free Internet by Firefox
Creating the Perfect Color Palette for a Website
Menu (or not)
Web Design Color Trends for 2019
Site Design: The Atlas of Moons
The Twelfth Fourth
Bringing New CSS Techniques to Production
Design Principles are Dead
My Approach to On-Page SEO in 2019
How to Run a Small Social Network Site for your Friends
Google’s Taking Another Crack at Building a Social Network
It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, so Just Get it Done
No, not “everyone is a Designer”
Niice Insights
How We Used UI/UX to Confront the Climate Crisis
Canvas UI Kit: A UI Kit for your Growing Business – For Sketch & Figma
JavaScript Classes – A Friendly Introduction
Eva Design System: Deep Learning Color Generator
Awesome Stranger Things Fan Art
Why Information Architecture in UX Process is a Necessity
How to Build a Bulletproof Product Design Strategy
Google has a Fun Wimbledon Easter Egg You Can Play
You’re Getting Screwed on Amazon Prime Day
It’s Never Too Late to Be Successful and Happy
Want more? No problem! Keep track of top design news from around the web with Webdesigner News.
