Rss Bot

Today Samsung has announced the launch of two devices that aim to bring the performance of a PC to the laptop. With the Notebook 7 and Notebook 7 Force, Samsung promises that users will be able to run demanding graphic apps, view their work on a HD display, and enjoy a smoother content creation experience. The sleek Notebook 7 laptops come in both 13-inch and 15-inch sizes, while the Notebook 7 Force measures in at 17 inches. Both devices run Windows 10, and thanks to a high screen-to-body ratio, users are also able to view their work as clearly as possible. But does this mean they're good enough to rank alongside our best laptops for graphic design? Taking a look under the hood we can see that the smaller Notebook 7s both run 8th Gen Intel Core processors as standard. However the larger size has the capability to be customised to support NVIDIA's GeForce MX250 graphics card. Each laptop comes with 8GB RAM, 1080p screens, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, a USB-C port, HDMI, plus a microSD slot. Pricing for the Notebook 7 starts at $999.99. The Notebook 7 range comes in two sizes and styles [Image: Samsung] Meanwhile, the beefed up Notebook 7 Force packs NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card, and boasts 16GB of RAM. An Ethernet port completes the upgrade from the regular Notebook 7 models, along with an additional two slots for storage expansion. For these extra features, shoppers can expect to pay $1,499. "The new Notebook 7 and Notebook 7 Force blend elegant design with impressive power and top-notch speed to give consumers an unparalleled experience," said YoungGyoo Choi, Senior Vice President of the PC Business Team, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics over on the Samsung news page. "These devices expand our portfolio in new directions, giving consumers the opportunity to pick the device that perfectly suits their lifestyle." The new devices go after content creation and gaming [Image: Samsung] In terms of features and design, the Notebook 7 range pitches itself into the same league as the MacBook Pro. And it's been observed by the Verge that the similarities range from small details such as the keyboard font, right the way through to construction of the display and the bezels that frame the screen. Meanwhile the Notebook 7 Force comes with a similar price tag to the MacBook Pro. Describing itself as a video editing and gaming specialist, the Notebook 7 Force finds itself going head to head with the contenders in our list of the best video editing laptops, including, you guessed it, the MacBook Pro 15". But with a battery life that lasts nearly half the time as the Apple device, the Notebook 7 Force has some way to go to become a serious rival to the MacBook Pro. The Notebook 7 and Notebook 7 Force are expected to start shipping in the US on 26 July. Related articles: The best laptop cooling pads in 2019 The best Walmart laptops in 2019 The 5 best laptops for Photoshop in 2019 View the full article

Boring, boring forms. Love them or hate them (and let's face it, you hate them), they're an inescapable part of almost every web build, and whether you're building full-blown online shops (like our inspiring examples of ecommerce websites) or straightforward corporate sites, sooner or later you'll have to make some forms. We can hardly blame designers for trying to come up with innovative ways to make them more interesting, but how many of these form trends actually hold up in terms of usability? Let's take a look at some common form UX patterns, starting with forms inside modals. 10 rules for making user-friendly web forms 01. Form modals Placing forms inside modals and having them appear dynamically seems like an obvious solution to an otherwise overly complex situation. After all, forms don't take up any significant amount of space, so why do they need their own dedicated URL? Actually, there are several reasons. Accessibility. The most important reason is that if we're making modals accessible (and obviously we should be), then they should be easily dismissed by hitting the ESC key or by clicking the modal's whitespace. Now with the modals being easily dismissed, it would be an inconvenience (not to mention counter-accessible) to accidentally dismiss the modal (and the unsubmitted form data) halfway through filling out the form. Customer support. Besides accessibility, combining forms with modals and essentially not hosting the form at a dedicated URL means customer service representatives can't link to these forms during communications, which makes things very difficult for both customers and customer service representatives. Password managers (either in-browser or as standalone apps) sometimes remember login details on a screen-by-screen basis, so if the user is able to log in from wherever they are in the app or website, it may be difficult to retrieve their login details if said details were saved when the user was at a different URL. Solution: don't render forms inside modals. Rendering forms inside modals comes with more issues than it solves and although some forms are so basic that it makes the screen look virtually empty, users filling out forms are unlikely to care. You're a user too, so you already know that the immediate response to a form is, 'I hope this doesn't take long,' not, 'this form doesn't look interesting enough'. Prioritise helping users move onto what they really came for. 02. Unsemantic markup Focused email fields on mobile will display a version of the keyboard where the @ symbol is immediately available and URL fields will display .com Elements aren't all created equal. Semantic markup ensures that there are different code markups for every occasion; for example, even though a standard input field may look the same as an email field, app and browser vendors know the difference and their behaviour is duly adapted depending on what the expected input is. Focused email fields on mobile will display a version of the keyboard where the @ symbol is immediately available, whereas standard input fields won't behave like this. Just to reinforce the concept, password fields will visibly replace user input with asterisks – for security reasons – and URL fields will display .com on the keyboard, for convenience. But because these differences are so subtle, semantics are often forgotten about, especially by designers who aren't aware of these differences due to not being involved in 'the code side'. Solution: implement semantic markup. Without the use of semantic markup, users are unable to reap these time-saving usability benefits, which is why I always recommend that designers communicate to developers how certain UI elements should behave, either during handoff or otherwise. Developers and designers should also beware of hiding input fields (i.e. <input type="hidden"> or equivalent), a concept used for progressive disclosure or collecting information that's accessible without the user specifically offering it (such as location, accessed server-side). Hidden input fields essentially have no type at the time autofill comes into effect, resulting in it being skipped over entirely. 03. Split forms Forcing users to flow through two steps when there's only one field in each step (email and password) is unnecessary Split forms are long forms broken down into sections; for example, one section for delivery address and another section for billing information. This concept actually makes total sense and has been used (successfully) for a really long time. Naturally, the main benefit of form splitting is the reduction in cognitive overload; however the misuse of form splitting can actually have an adverse effect. For instance, when implemented with login forms, forcing users to flow through two steps when there's only one field in each step (email and password) is unnecessary, not to mention the fact it breaks the autocomplete benefits. Autocomplete works in harmony with other input fields. For instance, when users type in their email address to log in, the password field will conveniently autocomplete with the correct combination saved for that email address but when dividing related fields into different steps, the browser cannot autocomplete what isn't there. Autofill may save the day but the outcome really depends on the browser making the correct assumptions (i.e. if the user has multiple logins for the same website or app, the browser may choose the wrong combination). Solution: Make forms boring! Forms are boring and they always will be. Rather than trying to make them interesting, the most user-centred design decision we can make about forms is to make them quicker and easier to use. When it comes to form splitting, the best implementation of the technique is to use it only when dividing up unrelated fields. 04. Magic links With magic links, after inputting an email address, the user is sent a link via email that will automatically log them in Staying on the topic of login forms, magic links are a new-ish trend where after inputting the email address, the user is emailed a link that will automatically log them in. If you've ever used Slack, you'll already be familiar with the concept, which, on mobile, saves you having to type in your password. Some may say the concept is a bit tiresome, as the user has to actually switch app to log in, although admittedly the UX flow is a little better than receiving temporary login details that the user needs to copy into said application in order to log in. In addition to breaking autofill and/or autocomplete, unfamiliar conventions can be confusing for users. Solution: Make magic links optional or secondary. There's not much wrong with magic links and they can certainly be useful to mobile users who would rather not type; however the convention makes too many assumptions about how the user has their email set up. To ensure the best results, make magic links optional. 05. Two-factor authentication Two-factor authentication (or 2FA) is something of a double-edged sword. On one hand, it increases security by asking users to approve login attempts via SMS, email or some kind of 2FA authentication app; on the other hand, it forces users to approve login attempts via SMS, email or some kind of 2FA authentication app – urgh! As human psychology dictates, we're more concerned with the problems we have right now, so it's difficult to care about the benefits of security until our account has actually been hacked. Most users don't want 2FA until they need it. Solution: Don't enforce 2FA or, at the very least, offer convenient ways to enforce it, such as via WiFi or email. If 2FA isn't required, at least make it optional (i.e. the user has to switch it on via the settings of said app or website). Let's say that the user is abroad. They won't have access to their day-to-day mobile data; however, they may have access to WiFi, so email or a 2FA auth app such as Google Authenticator would be much more convenient than SMS-based authentication. And if the user can turn it off temporarily, even better! 06. Dynamic placeholders Input labels have a really unfair reputation because they can make forms look clunky and we're taught to believe that less is more. But this isn't one of those times. A common UI design trend over the last few years is to have the placeholder text transition into the label when the input field is clicked. However placeholders and input labels actually serve two very different functions and one cannot replace the other, no matter how cool you might think the animation looks. Placeholders are used to show the user what is considered an acceptable value, whereas a label is simply a short description of what the input field is for. Here's an example combination: Label: "Name" Placeholder: "John Doe" If your short-term memory isn't fantastic, you have likely had a moment at some point where you've forgotten what you were supposed to type halfway through filling out a form field. It's a very common scenario. Solution: Keep at least the label visible at all times. By keeping the label visible, you can ensure form fields remain easy to fill out correctly, even for users with different accessibility needs or for individuals under an increased cognitive load in noisy, distracting or stressful environments. This article was originally published in issue 318 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 318 here or subscribe here. Related articles: How to create accessible web forms Create responsive forms and tables How to design responsive and device-agnostic forms View the full article

If you're like most people, you probably have many – and we mean do mean many –usernames across the internet, along with corresponding passwords. And you've no doubt forgotten and had to reset a few of them along the way. But RememBear Password Manager Subscriptions provides a pretty great solution. Created by VPN provider TunnelBear – voted by us as one of the best VPN providers in 2019 – RememBear helps you remember your passwords, securely log you into websites and autofill your payment information. And end-to-end encryption ensures you're the only one who ever sees this sensitive data. RememBear Password Manager Subscriptions is yours right now for just $39.99 – that's a whopping 33% off the regular price. Get RememBear today and make forgetting your password a thing of the past. View the full article

If you're a fan the hit Netflix series Stranger Things, you'll probably have heard the show is the latest object of Lego's affection. Announced earlier this month, the first lucky bunch of Lego lovers got their hands on the new set at a special event held at Lego's Leicester Square store in London. The newly released 'Upside Down' set was then made available to Lego VIP members, with the rest of the world having to wait a couple more weeks before being able to purchase it. But that wait is finally over. As of today, the Upside Down is available to everyone (while stocks last) via the Lego shop. If you're looking for set design inspiration or character design tips, you should take a closer look. One of the best Lego sets we've seen to date (we've seen a lot), here's some of its key features: The set is made up of a whopping 2287 pieces, which, when fully built, measures at over 12” (32cm) tall, 17” (44cm) wide and 8” (21cm) deep. The Byers' house features a front porch with furniture, living room, dining room and Will's bedroom. The living room features the amazing alphabet wall with a light up function - WHAAAT?! It also comes complete with other authentic features, including couch, coffee table, telephone, axe, ‘have you seen me?’ flyer stickered element and a bear trap to catch the Demogorgon. The Upside Down set captures the look and feel from the Netflix original series, including creepy vines, dark coloring and a dilapidated look. Chief Jim Hopper’s police truck includes a removable roof for easy access to the interior and a pumpkin element as a reminder of Season 2. Lego Stranger Things - available now There's so much about this design that excited us, we just had to get our hands on one. So being, ahem, Lego VIP members, we did just that. And can confirm it is every bit as spectacular as it looks. The set includes all the main characters – Eleven, Chief Hopper, Mike Wheeler, Will Byers, Dustin Henderson, Joyce Byers and Lucas Sinclair – as well as its very own Demogorgon, which is (in Lego form) actually kinda cute. . The Upside Down just positioned itself well and truly at the top of our wish list. Image: Lego The Upside Down set costs £179.99 in the UK, and is available now via the Lego website. Ok, so it's not exactly cheap, but we have no doubt people will literally be queueing up to part with their cash as, for fans of Lego and Stranger Things, it just doesn't get much better than this. Plus something tells us that this is one Lego set that will be well worth the investment. Read more: Lego art: 40 designs that will blow your mind 5 brilliant brand collaborations (and what you can learn from them) The illustrator hotlist 2019 View the full article

Google Project Zero researcher unearths a bug in Microsoft’s Notepad Windows application. View the full article

In an example of art imitating life, HP Sauce has rolled out a subtle and well-executed redesign of its famous bottle label. Taking its lead from the scaffolding that currently surrounds Elizabeth Tower, HP Sauce has decked out its signature illustration of the landmark in the construction framework. Significantly, the addition of the scaffolding is the first change to the sauce's label in 123 years. A move that's sure to make it a standout piece of packaging design for hungry shoppers looking for a condiment to liven up their bacon butties. The reveal of the new label is well-timed, too. The tower, often misnamed Big Ben, celebrates its 160th anniversary today. And the good timing doesn't end there, as HP reveal that the redesigned bottles will be available until the restoration work is complete and the scaffolding is removed. Stop the clocks, it's time for a new HP label [Image: HP] If you're unfamiliar with the sauce and don't know the connection it has with the Houses of Parliament, the clue is in its initials. HP Sauce also got its name because it was rumoured to be served in the Houses of Parliament to peckish politicians. The tangy brown sauce has become a symbol of British cuisine, in no small part do to its connection to the popular tourist destination. However, online detractors have pointed out that the sauce is no longer manufactured in Britain. If this clever redesign has got your mouth watering for a healthy dollop of the spicy sauce, you'll be able to pick up the special bottles from June. Related articles: Online packaging archive is a design delight 4 top tips for successful seasonal packaging 20 packaging concepts we wish were real View the full article

Nvidia is urging gamers to update its GeForce Experience software after patching two high-severity vulnerabilities. View the full article

When it comes to getting your name out there and sharing your work, social media is one of the most powerful tools at a creator's disposal. And among these platforms, Instagram is on the rise. Nothing's perfect though, and that includes Instagram. Despite the editing tools and customisable fonts for Instagram, the platform isn't for everyone. Enter Bokeh, a crowd-funded photo-sharing app that aims to be a private and ad-free Instagram alternative. Built by Tim Smith, Bokeh fixes some of the common issues people have with social media networks. Namely, their habit of mining user data and using that to hit us with uncannily accurate targeted ads, as well as not displaying updates chronologically. Users are in control of who adds them [Image: Bokeh] These are all issues a lot of social media users are aware of, but are at their mercy because there simply aren't many alternatives. Besides, of course, the unthinkable: logging out of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram forever. Privacy, however, is at the heart of Bokeh. The app will be private by default, and users will have the option of going public and cross-posting on other social media networks. On top of being able to support custom domains, Bokeh will also have an indie web compatible export. This means that Bokeh users will be able to self-host if they so wish. So how does this privacy look in action? For starters, people won't be able to track Bokeh users down by typing their name into a search bar. Instead, they will need to know their username. And in a similar move to Instagram's recent decision to hide the number of 'likes' on a post, Bokeh will never publically display who you follow, or vice versa. Special users can be added to an inner circle of friendship [Image: Bokeh] Pests are also put in their place. If a user repeatedly tries to request your friendship after you've denied them, they will be blocked after three rejections. Advertisers and venture capitalists are also kept at bay thanks to Bokeh's policy of never sharing or selling user data to them. However this privacy comes at a price. Individual accounts will set a user back $3 a month, or $30 a year. Meanwhile a family account, which can be populated with up to five members, comes to $5 a month or $50 a year. Paying for social media is always going to be an unpopular decision, but can you put a price on your privacy? Bokeh is currently in the final stretch of its Kickstarter fundraising drive. It's not far off its target, so if this is a project you'd like to get involved with, make sure you head over and chip in. If it hits its goal, Bokeh expects to roll out in late 2019. Related articles: 9 agencies to follow on Instagram How to hack the Instagram algorithm A designer's guide to Instagram Stories View the full article

"How can a brand be the first on Google without paying anything for it?" asks The North Face's latest campaign. Most people might give answers relating to SEO or social media reach, but the outdoor brand, along with ad agency Leo Burnett Tailor Made, took a different route. The brand had noticed that when people are about to go on holiday, they usually Google their destination, and that the first image result is usually one from Wikipedia. So far, so normal. But here is where things get shady. The North Face then replaced images of popular destinations in Wikipedia, including Cape Point in South Africa and Pedra do Baú in Brazil, with its own photos, which showed people wearing its clothing. (Want to add your images to Wikipedia? See our post on the top photo editors.) In a video (above) released to announce what it had done, The North Face claimed that it had "got to the top of the world's largest search engine, paying absolutely nothing, just by collaborating with Wikipedia." However, a statement released by Wikipedia states that the The North Face and Leo Burnett Tailor Made "did not collaborate on this stunt, as The North Face falsely claims." This seems a particularly unwise move from The North Face. If you're going to make up facts, don't invent them about a free encyclopedia that has an army of volunteers whose job it is to check facts. The statement went on to express its disappointment in the brand. "In fact, what they did was akin to defacing public property, which is a surprising direction from The North Face. Their stated mission, “unchanged since 1966,” is to “support the preservation of the outdoors”—a public good held in trust for all of us." Quite. Wikipedia also says it has now removed all of the images, or – in a move that The North Face may or may not be pleased with – cropped out The North Face logo. You can see the removed images on (you guessed it), Wikipedia's own page about the incident. The North Face has since apologised for the campaign (below), stating that it apologises for "engaging in activity inconsistent" with Wikipedia's mission, and that it will ensure its teams and vendors are "better trained on the site policies". It also says the campaign has now ended. Frankly, it's difficult to see how it could have continued following Wikipedia's response, which also included the killer sentence: "When The North Face exploits the trust you have in Wikipedia to sell you more clothes, you should be angry." (Harsh but fair.) We can't imagine what The North Face and Leo Burnett Tailor Made were thinking with this campaign. Of course, The North Face isn't the marketing stunt we've seen that has backfired. NatWest recently came under fire for its campaign that tries to "apologise" for patronising women, by patronising women. And IHOP has annoyed its customers by teasing about an upcoming rebrand. We could go on. Like many brands before it, The North Face has certainly made it to the top of many Google searches, but not for the reasons it hoped. Read more: 15 ways to improve your photography skills 5 reliable ways to refresh a tired logo 'New Coke' makes a comeback View the full article

You're reading Free Static HTML Website Templates, 2019 Updated, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Let’s admit it: We like fast solutions. Static website builders of various kinds, as well as free static website templates, are everywhere. Whether you are a tech-savvy person or not, static HTML website templates can be a perfect solution. Even … View the full article

Just as the world of web design is constantly changing and evolving, so too are the tools that help us create online experiences. With innovations constantly springing up and changing how we interact online, it can be a challenge to keep up with the best web design tools that will help you to work smarter. When it comes to crafting a winning UX and UI design though, you've come to the right place. These are the cutting edge tools and resources that will help you to design a user friendly site. 01. Cursomizer [Image: Cursomizer] Created as a tribute to user interface pioneer Douglas Englebart, this site project from KIRKDESIGN invites UX designers to build custom mouse cursors. By tweaking various graphical properties across shape, colour and visual effects, visitors can prototype various options, test and even share their selections with colleagues by copying a link. 02. Axure RP [Image: Axure RP] A commercial rapid prototyping application for Mac and PC, Axure RP allows designers to sketch, wireframe and prototype UX projects using intuitive drag-and-drop editing. Broader features add flow diagramming and animation support, plus team collaboration tools including a cloud-based Axure Share facility for sharing published prototypes across devices. 03. Mockflow [Image: Mockflow] Describing itself as a UI and UX planning suite, this online application requires no download and enables designers to quickly brainstorm their user interface ideas. A free basic package scales up to Enterprise level, offering access to various feature modules across wireframing, site mapping, crafting design specifications, collaborative review, screenshot annotation and even site hosting. 04. StoriesOnBoard [Image: StoriesOnBoard] Available as a subscription SaaS product, StoriesOnBoard is primarily a user journey or ‘story’ mapping solution that invites UX designers to plot software project pathways. Narrative flows, goals and steps can be collaboratively visualised using cards, much like sticky notes, to arrange and rearrange story maps rapidly while attaching unlimited detail and comments. 05. Boords [Image: Boords] This online collaborative storyboard creator is available as a free trial alongside Plus, Team and Enterprise packages. Its built-in frame editor takes care of drawing the sharable storyboards, while an integrated ‘Animatic Tool’ adds dynamism and the inline script editor allows for the convenient addition of narrative text. Other notable features include client feedback collection, voiceovers and multiple export options. 06. Helio [Image: Helio] Helio, formerly known as Solidify by ZURB, is a web-based app that not only generates clickable prototypes from uploaded interface mockups but also crucially delivers feedback data. Designers can leverage user opinions and perspectives from 100,000 panellists to get valuable ‘Design Insights’ on specific audience demographics and their behavioural patterns. 07. UX App [Image: UX App] Another cloud-based tool, UX App enables designers to ‘wire up’ fully interactive prototypes for desktop applications, mobile apps and websites without any coding required. Its visual actions designer provides a toolbox of genuine HTML and JavaScript-based components, with the ability to define custom events, transitions and actions, or alternatively export designs out purely as PNG files. 08. Design Mirror [Image: Design Mirror] This clever preview plugin for Photoshop, Adobe XD and Sketch is joined by companion apps for Android and iOS devices. Once installed, designers can display their interface designs on the most popular smartphones via Wi-Fi, USB and browser link. Features include Windows and Mac cross-platform support, pinch zooming, swipe navigation and screenshot triggered saving. 09. UX Kits [Image: UX Kits] Products of Eric Miller Design, these ‘kits’ are essentially graphical templates and interface card decks for UX brainstorming purposes. Wireflows, website flowcharts and sitemaps can be independently purchased for Illustrator, OmniGraffle and Sketch, or in three format bundles. Wireframe and website card decks then provide a more tangible way to assemble pages or interfaces on any flat surface. 10. Wipebook [Image: Wipebook] Which UX designer has never wished they could wipe their sketchpads clean of bad ideas? Well, with Wipebook you can do just that and be eco-friendly too with a range of instantly erasable flipcharts and notebooks. Numerous sizes and correctable markers are available, with Wipebook Scan capable of saving those temporary doodles to the cloud before they vanish. 11. Smartlook [Image: Smartlook] Smartlook is a qualitative behavioural analytics platform across website and mobile apps. Key features include the ‘always on’ recording and replay of real video recordings that track how users interact, along with heatmaps for highlighting precisely where they click most. Automatic event tracking reveals overviews of popular feature usage, while funnels give detailed statistics on conversion pathways. 12. Adobe XD [Image: Adobe XD] Part of its Creative Cloud suite of applications, Adobe XD is actually a free product for transforming interface ‘comps’ into interactive prototypes. Smart visual editing tools include the dragging of wires to link artboards, easy import of other CC assets, plus support for animation and voice too. Additionally, a companion mobile app allows for native previews on iOS and Android devices. 13. Keynotopia [Image: Keynotopia] Keynotopia represents an impressive collection of over 5,000 royalty-free, vector-based user interface templates and components, plus over 200 icons too. Uniquely, they have all been created within Apple Keynote and Microsoft PowerPoint, while allowing designers to edit and customise each example without requiring other tools. Individual and bundle packs are available from $39. 14. UI Stencils [Image: UI Stencils] Geeks love gadgets and UI/UX designers are no exception. This trendy eShop provides a number of accessories including sketchpads and pens, but primarily a range of seriously cool interface stencils and ‘framer’ rulers. Made from durable stainless steel or thick translucent plastic, the stencils support iPhone, Android, iPad and website drawing along with general bubble symbols for diagramming user flow. 15. Ideapaint [Image: Ideapaint] Picture the scene – your brainstorming session has yielded a superb UX design idea, but the whiteboard is AWOL and paper is scarce. Well with your boardroom decorated in dry erase IdeaPaint you can simply scrawl directly on the walls! Magnetic primer lets wipe-able wall coverings be stuck instead, with a number of erasers and cleaning products also available for office proud startups. 16. Userbrain [Image: Userbrain] This cloud-based user testing solution promises to simplify the process by letting website designers watch videos of real visitor interactions. Userbrain basically provides access to a worldwide network of new users ready to share feedback via continuous capture of experience insights. Findings can be quickly shared between teams and stakeholders, with anything open for testing if it has a valid URL. 17. UX - A user experience testing timer [Image: UX - A user experience testing timer] This free app from Alexander Cox is available for iOS devices and essentially provides a timer for timing usability tests. Multiple tests can be set up to contain a number of customisable constituent tasks for the test subject to complete, logging completion time for each. Results can then be captured as screenshots stored and made accessible within the iOS camera roll. 18. UX Companion [Image: UX Companion] UX Companion from Cyber-Duck Ltd is an Android, iOS and Amazon Alexa skill app that provides users with a useful UX glossary. Aside from merely defining terms and jargon, it lists descriptions and resources on UX theories, tools and leading principles to give everybody greater insight into the practice. Totally free to download, the app boasts 80 plus topics and regular updates. 19. Framer X [Image: Framer X] Framer is a web-based rapid prototyping tool that places emphasis on not just being responsive, but realistic. Drag-and-drop components make screen design and plotting navigational flow beautifully intuitive, while the addition of 3D effects add the wow factor. Access to the Framer X Store also provides thousands of additional resources and UI kits so designers needn’t start from scratch. 20. POP [Image: POP] Marvel’s POP stands for ‘prototyping on paper’ and has free apps for iOS and Android smartphones. Here designers can take photos of their interface sketches or design from scratch using POP’s drawing tools and stock assets, before linking screens together using interactive hotspots. Sharing options across email, SMS and social media then encourages collaboration. This article was originally published in issue 285 of creative web design magazine Web Designer. Buy issue 285 here or subscribe to Web Designer here. Related articles: 7 golden rules of UX 5 emerging UX trends in 2019 7 steps to a solid UX strategy View the full article

HiddenWasp is unique for Linux-based malware in that it targets systems to remotely control them. View the full article

Breakfast food chain IHOP is up to its tricks again. You may remember last year it ruffled a few online feathers when it suggested that it was going to change its name to IHOB in reference to the burgers it added to its menu. Well it appears to be pulling a similar publicity stunt, this time centred around the letter 'P'. Anyone who's put together a meticulous design style guide will be aware that changing a logo this frequently could confuse and irritate audiences. And they would be right. The internet is a bit tired of IHOP's antics. It all kicked off earlier this week when IHOP posted a cryptic tweet that saw the temporary IHOB logo flip back to a P, accompanied by the message 'we heard you'. This is a reference to the backlash generated by last year's IHOP marketing campaign. As it turned out, IHOB was just a fleeting rebrand that was designed to create a buzz around its new burgers. And it worked. Sales quadrupled during the fiscal qurater that IHOB was IHOb. Shortly after the 'we heard you' tweet, IHOP teased audiences even more with another status that promised to reveal all on June 3. This video saw a flurry of angry messages in response to IHOb fly towards the viewer, each reminding us that IHOP should 'stay in its lane' and focus on what it's good at. Namely: pancakes. Just as last year's stunt whipped up speculation as to what the letter 'B' in IHOB could stand for, social media users were quick to offer their suggestions as to what 'P' could mean. As it turns out, there were plenty of NSFW ideas, which we won't repeat here because we're a family website. At the time of writing, it remains to be seen what the 'P' will stand for. Could IHOP be granting the wishes of its angry audience by revealing that it does, in fact, stand for pancakes? It would be a bit of a troll move, and we don't imagine IHOP would throw away this publicity on revealing that nothing has changed. Perhaps it could be another reference to a new product. Pies, perhaps? It could even be hinting at a new service. Personalised pancakes anyone? Either way, we don't have to wait too long, as IHOP promises to know what P stands for on June 3. Related articles: 5 reliable ways to refresh a tired logo The best (and worst) rebrands of 2019 so far 18 controversial moments in logo design and branding View the full article

Modern sites often combine all of their JavaScript into a single, large main.js script. This regularly contains the scripts for all your pages or routes, even if users only need a small portion for the page they're viewing. When JavaScript is served this way, the loading performance of your web pages can suffer – especially with responsive web design on mobile devices. So let's fix it by implementing JavaScript code splitting. How to code faster, lighter JavaScript What problem does code splitting solve? When a web browser sees a <script> it needs to spend time downloading and processing the JavaScript you're referencing. This can feel fast on high-end devices but loading, parsing and executing unused JavaScript code can take a while on average mobile devices with a slower network and slower CPU. If you've ever had to log on to coffee-shop or hotel WiFi, you know slow network experiences can happen to everyone. Each second spent waiting on JavaScript to finish booting up can delay how soon users are able to interact with your experience. This is particularly the case if your UX relies on JS for critical components or even just attaching event handlers for simple pieces of UI. Do I need to bother with code splitting? It is definitely worth asking yourself whether you need to code-split. If your site requires JavaScript for interactive content (for features like menu drawers and carousels) or is a single-page application relying on JavaScript frameworks to render UI, the answer is likely 'yes'. Whether code splitting is worthwhile for your site is a question you'll need to answer yourself. You understand your architecture and how your site loads best. Thankfully there are tools available to help you here. Get help For those new to JavaScript code splitting, Lighthouse – the Audits panel in Chrome Developer Tools – can help shine a light on whether this is a problem for your site. The audit you'll want to look for is Reduce JavaScript Execution Time (documented here). This audit highlights all of the scripts on your page that can delay a user interacting with it. PageSpeed Insights is an online tool that can also highlight your site's performance – and includes lab data from Lighthouse and real-world data on your site performance from the Chrome User Experience Report. Code coverage in Chrome Developer Tools If it looks like you have costly scripts that could be better split, the next tool to look at is the Code Coverage feature in the Chrome Developer Tools (DevTools>top-right menu>More tools> Coverage). This measures how much unused JavaScript (and CSS) is in your page. For each script summarised, DevTools will show the 'unused bytes'. This is code you can consider splitting out and lazy-loading when the user needs it. The different kinds of code splitting There are a few different approaches you can take when it comes to code splitting JavaScript. How much these apply to your site tends to vary depending on whether you wish to split up page/application 'logic' or split up libraries/frameworks from other 'vendors'. Dynamic code splitting: Many of us 'statically' import JavaScript modules and dependencies so that they are bundled together into one file at build time. 'Dynamic' code splitting adds the ability to define points in your JavaScript that you would like to split and lazy-load as needed. Modern JavaScript uses the dynamic import() statement to achieve this. We'll cover this more shortly. Vendor code splitting: The frameworks and libraries you rely on (e.g. React, Angular, Vue or Lodash) are unlikely to change in the scripts you send down to your users, often as the 'logic' for your site. To reduce the negative impact of cache invalidation for users returning to your site, you can split your 'vendors' into a separate script. Entry-point code splitting: Entries are starting points in your site or app that a tool like Webpack can look at to build up your dependency tree. Splitting by entries is useful for pages where client-side routing is not used or you are relying on a combination of server and client-side rendering. For our purposes in this article, we'll be concentrating on dynamic code splitting. Get hands on with code splitting Let's optimise the JavaScript performance of a simple application that sorts three numbers through code splitting – this is an app by my colleague Houssein Djirdeh. The workflow we'll be using to make our JavaScript load quickly is measure, optimise and monitor. Start here. Measure performance Before attempting to add any optimisations, we're first going to measure the performance of our JavaScript. As the magic sorter app is hosted on Glitch, we'll be using its coding environment. Here's how to go about it: Click the Show Live button. Open the DevTools by pressing CMD+OPTION+i / CTRL+SHIFT +i. Select the Network panel. Make sure Disable Cache is checked and reload the app. This simple application seems to be using 71.2 KB of JavaScript just to sort through a few numbers. That certainly doesn't seem right. In our source src/index.js, the Lodash utility library is imported and we use sortBy – one of its sorting utilities – in order to sort our numbers. Lodash offers several useful functions but the app only uses a single method from it. It's a common mistake to install and import all of a third-party dependency when in actual fact you only need to use a small part of it. Optimise your bundle There are a few options available for trimming our JavaScript bundle size: Write a custom sort method instead of relying on a thirdparty library. Use Array.prototype.sort(), which is built into the browser. Only import the sortBy method from Lodash instead of the whole library. Only download the code for sorting when a user needs it (when they click a button). Options 1 and 2 are appropriate for reducing our bundle size – these probably make sense for a real application. For teaching purposes, we're going to try something different. Options 3 and 4 help improve the performance of the application. Only import the code you need We'll modify a few files to only import the single sortBy method we need from Lodash. Let's start with replacing our lodash dependency in package.json: with this: In src/index.js, we'll import this more specific module: Next, we'll update how the values get sorted: Reload the magic numbers app, open up Developer Tools and look at the Network panel again. For this specific app, our bundle size was reduced by a scale of four with little work. But there's still much room for improvement. JavaScript code splitting Webpack is one of the most popular JavaScript module bundlers used by web developers today. It 'bundles' (combines) all your JavaScript modules and other assets into static files web browsers can read. The single bundle in this application can be split into two separate scripts: One is responsible for code making up the initial route. Another one contains our sorting code. Using dynamic imports (with the import() keyword), a second script can be lazy-loaded on demand. In our magic numbers app, the code making up the script can be loaded as needed when the user clicks the button. We begin by removing the top-level import for the sort method in src/index.js: Import it within the event listener that fires when the button is clicked: This dynamic import() feature we're using is part of a standardstrack proposal for including the ability to dynamically import a module in the JavaScript language standard. Webpack already supports this syntax. You can read more about how dynamic imports work in this article. The import() statement returns a Promise when it resolves. Webpack considers this as a split point that it will break out into a separate script (or chunk). Once the module is returned, the module.default is used to reference the default export provided by lodash. The Promise is chained with another .then() calling a sortInput method to sort the three input values. At the end of the Promise chain, .catch() is called upon to handle where the Promise is rejected as the result of an error. In a real production applications, you should handle dynamic import errors appropriately. Simple alert messages (similar to what is used here) are what are used and may not provide the best user experience for letting users know something has gone wrong. In case you see a linting error like "Parsing error: import and export may only appear at the top level", know that this is due to the dynamic import syntax not yet being finalised. Although Webpack support it, the settings for ESLint (a JavaScript linting tool) used by Glitch have not been updated to include this syntax yet but it does still work. The last thing we need to do is write the sortInput method at the end of our file. This has to be a function returning a function that takes in the imported method from lodash.sortBy. The nested function can sort the three input values and update the DOM: Monitor the numbers Now let's reload the application one last time and keep a close eye on the Network panel. You should notice how only a small initial bundle is downloaded when the app loads. After the button is clicked to sort the input numbers, the script/ chunk containing the sorting code gets fetched and executed. Do you see how the numbers still get sorted as we would expect them to? JavaScript code splitting and lazy-loading can be very useful for trimming down the initial bundle size of your app or site. This can directly result in faster page load times for users. Although we've looked at adding code splitting to a vanilla JavaScript application, you can also apply it to apps built with libraries or frameworks. Lazy-loading with a JavaScript library or framework A lot of popular frameworks support adding code splitting and lazy-loading using dynamic imports and Webpack. Here's how you might lazy-load a movie 'description' component using React (with React.lazy() and their Suspense feature) to provide a "Loading…" fallback while the component is being lazy-loaded in (see here for some more details): Code splitting can help reduce the impact of JavaScript on your user experience. Definitely consider it if you have larger JavaScript bundles and when in doubt, don't forget to measure, optimise and monitor. This article was originally published in issue 317 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 317 here or subscribe here. Related articles: 9 of the best JavaScript frameworks 15 essential JavaScript tools you should be using 14 of the best JavaScript APIs View the full article

Not every logo design stands the test of time. For every classic logo there are hundreds that age less than gracefully, and even the best designs can start to look a little past it after a while. If a logo design is past its prime – or if it no longer accurately reflects a brand's identity – then the temptation can often be to bin it and start again. This is always a great way to attract attention to a brand – not always the sort of attention you want, to be fair – but it also runs the risk of alienating loyal customers who have grown comfortable with the old logo design. (For more on logos, see our ultimate guide to logo design.) Rather than start anew, sometimes the best approach is to play it safer and give the logo a thorough refresh, retaining the aspects that still work and getting rid of – or simply changing – what doesn't. Here are five tried and tested approaches you can take, and five brands that have used them to stunning effect. 5 logo design terms you should know 01. Change the palette Eating under these golden arches feels a lot less like a meal of shame [Image: McDonald's] Colour and colour theory play a vital part in good logo design; each colour has its own connotations and a well-chosen palette can both communicate a brand's psychology and speak directly to its core market. And once a brand becomes widely recognised, you mess with the palette at your peril. Sometimes, though, the colour scheme that worked in the past might no longer accurately reflect a brand's values – or at least the ones it wishes to focus on – and a shift in palette becomes a viable option. This most recently paid off for McDonald's; long associated with junk food and wanting to reposition itself as a healthier, more eco-conscious operation, it's pulled back on the brash primary colours of its old branding, and while it retains those iconic golden arches, in many European restaurants it's replaced the vivid red background with a more refined hunter green. 02. Lose the text This is still clearly Mastercard; can your brand get away with a similar trick? [Image: Mastercard] Having an instantly recognisable brand identity is a marketing dream, but it can also be a bit of a millstone around a company's neck. When your logo's well-established, changing it becomes almost unthinkable. One option, though, is to use that recognisability to your advantage, focus entirely on your well-known logo and get rid of the text entirely. It's a high-stakes move that requires a stack of confidence and absolutely depends on having a logo to work with that's already incredibly well-known, but if a brand can get away with it then it scores a huge promotional win, with a mark that provokes an instant reaction and also feels more personal and less corporate. Most recently Mastercard pulled this one off with a Pentagram rebrand that reduced its logo to a simple pair of overlapping circles, and it's also worked for the likes of Apple, Starbucks and Nike. 03. Switch the font Switching to its own sans serif was a smart move for Google. [Image: Google] While the fundamental rules of design never change, tastes and fashions just keep on moving on, and this is particularly noticeable where typography is concerned. There's a slow but regular shift back and forth between serifs and sans serifs, so while at one point a serif wordmark makes a brand look authoritative and respectable, give it a few years and it just looks stuffy and out of touch. Every logo designer has to face the fact that sooner or later the fantastic font that they picked for a wordmark is going to look horribly outdated, and while it'll doubtless go back to looking on-point in another few years, right now it needs changing. Google grasped that particular nettle in 2015, ditching its outmoded serif wordmark for a friendlier model using its own Product Sans font, while retaining its colour scheme and the playful tilt on the final 'e', and giving a brand that's ancient by internet standards a fresh, modern look. 04. Play on nostalgia Bringing the Co-op's clover leaf logo out of retirement was an inspired move by North [Image: Co-op] Any brand that's been around for a while will have accumulated a small pile of discarded logos over the years, and sometimes it pays to have a hunt through the archives to see if anything there's worth digging out and dusting off. A logo designed in the 1960s may have been well past its prime 20 or 30 years later, but today it might look fresh and exciting again once it's been cleaned up and re-rendered in crisp vectors. And with a repurposed logo from the past there's sometimes an added bonus in that you get to hook into consumers' sense of nostalgia; people love it when a much-loved brand from their childhood makes a comeback, as seen in 2016 when North did away with the Co-operative's overly corporate branding, turning it back into the Co-op and bringing back its caring, sharing clover leaf logo from the 1960s. 05. Simplify Dan Lawrence did away with all the unwanted detail and fussy extras in Grolsch's branding [Image: Grolsch] Another thing that can happen to a long-lived logo design is that people can't resist tweaking and refining it over the years. A drop shadow here, a bit of highlighting there, some extra on-trend detailing… it all adds up, and the end result of all these little adjustments can be a massive mess. Even if a logo's been left largely untouched over the years, it may not be fit for purpose today. Logos need to work a lot harder these days; they need to look good on everything from massive banners down to social profile images and app icons, and older logos weren't necessarily designed with that degree of scaling in mind. When you're dealing with either case, often the only option is to go back to basics and strip the brand down to its bare essentials, something best exemplified by Dan Lawrence's recent redesign work for Grolsch. Having decided that the brand's originality and story had been lost across many redesigns, he threw out everything in the branding that served no purpose, even recreating its logo in a simplified vector style. The end result is minimal, functional and powerful; still recognisably the same brand but completely reinvigorated. Related articles: 18 controversial moments in logo design and branding Where to find logo design inspiration 5 logo design apps for beginners View the full article

For the first time in 61 years, American music label Warner Bros. Records has rebranded itself. Say hello to Warner Records, which was launched earlier this week with a new brand identity and logo created in partnership with the world's largest independent design consultancy, Pentagram. Previously the label had been recognised for a good part of the last six decades by the famous Warner Bros. shield logo. Subtle variations over the years saw it accompanied by the word 'records', while a merger with Seven Arts in 1967 saw the brief use of a more angular design based around the letter 'W'. Pentagram's new logo (below) breaks from convention though as it sees the name Warner Records put front and centre. Accompanying the name is a simple sun graphic that appears to be rising thanks to a subtle but effective piece of cropping.(To learn more about the art of logos, see our post on logo design.) It's the dawn of a new identity for Warner Records. [Image: Warner Records] The Pentagram rebrand follows some behind-the-scenes reshuffling at Warner Bros. Records. Having been sold by Time Warner in 2004, the label was under obligation to keep trading as Warner Bros. records for the next 15 years – a decision that stipulated that the label kept using the same name and logo. That agreement has now expired, allowing Warner to usher in the rebrand. And in a way it couldn't have come at a better time. The Warner label has seen a recent leadership change, and in March the company relocated from Burbank to downtown Los Angeles. A press release from Warner Records says that, "[f]or the first time in the label's history, we've had the opportunity to create a distinct, modern identity entirely of our own." It goes on to say that the new logo will succeed thanks to its "artful simplicity and impactful typography that are ideally suited to the digital world. The circular icon—suggesting a record, a sun, and a globe—is a nod to the label’s past, present and future. The openness of the design gives it the flexibility to embrace all Warner Records artists and all genres of music around the world." Related articles: The 25 greatest animated music videos 10 of the best logos ever 11 steps to better logos View the full article

Knowing how to resize an image in Photoshop is a fundamental skill for designers. Whether you're uploading an image to the web or preparing it for print, it's important to get the size correct. Luckily Photoshop offers plenty of tools to help you perfect your picture size. Although the process can be a bit of a minefield if you haven’t attempted it before. In this beginner's Photoshop tutorial, we will examine how to resize an image in Photoshop. We'll address the dangers involved, and explain some methods that will help you deal with them. As well as covering how to manipulate canvas size and image size, we'll also cover resampling, cropping, and how to edit an individual layer. Want to learn more about Photoshop? See our roundup of the best Photoshop tutorials. Get Adobe Creative Cloud here How to change Canvas Size You can set the width and height of your canvas in the Canvas Size dialogue window. When the layer is unlocked, increasing the canvas size will add transparent pixels Perhaps the simplest and least problematic method of resizing a Photoshop document is to change the size of the canvas itself. In doing this, the image content will remain the same size while the boundaries around the asset change. Increasing the canvas size will add transparent or coloured pixels around the image, depending on whether your layer is locked or not. Decreasing the canvas size will crop into the image, removing image data from around the edges. You can make these adjustments by going to Image > Canvas Size in the Menu bar. The dialogue window lets you enter new values for both the width and height of the canvas, offering a range of measurement units to suit your purpose; you should be using pixels for digital, and inch/centimetre for print. The canvas anchor point is automatically set to be centred, adjusting the canvas size uniformly around the whole image, but can be moved if you wish to add or remove pixels from any particular edge. By selecting the Relative checkbox you will be able to add or takeaway an equal number of pixels from around the current canvas size. Photoshop CC also allows you to do calculations inside all number fields. Use Trim and Reveal All Trim and Reveal All are both functions that affect canvas size, without having to enter the Canvas Size dialogue window. Trim removes unwanted areas of transparent pixels or background pixels of a specified colour. In a similar fashion to using the Canvas Size dialog window, the transparent option will only be visible when your layers are unlocked. Reveal All will resize the canvas to show any content that exceeds the document boundaries. Both of these can be found under Image in the menu bar, but should only be viewed as quick fixes that offer limited control over the process. If all this seems too complicated, you can always just create a new document with the correct dimensions (File > New and choose your dimensions) and place your image into it, moving it around until it fits. Changing canvas size can be helpful when making graphics in Photoshop, but is less useful when altering the actual size of an image. For that you will need to use Image Size. Adjust Image Size in Photoshop Resampling will change the image size without affecting the resolution. Choose the correct resample method for the best results The sensible choice for resizing an image in Photoshop is the appropriately named Image Size, found under Image > Image Size in the Menu bar. But before jumping straight into this, you should first try to familiarise yourself with the idea of resolution and why it matters. When resizing an image, your aim should be to change the image size without compromising on resolution. You’ll probably already have a vague idea that resolution is something to do with the detail in an image. The confusion arises when you begin to talk about resolution in terms of pixel density, displayed in Photoshop as ppi (pixels per inch). Image resolution in Photoshop A higher resolution means a sharper image, right? Well actually it all depends on the resolution of the image relative to its size; as the size of the image increases, the relative ppi will decrease. This is especially important in printing, where ppi defines how many dots of ink are used per inch (often referred to as dpi). For example, imagine a one-inch by one-inch image, with a resolution of 100 ppi. Increasing the size of this image to ten-inch by ten-inch will decrease the ppi to 10. If you go on to use the image at that size, there will only be ten pixels per inch and it will appear pixellated and have jagged edges. The general rule is that you can make an image smaller without having any major issues, but you will encounter problems when making it larger. When sending an image to print, a dpi of 300 is recommended, although this depends on the quality of the image and the size you’re printing to. A 300dpi image is suitable for an A4 page, but you can get away with using a lower dpi for a billboard, since people will be viewing it from further away. For digital images, the most important number is the number of pixels in the image rather than density. A 500px x 500px image will always be 500px x 500px, no matter what the pixel density is. To test this effect, make sure resample is turned off at the bottom of the Image Size dialogue window. You will now notice that changing the height, width or resolution will alter the other two values proportionally; the total number of pixels in the image has not changed. If you type your desired resolution into the number field, the resulting width and height show the maximum size your image can be used at. Resampling an image Using an image at the wrong size can lead to pixelation issues. Enlarging an image without losing resolution is the white whale that all designers are chasing. That's because there is no enhance button that magically removes pixilation and sharpens an image. In reality your best hope is the resample function. Resampling changes the pixel dimensions of an image by actually adding or deleting pixels. It does this through a process called interpolation, which analyses the original pixels and creates new ones, essentially by making an educated guess. You can turn resample on at the bottom of the Image Size dialogue window. This time when you alter the width or height it will not affect the resolution at all. This is because Photoshop is filling in the missing pixels to retain the same resolution at the larger size. Turning Constrain Proportions on means the width and height will remain at a fixed ratio, preventing you from squishing or distorting your image. You might find that doing your upscaling in steps works better than doing it in one big jump. Resampling is generally not a good idea, since you will lose clarity and sharpness from the image When performing the upscale, make sure you have selected the correct resample method from the drop down menu at the bottom of the Image Size dialogue window. There are two options clearly marked for reduction and enlargement, the Bicubic Sharper and Bicubic Smoother. The 2018 update of CC (see our review of the latest Photoshop CC) introduced us to Preserve Details 2.0 Upscale, a new algorithm for upscaling images. It is not yet an official part of Photoshop, so if you wish to try it out, you will need to turn it on in Preferences > Technology Preview > Enable Preserve Details 2.0 Upscale. You will then need to locate this as a resample method in the Image Size dialogue window. Resampling is generally not a good idea, since you will lose clarity and sharpness from the image, but is the best of a bad world if you have no other options. There are a few tricks you can use to alleviate the resulting softness. After the resampling is finished, duplicate the layer and add a High Pass filter, found under Filter > Other > High Pass. Turn this new layer onto soft light in blending modes and it will add sharpness and contrast to the image. You can also try using an Unsharp Mask on the original layer, found under Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Crop images in Photoshop Use the crop tool to rotate and reframe your image, using the shift key to lock the aspect ratio Sometimes you may be happy with your image size, but want to focus in on a specific area to improve the overall composition. To do this, you need to use the Crop tool. Select the Crop tool in the toolbar or with the C shortcut (this is one of many Photoshop shortcuts). The crop borders will appear around the image, allowing you to drag the edge and corner handles to adjust the fit. Holding down the Shift key down will ensure your crop retains the same aspect ratio as the original image. Alternatively you can set a specific ratio in the number field on the menu bar. Clicking just outside the frame will let you rotate the crop and straighten the image. You can also draw a new crop box straight onto the canvas by clicking and holding over the image. When you’re happy with the crop either press enter or double-click to go back to normal edit mode. Resize a single layer The Free Transform tool will allow you to resize and distort an individual layer Instead of changing the entire image, Photoshop also lets you edit individual layers. Select the layer you wish to resize and go to Edit > Free Transform or press cmd + T. The transform box has the same controls as a crop box; use the handles to scale up or down, click outside to rotate, and hold shift to scale proportionally. By holding the cmd key you will be able to move individual corner points around and distort the image. Double-click or press enter when you’re happy. There are more creative options for resizing your layer under Image > Transform, such as Warp and Perspective. You should bear in mind that enlarging a single layer has the same pixellation problems as changing the entire image size, unless your layer is a vector graphic. Other tools that could be used to change the layer size are the marquee tool, to literally select and delete areas of content, or the mask tool to hide areas. [Images: author's own] Related articles: 66 free Photoshop actions The 10 commandments of Photoshop etiquette How to compress images: a web designer's guide View the full article

When you're setting up your studio or home office, you need to get your priorities straight. Naturally you need decent computer hardware, the right desks and some comfortable office chairs, but you also need all those little extras that turn a workspace into a welcoming environment. A few plants can make a big difference to your studio ambience; a little greenery here and there can really brighten up the place and make things feel less sterile, and some good-looking plants are also handy models to help you improve your sketching skills. If you're clever about it, though, you can choose greenery that helps improve productivity and wellbeing in your workplace. 19 super-cool design offices to stir the senses The plant experts at online florist, SerenataFlowers.com, have put together a helpful infographic featuring 10 plants that'll have a really beneficial effect in the studio (plus a few more with less work-related benefits). Here are five ways in which they can improve your workspace; take a look and then head for the nearest garden centre, and don't forget to pick up a watering can while you're there. 01. Increase productivity Choose Bamboo Palm or Golden Pothos for a more productive workspace [Image: SerenataFlowers.com] According to a study by the University of Exeter, simply having plants in the office can increase productivity by 15 per cent. They reduce stress and fatigue, improve memory retention and also regulate humidity and reduce carbon dioxide, helping workers remain energised. Particularly useful choices are Bamboo Palm, which is great for combating indoor air pollution, and Golden Pothos, which removes air toxins and also absorbs unpleasant smells – put one near the fridge or office microwave. 02. Reduce anxiety Both Lavender and Snake Plant bring mental health benefits [Image: SerenataFlowers.com] People are much more switched-on about mental health and self-care than they used to be, and while it's in no way a quick fix for mental health issues, having plants in the office can be an effective way of improving your mood and reducing anxiety. Lavender can slow your heart rate and lower blood pressure, making it particularly good for reducing stress, while Snake Plant is thought to reduce anxiety, cure headaches and improve respiratory problems. 03. Clean the air Improve the air quality in your studio with these plants [Image: SerenataFlowers.com] If you want to literally improve the atmosphere in your studio, a few plants can really help in removing harmful toxins such as harmful toxins such as benzene, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and xylene. Rubber Plants and Spider Plants are especially good at scrubbing toxins out of the air, and become even better as they age, and Peace Lilies are believed to improve air quality by up to 60 per cent – but be careful with them if you have office pets. Some lilies are fatal to cats, and while the Peace Lily isn't one of them, it can still make cats and dogs very unwell if ingested. 04. Repel critters Mint and Basil will keep unwanted visitors at bay [Image: SerenataFlowers.com] With summer around the corner, it's the perfect time to open a window and let some fresh air in, but that inevitably results in unwanted insects buzzing around and getting in your face. But by having some Basil plants around doors and windows, you're less likely to be bothered by insects. Another option is Mint; it repels loads of insects including mosquitoes, and it can even keep mice at bay. 05. Help you sleep Get a good night's sleep by having Aloe Vera and Jasmine by your bed [Image: SerenataFlowers.com] Maybe not one for the studio unless you really value nap times, but if you want to feel refreshed at work then a couple of plants by your bed can help you get enough restful sleep at night. Aloe Vera produces oxygen at night, which can combat insomnia and improve your quality of sleep, while Jasmine flowers reduce anxiety levels and produce a gentle scent that can lull you into a deep sleep. Looking for more than work benefits from your plants? Here's the full infographic from SerenataFlowers.com. Click to see the full-size infographic from SerenataFlowers.com Related articles: The best desks in 2019 for your home office or studio 8 must-have products for a smarter studio The best computer for graphic design View the full article

Want to become an in-demand front end engineer? The Ultimate Front End Development Bundle can help you get there for just $29. In 48 hours of training, you'll become comfortable with programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These primary languages will greatly increase your job prospects, as well as your income! The best web hosting services in 2019 You'll practice building your own websites from scratch, and you'll even learn how to get prepared for technical interviews. You'll also learn the tricks of the trade that can help streamline the web development process. Pick up The Ultimate Front End Development Bundle, and use code WEEKEND60 for 60% off the already price-dropped price of $29. Related articles: 27 top-class website templates The future of web design A web designer's guide to CSS methodologies View the full article

Wise and knowledgeable people are never truly done learning, and Stone River eLearning believes that with a passion. That's why a Lifetime Membership will guarantee you're always expanding your skill set and knowledge base. This online school offers 300+ courses and 2,000 hours of online learning, on topics ranging from the graphic design industry to how to develop iOS apps. Certification exams, unlimited ebooks, and even personal guidance are all a part of the one-time fee. And you'll also get in-depth guidance through courses such as Bootstrap, Unity 3D, Java, MySQL, etc. The best cloud storage 2019 Get Stone River eLearning: Lifetime Membership for just $59, and use the code WEEKEND60 for an extra 60% off. Related articles: How to make an app 14 of the best JavaScript APIs 16 top free Bootstrap themes View the full article

It’s not long till Prime Day, Amazon’s annual bargain bonanza. We're expecting to see some huge savings on Prime Day 2019, but how do you ensure that you’re really getting a good deal – and how do you ensure that you don’t miss out on the best ones? Naturally part of the answer involves bookmarking our constantly updated list of the best Amazon Prime Day deals for designers, but there are some things we definitely recommend you do in advance and on the day too.These are our top tips for making sure you bag a genuine bargain on Prime Day. 01. Do your homework Amazon pre-announces many of its Prime Day deals either in the days running up to the event or in the hours before a Lightning Deal begins. If you haven’t already signed up for Prime, you should think about doing so soon: Lightning Deals are usually open to anybody, but on previous Prime Days Amazon made them members-only. It’s free for 30 days and you can always cancel it later. It’s worth keeping an eye on Lightning Deals in particular because they’re only available for a very short time. 02. Check the price history We’re big fans of price comparison services because they enable us to see whether a deal is too good to be true. Once a price goes live on Amazon, you can use CamelCamelCamel to see that item’s price history. The site works for various Amazon sites, not just the US one, and it can tell you whether that Prime Day Instant Pot deal is really a one-off. You can use general price checkers such as PriceSpy too. They don’t tell you the Amazon price history, but they do tell you what lots of other retailers are charging. That’s particularly useful with product categories where the price retailers charge often bears very little relation to the price the manufacturer says they should charge, such as 4K monitors and Ultra HD TVs. By seeing what everyone else is charging you can see if that massive price drop is really a discount or just a comparison to an inflated RRP. 03. Choose a section, not a SKU You’ve more chance of bagging a deal if you think in terms of categories rather than specific products and SKUs (SKUs are retailers’ stock keeping units). You’re much more likely to get an Amazon Prime Day deal on, say, a 4K OLED UHD TV or a Core i7 laptop than on a very specific LG 4K OLED UHD TV or specific model of laptop. That said, if a laptop is what you're after and you can't wait, we've got a great selection of the best laptops for graphic design, all at the best prices. 04. Know what's current Just like in traditional retail, deals are often applied to items that Amazon or its partners wants to get rid of. That often means discontinued or end-of-line stock. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if you know what’s current and what’s on its way out you can adjust your price expectations accordingly. It’s particularly important to do this with electronics such as TVs, computers and mobile devices as it makes a mockery of any quoted RRP: that was the recommended selling price when it was new, not what it’s actually worth now. For example, as we write this Apple has just updated its iPod touch. Let’s say the old one gets discounted by 25 percent, bringing it down to £133 compared to £199 for a new one. That’s not necessarily a bargain: the outgoing model’s processor is four years old. The new one is twice as fast with three times better graphics performance, and it’ll be supported with iOS updates for longer. 05. Buy the things Amazon wants to sell you Without fail, some of the best discounts on Prime Day are on Amazon products, Amazon products you didn’t know were Amazon products and products that play nice with Amazon Products. In the first category you have the Kindles and Kindle Fires, Echo devices and Fire TVs. In the second, Ring doorbells (and keep an eye on Amazon’s fashion labels such as Find or Truth & Fable for that next fancy design event). And in the third category are primarily smart home devices such as Hue lights and smart plugs. If it can help Amazon sell more products or services, there will be a Prime Day deal to be had. Read more: The best cheap iPad deals in 2019 The best super-fast fibre broadband deals in 2019 The best Dell XPS 15 9570 deals View the full article

High-risk applications that require zero latency, like remote surgery, could cause loss of life in the event of a cyberattack. View the full article

Marvel's team of mutant superheroes, the X-Men, have been going strong since their debut way back in 1963. In that time the franchise has spawned some of the comic book publisher's most famous characters, not to mention tons of blockbuster films. Change is at the heart the X-Men's longevity, and with a new chapter for the comics just around the corner, it was decided that the time was right for them to get a new logo. (To learn more about logo craft, see our post on logo design.) Created by graphic designer and creative director Tom Muller, the recently unveiled logo design will appear on the pages of House of X and Power of X when they hit shelves this summer. This pair of comics form a mini-series that set up a complete reboot of the franchise spearheaded by acclaimed writer Jonathan Hickman, and artists Pepe Larraz, R.B. Silva and Marte Gracia. Unlike the new logo for Justice League, which was revealed last week, Muller's design doesn't fall back on specific reference points from the series' past. He does however rely on the tried and tested piece of X-Men iconography: the letter 'X'. This symbol has been at the heart of X-Men logos for decades, so it's good to see the letter is retained and refined for a new age. Muller worked closely with Hickman and Marvel to develop several iterations of the logo (in the gallery below) before settling on the final design, which sees the letter X split in the middle by a vertical line. This is then displayed on a pair of yellow and red backgrounds. "Part of the design references one of the initial teasers Marvel released that said 'When two aggressive species share the same environment, evolution demands adaptation or dominance'" Muller tells Creative Bloq. "In part the new logo design reflects ideas on the evolution of species and the duality of social groups that has always permeated the X-Men stories. The halves of the X can also be read as > and < signs or even arrows. "The final logo is a clear evolution and refinement of those initial concepts. It was important for everyone that we struck the right balance between being new and future-facing whilst keeping that clear X-Men ‘X’ recognisable and build on the foundations of the X brand." The new logo will appear on the Power of X and House of X series. Image: Comicbook.com The first issues of House of X and Power of X go on sale this July. For more information and to stay up to date with releases, head over to Marvel. Related articles: How to colour comics 14 imaginative web comics to inspire you How to combine 3D and comic art in ZBrush View the full article

Sometimes the world doesn't seem such a happy place, particularly on Twitter. That's why we've decided to celebrate the work that makes us smile. It may not be exactly the same as the work that brings you cheer, of course, but perhaps it'll be a starting point to find more happiness-inducing projects. Once you've got your own curated list of work that makes you grin, it might be time to update who you follow, or create your own 'happy list'. And if you're looking to update your own design portfolio, then why not create something with a bit of humour or cheer in mind? It could go down well at your next job interview (see our design jobs board if you're looking for a new challenge). We should also say that we were originally inspired by Luke Tonge's tweet on this subject. See the thread below for more suggestions to bring cheer. Without further ado, here are our top five projects sure to raise a smile. 01. Soft Spot Philippa Rice's work combines a mish-mash of styles, and this video of animations made with her partner Luke Pearson is a random mix of shorts involving her characters. There are crochet characters on the washing line, dancing paper characters, and a creature playing what we think is a banjo. What can we say? We like it. 02. Liquid Death Liquid Death couldn't be more different to Soft Spot. It's vulgar, it's violent, and it's selling... bottled water. So it's probably best not to delve into why we like it, but it does still make us laugh. Liquid Death was created by Mike Cessario, who has a background in advertising and marketing, Pat Cook, a heavy metal bartender, JR Riggins, a manufacturing expert and animator Will Carsola, who's best known for animated sitcom Mr Pickles (created for Adult Swim). Read more about Liquid Death here. 03. NOYO NOYO's identity embodies the word 'joyful' This campaign for National Open Youth Orchestra– the world's first disabled-led youth orchestra – never fails to cheer us up. It combines vibrant colours with bold shapes, and bold statements, and was created by Fiasco Design. "No more barriers," says the campaign. "Just great music." And who are we to argue with that? 04. Enough Multi-awarding winning short film Enough by Anna Mantzaris isn't exactly the jolliest of films, but it did make us laugh. The animated short chronicles characters losing control, in a number of familiar irritating situations. If you've ever felt like throwing your computer on the floor or shoving a plate of spaghetti in someone's face, this one's for you. 05. Viva la Vulva Viva la Vulva, a campaign for Libresse by Somesuch, recently won a Black Pencil at the D&AD Awards, and we're not in the least bit surprised. Instead of all the usual elements of a period product campaign: people in white trousers, rollerskating and blue liquid, it instead has singing vulvas, a Barbie doll looking in horror at her smooth genitals and real women talking about their vaginas. We also love the soundtrack – a reworked version of Fatboy Slim's Praise You. Viva la Vulva indeed. Read more: World's smallest McDonald's opens for bees – and it's amazing! How to make money on Pinterest as a creative How to connect with your audience (while staying true to your brand) View the full article

Want to get on the fast track to a career in a creative field, such as graphic design, content creation, or photography? This 41-Hour training school will get you up to speed with Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator - three of the most useful tools for anyone in a creative industry - for just $39. Learn how to produce beautiful artwork on the computer using Illustrator, discover the art of designing magazines and newsletters with InDesign, and bring your photos up to a professional level with Photoshop. Get Adobe Creative Cloud Get Graphic Design + Adobe CC Certification School for just $39, and use code WEEKEND60 for an additional 60% off. Related articles: The 38 best Photoshop plugins Design a killer logo in Illustrator The 15 best photography websites View the full article