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A category to hold articles that are quick and easy to ready and that don’t dive too deeply into a topic.

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Scratching the Surface: Applying the elements of design to web design.

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Applying the elements of design to web design.

Design is a broad concept that encompasses the organization and presentation of visual elements in a variety of contexts. From product packaging to web design, design principles help create a cohesive and visually appealing experience for the user. The elements of design are the essential components used in the design process: line, shape, space, texture, form, colour, and value. Each of these elements can be used to create a compelling visual design.

Line

Line is a fundamental design element and can draw attention, create movement, and add structure to a design. Lines can be vertical, horizontal, diagonal, or curved. In web design, lines can separate page sections, create a visual hierarchy, or create a sense of movement.

Shape

Shape uses two or more lines to create a closed figure. Shapes can be geometric or organic and frame elements, define space, and create a sense of order. In web design, shapes can be used to create visual interest, separate page sections, or add emphasis.

Space

Space refers to the area between and around objects. Space can create a sense of balance, draw attention to a particular element, and provide structure to a design. In web design, space can be used to separate page sections, draw attention to certain elements, or provide a sense of organization.

Texture

Texture is the surface quality of an object that can be seen and felt. Texture can be used to add visual interest and dimension to a design. In web design, texture can provide a sense of depth and interest, draw attention to certain elements, or add a tactile quality to a design.

Form

Form is the three-dimensional quality of an object. Form can be used to create a sense of depth, add visual interest, and emphasize certain elements. In web design, form can be used to add a sense of depth and interest, draw attention to specific features, or highlight an element.

Colour

Colour is the use of different hues to create a particular visual effect. Colour can create contrast, draw attention, or evoke emotion. In web design, colour can create a visual hierarchy, draw attention to specific elements, or create a particular mood or atmosphere.

Value

Value is the lightness or darkness of a colour, and value can be used to create contrast, draw attention, or evoke emotion. In web design, value can create a visual hierarchy, draw attention to specific elements, or create a particular mood or atmosphere.

So, design elements can create compelling visual designs in various contexts, from product packaging to web design. By understanding and utilizing design elements, designers can create visually appealing and cohesive designs tailored to the user’s needs.

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Communication is vital when it comes to working with a web designer

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Communication is vital when it comes to working with a web designer

Whether you’re commissioning a website from scratch or making minor revisions to an existing one, effective communication is essential to communicate your needs and expectations to your designer. To help ensure a successful outcome, here are ten tips for sharing your vision with your web designer.

Have a clear idea of your goals

Before you even start talking to your web designer, clear objectives are crucial to understanding your goals. What are you hoping to accomplish? What are some of the features you’d like your website to have? Taking the time to think through your goals before you get started will help make the process much smoother.

Provide clear instructions

Once you’ve determined your goals, you should provide clear instructions to your designer. Be as specific as possible so there’s no confusion. If you have any visuals that could help explain your vision, send them along.

Ask questions

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Your web designer knows the ins and outs of the process, so asking questions can help you better understand what’s going on and can ensure that you’re getting the results you want.

Set realistic expectations

It’s essential to have realistic expectations for your website. Don’t expect perfection from the get-go; allow some testing and refinement time.

Be open to feedback

Your web designer may have ideas to help improve your website’s look and feel. Be open to their feedback and suggestions, and don’t be afraid to ask for clarification or further explanation if needed.

Provide access to helpful resources

If you have any valuable resources that could help make your web designer’s job easier, be sure to provide them. Include images, stock photos, logos, or other content relevant to the project.

Set deadlines

Deadlines are important for web design projects. Be sure to set realistic deadlines and make sure that your designer is aware of them.

Be patient

Web design projects can take time, so patience is essential. Don’t expect everything to happen overnight.

Give timely feedback

As the project progresses, give your designer timely feedback. Your feedback can help ensure that the final product conveys your desired message.

Show appreciation

Don’t forget to show appreciation for your web designer’s hard work. A thank you or a kind word can go a long way. 😉

Conclusion

Communication is vital when it comes to web design projects. By following these ten tips, you can ensure that you’re communicating with your designer in the most effective way possible; it ensures that your website sends the correct message about your business and that the process is as stress-free as possible.

DALL·E 2022-11-07 11.09.23 - A leonid afreov painting of two pythons twined together

Scratching the surface: 10 reasons to learn and love Python and Django programming.

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10 Reasons to Love and Learn Python and Django programming.

1. Python is a very popular language that is easy to learn for beginners and has many modules and libraries that allow for robust programming.

2. Django is a powerful web framework written in Python that makes web development fast and easy.

3. Python and Django are free and open-source software, so you can save money on development costs.

4. Python is highly readable and Django follows the “Don’t Repeat Yourself” principle, so your code will be clean and maintainable.

5. Python is used by many top companies such as Google, Instagram, and Pinterest, so you can be confident in its stability and scalability.

6. Django has a very active community that provides support and excellent documentation, so you can quickly get started and find help when needed.

7. Django comes with a lot of features “out of the box” such as an ORM, authentication, and templating, so you can focus on developing your app rather than spending time on setting up infrastructure.

8. Django’s tests are easy to write and run, so you can be confident in the quality of your code.

9. Deploying Django apps is simple and there are many hosting options available, so you can get your app up and running quickly.

10. Python and Django are fun to work with and allow for rapid development, so you can get your product to market quickly and iterate based on feedback.

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Scratching the Surface: Scaling Images

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As a web designer, it’s critical to know how to properly scale images for your site. Many times, designers will simply grab an image from a stock site or elsewhere on the web and use it without thinking about the consequences. This can lead to several problems, including slow page loading times, distorted images, and poor image quality.

When scaling an image, it’s important to keep the file size as small as possible while still maintaining the original aspect ratio. For example, if you have an image that’s 1000px by 1000px, and you want to scale it down to 500px by 500px, you can simply open the image in an image editor and resize it. However, this will result in a file size of 500kb, which is much too large for use on a web page.

Instead, you should export the image as a JPEG with a quality setting of around 70-80%. This will result in a file size of around 100kb, which is a much more reasonable size for use on a web page. The tradeoff is that the image will be slightly less sharp, but this is usually acceptable for most purposes.

If you need to further reduce the file size, you can try using a lossless compression tool like PNGGauntlet. This will allow you to reduce the file size without any loss in quality, but it’s important to remember that even a small image can easily become a large file when using lossless compression.

Ultimately, the best way to avoid having to scale images is to simply use the correct size image in the first place. However, there are times when you simply can’t avoid having to resize an image. In those cases, following the tips above will help you to ensure that your images are properly scaled for the web.

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Scratching the Surface: Relating Web Design and Branding

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When it comes to branding and web design, the two go hand-in-hand. While a company’s brand is its identity, the website is often a potential customer’s first introduction to that brand. In other words, the website is an extension of the brand itself. That’s why companies need to put thought into both their branding and their web design. The two should work together to create a cohesive experience that accurately represents the company and what it has to offer. Here are some things to remember when creating a branded website:

Keep Your Branding Consistent Across All channels.

Your website should reflect your company’s overall branding strategy; this means using similar colours, fonts, and logos, across all channels – from your website to your social media accounts to your email marketing campaigns. Consistency will help customers easily recognize your brand no matter where they encounter it online. Creating a consistent look for your brand can be achieved partly through templates or style guides for Web design.

Use High-Quality Visuals That Reflect Your Brand Image.

Good visuals are essential for any branded website. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. High-quality photos and videos help tell your story in a way that text alone cannot. Be sure to select visuals that accurately reflect your brand image. For instance, if you’re a luxury brand, your website should look upscale and elegant. On the other hand, if you’re targeting millennials, your site might have a more modern feel.

Pay Attention to the Details

The details matter regarding branding and web design. From the colours you use to the fonts you select, every element on your site contributes to your brand’s overall look and feel. Paying attention to those details will help ensure that your website leaves a positive impression on visitors.

Tell Your Story

A branded website should engagingly tell your story to tell customers why they should care about your company and what makes you unique. Don’t be afraid to be personal – after all, customers want to do business with real people, not faceless corporations. Share Your Story on your About page or blog posts to humanize your brand and build customer trust.

Make It Easy For Customers To Take Action

Finally, once you’ve told Your story and grabbed visitors’ attention with beautiful visuals, it’s time to give them a reason to stay on Your site longer by providing valuable content such as articles, ebooks, tips or guides. But don’t forget call-to-actions (CTAs) urging visitors to take further action, such as signing up for a newsletter or scheduling an appointment. Placing CTAs strategically throughout your site helps guide users toward taking the next step in their customer journey, whether making a purchase browsing more product pages, or subscribing to your blog.

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Scratching the surface: Responsive Grid System

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A responsive grid system is a great way to create a responsive web design. It allows you to create a flexible, fluid layout that responds to the user’s device and screen size.

There are a few different grid systems available, but I recommend using the Bootstrap grid system. It’s easy to use and has a lot of features that make responsive web design easier. (Bootstrap Quickstart)

To use the Bootstrap grid system, you need to add some HTML code to your website’s HTML file. This code will create rows and columns on your page that you can then put your content into.

Once you have your rows and columns set up, you can start adding your content to them. You can add text, images, videos, etc. into any of the cells in your grid.

The beauty of using a grid system is that your content will automatically adjust itself when viewed on different devices.

So if someone is viewing your site on their phone, they’ll still be able to see all of your content without having to scroll horizontally or zoom in/out.

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Scratching the Surface: Media Queries Explained

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Scratching the Surface: Media Queries Explained.

A media query is a CSS3 construct that allows developers to target styles at a specific set of devices.

The general form of a media query consists of a media type followed by one or more expressions that check for the desired media features. For example, the following media query will only apply its styles when the media type is “screen” and the width of the screen is equal to or greater than 320 pixels:

@media screen and (min-width: 320px) { /* Styles */ }

Media types

The media type is the first part of a media query. It is typically one of the following:

all: matches all media types 
screen: matches devices with a screen (such as computers, tablets, and phones) 
print: matches devices intended for printing

Media features

After the media type, you can specify one or more media features. These are the most common media features:

width: the width of the device 
height: the height of the device 
device-width: the width of the screen 
device-height: the height of the screen 
orientation: the orientation of the device (portrait or landscape)

You can also use media queries to target specific features such as color or monochrome screens, resolution, and more.

leonid afremov inspired painting of cell phone

Scratching the surface: 10 ways to make a website mobile friendly

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Scratching the surface, Quick Bites: 10 ways to make a website mobile-friendly.

Responsive design

Responsive design is an approach to web design that makes web pages render well on a range of devices, from mobile phones to desktop computers.

Use a mobile-first approach

Mobile-first is a strategy for web design and development in which the mobile version of a website is designed before the desktop version.

Use a responsive grid system

A responsive grid system is a framework for creating responsive web designs. It is based on a 12-column grid and uses media queries to change the layout of the content on different devices.

Use media queries

Media queries are a CSS3 feature that allows you to change the CSS styles of a web page based on the device it is being viewed on.

Viewport meta tag

The viewport meta tag is an HTML5 element that allows you to control the width and scaling of a webpage on different devices.

Images that scale

Images that scale are images that can be resized to fit the width of the viewport on different devices.

Font sizes that are legible

Font sizes that are legible are font sizes that are large enough to be read on different devices.

Touch-friendly buttons and links

Buttons and links that are touch-friendly are easier to press on mobile devices.

Content that is easy to read

Content that is easy to read is content that is easy to understand on mobile devices.

Mobile-friendly navigation

Mobile-friendly navigation is navigation that is easy to use on mobile devices.

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Scratching the surface of Keyword Research

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SEO quick bites, keyword research:

Keyword research is the process of finding and selecting the right keywords to target for your website or business. It’s a critical part of any effective SEO or content marketing strategy.

There are a number of different ways to do keyword research, but the basics remain the same: find relevant, high–volume keywords that you can rank for.

To find the right keywords, start by brainstorming a list of terms related to your business or website. Then, use a tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner or Moz Keyword Explorer to research the monthly search volume and competition for each term.

Once you’ve found a few good keywords, it’s time to start optimizing your website or content for those terms. Add the keywords to your title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and throughout your content to help Google understand what your page is about and to improve your chances of ranking for those terms.

By following these steps, you can conduct effective keyword research that will help you drive more traffic to your website or blog.