For all of us who blog whether on our own site or as a guest blogger, we put in the research and start planning the pre-writing phase then once we have everything we need we write it up and it gets published, our thoughts, ideas and tips to share with the world.

But who is going to see it? If you don’t circulate your article and draw new readers in, effectively your article isn’t getting the attention it truly deserves.

Are a number of methods for drawing traffic to your new articles, but today I’m going to cover designer social bookmarking resources.

A number of these sites also offer external voting buttons which you can use on your own site or blog.

Design Float

Design Bump

The Web Blend

Design Poke

DZone

Cypher Box

Joyoge

Karma Codes

Designgizer

ZaBox

Pixel Groovy!

Faq Pal

WPScoop

Graphic Design Links

Design Shovel

Web Mee

DesignVote

Fav Share

Developers Niche

Inspired News

And although strictly they are not for design articles only, the following sites have a good following and have excellent design sections:

Mixx Design

Digg Design

Blog Engage

If branding is about creating stories, then brochures are the fashion industry’s storybooks. Every page a reader turns in a fashion brochure should enrich the brand’s latest story in her mind. That brand story must be embodied not just in the elegance of the clothes, but also in the tastefulness of the brochure design. When done right, fashion brochures can expose the beauty and fierceness in the couture collections they advertise.

The following images are 50 examples of stunning fashion brochure design, made to be fresh and fabulous eye candy for their season. I hope you appreciate not just every cut and swatch of fabric they were made to advertise, but also their stylish and harmonious layout and design.

Example of Fashion Brochure Designs

Clean web design techniques can mostly achieve high level of usability, legibility, and visual appeal, the use of plenty of white space and organized elements gives a professional look at the website.
In this collection, you’ll find 50 Clean Portfolio Web Designs for your inspiration, that let you see more examples about clean web design.

1. Creature

2. SketchyMedia

3. Haus

4. Shyama Golden

5. Neuromodule

6. Simon Corry

7. Vandelay Design

8. Usman Group

9. Shape

10. J. Pink Design

11. Read & Destroy

12. Square Box Studio

13. Jad Limcaco

14. John Likens

15. Studio Breakfast

16. Big Guns Design

17. Veronica Wallstrom

18. Elegantweb

19. AD Creative Group

20. Brett Chaney

21. Medusateam

22. Ola Syse

23. Conway Anderson

24. Creode

25. Schema

26. Ogvidius

27. James Deer Design

28. Deliciously Creative

29. Time Will Tell

30. Creative Agency for Emerging Media

31. Awesem

32. The Church of London

33. Buffalo

34. Borderleft

35. Core8

36. Favela

37. Creative Feed

38. Danstyled

39. Torchbox

40. Espresso

41. Jump Media

42. Digital Visions Queenstown

43. Nordkapp

44. Stark Web Design

45. WeSaySo

46. Pixel8

47. ProudCloud

48. Solv

49. Frish Design Studio

50. Clockwork

A party flyer can fill the dance floor with the perfect combination of creative font and other visual elements. Looking for new and different flyers will definitely hype you up to create a wonderful mix of designs on your own.

Club owners today are looking for new styles and designs in party flyers to attract a huge crowd. As a designer, it is important to look for up-to-date and striking designs for party flyers that will help you go out of the box. This is your lucky day! We’ve collected 50 awe-inspiring party flyer designs for you to look at and be inspired from.

Let’s start the party pumping with this roundup of 50 party flyer designs that will help boost your creative mind.

I really don’t like people who base their opinions about somebody or someone only on first impression, but in a world where all around us you can find multiple opportunities this could be decisive. When we are talking about the online world then a logo is equivalent to the first impression. Thus judging the great importance of the logo is revealed…but another question is how to judge the quality of a logo?

There are two components of judging the quality of a logo:

1. A subjective one that depends on the style, mentality or the culture of the judger. This can’t be predicted…all is very vague; each person has his own preferences. It could happen (the laws of Murphy are respected) that a very bad logo which doesn’t match the rules of design to be greatly appreciated by a client… it accomplished his/her/their demands and of course, like it; what impresses them is the logo and not if it respects the rules of design or not. The subjectivity wins over the principles of design in the most cases.
2. An objective one means that it is based on the rules of design .The problem regarding the rules and the number of it is still open…here are the ones which are the most important.

1. A Quality Logo Should Be Easy Rendered On All Possible Media

All the rules should be logical or have a commonsense. In most of the cases the clients are initially asking for a logo to put on a website… some of them believe that it is less expensive; in these conditions the restrictions are almost zero, or the creativity of the designer; few moments after finishing the logo he remarked that it will be perfect for him to have the logo on a business card and that could be a disaster. A logo only for a website could have some shadows, highlights or gradients and these are hard/impossible to look well or barely the same in print.

It is possible that the client wants the logo printed/painted on a T-shirt in an aggressive campaign of promoting and here other particularities arise. In these circumstances it is a mark of professionalism to realize a logo that has the same features on multiple media.

2. Try To Avoid Shadows, Highlights Or Gradients

This piece of advice has a connection with the previous one and the reason is clear to not recommend using these even if the overall design seems to suffer.

3. A Logo Should Look Well In Black & White Format

An important feature of a quality logo is the capacity of it to look well in black and white. This is so important because in this format the concept is highlighted and not the design. In the judging of a logo the primordial fact is the concept… colors, fonts can suffer some small modifications along the time. Problem of this: the trends in color??? These are changing every year and maybe the client wants a fresh look: he can change the nuances keeping the project. It is easy to notice and to understand a logo being fine in black and white has no problems in changing the colors.

4. Few Colors And Few Fonts

The great majority of high quality or well-known logos are using no more than three colors and one-two fonts, which are known by most of all users.

This recommendation is the one which makes the connection between composition and the concept of the logo. A logo should say everything about the owner: who the owner is, his field of activity, the quality of services and so on; all these should be conveyed in few shapes and two-three words. You may ask yourself… why that?

We all know that a human being can’t retain everything that he saw along the time of his life; in these conditions a complicated logo with a lot of colors, multiple fonts which are hard to distinguish and many shapes surely won’t be memorized by someone even if the services or goods provided are very good. Also keep in mind that a normal person has no interest in memorizing logos.

5. KISS- Keep It Simple Stupid

This is the most important. Maybe you could ignore the all previous rules, but ignoring is synonym with poor quality. Look at the great showcase of logos on the web and you will see that this rule is respected by all. Here are some places to visit and see great works:

6. Make It Recognizable

Obviously, no one except maybe the logo designers want to study logos. When you create a new logo, always keep in mind this statement; we live too fast and have too many opportunities to easily bring back some graphics in our memory. I recommend you to do something that can’t be learned, there works only of our talent and creativity but this is sure to be important: try to make it recognizable as much as you can…. but how can you do that? Simply, here the difference between a very good designer and an inexperienced one is made. There is no piece of advice, and I am afraid I could do nothing for you and once again, here works only talent, creativity and experience.

I am really excited to hear your principles of judging a logo or how to bust you skills in creating masterpieces.

Some people hated and some loved him. We are talking about Paul The Octopus who became internationally famous for accurately predicting all eight matches of 2010 World Cup including final. Paul retired after the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

This post is about Funniest Comics Of Paul The Psychic Octopus from Germany, who soon going to be the honorary citizen of a town in Spain’s northwest. I feel designers and artists have done great job in these comics where they express feelings of players, teams or coaches for Paul.

Also recently Paul the Octopus gets his own iPhone App. The Application called “Ask the Octopus” is available in the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

SPN vs GER by ~htdear

El Pulpo ha hablado… by ~KitoYoung

Paultology by ~almagracielam

AAAAAAAAAAARGH by ~TrueNeutral187

Maradona vs Paul the Octopus by ~artistneetu

Boss Spain and the Octopus by ~ChibiQueen-Anna

APH: Defeat – Prussia and Paul by ~FrauV8

THANK YOU, OCTOPUS PAUL by ~daevakun

Paul the Psychic Octopus by ~theblastedfrench

APH – I’m gonna eat you up by ~haagen-dazs

+ APH+FIFA: Congrats, Spain by ~azhrien

Ich habe dir doch gesagt – APH by ~NovaIxioXerces

APH: Oresama’s revenge by ~LaVidel

Football Funnies 55 by ~panamanga

APH:Spain vs. Germany by Cadaska

Your Turn

Its always good to know what others think about what you write. We love to hear your thoughts on Paul the Octopus? Leave your message in the comments section below.

When it comes to ecommerce, design is everything. If you have any intention on making profit, you’re going to need a site that is designed so as to be appealing and comforting to the user. You could be selling the best products on the market for extremely reasonable prices, but the fact is, a poorly designed site is going to damage your sales immensely. Here are seven tips to help move your ecommerce website design in the right direction.

1. Cleanliness Is Next To Goodliness

Image Credit

It should go unspoken that a clean, visually appealing design is the most important thing you can do for your ecommerce site. However, the amount of cluttered and broken-linked ecommerce sites on the web is astounding. If the consumer is unable to shop efficiently, they will inevitably go elsewhere.

2. Colors Speak Words

Image Credit

Any college-level graphic design class worth taking will approach the subject of color and its connection to emotions. This does not hold more true than when it comes to web design, specifically when it comes to ecommerce. Use non-threatening colors such as light blues and greens. Green is an excellent color to indicate a sale or price cut. Avoid using the color red if possible.

3. Sneak In Your Sales

Image Credit

One of the advantages of ecommerce is to be able to advertise external products while a customer is shopping. Many websites use the “customers who purchased this item have also purchased…” strategy, which can be very effective. Just be sure not to be too vigilant, as no one wants to have extra items pushed upon them.

4. Choose Your Provider Wisely

Finding the best ecommerce web hosting provider for your business is not to be understated, as this is a crucial part of the process. Doing a bit of research on the web will save you time and money, as well as help guide your decisions. While price is always important, be sure you choose a provider that rides on a good reputation.

5. Speed Is Everything

Most people enjoy shopping online because it affords them the opportunity to finish their shopping quickly. Be sure that your checkout process is streamlined and easy for the user to understand and complete quickly. After all, if there is too much red tape, a customer might exit out of an order they are about to make, which translates to losing a sale – and no one wants to lose a sale.

6. Don’t Be A Jack Of All Trades

Some ecommerce sites are able to get away with selling everything from lawnmowers to toothbrushes, but this is unwise for a smaller or start-up site. Focus on a niche that you are knowledgeable about, as many consumer would prefer to go to a site like that rather than a “big box” site if they are looking for something very specific.

7. Watch Your Pricing

Image Credit

People who shop online do so primarily based upon pricing, which is why it is crucial to keep your pricing low and competitive and to let the consumer know this. Designing your site to show your competitors prices right next to yours can instill confidence in the buyer, and will lead them to believe that your site holds the best deals on the net.

A lot of websites don’t have a 404 error page, but having a good one is very important. We can’t stop a user from landing on the 404 error page, but we can give a helping hand to guide them back to the homepage. If you don’t have an Error 404 page on your website or blog, you should really think about creating one soon. Here are 25 Creative 404 Error Pages to give you some inspiration and ideas to get you started. Thank you for reading and enjoy.

31Three – 404

Blizzard Entertainment – Error!

Blue Sky Resumes – 404 Error

Copimaj – Error 404

Critical Zero – Error Page

Fabrica De Caricaturas – Nothing Found for 404

Glazben Skola Krizevci – 404

Graphicpeel – 404 Page

Koodoz – 404 Error

The Literary Bohemian – Error 404 Page

Milrayas – Error 404

Mom and Popcorn – 404 Error Page

N.Design Studio – 404

Neutron Creations – 404 Page

Project Fedena – Error Page

Protege La Foret – 404

PV.M Garage – 404 Error Page

Sebastian – Error 404

Sickdesigner – The Error 404

Stickybits – 404

Still Etage – 404 Error

Storenvy – Page Missing

Tap.Plox – 404 Error Page

Vuu Media – Error 404 Page

Walk With You – 404 Error Page

The internet is a marvelous place – millions of websites and millions of people (nearly two billion, in fact) out there mixing and chatting and buying and selling, like some giant virtual bazaar. Moving into this bustling and profitable marketplace is a top priority for any serious business in the modern economy, but so often when businesses move online they fail to think beyond their own language group. According to Google Zeitgeist, half of all Google users are searching in languages other than English, while Internetworldstats.com has found that 78% of internet users are non-English native speakers – if you set up your site purely for English speakers, then that’s a significant chunk of your potential online customers you’re giving a cold shoulder to.

Website Accessible Across Languages

Image Source: Ottoboni.se

The key to creating a website that’s easily accessible across languages and cultures is to think in terms of your international audience from the very beginning. You don’t want to have to go to the expense and trouble of creating a completely different website for each and every country, but you do need to localize your domains and content to effectively reach different groups. What you want is a basic design template that can then be adapted to suit the peculiarities of each target market.

This means a template on which you can easily switch the copy and the colour scheme to appeal to each demographic (be aware of what particular colours mean to each of your target markets – don’t make the same mistake as telecoms company Orange, who launched in Northern Ireland in 1994 with the slogan ‘The future’s Orange’, somehow thinking that they would not then be associated with the Loyalist Protestant Orange Order – needless to say this did not go down too well with the local Catholic population).

Your template should be flexible enough to take into account different navigation requirements, for instance, by keeping the navigation bars horizontal to be easily changed between left-to-right and right-to-left languages. It should be able to switch easily between being minimalist (currently popular in the west) and image heavy (popular in the east).

Switching Between Languages

Image Source: Tanktheory.com

It should use CSS rather than HTML, to allow for easy switching of content between websites, and should use Unicode UTF-8 for its character encoding, to save you headaches when switching between languages. But most important of all, it should have copy that is written specifically with the target audience in mind, which has been translated by a professional working into their own native language.

There’s potential for error everywhere when you’re switching your copy into a foreign language. It might be tempting to just allow Google Translate, or Babelfish, or a similar automated translation tool to do the work for you, but consider just how garbled the copy on, say, an Italian site becomes when you translate it using an automated tool and you can see why it’s not a good idea. As clever as they are, automated translation tools have no sense of nuance or slang or the delicate flow of a language, as such the literal word-for-word results end up as pure nonsense more often than not. Nothing makes a brand look more foolish than having garbled or misspelled copy – unless you happen to be a greengrocer with a penchant for extraneous apostrophes – so if you want to keep your potential foreign language customers from doing little more than giggling at your site and then leaving, you’ll need to make sure all your copy is translated by a specialist in the language and, indeed, even the specific dialect.

Research

Image Source: Nb2.com

Lastly, it’s important to do your research into each particular target market – different cultural groups have different expectations and look for completely different things in a website. Research has shown that consumers from cultures in which much of communication is implicit, non-verbal and ruled by the mores of social conduct – for instance Asian or Middle Eastern cultures – tend to take more meaning from the context of a website, what the imagery says and what the brand says about itself, than consumers from countries where communication is direct and the meaning is always included in the message, such as Germany. Those consumers would much prefer that a company get straight to the point and explain what they are selling and why it’s worth buying.

Taking into account research statistics revealed by Common Sense Advisory Inc. in their 2006 report Can’t Read, Won’t Buy: Why Language Matters for Global Websites, which showed that 85% of consumers won’t purchase a product if they can’t read about it in their own first-language, and you can see exactly why localizing your website content and online marketing campaigns is an absolutely essential step if you want to reach out into non-English speaking markets. By thinking of your specific local audiences from the start, you can make sure your website will appeal to any demographic or language group, and maximise your potential for profit.

Redesigning a website can be very satisfying and very stimulating for a web designer. A redesign consists of objectively improving the aesthetics or the structure of a website and, with the use of new elements or content, giving a new form or a new identity to the site.

Getting our hands on an out-of-date and roughly-done website, with the complete freedom to modify, add to, subtract from, and overhaul what we please, is extremely exciting. Unfortunately, this enthusiasm can often result in an incorrect work process, with a negative impact on the end result and on the eventual success of the redesign.

Before we open Photoshop and start racking our brains for the new connotations our website should have, let’s clear up some key points.

Redesigner Or Realigner?

It would be impossible not to cite Cameron Moll’s article “Good Designers Redesign, Great Designers Realign” for A List Apart, from the distant past of 2005 (yet the article content remains quite pertinent): Cameron brilliantly divided webdesigners into “redesigners” and “realigners”.

Redesigners work on the aesthetics of redesign and justify its necessity with phrases like “the website’s old, it’s been online for two years”. This approach is obviously quite superficial, since, as we’ll later examine in detail, it’s always recommended to look at the over-all functionality of a website, without limiting oneself to design or aesthetic efficiency.

Realigners, on the other hand, strategically plan the goals to be reached, the target audience, the client’s desires and many other factors to be considered before touching the actual website.

In synthesis: the redesigner focuses on the site’s aesthetic, while the realigner focuses on its purpose.

Now that we’ve looked at the difference between the two, let’s get into the details.

How To Plan And Design A Good Website Redesign?

The first questions to ask are: what changes need to be made to the website in consideration? What improvements does the client expect from me? What short and long-term goals do I need to consider?

Content Structure

Too much information and poorly arranged. Filling a website’s pages with content, placing text elements, images and links everywhere with no logical sense, assures one result: the redundancy of data eliminates any useful information present and disorients the user, who will prefer looking elsewhere rather than trying to figure out if what he needs is hidden somewhere on the page.

Tip: Let’s start by thinning out the content. A website’s information must be immediately available, clear, and as simple as possible. The user isn’t flipping through an encyclopedia, but rather is looking for a quick solution to his problem. Long text passages aren’t enticing, especially if they’re not visually “lightened-up” with graphic elements. Write a summary of the inserted text, then when you’ve finished, write a summary of the summary. Make sure that the resulting text is neither verbose nor exhausting for the reader, and that it communicates the essential.

It’s important to plan the website’s structure in detail:

• How many pages does it contain?
• What are the main pages and what are the internal pages?
• How to link the pages together to facilitate site navigation? (anchors, action buttons, banners, etc…)

The content redesign must also include good copy-writing and, from an aesthetic point of view, a good eye for the typeset. It’s useless to improve the graphics if the text is poorly spaced and illegible due to a miniscule font size. This article isn’t about typeset, so I’ll limit myself to suggesting this exceptional article by Robert Bowen of PelFusion, if you’d like to read more on the subject.

Element Organization

I’ve noticed that many websites have a serious defect: a lack of communicative coherence. Irrelevant images, elements that appear placed by chance or that change from page to page and disorient the user.

A small example? I gave up on navigating a blog I was interested in because I couldn’t locate the search field. It was only on my second visit to the blog (I’m a bit stubborn) that I discovered how to search the blog: I had to go to the bottom of the page and in the footer click on a microscopically small lens icon, which opened a panel with a search form.

Unfortunately (for the blog’s author) users are accustomed to finding the search field at the top of the page, and if possible on the right side. The author’s subversive choice will definitely cause them to loose potential readers. These kinds of errors even happen with elements vital to a website’s success, like the navigation bar or the contact form.

Tip: once the website’s structure has been determined (how many pages and which ones to include, etc.), it’s time to decide where to position the various graphic elements. A vertical or a horizontal navigation bar? The logo on the right or left side? Is it better to put the contact form on the home page or is the classic “contact” page sufficient? These choices aren’t just the client’s or designer’s aesthetic preferences, but rather are based on the need to provide usability and structural efficacy of the website.

Design And Aesthetic

The most exciting part of a redesign (in my opinion, as it’s the graphic part) is creating the new design of the layout. Choosing the style, the colors, the images, the graphic embellishments (paintbrushes, textures, patterns, etc.) and giving a dated and – let’s just say it – ugly website a new look, a new life, is of great satisfaction to every designer. Even in this case, before we jump head over heels into Photoshop, it’s necessary to analyze a few details.

• Colors: Should the colors used on the old website be considered “institutional colors” and therefore should they be kept in the new design?
• Style: We all know that the style to adopt depends on the target audience, the client’s desires and the type of business. Nonetheless, even if the business were flexible enough to handle a drastic switch from a minimalist style to an all-black grunge layout, such a radical change of the client’s web-based appearance could turn out the be a double-edged sword.

Tip: Whether we’re dealing with the design of a new website or the redesign of an existing one, it’s necessary to create a good brief before designing the layout in Photoshop.

In synthesis: what kind of users will navigate the website and, therefore, what could be the most effective style for this target? What is the image that the client wants to project, and consequently what are the most appropriate colors and images to use? Conceptual images? Photos of the company and their products? In this phase it’s important to not work “blind”, at the mercy of creativity and imagination, without guidelines to follow. The risk is to create a product that not only doesn’t effectively represent your client, but can actually damage their established image.

What Should Be Left As-Is And Why?

There are some elements, not necessarily present in all websites, which during the redesign phase should be considered “untouchable”.

• The logo: even if it’s a real eyesore and looks terrible in the new layout, modifying this distinctive element is recommended only after having completed a careful analysis and having taken all necessary steps. In the event of modifications to the company’s branding – especially if they’re extremely evident changes – the end client could have difficulty associating the product they already know with the new brand.
  Before suggesting a logo restyling based simply on our aesthetic desires (but it’s so ugly! it ruins the new design!), think of all the work behind it and of the probable consequences that will result from such a radical change. And, as long as this is neither your job nor your task, my sincere suggestion is: leave it alone.
• Institutional colors: if they’re part of the company’s identity, before changing them it’s necessary to evaluate the risk of confusing users that are accustomed to associating the company with the color blue (for example) and, seeing a green layout instead, end up disoriented.
• Useful and functional elements: The search field (as mentioned in the example above), the contact form, the navigation bar…sometimes it’s better to not completely overhaul the layout by avoiding position changes of the most frequently used elements. This is the main reason for which, even after numerous redesigns and various updates, most websites of large companies (for example, banks) always maintain a minimum of continuity and, especially on the home page, leave the main sections intact and visible. The user should notice the aesthetic improvements yet still feel “at home”.

Practical Examples: Let’s Redesign

After numerous theoretical concepts, now it’s time for a practical example. We’ll use this entertaining (and terrifying) collection from Noupe to help us with our project.  We’ll randomly choose a government website:  India, a country that has always fascinated me.

It’s clear that the website of the Indian government needs a good redesign: the graphics are practically in-existent and, most importantly, the information is presented in a chaotic and confused manner. The resulting website is difficult to use and, aesthetically speaking, definitely has room for improvement.

The challenge consists in creating a new layout that’s aesthetically pleasing, with a clearer and more consistent content structure, without completely redoing the current design.

To understand how the present content is subdivided and visualized, let’s start by creating a sort of “mental map” of the original website. In this manner we can discover how best to re-elaborate the content.

The top portion of the layout has red shading and the logo is on the left side, next to the phrase “the National portal of India”.

In our redesign, the header color remains reddish-orange. The logo remains unmodified and present on the left side, next to the same phrase used on the current on-line website. The new typeface is already more interesting and catches the user’s attention.

In the actual website, the search field and the LOGIN are on the right side. To avoid disorienting users, we’ll leave these two sections at the top right in the new layout as well.

In the actual site, the login and search field aren’t very noticeable and can easily pass unnoticed. In the new design, we’ve highlighted these two sections with color. The “contact us” link has also been made more visible.

The main content of the actual home page is subdivided in three sections.

We’ll recall this division by creating graphic containers that will enhance the aesthetic of the page and, at the same time, will give a clear and organized sense to the content. We’ll use the grid to help organize the spaces evenly and harmoniously:

Even though this redesign is created without a brief, and the end result could be more or less appreciated (I’m not here to dictate rules, and tastes are personal) the content is much more legible. The three sections are intuitive; the text is simpler to understand and is better organized. Sometimes providing too much information contemporarily can be a poor choice and can confuse the user.

Other elements of the page, like the (graphically terrible) links inserted in the menu at the bottom right and the banners that link to other content, don’t attract the user’s attention

In the redesign, the links have been inserted at the top, together with the other elements of the navigation bar (it’s useless to scatter links around the entire homepage: navigating a website shouldn’t turn into a treasure hunt!) and the banners have been redesigned as call-to-action buttons with colors, shapes, and typeface more appropriate to the layout.

Now that the content has been reworked in a more organized manner, there’s a bit more space to insert a link to a possible photo gallery “visit India”. This new graphic element adds vitality to the design and is a way to attract the user’s attention toward tourism in India. I’ll bet there would be a drastic increase in the number of visits to the “visit India” page.

Ok, after this long-winded article you must be tired, so let’s take a final look at our completed layout:

Now the site, in addition to its simplified content exposition, has a better design and a few key modifications have greatly improved its visibility and usability. All of this has been made possible by a specific redesign, not only by its new aesthetic (which still serves to give an identity to the site), but above all else by the strategic restructuring of its content.

A blog is a blog. But without a call to action, you risk losing readers. Or worse, if your goal is to activate or mobilize, you risk missing your goal.

A call to action is anything that encourages visitors to act. Whether signing up for email updates, following your twitter feed, or forwarding to a friend, calls to action are key. Calls to action span into the political and non-profit world as well. Succesful websites with purpose also ask for donations, letters to the editor, or general registration.

Here are some of the most effective methods, and associated tips for calling your visitors to action.

1. Social Media

Email Updates

Remember to place the signup form prominently, above the fold. Also, the simpler the better when it comes to signing up. When calling visitors to action, don’t ask for their life story; a simple name and email address form is ideal.

Twitter

Don’t over-do the Twitter thing. If people want to follow you on Twitter, they know how to find your information. Consider placing above the fold, but it doesn’t need to be huge.

RSS

Most modern browsers offer a way to identify sites with RSS feeds, but it doesn’t hurt to offer an easy-to-find image linking to your feed. It can be handy to offer multiple feeds based on categories or tags. I am certainly more inclined to subscribe if I can compartmentalze and choose specific areas.

Related Content, Popular Posts, Most Commented, Etc.

I call these types of tactics “Content Wrap-rounds” because they link readers to another part of your site, thereby increasing time on the site, demonstrating the diversity of content, and increasing the likelihood of retention.

2. Social Bookmarking

Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Technorati, etc.

These sites are pivotal to spreading the word. Of course, no site is successful without quality content. Nor are any successful that aren’t read. See how these relate?

3. Mobilize, Activate

General Registration

This is a rarely utilized but powerful tactic for engaging and retaining visitors. Signing them up as “members” or whatever you may call it will allow you to provide access to various engagement techniques such as following you on Twitter, promoting your site to friends, even writing letters or making phone calls for your cause.

Another tactic used by membership sites is sending sporadic emails encouraging users who haven’t visited in a while to visit again.

Contribute, Donate

Donate and contribute buttons are often utilized by political websites, and under-utilized by non-profits. Whether a simple Paypal donate button, or a complex payment gateway, donation buttons should be the most prominent button on your site. Unless, of course, you don’t need any money.

More about design techniques below, but your donate button needs to have contrast, and to pop from the page.

Engage

Giving finite engagement requests like writing letters, making phone calls, donating, signup up for updates, etc., on the front page is key. Don’t rely on inside pages to engage people. If it’s important, put it right on front.

Schedule

What’s going on in your world? Is your candidate or cause going to be in my area? Utilize calendar widgets and other boxes to tell people about what’s happening right now. Don’t delay or rely on emails to your list.

4. Design Tactics

Utilize Negative Space

Negative space is not necessarily white, but rather a space created by the absence of design elements. Use this space to your advantage. Placing calls to action within these spaces alone will encourage action.

Contrast Colors

Each quality website design has a color scheme. Choose a contrasting but thematic color from the scheme and use it to draw attention to various calls to action. If none of the colors in your scheme contrast signficantly from the rest, choose a new one that “goes” but easily draws attention.

Utilize Size

Larger elements attract the eye first, regardless of the reader’s intention. Pay attention to the size of your call to action and tweak as necessary. Some people say there is a ceiling in terms of size, I disagree. The size of your buttons should scale with the importance of the element.

Typography Matters

Choose typography carefully. This tool can be very helpful. As web browsers evolve, more fonts become “Web-friendly” and usable across platforms.

Follow the Eye

Consider where the eye will move naturally, and take advantage of this. Research shows people naturally read left-to-right, top-to-bottom. Also, the mouse pointer often starts at the top right of the screen. This political season, look for the most important button: the donate link. It will most often be located in the upper right area of the site.

Dimension

Dimension is very Web 2.0. Use things like dropshadows and overlaps to give dimension to elements. This brings focus to the particular element by giving the impression that it sits out from the page.

Wrap-Up

These points outline why and how a good website calls visitors to action. Every website should be doing it on some level, some more than most. Follow these guidelines and you’ll see increased conversions and effectiveness.

Apple iPad, the device which looks like a larger version of Apple’s iPod Touch will be available in April 2010. Before its availability, we would like to share some funny pictures for iPad. A lot of people disappointed after iPad introduced and created some funny pictures and illustrations about it. If you find something similar about iPad on the web which are not listed here, kindly share it with us in the comments below.

iGotaBigAssPocket Concept

A Comparative Chart Between Two Tablets

Apple iPad Advertising: 35% Superlative Garbage

iPad Future

iLame

iPad Nano

iPad Vs. Blu-Tack

iPhad

iPad With Wings

iPad Tampon

iPad Always

iPad – Expensive Bulky iPhone

iPad – iSpade

Multitasking iPad

The Real iPad

The New iPad

iPod Touch 2G + Mushroom = iPad

iMaxi

Get Used

There are certain design elements that all blogs should have to keep readers happy and engaged in your content. With the evolution of blogs and social media sites, the expectations for a blog are much higher. Readers expect to be able to read a post and have the ability to quickly comment and share by using the Twitter or Facebook accounts.

The other aspect is having a clean and consistent layout with your blog content. Users have higher expectations now and expect a blog that will be easy to read, find what they are looking for, and navigate.

If you manage a blog, see if you are taking advantage of these 8 design elements.

1. RSS/E-mail Subscribe

One of the key aspects to building a readership for your blog is to have subscribe options easily accessible. Give users the option of subscribing to your blog by RSS or E-mail. Make it prominent in the sidebar, header, each individual post, footer, and static pages.

2. Custom Header

Make your blog stand out by creating a custom designed header. This is your chance to put a unique spin on your blog and set yourself apart from your competitors.

Things to Include:

• Logo
• Navigation (Categories or Static Pages)
• RSS/Twitter Stats
• Subscribe Options
• Search Functionality
• Social Profile Icons
• Banner Space (optional)

3. Clear Navigation

If your main navigation is unclear, there is a good chance that a reader will not be able to find other topics that they may be interested in reading about. Use a clear and concise navigation, with no more than 7-10 categories. Once you go past 10, if gives the reader too many options to choose from and can get confusing.

4. Comments

Part of the reason that blogs are so popular, is the ability to provide your own comments on a post. So making it as easy as possible to submit comments is essential. Give the user multiple ways to either comment as a guest, sign-in, or login to one of their social media accounts. Disqus Comments is a fantastic plugin that allows users to easily leave comments by simply signing in to one of the social profiles.

5. Social Sharing Icons

Your content is only as good as the people that see it. If your content is not easily made to share, it will be much harder to build a readership to your blog. Using social media icons throughout the homepage, individual posts, and RSS feed, allows for readers to easily share content with friends and social community members.

6. Standard Graphic Sizes

Depending on the layout of your blog and content space, you will only be able to make your images a certain max width. Try to keep your images consistent. So if your max width is 600px, try to make your images 550px. This will help keep your content consistent and make your post more engaging. For images that have a white background, try adding a thin border to help keep that size consistency.

7. Sponsored Sidebar

I would assume that at some point everyone would like to monetize their blog, by adding banner/sponsorship ad space. As a best practice, the majority of blogs put 4-8 ad spaces in the sidebar because it is prominent real estate.

8. Custom Footer

Even though your footer is at the bottom of your blog, it is still an opportunity to keep users engaged in your content. You would be surprised how many people actually scroll to the bottom to look for “site map” styled links to easily navigate a site. This can also be a great way to do some deep linking in your blog to key pages and posts.

Things to Include:

• Recent Posts
• Popular Posts
• Category Links
• Links to Offers, Promos, Premium Content
• Banner Ads
• RSS and Share Icons
• Contact Info
• Write to Us Link
  

Image Credits:

• Smashing Magazine
• Web Designer Depot
• Stay On Search
• Specky Boy

Designers surf the web daily and visit popular design galleries for inspiration. Sometimes we don’t see the inspiration source while enjoying what we are doing. Games are one of them. We love to play games, specially me, and Street Fighter is my favorite game with Ryu a favorite fighter.

Capcom (an international developer and publisher of video games) is launching “Super Street Fighter 4” in April 2010 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Its an updated version of Street Fighter 4. Some new characters are also introduced in this version. Before you get your hands dirty with this game, we like to showcase some “Amazing Super Street Fighter 4 Artwork” for your inspiration.

There’s a lot of artwork over the web related to this game specially on DeviantArt but we selected only calligraphic strokes, ink smudges and ink sprays artwork for this list. We hope this surely inspire you and let us know what you think about this post in comments.

Abel

Abel is actually nothing more than a genetically engineered replacement body created for use by Bison. He was to be disposed of with the other failed specimens, but he alone managed to survive and escape.

Balrog

This brutal boxer has little respect for the rules and fights with a violent bloodlust. Having grown up poor, he places a high value on money and considers the poor to be beneath him.

Bison

The leader of the evil organization Shadaloo, Bison is responsible for the underground trade of drugs and weapons. He possesses a supernatural power known as Psycho Power the he wields for evil purposes.

Blanka

Blanka survived a plane crash only to be orphaned in the jungles of the Amazon. Though his fighting style is primitive and mostly consists of bites and spinning moves, he possesses real skill and is a formidable opponent.

Cammy

This young woman is a member of the esteemed group of operatives known as Delta Red. She was discovered three years ago with amnesia and taken under the wing of her commander, Col. Wolfman.

Chun-Li

Chun-Li, Interpol detective wears an outfit reminiscent of traditional Chinese dresses. She is bent on revenge against Bison, who killed her father in retaliation for his investigation into Bison’s drug trade.

Dan

Dan is a Hong Kong-born fighter of Japanese descent. He travels the world in an effort to spread his own self-developed fighting style known as Saikyo.

Dhalsim

This mystic yogi practices an esoteric form of yoga. He engages in street fighting to earn money for his poor village.

El Fuerte

El Fuerta enjoys two careers that he loves equally: luchador wrestling and cooking. His enthusiasm is palpable and he is very passionate about everything he does.

Guile

This calm and stoic soldier is a martial arts champion. He has thrown away that which was important to him in a quest to avenge his friend Charlie Nash who was killed by Bison.

Ken

Ken studies martial arts alongside Ryu and considers him his most competent rival. Though he was born into wealth, he believes in hard work and earned his fighting prowess through intense training.

Rose

Though Rose acts as a fortune teller in Genoa by day, she possesses a rare psychic ability called “Soul Power”. Calm and collected, she is always in control of the situation.

Rufus

This rotund American fighter loves motorcycles and travels everywhere on this favorite bike. He is extremely confident and rarely talks about topics other than himself.

Ryu

Ryu lives only for the fight and seeks opponents stronger than himself. He fights using the art of Ansatsuken as taught to him by his master, Gouken

Sagat

Sagat is the undisputed king of the art of Muay Thai. Following his defeat at the hands of Ryu, in which his chest was scarred by a Shoryuken, he temporarily disappeared from the fighting scene.

Sakura

Having witnessed one of Ryu’s fights by pure chance, Sakura endeavored to imitate his style and began street fighting herself. Like a true youngster, she seems to get a genuine thrill out of fighting despite the danger, often developing her own new moves.

Seth

The final boss of the game and the one responsible for holding the tournament, Seth is actually one of many genetically engineered replacement bodies created for use by Bison.

Vega

This narcissistic maniac loves nothing more than beauty and wishes to see all ugly people drown in a pool of their own blood. He is a practitioner of Spanish Ninjyutsu and relies on his swift and graceful movement and the claw affixed to his hand to fight.

C.Viper

This worthy fighter is a CIA agent. She is also a single mother and her daughter, Lauren, is on her mind at all times.

Zangief

This Russian wrestler is popularity known as the “Red Cyclone”. Inside his massive chest beats the heart of a true patriot.

NEW CHARACTERS

Adon

This-self proclaimed “King of Muay Thai” makes his naked contempt for others known with his surly attitude and tendency to throw insults at those he feels are inferior.

Cody

Despite his history as one of the heroes who liberated Metro City from the grips of the evil Mad Gear gang, Cody has a short temper and his penchant for starting fights has landed him in prison.

Dee Jay

Though he is the Jamaican kickboxing champion, he moonlights as a musician, releasing popular albums in his spare time. His disposition is extremely cheerful and he is always smiling.

Dudley

The English boxer is a refined gentleman. Always looking for a clean fight, his regard for the rules can be seen as a weakness in a street fight.

Guy

This serious-minded ninja is a practitioner of Bushinryu. He speaks in traditional Japanese, lending a stiff formality to his speech and mannerisms.

Ibuki

This high school girl lives in a ninja village. Having been raised in a ninja clan, she often dreams of an ordinary life enjoyed by other girls her age.

Juri

This S.I.N agent has earned the nickname of “spider.” She is very aggressive and takes pleasure in causing pain to her opponents.

Makoto

Though she looks young, her fighting prowess is nearly unmatched. She is a country girl raised in the rural Tosa region of Japan

T.Hawk

This warrior is a member of the Thunderfoot tribe. His father, Arroya Hawk, was killed by Bison and his tribe was forced from their tribal land as a result.

Watch New Characters In Action

* Artwork Source: Street Fighter

Today we have selected a topic called Making Blog with W3C Web Standards, which is very different and unique from our all articles till now and we are sure after reading this, you would definitely check your blog if it is according to the web standards or not. So continue reading and don’t forget to leave your opinion in the comments.

What Are Web Standards?

Web Standards is a general term for the formal standards and other technical specifications that define and describe aspects of the World Wide Web. These standards ensure that the information we are providing is accessible to everyone.

Who Define Web Standards?

The World Wide Web Consortium ( W3C ) is an international organization who work together to develop Web Standards, Led by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee.

What Made Us To Write About Web Standards?

We checked our blog (Smashing Share) to see if it has a valid XHTML and CSS. You can guess from the image above, what the result would have been? It showed 50 errors in Markup/  XHTML and 9 errors in CSS.

While making this blog, we never thought about web standards. It is our biggest mistake that we did not optimized and validated the Markup. We understand many WordPress Plugins mess up with the code and in result create invalid code. There are some other aspects also which make the Markup or CSS invalid. (e.g. Using some hacks etc.).

Also we went through many other blogs to see if they are having valid XHTML and CSS. It surprised that mostly all blogs we went through, having some errors either in the Markup or CSS. You can check this out yourself by visiting any blog and validate it through W3C validation Markup Service or can do it through “Web Developer” toolbar. Download this from the list of Firefox Addons for Designers and Developers.

Should We Design According To The Web Standards?

Internet Explorer 6 was launched in 2001 but people still consider it while designing their website to maintain web standards across all old and new browsers. May be 20% users of your website still use IE6 but you could lose those 20%, if your website is not optimized for IE6. Most websites are designed with web standards and compatibility in mind. Well, do Blogs contain valid XHTML and CSS? Do Blogs designed, coded and maintained keeping web standards in mind?

Why We Wrote About “Making Blog With W3C Web Standards”?

After going through our own blog and many others, it confused us that why blogs are not having valid XHTML or CSS? Creating a blog, making it online and writing regularly is not the only thing we should do with our blog. You should consider blog usability and accessibility as well. Purpose of writing this article is to get an answer to only one question. we are writing this to get opinion from everyone and clear the confusion whether these errors should be fixed or let them go like this?

What we can do to avoid invalid code and have a blog which is error free and according to the W3C web standards?

Also we would love to have some Tutorials about optimizing blogs according to the W3C Standards. We hope to find some Resources for “making blog with W3C web standards“, with the help of designers, developers and blogger community. Lets get in-touch and make the web (specially blogs) according to the standards.

If you enjoyed what you just read and want to help the community to live with web standards, don’t forget to appreciate by tweeting or promoting this in your own way. If you are interested to get informative articles right in your inbox, don’t forget to subscribe to RSS or Email.

2009 was a great year and we hope every body have enjoyed this year. Different topics were discussed in this year but Design Inspiration and Tutorials were the two hot topics around different websites in 2009. Throughout year there were great articles posted related to design inspiration and tutorials. We learned a lot of new stuff from these resources and expecting much more amazing stuff in 2010.


Below we have compiled a list of “Design Inspiration, Tutorials and Resources” for our readers. We have tried to bring Best of the Best from the year 2009 in this list. We must have missed a lot of resources and expect from our readers to mention it in the comments. We will try to keep this list updated if the link is worth of putting in the list.

Thank you for all your support in 2009 and we wish you all 2010 a very successful year.

Design Inspiration

55 Excellent WordPress Site Design for Design Inspiration

50 Stylish Navigation Menus for Design Inspiration

100 Websites With Outstanding Artistic Design

16 Popular Website Redesigns Of 2009

65 Creative And Stylish Footer Designs of 2009

60 Humorous Print Advertisements to Tickle Your Bones

45+ Creative and Refreshing WordPress Designs

45+ Inspiring Examples of Vintage in Web Design

34 Places to Get Design Inspiration – Online and Off

Resources

Smashing Highlights 2009

The Most Popular Posts of 2009

The Best Photoshop Resources of 2009

50 Best Web Design Blog Posts In 2009

The 15 Best Articles for Designers in 2009

69 Coolest Web Apps of 2009

The Best Free Texture Packs of 2009

Designs of the Year: 2009

Best of 2009 in the Blogging Industry

Best WordPress Themes Websites Every Blogger Should Bookmark

Mastering Your WordPress Theme Hacks and Techniques

Best Logo Design Resources

Top 50 Best CSS Articles and Resources

Tutorials

49 Most Creative Photoshop Tutorials of 2009

The 100 Most Popular Photoshop Tutorials 2009

The 50 Best Adobe Illustrator Tutorials from 2009

The 30 Best Photoshop Tutorials of 2009

The Best Vector Tutorials of 2009

Best WordPress Tutorials of 2009

Best Collection of CSS Rounded Corners Tutorials

Best Photoshop Website Layout Tutorials of 2009

13 Tutorials to Help You Grow Your Blog Readership Next Year

WordPress Website Design Process for IT-IS Ltd

A Collection of HTML5 Resources and Tutorials

Today we are showcasing some of the very creative flash websites from the creative minds for your inspiration. Although flash platform has been always considered not good for usability and accessibility but there are number of good advantages for using flash. Flash websites display same on all browsers and platforms. No need to validate flash websites for different browsers. With flash you can make your websites more dynamic, attractive and interactive.

Mostly designers and developers are using Flash to create Advertisements, Interactive Websites, Offline Presentations, Screen Savers, Games and Rich Internet Applications. Flash CS5 is on it’s way which is going to be launched in April 2010. Read the new features for Flash CS5.

Hope you will like these creative flash websites and appreciate with your comments. If you are interested to get the updates right in your inbox, don’t forget to subscribe to RSS or Email.

Today we are starting a new section on Smashing Share called “SOTD or Site Of The Day“. We read about N.Design Studio some time before that the new design for the website going to be launched soon. When we saw this today through Web Designer Wall, couldn’t stop saying WOW. We must say it’s an excellent re-design and decided to share this amazing re-design with all design community.

Also along sharing N.Design Studio here, we decided to announce time-to-time “SOTD or Site of the Day” where we will feature an awesome website at Smashing Share.


We would like to hear from our readers about their recommendations (so we can mention it here in this featured section). Use our contact form to send your recommendations.

N.Design Studio was founded by Nick La, a Toronto based illustrator and web designer. He is also the creator of the popular blog Web Designer Wall, Design Jobs on the Wall, IconDock, and Best Web Gallery. His main focuses are designing stock icons, illustrations, and beautiful CSS websites. His work has been featured in many online portals and design publications such as: Computer Arts, Web Designer, Practical Web Design, Digit, and Web Design Index.

Would you like to be the first to know when we post about SOTD or Site of the Day? Subscribe to our RSS or Email and we will send it right in your inbox.

Here you will find a list of best web design and development companies in dubai, uae. Although there are a lot of companies here in Dubai working in IT field but this list consist of the companies who are best in web design. They prove it by maintaining their own website. Also the work they have done for their clients is just awesome. Enjoy your stay!

Flip Media

Two men from opposite sides of the globe, brought together by destiny. (Or, more appropriately, a shared workplace.) What did fate have in store for them?

Aan Designers

AAN Designers, been one of the top leading and accepted web design agency all around the globe particularly in Europe, United States of America & Middle East, has been honored several times as the best interactive web designing studio by the notable Web-Award Juries internationally. AAN has been successfully serving its national & international clients for more than eight years now.

Brand Impakt

Brand Impakt is a full service Marketing Communications agency with the core focus area in Brand Strategy and Graphic Design covering the platforms of Print Media, Online, Interactive, DVD Authored Presentations, 3D Walk-Throughs and Motion Graphics.

Blue Beetle

BlueBeetle are a Dubai based interactive studio that specialize in designing bullet proof websites that get noticed, get results and look great.

WSI – We Simply the Internet

WSI Website Design Services located in Dubai, UAE and all the other Emirates and GCC. We specialized in Website Design, E-commerce, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), Website Hosting, Internet Marketing, E-Marketing and Online Marketing.

Cactimedia

Fast becoming the premier web design and development company in the region, Cactimedia believes in creating powerful websites that encompass great design, proper structural development and high search engine rankings.

OmniaConnect

Omnia Connect is the shiny, sparkly interactive division of the Omnia Group – a full-service creative consultancy headquartered in Dubai. Through thoughtful strategy, cutting-edge web tools and designs packing plenty of ‘wow’ factor, we’re saving the online sphere from shoddy creations… and bringing about world peace (at least one of those claims is entirely true).

Green Fin

GreenFin is a web design firm in Dubai which offers high-end website design and 3D presentations. We combine 3 integral units- Internet-savvy strategists , Creative Minds and a World- Class technology to create high-performing internet solutions.

NetlinkBlue

Netlink Blue is a leading Software & Web Development company in Dubai & Canada and Toronto consulting,technology outsourcing services company which provides innovatiove solutions in software development,web development firm and SEO Services,web design & development,outsourcing services and search engine optimization in Dubai and We help global clients to plan their technology & marketing investments.

The Tribe

The Tribe | better work – nicer people
From the four founders who started working from sofas in a living room, The Tribe has become a leading inter-disciplinary agency of over 40 people across three locations in Dubai, Bangalore and Singapore, de-layering hierarchies and working without divisions. All to create loyal followings for our clients’ brands.