Motion Design Monday: Faceversary by Buck

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abduzeedo/~3/MpkorMXaDHo/motion-design-monday-faceversary-buck

Motion Design Monday: Faceversary by Buck
Motion Design Monday: Faceversary by Buck

abduzeedoFeb 24, 2020

Yas NV and the incredible people at Buck keep delivering amazing work. What is a wonderful surprise for me is that I didn’t know much about Buck since a month ago. I guess I have been too busy with other things. To celebrate my admiration for Buck, here’s the motion design work they did for Facebook titled Faceversary. More information make sure to check out Buck’s website or visit Yas’ Behance profile.

Motion Design

Animation tests


Take your Adobe CC skills to the next level

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/kBde5td-FAY/take-your-adobe-cc-skills-to-the-next-level

If you've been thinking about ways to continue your creative education this year, you've come to the right place. It's never too late to continue learning and finesse your personal and professional objectives. 

You can brush up on your design skills with the All-in-One Adobe Creative Cloud Suite Certification Bundle, now with 97% off. To extend your Adobe skills even further, you could check out our range of tutorials that include the best Photoshop tutorials, and Illustrator tutorials out there. 

All levels of expertise can benefit

With 60 hours of content and hundreds of tutorials, this updated Adobe CC bundle is the perfect way to get more out of the programs you already use or are interested in learning. The eight-course package is geared toward various levels of experience, so no matter what your expertise, you're bound to get something out of it and master your skills in Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, Lightroom, After Effects, and more. One of the best parts of the bundle is a certification upon completion, making it a valuable asset to add to your résumé and portfolio that will give you an edge over the competition.

Step your content up a gear

With endless amounts of lessons, you'll get the guidance you need to build your design portfolio with the latest updates in motion graphics, logo design, user interface design, photography, and so much more. This popular bundle is available 24/7, allowing you to come back and visit when you need to reference a specific tool or need a spark of inspiration for your latest project. Take your content to the next level, explore the latest updates on tool panels for each program, and even learn how to maximize your creative workflow to save you precious time. You'll be exposed to real-life exercises that test your understanding of the content, empowering you to practice what you learn.

While lifetime access to this bundle is priced at almost $2,000, The All-in-One Adobe Creative Cloud Suite Certification Bundle is currently price-dropped to only $34 - that's 97% off. It's certainly a great way to learn the latest and greatest in design artistry and continue to grow your career in 2020.

Read more:

The 5 best InDesign alternativesHow to add fonts in PhotoshopThe 6 best laptops for Photoshop in 2020

Audio-based Image Distortion Effects with WebGL

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tympanus/~3/i6_NN9VRgWA/

We’ve covered in the past how we can read data from Audio, using the p5.sound library and how we can use that data, to draw things in the canvas, using p5.js.

Well, what if instead of drawing a sketch, we used audio to distort an image? Today we want to show you some demos that play around that idea.

We’ve created some experiments using the theme of movie trailers where the background image of the movie poster is being distorted using a sound sample. It kind of adds some drama to an otherwise static image in this case.

Here’s a short video of the beginning of one of the effects:

How it works

We analyze the sound and map the range of frequencies, to some uniforms we pass in our fragment shader. Then depending on the effect/distortion we have, we can tweak different parameters, using the audio frequencies which constantly change overtime.

In our first demo, we create a simple sinewave in our fragment shader, by using the bass frequencies of the audio track to control its frequency and the mid frequencies to control its amplitude. Then we add the distortion in both axes (x & y) of our uv and add that distortion to the initial texture coordinates.

It looks like this:

float wave = sin(uv.y * u_bass + u_time) * u_mid;
vec2 d = vec2(wave); // could be vec2(wave, 0.0) or vec2(0.0, wave) for distortion only in 1 axis.
vec4 image = texture2D(u_texture, uv + d);
gl_FragColor = image;

The possibilities are endless if you want to play around that idea, it’s just a matter of what effect you’re after. Make sure you’re mapping values to your uniforms, that are within a range that can distort your visual, and you can always use some generic uniforms like u_time, that can put some ‘overdrive’ to your distortion.

Head over to the demos and check out the variations we’ve made.

Hope you’ll have fun with this one and be sure to share any of your own versions!

Reference & Credits

p5.jsp5.soundp5jsShaderExamples

Audio-based Image Distortion Effects with WebGL was written by Yannis Yannakopoulos and published on Codrops.

3 Strategies to Follow When Your Site is Failing

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2020/02/3-strategies-to-follow-when-your-site-is-failing/

Here are 3 strategies you should consider if your website is struggling. We’ll cover:

Web analytics and split testing
In-person testing
Simplifying your sales process

If possible, implement these strategies ahead of time before you run into any issues. I’m going to cover why these strategies are effective and what they are good at resolving.

1. Analytics and Split Testing

If you don’t know when or where your users are leaving, then you’re missing ou; this is extremely unhelpful if you are selling something.

Analytics will let you see the average amount of time spent per page, and which page your customers are exiting your website from.

If a user views your website and leaves after visiting your homepage without going any further, then you know exactly what to change. If they are spending an excessive amount of time navigating through simple parts of your sales process, then you know something may be wrong, and you should address it.

AB split testing…is particularly good at resolving weak points on your website where visitors are…changing their minds

Depending on which page of your website they are on, you may want them spending more or less time on it. An abnormally high amount of users abandoning their shopping cart might mean your checkout isn’t providing the user with a positive experience.

AB split testing refers to displaying different versions of the same page to different visitors. It is particularly good at resolving weak points on your website where visitors are leaving or changing their minds about going ahead with what you want them to (e.g. buying a product).

Let’s say we have 2000 page visitors, and 70% are leaving immediately from the landing page, and 600 are proceeding forward (30% click-through rate). Instead of presenting one landing page to all visitors, we display two landing pages and show one landing page to half the visitors, and the second landing page to the other half.

We make some changes to the original landing page and send some of the users to the new version and some to the original version. We do this to see if the new landing page will have a better click-through than the original, 30%.

A quick example for a skydiving company: Group A visitors see ‘Book’ in a smaller sized button, whereas Group B visitors see ‘Skydive NOW!’ in a larger sized button. If the ‘Skydive NOW!’ button improves the number of bookings the site receives, we could consider using Group B as the new control and further work on optimising the booking page, perhaps by creating a modification in which ‘Skydive NOW!’ has a different color scheme or is placed in a different position on the page.

This could be a minor re-design, such as changing the color of a button, to something more enticing, or a major re-design.

You can also display more than two versions of a page simultaneously, making multiple modifications, displaying three or more versions to different users. In this case, we would have the original version, A, and two or more modified pages B, C … so on. This can make split testing quicker by immediately testing multiple possibilities but it adds complexity to the process.

2. In-Person Testing

In-person, or remote testing, is a strategy in which you recruit a user to test your website by undertaking various tasks e.g., Buy a specific product and ship it to your home, or find some specific information on your website.

This should be done regularly during the web building process as by doing so when you launch your website, you might uncover major or recurring problems that could have been prevented. If you do it in early development stages, you can use the information from the test to plan before you start building things that don’t work!

If your website is already live and you overlooked testing beforehand, it’s not too late

If your website is already live and you overlooked testing beforehand, it’s not too late. You can still employ a handful of individuals to test it now.

In-person testing is typically done where you supervise an individual and instruct them to carry out certain tasks and take note of how they are navigating your website by seeing the way they browse the page and/or move their mouse. Ask them to think out loud. You should also ask them why they selected that option over another, what they liked about a particular feature, etc. 



If you already know which areas of your website need to be worked on, but you’re unsure of how to improve on it, you could ask your tester for specific insight.

I typically choose three users for testing, as it’s quick, easy, cheap, and manages to uncover lots of flaws I may have overlooked. Having more users testing the website can be beneficial, but typically most users end up pointing out the same weaknesses.

This is an effective strategy because having a handful of people test your website is like having someone read over your writing. You may not pick up on your own mistakes, but someone else will. It’s also important to note that the way (you), a web-designer browses the web is different from how the average person browses the web. You may have a perfect understanding of what is happening on your website because you created it. Still, someone who is using it for the first time won’t have the same knowledge and experience as you and will try to undertake tasks in the simplest, most intuitive way.

Remote testing is the same principle as in-person testing but executed remotely. This may save you the hassle of meeting up, but might mean that you need to use software (such as a camcorder) to monitor their browsing, along with voice or video calling, to discuss the process with them.

3. Simplifying Your Sales Process

Are you taking care of your customers and guiding them through their purchases?

What happens after your user lands on your website? Is there a good value proposition (product, service, or information that is appealing) compelling them to purchase?

Excellent, now you need to make sure the process is transparent and straightforward.

Be upfront about any extra fees or shipping costs. Let them know how long shipping may take. Customers want to feel like they can trust you.

Customers want to feel like they can trust you

Write out an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) addressing common concerns a potential customer may have. E.g., Let’s say I’m buying a dual SIM mobile (two sim cards, one mobile), I want to know which country the product is from, I want to know about the warranty, I may especially want to know details about the phone will store numbers from different cards.

Have an FAQ section addressing general sales questions and a product-specific FAQ. Along with that, address the product specifications and show high-quality photos or videos.

When the customer is satisfied with what they’ve selected, make the checkout process easy. Allow guest checkout if it’s a suitable option for your website. 

Show your customers you care about them and create reasons for them to want to share your website and products. Once you’ve made your sale, send them a follow-up email or little thank you. This will lead to more engagement and a repeat customer. Remember, selling a product isn’t the end goal. Making someone become a lifelong customer is, and you need to facilitate that.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

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How to Properly Organize Files in Your Codebase & Avoid Mayhem

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/organize-project-files/?utm_source=rss

How to Properly Organize Files on a Project and Avoid Mayhem

The main library, data, UI, docs and wiki, tests, legacy and third-party components … How do we keep track and maintain order within all of this? Organizing the files in your codebase can become a daunting task.

Relax — we’ve got this! In this article, we’ll review the most common systems for both small and large projects, with some easy-to-follow best practices.

Why Bother?

As with pretty much all of the tasks related to project management — documentation, software commits, deployment — you’ll benefit from taking a conscious, programmatic approach. Not only it will reduce problems now, but it will also save you and your team quality time in the future when you need to quickly access and review things.

You surely can recall function names from the top of your head for whatever is it that you’re coding right now, and quickly find a file you need to edit, and sharply tell what works from what doesn’t — or so you think. But could you say the same about that project you were working on last year?

Let’s admit it: software projects can go on spans of inactivity that last for months, and even years. A simple README file could do a lot for your colleagues or your future self. But let’s think about the other ways you could structure your project, and establish some basic rules to name files, address project documentation, and to some degree organize an effective workflow that would stand the test of time.

Making Sense of Things

We’ll establish a “baseline” for organizing files in a project — a logic that will serve us for a number of situations within the scope of software development.

As with our rules for committing changes to your codebase the right way, none of this is carved in stone, and for what it’s worth, you and your team might come up with different guidelines. In any case, consistency is the name of the game. Be sure you understand (and discuss or dispute) what the rules are, and follow them once you’ve reached a consensus.

The Mandatory Set

This is a reference list of files that nearly every software project should have:

README: this is what GitHub renders for you right under the sourcetree, and it can go a long way to explaining what the project is about, how files are organized, and where to find further information.
CHANGELOG: to list what’s new, modified or discontinued on every version or revision — normally in a reverse chronological order for convenience (last changes first).
COPYING LICENSE: a file containing the full text of the license covering the software, including some additional copyright information, if necessary (such as third-party licenses).
.gitignore: assuming you use Git (you most probably do), this will also be a must to tell what files not to sync with the repository. (See Jump Start Git’s primer on .gitignore and the documentation for more info, and have a look at a collection of useful .gitignore templates for some ideas.)

Supporting Actors

The post How to Properly Organize Files in Your Codebase & Avoid Mayhem appeared first on SitePoint.

Collective #591

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tympanus/~3/uZWpRlwKcss/

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Inspirational Website of the Week: Six N. Five

A very interesting layout with beautiful transitions and great typography. Our pick this week.

Get inspired

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Interactive Toys

A collection of cool interactive demos by Paul Neave.

Check it out

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Styling The Good Ol’ Button Element

In this article, Ahmad Shadeed walks us through the fine details of a button element and how to style it to ensure that it looks good in all browsers.

Read it

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Our Sponsor
Become a successful freelancer

Learn how to develop websites with the most popular WordPress theme in the world and secure your success as a freelancer.

Start learning

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monica.css

Monica Dinculescu’s super-compact and useful CSS framework.

Check it out

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Fixing memory leaks in web applications

Nolan Lawson shares his experience with fixing memory leaks in web applications, and provides some examples of how to effectively track them down.

Check it out

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Art42

Art42.net showcases an infinite stream of unique AI art from the training of a carefully selected set of cubist art pieces. Based on StyleGAN2. Read some more about it in the HN comments.

Check it out

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The Theory: A Semantic Color System

The first article in a series about how the YNAB team works with colors in their design system.

Read it

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The Three Graces

Paul Henschel is testing out interactive low-key lighting in this amazing demo. Read more in his tweet and check out the source code.

Check it out

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font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums

Sebastian De Deyne shares why he loves “font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums”.

Check it out

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Don’t touch my clipboard

Alex Ellis writes about how you can (but shouldn’t) change how people copy text from your website.

Read it

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CSS Tutorial: Create Diagonal Layouts Like It’s 2020

Nils Binder shows us how to create layouts with diagonal sections in a couple of steps.

Read it

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Yelloworld

A beautiful web experience by Onetold Stories.

Check it out

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BBC Micro bot

Send a tweet to @bbcmicrobot in BBC BASIC and it will run it on a 1980s 8-bit computer emulation and reply with a GIF.

Check it out

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Let’s Define CSS 4

Read the interesting responses to the idea of officially defining “CSS 4”.

Read it

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When CSS Blocks

Tim Kadlec shows why using an outdated preload/polyfill pattern is problematic.

Read it

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Intimacy

A beautiful interactive poem composed with images, sounds and text.

Check it out

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threejs-nuxt-sample

Misaki Nakano’s geometric Nuxt.js project. Find the source code here.

Check it out

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macOS Catalina 10.15: Setting up a Brand New Mac for Development

Tania Rascia’s great guide on setting up a new Mac for development.

Read it

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Svelte-grid

In case you didn’t stumble upon it yet: A draggable and resizable grid layout with responsive breakpoints, for Svelte.

Check it out

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5 monospaced fonts with cool coding ligatures

Matej Latin explores some nice monospaced fonts suitable for coding.

Read it

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YouTube Rewind 2019

Explore the best YouTube moments of 2019.

Check it out

Collective #591 was written by Pedro Botelho and published on Codrops.

Productive Remote Work (When Your Mental Health Says “No”)

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/productive-remote-work-when-your-mental-health-says-no/?utm_source=rss

Productive Remote Working

Remote work is not easy. It sounds like a dream (and it honestly is in a lot of ways), but there’s a darker side to remote work that one can’t understand until they’ve done it.

Here’s the deal. People that work remotely often suffer from suboptimal mental health, and so you’re probably wondering, why on earth do they do it? Well, the fact is, while remote working comes with some very unique challenges, so does not working remotely. The difference is that remote work can offer the flexibility you need to build a lifestyle that suits you.

people sitting at table with laptop

Indeed, remote work isn’t a silver bullet for burnout or wanderlust, but if you do happen to try it out and eventually wind up succumbing to loneliness, or a lack of motivation or productivity (as many remote workers do), at least you’ll have the opportunity to change things up and make things better.

In the eyes of many, it’s the lesser of two evils.

That being said, attempting to diagnose what your mind and body needs isn’t that easy. What might work one day might not work on another day, and what might work for one individual might not work for another individual. Humans are complex, and in the case of remote work, everyday productivity tricks often don’t cut it.

Let’s take a look.

“I feel lonely”

Loneliness is a big issue (maybe the biggest?) for freelance remote workers and digital nomads in foreign countries, but it can also affect those that work in distributed teams (especially when some team members aren’t remote, as one can feel like an outsider at work using this setup). Let’s look at the solutions.

Utilize co-working spaces

Co-working spaces aren’t for everyone. If you teach English, it’s obviously a no-no (not because of the noise, but because the noise would be distracting to other remote workers). If you’re only required to dive into the odd video call, though, many co-working spaces include a few hours of “booth time”.

Throw in super-fast Wi-Fi, free coffee, daily events, and a likeminded crowd, joining a co-working space is like joining a community, and some co-working spaces (such as Hubud) and Dojo Bali) are literally famous! Good vibes = a huge motivation boost.

happy co-workers sitting with laptops on comfy chairs

Work from bars and cafés

Cafés and bars work well too. The noise and seating options might be a tad unpredictable, and when going to a new place one has to find the Wi-Fi password, but all in all the experience is very much the same. It’s still fairly easy to meet other people, as it’s likely that you won’t be the only regular customer.

Pro-tip: download Wi-Fi Map app to get the Wi-Fi passwords of networks near you!

My favourite café — October Coffee Gaya, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia)

The post Productive Remote Work (When Your Mental Health Says “No”) appeared first on SitePoint.

The Untold History of Nike Slogan — Just do it — and How to Easily Identify Fonts From Slogans

Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/untold-history-of-nike-slogan/

Nike has a super history about which I highly recommend you to find out more. It is inspiring for everyone, but particularly for people looking to work on their own or entrepreneurs preparing to…

Visit hongkiat.com for full content.

Computer Programming vs. Web Design: What’s the Difference?

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Designrfix/~3/JxfF_kWOobE/computer-programming-vs-web-design-whats-the-difference

Programming with its terms and field-specific occupations may be difficult for an outsider to understand. In a lot of articles, you can see web designers, web developers, and programmers mixed in one pot. However, there are obvious differences in these fields. It’s important to understand even subtle details, whether you’re a newbie or a student. […]

The post Computer Programming vs. Web Design: What’s the Difference? appeared first on designrfix.com.

The Latest Research for Web Designers, February 2020

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2020/02/the-latest-research-for-web-designers-february-2020/

In the following roundup of the latest research for web designers, I’ve included reports and surveys that shed light on: The battle between mobile and desktop, Why so many websites keep getting hacked, What’s keeping ecommerce business owners awake at night, and What Google is now saying about mobile-first indexing.

Hootsuite Puts a Spotlight on Mobile

Although Hootsuite is a social media marketing tool, its Digital 2020 report (created in conjunction with We Are Social) reveals much more about the state of marketing as a whole than just social media.

As of January 2020, the total number of users has reached 4.5 billion. That’s a 7% growth from the same period in 2019.

A huge contributor of that growth is the increased adoption of Internet-connected devices all around the world:

This graphic alone demonstrates why it’s crucial for websites to be able to cater to a global user base and not just those in developed nations.

Another telling statistic from this report shows how much more Internet users are coming to rely on their mobile phones:

Between December 2018 and December 2019, there was an 8.6% leap in the amount of mobile web traffic. Laptops and desktops shrunk in popularity during that same timeframe as did tablets, which saw a massive dip in usage.

It’s not just the amount of traffic on mobile vs. web that’s seen changes either. It’s the amount of time users spend on those devices. As a whole, consumers spend 6 hours and 43 minutes online every day; 3 hours and 22 minutes of which is from their mobile devices.

Key Takeaway

If you’re not already building progressive web apps for clients, 2020 may be the perfect time to learn how to do so. Not only do they provide a superior experience for mobile users, but they also are capable of serving users who may not have the best Internet connectivity or live in close proximity to your web servers.

Sucuri Reveals What Was Going on with Hacked Sites in 2019

The Sucuri Hacked Website Threat Report just came out with some interesting data on the state of web security.

Let’s start by looking at the integrity of the content management systems web designers commonly use:

Out of all the infected websites Sucuri found last year, 56% of them had an outdated CMS. As you can see above, some users do a better job of protecting their core by updating their CMS technology. Others… not so much.

It’s not just content management systems that users are failing to update either. More than two-thirds have websites using PHP versions that are no longer supported (i.e. 5.x and 7.0).

Then, there’s the fact that websites with vulnerabilities weren’t just found to have one vulnerability. 44% of vulnerable websites had at least two vulnerable components and 10% had four or more.

Considering this, it’s no surprise that once-infected websites have a tendency to be reinfected.

Key Takeaways

On average, Sucuri cleaned up 147 files and 232 database entries for every malware infection detected. Even if those numbers are improvements from previous years, think about how costly the cleanup is going to be for your clients if or when that happens to them.

So, rather than focus strictly on web design or development in the coming years, start thinking about how you can weave website security into the mix. Whether you want to provide maintenance services for live websites or you want to build security measures into a websites in development, it’s up to you.

But something needs to be done to fix this systemic issue.

A Better Lemonade Stand Shares Results from eCommerce Survey

For those of you working with ecommerce clients (or who want to), this survey from A Better Lemonade Stand is one to pay close attention to.

Right off the bat, the survey reveals that 62.1% of people who want to start an ecommerce business have yet to do so. As for why they haven’t, there are a variety of reasons given:

Pay close attention to these reasons as you can use them to sell your ecommerce design services as a solution:

The monetary investment
A lack of know-how
A lack of time to do so

You can also use survey data from current ecommerce owners to better position your business before prospective clients:

Here you can see what ecommerce business owners report as their biggest struggles. Five of the top ten you can easily help them out with:

Getting traffic
Conversion optimization
Strategy & analytics
Branding & design
Operations & customer service (through the website, at least)

Key Takeaway

You can present ecommerce business owners in the making with a cost-effective done-for-you option as well as proof of how quickly you can get them an ROI (like with a case study) if they’re really worried about cost. They need to see how your expertise will save them time and make them more money in the long run.

The same goes for clients with existing businesses. You now know what their top concerns are. If you see a flailing ecommerce site, use this knowledge to get the conversation started and to pose your own solution. Again, just make sure you have proof to back up what you promise to do.

Google Updates Mobile-First Indexing Best Practices

Think you know all that you need to know to design a mobile-first website? Well, Google just updated its mobile-first indexing best practices.

Here’s a high-level overview of what the new best practices state:

If you’re using the robots metatag, make sure it’s the same for mobile and desktop.
Use the same URLs for your mobile and desktop sites.
Use the same content on mobile as you do on desktop. If you think there should be less content on mobile, just make sure that whatever is desktop-only isn’t critical for Google or visitors to know about as it won’t factor into indexing at all.

In other words, Google is strictly using mobile for the purposes of indexing. If you do anything that compromises what Google can scan on your mobile website, your rank will suffer as a result.

By keeping things consistent between mobile and desktop, you can reduce the chance of any issues arising.

Be sure to check out the full report for all of Google’s new recommendations. There’s information in there about what kinds of image and video formats to use along with information on lazy loading.

Key Takeaway

If you were adhering to Google’s former guidelines, it’s a good time to check back in with what it’s currently recommending. You may need to reconnect with old clients to let them know about the changes and to provide them with an update strategy.

Wrap-Up

There’s always new industry or consumer research that can help you do better work for your clients and make more money in the process. It’s just not always easy to keep your eyes peeled for it when you’re trying to focus on your job.

If you stay tuned to WebDesigner Depot each month, though, you’ll get a roundup of the latest research for web designers to give you a hand.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

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