Visual Design Inspiration: Design System

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abduzeedo/~3/En0Ath6a-2g/a%3E

As of late, I have been building my second ‘design system’ at my workplace. It’s funny how much things go smoother, faster, and what I have learned on my first visual system months ago are now applied. For this inspiration, I wanted to share what inspired me during this process in terms of ‘visual design’, what inspired me in terms of typography style, layouts, colors, and presentations applied to their component libraries. Essentially how their ‘design system’ is presented, I believe we all follow somehow a similar standard in terms of UI components and how we build our pattern libraries. This roundup is more a visual study to see how various studios, brands, and companies actually share their ‘design system’ internally and/or through the design communities.

By Uber

797652d5a347c3296d476226b8a21192

By Dropbox Design

Platforms

By Filip Justić

5f571b4289c8adcfbf41133e6f383307

By Leverege

By Craftwork Inc.

Components

By RED

By Nguyen Le

63acccb294c5610b334491474c1b0c11

By Aaron Poe

Dorsia guidelines p3 1600x1200

By Julien Renvoye

18c948d99bce1922c4e2dcfbce841796

By Wojciech Zieliński

Frame 2.6

By MetaLab

By Handsome

By Wisely

Ui colors   dark

By Adam Ho

88f236227734b4ca6eb9769014781427

By intent

019e9aa8170ecd66c230f8e26a923331

By Heartbeat Agency

By Greg Dlubacz

3dad574f8a4838597569b7eb4ef995c1

By Leverege

016b786278dd9e5abaa107082a097299

More on https://dribbble.com

3 Essential Design Trends, August 2020

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2020/08/3-essential-design-trends-august-2020/

Do the lazy days have you longing for a new design technique to try? You are in luck.

This month’s collection of essential design trends is packed with functional ideas to spruce up design projects. And all of them are fairly easy to accomplish and will give your project a modern – or intentionally old-school – look.

Here’s what’s trending in design this month:

Angles

There are so many ways to add and use funky angles in design projects.

An angle with a color-block can be a great way to help add a place for a text element on top of an image or video to help ensure readability. Use a color for the angled element that contrasts with the background and text overlay for a striking visual or use a color that matches the background for a more subtle feel.

Another bonus for using angles in the design is that they can help create a distinct eye-tacking pattern from one part of the screen to another to help create visual focus. On a smaller, more vertical screen (such as a mobile device), large angles can even serve a pseudo-split screen purpose and create a way for text and other elements to stack in more vertical orientations.

Angles can come in all different degrees and sizes. There aren’t a lot of rules with how to use them. The common factor is that they make the design easier to understand.

Alternatively, angles can be an independent design element that really has nothing to do with function or adding a text layer. That’s exactly what Aviaja Dance does with their design. The main use of angles comes from the fun “A” in the logo. It’s the main visual on the homepage above the scroll and is rotated in other locations throughout the design.

The next two examples use color-blocked angles.

Dantia uses a small blue angle in the top corner to anchor the logo against video that uses a lot of different colors. This way the logo is always visible. Small triangles are used as bullets throughout the design to further emphasize this shape.

Adige Design uses a large angle in a color that almost fades into the background to almost split the screen in half – part text, part visuals. This is a popular and effective use of an angle to enhance readability and add visual finesse.

Overprint Effects

While overprinting is a print design technique, the visual it creates is popping up in plenty of digital projects. It’s a cool look that creates additional colorways and almost always has a funky vibe.

When a design uses overprint, one color “prints” over another forming a mixed shade from the two hues. It has a certain elegance because as a print technique, it is often reserved for special projects.

That same feel comes through in digital design as well.

Sweet Punk uses a fun overprint with a bright orange circle and black and white image to create a lot of contrast in an interesting color effect. What makes it stand out even more is that the overprint slide is just part of a bigger set of moving images. It stands out because of the color choices and technique.

Kriya Konsulting uses a small overprint feature in a graphic to create a focal point away from text. The effect is subtle and with color and lines inside shapes, it gives you a lot to look at. The overprint graphic is just one of many circles on the screen that come together for a full effect. The interest of the overprint area serves as a starting point for the eye, which moves to other circular elements and text on the screen.

Dystopian Creatives uses an overprint effect in a quick animation as the site loads and then in several locations on the scroll. It’s so subtle that you might miss it if you aren’t looking thanks to a pretty bold overall aesthetic.

Turn of the Last Century Typography

Tall, skinny, modern-style typefaces are in. Bonus points for using this trend in a way that evokes feelings of the roaring 20s (1920s that is).

These font styles seem to mimic media posters from the era. While most of these typefaces fall into the category of modern serif, there are some sans options that create a similar feel.

The primary commonality is the use of extremely tall x-heights, and strokes with distinctly variable thick and thin options. Most of these typefaces are rather condensed as well.

Note how each of these examples takes a different approach.

Better Half uses a modern serif with a dramatic x-height. Note the use of upper and lower-case letters for the headline. It brings attention to the high-drama of the typeface.

Chiara Luzzana takes the opposite approach with an all uppercase character set and mixes outline and filled lettering. The text is somewhat reminiscent of the title credits from “Stranger Things” with dual throwback vibes to the 1920s and 1980s. (Proof that everything that was popular once comes back around again.)

Synchronized Digital Studio goes another way entirely. While the text and design has a similar feel, they do it here with a modern sans serif. Note that the x-height is still quite tall and there are vast differences between thick and thin strokes.

Each of these compact, yet bold typefaces are used to create a dominant visual. That’s the beauty of this style – the typeface is the art thanks to so much visual interest. There’s also the added bonus that these condensed styles allow for higher character counts without getting visually overwhelming. (So, if you need to use a long word at a large size in the main headline, this could be a viable option.)

Conclusion

Design trends that are fun (and functional) are some of the best. Using angles can make it easier to incorporate text elements that are easy to read, overprint effects add flair and a bit of an old-school feel, and turn of the last century typography feels modern and fresh with a hint of 1920s flair.

Any of these design elements can be applied to websites without a complete overhaul and make a great refresh for the dog days of summer and beyond.

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The Complete Guide to Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/wsl2-windows-terminal/?utm_source=rss

The Complete Guide to the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2

This tutorial demonstrates how to install, manage, and use a full Linux environment on your Windows 10 PC with WSL2. You’ll be running a Linux kernel and executing native applications while seamlessly sharing files and services with Windows code editors and browsers.

Why Use Linux?

Your host almost certainly uses Linux. It’s fast, open source, and runs the majority of web software including:

servers (Apache, NGINX, LiteSpeed, etc.)
language runtimes (PHP, Python, Node.js, Ruby, etc.)
utility libraries (image manipulation, ZIP creation, emailers, etc.)
databases (MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, etc.)
other dependencies (Elastic Search, RabbitMQ, proxies, etc.)

Some of these dependencies may be available on Windows and macOS, but installing and maintaining identical versions is difficult. They’re often slower and you may encounter subtle differences which will not become apparent until you deploy.

Some developers install Linux on their desktop, but that may not be viable if you regularly require non-Linux software such as Microsoft or Adobe products. Alternative options:

Use two PCs or dual boot on a single device. Switching between systems can be cumbersome.
Run a Linux virtual machine (VM) using Hyper-V, VirtualBox, Parallels, WMware, or Vagrant. This requires considerable OS resources and reasonable IT knowledge. Sharing files between systems can be awkward.
Run web applications in Docker containers. It’s another topic to learn and Docker itself runs natively on Linux. Both the Windows and macOS editions use Linux below the surface.

What is the Windows Subsystem for Linux?

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) lets developers run a Linux environment directly on Windows 10. It’s an unmodified OS, but highly integrated into Windows and without the overhead of a virtual machine.

WSL1 was groundbreaking and translated Linux system calls to Windows equivalents. This could be slow and several features weren’t available. WSL2 uses Hyper-V virtual machine technology so Linux compatibility is excellent and file access is up to 20x faster than before.

Windows 10 Requirements

WSL2 is compatible with the Home, Pro, or Server editions of Windows but not Windows 10 S (although you can often upgrade to the Home edition for free).

The Windows May 2020 update is essential — that’s version 2004 or above. Choose the Settings cog from the Start menu, then select System followed by About. The Windows specifications are shown at the bottom of the panel:

Windows specifications

The update has been slowly rolling out since the end of May 2020. If you have a version below 2004, you may be able to trigger the update by clicking the Check for updates button in Settings, then Update & Security.

If 2004 remains stubbornly unavailable, you may be able to download and install it manually from microsoft.com/software-download/windows10

However, be aware some PCs report that version 2004 is currently unavailable in the Windows Update panel. You won’t be able to upgrade until Microsoft has released a fix for your device.

PC Requirements

WSL2 (and Hyper-V) require hardware virtualization support to be enabled in your BIOS.

WARNING: fiddling with your BIOS settings can trash your PC! Be careful when making changes. Consult your manufacturer’s help pages or search for online advice about your specific make and model.

Hardware virtualization will be active on most devices, but you can check by rebooting, and opening the BIOS panels — typically by hitting the DEL, F2, or F10 key as the system starts. Look for Virtualization Technology, VTx or similar options. Ensure they are enabled, save, and reboot the device.

Finally, ensure your C: drive has at least 1GB of spare disk space — ideally more. You may be able to free up some space in Settings, System, Storage or using the Disk clean-up tool in Windows Administrative Tools.

At the time of writing, WSL2 will install Linux to your C: drive, although it’s possible to move it elsewhere after installation.

Enable WSL2

The Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Subsystem for Linux features must be enabled in Turn Windows features on or off. The panel can be accessed by hitting Start and typing “features” or from the Programs and Features icon in the classic Control Panel.

enable WSL2

Alternatively, you can execute the following commands in a Windows Powershell terminal run as an Administrator:

dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart
dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart

Reboot Windows 10, then enable WSL2 as the default by entering the following command in a Windows Powershell or command prompt:

wsl –set-default-version 2

Download Linux

You can install any number of Linux distros from the Microsoft Store accessed in the Start menu. This includes Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, Kali, and Alpine. Enter “Linux” in the search box:

Microsoft Store

Ubuntu is a good choice unless you have specific requirements. The latest edition will be installed if you click the Ubuntu icon followed the Get button.

The download could take a while depending on your network speed.

Launch Linux

Following download, click the Launch button on the Microsoft Store app, or the new Ubuntu icon in the Start menu. This will complete the installation process and can take several minutes.

Note: the first time you launch a WSL2 distro, you may see a message in the terminal about a kernel update. Copy the link into your browser, then download and install the update. You will need to launch Ubuntu again to continue with the installation.

You’ll be prompted to enter a username and password. These are the credentials for Linux administration: they are completely separate from your Windows username and password (although choosing the same ones may be practical).

Linux will eventually be ready and your terminal will show content similar to this:

Installing, this may take a few minutes…
Please create a default UNIX user account. The username does not need to match your Windows username.
For more information visit: https://aka.ms/wslusers
Enter new UNIX username: ******
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully
Installation successful!
To run a command as administrator (user “root”), use “sudo <command>”.
See “man sudo_root” for details.

Welcome to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.19.104-microsoft-standard x86_64)

* Documentation: https://help.ubuntu.com
* Management: https://landscape.canonical.com
* Support: https://ubuntu.com/advantage

System information as of Mon Jul 6 12:07:38 BST 2020

System load: 0.27 Processes: 8
Usage of /: 0.4% of 250.98GB Users logged in: 0
Memory usage: 0% IPv4 address for eth0: 172.21.232.173
Swap usage: 0%

0 updates can be installed immediately.
0 of these updates are security updates.

The list of available updates is more than a week old.
To check for new updates run: sudo apt update

Update Linux

There are likely to be several Linux updates. To update Ubuntu, enter the following commands in the Linux terminal:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get autoremove

Other Linux distros will have a similar process, but check the documentation for assistance.

Switch Between WSL1 and WSL2

Existing WSL1 distros can be converted to WSL2. Entering the following command in a Windows Powershell terminal to display the installed Linux distros and their WSL version:

PS C:> wsl –list –verbose

NAME STATE VERSION
* Ubuntu Running 1

(The * asterisk highlights the default Linux installation.)

To switch Ubuntu to WSL2, enter:

wsl –set-version Ubuntu 2

Similarly, to switch back to WSL1, enter:

wsl –set-version Ubuntu 1

Set a Default Linux Distribution

When you have multiple Linux distributions installed, one must be set as the default. It will be used when wsl is entered in a Windows Powershell terminal.

To set the default distro, list your installations:

wsl –list

and set a default with:

wsl –setdefault <DistributionName>

Ubuntu example: wsl –setdefault Ubuntu.

Run Linux as a Specific User

To run your default distribution as a specific user, enter the following command in a Windows Powershell terminal:

wsl –user <username>

A default user is defined during installation and you can create others. A root user is also created, but you should avoid using it under normal circumstances. It’s too easy to enter a dangerous command!

Move Your Linux Disk Image

The Linux disk image is installed on your C: drive. Optionally, you can move it to another drive to free up space. The following instructions presume you’ll move it to D:wsl.

In a Windows Powershell terminal (not the Ubuntu terminal), enter wsl –list to view your Linux distributions, then export one by name to a back-up .tar file, e.g. D:backupubuntu.tar:

mkdir D:backup
wsl –export Ubuntu D:backupubuntu.tar

Unregister the same distribution to remove it from the C: drive:

wsl –unregister Ubuntu

Enter wsl –list to verify the distribution has been removed.

Import the backup into a new WSL2 distribution at another location, such as D:wsl:

mkdir D:wsl
wsl –import Ubuntu D:wsl D:backupubuntu.tar

Verify it has been successfully created by entering wsl –list and launching the Ubuntu app from the Start menu.

Unfortunately, Ubuntu will now use root as the default user. To use your own account, enter the following command:

ubuntu config –default-user <yourname>

where <yourname> is the username you defined during installation.

Presuming all has gone well, you can safely delete the backup file (D:backupubuntu.tar).

Install Windows Terminal

To launch the Linux terminal, you can use the Ubuntu icon, enter wsl or bash in Powershell, or use any third-party option such as Cmder, ConEmu, or Hyper. Profiles can be defined to launch %windir%system32bash.exe ~.

Another option is Windows Terminal, which is also available from the Microsoft Store or its repository at github.com/microsoft/terminal/.

Windows Terminal

Windows Terminal will automatically add your WSL2 Linux distros and offers a highly configurable range of options including tabs, split views, themes, transparency, and key bindings.

Options are defined in the settings.json file accessed from the Settings menu or Ctrl + , (comma). Default values and theme settings can be viewed in defaults.json, accessed by holding down Alt while clicking the Settings menu.

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Powerful New Yorker cover pays tribute to black lives lost

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/a1abIzQvgME/new-yorker-say-their-names-cover

The June edition of the New Yorker has been released, with a cover devoted to the history of violence inflicted on black people in the United States. Entitled 'Say Their Names', the powerful illustration features George Floyd, the US citizen recently killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. It shows his body imprinted with images of individual victims, placards, scenes from history and pertinent symbolism. 

Kadir Nelson's cover art is interactive and can be explored on the New Yorker's website, which describes the feature as a "closeup examination of the artist’s latest cover, in which the murder of George Floyd embodies the history of violence inflicted upon black people in America". As you click through the page, you find out the individual stories of the 18 black Americans featured.

New Yorker cover

The New Yorker cover is a powerful tribute to George Floyd and other victims of police brutality

Prominent activists such as Martin Luther King JR and Malcom X – who were both assassinated in the 1960s – are included in the piece, and other victims include seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones and twenty-two-year-old Stephon Clark, who were both killed in their own homes in the last decade. The final annotation included in the interactive feature is the story of an escaped slave – known as Gordon – whose image was circulated as a key part of the abolitionist movement because of the shocking lacerations on his back.

Nelson has depicted moments of historical significance too, including the March from Selma, and the Tulsa Race Massacre, while the 'I Am A Man' placard reflects the protest signs carried by sanitation workers during the Memphis strikes. 

The mostly monochrome piece is interlaced with blue Periwinkle, which represents the millions of black people who died as slaves in the USA. Periwinkle was often used as a burial flower, and was often the only sign of a burial plot in the case of the resting place of many slaves.

Nelson is well-known for his work depicting African-American history and culture. His work is often featured on the cover of the New Yorker, and he has also created cover art for National Geographic (see it above), Ebony and Marvel, amongst other publications. Nelson is one of the many creatives standing up in the fight against racism, in response to the killing of George Floyd and support of the protests currently taking place globally.

Read more:

Designers create public document listing black-owned studiosBanksy reveals brilliant plan for Bristol’s toppled Colston StatueBrands show support for Black Lives Matter

How We Built a Serverless Web App for the Stax Console

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/how-we-built-a-serverless-web-app-for-the-stax-console/?utm_source=rss

How We Built a Serverless Web App for the Stax Console

This post was originally published on the Stax website.

Building a web console for a product as complex as Stax presented a number of challenges. Our API-first, serverless platform offers a diverse range of features for enterprises who want to manage and optimize their AWS ecosystem.

With such a developer-focused foundation, we needed to provide customers with a performant, reactive web app, with an intuitive user-experience that didn’t hide the power and functionality of our API. Data access through our console also needed to be built to the same high standard of security and compliance as the rest of our product.

This post will cover what we set out to achieve when building the Stax Console, our experience building a serverless GraphQL API to power it, and the lessons we learned along the way.

Serverless By Design

We wanted to produce a solution that was serverless from the start, to match the architecture we use for the rest of the product. One of the biggest benefits we’ve seen from going all in on serverless architectures at Stax is uptime and reliability. Avoiding relying on a server that can become a single point of failure allows us to meet our Service-Level Agreement, and ensure customers can access the platform during peak load times. Using AWS Lambda means queries from our front-end scale out horizontally and there’s always enough compute resources to process requests.

Using serverless products also improves security during development, as services like AWS Lambda provide baked-in compliance and service levels out of the box. Allowing Amazon to handle upgrades and patching of the infrastructure that our code runs on allows us to focus on building software instead of managing hardware.

The minimal infrastructure overhead when going serverless has allowed our team to fully own the deployment and monitoring of our GraphQL API. For example, developers can add new Networks functionality using separate Lambda functions to those used to fetch account data, minimizing the blast radius from pushing a new change to production.

Early Days

The first iteration of our Console had a fairly traditional web architecture. A React single-page application (SPA) called the Stax REST API directly, which is a serverless solution using AWS API Gateway and AWS Lambda in front of a relational database. AWS Cognito handles user authentication and sign-on for both the Console and REST API.

We ran into a few technical issues with this approach:

Tooling. Modern front-end frameworks evolve quickly. Consuming data from REST APIs with React was complex and it was difficult to manage state.
Stability. The tight coupling of our front-end SPA to back-end REST API was efficient, but the contract between systems was constantly changing as features developed which risked breaking our user interface.
Real-Time Updates. We would need to build our own WebSocket implementation to push data to our front-end SPA to provide real-time updates. This would have been complex to implement in both the front end and back end.

It also became apparent that as Stax grew as a product, the Console needed to integrate with other back-end services than our REST API, such as Cost and Compliance data for accounts and our Customer Support Case service. Interfacing with multiple APIs and protocols, all with differing authentication mechanisms, led us to consider a Back End for Front End pattern with a single GraphQL API.

Our Console Architecture Now

The architecture centers on a GraphQL API layer that acts as a proxy between our front-end and back-end services. GraphQL is a query language for APIs; it allows developers to define the types of data in a system (the schema), and wire up functions to fetch data from different sources (resolvers). Relationships between data can be expanded in a single GraphQL query. For example, a single request can resolve a Stax Workload and the user that deployed it in one go.

A key reason GraphQL suited our needs is that data can be fetched from any source by a resolver and be presented to a front end as a single interface. This means that as Stax grows, we can refactor and optimize back-end services with minimal impact to our front-end developers and customers. Authentication is also massively simplified. The front-end authenticates to our GraphQL API in one place, which handles connections to various REST and GraphQL APIs and event sources behind the scenes.

At Stax, we’re closely partnered with AWS, and try to use native AWS solutions where possible as part of our development philosophy. We opted to use AWS AppSync, a fully managed serverless GraphQL implementation as the core of our service.

AWS AppSync implements the main GraphQL directives, including GraphQL Subscriptions that manage WebSocket connections between clients and your GraphQL API. AWS Lambda fetches and transforms data in GraphQL resolver functions, AWS DynamoDB is used for serverless data stores, and AWS EventBridge triggers Lambda functions in response to system events.

Our current Stax Console architecture makes use of GraphQL, AWS AppSync, AWS Dynamo and AWS EventBridge

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How to Integrate AI Into Your Toolset

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2020/08/how-to-integrate-ai-into-your-toolset/

Artificial Intelligence is the use of computers or machines that have been created to work and react like humans. Some of the computers that have AI, are designed to include speech recognition, and learn user behaviours so they can predict activities or decisions before they happen.

AI creates a bridge to a new kind of interface, making work processes easier for businesses and customers alike.

Why is AI Important?

There are constant AI technological advances being made, so why not make the most of them and start integrating them into your toolset today? Read on to find out just why AI is important and how you can benefit from it in your work too.

Lower Costs

By integrating Artificial Intelligence into your toolset, you can stand to both save and earn more money. AI will leave you spending less time on various aspects of website management and development, freeing some of your time up and allowing you to finish websites faster. It will also leverage your set of skills and allow you to build greater sites that people will be willing to pay more money for.

Improve Customer Experience

Artificial Intelligence can be used to analyse data in much more depth than the human eye, so will greatly improve the customer experience. It will allow a more personalised and streamlined experience that users will be grateful for. By integrating AI into your toolset, you will soon learn about certain trends and patterns that AI picks up and utilise this with future sites you build, as well as being able to make suggestions to improve the customer journey on the site.

It’s The Future

With so many devices in our everyday lives tuning in to AI, it’s important websites are no different. Just look around many homes and you will likely see a device such as Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home. Phone’s have Siri or Bixby and many laptops have AI systems such as Cortana. As our technology continues to develop, websites need to do this too. Soon we will expect everything to be integrated and be able to control websites in a similar way to our AI devices with voice control and recognition.

How To Integrate AI Into Your Toolset
Chat Bots

One popular example of AI that is integrated into many different websites now, is the chat bot. A feature on a number of major sites, chat bots allow customers to ask and receive answers to questions without an employee having to take time out of their day to answer menial questions that they get asked all the time. The use of AI cuts out the middleman and recognises certain phrases and words to give the most relevant and comprehensive answer.

The first chatbots used to rely on simple, pre-programmed conversational pathways, but these had disappointing and often irrelevant results. More recently they use sophisticated natural language processing (NLP) systems which are a lot more complex and don’t follow just a scripted path, but allow for more meaningful conversations.

Sketch to Code

If you’ve just started in web design, or there are certain elements you are still learning about, AI can help with “sketch to code”. This clever piece of AI can transform a handwritten note, sketch or diagram into a valid HTML mark-up code that maintains itself. This can work from something as simple as a new design for a quote system, to something more complex.

Background Systems

AI can work in the background of a site in the run up to events and collect key aspects such as website analytics. Once this data is complete, the AI can take final instructions from you such as the content, theme and color preference and create a design from scratch that it thinks will perform the best due to the intelligence and knowledge it has been gathering in the background.

Voice Recognition

Back in 2012, the W3C Community introduced the Web Speech API specification with the aim of enabling speech recognition and synthesis in modern browsers. At present, Google Chrome is the only browser that has introduced this, however there is a HTML5 Speech Recognition API will allows JavaScript to have access to a browser’s audio stream and to convert it into text.

It’s important to get up to speed with voice recognition API’s as it’s predicted voice control will be huge in the future. If populating websites, think about how people speak and be sure to include some long-tail keywords that sound more natural. This will help those sites to rank when voice control is adopted more widely.

Adobe Sensei

Adobe Sensei is an AI and machine learning framework that is powering Adobe tools. It is a handy option to add to your toolkit to manage and work on your files.

If you are sourcing images for a website in Adobe Stock, there are over 100 million assets to sift through. Adobe Sensei uses AI and deep learning to understand what exact objects are within an image as well as deeper components such as the aesthetic quality, composition, color palette and even the emotional concept behind the images. This means it can quickly find the image most matched to your needs, saving you hours of time you would have spent sorting through to find the image you want.

Yossarian

Yossarian is a great tool that allows you to craft mood boards. With an aim to generate new ideas faster, it cites itself as “discovery with a twist.” Yossarian uses AI when creating mood boards to return “diverse and unexpected concepts” that share loose associations with what you have searched for, allowing you to be more creative. It will source different ideas and inspiration around what you are searching for, including many you might not have thought of associating with your initial search term.

Brandmark

If you create logos and design templates within your work, Brandmark logo maker is a great AI tool to add to your library. They cite themselves as the most advanced AI logo design tool on the market at the moment. Whether logo creation is something you currently offer, or something you are looking to do, this AI tool can make it easier.

Autodraw

Autodraw is another useful tool you can use for design jobs, where you draw a rough sketch and it will turn it into a neat graphic. This is a handy one to use in association with the concept of sketch to code above. It pairs the magic of machine learning with drawings to help you create professional looking graphics and visuals, quickly.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

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How to Get the Most Out of your Virtual Meetings?

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Designrfix/~3/v1DLgEi-mFw/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-your-virtual-meetings

Working from home inevitably involves finding new ways to communicate with your colleagues. For most of us, adapting to new ways of working have involved using video conferencing software like Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Skype. Whilst video calls are nothing new, our reliance on them is and the sudden change means many have had to […]

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Smart Interface Design Patterns In Your Pocket: Checklist Cards PDF

Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2020/08/checklist-cards-release/

Smart Interface Design Patterns In Your Pocket: Checklist Cards PDF

Smart Interface Design Patterns In Your Pocket: Checklist Cards PDF

Vitaly Friedman

2020-08-04T14:00:00+00:00
2020-08-04T19:34:38+00:00

Every UI component, no matter if it’s an accordion, a hamburger navigation, a data table, or a carousel, brings along its unique challenges. Coming up with a new solution for every problem takes time, and often it’s really not necessary. We can rely on smart design patterns and usability tests, and ask the right questions ahead of time to avoid issues down the line.

Smart Interface Design Patterns Checklists

Meet “Smart Interface Design Checklists”, with questions to ask when designing and building any interface component.

Meet Interface Design Patterns Checklists, a deck of 100 cards with common questions to ask while dealing with any interface challenge — from intricate data tables and web forms to troublesome hamburgers and carousels. Plus, many other components (full list ↓), explored in full detail.

Each checklist has been curated and refined for years by yours truly — all based upon usability sessions, design iterations and A/B tests. Useful for designers & front-end developers to discuss everything a component requires before starting designing or coding.

And if you’d like to dive into design patterns live, attend our upcoming online workshops on Smart Interface Design Patterns, 2020 Edition, where we’ll explore 100s of practical examples over 5×2.5h live sessions.

Checklist Card Box

Print + eBook

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Workshop + Checklists

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$
375.00

$
450.00

Attend Online Workshop

Vitaly’s 5×2.5h online workshop, with the checklists PDF, live sessions and examples.

Checklists PDF Deck

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$
10.00

Free!

Get Checklists PDF

DRM-free, of course.

PDF.
Included with Smashing Membership.

Get the eBook

Download PDF.
Thanks for being smashing! ❤️

About The Checklists

Meet 100 checklist cards with everything you need to tackle any UI challenge — from intricate tables to troublesome carousels. Created to help us all keep track of all the fine little details to design and build better interfaces, faster. Plus, it’s useful to not forget anything critical and avoid costly mistakes down the line. Check the preview.

When working on pretty much any interface problem, we sit down with designers and developers and talk about its design, markup and behavior — using checklists. The deck creates a much-needed sense of alignment, so everyone is one the same page before jumping into design or coding tools.

The deck includes checklists on:

designing for touch (free preview),
hamburger menu and accordions,
carousels and navigation,
filtering, sorting, search,
data tables and feature comparison,
pricing plans and product page,
sliders and video players,
configurators and wizards,
date pickers and calendars,
timelines, maps, seating plans,
privacy and authentication,
onboarding and offboarding,
reviews and testimonials,
video and audio players,
web forms and donation forms.
Plus, 400 practical interface examples (free preview).

A look inside the Checklist Card box.

Beautifully designed by our dear illustrator Ricardo Gimenes, this deck is always by your side — on your desk or on your phone when you’re on the go.

Additionally, you get practical examples, action points and the checklists in a wide resolution (16×9) for reference and presentations.

Spotify slider example

Hamburger design checklist

A little bonus: 400 practical examples, action points and the checklist in 16×9.

You’ll get:

100 checklists cards on everything from carousels to web forms, carefully curated and designed,
Practical examples and action points for your reference in 16×9,
Editable text file to adjust for your needs,
Life-time access to the deck, updated regularly.
Attend online workshop or get the checklist PDF.

A look inside the card deck.

Print + eBook

eBook

Workshop + Checklists

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$
375.00

$
450.00

Attend Online Workshop

Vitaly’s 5×2.5h online workshop, with the checklists PDF, live sessions and examples.

Checklists PDF Deck

{
“sku”: “checklist-cards”,
“type”: “E-Book”,
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“amount”: “10.00”,
“currency”: “USD”
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$
10.00

Free!

Get Checklists PDF

DRM-free, of course.

PDF.
Included with Smashing Membership.

Get the eBook

Download PDF.
Thanks for being smashing! ❤️

Table of Contents

Designing For Touch Checklist

+

Overall, 26 questions, including:

Input is never precise: are hit targets at least 48×48px? Can users tap on the same spot to undo actions? Do we expose critical navigation at the bottom on mobile?

Accordion Checklist

+

Overall, 14 questions, including:

What icon do we choose to indicate expansion? Should expanded sections collapse automatically? Should the user be scrolled automatically when expanded?

Navigation Checklist

+

Overall, 30 questions, including:

Do drop-downs appear/disappear on hover, tap/click, or both? Do nav items appear in a full page/partial overlay or slide-in? Can we split the nav vertically for sub-menus on mobile?

Hamburger Menu Checklist

+

Overall, 23 questions, including:

Can we avoid a hamburger icon and show navigation as is? What happens when the user opens both search and hamburger? Do we expose critical navigation by default on desktop/mobile?

Filtering Checklist

+

Overall, 25 questions, including:

Do we expose popular or relevant filters by default? Do we display the number of expected results for each filter? Do we apply filters automatically or manually on “Apply” button?

Sorting Checklist

+

Overall, 32 questions, including:

Do we repeat sorting at the bottom of the content list? Do we include the “Sort by” label separately from the buttons/dropdown? Does the default sorting reflect the diversity of all major product types?

Search Autocomplete Checklist

+

Overall, 33 questions, including:

Do we surface frequent hits, popular searches, products or categories at the top of autosuggestions? On what character do we start displaying autosuggestions? Do we use a look-ahead pattern for search queries?

Carousels Checklist

+

Overall, 37 questions, including:

Can we just show a grid of images instead of a carousel? Is there a way to pause a carousel if it’s auto-rotating? How do we choose the sequence of slides?

Tables Checklist

+

Overall, 28 questions, including:

Do we add steppers to navigate through columns or rows predictably? Do we highlight the cell, row or column on user’s tap/click? With rows as cards on mobile, do we expose relevant data for comparison?

Pricing Plans Checklist

+

Overall, 51 questions, including:

How many features do we want to display per plan? Do we want to allow customers to switch currency (€/$/£)? Can we avoid requiring credit card data for the free trial period?

Sliders Checklist

+

Overall, 19 questions, including:

Do we provide a text input fallback for precise input? Are there any values on a slider that shouldn’t be accepting? Should users be able to “lock” some values?

Date Pickers Checklist

+

Overall, 20 questions, including:

What presets (‘prev day’/’current day’) do we need for faster navigation? Do we use dots color coding for different rates or days? How do we avoid displaying unavailable dates or zero-results?

Configurators Checklist

+

Overall, 33 questions, including:

What’s the entry point to the configurator? Should the user automatically move to the next step when finished? For every step, do we explain and highlight dependencies?

Feature Comparison Checklist

+

Overall, 27 questions, including:

Can users see only differences, similarities and selected attributes for all products/plans? Can the user move columns left and right? Should we ask customers to choose preferred attributes?

Timelines Checklist

+

Overall, 24 questions, including:

How do we expose/highlight critical events (e.g. now/coming up next)? Should some events or time segments be available/fixed at all times? Do we communicate changes over time with an underlying histogram?

Schedule And Calendars Checklist

+

Overall, 25 questions, including:

Do we provide quick jumps between tracks? Should we consider flipping the timing header by 90 degrees? Do we display what’s happening now and coming up next?

Maps Checklist

+

Overall, 26 questions, including:

Do we provide zooming? How many levels of depth will zoom provide? Would an autocomplete search help users find information faster? For charts, can we flip axis to make use of available space?

Seating Plans Checklist

+

Overall, 23 questions, including:

What kinds of pricing tiers and discounted tickets (senior, student) do we have? Do we have any planes or floors that users need to navigate between? Do we calculate and display an experience score for each seat?

Privacy Checklist

+

Overall, 44 questions, including:

Can we group user data according to low/medium/high priority? Can we gradually request more user permissions when we need them? Do we ask for permissions only if we are likely to get them?

Onboarding Checklist

+

Overall, 15 questions, including:

Can we avoid intro tours, tooltips, wizards and slideshows as they are usually skipped? Do we use empty state to indicate our features? When is the right timing to show a particular feature?

Reviews and Testimonials Checklist

+

Overall, 36 questions, including:

Can we group testimonials by a feature/impact and highlight them together? Do we highlight the number of testimonials/reviews prominently? Do we display name, photo, title, age, location, role, company, brand logo?

Web Forms Checklist

+

Overall, 76 questions, including:

Will we be using floating labels? If so, are they accessible? For a country selector, do we display some countries as frequently used? Do we show the number of errors above the “Submit” button and in the tab title as a prefix?

Donation Form Checklist

+

Overall, 32 questions, including:

Do we include any testimonials or stories next to the donation form? What suggested donation amounts do we display, and how many? Which types of donations do we have: one-off, monthly, quarterly, annually?

Authentication Checklist

+

Overall, 34 questions, including:

What password requirements do we want/need to implement? Do we really need CAPTCHA, or can we use honeypot/time traps instead? Do we limit the frequency of password recovery attempts?

Product Page Checklist

+

Overall, 76 questions, including:

What layout do we use for the page (tabs, accordions, one long page, floating bar)? Do we display the final price (incl. standard shipping, taxes, payment fees, currency)? What do we display when an item is out of stock (notification via SMS/email)?

Video Player Checklist

+

Overall, 33 questions, including:

How do we optimize for precise input and fast-forwards (keyboard, buttons)? Do we use preview clips, popularity bar, key moments preview? Do we persist the position of the video track on refresh?

About the Author

Vitaly FriedmanVitaly Friedman loves beautiful content and doesn’t like to give in easily. When he is not writing or speaking at a conference, he’s most probably running front-end/UX workshops and webinars. He loves solving complex UX, front-end and performance problems. Get in touch.

“Smart Interface Design Patterns, 2020 Edition”, Online Workshop with Vitaly Friedman (Sep 22 – Oct 6)

Do you want to dive deeper into the bits and pieces of smart interface design patterns? We’ll be hosting a series of online workshops, in which we’ll take a microscopic examination of common interface components and reliable solutions to get them right — both on desktop and on mobile.

We’ll study 100s of hand-picked examples and we’ll design interfaces live, from mega-dropdowns and car configurators — all the way to timelines and onboarding. And: we’ll be reviewing and providing feedback to each other’s work. Check all topics and schedule.

Example of autocomplete in three different online shops.

Google slider example

Carousel Design Checklist

Vitaly’s Smart Interface Design Patterns Workshop, broken down into 5×2.5h sessions, with 100s of practical examples.

<!–

The workshop includes:

1500+ workshop slides with practical examples and action points
100 checklist cards on everything from carousels to web forms
Editable text file to adjust for your needs
Life-time access to the deck, updated regularly
Live, interactive workshop sessions
Hands-on exercises and reviews
All workshop recordings
Dedicated Q&A time for all your questions
A Smashing Certificate

–>

The workshop is delivered in five 2.5h long sessions with lots of time for you to ask all your questions. It’s for interface designers, front-end designers and developers who’d love to be prepared for any challenge coming their way.

You’ll walk away with a toolbox of practical techniques for your product, website, desktop app or a mobile app.

Print + eBook

eBook

Workshop + Checklists

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{“amount”: “1.00”, “type”: “E-Book”}
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$
375.00

$
450.00

Attend Online Workshop

Vitaly’s 5×2.5h online workshop, with the checklists PDF, live sessions and examples.

Checklists PDF Deck

{
“sku”: “checklist-cards”,
“type”: “E-Book”,
“price”: “10.00”,

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“amount”: “10.00”,
“currency”: “USD”
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“amount”: “10.00”,
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$
10.00

Free!

Get Checklists PDF

DRM-free, of course.

PDF.
Included with Smashing Membership.

Get the eBook

Download PDF.
Thanks for being smashing! ❤️

Thank You For Your Support!

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10 Unique Playing Cards (With Cool Design) For The Collectors

Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/unique-playing-cards/

According to Wikipedia playing cards gave been around for over 1,100 years now. They have changed considerably since then. Different variations of decks have been created, yet what we recognize as a…

Visit hongkiat.com for full content.

64 top-class Photoshop tutorials to try

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/sMgcoD0fw30/photoshop-tutorials-1232677

Photoshop tutorials are something that every user can benefit from, whatever your level of experience. When you're first starting out, the best beginner-level Photoshop tutorials can help you grasp the basics and set you on the right path. As you progress, you'll find that intermediate Photoshop tutorials can boost your skills and introduce you to new techniques. And even when you're a veteran of the software, there are always advanced Photoshop tutorials that can introduce you to new features and ambitious projects that can pull you out of your creative comfort zone and stretch your abilities yet further.

In many ways, it's a case of running to stand still, because Photoshop is expanding and adding features all the time, not to mention brand new ways of using it, such as Photoshop on the iPad. So there are always going to be more tricks you can learn.

With all that in mind, here's our round-up of the best Photoshop tutorials you can access for free on the web today. And don't forget to improve your Photoshop experience even further, with our roundups of the best free Photoshop brushes and the latest Photoshop plugins.

Get Adobe Creative Cloud
Tutorials for beginners
01. Photoshop for beginners

If you’re a complete novice, then Photoshop tutorials are a great way to get your head around the software. In this three-hour video, Dan Scott, an Adobe certified instructor for Envato Tuts+, walks you through everything you need to get started. There’s no need for any previous Photoshop knowledge, or photography or design skills for that matter. If you want to jump ahead, the different sections and timings are all listed on the YouTube page.

02. Learn Photoshop in 5 minutes: beginner tutorial

Pushed for time? There are many short and sweet Photoshop tutorials for beginners out there, and here's one of our favourites. In just five minutes, Julian Ball of Flow Graphics walks you through the basic tools and interface, and gives you a good idea of what the software is all about.

03. Get to know Photoshop

Photo of woman holding flowers

Part of a series of Photoshop tutorials produced by Adobe itself, Get to know Photoshop teaches you the basic tools and techniques of the software. You'll be introduced to the work area and will learn how to open and save your images, zoom in and out, and undo mistakes. 

04. How to resize an image

Photoshop tutorials: resize

Image resizing is probably one of the first things you'll want to do as a beginner, and here's one of the best Photoshop tutorials to explain it. How to resize an image on Photoshop teaches you how to change canvas size, use trim and more, all without compromising too much on image quality. 

05. How to work with layers

Photoshop tutorials: interface featuring multiple photos

Layers are one of those fundamental concepts you'll need to get your head around, and here's another of Adobe's own Photoshop tutorials to walk you through the basics. How to work with layers teaches you what layers are and how to use the Layers panel, how to resize the contents of a layer, and how to add images to a layered file.

06. How to adjust image quality

Photoshop tutorials: Photo of flowers on table

Discover how to adjust image quality with this most succinct of Photoshop tutorials. This series of four videos will teach you to enhance brightness and colour, and improve the quality of your images in Photoshop.

07. How to make selections

Photoshop tutorials: Photo of road featuring a number of neon hotel signs

Some Photoshop tutorials help you master vital skills quickly and easily, and here's a great example. How to make selections reveals how to create a selection, work with selection tools, and fine-tune the edges of a selection.

08. How to retouch images

Photoshop tutorials: Woman preparing plants on table

How to retouch images is a trio of Photoshop tutorials in video form. They walk you through how to remove unwanted objects, add objects by cloning, and fix other imperfections in your images with retouching tools in Photoshop.

09. How to add text and shapes

Photoshop tutorials: Adding text to a picture in Photoshop

This collection of four Photoshop tutorials demonstrates how to add text and shapes. When you do so, they remain editable, and you can customise them down to the smallest detail.

10. How to use the Photoshop Pen tool

Photoshop tutorials: Pen tool

In one of Creative Bloq's own Photoshop tutorials, Mark White explains how to use the Photoshop Pen tool, a simple selection feature that enables you to fill, stroke or make selections from whatever you draw. 

11. How to use the Brush tool

Photoshop tutorials: Pen tool

In another of our Photoshop tutorials from Mark White, you'll discover how to use the Brush tool in Photoshop. This step-by-step guide includes helpful guides to what each of the icons in the Brush palette mean.

12. How to make a photo collage

Learn how to combine images to make a simple photo collage in Photoshop with this tutorial from Matt Smith. You can use this technique to create your own collages from photographs, and perhaps eventually build on your compositions to create more intricate design collages from your own creations.

13. How to apply filters

Photoshop tutorials: interface with multiple photos

Learn how to apply filters, allowing you add quick effects to an image. Filters can also be combined to create unique results, as these two related Photoshop tutorials demonstrate nicely.

14. Edit your first photo

Photoshop tutorials: Edit your first photo

Photoshop tutorials for beginners can be found on a range of subjects, and this one teaches you how to edit your first photo. Bring out the best in your images with the useful techniques outlined here. 

15. How to use Photoshop layer masks

Photoshop tutorials: layer masks

One of Creative Bloq's own Photoshop tutorials, How to use Photoshop layer masks will help you streamline your digital art workflow. As any beginner will quickly learn, layer masks are one of the most fundamental parts of the software: without them your work will look flat. Follow these tips and shortcuts to work more quickly and easily. 

16. How to remove a background in Photoshop

photoshop tutorials: remove a background in Photoshop

Another of our own Photoshops tutorials takes you through several different ways to remove a background in Photoshop. Jo Gulliver starts off by taking you through how to use the Magic Wand tool and Quick Selection tools to remove a background, before moving on to more advanced techniques.

17. Create your first design

Photoshop tutorials: Create your first design

Create your first design is a series of Photoshop tutorials that introduces how to work with layers, combine images, use layer masks, and add creative graphics, text, and effects. You can then use these skills to combine design assets into a simple, unique composite for print or online use. 

18. How to make a meme in Photoshop

Meme featuring dog wearing sunglasses

Social media’s all about memes these days, and making them is a useful skill to have. In one of our most recent Photoshop tutorials, How to make a meme in Photoshop, Matt Smith explains how to make multiple memes in moments.

19. How to use Photoshop layers: 6 top tips

Photoshop tutorials: how to use layers

This tutorial, How to use Photoshop layers: 6 top tips, will teach you to use Photoshop's layer system; the key to unlocking the software's versatility. Here, you’ll find out how to create layers, lock them, group them and adjust opacity. 

20. Digital painting with Photoshop CC for beginners

Photoshop tutorials: Digital painting

Digital painting with Photoshop for beginners breaks down the process of creating a simple digital painting, from start to finish. If you can work on a canvas with paints, then many of the same painting techniques you use will transfer directly over to digitally painting in Photoshop.

Next page: Intermediate Photoshop tutorials

21. How to Photoshop on the iPhone

Photoshop tutorials: Spiral staircase

Want to use Photoshop on your mobile? In one of Creative Bloq's most popular recent Photoshop tutorials, How to Photoshop on the iPhone, Jason Parnell-Brookes walks you through three ways of doing so. Each technique uses a different, free app: Photoshop Express, Photoshop Mix or Photoshop Fix.

22. How to flip a layer in Photoshop

Photoshop tutorials: Two birds in wilderness

Discover how to flip a layer in Photoshop, and then blend the results with the original. In another of his excellent Photoshop tutorials for Creative Bloq, Matt Smith walks you through the process in six easy steps.

23. How to add fonts in Photoshop 

Photoshop tutorials: Fonts in interface

Whether you’re on a Mac or a Windows, adding fonts in Photoshop is nothing to be daunted by. In this tutorial, How to add fonts in Photoshop, Matt Smith explains how to go about it.

24. Create an old-school anaglyph effect

Photoshop tutorials: drawing of woman in red and blue colours

An anaglyph effect is the vintage style of 3D where you have to wear red and blue glasses to appreciate the content. One of last year's best Photoshop tutorials, Create an old-school anaglyph effect, explains how to achieve this classic effect using base images, shading and textures.

25. How to Photoshop someone into a picture

Photoshop tutorials: man in dinosaur painting

Editing a photo of somebody into an illustrated scene is a useful technique. In this most easy to follow of Photoshop tutorials, How to Photoshop someone into a picture, Matt Smith explains how to do so in six steps.

26. Visual development tips in Photoshop

Digital painting of ghost girl in pool

Learn how to hone your storytelling skills and use them to create a visual development scene in Photoshop.  This workshop focuses on creating a pre-visual development, which is about painting gorgeous scenery. 

27. How to create masks in Photoshop

Photoshop tutorials: masks

Crafting your own digital art masks can seem daunting at first, but once you start using them you’ll never go back. In How to create masks in Photoshop, Paul Canavan offers tips to get you started.

28. Create textures with the Pattern Stamp tool 

pattern stamp tool

Photoshop's Pattern Stamp tool can be a godsend when you want to create ideas and concepts as quickly as you can. In this most visually inspiring of Photoshop tutorials, Lino Drieghe explains how to use the Pattern Stamp tool to create a variety of textures and colours and your own custom patterns. 

29. Six essential Photoshop layers to improve your images

Photoshop tutorials: layers

In 6 essential Photoshop layers to improve your images, James Paterson outlines the six most frequently used Photoshop layers for image editing, and explains how you can use them to improve almost any photo.

30. How to use smart layers in Photoshop

Photoshop tutorials: smart layers

When incorporating repeating designs and patterns into an illustration, smart layers are your friend. In this tutorials, How to use smart layers in Photoshop, Alix Branwyn teaches you how to use them to create a separate layered PSD that can be embedded into your original PSD.

31. How to manage colours in Photoshop

Photoshop tutorials: colours

How to manage colours in Photoshop is a helpful tutorial in which Sebastian Bleak provides an overview for anyone new to colour management, with practical advice for managing colours in Photoshop. 

32. Get creative with Photoshop Blend Modes

Photoshop tutorials: blend modes

Combining layers and images can allow you to create a huge variety of effects. For one of Creative Bloq's own Photoshop tutorials, Get creative with Photoshop Blend Modes, James Paterson explains how these effects work, and some of the wonderful things you can do with them.

33. Photoshop for web design: pro tips

Photoshop tutorials: web design

There aren't that many Photoshop tutorials covering its use in web design, but here's a great one. In Photoshop for web design: 20 pro tips, David Everly and Dan Rose offer tips for being efficient when creating website graphics.

34. Make a composite in Photoshop

Make a composite in Photoshop is another in Adobe’s one-minute series of Photoshop tutorials. Here, you'll learn a quick way to make a composite in the software, in the time it takes you to boil a kettle.

35. Make an animated GIF in Photoshop

Who doesn’t love an animated GIF? Learn how to craft your own by following this video from Adobe on how to make an animated GIF in Photoshop. 

36. Get creative with Face-Aware Liquify

Photoshop tutorial: face aware liquify

In one of Creative Bloq's best Photoshop tutorials, Get creative with Face-Aware Liquify, Luke O'Neill explores the Liquify tool. This has some powerful facial recognition skills, enabling it to detect areas of the face, such as the eyes, mouth and overall face shape, so you can adjust and warp them with impunity. 

37. Create style frames in Photoshop

Photoshop tutorials: style frames

This tutorial teaches you how to create style frames in Photoshop. A style frame is a snapshot of a finished frame as it would look within a longer animation. It aims to capture the overall look and feel of an animation, but in a still image.

38. Make a double exposure in Photoshop

Here's aother of Adobe 60-second Photoshop tutorials under the 'Make It Now' banner. Make a double exposure in Photoshop shows you to create an impressive double exposure effect.

39. The Refine Edge box tool explained

Photoshop tutorials: Dog with bow on head

Learn about the seven main features of the Refine Edge tool in this Photoshop tutorial, The Refine Edge box tool explained. If you've ever tried to change the background of a person with frizzy hair or a horizon dotted with bushy foliage, you'll know just how intensely time consuming this can be. Luckily Refine Edge is here to make your life easier. 

40. Combine traditional and digital skills to create a comic cover

Photoshop tutorials: Comic covers

Combine traditional and digital skills to create a comic cover shows you how to draw an illustration by hand, then take it into Photoshop to colour and light it, then add eye-catching filters.  If you like working with traditional materials, this is one of the best Photoshop tutorials to help give your work more impact. 

41. Rapid site prototyping in Photoshop

Photoshop tutorials: rapid prototyping

Photoshop offers a comprehensive toolset for mocking up websites quickly and easily. In Rapid site prototyping in Photoshop, Antony Kitson explains how to use the key features to get an idea across to a client or developer.

42. Age a photograph in Photoshop

Photoshop tutorials: age a photo

Another of Creative Bloq's most popular Photoshop tutorials, this will teach you to age a photograph in Photoshop using the duotone technique. This will help you turn a ho-hum, full colour image into something striking. 

43. How to remove wrinkles in Photoshop

Learning how to remove wrinkles is the kind of thing that Photoshop tutorials are made for. Here, award-winning photographer Jason Parnell-Brookes walks you through how to parse out some crow's feet and tone down some deeper folds, while keeping your subject looking natural. 

44. Make a poster from a template in Photoshop

Make a poster from a template in Photoshop show you how to make a poster from a template. Another of Adobe's super-short Photoshop tutorials (under 60 seconds), this walkthrough will have you designing posters faster than ever.

45. How to make a logo in Photoshop

Photoshop tutorial: make a logo in Photoshop

Okay, so Photoshop isn't the ideal place to make a logo. You'll probably want to use Illustrator if you can. But if Photoshop's all you've got, then follow this guide to how to make a logo in Photoshop.

Next page: Advanced Photoshop tutorials

46. Colourise greyscale work in Photoshop

Photoshop tutorials: colourise

In Colourise greyscale work in Photoshop, one of his Photoshop tutorials for Creative Bloq, Stephan McGowan walks you through the techniques and tools he uses to create full-colour images from a greyscale line-art starting point, using Photoshop's default tools. 

47. Create a glowing neon text effect

Photoshop tutorials: neon text

Learn how to create a glowing neon text effect: it’s much easier than you might think, says Mark White. This Photoshop tutorial shows you how to do so using just one background image.

48. Use the Pen tool and textures to add depth

Photoshop tutorials: pen tool

Here's another example of the great Photoshop tutorials you'll find on Creative Bloq. Follow along as Illustrator Charlie Davis shows you how to use the Pen tool and textures to add depth. He offers a series of core techniques for creating a peaceful countryside scene; you’ll also learn how to apply masks, and how to use textures from Adobe Stock to add depth and warmth.

49. Paint colourful art in Photoshop

Photoshop tutorials: paint colourful art

In Paint colourful art in Photoshop, Randy Bishop outlines several key techniques he uses as an illustrator in Photoshop: rough concepts, clean line work, colour, light and shadow, and some of the pitfalls that people tend to fall into while working through an illustration.

50. How to add 3D art to a Photoshop image

Photoshop tutorials: 3D art

Adobe Fuse offers a simple way to create and customise 3D characters in a matter of minutes. This has been the subject of many recent Photoshop tutorials, and here's one of the best. How to add 3D art to a Photoshop image explains how Fuse works, and shows how to combine 3D creations with a 2D image for a dramatic composite.

51. Master the Mixer brush in Photoshop

Photoshop tutorials: mixer brush

One of those advanced Photoshop tutorials that's actually pretty simple to follow. In Master the Mixer brush in Photoshop, Wangjie Li teaches you to quickly make brushstrokes in the style of a traditional artist. 

52. Seven essential Photoshop Blend mode tips and tricks

Photoshop tutorials: overlay

In 7 essential Photoshop Blend mode tips and tricks, James Paterson explores the most useful Blend modes and how they can help you in your day to day work. Whether you’re dodging and burning, hand-painting or portrait‑toning, this is one of those Photoshop tutorials that aims to make your life easier. 

53. How to use control points in Photoshop

Photoshop tutorials: control points

This tutorial explains how to use control points in Photoshop. Most Photoshop users will be familiar with making selections or using masks to isolate areas for selective adjustments, but control points are different. You simply click on a point, adjust the circular area to fit over whatever you want to target, and the software will work out what you want to adjust by seeking out similar tones.

54. How to transform a pencil sketch

Photoshop tutorials: sketches

Another one of those Photoshop tutorials that delivers exactly what it promises. In How to transform a pencil sketch, Don Seegmiller walks through how you can make your hand-drawn sketches easier to work with in Photoshop. 

55. How to use Photoshop's 'Match Font' feature

Photoshop tutorials: match font

This tutorial will teach you how to use Photoshop’s ‘Match Font’ feature. This helps take the legwork out of laborious tasks like scouring your font book, your type client, or online foundries to get the closest match to the typography sample you’ve seen. Luke O’Neill reveals how to get the best results from it.

56. Create painterly effects in Photoshop CC

Here are two video-based Photoshop tutorials from Adobe to help you take your Photoshop skills to the next level. Create painterly effects in Photoshop CC begins by Kyle T. Webster explain how to use the Mixer brush tool to add life to simple shapes. 

The second tutorial then shows you how to use Adobe Stock to add some context to your digital painting. You'll create painterly effects using Photoshop's range of Edvard Munch paintbrushes.

57. The ultimate guide to compositing images in Photoshop

Photoshop tutorials: compositing images

Of all Photoshop projects, compositing images into one fantastic frame is perhaps the most enjoyable and creative pursuit. In this tutorial, The ultimate guide to compositing images in Photoshop, you'll discover how to shoot, build and finish off convincing  composites. 

58. Colour in Photoshop: top tricks

Photoshop tutorials: colour

Here's one of the most colourful Photoshops tutorials to raise your mood. Colour in Photoshop: top tricks teaches you how to paint with muted colours and create a festival scene tinged with nostalgia, featuring Hong Kong’s Lion Dancers, using various Photoshop effects. 

59. Turn photos into 3D animations with Photoshop

Photoshop tutorials: 3D animations

Want to truly breathe some fresh air into your old still albums, using its timeline capabilities? Then here's one of the best Photoshop tutorials we can suggest. Turn photos into 3D animations with Photoshop shows you how to extra add depth to photos, or even animate the results.

60. Get more from custom Photoshop brushes

Photoshop tutorials: brushes

Get more from custom Photoshop brushes is a tutorial that shows you the endless things that can be done with custom brushes inside Photoshop's Natural Brush Media window. Learn how to manipulate your brush to create patterns, textures, hair, a painterly feel, happy accidents and so on.

61. Create a cinemagraph with Photoshop in 60 seconds

Cinemagraphs, which are basically a more sophisticated varient of the animated GIF, are all the rage at the moment. Another of Adobe's 'Make It Now' Photoshop tutorials, Create a cinemagraph with Photoshop in 60 seconds shows you how to do exactly that, in one minute flat. 

62. Depict light glowing through fur

When painting digital light in fur, Photoshop's strong light layer styles can help, and depict light glowing through fur shows you how to do it. By switching between Soft Light, Hard Light and Overlay, and seeing what works best, you can achieve that very particular kind of glowing light that appears when light is scattered through and between strands of hair. 

63. Photoshop tips: next-level lighting advice

Photoshop tutorials: light

Photoshop tips: next-level lighting advice is one of those Photoshop tutorials that does exactly what it says on the tin. Following these insights on lighting from Suzanne Helmigh will give your digital art an extra level of realism.

64. Turn day into night using Photoshop

Photoshop tutorials: day to night

How to turn day into night using Photoshop teaches you how to convert a sunny landscape into an atmospheric night scene. The simple step-by-step guide makes this useful digital art technique a breeze to put into practice.

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