Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/1stwebdesigner/~3/sF4hf-LDBGo/

A landing page is one of the most crucial components to a successful website. It makes a first impression with users and states your case for sticking around. In the age of short attention spans, you’d better put forth the effort to engage people.

In general, a well-designed landing page will feature:

A Compelling Call-To-Action (CTA)
Clear Content and Purpose
Visually Appealing Images
Attractive, Easy-To-Read Typography

While that may sound simple enough, it’s not always so easy to achieve. The good news is that you don’t necessarily have to start your next landing page project from scratch. There are a plethora of themes and templates that will provide you with a tremendous head start.

Here are 10 landing page themes and templates you can use to grab (and keep) a visitor’s attention:

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Appexo App Landing Page

Appexo App Landing Page is a clean, colorful and bold HTML 5 template to showcase your product or service. Based on Twitter Bootstrap 3.x and an 1170px grid layout, the template is also fully responsive. You’ll find six demo pages, smooth scrolling, animations, attractive pricing tables, a slideshow and carousel included.

Pixel

Pixel is a beautiful and simple HTML 5 landing page template based on Bootstrap 3.x. It features attention-grabbing video backgrounds that can be sourced via HTML 5 video or YouTube.

The typography here also stands out as it is used to great effect. There are sections for everything you need, including pricing tables, blog posts and testimonials. Also included is a working AJAX contact form.

Olli

Olli is a HTML 5 template that will place all eyes squarely on your product. Choose from four slightly different home page layouts and six color schemes. It’s colorful and built to take advantage of strong product photography.

A working order form is included to help drive sales. This Bootstrap 3.x template also includes parallax scrolling, three different product card layouts and integration with popular font and icon packages.

Minimal

Minimal is a HTML landing page template that is perfect for situations where you don’t need to publish a lot of content – at least not yet.  It’s really meant to serve as an attractive pre-launch or “coming soon” page.

However, it’s anything but bland. Inside, you’ll find the ability to utilize a full-width background image or video slider, along with a text-based slider. You can create something that looks exciting and helps to build anticipation for your upcoming launch.

Holo

Holo is aimed at businesses that prefer a highly-functional single-page web presence. This HTML 5/Bootstrap template features powerful animated scrolling effects and lots of assorted jQuery goodies like progress bars, parallax scrolling and a filterable portfolio.

Both a light and dark template is included, along with the ability to easily customize colors. There’s also an AJAX contact form, clean pricing tables and a semi-transparent carousel.

Inbound

Inbound is a WordPress landing page theme that aims for versatility. Using the included page builder, you’ll be able to create just about any layout you’d like.

Also included is a banner system that enables you to add call-to-action areas to any part of your site. The theme includes 30+ custom widgets for things like pricing tables, Google Maps and image galleries.

One

One is a WordPress theme based on Bootstrap 3.x. It comes with three design variations and includes integration with MailChimp to make collecting email addresses a cinch.

The look is quite clean with gorgeous typography and slick AJAX animations. Inside you’ll find a copy of Visual Composer to help with page layout, mega menus, a selection of custom Shortcodes and lots of popular page content sections to get you started.

Leadx

Leadx is a WordPress theme featuring seven demo layouts that span a variety of potential uses. Visual Composer and Slider Revolution are included for easy content and layout creation.

The theme is also compatible with top plugins like Gravity Forms and WooCommerce. Overall, the look is very modern and includes parallax scrolling, progress bars and attractive mega menus. There are also several ways to customize things on a per-page basis.

Eventry

Eventry is a WordPress theme with a focus on event landing pages. Frankly, the landing page format is perfect for use with conferences and other corporate events. The theme sports four home page variations, along with 10 color schemes to help you get just the right look.

Other features include a countdown timer (perfect for creating pre-event hype), a handy responsive event schedule, a pre-registration form and the ability to get directions to the conference via Google Maps. It’s a beautiful and bold theme with lots of goodies tailored for event management.

Conversi

Conversi is all about making those cold, hard conversions. The design of this WordPress theme makes great use of color to draw attention to important content. Included are copies of Visual Composer and Slider Revolution.

Beyond that, you’ll find lots of options to customize the CSS, colors, fonts and more. Other features include pricing tables, an image lightbox and a carousel. The theme is based on Bootstrap and provides two custom page layouts, along with six custom headers.

A Smooth Landing

When it comes to landing pages, it’s never a bad idea to go with the tried and true. And that’s where the templates and themes above really shine. They provide you with the tools you need to create an effective page that will accomplish your goals.

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/1stwebdesigner/~3/7kht-mTDQ-M/

While most websites use similar navigation structures and placements, there are small proportions that break free of the traditional layouts. These websites often do so to present a unique design, while also to experiment with alternate and often improved solutions. Every website is different, and the one-size-fits-all approach can often be outdated – particularly for websites which are more visual or do not follow a traditional template-like structure.

In this article, we’ll take a look at ten of the most creative website navigation designs around in 2018.

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No Questions Asked

Opting to position their stacked navigation on the left, No Questions Asked’s website leaves the header section as clean as possible and introduces a slide-deck type layout.

Inflatable Regatta

The Inflatable Regatta website uses a full-width navigation with large, bold text links. It’s a simple solution which is easy to use, but one that is rarely implemented across the web design industry.

The Scenery

The Scenery uses the uppermost tier to position their logo and a primary CTA in the form of a contact button. The page navigation is positioned within the container and below this section. It makes for a neat and accessible navigation placement which is more closely tied to the content.

Stine Goya

Stine Goya is another site to use the left-aligned vertical stack navigation. It opens up the header, allowing a large logotype, hero background, and inclusion of cart/checkout icons.

HelloSign

HelloSign’s blog uses a two-tier navigation design. The top tier includes search, categories and subscribe. The second tier allows for some quick-access topics. This makes it really easy for a user to filter results with little effort.

South Australia

South Australia’s navigation is comprehensive in terms of content. There are over 30 individual items, which is why they have positioned them behind a menu link. The full-screen design is easy to use due to its spaciousness and separation of categories through color and a well-structured layout.

Bobby

Bobby’s portfolio website splits the hero section into two halves. The left side includes six items: three navigation items at the top, and three link items at the bottom. Each is spread as far apart as possible for optimum visual separation and aesthetic effect.

Wade Jeffree

Wade Jeffree has done away with a traditional navigation layout, instead opting for two emphatic links positioned at the foot of the main screen. They are clear and still manage to draw attention through their bold weight and underline decoration.

Newlyn

One of the most simple and effective navigations is by Newlyn. The hamburger icon expands to reveal a full-screen list of items. It’s incredibly spacious and in-keeping with the remainder of the website design.

Logistics Solutions

Logistics Solutions implements some neat animation and transitional effects to expand the circular hamburger icon. It results in this eye-catching orange bubble which encompasses primary navigation items as well as company information, social links and contact details.

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-deploy-to-alibaba-cloud-ecs-with-mina/

This article was created in partnership with Alibaba Cloud. Thank you for supporting the partners who make SitePoint possible.

Do you have a tip for making the most out of Alibaba Cloud Services? If so, tell us about it in our SitePoint Community.

Mina is a fast deployer and server automation tool, with advanced features and powerful extensibility. Learn how Mina can make your deployment process better, how to install it, how to extend it with plugins, and run through your first automated workflow. Then learn how to use Mina to migrate databases and websites, and set up even more advanced workflows with tools like WP CLI. We’ll be using Alibaba Cloud ECS for this tutorial.

To learn more about Mina, check out our article here.

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Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/9j_ApZKCL1Y/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-photoshop-for-ipad

It’s fair to say Adobe really has pulled some impressive updates out the bag for Adobe MAX 2018. But, without a doubt, the biggest buzz came on Monday when Adobe chief product manager Scott Belsky introduced Photoshop for iPad. A 15,000-strong crowd went wild as Belsky handed over to product project manager Jenny Lyell, who demonstrated some of the app's capabilities, stating: "This is not a watered down version, this is full Photoshop on the iPad."

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However, despite the impressive demo, getting any further information about the app, in terms of price and release date, was like getting blood out of a stone. Adobe is keeping a lot of information about Photoshop for iPad close to its chest, but we managed to get a few minutes with Lyell, who gave us a little more insight into this tablet-version of Photoshop…

01. It's taken almost three years to make

Approximately three years in the making, Photoshop for iPad came about after two engineers realised user demand via constant online searches for the term Photoshop for iPad. They decided their next challenge would be to see if it was actually possible to get the 28-year-old code base of Photoshop onto a tablet. For years, Adobe had tried it with other apps, including Sketch and other drawing apps, but these didn’t have the code base of Photoshop. So that was the dream, that was the challenge. 

"The code base for Photoshop is 28 years old, it’s a mammoth," says Lyell. "So how do you even comprehend that?"

But a small team at Adobe believed it was possible, and so chatted with their leaders in engineering and product, who gave them the blessing to go work on the project. The project was to be kept quiet in the early stages. "Some people were extremely skeptical in the company and weren’t sure we should be investing in this," says Lyell. Bet those guys feel silly now, huh?

02. The alpha build had just five features

As the technical aspects were going on with the development of Photoshop for iPad, Lyell was busy talking to customers, asking them questions like 'why do you actually want it on iPad? What does it help you with, what problem are/will you be solving with this software?'

"So much of the product roadmap is influenced by our customers," says Lyell. "Once we saw the life of this happening, we knew that we wanted to preview and announce it. But I didn’t want us to get away from the customers, and so we recruited this small group of people to work on the alpha build. 

"At this point there were literally only five features in there. We set their expectations, telling them it would be like using Photoshop 1.0, but that we wanted them to run with us, from the beginning, and give us as much feedback as possible so we could make sure that even at the preview stage, the product we were creating was what the users wanted. Diverting from customers' needs, even just slightly early on, could have had huge ramifications. Customers have to be by our side."

03. It can handle hundreds (if not thousands) of layers

At a private Apple event, Photoshop for iPad product lead Jenny Lyell delved a little deeper into the app’s capabilities

As the Adobe design team collected hours and hours of one-on-one interviews, trying to understand user needs, there was a breakthrough moment in the timeline when they got large PSD to open on the iPad. "The whole team was in tears, freaking out," Lyell says. “This is impossible, we thought. But we’d seen it with our own eyes!"

So what constitutes a large PSD? "It was hundreds of layers that we got to open," says Lyell. With the same code base as Photoshop on desktop, Photoshop on iPad will open up any size PSD file. When asked if this would present any technical limitations, Lyell told us: "It would affect it just as a massive document on any machine would. So having the biggest single file on your mac would slow you down a few seconds vs a smaller one. Photoshop for iPad will work in a similar way, but we've optimised it a lot in terms of performance and we didn’t want to bring this out until we knew the hardware and software was ready."

04. It won't necessarily feature all your PS favourites 

If you're expecting to see the full toolset in this app, you'll be disappointed. Instead, the company has armed it with all the core tools users need to do real work in Photoshop. "Photoshop has a dozen different ways you can select an object – the 1.0 functionality is still in the code base!" says Lyell. "So we’re really rethinking how to give users all the core tools they need to do all the work they need, and give them the modern, best version of these tools so that they don’t have to feel any frustrations or inefficiencies."

05. It will feature Adobe's new AI technology

Part of the update to Photoshop CC this year includes a new Adobe Sensei selection tool. When asked if Photoshop for iPad will include this, Lyell was quick to confirm. "We definitely want to get the newest Sensei technology in there, so it’s prioritised on the roadmap," she says. 

Support and pricing

Adobe is pretty elusive about release dates and pricing models for Photoshop for iPad. When asked about when creatives can actually get their hands on the app (and trust us, we were persistent), we weren't even able to get a rough estimate as to when this is expected to ship. 

"It will be available in 2019, and we're still working out the business model in terms of pricing," Lyell said. We also asked whether it will be part of the CC suite or if Adobe is going to offer this as a standalone product and were told "we’re having conversations about that right now". 

Android users, we didn't forget about you either. When asked if this will be an iPad-only app, Lyell replied with: "Our plan is to extend to as many devices as we can right now. We still trying to sort out what's the best experience, and so are testing the different versions to see what’s optimised and what’s best for performance. We don’t want people having a poor experience, so that information will also come out during the launch." 

For what will almost certainly be a highly sought-after product, it’s a little frustrating to have no details as to when we can realistically expect this to ship to the masses. That said, 2019 is just around the corner, so let's hope it's sooner rather than later. 

Read more:

Adobe launches video app Premiere Rush CC13 iPad Pro apps that come alive with Apple PencilProject Gemini: Adobe announces new digital art app

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/fast-gulp-wordpress-theme-development-workflow/

This article is part of a series created in partnership with SiteGround. Thank you for supporting the partners who make SitePoint possible.

WordPress’ simple theme development is partly responsible for its success. A developer with front-end and PHP knowledge can consult the excellent Codex and get started on their next masterpiece.

Theme development is possible with just a text editor and graphics package, but modern toolsets can revolutionize your workflow. In this tutorial we’ll use Gulp to run tasks including:

copying newer PHP theme files
optimizing images
compiling Sass SCSS files into a single, minified CSS file
merging ordered JavaScript files, remove debugging statements and minifying
automatically refreshing the browser when files are updated.

What is Gulp?

Gulp is a JavaScript-based build system which takes your source files and transforms them into optimized versions. If you’re new to Gulp, please refer to An Introduction to Gulp.js for full installation and usage instructions. A summary of the initial steps:

The post Develop WordPress Themes Faster with Gulp appeared first on SitePoint.