Introducing “The WebP Manual”

Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/07/webp-manual/

Introducing “The WebP Manual”

Introducing “The WebP Manual”

Markus Seyfferth

2018-07-24T12:00:00+02:00
2018-07-24T10:53:31+00:00

What’s WebP in the first place? Can we actually use it today? And if yes, how exactly? The role of media in performance, specifically images, is of huge concern. Images are powerful. Engaging visuals evoke visceral feelings. They can provide key information and context to articles, or merely add humorous asides. They do anything for us that plain text just can’t by itself.

But when there’s too much imagery, it can be frustrating for users on slow connections, or run afoul of data plan allowances. In the latter scenario, that can cost users real money. This sort of inadvertent trespass can carry real consequences.

In this eBook, you’ll learn all about WebP: what it’s capable of, how it performs, how to convert images to the format in a variety of ways, and most importantly, how to use it. Of course — the eBook is — and always will be, free for all Smashing Members.

Looking for a sneak peek? Read an excerpt.

84 pages. Written by Jeremy Wagner. Cover Design by Ricardo Gimenes. Available in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats.

Smashing Book 6

eBook

Free for Members

$14.90Get the eBook

PDF, ePUB, Kindle.

$0.00 $14.90 Free for Members →

…along with 12 webinars and 56 other eBooks.

What’s In The eBook

This guide will encourage you to experiment and see what’s possible with WebP:

WebP Basics
WebP images usually use less disk space when compared to other formats at reasonably comparable visual similarity. Depending on your site’s audience and the browsers they use, this is an opportunity to deliver less data-intensive user experiences for a significant segment of your audience.

Performance
We’ll cover how both lossy and lossless WebP compare to JPEGs and PNGs exported by a number of image encoders.

Converting Images To WebP (Excerpt)
This can be done in a myriad of ways, from something as simple as exporting from your preferred design program, by using Cloudinary and similar services, and even in Node.js-based build systems. Here, we’ll cover all avenues.

Using WebP Images
Because WebP isn’t supported in all browsers just yet, you’ll need to learn how to use it that sites and applications gracefully fall back to established formats when WebP support is lacking. Here, we’ll discuss the many ways you can use WebP responsibly, starting by detecting browser support in the Accept request header.

About The Author

Dan Mall
Jeremy Wagner is a performance-obsessed front-end developer, author and speaker living and working in the frozen wastes of Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is also the author of Web Performance in Action, a web developer’s companion guide for creating fast websites. You can find him on Twitter @malchata, or read his blog of ramblings.

Here’s Why This eBook Is For You

The WebP Manual will get you ready for the new image format that is capable to significantly less data-intensive user experiences for a majority of your audience:

Learn how lossy and lossless WebP compare to JPEGs and PNGs exported by a number of image encoders.
Learn which services and plugins you can use to export or convert images to WebP with your preferred design tool or command line tool.
Learn how to can use WebP in production, and how to implement proper fallbacks for browsers that don’t support WebP just yet.
Learn how to use the full potential of the WebP format. It will substantially improve loading performance for many of your users, customers, and clients, and it will become one of your favorite tools for making websites as lean as possible.

The eBook is free for Smashing Members (you can cancel anytime, of course).

Smashing Book 6

eBook

Free for Members

$14.90Get the eBook

PDF, ePUB, Kindle.

$0.00 $14.90 Free for Members →

…along with 12 webinars and 56 other eBooks.

8 Secrets of the Perfect Link

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2018/07/8-secrets-of-the-perfect-link/

A few weeks ago a frustrated face appeared around the corner of my desk. “Sorry mate, you don’t do any printing do you?”

“Well yeah, sometimes,” I said.

I have a dedicated desk in a co-working space, we share a printer, and it was this shared printer that was frustrating the face in question: “I’ve been trying for hours to get this bloody thing printed, I’m absolutely desperate, I can’t find the right driver anywhere…”

“I think you just log into the dashboard and download it,” I said. “I think that’s what I did, hold on let me try,” I said, firing up the office dashboard. “You go to printer instructions…”

“Yep, I did that.”

“…and then you click…”

“Oh God!” he wailed. “It’s a link isn’t it.”

Here are the instructions that he’d been struggling with:

An intelligent, professional person, had spent two hours searching for the right driver for a Canon printer, never realizing that the “Download Driver” instruction was a link.

As he slunk back to his workspace, it seemed impolite to enquire as to whether or not he’s color blind, but I’d put good money on it; if he is, that link probably appears mid-grey, blending in with the rest of the text.

Links are arguably the most important element in any document. Without them, the web is just a collection of files stored on the Internet. The perfect link is simple, honest, and usable. Here’s how to design it.

1. A Good Link is Not a Button

…and a good button is not a link.

We frequently misunderstand the role of links on the web. A link describes the relationship between two pieces of data, providing context, and often providing meaning.

Buttons perform actions, links form contextual relationships

A link does not perform an action. The printer driver link above should not be a link, it should be a button; buttons don’t link data, they perform an action.

It’s entirely true that the vast majority of GUIs allow you to tap or click a link in order to access the linked data, but that is simply a shortcut. The primary role of the link is to establish a connection between pieces of data.

Buttons perform actions, links form contextual relationships.

2. A Good Link Clarifies its Purpose

Central to the problem of how a link should be used, is the fact that the anchor element is flexible enough to be used in a number of ways without breaking. A mailto: link for example should not be a link (it’s an action, not a connection between pieces of data) that has escaped deprecation by being really very useful.

We have a whole hierarchy of headings—including the relatively useless <h5></h5> and <h6></h6>—but we have a single anchor element. In an ideal world we’d have multiple anchor elements to give semantic meaning to links, perhaps a <ae></ae> element for external links (data on a different domain) and a <ai></ai> for internal links (data on the same domain). At present the nearest we can get to giving links semantic meaning is using absolute paths for external links and relative paths for internal links.

We can of course apply different styles to different classes of anchor using CSS. It makes sense that to clarify purpose, internal links should be styled in-keeping with the site’s brand, but that external links should be distinct in some way.

In Tim Berners-Lee’s 1997 thoughts on the nature of UI, he states that:

the interface to a universal space should have a certain universal consistency

Certainly users’ understanding of how to use the web has developed since those words were written, but the essential point holds true; users prefer a UI that reflects their wider experience. While there is an argument to say that internal links should be in-keeping with a site’s brand to clarify what they link to, there is an equally valid argument that adhering to the default styles—blue, underlined, system fonts—for external links, not only simplifies an interface, but clarifies that the data being linked to is outwith the current site’s domain.

Whether inconsistency of links causes more confusion than it relieves should be addressed on a case-by-case basis. But in cases where internal links and external links are styled the same, in the interests of usability, it’s the familiar blue, underlined, system font approach that best serves the user.

3. A Good Link is Visited

Thanks to William Gibson-esque metaphors, we have a tendency to conceptualize surfing the web as traveling to different locations. Links are viewed as a gateway to somewhere else, when in fact they are a gateway to somewhen else. Take a look at your browser history. It’s not a map of locations, but a chronological record of events. Links are points in the timeline of our data consumption.

visited links are the low-hanging fruit of UI design

As important as links to future data, are links to past data: visited links. Visited links are important because it is visited links that contextualize our data consumption and highlight (by their elimination) that data that we have yet to consume.

Visited links can be a little crude—ideally a link would be compared against a user’s browser history to determine not just if the document had been visited, but if the document had been updated since the user’s last visit. Despite this, visited links are the low-hanging fruit of UI design—easily styled as a slightly desaturated, less urgent version of an active link—and provide invaluable information to the user about their experience.

4a. A Good Link is Always Blue

The principle formalized by psychology as the Mere Exposure Effect teaches us that the more familiar something is, the more appealing it is.

The default color of a hyperlink in a browser, is blue. Hyperlinks appear to have been established as blue by sheer chance (presumably someone somewhere’s personal preference). The fortuitous decision benefits usability because almost no one has a blue sight deficiency; unlike red and green, we can nearly all see blue.

Whether a learned behavior, or an inherently more usable color, blue links are clicked more.

(Because of this deep association, no text should ever be blue unless it’s a link.)

4b. A Good Link is Rarely Blue

Blue is the most popular color across the board. Blue is also the most common color in UI design, especially among technology and news sites.

The omnipresence of blue raises a challenge for designers: if the primary brand color is blue, should the links in the document also be blue, or does the use of blue in the general design obfuscate the location of links?

Whenever designing with a lot of blue, I’ve found users prefer complementary colors for links; orange, or green for example. However, with the proven effectiveness of blue links, it’s worth edging towards the blue end of the spectrum: reds should edge towards purple, greens towards turquoise.

5. A Good Link is Underlined

The argument for underlining is that, as with the printer driver example, underlining reinforces the color indicator; if a person is color blind, they can still see the underline.

The argument against underlining is that it interrupts the flow of text. Google removed underlined links years ago with no apparent downside—at least not enough of a downside to cause them to reverse the decision. But then Google’s links are blue, the linkiest of all link colors, and less of a problem for the color blind.

If underlining text is genuinely too disruptive, there are two simple alternatives: you can either style a pseudo-underline by applying a dashed or dotted bottom-border to the link which will be visually less impactful, or you can highlight in a different way, such as applying a background color to the link.

(As with the avoidance of blue text, never underline text that isn’t a link; users will conclude that your link is broken long before they realize you made a poor design decision.)

6. A Good Link Stands Out

Links should be identifiable at a glance. Interaction is inconsistent across devices, and relying on scrubbing the page to uncover links is a recipe for user frustration.

Links should be identifiable at a glance

Eye-tracking research suggests that users scan through links, just after titles, to identify the parts of the page most interesting to them. This ability is even more important for screen reader users, who can’t visually scan a page for relevant content, but can (and do) scan through links to identify interesting content.

When treated as bullet points, links describe not only the data that they link to, but the content in which they sit. You wouldn’t link to information on perfume from a paragraph on mountain bikes, so it’s common sense that if there’s a link to mountain bikes, then the paragraph in which it resides will also be about mountain bikes.

7. A Good Link Uses Good Microcopy

If possible, keep links at the end of sentences, or the end of blocks of text; this limits the interruption to the thought process, and creates a less disjointed experience. However, never employ the “more information…” approach.

Running a search on Google for “click here” returns 5,090,000,000 results. A similar search for “read more” returns 17,090,000,000 results. What a waste.

Beyond the evident SEO failures of “read more”, “find out more”, “click here” etc. poorly written links give the impression that the current content is abdicating its authority. You are in effect saying, “this information is shallow, there’s better information elsewhere.”

If a link is designed well enough, it is clear at a glance that it’s a link, and “click here” style instructions are superfluous.

8. A Good Link Facilitates Good UX

It’s essential that links can be easily triggered, regardless of the delivery device; mobile sites need large enough hit areas, speech readers need distinct microcopy.

A link must always keep its promise

Links should follow the reasoned approach of the majority of use-cases. That means that internal links open in the same window, and external links open in a new tab. There are exceptions, a link to a privacy policy for example is an internal link but should be opened in a new tab. Whenever making this choice, ask yourself if the user is likely to need the back button. If so, use a new tab so it can be easily closed returning the user to the previous information.

No link should ever surprise a user, and that includes the type of content you’re linking to. If you’re linking to content that is NSFW, or behind a firewall, consider using the :before or :after pseudo elements to insert an icon next to the link, warning the user of what’s coming.

A link must always keep its promise. That means that when a user clicks, taps, selects, or otherwise triggers a link, they get exactly what they were expecting. And that includes ensuring that links are never, ever broken.

Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!

Source

p img {display:inline-block; margin-right:10px;}
.alignleft {float:left;}
p.showcase {clear:both;}
body#browserfriendly p, body#podcast p, div#emailbody p{margin:0;}

Exclusive Freebie: 12 Instagram Story Templates

Original Source: https://inspiredm.com/exclusive-freebie-12-instagram-story-templates/

Created by Nice, Very Nice! the Instagram story template pack “Napali” contains 12 high-quality templates. The bundle is a useful tool for influencers, bloggers, marketers, brands, and storytellers aims to help promote e-commerce products, share deals and announcements or attract the attention of the followers. These templates are fully customizable and compatible with Adobe Photoshop and Sketch App.

See the templates live on Instagram here.

Product features

12 Templates for Photoshop and Sketch App.
Document size: 1600×2844px.
High resolution/retina proof.
Download links to the free fonts.
Well ordered layers.
All shapes are vector based.
Pixel perfect shapes.
Easy image placement via smart objects.

How to use the product

Open a file with any template.
Drag&drop new photos, replace the texts.
Save the file.
Upload to your Instagram story.

Download Napali for free from here.

The post Exclusive Freebie: 12 Instagram Story Templates appeared first on Inspired Magazine.

SmartPhoto.js – Simple Responsive Image Viewer Designed for Mobile

Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/smartphotojs-mobile-slideshow-plugin/

Responsive image gallery designed specifically to display your website on mobile devices.

The post SmartPhoto.js – Simple Responsive Image Viewer Designed for Mobile appeared first on Hongkiat.

Visit hongkiat.com for full content.

5 Powerful Instagram Features For Businesses

Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/instagram-features-for-business/

A list of Instagram features that help boost your business on the plarform.

The post 5 Powerful Instagram Features For Businesses appeared first on Hongkiat.

Visit hongkiat.com for full content.

Graphic Design Inspiration Sources: 5 Ways to Feed Your Creativity

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Designrfix/~3/4Rnkrwv66dw/graphic-design-inspiration-sources-5-ways-to-feed-your-creativity

When it comes to creating awesome designs, every graphic designer has to start somewhere. One moment your ideas overflow, then suddenly inspiration runs dry. The creativity that pushed you to pursue graphic design gradually weighs heavily on your shoulders. What many of us do not know is that graphic design is a process that takes […]

The post Graphic Design Inspiration Sources: 5 Ways to Feed Your Creativity appeared first on designrfix.com.

3 stunning blood moon images

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/8aj1fy9r0vw/3-stunning-blood-moon-images

Are you ready for Friday's blood moon? On Friday 27 July, photographers will be training their lenses on the night sky as they attempt to capture the longest, reddest and most dramatic total lunar eclipse for decades: the eerie phenomenon known as a blood moon.

For over an hour, the moon will turn a vivid orangey-red colour for lucky sky-gazers in the UK, Europe, Africa and Asia – weather permitting, of course. Compared to the flash-in-the-pan occurrence of a total solar eclipse, a dramatic total lunar eclipse such as this is a gift to photograph, provided you have a decent zoom lens.

But if you don't have the photography skills to capture it to your satisfaction, fear not. We've dug out three stunning blood moon images you can download today.

Aside from editorial use, striking, atmospheric moon images such as these are ideal for common design projects ranging from album covers to posters, flyers and more. So read on for our top picks of the very best blood moon images…

01. Blood moon gradient

Blood moon by Danita Delimont

At the start and end of the total lunar eclipse, a beautiful gradient will appear on the blood moon

You may have seen a partial lunar eclipse before: the full moon becomes much duller, and therefore easier to photograph. But it's only during a total lunar eclipse such as the blood moon on 27 July that the moon turns red, as it moves into the darkest part of the Earth's shadow.

It's a similar principle to a sunset being red, because the light has to travel through a lot of atmosphere before reaching our eyes. During a total lunar eclipse, sunlight is bent through the Earth’s atmosphere and onto the moon.

As the moon enters the earth's shadow, the edge takes on a pinky-orangey-brown hue before the whole face gradually turns red, and then fades out again as the eclipse ends. The result is a soft gradient that's captured beautifully in the image above, shot by Danita Delimont in Seattle, USA.

02. Blood moon with landscape

Blood moon with landscape by Darren Robinson

In the UK, the blood moon will be low in the sky – making interesting landscape compositions possible

While a total solar eclipse is only visible for a few fleeting minutes, and from a very specific area of the planet only, a total lunar eclipse can be seen from the entire night side of the planet.

While the blood moon on 27 July 2018 can be seen from Europe, Africa and Asia, it will be in different stages and positions in the night sky. The UK, for instance, will miss the first 20 minutes of totality, and the Blood Moon will already be red when it comes into view at 8:49pm.

The positive side of this is that the blood moon will be low enough in the sky to be captured as part of an interesting composition. In the example above, shot by Darren Robinson in British Columbia, Canada, the silhouettes of trees in the foreground frame the blood moon nicely.

03. Blood moon in close-up

Blood moon in close-up by John Sanford

This final Blood moon image – shot by John Sanford in 1996, and part of the Science Photo Library collection – perfectly captures the moment immediately after the totality phase, with the bright highlight at the top left and stark, moody shadow at the bottom right adding a satisfyingly three-dimensional feel to the image.

This kind of stunning close-up shot demands the ideal combination of high-end photographic equipment, finely-honed creative skills and years of professional experience – not to mention the perfect timing and atmospheric conditions. 

If you fancy your chances at achieving that ideal balance, you'll find top tips to photograph the blood moon over at Digital Camera World. Good luck, enjoy yourself – but if you want premium quality without the effort, all three of the above examples can be found at Getty Images.

Related articles:

5 great Instagram Stories templates for designers4 design tools you never knew you needed6 ways not to get hired as a designer 

How to Select the Right Copywriting Gig on Fiverr for Marketing Copy

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-select-the-right-copywriting-gig-on-fiverr-for-marketing-copy/

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

In this article, we are going to educate SitePoint readers on how to select the right gig on Fiverr for marketing copy.

As a worldwide verified freelancing platform, Fiverr is a 100% safe and productive site where you can buy and sell services. Boasting one of the fastest customer service departments available today, Fiverr's team immediately responds to questions and inquiries for a seamless customer usability experience.

In this guide you will learn:

The top tips for success when shopping around Fiverr
How to select blogging, email, and editing gigs
How to select a marketing copy gig that is right for you
Pros and cons of cheap versus expensive Fiverr writers

The Top Tips for Success When Shopping Around Fiverr

We are going to go over how to select the right gig every time when shopping on Fiverr.

/1. Be realistic about your expectations regarding the price you need to pay for a required writing job. Quality work costs more, even at Fiverr. Although it's still more affordable than any other freelancing marketplace, you're not going to get published on Forbes, or publish a high-quality e-book with custom illustrations, if you don't invest several hundred dollars.

Think of Fiverr as your go-to marketplace where you can always find the most affordable deals on writing services and more. Projects range from short blog post editing that will cost you only a few bucks, to top quality e-book writing services that will cost you several hundred dollars.

/2. Know how to clearly communicate. A good and bad point of Fiverr is that it's a global marketplace with every nationality selling and buying services. That means you need to be able to clearly articulate what it is that you want, in basic English, without the complexities.

If you can't clearly explain what it is that you need, do not try and outsource the project. That's a sign that you need to go back to the drawing board and reevaluate what it is that you need, first and foremost. When approaching a freelancer, you need to have an adept understanding of the task at hand, and the details required to make it happen.

It's ok to be a pain – the writers expect it. Now is the time to be safe, rather than sorry, and get all the information out in the open. It's up to the writer if they want to take on the task or not.

Be comprehensive.

Selecting Blogging, Emailing, and Editing Gigs

Now that you're ready to address your marketing copy, first understand that there are a variety of gigs out there related to content marketing. You can work on a press release, e-mail copy, newsletter, blog, product description, website page, and the list goes on.

For the sake of this piece, we're going to look at the 3 most important marketing copy gigs for our business: blogging, emailing, and editing & proofreading.

1. Blog writing gigs

Blogs are applicable for B2C, B2B, and personal posts, providing brands with an easy way to communicate a message, announcement, or feature to their followers. You want to find a writer that matches your personal style.

Within basic gigs, you can reasonably expect a Fiverr writer to provide 100-300 word blog posts, with titles and references.

When communicating with these writers regarding your blog, we recommend you use the following steps to ensure they have everything they need to write an awesome blog for you:

Your Blog URL: Firstly, send the writer your blog URL. They need to be able to familiarize themselves with your blog tone. Your blog might be informal with a little humor, or it could be incredibly serious and fact-based. Your ghostwriter will know how to take on your tone, but they need the right information first to make it happen.

If you don't have an existing blog, do your best to find at least 1-2 links to other blogs that have the tone you want. Your blog writer is not a mind-reader, and needs some kind of starting point in understanding your overall goal. The more examples you can provide them, the better.

Your Topic: Although blog writers can come up with completely original topics just based on your industry, if you do have a topic in mind, now is the time to communicate it to them (and not after the blog has been written). Let's say you own a social media management company. There is plenty to write on, but where do you want them to begin? Are you looking for more conversions regarding your SEO service? Tell the blog writer you want a blog on the benefits of SEO with a call-to-action at the end pushing the reader to sign up for your SEO services.

Although some of this might seem self-explanatory, be sure to articulate exactly what topic you want if that's your end goal. If not, you can let the blog writer do their thing.

Any Secret Specifications: When we find reliable Fiverr providers, it can be easy to assume they know how to do everything. Ghostwriters can select topics, research them, and write amazing marketing copy for your business. However, they can’t know that your company is only six months old and doesn’t actually provide SEO services (but will in two months). These secret specifications need to be communicated from the onset. It's not fair to surprise them after the entire blog has been crafted.

2. Email copy gigs

Email copy gigs on Fiverr will help you draft one or multiple emails for luring customers and patrons to your website.

Within the basic gigs, providers on Fiverr will vet your platform and draft up one or two emails that you can send to your subscriber list.

If you explore gig add-ons, email writers can write a series of emails, with release dates, so you continue to string on your leads.

3. Editing & proofreading gigs

A variety of editors are able to provide rewrites, proofing for grammar, syntax, spelling, and capitalization, as well as feedback on the copy.

Within the basic gigs, editors will proofread up to 1k or 2k words on your behalf, tracking their changes in a Word document. You can choose to accept or reject the changes, as well as request that a tracked changes and accepted changes document is provided at the end of the order.

How to Select a Marketing Copy Gig That Is Right for You

Now that we've explored the types of marketing copy gigs available to you on Fiverr, we're going to look at 5 steps for selecting the right marketing copy gig. There are many writers and editors available to you through the site, so where do you begin? How do you weed out the faulty providers? Here are our recommendations.

1. Reviews

As a review-based platform, you want to use Fiverr's publicly stated reviews to your advantage. If a gig only has 2 reviews, and one of them is not 5 stars, chances are you're not going to gamble. But if you see a gig with 300 reviews and a 5 star average, you know you're working with a serious provider.

The post How to Select the Right Copywriting Gig on Fiverr for Marketing Copy appeared first on SitePoint.

Sunshine All Day Every Day (August 2018 Wallpapers Edition)

Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/07/desktop-wallpaper-calendars-august-2018/

Sunshine All Day Every Day (August 2018 Wallpapers Edition)

Sunshine All Day Every Day (August 2018 Wallpapers Edition)

Cosima Mielke

2018-07-31T13:11:56+02:00
2018-07-31T15:32:00+00:00

Everybody loves a beautiful wallpaper to freshen up their desktops. So to cater for new and unique artworks on a regular basis, we embarked on our monthly wallpapers adventure nine years ago, and since then, countless artists and designers from all over the world have accepted the challenge and submitted their designs to it. It wasn’t any different this time around, of course.

This post features wallpapers created for August 2018. Each of them comes in versions with and without a calendar and can be downloaded for free. A big thank-you to everyone who participated!

Finally, as a little bonus, we also collected some “oldies but goodies” from previous August editions in this collection. Please note, that they only come in a non-calendar version. Which one will make it to your desktop this month?

Please note that:

All images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper,
We respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience throughout their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.

Submit your wallpaper

We are always looking for creative designers and artists to be featured in our wallpapers posts. So if you have an idea for a wallpaper, please don’t hesitate to submit your design. We’d love to see what you’ll come up with. Join in! →

Meet Smashing Book 6 with everything from design systems and accessible single-page apps to CSS Custom Properties, Grid, Service Workers, performance, AR/VR and responsive art direction. New frontiers in front-end and UX with Marcy Sutton, Harry Roberts, Laura Elizabeth and many others.

Table of Contents →

Purple Haze

“Meet Lucy: she lives in California, loves summer and sunbathing at the beach. This is our Jimi Hendrix Experience tribute. Have a lovely summer!” — Designed by PopArt Web Design from Serbia.

Purple Haze

preview
with calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Coffee Break Time

Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Sweden.

Coffee Break Time
preview
with calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

“Inspired by William Shakespeare.” — Designed by Sofie Lee from South Korea.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
preview
with calendar: 800×480, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
without calendar: 800×480, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 2560×1440

This August, Be The Best!

“Here is the August monthly calendar to remind you of your as well as your team’s success in the previous months. Congratulations, you guys deserved all the success that came your way. Hope you continue this success this month and in the coming months.” — Designed by Webandcrafts from India.

This August, Be The Best!

preview
with calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

No Drama LLama

“Llamas are showing up everywhere around us, so why not on our desktops too?” — Designed by Melissa Bogemans from Belgium.

No Drama LLama
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with calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

The Colors Of Life

“The countenance of the clown is a reflection of our own feelings and emotions of life in the most colorful way portrayed with a deeper and stronger expression whether it is a happy clown or a sad clown. The actions of the clown signify your uninhibited nature — the faces of life in its crudest form — larger, louder, and in an undiluted way.” — Designed by Acowebs from India.

The Colors Of Life

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with calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Hello August

“August brings me to summer, and summer brings me to fruit. In the hot weather there is nothing better than a fresh piece of fruit.” — Designed by Bram Wieringa from Belgium.

Hello August

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without calendar: 800×600, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440

Exploring Thoughts

“Thoughts, planning, daydreams are simply what minds do. It’s following the human impulse to explore the unexplored, question what doesn’t ring true, dig beneath the surface of what you think you know to formulate your own reality, and embrace the inherent ‘now’ of life. The main character here has been created blending texture and composition. Thoughts will never have an end.” — Designed by Sweans from London.

Exploring Thoughts
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with calendar: 320×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
without calendar: 320×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Chilling At The Beach

“In August it’s Relaxation Day on the 15th so that’s why I decided to make a wallpaper in which I showcase my perspective of relaxing. It’s a wallpaper where you’re just chilling at the beach with a nice cocktail and just looking at the sea and looking how the waves move. That is what I find relaxing! I might even dip my feet in the water and go for a swim if I’m feeling adventurous!” — Designed by Senne Mommens from Belgium.

Chilling At The Beach

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Let Peace Reign

“The freedom and independence sprouts from unbiased and educated individuals that build the nation for peace, prosperity and happiness to reign in the country for healthy growth.” — Designed by Admission Zone from India.

Let Peace Reign

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without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

On The Ricefields Of Batad

“Somebody once told me that I should make the most out of vacation. So there I was, carefully walking on a stone ridge in the ricefields of Batad. This place is hidden high up in the mountains. Also August is harvesting season.” — Designed by Miguel Lammens from Belgium.

On The Ricefields Of Batad

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Fantasy

Designed by Ilse van den Boogaart from The Netherlands.

Fantasy

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Oldies But Goodies

The past nine years have brought forth lots of inspiring wallpapers, and, well, it’d be a pity to let them gather dust somewhere down in the archives. That’s why we once again dug out some goodies from past August editions that are bound to make a great fit on your desktop still today. Please note that these wallpapers, thus, don’t come with a calendar.

Happiness Happens In August

“Many people find August one of the happiest months of the year because of holidays. You can spend days sunbathing, swimming, birdwatching, listening to their joyful chirping, and indulging in sheer summer bliss. August 8th is also known as the Happiness Happens Day, so make it worthwhile.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.

Happiness Happens In August

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Psst, It’s Camping Time…

“August is one of my favorite months, when the nights are long and deep and crackling fire makes you think of many things at once and nothing at all at the same time. It’s about these heat and cold which allow you to touch the eternity for a few moments.” — Designed by Igor Izhik from Canada.

Psst, It’s Camping Time...

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Bee Happy!

“August means that fall is just around the corner, so I designed this wallpaper to remind everyone to ‘bee happy’ even though summer is almost over. Sweeter things are ahead!” — Designed by Emily Haines from the United States.

Bee Happy!

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without calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Hello Again

“In Melbourne it is the last month of quite a cool winter so we are looking forward to some warmer days to come.” — Designed by Tazi from Australia.

Hello Again

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A Bloom Of Jellyfish

“I love going to aquariums – the colours, patterns and array of blue hues attract the nature lover in me while still appeasing my design eye. One of the highlights is always the jellyfish tanks. They usually have some kind of light show in them, which makes the jellyfish fade from an intense magenta to a deep purple – and it literally tickles me pink. On a recent trip to uShaka Marine World, we discovered that the collective noun for jellyfish is a bloom and, well, it was love-at-first-collective-noun all over again. I’ve used some intense colours to warm up your desktop and hopefully transport you into the depths of your own aquarium.” — Designed by Wonderland Collective from South Africa.

A Bloom Of Jellyfish

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Let Us Save The Tigers

“Let us take a pledge to save these endangered species and create a world that is safe for them to live and perish just like all creatures.” — Designed by Acodez IT Solutions from India.

Let Us Save The Tigers

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without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Shades

“It’s sunny outside (at least in the Northern Hemisphere!), so don’t forget your shades!” — Designed by James Mitchell from the United Kingdom.

Shades

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Ahoy

Designed by Webshift 2.0 from South Africa.

Monthly Quality Desktop Wallpaper - August 2012

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About Everything

“I know what you’ll do this August. 🙂 Because August is about holiday. It’s about exploring, hiking, biking, swimming, partying, feeling and laughing. August is about making awesome memories and enjoying the summer. August is about everything. An amazing August to all of you!” — Designed by Ioana Bitin from Bucharest, Romania.

About Everything

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Shrimp Party

“A nice summer shrimp party!” — Designed by Pedro Rolo from Portugal.

Shrimp Party

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The Ocean Is Waiting

“In August, make sure you swim a lot. Be cautious though.” — Designed by Igor Izhik from Canada.

The Ocean Is Waiting

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Oh La La… Paris Night

“I like the Paris night! All is very bright!” — Designed by Verónica Valenzuela from Spain.

Oh la la.... Paris night

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World Alpinism Day

“International Day of Alpinism and Climbing.” Designed by cheloveche.ru from Russia.

World Alpinism Day

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Estonian Summer Sun

“This is a moment from Southern Estonia that shows amazing summer nights.” Designed by Erkki Pung / Sviiter from Estonia.

Estonian Summer Sun

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Aunt Toula At The Beach

“A memory from my childhood summer vacations.” — Designed by Poppie Papanastasiou from Greece.

Aunt Toula At The Beach

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without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Flowing Creativity

Designed by Creacill, Carole Meyer from Luxembourg.

Flowing creativity

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Searching for Higgs Boson

Designed by Vlad Gerasimov from Russia.

Monthly Quality Desktop Wallpaper - August 2012

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Unforgettable Summer Night

Designed by BootstrapDash from India.

Unforgettable Summer Night

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Join In Next Month!

Thank you to all designers for their participation. Join in next month!

The future of design: AR will be bigger than the internet

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/gZMcIB_Bf74/the-future-of-design-ar-will-be-bigger-than-the-internet

Soon, a new era of experimental design and design thinking will be upon us. We’ll have entirely augmented experiences everywhere we walk, and voice design is the next big horizon for creatives. 

They’re just two predictions into the future of design shared by Scott Belsky, co-founder of Behance, and Adobe's chief product officer and executive vice president of Creative Cloud. 

Belsky took to the stage in London at an exclusive Adobe event earlier this summer to talk through the challenges and opportunities presented by emerging technologies – and to forecast the future for designers.

scott belsky at the gherkin in London

Scott Belsky at Adobe’s Future of Design event in London

As the future becomes increasingly commoditised, he said, creativity – and the role of user experience designers, particularly – will become increasingly important. 

"Companies are putting designers at the head of the table," he explained. "The user’s experience of technology these days is even more important than the tech itself. The UI is what distinguishes a product; a company. That’s one reason why designers are being employed across industries.”

Get 15% off Adobe Creative Cloud with our exclusive offer

In fact, when Adobe spoke to hiring managers at a range of top companies, 87 per cent of them said that UX designers are some of their most critical hires right now. 

So aside from a bright future for UX designers, what else is next for design? Here are five predictions Belsky made at the event – followed by an exclusive conversation with Creative Bloq, in which he explores the biggest new challenges and opportunities designers should prepare for.

Jump straight to the Scott Belsky interview
01. Augmented reality

We’ll soon have entirely augmented experiences everywhere we walk. AR will be as critical as the web,” Belsky predicted, adding that this is why Adobe has developed Project Aero, a powerful new augmented reality tool that makes it easier for designers and developers to create immersive content, and bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds. More on that below.

02. Voice design

“It’s the simplest interface of all, so we need to be able to design for it,” he said. Voice design tools are being brought into Adobe XD because we’re moving into a voice-driven world (think: Amazon Echo and Google Home) – and it’s raising many questions for designers, not least ethical ones.  

03. Artificial intelligence

Labour will become increasingly automated, with AI and machine learning helping creatives work smarter and faster by taking on repetitive tasks. “AI is a vertical of creativity,” said Belsky. “Think of it as a creative assistant.” 

04. Connected creativity

New tools like Adobe Capture – which turns photos on your phone or tablet into creative assets – will continue to deliver on the creative freedom promised by Creative Cloud in increasingly unique ways. “There’s an idea that in some ways we’re still chained to desktop – we expect to do our professional work there,” he said. “But that’s not where creativity happens.”

05. Ethics in design

What are our responsibilities for the end customer experience? What is the responsibility of the designer in preserving a consumer choice? When using visual search, such as Google, you're presented with a lot of options. Using a voice interface, this might not be the case – so who chooses which option you get, and how can you ensure the consumer’s best interests are served? Ethical questions have always been important, but in this new age of design they're even more so.

New challenges and opportunities for designers

ipad with image of creature on it

Project Aero: immersive media is poised to become the next disruptive platform. Welcome to the first wave of mainstream AR

So will AR really be bigger than the web? What sorts of questions is voice design raising? And what skills will designers need to meet the future of design head-on? We caught up with Belsky after the event to find out more…

What are the biggest opportunities of AR for designers?

Scott Belsky: I believe AR will do almost everything the web does for us, but in the context of our physical world, rather than on a screen. It will change the way we do everything from finding our way around cities, to reviewing the menu in restaurants, to dating, to fixing appliances in our homes. 

AR will do almost everything the web does for us, but in the context of our physical world, rather than on a screen. It will change the way we do everything.

Scott Belsky

Augmented Reality will enrich these experiences in ways we can barely imagine. However, none of this is possible without designers creating compelling three-dimensional interactive content and being able to collaborate with developers across platforms. 

AR and voice have the greatest potential to disrupt the way we experience the world. Every business group across Adobe is thinking about and building for AR because we strongly believe that it’s a transformative medium. AR is at the intersection of our physical and digital worlds, and requires a fundamentally different paradigm for interaction and design beyond the traditional screen experience. Designers will have the opportunity to literally design a new reality, and that’s going to be fun and challenging. 

How soon will AR be everywhere?

SB: We’re at the beginning of a journey with augmented reality. We believe that Project Aero is breaking new ground, with the goal of simplifying the development of AR content, delivering an even more powerful medium for storytelling for artists and designers around the world. Through our collaboration with Apple, Pixar and other partners, Project Aero will give creative professionals the ability to create more authentic experiences. 

What’s compelling is the quality and depth of the imagery, which makes the experience real and even more vivid. The industry is evolving at a rapid pace and there will be commercial and consumer demand for these types of experiences.

We see the potential of AR experiences to enable new forms of creative expression, spawn new customer experiences, and ignite new business models that we can’t even imagine today. We envision immersive media ultimately becoming ubiquitous in everyday life.  We’ll have a new interface through which we interact with a range of retail, news, search and other common applications.

What are the biggest challenges of AR for designers? How will Project Aero help?

SB: Most designers I speak with are excited about AR, but have no idea where to get started designing immersive experiences and how to work with developers to make them a reality. 

Our challenge is to help designers work with the tools they know and love, like Photoshop or Adobe XD for screen design, and then import their work to new tools like Adobe Dimension to make their creations 3D. And then, with Project Aero, designers will be able to make their creations interactive and easily 'published' to locations in augmented reality.  

For the first time, designers will be able to lay out and manipulate designs in physical spaces with a ‘what you see is what you get’ tool, making AR creation more fluid and intuitive. What’s more, delivering these immersive experiences to audiences on mobile devices will become faster, easier and safer. 

How can designers get ahead in voice design?

SB: Design is becoming more immersive and voice has become more important. Increasing numbers of people use a voice interface to order dinner, choose music, set reminders, and so many other tasks, thanks in large part to consumer products like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant. 

Smart speakers will be installed in more than 70 million U.S. households by 2022, according to a Juniper Research report, and consumers have high expectations of voice technology because they’re used to naturally interacting and talking to people. For designers, creating voice user interface (VUI) experiences requires new skills that transcend the keyboard, mouse and screen.

For designers to be successful in the future, they’ll need to know how to create a voice interface that is efficient and intuitive.

Scott Belsky

For designers to be successful in the future, they’ll need to know how to create a voice interface that is efficient and intuitive. Our goal is to help designers succeed in this medium and in the broader world of immersive and interaction design. That’s one of the reasons we’ve invested so heavily in Adobe XD as an experience design platform that can adapt to new modalities over time.  

Adobe XD brings prototyping and design together, which has unlocked new capabilities including allowing designers to easily switch from wireframes to prototypes and use tools such as After Effects to add deeper animations to their UX/UI designs. Unfortunately, I can’t share more now, but you’ll see a massive amount of innovation from us as it relates to XD in the coming months. 

What are the biggest hurdles posed by voice design? 

SB: As I mentioned, there has been a tremendous growth in voice-enabled devices. For designers, creating VUI experiences requires new skills since you cannot simply apply the same design guidelines to VUI, as you would a graphical app or web experience. Designers must have a deep understanding of human communication and natural conversation flow to design for VUIs.

Additionally, it requires a mindset shift to design for this medium. VUIs need to contain the right amount of information to meet users’ expectations and provide users with information on what they can do with the technology. For example, proactive prompting along the lines of, 'What can I help you with today?' might help a user get started. Without visual guidance, it’s easy for the user to get lost.

There are, of course, ethical considerations when it comes to VUI design too. For example, designers will need to carefully consider how often the technology is listening or recording, and clearly spell that out for the user. Companies and their designers will need to ensure privacy is baked into the product from the start. 

Another important issue in voice is the default settings. When you ask your voice assistant to order flowers, what service does it default to using? Making tasks easy is great for consumers, but the design will have to make it transparent how those tasks are happening and give users the option of changing the defaults so they can personalise the experience.

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