Original Source: https://tympanus.net/codrops/2025/09/03/7-must-know-gsap-animation-tips-for-creative-developers/
Discover seven practical GSAP tips that will help you create smoother, smarter, and more creative web animations with less code.
Original Source: https://smashingmagazine.com/2025/09/designing-tv-principles-patterns-practical-guidance/
Having covered the developmental history and legacy of TV in Part 1, let’s now delve into more practical matters. As a quick reminder, the “10-foot experience” and its reliance on the six core buttons of any remote form the basis of our efforts, and as you’ll see, most principles outlined simply reinforce the unshakeable foundations.
In this article, we’ll sift through the systems, account for layout constraints, and distill the guidelines to understand the essence of TV interfaces. Once we’ve collected all the main ingredients, we’ll see what we can do to elevate these inherently simplistic experiences.
Let’s dig in, and let’s get practical!
The Systems
When it comes to hardware, TVs and set-top boxes are usually a few generations behind phones and computers. Their components are made to run lightweight systems optimised for viewing, energy efficiency, and longevity. Yet even within these constraints, different platforms offer varying performance profiles, conventions, and price points.
Some notable platforms/systems of today are:
Roku, the most affordable and popular, but severely bottlenecked by weak hardware.
WebOS, most common on LG devices, relies on web standards and runs well on modest hardware.
Android TV, considered very flexible and customisable, but relatively demanding hardware-wise.
Amazon Fire, based on Android but with a separate ecosystem. It offers great smooth performance, but is slightly more limited than stock Android.
tvOS, by Apple, offering a high-end experience followed by a high-end price with extremely low customizability.
Despite their differences, all of the platforms above share something in common, and by now you’ve probably guessed that it has to do with the remote. Let’s take a closer look:
If these remotes were stripped down to just the D-pad, OK, and BACK buttons, they would still be capable of successfully navigating any TV interface. It is this shared control scheme that allows for the agnostic approach of this article with broadly applicable guidelines, regardless of the manufacturer.
Having already discussed the TV remote in detail in Part 1, let’s turn to the second part of the equation: the TV screen, its layout, and the fundamental building blocks of TV-bound experiences.
TV Design Fundamentals
The Screen
With almost one hundred years of legacy, TV has accumulated quite some baggage. One recurring topic in modern articles on TV design is the concept of “overscan” — a legacy concept from the era of cathode ray tube (CRT) screens. Back then, the lack of standards in production meant that television sets would often crop the projected image at its edges. To address this inconsistency, broadcasters created guidelines to keep important content from being cut off.
While overscan gets mentioned occasionally, we should call it what it really is — a thing of the past. Modern panels display content with greater precision, making thinking in terms of title and action safe areas rather archaic. Today, we can simply consider the margins and get the same results.
Google calls for a 5% margin layout and Apple advises a 60-point margin top and bottom, and 80 points on the sides in their Layout guidelines. The standard is not exactly clear, but the takeaway is simple: leave some breathing room between screen edge and content, like you would in any thoughtful layout.
Having left some baggage behind, we can start considering what to put within and outside the defined bounds.
The Layout
Considering the device is made for content consumption, streaming apps such as Netflix naturally come to mind. Broadly speaking, all these interfaces share a common layout structure where a vast collection of content is laid out in a simple grid.
These horizontally scrolling groups (sometimes referred to as “shelves”) resemble rows of a bookcase. Typically, they’ll contain dozens of items that don’t fit into the initial “fold”, so we’ll make sure the last visible item “peeks” from the edge, subtly indicating to the viewer there’s more content available if they continue scrolling.
If we were to define a standard 12-column layout grid, with a 2-column-wide item, we’d end up with something like this:
As you can see, the last item falls outside the “safe” zone.
Tip: A useful trick I discovered when designing TV interfaces was to utilise an odd number of columns. This allows the last item to fall within the defined margins and be more prominent while having little effect on the entire layout. We’ve concluded that overscan is not a prominent issue these days, yet an additional column in the layout helps completely circumvent it. Food for thought!
Typography
TV design requires us to practice restraint, and this becomes very apparent when working with type. All good typography practices apply to TV design too, but I’d like to point out two specific takeaways.
First, accounting for the distance, everything (including type) needs to scale up. Where 16–18px might suffice for web baseline text, 24px should be your starting point on TV, with the rest of the scale increasing proportionally.
“Typography can become especially tricky in 10-ft experiences. When in doubt, go larger.”
— Molly Lafferty (Marvel Blog)
With that in mind, the second piece of advice would be to start with a small 5–6 size scale and adjust if necessary. The simplicity of a TV experience can, and should, be reflected in the typography itself, and while small, such a scale will do all the “heavy lifting” if set correctly.
What you see in the example above is a scale I reduced from Google and Apple guidelines, with a few size adjustments. Simple as it is, this scale served me well for years, and I have no doubt it could do the same for you.
Freebie
If you’d like to use my basic reduced type scale Figma design file for kicking off your own TV project, feel free to do so!
Color
Imagine watching TV at night with the device being the only source of light in the room. You open up the app drawer and select a new streaming app; it loads into a pretty splash screen, and — bam! — a bright interface opens up, which, amplified by the dark surroundings, blinds you for a fraction of a second. That right there is our main consideration when using color on TV.
Built for cinematic experiences and often used in dimly lit environments, TVs lend themselves perfectly to darker and more subdued interfaces. Bright colours, especially pure white (#ffffff), will translate to maximum luminance and may be straining on the eyes. As a general principle, you should rely on a more muted color palette. Slightly tinting brighter elements with your brand color, or undertones of yellow to imitate natural light, will produce less visually unsettling results.
Finally, without a pointer or touch capabilities, it’s crucial to clearly highlight interactive elements. While using bright colors as backdrops may be overwhelming, using them sparingly to highlight element states in a highly contrasting way will work perfectly.
A focus state is the underlying principle of TV navigation. Most commonly, it relies on creating high contrast between the focused and unfocused elements. (Large preview)
This highlighting of UI elements is what TV leans on heavily — and it is what we’ll discuss next.
Focus
In Part 1, we have covered how interacting through a remote implies a certain detachment from the interface, mandating reliance on a focus state to carry the burden of TV interaction. This is done by visually accenting elements to anchor the user’s eyes and map any subsequent movement within the interface.
If you have ever written HTML/CSS, you might recall the use of the :focus CSS pseudo-class. While it’s primarily an accessibility feature on the web, it’s the core of interaction on TV, with more flexibility added in the form of two additional directions thanks to a dedicated D-pad.
Focus Styles
There are a few standard ways to style a focus state. Firstly, there’s scaling — enlarging the focused element, which creates the illusion of depth by moving it closer to the viewer.
Example of scaling elements on focus. This is especially common in cases where only images are used for focusable elements. (Large preview)
Another common approach is to invert background and text colors.
Color inversion on focus, common for highlighting cards. (Large preview)
Finally, a border may be added around the highlighted element.
Example of border highlights on focus. (Large preview)
These styles, used independently or in various combinations, appear in all TV interfaces. While execution may be constrained by the specific system, the purpose remains the same: clear and intuitive feedback, even from across the room.
The three basic styles can be combined to produce more focus state variants. (Large preview)
Having set the foundations of interaction, layout, and movement, we can start building on top of them. The next chapter will cover the most common elements of a TV interface, their variations, and a few tips and tricks for button-bound navigation.
Common TV UI Components
Nowadays, the core user journey on television revolves around browsing (or searching through) a content library, selecting an item, and opening a dedicated screen to watch or listen.
This translates into a few fundamental screens:
Library (or Home) for content browsing,
Search for specific queries, and
A player screen focused on content playback.
These screens are built with a handful of components optimized for the 10-foot experience, and while they are often found on other platforms too, it’s worth examining how they differ on TV.
Menus
Appearing as a horizontal bar along the top edge of the screen, or as a vertical sidebar, the menu helps move between the different screens of an app. While its orientation mostly depends on the specific system, it does seem TV favors the side menu a bit more.
Both menu types share a common issue: the farther the user navigates away from the menu (vertically, toward the bottom for top-bars; and horizontally, toward the right for sidebars), the more button presses are required to get back to it. Fortunately, usually a Back button shortcut is added to allow for immediate menu focus, which greatly improves usability.
16:9 posters abide by the same principles but with a horizontal orientation. They are often paired with text labels, which effectively turn them into cards, commonly seen on platforms like YouTube. In the absence of dedicated poster art, they show stills or playback from the videos, matching the aspect ratio of the media itself.
1:1 posters are often found in music apps like Spotify, their shape reminiscent of album art and vinyl sleeves. These squares often get used in other instances, like representing channel links or profile tiles, giving more visual variety to the interface.
All of the above can co-exist within a single app, allowing for richer interfaces and breaking up otherwise uniform content libraries.
And speaking of breaking up content, let’s see what we can do with spotlights!
Spotlights
Typically taking up the entire width of the screen, these eye-catching components will highlight a new feature or a promoted piece of media. In a sea of uniform shelves, they can be placed strategically to introduce aesthetic diversity and disrupt the monotony.
A spotlight can be a focusable element by itself, or it could expose several actions thanks to its generous space. In my ventures into TV design, I relied on a few different spotlight sizes, which allowed me to place multiples into a single row, all with the purpose of highlighting different aspects of the app, without breaking the form to which viewers were used.
Posters, cards, and spotlights shape the bulk of the visual experience and content presentation, but viewers still need a way to find specific titles. Let’s see how search and input are handled on TV.
Search And Entering Text
Manually browsing through content libraries can yield results, but having the ability to search will speed things up — though not without some hiccups.
TVs allow for text input in the form of on-screen keyboards, similar to the ones found in modern smartphones. However, inputting text with a remote control is quite inefficient given the restrictiveness of its control scheme. For example, typing “hey there” on a mobile keyboard requires 9 keystrokes, but about 38 on a TV (!) due to the movement between characters and their selection.
Typing with a D-pad may be an arduous task, but at the same time, having the ability to search is unquestionably useful.
Luckily for us, keyboards are accounted for in all systems and usually come in two varieties. We’ve got the grid layouts used by most platforms and a horizontal layout in support of the touch-enabled and gesture-based controls on tvOS. Swiping between characters is significantly faster, but this is yet another pattern that can only be enhanced, not replaced.
Modernization has made things significantly easier, with search autocomplete suggestions, device pairing, voice controls, and remotes with physical keyboards, but on-screen keyboards will likely remain a necessary fallback for quite a while. And no matter how cumbersome this fallback may be, we as designers need to consider it when building for TV.
Players And Progress Bars
While all the different sections of a TV app serve a purpose, the Player takes center stage. It’s where all the roads eventually lead to, and where viewers will spend the most time. It’s also one of the rare instances where focus gets lost, allowing for the interface to get out of the way of enjoying a piece of content.
Arguably, players are the most complex features of TV apps, compacting all the different functionalities into a single screen. Take YouTube, for example, its player doesn’t just handle expected playback controls but also supports content browsing, searching, reading comments, reacting, and navigating to channels, all within a single screen.
Compared to YouTube, Netflix offers a very lightweight experience guided by the nature of the app.
Still, every player has a basic set of controls, the foundation of which is the progress bar.
The progress bar UI element serves as a visual indicator for content duration. During interaction, focus doesn’t get placed on the bar itself, but on a movable knob known as the “scrubber.” It is by moving the scrubber left and right, or stopping it in its tracks, that we can control playback.
Another indirect method of invoking the progress bar is with the good old Play and Pause buttons. Rooted in the mechanical era of tape players, the universally understood triangle and two vertical bars are as integral to the TV legacy as the D-pad. No matter how minimalist and sleek the modern player interface may be, these symbols remain a staple of the viewing experience.
The presence of a scrubber may also indicate the type of content. Video on demand allows for the full set of playback controls, while live streams (unless DVR is involved) will do away with the scrubber since viewers won’t be able to rewind or fast-forward.
Earlier iterations of progress bars often came bundled with a set of playback control buttons, but as viewers got used to the tools available, these controls often got consolidated into the progress bar and scrubber themselves.
Bringing It All Together
With the building blocks out of the box, we’ve got everything necessary for a basic but functional TV app. Just as the six core buttons make remote navigation possible, the components and principles outlined above help guide purposeful TV design. The more context you bring, the more you’ll be able to expand and combine these basic principles, creating an experience unique to your needs.
Before we wrap things up, I’d like to share a few tips and tricks I discovered along the way — tips and tricks which I wish I had known from the start. Regardless of how simple or complex your idea may be, these may serve you as useful tools to help add depth, polish, and finesse to any TV experience.
Thinking Beyond The Basics
Like any platform, TV has a set of constraints that we abide by when designing. But sometimes these norms are applied without question, making the already limited capabilities feel even more restraining. Below are a handful of less obvious ideas that can help you design more thoughtfully and flexibly for the big screen.
Long Press
Most modern remotes support press-and-hold gestures as a subtle way to enhance the functionality, especially on remotes with fewer buttons available.
For example, holding directional buttons when browsing content speeds up scrolling, while holding Left/Right during playback speeds up timeline seeking. In many apps, a single press of the OK button opens a video, but holding it for longer opens a contextual menu with additional actions.
With limited input, context becomes a powerful tool. It not only declutters the interface to allow for more focus on specific tasks, but also enables the same set of buttons to trigger different actions based on the viewer’s location within an app.
Another great example is YouTube’s scrubber interaction. Once the scrubber is moved, every other UI element fades. This cleans up the viewer’s working area, so to speak, narrowing the interface to a single task. In this state — and only in this state — pressing Up one more time moves away from scrubbing and into browsing by chapter.
This is such an elegant example of expanding restraint, and adding more only when necessary. I hope it inspires similar interactions in your TV app designs.
Efficient Movement On TV
At its best, every action on TV “costs” at least one click. There’s no such thing as aimless cursor movement — if you want to move, you must press a button. We’ve seen how cumbersome it can be inside a keyboard, but there’s also something we can learn about efficient movement in these restrained circumstances.
Going back to the Homescreen, we can note that vertical and horizontal movement serve two distinct roles. Vertical movement switches between groups, while horizontal movement switches items within these groups. No matter how far you’ve gone inside a group, a single vertical click will move you into another.
Every step on TV “costs” an action, so we might as well optimize movement. (Large preview)
This subtle difference — two axes with separate roles — is the most efficient way of moving in a TV interface. Reversing the pattern: horizontal to switch groups, and vertical to drill down, will work like a charm as long as you keep the role of each axis well defined.
Properly applied in a vertical layout, the principles of optimal movement remain the same. (Large preview)
Quietly brilliant and easy to overlook, this pattern powers almost every step of the TV experience. Remember it, and use it well.
Thinking Beyond JPGs
After covering in detail many of the technicalities, let’s finish with some visual polish.
Most TV interfaces are driven by tightly packed rows of cover and poster art. While often beautifully designed, this type of content and layouts leave little room for visual flair. For years, the flat JPG, with its small file size, has been a go-to format, though contemporary alternatives like WebP are slowly taking its place.
Meanwhile, we can rely on the tried and tested PNG to give a bit more shine to our TV interfaces. The simple fact that it supports transparency can help the often-rigid UIs feel more sophisticated. Used strategically and paired with simple focus effects such as background color changes, PNGs can bring subtle moments of delight to the interface.
Having a transparent background blends well with surface color changes common in TV interfaces. (Large preview)
And don’t forget, transparency doesn’t have to mean that there shouldn’t be any background at all. (Large preview)
Moreover, if transformations like scaling and rotating are supported, you can really make those rectangular shapes come alive with layering multiple assets.
Combining multiple images along with a background color change can liven up certain sections. (Large preview)
As you probably understand by now, these little touches of finesse don’t go out of bounds of possibility. They simply find more room to breathe within it. But with such limited capabilities, it’s best to learn all the different tricks that can help make your TV experiences stand out.
Closing Thoughts
Rooted in legacy, with a limited control scheme and a rather “shallow” interface, TV design reminds us to do the best with what we have at our disposal. The restraints I outlined are not meant to induce claustrophobia and make you feel limited in your design choices, but rather to serve you as guides. It is by accepting that fact that we can find freedom and new avenues to explore.
This two-part series of articles, just like my experience designing for TV, was not about reinventing the wheel with radical ideas. It was about understanding its nuances and contributing to what’s already there with my personal touch.
If you find yourself working in this design field, I hope my guide will serve as a warm welcome and will help you do your finest work. And if you have any questions, do leave a comment, and I will do my best to reply and help.
Good luck!
Further Reading
“Design for TV,” by Android Developers
Great TV design is all about putting content front and center. It’s about creating an interface that’s easier to use and navigate, even from a distance. It’s about making it easier to find the content you love, and to enjoy it in the best possible quality.
“TV Guidelines: A quick kick-off on designing for Television Experiences,” by Andrea Pacheco
Just like designing a mobile app, designing a TV application can be a fun and complex thing to do, due to the numerous guidelines and best practices to follow. Below, I have listed the main best practices to keep in mind when designing an app for a 10-foot screen.
“Designing for Television – TV Ui design,” by Molly Lafferty
We’re no longer limited to a remote and cable box to control our TVs; we’re using Smart TVs, or streaming from set-top boxes like Roku and Apple TV, or using video game consoles like Xbox and PlayStation. And each of these devices allows a user interface that’s much more powerful than your old-fashioned on-screen guide.
“Rethinking User Interface Design for the TV Platform,” by Pascal Potvin
Designing for television has become part of the continuum of devices that require a rethink of how we approach user interfaces and user experiences.
“Typography for TV,” by Android Developers
As television screens are typically viewed from a distance, interfaces that use larger typography are more legible and comfortable for users. TV Design’s default type scale includes contrasting and flexible type styles to support a wide range of use cases.
“Typography,” by Apple Developer docs
Your typographic choices can help you display legible text, convey an information hierarchy, communicate important content, and express your brand or style.
“Color on TV,” by Android Developers
Color on TV design can inspire, set the mood, and even drive users to make decisions. It’s a powerful and tangible element that users notice first. As a rich way to connect with a wide audience, it’s no wonder color is an important step in crafting a high-quality TV interface.
“Designing for Television — TV UI Design,” by Molly Lafferty (Marvel Blog)
Today, we’re no longer limited to a remote and cable box to control our TVs; we’re using Smart TVs, or streaming from set-top boxes like Roku and Apple TV, or using video game consoles like Xbox and PlayStation. And each of these devices allows a user interface that’s much more powerful than your old-fashioned on-screen guide.
Original Source: https://smashingmagazine.com/2025/08/desktop-wallpaper-calendars-september-2025/
September is just around the corner, and that means it’s time for some new wallpapers! For more than 14 years already, our monthly wallpapers series has been the perfect occasion for artists and designers to challenge their creative skills and take on a little just-for-fun project — telling the stories they want to tell, using their favorite tools. This always makes for a unique and inspiring collection of wallpapers month after month, and, of course, this September is no exception.
In this post, you’ll find desktop wallpapers for September 2025, created with love by the community for the community. As a bonus, we’ve also added some oldies but goodies from our archives to the collection, so maybe you’ll spot one of your almost-forgotten favorites in here, too? A huge thank-you to everyone who shared their artworks with us this month — this post wouldn’t exist without your creativity and support!
By the way, if you’d like to get featured in one of our upcoming wallpapers editions, please don’t hesitate to submit your design. We are always looking for creative talent and can’t wait to see your story come to life!
You can click on every image to see a larger preview.
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 through 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.
21st Night Of September
“On the 21st night of September, the world danced in perfect harmony. Earth, Wind & Fire set the tone and now it’s your turn to keep the rhythm alive.” — Designed by Ginger IT Solutions from Serbia.
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, 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, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Who
Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.
preview
with calendar: 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, 3840×2160
without calendar: 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, 3840×2160
Skating Through Chocolate Milk Day
“Celebrate Chocolate Milk Day with a perfect blend of fun and flavor. From smooth sips to smooth rides, it’s all about enjoying the simple moments that make the day unforgettable.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.
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, 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, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Mood
Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.
preview
with calendar: 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, 3840×2160
without calendar: 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, 3840×2160
Funny Cats
“Cats are beautiful animals. They’re quiet, clean, and warm. They’re funny and can become an endless source of love and entertainment. Here for the cats!” — Designed by UrbanUI from India.
preview
without calendar: 360×640, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1680×1200, 1920×1080
Pigman And Robin
Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.
preview
without calendar: 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, 3840×2160
Autumn Rains
“This autumn, we expect to see a lot of rainy days and blues, so we wanted to change the paradigm and wish a warm welcome to the new season. After all, if you come to think of it: rain is not so bad if you have an umbrella and a raincoat. Come autumn, we welcome you!” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.
preview
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
Terrazzo
“With the end of summer and fall coming soon, I created this terrazzo pattern wallpaper to brighten up your desktop. Enjoy the month!” — Designed by Melissa Bogemans from Belgium.
preview
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, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Summer Ending
“As summer comes to an end, all the creatures pull back to their hiding places, searching for warmth within themselves and dreaming of neverending adventures under the tinted sky of closing dog days.” — Designed by Ana Masnikosa from Belgrade, Serbia.
preview
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, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Cacti Everywhere
“Seasons come and go, but our brave cactuses still stand. Summer is almost over and autumn is coming, but the beloved plants don’t care.” — Designed by Lívia Lénárt from Hungary.
preview
without calendar: 320×480, 800×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Flower Soul
“The earth has music for those who listen. Take a break and relax and while you drive out the stress, catch a glimpse of the beautiful nature around you. Can you hear the rhythm of the breeze blowing, the flowers singing, and the butterflies fluttering to cheer you up? We dedicate flowers which symbolize happiness and love to one and all.” — Designed by Krishnankutty from India.
preview
without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Stay Or Leave?
Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.
preview
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
Rainy Flowers
Designed by Teodora Vasileva from Bulgaria.
preview
without calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Listen Closer… The Mushrooms Are Growing
“It’s this time of the year when children go to school and grown-ups go to collect mushrooms.” — Designed by Igor Izhik from Canada.
preview
without calendar: 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, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440, 2560×1600
Weekend Relax
Designed by Robert from the United States.
preview
without calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×720, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
Hungry
Designed by Elise Vanoorbeek from Belgium.
preview
without calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1366×768, 1440×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
National Video Games Day Delight
“September 12th brings us National Video Games Day. US-based video game players love this day and celebrate with huge gaming tournaments. What was once a 2D experience in the home is now a global phenomenon with players playing against each other across statelines and national borders via the internet. National Video Games Day gives gamers the perfect chance to celebrate and socialize! So grab your controller, join online, and let the games begin!” — Designed by Ever Increasing Circles from the United Kingdom.
preview
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
More Bananas
Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.
preview
without calendar: 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, 3840×2160
National Elephant Appreciation Day
“Today, we celebrate these magnificent creatures who play such a vital role in our ecosystems and cultures. Elephants are symbols of wisdom, strength, and loyalty. Their social bonds are strong, and their playful nature, especially in the young ones, reminds us of the importance of joy and connection in our lives.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.
preview
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, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Long Live Summer
“While September’s Autumnal Equinox technically signifies the end of the summer season, this wallpaper is for all those summer lovers, like me, who don’t want the sunshine, warm weather, and lazy days to end.” — Designed by Vicki Grunewald from Washington.
preview
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
Bear Time
Designed by Bojana Stojanovic from Serbia.
preview
without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1080, 1366×768, 1400×1050, 1440×990, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Still In Vacation Mood
“It’s officially the end of summer and I’m still in vacation mood, dreaming about all the amazing places I’ve seen. This illustration is inspired by a small town in France, on the Atlantic coast, right by the beach.” — Designed by Miruna Sfia from Romania.
preview
without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1440×1050, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Maryland Pride
“As summer comes to a close, so does the end of blue crab season in Maryland. Blue crabs have been a regional delicacy since the 1700s and have become Maryland’s most valuable fishing industry, adding millions of dollars to the Maryland economy each year. The blue crab has contributed so much to the state’s regional culture and economy, in 1989 it was named the State Crustacean, cementing its importance in Maryland history.” — Designed by The Hannon Group from Washington DC.
preview
without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×960, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Summer In Costa Rica
“We continue in tropical climates. In this case, we travel to Costa Rica to observe the Arenal volcano from the lake while we use a kayak.” — Designed by Veronica Valenzuela from Spain.
preview
without calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 1024×768, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Wine Harvest Season
“Welcome to the wine harvest season in Serbia. It’s September, and the hazy sunshine bathes the vines on the slopes of Fruška Gora. Everything is ready for the making of Bermet, the most famous wine from Serbia. This spiced wine was a favorite of the Austro-Hungarian elite and was served even on the Titanic. Bermet’s recipe is a closely guarded secret, and the wine is produced by just a handful of families in the town of Sremski Karlovci, near Novi Sad. On the other side of Novi Sad, plains of corn and sunflower fields blend in with the horizon, catching the last warm sun rays of this year.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.
preview
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
Office
“Clean, minimalistic office for a productive day.” — Designed by Antun Hiršman from Croatia.
preview
without calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1280×720, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Colors Of September
“I love September. Its colors and smells.” — Designed by Juliagav from Ukraine.
preview
without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 2560×1440
Never Stop Exploring
Designed by Ricardo Gimenes from Spain.
preview
without calendar: 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, 3840×2160
Original Source: https://ecommerce-platforms.com/articles/easyship-vs-shipstation
When it comes to eCommerce fulfillment, shipping software isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a core part of your operational engine.
Whether you’re fulfilling international orders or automating domestic shipments, the platform you choose can affect customer experience, costs, and scalability.
Easyship and ShipStation are two of the top-rated tools in this space, but which one is the better fit for your store?
I’ve tested both platforms extensively across pricing, international capabilities, automation, integrations, and ease of use. Here’s what I found.
Easyship vs ShipStation: Quick Verdict
ShipStation – Best for high-volume domestic shipping, warehouse automation, and advanced workflows
Easyship – Best for international shipping, tax and duty calculations, and global courier access
In this review, I’ll take a closer look at how Easyship and ShipStation stack up across key areas like automation, pricing, carrier support, and returns.
Quick Comparison: Easyship vs ShipStation
Here’s a quick side-by-side overview of the two platforms:
FeatureEasyshipShipStationBest ForInternational sellersHigh-volume US-based operationsStarting PriceFree plan available$9.99/monthCarrier Support250+ global couriers50+ couriers (mostly US-based)Own Carrier AccountsNot supportedFully supportedTax & Duty EstimatesYes (automated at checkout)No (manual entry required)Customs DocumentationAuto-generatedManual or 3rd-partyLabel PrintingYesYes (batch & automated)Automation RulesBasicAdvancedReturns PortalCustomizableBuilt-inIntegrations100+ (Shopify, Woo, etc.)300+ (incl. ERPs, marketplaces)SupportEmail, chatPhone, chat, email
Go to the top
Pricing: It’s a Close Match, But It Depends on Your Use Case
Both platforms are priced competitively, but how you pay (and what you get) differs quite a bit.
Easyship Pricing
Easyship offers a freemium model, making it easy to get started.
Free – $0/month
For up to 50 shipments/month and one store integration
Plus – $29/month
Up to 500 shipments, branded tracking, and automation
Premier – $69/month
For stores shipping 2,500+ packages monthly
Enterprise – Custom pricing
What I liked about Easyship is that it includes full access to its courier discounts, even on the free plan. You don’t need to bring your own carrier accounts, and you won’t pay extra fees per shipment outside of the courier charges.
ShipStation Pricing
ShipStation charges based on shipment volume and user count.
Starter – $9.99/month
50 shipments/month, 1 user
Bronze – $29.99/month
500 shipments, 1 user
Silver – $59.99/month
1,500 shipments, 2 users
Gold – $99.99/month
3,000 shipments, 3 users
Enterprise – $159.99+/month
6,000+ shipments, up to 10 users
You also get access to discounted rates through ShipStation or can use your own accounts with UPS, FedEx, DHL, and USPS.
The Verdict:
If you’re shipping internationally and want built-in rates, Easyship gives you more value out of the box.
If you’ve already negotiated rates and ship high volumes domestically, ShipStation could save you more in the long run.
Go to the top
Courier Support and Carrier Flexibility: Easyship wins for international shipping
This is where the two platforms start to diverge.
Easyship Courier Support
Over 250 global couriers
Rates from major providers like DHL, UPS, Aramex, SF Express, Australia Post, and regional carriers
Rates are pre-negotiated by Easyship
You cannot use your own rates
In practice, this setup works best for sellers who want a plug-and-play approach to fulfillment. You don’t need to negotiate your own deals, which is a major plus if you’re just getting started or you’re expanding into new countries.
The downside is that if you already have better rates with a courier, there’s no way to plug them into Easyship. You’re locked into using Easyship’s marketplace pricing, which might not be ideal for more experienced merchants.
ShipStation Courier Support
50+ couriers (primarily US-focused)
Supports all major US carriers: USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL
You can use your own carrier accounts
Multi-warehouse support for logistics teams
ShipStation gives you the flexibility to choose between using your own accounts or leveraging their discounted rates. That freedom can lead to significant savings for high-volume shippers with good negotiated deals.
It also makes the platform a better fit for fulfillment networks, 3PLs, or businesses with multiple operational hubs that need to control their logistics stack down to the courier level.
The Verdict:
Easyship wins for international shipping, but if you already have great rates and want to stick with your own providers, ShipStation gives you that flexibility.
Go to the top
Automation and Workflow Rules: ShipStation wins (for scale)
Shipping automation saves hours—especially when dealing with thousands of orders. Let’s break down what each platform offers.
Easyship Automation
Basic automation rules (e.g., choose courier based on delivery zone or weight)
Default shipping options at checkout
Auto-generates customs forms
Auto-selects lowest cost or fastest courier
While helpful for small teams, automation is relatively limited compared to ShipStation. It’s designed to simplify the basics—ideal if your operations aren’t very complex or if you’re a solo founder.
That said, as your fulfillment needs grow, you may find Easyship’s automation lacking the nuance required for more granular workflows like splitting orders, tagging customers, or prioritizing certain couriers under specific conditions.
ShipStation Automation
Deep automation engine
Auto-select carriers based on SKU, customer location, or shipping service
Set label printing triggers
Automate warehouse routing
Integrates with inventory tools for syncing stock levels
ShipStation is built for scale. The automation features allow you to create conditional workflows that can take actions based on dozens of data points—like weight, value, order age, or tag.
This level of customization is especially helpful when managing multiple sales channels, warehouses, or international shipments with specific handling needs.
The Verdict:
For serious volume and hands-off workflows, ShipStation’s automation is in a different league. You’ll get full control over how orders are handled.
Go to the top
Tax, Duties, and Customs: Easyship Wins Big
If you sell internationally, this section matters—a lot.
Easyship
Automatically calculates taxes and duties at checkout
Displays landed costs to customers before payment
Generates all required customs paperwork
Reduces chargebacks and failed deliveries due to unpaid taxes
These features make Easyship ideal for cross-border selling. Customers get full visibility on what they’ll pay—no surprises when their package arrives.
This reduces failed deliveries and increases trust, especially in markets like Canada, the UK, and the EU, where VAT and import taxes can get expensive fast.
ShipStation
Limited support for international tax
Requires manual customs setup or third-party tools
No checkout tax estimation
With ShipStation, international sellers have to handle much of the customs and tax management outside the platform.
That could mean using third-party tax calculators, entering customs values manually, or risking under-declared shipments that get delayed or returned. For high-volume global sellers, this setup becomes inefficient fast.
The Verdict:
If you sell outside the US, Easyship is the clear winner here.
Go to the top
Returns and Customer Experience: ShipStation wins
A streamlined returns process is essential for customer satisfaction.
Easyship Returns
Customers can initiate returns via a branded portal
Store owners approve or reject returns before label generation
Return labels use Easyship’s carrier rates
Tracking included on all shipments
The returns portal is one of Easyship’s most underrated features. It’s clean, customizable, and simple for customers to use. You can even localize the experience based on where your customers are located.
However, if you’re handling high return volumes or need deep reporting on return reasons and resolutions, you may still find yourself limited without third-party tools.
ShipStation Returns
Built-in return labels
Rules-based automation for accepting or rejecting returns
Return status tracking within your dashboard
Easy to handle in bulk across multiple warehouses
ShipStation is designed for operational teams. The return management tools help your staff process returns quickly and at scale, especially when handling multiple SKUs, fulfillment centers, or customer support requests.
You can build return workflows that are as automated as your outbound shipping rules.
The Verdict:
Both are solid, but ShipStation offers better control for large-scale returns, especially if you’re using multiple warehouses.
Go to the top
Integration and Platform Support: ShipStation wins again
Whether you’re on Shopify or WooCommerce, both tools offer good support—but ShipStation goes further.
Easyship Integrations
100+ platforms including:
Shopify
BigCommerce
WooCommerce
Magento
Kickstarter
Integrates with marketplaces like eBay, Etsy, and Amazon
Basic CRM integrations
Easyship’s integration catalog covers most common eCommerce platforms and marketplaces. It’s more than enough for small to mid-size sellers.
But when it comes to advanced use cases—like syncing with inventory software, ERPs, or accounting platforms—you’re likely to hit some roadblocks unless you’re willing to work with third-party middleware like Zapier or API connectors.
ShipStation Integrations
Over 300+ integrations:
All major shopping carts and marketplaces
Amazon, eBay, Walmart
ERPs like NetSuite and Brightpearl
Accounting platforms like QuickBooks
ShipStation is built for sellers who operate across multiple systems.
Its extensive catalog makes it a go-to for businesses that rely on custom tech stacks, multi-channel operations, or 3PLs.
Whether you’re syncing with accounting tools, connecting inventory software, or managing suppliers, ShipStation has the depth to support it.
The Verdict:
If you’re working in a complex tech stack, ShipStation offers deeper integration options.
Go to the top
Onboarding and Ease of Use: Easyship is quicker to launch
Easyship Onboarding
Signup takes less than 10 minutes
Plug-and-play setup with Shopify or WooCommerce
Dashboard is clean and beginner-friendly
Ideal for small teams or solo operators
The UI feels modern and well-organized. You can connect a store, set up shipping preferences, and start printing labels in under an hour.
Most users won’t need much onboarding help unless they’re configuring international tax or automating complex return workflows.
For small teams, that makes Easyship a strong entry-level choice.
ShipStation Onboarding
More setup steps required
Takes 1–2 hours to configure rules, integrations, and carriers
Best suited to sellers who understand logistics
Steeper learning curve, but more powerful long term
Expect a steeper learning curve if you’re new to shipping software.
The interface is functional, but not overly intuitive. That said, the platform’s power becomes clear once everything is configured.
For teams with operational experience or technical support, the payoff is worth it.
The Verdict:
For ease of use, Easyship is quicker to launch. For flexibility and scale, ShipStation pays off after setup.
Go to the top
Case Studies and Real-World Examples
Here’s how real businesses are using these tools:
Easyship Case Study: Lexdray
Kickstarter project with international backers
Reduced delivery errors by 90%
Enabled upfront tax/duty visibility
Boosted on-time delivery by 30%
This case highlights Easyship’s strength in cross-border logistics. Lexdray had to fulfill thousands of orders in over 40 countries, and they needed a reliable way to reduce customs-related delays.
Easyship handled everything from duty estimates to customs forms, making international fulfillment seamless for a one-time campaign.
ShipStation Case Study: Fast-Growing Shopify Brand
3,000 orders/month
Cut fulfillment time by 40% using automation rules
Integrated with multiple warehouses
Saved 18 hours/week on manual tasks
This brand needed a platform that could keep up with rapid growth. They used ShipStation to route orders based on geography, set rules for shipping services, and automatically print labels across locations.
The efficiency gains weren’t just about time—they reduced errors and improved delivery times without adding headcount.
Go to the top
Customer Support and Documentation: ShipStation wins
Easyship Support
Email and live chat support
Onboarding specialists for paid plans
Knowledge base and video guides
Support response times vary based on time zone
Easyship’s help center covers most common questions, and the live chat is responsive during business hours. That said, support quality can vary depending on plan level and timezone.
US-based users may occasionally encounter slower replies, especially during peak hours or holidays.
ShipStation Support
Phone, chat, and email support
Live agent access during US business hours
Priority support for enterprise clients
Help center with tutorials and user forums
ShipStation offers reliable and fast support for users in the US.
The knowledge base is extensive, and the support team is trained to help with both tech setup and shipping strategy. If your operations are time-sensitive, that responsiveness can make a big difference when you’re troubleshooting an issue.
The Verdict:
ShipStation offers more accessible and faster support, especially for US sellers.
Go to the top
Final Thoughts: Which Should You Choose?
Both Easyship and ShipStation are excellent tools, but they suit very different business models.
Choose Easyship if you:
Sell internationally and need built-in support for tax, duties, and customs
Don’t have your own negotiated carrier rates
Want to offer transparent checkout costs to global customers
Run a crowdfunded or subscription-based store
Easyship is ideal for brands looking to grow across borders without dealing with the complexities of international logistics.
From customs documents to tax estimation, it takes care of the messy details so you can focus on building your brand. It’s especially useful if you’re operating lean, with minimal technical support or logistics infrastructure.
Choose ShipStation if you:
Ship high volumes domestically
Already have carrier accounts and negotiated rates
Need complex automation across multiple locations
Operate multiple warehouses or sales channels
ShipStation is designed for scale and control. If your fulfillment process involves high order volume, custom workflows, and multiple warehouses or suppliers, it’s one of the most capable tools available.
The automation engine alone can save your team hours every week, and the flexibility around carrier accounts is unmatched.
The post Easyship vs ShipStation: Which Shipping Software Is Right for You? appeared first on Ecommerce-Platforms.com.
Original Source: https://ecommerce-platforms.com/articles/best-wordpress-ecommerce-plugins
With thousands of WordPress ecommerce plugins available, narrowing it down to the most reliable options can be overwhelming.
After researching and testing dozens of ecommerce plugins first-hand, I’ve picked out the top performers for 2025.
Whether you’re running a full online store, selling digital downloads, managing subscriptions, or building a membership site, these are the WordPress plugins I trust to power your ecommerce business.
Our Top 5 Ecommerce Plugins
WooCommerce – Best all-around ecommerce plugin for WordPress
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) – Best for digital products
MemberPress – Best for subscriptions and memberships
WP EasyCart – Best WooCommerce alternative
BigCommerce for WordPress – Best for high-volume stores
Quick Comparison Table
PluginStarting PriceBest ForAI ToolsActive InstallsWooCommerceFreeGeneral ecommerceLimited6M+Easy Digital DownloadsFree / $199/yrDigital goodsNo50K+MemberPress$359/yrMembershipsNoN/A (premium only)WP EasyCartFree / $69/yrSmall shopsNo20K+BigCommerce$39/moLarge storesSomeN/A (hybrid model)
Go to the top
#1. WooCommerce – Best All-Around Ecommerce Plugin
💰 Starting price: Free
🛒 Premium add-ons: $29–$249 per year
📦 Best for: Physical and digital products, flexible ecommerce setup
WooCommerce remains the top ecommerce plugin for WordPress in 2025, and for good reason.
It’s free, open-source, and backed by Automattic (the company behind WordPress.com).
It powers millions of stores globally and has the biggest library of extensions, themes, and integrations.
I’ve tested WooCommerce across a wide range of setups over the years-from basic online shops to complex, multilingual storefronts.
It’s consistently proven to be reliable, scalable, and compatible with most major WordPress themes and page builders.
Pros
Free to install with essential ecommerce features included
Massive extension marketplace
Supports physical, digital, and subscription products
Integrates with Stripe, PayPal, Square, Apple Pay, and more
Strong SEO compatibility with plugins like Yoast and Rank Math
Cons
You’ll likely need premium extensions for full functionality
Can be heavy and affect page speed
Complex backend for beginners
WooCommerce Pricing Snapshot
FeatureCostCore pluginFreeSubscriptions$239/yearBookings$249/yearStripe, PayPal gatewaysFreeHosting (recommended)$25–$50/month
Bottom Line:
WooCommerce is still the go-to choice for most online stores using WordPress. It’s not always the easiest to use, but once you get the hang of it, it’s incredibly powerful and flexible.
Go to the top
#2. Easy Digital Downloads – Best for Digital Products
💰 Starting price: Free
📦 Premium bundles: $199 to $599 per year
📁 Best for: Software, eBooks, digital downloads
If you’re selling digital goods, Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is a better fit than WooCommerce.
It’s designed specifically for digital products, which means it’s faster, cleaner, and more focused.
I’ve tested Easy Digital Downloads extensively for selling things like software, PDF files, audio products, and design templates.
Its digital-first approach makes the setup process much cleaner and more efficient compared to general-purpose ecommerce plugins..
Pros
Clean and lightweight, optimized for speed
Focused entirely on digital products
Simple checkout experience
Great reporting tools built in
Works with Stripe, PayPal, and more
Cons
Physical product support is limited
Advanced features require paid extensions
Smaller community and theme support than WooCommerce
EDD Pricing Snapshot
PlanPrice/yearFeaturesFree$0Basic digital store setupPersonal$199Stripe Pro, email marketingExtended$399Recurring payments, software licensingProfessional$599All features and add-ons
Bottom Line:
EDD is purpose-built for selling digital products. If you’re not planning to ship physical items, this is the plugin I’d recommend every time.
Go to the top
#3. MemberPress – Best for Membership Sites
💰 Starting price: $359 per year
📦 Best for: Recurring payments, course sites, member-only content
If you need to manage memberships, restrict content, or sell online courses, MemberPress is my go-to plugin.
It handles access rules, subscription billing, and even includes a built-in course builder.
MemberPress is well-suited for gated content communities, membership newsletters, and online academies.
It offers a comprehensive set of features for managing subscriptions and controlling access to content, though the interface can feel a bit dated in some areas.
Pros
Built-in LMS features for online courses
Supports Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net
Content dripping and member management tools
Integrates with ConvertKit, Mailchimp, Zapier, and more
Cons
Expensive compared to other plugins
Limited frontend design control
Not ideal for physical product sales
MemberPress Pricing Snapshot
PlanPrice/yearFeaturesBasic$3591 site, core featuresPlus$5992 sites, quizzes, advanced reportingPro$7995 sites, corporate access controls
Bottom Line:
MemberPress is excellent for membership and course sites. It’s pricey, but it saves hours you’d otherwise spend piecing together multiple tools.
Go to the top
#4. WP EasyCart – Best WooCommerce Alternative
💰 Starting price: Free
📦 Premium plans: $69–$99 per year
🛍️ Best for: Simpler stores, gift cards, subscriptions, POS
WP EasyCart doesn’t get as much attention as WooCommerce, but it’s a surprisingly full-featured ecommerce plugin.
It includes a built-in POS system, tax tools, digital and physical product support, and coupon functionality—all out of the box.
I recommend it for smaller shops or store owners who want fewer moving parts. It doesn’t require as many add-ons as WooCommerce, and the setup is much faster.
Pros
All-in-one solution, minimal extensions needed
Built-in support for subscriptions and gift cards
Works with Stripe, Square, and PayPal
Includes POS tools for physical stores
Cons
Smaller user base and fewer integrations
Not as customizable as WooCommerce
Limited third-party theme support
WP EasyCart Pricing Snapshot
PlanPrice/yearFeaturesFree$0Basic cart and checkoutProfessional$69Coupons, tax, Google integrationPremium$99Subscriptions, digital delivery, Mailchimp
Bottom Line:
If you’re looking for an easier, less bloated alternative to WooCommerce, WP EasyCart is a great fit—especially for smaller stores or beginners.
Go to the top
#5. BigCommerce for WordPress – Best for High-Volume Stores
💰 Starting price: $39 per month
🖥️ Best for: Enterprise ecommerce using WordPress frontend
BigCommerce for WordPress takes a headless ecommerce approach.
Your WordPress site handles content and design, while BigCommerce runs the backend. That means you get scalability and security, without putting too much strain on your WordPress hosting.
BigCommerce is a strong choice for stores handling a high volume of orders.
Its separation of frontend (WordPress) and backend (BigCommerce) systems helps improve performance, reliability, and scalability-especially for larger operations.
Pros
Scales easily for large stores
PCI compliance and security handled by BigCommerce
Supports multi-channel selling (Amazon, eBay, Facebook)
WordPress remains your frontend
Cons
Monthly cost is high compared to plugin-only solutions
Less flexible design-wise than WooCommerce
Requires connecting to BigCommerce platform
BigCommerce Pricing Snapshot
PlanPrice/monthFeaturesStandard$39Core ecommerce featuresPlus$105Customer groups, abandoned cartPro$399Google Reviews, custom SSLEnterpriseCustomTailored support & features
Bottom Line:
BigCommerce is best suited for large ecommerce operations that want to keep WordPress for content. If performance, scalability, and integrations matter most, this is the plugin to use.
Go to the top
Final Thoughts: Which WordPress Ecommerce Plugin Should You Use?
Choosing the right ecommerce plugin comes down to your store’s needs.
Here’s my quick recommendation based on your use case:
Store TypeBest PluginGeneral productsWooCommerceDigital-onlyEasy Digital DownloadsSubscriptionsMemberPressSmall, simple shopsWP EasyCartEnterpriseBigCommerce for WordPress
No single plugin is perfect for every business. Some are built for speed and simplicity, while others offer extensive flexibility at the cost of a steeper learning curve.
That’s why it’s worth taking the time to understand your specific goals—what you’re selling, how you want to manage orders, and what integrations you’ll need long-term.
When choosing a plugin, consider factors like performance, support, scalability, and how well it fits into your existing WordPress setup.
Most of the options listed above offer free versions or trials, so you can test them out before committing to a premium plan. It’s a small step that can save you a lot of time—and money—down the line.
The post Best WordPress Ecommerce Plugins of 2025: Our Top Picks appeared first on Ecommerce-Platforms.com.
Original Source: https://abduzeedo.com/dorset-color-happy-design-sea-sisters
From Dorset with Color: The Happy Design of Sea Sisters
ibby
09/02 — 2025
Discover Sea Sisters, the British brand reimagining canned seafood with bold colors, playful typography, and packaging that turns the everyday into inspiration.
We first discovered Sea Sisters while flipping through Monocle’s latest Entrepreneurs issue, and the brand’s story and visual language instantly caught our eye. What began in West Dorset in 2020 as a lockdown experiment has grown into one of the UK’s most design-forward canneries. Founders Charlotte and chef Angus, frustrated by the lack of canned British fish on shelves, decided to do it themselves, celebrating local catch through bold design and thoughtful craft.
Packaging That Speaks
Vivid, tactile wrappers: Every tin wears a bold, full-color cap, ocean blues, leafy greens, and coral hues, that feel more like art than packaging. A wave-patterned border evokes the sea, while the matte finish adds a tactile, artisanal presence.
Human-centric logo: Two fisher figures in bright hoods stand against a stylized sail, an image that feels timeless and personal, connecting the product back to coastal heritage.
Type with character: The rounded, retro “Sea Sisters” lettering carries warmth and confidence, nostalgic yet unmistakably modern on the shelf.
Eco-conscious design: With recyclable wrappers and a minimized use of plastic, the packaging reflects the same sustainability ethos guiding their sourcing and production.
Telling the Story Through Design
Sea Sisters’ packaging is more than visual decoration, it’s storytelling at a glance. It brings heritage, craft, and playfulness together, transforming a humble tin into something you want to display as much as devour. It’s a reminder that design has the power to elevate the everyday and spark inspiration in places like a tin of Cornish hake or Norfolk mussels. Learn more about the brand at https://www.seasisters.co.uk/.
Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/mcp-servers-development-tools/
The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open standard that lets AI assistants connect with external data sources, tools, or systems. This makes them much more useful by allowing them to do things like run code, manage files, and interact with APIs.
In my previous article, we looked at how MCP works, how to install it, and how to use a few MCP servers. In this article, we’ll explore more MCP servers, this time focusing on tools that can help developers save time and work more efficiently.
We’ll continue using Claude to run the MCP servers as it has MCP capabilities built-in, is easy to install, and is compatible with major platforms.
So, let’s dive in!
1. 21st.dev Magic
21st.dev Magic is an AI powered tool that allows you to build modern UI components just by describing them in plain language. It works with popular editors like Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code (with Cline), as well as Claude.
So you can just type what you need, and it will instantly create ready-to-use code. This makes building UI prototypes faster and easier, with less manual work.
Installation
To get started, first create an account at 21st.dev to get your API key. Once you’ve signed up, you can find your API key on the API Access page.
To install the MCP server, add the following configuration and replace [api-key] with your own API key.
{
“mcpServers”: {
“@21st-dev/magic”: {
“command”: “npx”,
“args”: [
“-y”,
“@21st-dev/magic@latest”,
“API_KEY=”[api-key]””,
]
}
}
}
Example Prompts
When sending a prompt to trigger 21st Magic MCP, it’s best to start your prompt with code /ui, for example:
/ui create a signup form
After sending the prompt, you will receive the code for the signup form, usually with some variants. You can then copy and paste this code into your editor to use it.
We can improve our prompt by giving it more detailed instructions, for example:
/ui create a pricing table component with two plans: Free and Pro. Each plan should include a signup button at the bottom.
It’s smart enough to understand the instruction and generates pricing tables with just two plans, as shown below, and even provides some variants.
This is a great MCP server for any designers or developers to create prototypes. It can help you create UI components quickly and easily.
2. Filesystem
The Filesystem MCP Server allows an AI assistant to work with your local filesystem to read, write, and manage files. With this setup, the AI can do things like create folders, move files, or check file details. This makes it easier to automate everyday file tasks and boost your productivity.
Installation
{
“mcpServers”: {
“filesystem”: {
“command”: “npx”,
“args”: [
“-y”,
“@modelcontextprotocol/server-filesystem”,
“/Users/tfirdaus/Desktop”
]
}
}
}
Example Prompts
Let’s first try with a simple prompt:
how many files are there in my Desktop directory?
As we can see above, it’s smart enough to give us the count and details about the files.
You can even take it a step further by giving more detailed instructions. For example, let’s say your Downloads folder is cluttered with all kinds of files and folders. You could ask it to find all the directories that appear to be WordPress plugins with the following prompt:
find and list all the directories that appear to contain a WordPress plugin. A typical plugin folder includes a readme.txt file and several .php files.
3. MySQL
The MySQL MCP Server allows an AI assistant to connect to a MySQL database so it can run SQL queries, manage database connections, and fetch data. This integration makes it easier to retrieve information using natural language commands.
Installation
To install this server, you need to make sure that you have access to MySQL installed either on your machine or on a remote server. Then add the following:
{
“mcpServers”: {
“mysql”: {
“command”: “npx”,
“args”: [
“-y”,
“@benborla29/mcp-server-mysql”
],
“env”: {
“MYSQL_HOST”: “127.0.0.1”,
“MYSQL_PORT”: “3306”,
“MYSQL_USER”: “[your-mysql-username]”,
“MYSQL_PASS”: “[your-mysql-password]”,
“MYSQL_DB”: “your_database”,
“ALLOW_INSERT_OPERATION”: “false”,
“ALLOW_UPDATE_OPERATION”: “false”,
“ALLOW_DELETE_OPERATION”: “false”,
“PATH”: “/Users/[username]/.nvm/versions/node/v22.14.0/bin:/usr/bin:/bin”,
“NODE_PATH”: “/Users/[username]/.nvm/versions/node/v22.14.0/lib/node_modules”
}
}
}
}
Make sure to replace [your-mysql-username] and [your-mysql-password] with your own MySQL username and password. You can also change the MYSQL_DB to the database you want to connect to.
As for the PATH and the NODE_PATH, you can find them by running the following command in your terminal:
which node
Example Prompts
To use the MySQL MCP server, you can start by asking it to show you the tables in your database. For example:
List all the tables from my wordpress database?
As shown above, we get a full list of tables. What’s impressive is that the AI even understands and classifies which tables belong to WordPress Core and which ones are from WooCommerce.
We can also ask it to show us specific data. For example:
Get the ID of all posts where the title starts with “Hello”
And we get the results in a nice table, as shown below:
4. Git
The Git MCP Server allows an AI assistant to interact with a Git repository directly. It supports operations such as cloning repositories, creating branches, committing changes, and viewing logs. This integration allows you to manage your Git workflows using just natural language commands. No need to remember complex Git commands.
Installation
To install this server, you need to have Git installed on your machine. You can check if you have Git installed by running the following command in your terminal:
git –version
Then, you will also need to have the uv command installed.
{
“mcp”: {
“servers”: {
“git”: {
“command”: “uvx”,
“args”: [“mcp-server-git”]
}
}
}
}
Example Prompts
Let’s try a simple prompt to check the current branch in a local repository:
Check the current branch in this repository [path-to-repository]
We can also perform more complex operations, such as reverting the latest commit. For example:
Revert the latest commit in this repository [path-to-repository]
It is smart enough to first check if the Git tree is clean, meaning that there are no uncommitted changes. Then, it will revert the latest commit and show you the commit message.
There are many other Git commands that this MCP server can execute, such as Git Checkout, Commit, Create branch, Add, etc.
5. Docker
The Docker MCP Server is an MCP server that lets you manage Docker using natural language. You can create containers with simple prompts, inspect and debug running ones, and handle persistent data through Docker volumes. It’s great for server admins managing remote Docker setups.
Installation
To install this server, you need to have Docker installed on your machine. You can check if you have Docker installed by running the following command in your terminal:
docker –version
Then, add the following configuration to run the MCP server:
“mcp-server-docker”: {
“command”: “uvx”,
“args”: [
“mcp-server-docker”
]
}
Example Prompts
First, we can try a simple prompt:
List running containers
Since this MCP server supports many Docker commands—like creating containers, starting them, pulling images, and more—we can try a more advanced prompt, such as:
Run a WordPress container using the official image, with MySQL, and Nginx running on port 8000.
This command will set up three containers: one for WordPress using the official image, one for MySQL, and another for Nginx, which will run on port 8000.
Wrapping Up
In this article, we have explored MCP servers that can help you work more efficiently. These servers allow you to automate tasks and interact with internal systems in your local or external services using natural language commands.
You can send prompts that will trigger these MCP servers and save you a lot of time and effort in your daily work.
We hope you find this article helpful and that you can use these MCP servers to boost your productivity.
The post 5 Powerful MCP Servers To Transform Your Development Workflow appeared first on Hongkiat.
It lacks Maker 4’s depth of tools, but for most crafters, this is all that’s needed.
Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/ai-powered-ux-ui-design/?utm_source=rss
Discover how Google’s Stitch and AI-powered UX/UI design tools are revolutionizing the design process. Learn 5 proven ways AI and ML enhance user experience, reduce bias, and create personalized interfaces. Explore trending AI design tools and techniques for 2025.
Continue reading
AI-Powered UX/UI Design: A Breakthrough in Modern App Design
on SitePoint.
Original Source: https://smashingmagazine.com/2025/08/prompting-design-act-brief-guide-iterate-ai/
In “A Week In The Life Of An AI-Augmented Designer”, we followed Kate’s weeklong journey of her first AI-augmented design sprint. She had three realizations through the process:
AI isn’t a co-pilot (yet); it’s more like a smart, eager intern.
One with access to a lot of information, good recall, fast execution, but no context. That mindset defined how she approached every interaction with AI: not as magic, but as management.
Don’t trust; guide, coach, and always verify.
Like any intern, AI needs coaching and supervision, and that’s where her designerly skills kicked in. Kate relied on curiosity to explore, observation to spot bias, empathy to humanize the output, and critical thinking to challenge what didn’t feel right. Her learning mindset helped her keep up with advances, and experimentation helped her learn by doing.
Prompting is part creative brief, and part conversation design, just with an AI instead of a person.
When you prompt an AI, you’re not just giving instructions, but designing how it responds, behaves, and outputs information. If AI is like an intern, then the prompt is your creative brief that frames the task, sets the tone, and clarifies what good looks like. It’s also your conversation script that guides how it responds, how the interaction flows, and how ambiguity is handled.
As designers, we’re used to designing interactions for people. Prompting is us designing our own interactions with machines — it uses the same mindset with a new medium. It shapes an AI’s behavior the same way you’d guide a user with structure, clarity, and intent.
If you’ve bookmarked, downloaded, or saved prompts from others, you’re not alone. We’ve all done that during our AI journeys. But while someone else’s prompts are a good starting point, you will get better and more relevant results if you can write your own prompts tailored to your goals, context, and style. Using someone else’s prompt is like using a Figma template. It gets the job done, but mastery comes from understanding and applying the fundamentals of design, including layout, flow, and reasoning. Prompts have a structure too. And when you learn it, you stop guessing and start designing.
Note: All prompts in this article were tested using ChatGPT — not because it’s the only game in town, but because it’s friendly, flexible, and lets you talk like a person, yes, even after the recent GPT-5 “update”. That said, any LLM with a decent attention span will work. Results for the same prompt may vary based on the AI model you use, the AI’s training, mood, and how confidently it can hallucinate.
Privacy PSA: As always, don’t share anything you wouldn’t want leaked, logged, or accidentally included in the next AI-generated meme. Keep it safe, legal, and user-respecting.
With that out of the way, let’s dive into the mindset, anatomy, and methods of effective prompting as another tool in your design toolkit.
Mindset: Prompt Like A Designer
As designers, we storyboard journeys, wireframe interfaces to guide users, and write UX copy with intention. However, when prompting AI, we treat it differently: “Summarize these insights”, “Make this better”, “Write copy for this screen”, and then wonder why the output feels generic, off-brand, or just meh. It’s like expecting a creative team to deliver great work from a one-line Slack message. We wouldn’t brief a freelancer, much less an intern, with “Design a landing page,” so why brief AI that way?
Prompting Is A Creative Brief For A Machine
Think of a good prompt as a creative brief, just for a non-human collaborator. It needs similar elements, including a clear role, defined goal, relevant context, tone guidance, and output expectations. Just as a well-written creative brief unlocks alignment and quality from your team, a well-structured prompt helps the AI meet your expectations, even though it doesn’t have real instincts or opinions.
Prompting Is Also Conversation Design
A good prompt goes beyond defining the task and sets the tone for the exchange by designing a conversation: guiding how the AI interprets, sequences, and responds. You shape the flow of tasks, how ambiguity is handled, and how refinement happens — that’s conversation design.
Anatomy: Structure It Like A Designer
So how do you write a designer-quality prompt? That’s where the W.I.R.E.+F.R.A.M.E. prompt design framework comes in — a UX-inspired framework for writing intentional, structured, and reusable prompts. Each letter represents a key design direction, grounded in the way UX designers already think: Just as a wireframe doesn’t dictate final visuals, this WIRE+FRAME framework doesn’t constrain creativity, but guides the AI with structured information it needs.
“Why not just use a series of back-and-forth chats with AI?”
You can, and many people do. But without structure, AI fills in the gaps on its own, often with vague or generic results. A good prompt upfront saves time, reduces trial and error, and improves consistency. And whether you’re working on your own or across a team, a framework means you’re not reinventing a prompt every time but reusing what works to get better results faster.
Just as we build wireframes before adding layers of fidelity, the WIRE+FRAME framework has two parts:
WIRE is the must-have skeleton. It gives the prompt its shape.
FRAME is the set of enhancements that bring polish, logic, tone, and reusability — like building a high-fidelity interface from the wireframe.
Let’s improve Kate’s original research synthesis prompt (“Read this customer feedback and tell me how we can improve financial literacy for Gen Z in our app”). To better reflect how people actually prompt in practice, let’s tweak it to a more broadly applicable version: “Read this customer feedback and tell me how we can improve our app for Gen Z users.” This one-liner mirrors the kinds of prompts we often throw at AI tools: short, simple, and often lacking structure.
Now, we’ll take that prompt and rebuild it using the first four elements of the W.I.R.E. framework — the core building blocks that provide AI with the main information it needs to deliver useful results.
W: Who & What
Define who the AI should be, and what it’s being asked to deliver.
A creative brief starts with assigning the right hat. Are you briefing a copywriter? A strategist? A product designer? The same logic applies here. Give the AI a clear identity and task. Treat AI like a trusted freelancer or intern. Instead of saying “help me”, tell it who it should act as and what’s expected.
Example: “You are a senior UX researcher and customer insights analyst. You specialize in synthesizing qualitative data from diverse sources to identify patterns, surface user pain points, and map them across customer journey stages. Your outputs directly inform product, UX, and service priorities.”
I: Input Context
Provide background that frames the task.
Creative partners don’t work in a vacuum. They need context: the audience, goals, product, competitive landscape, and what’s been tried already. This is the “What you need to know before you start” section of the brief. Think: key insights, friction points, business objectives. The same goes for your prompt.
Example: “You are analyzing customer feedback for Fintech Brand’s app, targeting Gen Z users. Feedback will be uploaded from sources such as app store reviews, survey feedback, and usability test transcripts.”
R: Rules & Constraints
Clarify any limitations, boundaries, and exclusions.
Good creative briefs always include boundaries — what to avoid, what’s off-brand, or what’s non-negotiable. Things like brand voice guidelines, legal requirements, or time and word count limits. Constraints don’t limit creativity — they focus it. AI needs the same constraints to avoid going off the rails.
Example: “Only analyze the uploaded customer feedback data. Do not fabricate pain points, representative quotes, journey stages, or patterns. Do not supplement with prior knowledge or hypothetical examples. Use clear, neutral, stakeholder-facing language.”
E: Expected Output
Spell out what the deliverable should look like.
This is the deliverable spec: What does the finished product look like? What tone, format, or channel is it for? Even if the task is clear, the format often isn’t. Do you want bullet points or a story? A table or a headline? If you don’t say, the AI will guess, and probably guess wrong. Even better, include an example of the output you want, an effective way to help AI know what you’re expecting. If you’re using GPT-5, you can also mix examples across formats (text, images, tables) together.
Example: “Return a structured list of themes. For each theme, include:
Theme Title
Summary of the Issue
Problem Statement
Opportunity
Representative Quotes (from data only)
Journey Stage(s)
Frequency (count from data)
Severity Score (1–5) where 1 = Minor inconvenience or annoyance; 3 = Frustrating but workaround exists; 5 = Blocking issue
Estimated Effort (Low / Medium / High), where Low = Copy or content tweak; Medium = Logic/UX/UI change; High = Significant changes.”
WIRE gives you everything you need to stop guessing and start designing your prompts with purpose. When you start with WIRE, your prompting is like a briefing, treating AI like a collaborator.
Once you’ve mastered this core structure, you can layer in additional fidelity, like tone, step-by-step flow, or iterative feedback, using the FRAME elements. These five elements provide additional guidance and clarity to your prompt by layering clear deliverables, thoughtful tone, reusable structure, and space for creative iteration.
F: Flow of Tasks
Break complex prompts into clear, ordered steps.
This is your project plan or creative workflow that lays out the stages, dependencies, or sequence of execution. When the task has multiple parts, don’t just throw it all into one sentence. You are doing the thinking and guiding AI. Structure it like steps in a user journey or modules in a storyboard. In this example, it fits as the blueprint for the AI to use to generate the table described in “E: Expected Output”
Example: “Recommended flow of tasks:
Step 1: Parse the uploaded data and extract discrete pain points.
Step 2: Group them into themes based on pattern similarity.
Step 3: Score each theme by frequency (from data), severity (based on content), and estimated effort.
Step 4: Map each theme to the appropriate customer journey stage(s).
Step 5: For each theme, write a clear problem statement and opportunity based only on what’s in the data.”
R: Reference Voice or Style
Name the desired tone, mood, or reference brand.
This is the brand voice section or style mood board — reference points that shape the creative feel. Sometimes you want buttoned-up. Other times, you want conversational. Don’t assume the AI knows your tone, so spell it out.
Example: “Use the tone of a UX insights deck or product research report. Be concise, pattern-driven, and objective. Make summaries easy to scan by product managers and design leads.”
A: Ask for Clarification
Invite the AI to ask questions before generating, if anything is unclear.
This is your “Any questions before we begin?” moment — a key step in collaborative creative work. You wouldn’t want a freelancer to guess what you meant if the brief was fuzzy, so why expect AI to do better? Ask AI to reflect or clarify before jumping into output mode.
Example: “If the uploaded data is missing or unclear, ask for it before continuing. Also, ask for clarification if the feedback format is unstructured or inconsistent, or if the scoring criteria need refinement.”
M: Memory (Within The Conversation)
Reference earlier parts of the conversation and reuse what’s working.
This is similar to keeping visual tone or campaign language consistent across deliverables in a creative brief. Prompts are rarely one-shot tasks, so this reminds AI of the tone, audience, or structure already in play. GPT-5 got better with memory, but this still remains a useful element, especially if you switch topics or jump around.
Example: “Unless I say otherwise, keep using this process: analyze the data, group into themes, rank by importance, then suggest an action for each.”
E: Evaluate & Iterate
Invite the AI to critique, improve, or generate variations.
This is your revision loop — your way of prompting for creative direction, exploration, and refinement. Just like creatives expect feedback, your AI partner can handle review cycles if you ask for them. Build iteration into the brief to get closer to what you actually need. Sometimes, you may see ChatGPT test two versions of a response on its own by asking for your preference.
Example: “After listing all themes, identify the one with the highest combined priority score (based on frequency, severity, and effort).
For that top-priority theme:
Critically evaluate its framing: Is the title clear? Are the quotes strong and representative? Is the journey mapping appropriate?
Suggest one improvement (e.g., improved title, more actionable implication, clearer quote, tighter summary).
Rewrite the theme entry with that improvement applied.
Briefly explain why the revision is stronger and more useful for product or design teams.”
Here’s a quick recap of the WIRE+FRAME framework:
Framework Component
Description
W: Who & What
Define the AI persona and the core deliverable.
I: Input Context
Provide background or data scope to frame the task.
R: Rules & Constraints
Set boundaries
E: Expected Output
Spell out the format and fields of the deliverable.
F: Flow of Tasks
Break the work into explicit, ordered sub-tasks.
R: Reference Voice/Style
Name the tone, mood, or reference brand to ensure consistency.
A: Ask for Clarification
Invite AI to pause and ask questions if any instructions or data are unclear before proceeding.
M: Memory
Leverage in-conversation memory to recall earlier definitions, examples, or phrasing without restating them.
E: Evaluate & Iterate
After generation, have the AI self-critique the top outputs and refine them.
And here’s the full WIRE+FRAME prompt:
(W) You are a senior UX researcher and customer insights analyst. You specialize in synthesizing qualitative data from diverse sources to identify patterns, surface user pain points, and map them across customer journey stages. Your outputs directly inform product, UX, and service priorities.
(I) You are analyzing customer feedback for Fintech Brand’s app, targeting Gen Z users. Feedback will be uploaded from sources such as app store reviews, survey feedback, and usability test transcripts.
(R) Only analyze the uploaded customer feedback data. Do not fabricate pain points, representative quotes, journey stages, or patterns. Do not supplement with prior knowledge or hypothetical examples. Use clear, neutral, stakeholder-facing language.
(E) Return a structured list of themes. For each theme, include:Theme TitleSummary of the IssueProblem StatementOpportunityRepresentative Quotes (from data only)Journey Stage(s)Frequency (count from data)Severity Score (1–5) where 1 = Minor inconvenience or annoyance; 3 = Frustrating but workaround exists; 5 = Blocking issueEstimated Effort (Low / Medium / High), where Low = Copy or content tweak; Medium = Logic/UX/UI change; High = Significant changes(F) Recommended flow of tasks:
Step 1: Parse the uploaded data and extract discrete pain points.
Step 2: Group them into themes based on pattern similarity.
Step 3: Score each theme by frequency (from data), severity (based on content), and estimated effort.
Step 4: Map each theme to the appropriate customer journey stage(s).
Step 5: For each theme, write a clear problem statement and opportunity based only on what’s in the data.
(R) Use the tone of a UX insights deck or product research report. Be concise, pattern-driven, and objective. Make summaries easy to scan by product managers and design leads.
(A) If the uploaded data is missing or unclear, ask for it before continuing. Also, ask for clarification if the feedback format is unstructured or inconsistent, or if the scoring criteria need refinement.
(M) Unless I say otherwise, keep using this process: analyze the data, group into themes, rank by importance, then suggest an action for each.
(E) After listing all themes, identify the one with the highest combined priority score (based on frequency, severity, and effort).
For that top-priority theme:Critically evaluate its framing: Is the title clear? Are the quotes strong and representative? Is the journey mapping appropriate?Suggest one improvement (e.g., improved title, more actionable implication, clearer quote, tighter summary).Rewrite the theme entry with that improvement applied.Briefly explain why the revision is stronger and more useful for product or design teams.
You could use “##” to label the sections (e.g., “##FLOW”) more for your readability than for AI. At over 400 words, this Insights Synthesis prompt example is a detailed, structured prompt, but it isn’t customized for you and your work. The intent wasn’t to give you a specific prompt (the proverbial fish), but to show how you can use a prompt framework like WIRE+FRAME to create a customized, relevant prompt that will help AI augment your work (teaching you to fish).
Keep in mind that prompt length isn’t a common concern, but rather a lack of quality and structure is. As of the time of writing, AI models can easily process prompts that are thousands of words long.
Not every prompt needs all the FRAME components; WIRE is often enough to get the job done. But when the work is strategic or highly contextual, pick components from FRAME — the extra details can make a difference. Together, WIRE+FRAME give you a detailed framework for creating a well-structured prompt, with the crucial components first, followed by optional components:
WIRE builds a clear, focused prompt with role, input, rules, and expected output.
FRAME adds refinement like tone, reusability, and iteration.
Here are some scenarios and recommendations for using WIRE or WIRE+FRAME:
Scenarios
Description
Recommended
Simple, One-Off Analyses
Quick prompting with minimal setup and no need for detailed process transparency.
WIRE
Tight Sprints or Hackathons
Rapid turnarounds, and times you don’t need embedded review and iteration loops.
WIRE
Highly Iterative Exploratory Work
You expect to tweak results constantly and prefer manual control over each step.
WIRE
Complex Multi-Step Playbooks
Detailed workflows that benefit from a standardized, repeatable, visible sequence.
WIRE+FRAME
Shared or Hand-Off Projects
When different teams will rely on embedded clarification, memory, and consistent task flows for recurring analyses.
WIRE+FRAME
Built-In Quality Control
You want the AI to flag top issues, self-critique, and refine, minimizing manual QC steps.
WIRE+FRAME
Prompting isn’t about getting it right the first time. It’s about designing the interaction and redesigning when needed. With WIRE+FRAME, you’re going beyond basic prompting and designing the interaction between you and AI.
From Gut Feel To Framework: A Prompt Makeover
Let’s compare the results of Kate’s first AI-augmented design sprint prompt (to synthesize customer feedback into design insights) with one based on the WIRE+FRAME prompt framework, with the same data and focusing on the top results:
Original prompt: Read this customer feedback and tell me how we can improve our app for Gen Z users.
Initial ChatGPT Results:
Improve app reliability to reduce crashes and freezing.
Provide better guidance or tutorials for financial tools like budgeting or goal setting.
Enhance the transparency of Zelle transfers by showing confirmation messages.
Speed up app loading and reduce lag on key actions.
With this version, you’d likely need to go back and forth with follow-up questions, rewrite the output for clarity, and add structure before sharing with your team.
WIRE+FRAME prompt above (with defined role, scope, rules, expected format, tone, flow, and evaluation loop).
Initial ChatGPT Results:
You can clearly see the very different results from the two prompts, both using the exact same data. While the first prompt returns a quick list of ideas, the detailed WIRE+FRAME version doesn’t just summarize feedback but structures it. Themes are clearly labeled, supported by user quotes, mapped to customer journey stages, and prioritized by frequency, severity, and effort.
The structured prompt results can be used as-is or shared without needing to reformat, rewrite, or explain them (see disclaimer below). The first prompt output needs massaging: it’s not detailed, lacks evidence, and would require several rounds of clarification to be actionable. The first prompt may work when the stakes are low and you are exploring. But when your prompt is feeding design, product, or strategy, structure comes to the rescue.
Disclaimer: Know Your Data
A well-structured prompt can make AI output more useful, but it shouldn’t be the final word, or your single source of truth. AI models are powerful pattern predictors, not fact-checkers. If your data is unclear or poorly referenced, even the best prompt may return confident nonsense. Don’t blindly trust what you see. Treat AI like a bright intern: fast, eager, and occasionally delusional. You should always be familiar with your data and validate what AI spits out. For example, in the WIRE+FRAME results above, AI rated the effort as low for financial tool onboarding. That could easily be a medium or high. Good prompting should be backed by good judgment.
Try This Now
Start by using the WIRE+FRAME framework to create a prompt that will help AI augment your work. You could also rewrite the last prompt you were not satisfied with, using the WIRE+FRAME, and compare the output.
Feel free to use this simple tool to guide you through the framework.
Methods: From Lone Prompts to a Prompt System
Just as design systems have reusable components, your prompts can too. You can use the WIRE+FRAME framework to write detailed prompts, but you can also use the structure to create reusable components that are pre-tested, plug-and-play pieces you can assemble to build high-quality prompts faster. Each part of WIRE+FRAME can be transformed into a prompt component: small, reusable modules that reflect your team’s standards, voice, and strategy.
For instance, if you find yourself repeatedly using the same content for different parts of the WIRE+FRAME framework, you could save them as reusable components for you and your team. In the example below, we have two different reusable components for “W: Who & What” — an insights analyst and an information architect.
W: Who & What
You are a senior UX researcher and customer insights analyst. You specialize in synthesizing qualitative data from diverse sources to identify patterns, surface user pain points, and map them across customer journey stages. Your outputs directly inform product, UX, and service priorities.
You are an experienced information architect specializing in organizing enterprise content on intranets. Your task is to reorganize the content and features into categories that reflect user goals, reduce cognitive load, and increase findability.
Create and save prompt components and variations for each part of the WIRE+FRAME framework, allowing your team to quickly assemble new prompts by combining components when available, rather than starting from scratch each time.
Behind The Prompts: Questions About Prompting
Q: If I use a prompt framework like WIRE+FRAME every time, will the results be predictable?
A: Yes and no. Yes, your outputs will be guided by a consistent set of instructions (e.g., Rules, Examples, Reference Voice / Style) that will guide the AI to give you a predictable format and style of results. And no, while the framework provides structure, it doesn’t flatten the generative nature of AI, but focuses it on what’s important to you. In the next article, we will look at how you can use this to your advantage to quickly reuse your best repeatable prompts as we build your AI assistant.
Q: Could changes to AI models break the WIRE+FRAME framework?
A: AI models are evolving more rapidly than any other technology we’ve seen before — in fact, ChatGPT was recently updated to GPT-5 to mixed reviews. The update didn’t change the core principles of prompting or the WIRE+FRAME prompt framework. With future releases, some elements of how we write prompts today may change, but the need to communicate clearly with AI won’t. Think of how you delegate work to an intern vs. someone with a few years’ experience: you still need detailed instructions the first time either is doing a task, but the level of detail may change. WIRE+FRAME isn’t built only for today’s models; the components help you clarify your intent, share relevant context, define constraints, and guide tone and format — all timeless elements, no matter how smart the model becomes. The skill of shaping clear, structured interactions with non-human AI systems will remain valuable.
Q: Can prompts be more than text? What about images or sketches?
A: Absolutely. With tools like GPT-5 and other multimodal models, you can upload screenshots, pictures, whiteboard sketches, or wireframes. These visuals become part of your Input Context or help define the Expected Output. The same WIRE+FRAME principles still apply: you’re setting context, tone, and format, just using images and text together. Whether your input is a paragraph or an image and text, you’re still designing the interaction.
Have a prompt-related question of your own? Share it in the comments, and I’ll either respond there or explore it further in the next article in this series.
From Designerly Prompting To Custom Assistants
Good prompts and results don’t come from using others’ prompts, but from writing prompts that are customized for you and your context. The WIRE+FRAME framework helps with that and makes prompting a tool you can use to guide AI models like a creative partner instead of hoping for magic from a one-line request.
Prompting uses the designerly skills you already use every day to collaborate with AI:
Curiosity to explore what the AI can do and frame better prompts.
Observation to detect bias or blind spots.
Empathy to make machine outputs human.
Critical thinking to verify and refine.
Experiment & Iteration to learn by doing and improve the interaction over time.
Growth Mindset to keep up with new technology like AI and prompting.
Once you create and refine prompt components and prompts that work for you, make them reusable by documenting them. But wait, there’s more — what if your best prompts, or the elements of your prompts, could live inside your own AI assistant, available on demand, fluent in your voice, and trained on your context? That’s where we’re headed next.
In the next article, “Design Your Own Design Assistant”, we’ll take what you’ve learned so far and turn it into a Custom AI assistant (aka Custom GPT), a design-savvy, context-aware assistant that works like you do. We’ll walk through that exact build, from defining the assistant’s job description to uploading knowledge, testing, and sharing it with others.
Resources
GPT-5 Prompting Guide
GPT-4.1 Prompting Guide
Anthropic Prompt Engineering
Prompt Engineering by Google
Perplexity
Webapp to guide you through the WIRE+FRAME framework
