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Tidy Birds and Neat Bees: on Conscientiousness in Animals

By www.ecology.com
Published On :: Fri, 05 Jan 2018 18:03:37 +0000

By Mikel Maria Delgado Aeon Human personality theory has long revolved around what we know as the ‘Big Five’ – five dimensions of personality that cover a large swathe of how humans behave across time and contexts. These dimensions are … Continue reading →


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Antyfest

By www.designsnips.com
Published On :: Sat, 10 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

A project to support international music festivals suffering from Covid19 Its a map and a nest with actual ants the creatures that dont have to follow lockdown rules


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A Guide to Accessibility Resources for Global Accessibility Awareness Day

By www.viget.com
Published On :: Thu, 16 May 2024 11:26:00 -0400

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is May 16, 2024! GAAD was created to help bring attention and awareness to digital inclusivity. No matter your role on a project team, digital accessibility should always be a priority from start to finish. Why is accessibility so important?

  • Over 1 billion people worldwide have a disability, and that number is growing every day
  • 15% of people with disabilities say they never go online, compared to 5% of people without disabilities, according to Pew Research Center
  • According to a survey by Click-Away Pound, 71% of disabled users are forced to leave a website if they find it difficult to use

Digital accessibility directly impacts people’s ability to access information, buy products, apply for jobs, engage in discussion, and everything else that people do online that is becoming critical for modern life. Accessible spaces even benefit people without disabilities, as it allows anyone to take in content though their preferred method (reading the captions on a video instead of listening in a noisy environment, for example), and often breeds innovation as engineers work to find the best way to be sure everyone can access information equally.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has developed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) in an effort to standardize digital accessibility. However, many websites unfortunately fail to meet these standards, leading to a lesser-quality user experience. WebAIM’s yearly report has highlighted some surprising statistics about WCAG across the top 1,000,000 home pages:

  • The most common accessibility failure across home pages is low contrast text
  • 98.1% of home pages have at least one WCAG 2.0 failure
  • On average, there are 56.8 accessibility errors per page (this increased 13.6% from 2023!) 
  • 16.8% of home pages had more than one <h1> tag

As you can see, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to create a more accessible web for everyone. If you’re interested in learning more about digital accessibility and how to improve accessibility on your own projects, there are plenty of resources and online courses available. Resources range from free, to paid courses, to professional certifications. Below are some courses and resources that we recommend.

Free Courses and Resources

If you’re looking to introduce yourself to digital accessibility, these free resources are a great place to start:  

  • A11ycasts with Rob Dodson - A series of video tutorials on YouTube that highlights topics including semantics, focus, the correct way to use a button, and a11y testing
  • The Beginner’s Guide to Web Accessibility - An article by Dequeue University that summarizes why digital accessibility should be a priority, and how to determine if your website is accessible
  • Common Mistakes with Using Colour in Accessibility - Digital designer Andrée Lange provides insights into how to take color contrast into consideration when designing for the web
  • Deque Accessibility Resources - Dequeue offers a variety of free accessibility resources, including webinars, blog posts, and their accessibility testing browser extension, axe DevTools
  • HTML Semantics and Accessibility Cheat Sheet - WebAIM provides a list of the most common HTML tags that have an impact on digital accessibility
  • MDN Accessibility Tutorials - MDN is an open-source project documenting web technologies, which also includes an informative section on web accessibility documentation and best practices
  • Section 508 ICT Testing Baseline - Outlines minimal accessibility testing requirements for federal agencies subject to Section 508
  • WCAG 2.2 Quick Reference - WCAG are a series of web accessibility guidelines released and maintained by the W3C, with 2.2 being the current version of the guidelines. This page provides a reference to standards that websites should meet in order to meet current accessibility standards
  • Web.dev Learn Accessibility Course - A series of informative articles ranging from beginning a11y topics, to more advanced topics including animation and motion

Deep Dives with Paid Tutorials

If you’re a developer who has experience in accessibility and want to dig more into the topic, these comprehensive tutorials will help you improve your a11y knowledge:

  • Accessible Web Academy - Accessible Web Academy includes more focused a11y courses for designers, developers, content creators, and marketers looking to target specific topics 
  • Inclusive Components - There is a free online summary of Heydon Pickering’s Inclusive Components, but you can also purchase an eBook on the topic. Heydon’s blog provides examples of a pattern library that bakes accessibility into each component
  • Practical Accessibility by Sara Soueidan - Sara Souedien is a prolific front-end developer who specializes in accessibility. Her course, Practical Accessibility, is a comprehensive guide for all developers, from those looking to familiarize themselves with accessibility, to experienced developers looking to expand their a11y knowledge.

Advanced Knowledge with Certifications

As the world’s population and number of disabled users continues to grow, it’s clear that implementing digital accessibility in your products is more important than ever. By implementing the information from these lists, you can help users of all abilities access the content that you share, ensuring a better internet for everyone.


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Handling Spelling Mistakes with Postgres Full Text Search

By www.viget.com
Published On :: Tue, 25 Jun 2024 12:37:00 -0400

Background #

Postgres Full Text Search (FTS) is a great way to implement site search on a website running Postgres already, without requiring additional infrastructure.

On a recent engagement with a client, we were deciding between Postgres FTS and ElasticSearch. Ultimately we chose FTS because we could spin it up without having to add extra infrastructure, as we would with ElasticSearch.

Since the project was written in Ruby on Rails, we were able to use the excellent PgSearch gem to implement FTS in ActiveRecord.

Multisearch #

As we wanted a general site search, we needed to utilize multisearch. Multisearch combines multiple ActiveRecord models into one search 'document' table that you can search against. For example, if a user searches for some search term, and the search is configured for multisearch, then every single model that we mark as multisearchable will be searched for that term at the same time. See here for more detail.

Search Features #

PgSearch allows for different search features, tsearch, trigram, and dmetaphone. The default is tsearch, which uses the built-in Postgres Full Text Search.

This was great for our use case, since it also comes with highlighting, a feature that was required. The highlighting is from a field returned by Postgres FTS, where it returns the text around the search term for context and bolds the search terms.

Spelling Mistakes #

Unfortunately, tsearch does not handle misspelled words. However, as I mentioned before, PgSearch allows for other search features!

And trigram is a feature that can be installed via a Postgres extension (pg_trgm) that does just that.

Trigram #

  • The idea behind trigram search is to split pieces of text into sets of three-letter segments, and compare the sets to one another
  • If two trigram sets are similar enough, we assume there was a spelling mistake, and return the document with the correctly-spelled term.
  • As a quick example (ignoring whitespace): Consider the word Viget. Viget would make trigrams:
[vig, ige, get]
  • Now, consider our evil twin agency, Qiget. They would make trigrams
[qig, ige, get]
  • The two trigram sets match very closely, with only one of the trigrams not being the same. Thus, if we were to compare these with pg_trgm, we could reasonably tell that anyone typing 'Qiget' must have been actually looking for 'Viget', and just misspelled it.

Working Trigram into our existing solution #

PgSearch allows us to use multiple search features at once, so we can use tsearch and trigram side by side. Note that we cannot just replace tsearch with trigram due to needing some features in tsearch that are exclusive to it. Here is what an example configuration might look like.

PgSearch.multisearch_options = {
  using: {
    tsearch: {
      prefix: true,
      highlight: {
        MaxFragments: 1
      }
    },
    trigram: { 
      only: [:content]
    }
  }
}

Trigram (and timelines) causing issues #

While it was easy to slot Trigram into our multisearch, it caused a pretty serious performance hit. We were seeing 50x-75x slower searches with both features combined than with just tsearch. We needed to find a way to balance performance with handling misspellings

At the point that handling misspellings became prioritized, the entire search feature was almost fully QA'd and about ready to go out. There wasn't much time left in the budget to find a good solution for the issue.

This thread from the PgSearch repo sums it up pretty well – there were multiple other users that were/are having similar issues as we were. The top-rated comment in this thread is someone mentioning that the solution was to just use ElasticSearch ('top-rated' is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It did have the most likes...at two). We needed to find some sort of middle ground solution that we could act on quickly.

Postgres Documentation saves the day #

In the docs for the Trigram Postgres extension, the writers give an idea for using Trigram in conjunction with Full Text Search. The general idea is to create a separate words table that has a Trigram index on it.

Something like this worked for us. Note that we added an additional step with a temporary table. This was to allow us to filter out words that included non-alphabet characters.

execute <<-SQL
  -- Need to make a temp table so we can remove non-alphabet characters like websites
  CREATE TEMP TABLE temp_words AS
    SELECT word FROM ts_stat('SELECT to_tsvector(''simple'', content) FROM pg_search_documents');

  CREATE TABLE pg_search_words (
    id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    word text
  );

  INSERT INTO pg_search_words (word)
    SELECT word
    FROM temp_words
    WHERE word ~ '^[a-zA-Z]+$';
  
  CREATE INDEX pg_words_idx ON pg_search_words USING GIN (word gin_trgm_ops);
  
  DROP TABLE temp_words;
SQL

This words table is therefore populated with every unique word that exists in your search content table. For us, this table was pretty large.

result = ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM pg_search_words").first['count']
puts result.first['count']
# => 1118644

Keeping the words table up-to-date #

As mentioned in the docs, this table is separate from your search table. Therefore, it needs to be either periodically regenerated or at least have any new words added to search content also added to this table.

One way to achieve this is with a trigger, which adds all new words (still filtering out non-alphabet characters) that are inserted into the documents table to the words table

create_trigger("pg_search_documents_after_insert_update_row_tr", generated: true, compatibility: 1)
  .on("pg_search_documents")
  .after(:insert, :update) do
  <<-SQL_ACTIONS
    CREATE TEMP TABLE temp_words AS
      SELECT word FROM ts_stat('SELECT to_tsvector(''simple'', ' || quote_literal(NEW.content) || ')');

    INSERT INTO pg_search_words (word)
      SELECT word
      FROM temp_words
      WHERE word ~ '^[a-zA-Z]+$';

    DROP TABLE temp_words;
  SQL_ACTIONS

end

Note that this does not handle records being deleted from the table – that would need to be something separate.

How we used the words table #

Assuming for simplicity the user's search term is a single word, if the search returns no results, we compare the search term's trigram set to the trigram index on the words table, and return the closest match.

Then, we'd show the closest match in a "Did you mean {correctly-spelled word}?" that hyperlinks to a search of the correctly-spelled word

Given more time, I would have liked to explore options to speed up the combined FTS and Trigram search. I'm certain we could have improved on the performance issues, but I can't say for sure that we could have gotten the search time down to a reasonable amount.

A future enhancement that would be pretty simple is to automatically search for that correctly-spelled word, removing the prompt to click the link. We could also change the text to something like "Showing results for {correctly-spelled word}".

Ultimately, I think with the situation at hand, we made the right call implementing Trigram this way. The search is just as fast as before, and now in the case of misspellings, a user just has to follow the link to the correctly-spelled word and they will see the results they wanted very quickly.


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What is a Headless CMS and When Should I Use One?

By www.viget.com
Published On :: Wed, 17 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0400

When starting a new project, decision makers are faced with the dilemma of choosing a content management system (CMS). Sometimes, it’s not that simple and they must choose whether to go with a traditional CMS or a headless CMS. Both offer unique benefits and cater to different needs, making it crucial to understand when each makes sense for your project. Let’s take a look at some considerations that can help you make the right decision.

What is a Traditional CMS?

Traditional CMS’s – like Craft CMS, WordPress, and Drupal – offer a pre-packaged solution for content creation, management, and delivery. They include powerful interfaces with content editing capabilities and templating out of the box, enabling you to create sites with ease. A traditional CMS can be monolithic because the back-end and front-end are tightly coupled. Using a traditional CMS typically means you are using all of the tools included to achieve your goal.

What is a Headless CMS?

A Headless CMS is like a Traditional CMS in that it includes content creation and management tools. But it differs in the fact that the back-end content management system is decoupled from the front-end (presentation layer), allowing developers to use any technology stack they prefer for building the front-end of the site. The back-end acts as an API with its only purpose being to serve content from the database. There are CMS options like Contentful, Payload, and Strapi that are built to be headless. Popular traditional CMS’s like Craft CMS and WordPress also offer headless variants.

The Restaurant Analogy

Let’s simplify things a bit more and look at the decision using an analogy; a restaurant.

Traditional Restaurant (Traditional CMS)

Imagine a restaurant where the kitchen and dining room are connected. The chefs cook the food, and the waitstaff serve it directly to the customers in the same building. This setup means that everything is closely integrated, and the kitchen (back-end) is tightly coupled to the dining experience (front-end). Picture a scenario where the restaurant decides to change from table service to buffet style. The food now needs to be prepared in advance and delivered to the front of house in a different way, potentially even requiring new equipment. The restaurant needs to be reconfigured to not only accommodate the buffet but also to interface with the kitchen differently. Because the restaurant and kitchen are coupled, both sides would require work in order to accommodate a shift in strategy. 

Ghost Kitchen (Headless CMS)

Now, think of a ghost (or cloud) kitchen where food is prepared centrally but can be delivered to various locations or dining experiences. The kitchen (back-end) focuses solely on cooking (content creation and management) and doesn't worry about where the food is served. Instead, the meals (content) can be delivered to different endpoints like food trucks, home deliveries, or partner restaurants (or in our case websites, mobile apps, etc.). This separation allows more flexibility in how and where the content is delivered without changing the core cooking process. If a new experience requires new equipment or processes, the kitchen can be expanded without affecting the front-end experience.

When to Use a Headless CMS

Omni-Channel Content Delivery 

If you consistently need to deliver content across multiple platforms (websites, mobile apps, IoT devices), a headless CMS is ideal because it can serve the same content through APIs to any front-end. The front-end can be swapped out without any need for development to the back-end.

Scalability and Flexibility

If you want the ability to keep your content management system up-to-date independently of the presentation layer, a headless CMS can allow for more agile and scalable development. This could be especially useful if you anticipate needing to redesign or update parts of the front-end frequently without affecting the back-end content.

Front-end Framework Preferences

Maybe your team has developers who are very proficient in a particular JavaScript framework, like Next.js, SvelteKit, or Astro. The time needed to learn a new templating language could push you past your deadline. Maybe you have some cool interactive interface in mind? A headless CMS can provide the raw content for your developers to build highly custom, tailor-made front-ends in whatever language or framework they please.

Security

Going headless can offer security advantages due to its decoupled nature. By communicating via API to the front-end, data access can be controlled more granularly. Because the back-end is only responsible for content management and delivery, fewer plugins are typically used which means a smaller chance of vulnerabilities due to third-party software.

Hosting & Infrastructure

A cloud-based headless CMS offers additional advantages over a self-hosted headless CMS. It can simplify maintenance and operating costs since the cloud provider is responsible for updates and security of the platform. Cloud-based solutions like Strapi Cloud often come with integrated security features, automatic backups, and disaster recovery options.

Which will you choose?

While the flexibility and security a headless CMS offers may be great benefits, it may not be necessary for every project and could even introduce complexity. It’s important to consider the long-term purpose of the project and who will be responsible for maintaining it as well as authoring content. If your primary focus is on managing and delivering content in a structured manner with rapid development, a traditional CMS can be an excellent choice. But if you feel any of the examples I’ve laid out above align with your project’s requirements then a headless CMS may be right for you! 

Whatever route you take, remember that both Craft CMS and WordPress can be used in traditional or headless applications and are a fine choice either way! Now you know the differences between a traditional and headless CMS, and an informed decision can be made. If you have more questions or a project you think could benefit from a traditional or headless CMS, we’d love to help!


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The Keys to Successful Concept Testing: Planning

By www.viget.com
Published On :: Fri, 30 Aug 2024 10:43:00 -0400

Concept testing is a research method that explores how a user perceives or interacts with a new idea. It usually takes place early in a project, and involves putting ideas into the “real world” to see how users will react to them.

Not every project needs to include concept testing, but it can make your solutions more user-centered. Involving users in the design process leads to products, sites, and experiences that are more aligned with user wants and needs — and ultimately more successful.

Concept testing is most useful when exploring ideas that are novel, complex, or risky. It can also help your team:

  • Generate more purposeful, user-centered ideas.
  • Identify which ideas provide the greatest value to users. 
  • Prioritize the most promising idea(s), saving time and money.
  • Evaluate any significant changes you make along the way.

I’ll cover how we use concept testing at Viget to help our clients gain clarity and develop user-centered solutions. 

This article will be part of a three-part series focused on concept testing. First, we’ll focus on planning out your concept testing. 

Form a clear plan

A successful concept test has a well-defined plan at its foundation from the start. At Viget, we work with clients to define what you want to learn, and who you want to learn from. 

Let’s imagine that you and your team are redesigning an online food delivery platform, and you have some new concepts that you want to test to see if they resonate with users.   

Focus on what you want to learn.

Start by defining research objectives. Think of these objectives as your north stars that will guide you and your team. You’ll use these for initial alignment, and then to frame what the prototype needs to do, and what feedback you really need.

You can create a strong set of objectives by asking:

  • What initially sparked the motivation to test?
  • Where do you have the most uncertainty about your concept?
  • What are the key things you need to know through testing?

Teams usually have a lot of questions, and feel pressure to answer all of them at once. Resist the pressure! Instead, focus on the most pressing and critical — it will allow you to dive deeper into the most important areas in a session. Otherwise, you may not have the depth you need to move forward when you finish the testing.

Let’s say you've developed new solutions that span the whole user journey of online food delivery. You could spend a whole research session asking questions that cover all that breadth, but you would get much more depth by focusing on one particular moment in the journey, like the online ordering experience.

Think about who you want to talk to (and be holistic).

If you aren’t intentional about who you test with, you can end up with feedback that may not be applicable. Ideally, you’re talking to existing customers or people who would use the website or product in the future. Look at behaviors, like whether they’ve used a competitor, or hold specific sentiments, when recruiting participants. Perhaps you’re trying to expand your audience for your new food delivery app, so you may want to talk to people who cook at home frequently as well. 

Don’t forget to think holistically. Consider every person who might interact with this solution, from beginning to end, and who might be affected by it. For your new app, you'll want to test with the diner, but your solutions may also affect the restaurant host/hostess, cooks and cashier’s workflows for example. So you may need to capture their perspectives. 

Opinions aren’t strong evidence.

You may gravitate towards seeking preferences or opinions about your concepts (i.e., “which concept is better?”). But rather than focusing on which concept users like most, it’s more important to uncover user behavior. Preference-centric concept testing won’t teach you about how someone might actually interact with this concept. 

For instance, you’ll learn much more about which new concepts for online food ordering are most beneficial to users if you ask about how they might use it in a scenario. Or even better, you actually have them interact with each one.   

Questions like the ones below will give you stronger indications of user behavior:

  • When was the last time you used [the competitor]?
  • How might this concept fit into your day to day?
  • How would you accomplish this task with the concept?

Avoid asking questions like “Which concept is better?” or “which one do you prefer?” Instead ask why one concept has advantages or disadvantages over another for a user, or how they actually envision it in their daily life. 

Even if the focus of the test is on preference (as is the case for branding or marketing research) it’s still helpful to dive deeper into what a user feels the design is communicating to them and why that prompts a specific reaction.

These key strategies that I’ve covered should get you a jump-start for successfully planning out your first concept test.

In the next article in the series, I'll dive into prototyping.


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Founders Welcoming Business Partners

By www.viget.com
Published On :: Mon, 21 Oct 2024 15:54:00 -0400

When Viget was founded in 1999, Andy and I used the title “Founding Partner.” We were founders of the business and also committed business partners. Within a couple of years, we switched to more specific titles: Co-Founder and President (Andy) and Co-Founder and CEO (me), but “business partners” was always the key structure.

We divided responsibilities of leadership, delivery, and operations in ways that optimized our different strengths and weaknesses. Key decision making has always been a collaborative process, with healthy debate between the two of us. I know some incredible solo entrepreneurs, but for us, having a partner to lean on, leverage, and grow with has been not only rewarding, it’s been essential to Viget’s longevity and success.

Also key to our success has been a founding principle of hiring incredible people who share our values and vision, value longevity and lasting relationships, and take pride in their work and careers. As they’ve joined, we’ve shared the opportunities and responsibilities that come with running a healthy business. Empowering others to lead key parts of Viget has taken us further than we’d ever gone otherwise.

Being owners and partners in the business has always been a privilege, an honor, and, at times, a stressful burden. When things go well – clients are happy, the team is gelling, the finances are solid – I’m filled with pride, satisfaction, and calm. When things aren’t going well – projects are sideways, turnover seems contagious, and the metrics point in the wrong direction – I’m filled with anxiety, frustration, and self-doubt. In either scenario, having a partner to navigate the waters with has been vital.

In recent years, three key areas of our business have matured thanks to the overall strength of our team and especially strong leadership. Our sales and marketing systems, tools, and strategies have fed a much more predictable revenue engine with great clients. Our client delivery processes and best practices have helped us consistently deliver value for our clients with more clarity, less risk, and better results. Finally, through some very challenging years in our industry, our culture has grown stronger and more adaptable, still centered on meaningful human connections at the core.

These three business areas have been led by Zach Robbins (sales and marketing), Kelly Kenny (delivery), and Emily Bloom (culture). They are the pillars upon which all other aspects of the business are built. These leaders have truly grown up with the business, having joined more than 13, 14, and 17 years ago, respectively. Their impact first as individual contributors, then managers, and eventually strategic leaders has been immeasurable.

Viget is coming up on a major milestone: we’ll soon eclipse 25 years since our founding on December 27, 1999. As Andy and I looked out at the next decade and beyond of our business, expanding our partnership became a clear goal. Embracing additional partners to not just lead their area of the business but to weigh in on all major decisions would help Viget continue to mature into the business we believe it can be. We saw an opportunity to invite others into the deep water of business partnership – the good, bad, and ugly – so that our shared decision making can be sharper, more insightful, and more strategic in the years to come.

At our fall retreat last week, we announced that we're welcoming Emily, Zach, and Kelly as partners at Viget. They’ve each been here for more than half of Viget’s history, each shaping Viget into what it is today. As partners, they’ll have even more influence as we take Viget into our second quarter century and beyond.


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  • News & Culture
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Why the Cheapest Hourly Rate Often isn’t the Cheapest Option

By www.viget.com
Published On :: Wed, 30 Oct 2024 10:30:00 -0400

When choosing an outsourcing partner for design and development, many decision-makers naturally start by comparing hourly rates. At first glance, it seems logical: a lower hourly rate means lower project costs, right?

The truth is, hourly rates can be a misleading metric. The actual cost of outsourcing is much more complex than the dollar amount tied to hourly rates. In this article, we’ll explore why focusing on hourly rates can obscure the true cost of a project and why it’s crucial to dig deeper when evaluating potential partners. I’ll end by suggesting a few things to focus on instead of or in addition to the hourly rate.

Efficiency vs. Hourly Rates

Imagine you have two outsourcing options for a specific task:

  • Pat: A developer who charges $100/hour and takes 3 hours to complete the task. 
  • Terry: A developer who charges $200/hour but only takes 2 hours to complete the same task.

Pat’s hourly rate is lower and Pat’s total cost looks cheaper. The total cost for Pat is $300, while for Terry, it's $400. But there's more at play than the hourly breakdown.

Terry may be faster because they are more skilled, experienced, or familiar with the problem. They produce a higher-quality output that might need little to no revision, while Pat may deliver work requiring additional oversight, rework, or fine-tuning.

This brings us to a crucial point: efficiency and expertise often outweigh raw hourly cost.

Hidden Costs of Oversight and Management

The cost of managing lower-cost teams can quickly add up. Inexperienced or less skilled developers often require more:

  • Guidance and supervision: You or your in-house team may have to spend significant time managing or directing work, which adds hidden costs to the project.
  • Rework and revisions: Less-experienced teams may not get it right the first time, and even small mistakes can snowball into major issues that need to be fixed later on.
  • Communication barriers: Some outsourcing teams might not be as effective in communicating progress or roadblocks, which can slow down the entire project and lead to missed deadlines.

Each of these factors chips away at the apparent "savings" from choosing a lower hourly rate.

Quality: The Long-Term Investment

Design and development work (insourced or outsourced) is an investment, not just a cost. High-quality work may come with a higher hourly rate, but the long-term savings are substantial:

  • Fewer bugs and technical debt: A more experienced development team will likely deliver better code, resulting in fewer bugs and long-term maintenance issues. A more experienced designer is more likely to think through and design for all edge cases, filling in all the gaps.
  • Faster delivery: A skilled team is often more familiar with best practices, frameworks, and tools that allow them to complete tasks efficiently.
  • Scalability: High-quality designers and developers think ahead and design systems that can scale with your needs, preventing costly future refactoring.

The Cost of "Cheap" Work

Sometimes, "cheap" work ends up being the most expensive in the long run. Lower-quality outsourcing might require you to:

  • Hire another team to fix or rebuild the work.
  • Delay product launches due to unanticipated project overruns.
  • Damage customer trust by releasing subpar products riddled with bugs or poor design.

In some cases, teams that seem "affordable" may not have the expertise to foresee potential pitfalls, which means costly issues arise later in the process.

Calculating the Total Cost of Ownership

To truly compare outsourcing options, decision-makers should consider the total cost of ownership (TCO), not just the hourly rate. TCO includes:

  • Efficiency: How quickly and effectively can the team complete the work?
  • Oversight: How much management and guidance will the team require?
  • Quality: Will the output meet your expectations, or will it need significant revisions or rework?
  • Maintenance: What will it cost to maintain or scale the system after the initial work is done?

A team with a higher hourly rate but lower total costs in these areas may be the more cost-effective choice in the long run. For a more complete example:

  • Pat: Your $100/hr developer completes a task in 3 hours ($300), requires 1 hour of oversight from an in-house Senior Developer ($150), and eventually needs to be refactored or rebuilt entirely ($1,000).
  • Terry: Your $200/hr developer completed a task in 2 hours ($400) based on a 10-minute overview from an in-house Senior Developer ($15), and makes an above-and-beyond measurable impact on page performance (priceless).

The best long-term investment becomes more clear when you consider all the variables. 

Conclusion: Think Beyond Hourly Rates

When investing in design or development, your goal should be to maximize ROI, not minimize hourly rates. When comparing outsourcing options, focus on the bigger picture—their efficiency, quality, and the hidden costs of oversight and management. Consider how your prospective partners measure up in terms of:

  • Results: can they point to clear results of their work in which they played some critical role?
  • References: would previous clients choose to hire them again (indicating they are worth their cost)?
  • Communication: do they respond quickly and with clarity?
  • Expertise: do they provide opinions and advice or are they simply order takers?
  • Relevance: is their prior experience directly relevant to your needs? 
  • If not, do they have a track record for navigating novelty well?

The right team might not always be the cheapest on paper, but they’ll deliver the greatest long-term value. Outsourcing isn’t about getting work done cheaply—it’s about getting it done right, and more often than not, the old mantra “you get what you pay for” holds.


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The Keys to Successful Concept Testing: Prototyping

By www.viget.com
Published On :: Mon, 04 Nov 2024 12:22:00 -0500

This is part two of a three-part series on how to successfully conduct concept testing with users, focused on prototyping. Check out part one (planning) to learn more.
 

Prototype your concepts

Once a well-aligned research plan has been crafted, it’s time to create a prototype (or multiple) based on your concept. There are a plethora of ways you can create prototypes that communicate your concepts to users; I’ll cover strategies that will help spark meaningful reactions and conversation.

Provide context to ground your concept

We humans as a whole are poor predictors of our own future behaviors, so it’s really important that your concept testing simulates the future experience you’re trying to test. Ideally, you want to ground your concepts, so a participant can envision it in their own day-to-day. One of the best ways to do this is by building in context, whether into the prototype itself or in the way you actually test out the concepts.

You can ground a participant in what they would actually do by: 

  • Adding small contextual details into the prototype (e.g. the participant’s name or location). 
  • Providing the participant with a realistic scenario to frame the prototypes
  • Designing a certain scenario into the actual prototype (e.g. error messages appear in).  
  • Conducting the test in the actual or simulated environment where it will be used. 

Grounding a participant can make a difference in how someone interacts with your prototype. Let’s imagine you and your team are redesigning a part of an online food delivery platform for restaurants, specifically the parts that hosts and cashiers use. When you put your concept to the test, you can ground participants by “simulating” a lunch rush atmosphere (distractions, loud noises, etc).

Build real-ish prototypes

It might sound counterintuitive but you don’t need high-fidelity prototypes for concept testing. While high-fidelity prototypes may best simulate the future experience, that level of fidelity may not be feasible for a few reasons: 

  • You don’t have the time to create something at that level of detail or complexity before testing.
  • You don’t have the details fleshed out yet.
  • You want your users to help define these details with you. 

Low to mid-fidelity (or as I like to call “real-ish”) prototypes can still get you to the insights you need and even have some unexpected benefits. It’s easier for research participants to focus on overarching concepts when interacting with low-fidelity prototypes. Higher fidelity prototypes tend to invoke feedback hyper-focused on the details. With lower-fidelity, research participants are more likely to provide critical feedback on ideas, since they don’t seem as “final.” You can also leave out certain details in a low-fidelity concept, which allows you to brainstorm with participants.

Again, crafting context is a large part of building out an idea that starts to feel “real” enough for a user to invoke a response. Some examples of real-ish prototypes with just enough context include: 

  • Setting the stage with realistic scenarios for how and when research participants would reach out to an AI chat bot in a therapy app.
  • Creating initial wireframes for a ride-sharing app that research participants test out in a simulated car ride experience, to understand what info is most helpful at each moment on the ride.
  • Sending research participants “updates” on their food delivery order, to learn what participants might want to know about their order’s progress. 

Be selective about which concepts to show

You may have several concepts (or variations on a single concept) that you want to prototype out, and test through research. They may all feel exciting and important, but showing too many in one session can leave a research participant with decision fatigue. Even if you need to test multiple concepts to move forward, you don’t want to show every single one you’ve come up with.

Instead, you’ll want to be selective. One way to help you decide which concepts are best to test is by mapping them out on a matrix.

Let’s imagine again you and your team have generated multiple concepts for your food delivery app that aim to tempt users to order takeout more frequently. Perhaps some concepts focus on individualized recommendations, while other concepts show social trends. First, create a matrix that has extreme aspects of the concepts on each end and place them where you think they might belong. 

Then, ask yourself a few questions: 

  • Are there two concepts that are too similar to each other? 
  • Is this concept playing it too safe?

These kinds of concepts may not give you useful feedback because they’re not distinct enough or they’re too neutral over all. Instead, you’ll want to select concepts that are on the edges of your extremes. Those concepts will allow you to learn much more about your users and how they might interact with your concepts in the future.

These tips will help you craft prototypes that research participants can more easily and accurately react to. 

To end this series, I’ll discuss how to prepare for the actual testing in my next article.


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Can I Import Photoshop Brushes into Affinity Photo?

By www.beyondphototips.com
Published On :: Sat, 12 Aug 2023 22:05:39 +0000

This post: Can I Import Photoshop Brushes into Affinity Photo? was first published on Beyond Photo Tips by Susheel Chandradhas

Digital brushes are a powerful tool for digital artists, designers, and photographers. The brushes allow them to create a wide range of textures, patterns, and effects in image editing apps. Can Affinity Photo use existing Photoshop Brushes? Over the years, many professionals and hobbyists have curated extensive collections of Photoshop brushes over time, tailored to […]

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What Is Silica Gel? How Does It Work?

By www.beyondphototips.com
Published On :: Mon, 16 Sep 2024 21:29:32 +0000

This post: What Is Silica Gel? How Does It Work? was first published on Beyond Photo Tips by Susheel Chandradhas

Ever fished out those little packets from a new camera bag and thought, “What on earth is Silica Gel?” Well, buckle up, because we’re about to dive into the wonderful world of these moisture-munching marvels! You might think they’re just pesky packaging, but let me tell you, Silica Gel is about to become your camera […]

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RIP a Livecast #636 – Maggot May with special guest Necrosexual

By metalinjection.net
Published On :: Tue, 07 Sep 2021 20:35:00 +0000

We're excited to have our friend, the most electrifying man in corpse entertainment, Necrosexual join us at the top of the show to talk about his new EP, Seeds of […]


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RIP a Livecast #641 – Velvet Rope with special guest Dan Ozzi

By metalinjection.net
Published On :: Tue, 12 Oct 2021 21:21:10 +0000

Our good friend, Dan Ozzi, is back on the show today to talk about his new book SELLOUT: The Major Label Feeding Frenzy That Swept Punk, Emo, and Hardcore (1994-2007). […]


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Squared Circle Pit #77 – Justin Whang talks old-school ECW and his favorite wrestlers

By metalinjection.net
Published On :: Tue, 21 Dec 2021 00:14:23 +0000

Internet sensation Justin Whang enters the Squared Circle Pit. He talks about his favorite wrestlers and metal bands growing up, staying up late to watch ECW, his thoughts on the […]


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RIP a Livecast #654 – Excessive Wind-Breaking

By metalinjection.net
Published On :: Tue, 11 Jan 2022 22:56:15 +0000

We kick things off by discussing our new Twitch channel. We review Alex Skolnick's new rap video about the Capitol riots. We discuss the new Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot. […]


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RIP a Livecast Bonus: The Matrix Resurrections Roundtable Discussion

By metalinjection.net
Published On :: Sat, 15 Jan 2022 18:52:09 +0000

As a special bonus, we have unlocked the first of two bonus episodes this month on the RIP a Livecast Patreon page, where we go through our thoughts on all […]


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RIP a Livecast #655 – This is the Hot Stuff with special guest Alex Skolnick

By metalinjection.net
Published On :: Tue, 18 Jan 2022 22:37:47 +0000

This will be the last episode of the Livecast posted to Metal Injection, get future episodes at ripalivecast.com Skoly-D himself, Alex Skolnick sits in with us to chat about our […]


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GENE SIMMONS Says VAN HALEN "Destroyed" BLACK SABBATH On Tour: "Tony Iommi Admitted It, And So Did Ozzy"

By metalinjection.net
Published On :: Sat, 20 May 2023 14:46:25 +0000

There will never be another Eddie Van Halen.


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Top 8 Essential Marketing Trends You Need

By www.crazyleafdesign.com
Published On :: Thu, 14 Sep 2023 08:18:44 +0000

The world of marketing is constantly shifting and adapting, making it essential for today’s marketers to stay in the know of the latest trends.  It’s important to have knowledge of digital marketing strengths like mastering SEO or using social media tools correctly- but that alone isn’t enough to make your business stand out to customers […]


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4 Business Scaling Strategies to Implement in 2023

By www.crazyleafdesign.com
Published On :: Thu, 14 Sep 2023 08:45:40 +0000

Business scaling is setting the stage to support growth in your company. In other words, it means investing in cutting-edge technology, hiring top talent, and executing effective marketing campaigns to successfully grow your business. And while business owners often wish to achieve success overnight, scaling requires a long-term, sustainable strategy.  Scaling a business is often […]


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How to Keep Your Digital Design Studio Running Smoothly?

By www.crazyleafdesign.com
Published On :: Sat, 07 Oct 2023 09:36:56 +0000

If you want your design studio to succeed in a crowded market, it has to run smoothly and effectively.


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3 Branding Tips for Web Design Firms

By www.crazyleafdesign.com
Published On :: Wed, 11 Oct 2023 08:40:04 +0000

In a sea of web design companies, standing out is both an art and a strategy. After all, if a web design firm can’t effectively brand itself, how will potential clients trust it to brand them? If you’re looking for helpful tips on how to improve your firm’s brand identity, this article has everything you […]


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The Psychology of Colour in Web Design: How to Influence Customer Perception

By www.crazyleafdesign.com
Published On :: Tue, 19 Dec 2023 19:43:13 +0000

There are over 7000 languages spoken in the world today, and it’s constantly increasing. Without the help of translation tools, many of us would not be able to make friends or do business with people beyond our geographical borders due to language barriers. However, if there is one language everybody on this planet speaks fluently […]


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6 Tactics for Promoting Your Local Business

By www.crazyleafdesign.com
Published On :: Thu, 04 Jan 2024 08:16:26 +0000

As a small business proprietor, you must establish connections with local patrons, integrate into the community, and differentiate yourself from your rivals. However, understanding how to market your business locally requires clever marketing techniques. Given the limited pool of potential customers in your vicinity, prioritizing local marketing endeavors is essential, especially when considering that your […]


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A Guide for Writing Brochures and Uploading Them to Your Website

By www.crazyleafdesign.com
Published On :: Mon, 26 Feb 2024 18:43:56 +0000

Even though digital types of content have taken over the marketing landscape, brochures still hold an enduring relevance as a powerful communication device. These portable companions, often overlooked in the modern age, hold the potential to inform, inspire, and captivate, which is why they’re an indispensable asset for any business. Exploring the Evolving Role of […]


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Web Designer Must-Have Skills As A Pro in 2024 – Web Design Tips

By www.crazyleafdesign.com
Published On :: Fri, 30 Aug 2024 19:38:53 +0000

As we navigate the ever-evolving landscape of web design, it’s crucial to stay ahead of the curve and continuously expand our skill set. As a seasoned web designer with years of experience, I’ve witnessed firsthand the rapid changes in our industry. Today, I’ll share my insights on the must-have skills for professional web designers in […]


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Mesin Judi Slot Online Multipayline Punya Keunggulan Berikut

By www.webjackalope.com
Published On :: Mon, 10 Apr 2023 13:19:11 +0000

Saat ini beragam tipe mesin slot online mudah anda akses di banyak bandar dan situs taruhan berkualitas. Anda harus tahu bahwa proses memilih mesin ini memiliki pengaruh besar pada peluang dan hasil taruhan. Memilih tipe mesin yang punya peluang menang besar adalah salah satu bentuk kemampuan yang harus anda miliki jika ingin sekses dalam bermain. […]


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Mudahnya Daftar Akun Poker Online di Situs Resmi

By www.webjackalope.com
Published On :: Mon, 10 Apr 2023 13:20:34 +0000

Mudah adalah satu kata yang tepat untuk menggambarkan permainan judi poker online pada situs resmi. Setiap situs judi menyediakan layanan bermain berbeda beda, tergantung kualitas yang ada di dalamnya. Situs dengan lisensi resmi tentu tidak perlu anda ragukan lagi terkait dengan kualitas layanannya. Namun perlu anda amati apakah jenis layanan itu sesuai dengan apa yang […]


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Abstract Table, An Interesting Tasting Menu in Oakland, California

By thomashawk.com
Published On :: Sun, 07 Oct 2018 19:19:51 +0000

Chefs Duncan Kwitkor and Andrew Greene — Abstract Table, offering up a 5 and 7 course tasting menu Friday and Saturday nights at Gastropig. Last night my wife and I had a chance to dine at the opening of a new pop up style 7 course tasting menu called Abstract Table, currently being offered as …

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Bill Dane Pictures …it’s not pretty. 50 Years of Photographs I’m Still in Love

By thomashawk.com
Published On :: Sun, 21 Feb 2021 02:04:40 +0000

“It seems to me that the subject of Bill Dane�s pictures is the discovery of lyric beauty in Oakland, or the discovery of surprise and delight in what we had been told was a wasteland of boredom, the discovery of classical measure in the heart of God�s own junkyard, the discovery of a kind of …

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Branding and Packaging Design for Di Ligúria: Italian Roots with Brazilian Flair

By abduzeedo.com
Published On :: Fri, 01 Nov 2024 11:52:00 +0000

Branding and Packaging Design for Di Ligúria: Italian Roots with Brazilian Flair

abduzeedo

Discover the branding and packaging design of Di Ligúria, a Brazilian pizzeria, blending Italian heritage with Brazilian charm.

When two Brazilian entrepreneurs with Italian heritage set out to create Di Ligúria, a pizzeria in Belo Horizonte, they wanted more than just a menu of pizzas. They sought a brand that paid homage to the flavors, traditions, and warmth of Italian culture while embodying the lively spirit of Brazilian dining. Designer Danilo Akan took on this challenge, developing a branding and packaging design that bridges these cultural elements seamlessly.

Di Ligúria’s brand identity is grounded in a love for Italian cuisine, inspired by the founders’ Genoese roots and the culinary culture of the Liguria region. Akan crafted a visual concept that honors this Italian foundation while infusing a relaxed Brazilian vibe. The name “Di Ligúria” itself is a tribute to Italy’s Liguria region, signaling an immediate connection to Italian authenticity.

Akan’s design approach captures this dual identity, focusing on simplicity, elegance, and a playful touch. Using negative space and bold typographic elements, Akan brings the essence of Italian tradition forward, yet retains a fresh, contemporary look that appeals to a wide audience. His design balances modern aesthetics with nostalgic elements of Italian dining, creating a memorable brand that invites customers to savor the Italian experience.

The most striking element of Di Ligúria’s brand identity is its innovative typography. Akan developed a typographic style that incorporates subtle nods to pizza and pasta, the core offerings of Di Ligúria. By using negative space within the letterforms, particularly in the letter “G,” Akan brings visual references to pizza slices and pasta strands. This clever use of negative space allows the brand to visually communicate its primary products in an understated yet effective way.

The logo’s typeface is both modern and classic, giving a nod to Italian design’s timeless elegance. This typographic style doesn’t just serve as a brand marker but becomes an integral part of the visual experience, subtly reinforcing the restaurant’s Italian roots while remaining approachable.

Packaging that Enhances the Experience

In addition to branding, the packaging design plays a significant role in delivering Di Ligúria’s identity. Packaging is designed not just for functionality but as an extension of the dining experience. By integrating graphic patterns inspired by Italian motifs, Akan’s design makes every pizza box, pasta container, and salad package an experience in itself.

The patterns, echoing Italian ceramic tiles and Mediterranean styles, contribute to the visual storytelling of Di Ligúria. They evoke the charm of Italy and the idea of gathering around a table with family and friends. With packaging that feels thoughtful and distinctive, customers are reminded of the quality and heritage behind each meal.

From the moment a customer sees the logo to when they unbox a fresh pizza, Di Ligúria’s branding and packaging tell a story. Each design choice reflects the founders’ desire to create a brand that goes beyond fast food and into a cultural experience, filled with Italian warmth and Brazilian vitality. Akan’s thoughtful use of typography, graphic patterns, and packaging demonstrates how design can capture a brand’s essence and elevate the customer’s experience.

For anyone looking to explore Akan’s creative process and Di Ligúria’s full brand story, more details are available on his website.

Di Ligúria’s branding and packaging design provide an excellent example of how design can connect cultural roots with a fresh perspective. Akan’s work successfully weaves Italian traditions into a Brazilian setting, delivering a design that’s as inviting as the food it represents.

Branding and visual identity artifacts


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Innovative Branding and Visual identity using Google Slides assets

By abduzeedo.com
Published On :: Mon, 04 Nov 2024 13:21:18 +0000

Innovative Branding and Visual identity using Google Slides assets

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Montag School’s branding fuses corporate trust with creative appeal, using Google Slides assets to reach diverse audiences.

Creating a brand identity for an educational institution like Montag School requires balancing the rigorous standards of corporate audiences with the appeal needed to engage a younger, learning-focused crowd. In this project by Monga Design, Montag School’s visual branding comes to life with a thoughtful, dual-purpose approach that reaches across the boundaries of institutional professionalism and educational creativity.

Montag School’s goal was to represent itself as a trustworthy, contemporary leader in personalized education. This meant moving away from conventional, corporate-heavy design toward a more flexible and approachable brand image. The resulting visual identity integrates both institutional authority and a fresh, dynamic appeal, capturing the trustworthiness expected in corporate circles while aligning with the openness and innovation desired in education.

One of the project’s standout qualities is its focus on balance. By addressing both institutional credibility and the youthful appeal needed for online and in-person classes, the branding reinforces Montag’s positioning as a leader in educational innovation. The design combines strong visual cues—such as clean lines and modern typography—with a vibrant color palette, adding depth to both the brand’s academic and professional facets.

Leveraging Google Slides for Visual Consistency

An innovative aspect of this project is the use of Google Slides as a foundational tool for asset creation. This choice reflects an understanding of Montag’s operational needs and the educational landscape’s demands for accessibility and efficiency. By designing custom graphics within Google Slides, Monga Design created a versatile, cost-effective solution for maintaining consistent visuals across various educational materials. Google Slides not only provides easy customization but also aligns with the widespread use of this tool in both corporate and learning environments, allowing Montag to produce branded materials in-house without requiring extensive software training.

Montag School’s branding thoughtfully considers its diverse target audiences. For in-company courses and corporate conventions, the brand maintains a polished, professional tone, ensuring credibility and trust in a business context. Simultaneously, for students attending online and in-person classes, the brand incorporates a more engaging, youthful look. The graphics, colors, and animations appeal to students by creating an approachable and modern learning environment.

Monga Design introduced animations for key assets to add a layer of interactivity to Montag’s branding. These animations, crafted by Clint Studio, enhance the brand’s visual appeal while ensuring they resonate with both young learners and seasoned professionals. This visual dynamism strengthens the brand’s reach by making it adaptable to the changing demands of the educational landscape.

The design team approached this branding project with a detailed, collaborative process. Their “Visual Thermometer” meeting—a strategy to explore visual possibilities rather than set rigid creative guidelines—proved essential for crafting a design that was both client-centered and creative. By aligning client preferences with design expertise, they established a visual identity that resonates on multiple levels, providing a cohesive experience for all audiences.

Montag School’s branding successfully bridges the gap between education and business, providing a clear, attractive, and credible visual identity that aligns with the brand’s values. By balancing a contemporary, accessible aesthetic with the professionalism expected in corporate circles, Montag School positions itself as a modern leader in education, with a visual identity that can grow with its expanding audience.

For more on this project, you can view the video case here.

Branding and visual identity artifacts

Credits

  • Visual identity: Monga Design → Mateus Yuzo and Michel Refatti
  • Motion: Clint Studio → Gustavo Brazzalle, Lucas José Galego e Luciano Burger


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Adobe Illustrator 2025 Splash Screen Illustration: TRÜF’s “Weird Fishes”

By abduzeedo.com
Published On :: Mon, 04 Nov 2024 13:33:42 +0000

Adobe Illustrator 2025 Splash Screen Illustration: TRÜF’s “Weird Fishes”

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Discover how TRÜF’s “Weird Fishes” splash screen for Adobe Illustrator 2025 celebrates creativity with vibrant, minimalist illustration.

The Adobe Illustrator 2025 splash screen opens with a statement: creativity meets minimalism. Designed by TRÜF Studio, the “Weird Fishes” artwork that greets users embodies Adobe’s tools while making an instant visual impact. This splash screen not only excites users about the app but also showcases Illustrator’s dynamic possibilities, creating a memorable start to the creative process. Here’s a look at the creative vision, tools, and collaboration behind this unique splash screen update.

“Weird Fishes”: A Showcase of Creative Tools

TRÜF’s “Weird Fishes” centers on playfully stylized fish, created using Adobe Illustrator’s updated typography and 3D tools, which highlight the 2025 release’s expanded capabilities. This splash screen is a celebration of how Illustrator can bring out unique textures, gradients, and typographic designs, making it feel like a blend of traditional and digital artistry. The design follows Adam G’s distinctive style—minimal yet quirky, with each element purposefully crafted to show off Adobe’s creative potential.

The splash screen, as Adobe intended, isn’t just a loading screen. It’s a reminder of what Illustrator users can “Dream Up.” As Alex Fernald and Gleren Meneghin, Adobe’s staff designers, emphasized, the splash screens are not only entry points into the app but connections to Adobe’s creative community. They bring in commissioned art, linking Illustrator users to other creators while inviting exploration of the software’s capabilities.

Balancing Art and Function in the Design

This splash screen’s journey began the old-fashioned way—on paper. This initial sketching phase gave TRÜF the freedom to experiment with the composition, exploring the balance of shapes and lines. Once refined, the concept moved into Illustrator, where TRÜF fully explored the software’s features to enhance the digital version. In a brief, 90-second process video, TRÜF showcased their workflow from sketch to the finished splash screen, a rare peek into how minimalist, impactful design comes together.

A User-Centric Approach to Illustration

Adobe’s splash screens, including “Weird Fishes,” are a result of ongoing feedback from users. Through surveys sent to product teams, Adobe designers Alex and Gleren learned the nuances that users valued in the loading screen—like minimal launch delays and artist recognition. This feedback shaped the design, ensuring the new splash screens would spotlight the artist while maintaining the program’s efficiency.

To make the splash screen visually immersive, Adobe made adjustments based on past feedback. The artwork was enlarged, and the artist’s name appears in a larger, bold typeface, creating a clearer hierarchy that celebrates both the art and artist. As the Adobe Spectrum design system evolved, so did the splash screens, aligning with modern standards while preserving Adobe’s commitment to showcasing diverse creative voices.

Reflecting Adobe’s Evolution with Modern Minimalism

Historically, Illustrator splash screens have evolved alongside the Adobe brand. From early versions in the 1980s, featuring iconic art references, to today’s community-focused pieces, these screens highlight a shift from static visuals to dynamic creative introductions. Adobe’s recent redesign, led by Fernald and Meneghin, reimagined this format to center both the artist and the Adobe brand, using clean type and colors while expanding the visual space for the artwork. This shift reaffirms Adobe’s mission to foster connections within its creative ecosystem.

The splash screens across Adobe products are meant to offer a consistent brand experience, but each one also tells a unique story, showcasing the latest in illustration and design through collaboration with Studio team artists. Adobe’s team expanded the artwork’s size, adjusting its specs back to 2019 dimensions to create a more immersive user experience. The Adobe wordmark in red stands beside the product name in black, emphasizing the connection between Adobe and its creative community.

The Legacy and Future of Adobe Splash Screens

“What’s next?” is a question Adobe’s designers are always answering. With the 2025 Illustrator splash screen’s debut at Adobe MAX 2024, Adobe introduced the latest evolution in Creative Cloud. These splash screens remain essential touchpoints, showcasing new work, enhancing user experience, and connecting each user to Adobe’s creative network.

TRÜF’s “Weird Fishes” invites Illustrator users to think beyond the ordinary. It’s a nod to the creative possibilities the software enables, a tribute to digital and analog techniques, and a reminder that every creative journey begins with opening Adobe Illustrator.

This splash screen illustration is a subtle invitation for creatives to make the most of Illustrator’s tools and capabilities, setting the stage for inspired design from the moment they open the app.

Illustration artifacts

Pillow manufactured by Adobe. Photo courtesy of Adobe


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Chooch’s Branding Embraces Authenticity Through Playful Imperfection

By abduzeedo.com
Published On :: Wed, 06 Nov 2024 14:30:53 +0000

Chooch’s Branding Embraces Authenticity Through Playful Imperfection

abduzeedo

Discover how amStudio’s branding and visual identity of Chooch captures authentic, handmade aesthetics for fashion accessories.

Chooch, formerly known as Flat Fifteen, has redefined its brand to better reflect its founder Francesca Kappo’s evolving vision. With the guidance of amStudio, this rebrand has transformed the brand’s identity from a broad handmade focus to one that is solely centered around fashion accessories. Chooch stands out with its playful name, unique backstory, and brand elements that weave together storytelling, imperfection, and tactile aesthetics.

The Meaning Behind “Chooch”

The rebranding from Flat Fifteen to Chooch came as Francesca Kappo shifted her focus. The name “Chooch” is personal, rooted in a nickname given to Francesca by her uncle. He also played a foundational role in the brand’s beginnings, supplying her first batch of deadstock fabrics from his 1990s fashion label. These fabrics continue to be a vital part of Chooch’s accessory designs today, emphasizing the brand’s commitment to sustainability and storytelling.

The name itself is more than just a rebranding—it’s a celebration of heritage and identity. Short, memorable, and fun to say, “Chooch” captures the playful spirit of the brand. As Alam Mohammed, founder of amStudio, notes, the name’s flexibility in pronunciation makes it a warm, approachable identity that consumers can connect with personally. This idea carried over to the logo design, where the doubled O’s have a playful, imperfect alignment, mirroring the brand’s handmade ethos.

Playful Imperfection: The Brand Identity

Alam Mohammed and his team at amStudio developed a brand identity for Chooch that prioritizes authenticity. Hand-painted illustrations are central to this, appearing across the brand’s packaging, website, and social media. This choice keeps the look grounded, tactile, and relatable, evoking the feel of handmade fashion. By maintaining this aesthetic, the brand sets itself apart in a market often dominated by hyper-polished digital imagery.

The branding extends beyond static visuals. Chooch’s social media and marketing leverage stop-motion animations, adding a dynamic yet still homemade feel. This use of motion emphasizes the brand’s accessible nature, where every element ties back to the concept of imperfection being perfectly beautiful. The stop-motion clips give life to the fashion accessories, highlighting the fun and creativity behind each product.

Chooch’s narrative goes deeper than playful design. By continuing to use deadstock fabrics, Francesca Kappo honors her roots and commits to a more sustainable future. The tactile branding elements mirror this philosophy, creating a seamless experience from the physical product to the digital space. The history of the materials and the personal touch behind the brand make each accessory more than just a fashion statement—they become a story in themselves.

The rebranding also came with strategic moves to elevate Chooch’s market presence. The bags are now featured at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s shop as part of the first-ever Naomi Campbell exhibition. This collaboration has not only introduced the brand to a wider audience but also solidified its standing as a contemporary, fashion-forward label. The exhibition has boosted Chooch’s brand awareness and increased its social media following, translating to more sales and a growing fan base.

The Chooch rebrand exemplifies a growing trend: the embrace of imperfection in design. By favoring hand-drawn illustrations, irregular alignments, and a conversational tone, amStudio has given the brand an inviting, human feel. This approach rejects the overly polished and instead celebrates the beauty of the handmade. It’s a move that resonates well in today’s world, where consumers value authenticity and transparency.

Chooch’s rebranding is a masterclass in how thoughtful design can reflect a brand’s core values. From its name rooted in personal history to its playful logo and tactile illustrations, Chooch stays true to its story. Alam Mohammed and the amStudio team have created a brand identity that isn’t just about looking good—it’s about feeling real, celebrating imperfections, and staying connected to tradition. As Chooch grows, its story continues to inspire, reminding us that the imperfect is often the most perfect of all.

Branding and visual identity artifacts


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Graphic Hunters: Pushing the Boundaries of Sports Visual Identity

By abduzeedo.com
Published On :: Thu, 07 Nov 2024 13:57:12 +0000

Graphic Hunters: Pushing the Boundaries of Sports Visual Identity

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Explore how Graphic Hunters’ visual identity redefines sports branding through innovative design inspired by fashion and art.

Graphic Hunters, a Dutch studio dedicated to sports branding, isn’t playing by the typical design rulebook. Instead, their newly crafted visual identity steps outside the confines of traditional sports aesthetics, introducing elements drawn from fashion and high design. The result is a high-impact, versatile identity that positions Graphic Hunters as a creative club worth joining—whether as a client or a collaborator.

A New Playbook for Sports Branding

At the heart of Graphic Hunters’ approach is the idea that the sports industry deserves a more refined and exclusive visual experience. This belief is woven into every part of their branding, which Monga Design and Vogau led with a clear vision. The goal was to create a system that balances functionality with creative exploration, breaking conventions while still delivering practical, adaptable solutions for various applications.

This innovative take on visual identity isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s a strategy aimed at redefining the brand’s place in the market. Graphic Hunters has always described itself as a team hungry for new challenges, and now, their brand identity reflects that spirit. The new look aims to make the studio stand out in the sports arena and beyond, appealing to clients and team members who value originality and impact.

Graphic Hunters’ identity combines familiar elements from the sports world—like motion and heat—with unexpected treatments. The design team drew inspiration from fashion and abstract art to create a visual language that transcends typical sports branding. This cross-pollination of ideas manifests in several core elements:

1. Typographic Experimentation: Instead of relying on traditional sports typefaces, the team played with a variety of fonts that feel bold and contemporary. Typography serves as both structure and disruption, bringing energy to each layout.

2. Photographic Treatments: The identity includes photographs that have been creatively manipulated, breaking up the grid and adding an element of surprise. This technique turns static images into dynamic design features, echoing the constant motion of sports.

3. Grid System and Stickers: To keep the brand’s applications cohesive yet flexible, a structured grid underpins the design. However, this is cleverly offset by playful elements like stickers and graphical interventions, which keep the brand feeling fresh and exciting.

One of the biggest challenges was making the visual system adaptable yet creatively open. Sports branding often leans into themes of power and motion, but Graphic Hunters wanted to do more. The result is a brand that’s equally at home on a team jersey or a digital campaign, seamlessly moving between refined, impactful moments and bold, playful expressions. This adaptability speaks to the studio’s ethos of being a “creative club,” where everyone is encouraged to push the boundaries.

Another essential aspect was research. The design team explored references beyond the sports realm, looking at high fashion and experimental graphic design. This broader inspiration palette allowed Graphic Hunters to create something genuinely unique for the industry. The identity’s experimental typography and abstract motifs capture the feeling of heat and energy—core elements of sports—while grounding them in a sophisticated design language.

Elevating Sports Design Beyond the Field

By combining these unexpected references with a strong foundation of sports elements, Graphic Hunters has crafted a visual identity that is both striking and functional. It stands as a testament to the idea that sports design can be more than bold fonts and action shots. It can be a narrative of innovation and exclusivity, appealing to an audience that appreciates both the adrenaline of sports and the sophistication of high design.

Graphic Hunters’ reimagined branding proves that sports-focused design can be just as experimental and refined as any high-fashion brand. It’s a visual identity that elevates the sports studio into a space where design meets performance, art meets action, and innovation becomes the new norm. As the brand continues to grow, this identity will serve as a powerful statement of their ambition: to bring high-impact, original design to the world of sports, one project at a time.

Branding and visual identity artifacts

Credits

  • Authors: Monga Design, Vogau and Clint Studio
  • Visual identity: Monga Design (Mateus Yuzo, Michel Refatti) and Vogau (Carlos Eduardo Marin, Gabriela Colebrusco Peres)
  • Motion: Clint Studio (Bruno Vitalino, Danilo Coelho, Gustavo Brazzalle, Lucas José Galego, Luciano Burger


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Explore ChainGPT Labs’ Web3 Brand Identity & Web Design

By abduzeedo.com
Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 03:23:35 +0000

Explore ChainGPT Labs’ Web3 Brand Identity & Web Design

abduzeedo

Discover ChainGPT Labs’ unique Web3 branding and web design with seamless 3D animations and a modern interface.

ChainGPT Labs stands as an ambitious venture, propelling innovation in the blockchain and Web3 startup world. A project backed by the ChainGPT team, this platform provides strategic funding, incubation, and acceleration services tailored for the Web3 ecosystem. To visually represent such a forward-thinking initiative, a distinctive and cohesive brand identity was crucial.

The design challenge was clear: introduce ChainGPT Labs as a part of the existing ChainGPT ecosystem while ensuring it had its unique presence. The team behind this creative endeavor adopted a strategy that balanced modernity with a recognizable brand connection.

Typeface Selection and Visual Cohesion

One of the design cornerstones is the typographic identity. The chosen typeface blends sleek, experimental, and monospace styles, reminiscent of sci-fi aesthetics yet grounded enough to maintain clarity. This combination brings a futuristic yet approachable vibe, mirroring ChainGPT Labs’ mission of bridging advanced technology with user-friendly design.

The website, crafted with a focus on interaction, features seamless 3D animations. These animations not only add depth but also engage users in an immersive digital experience. The modern, functional interface ensures smooth navigation while highlighting essential content. The design isn’t just about aesthetics; it delivers on usability, ensuring every visual element contributes to a cohesive narrative.

3D Animations: Bringing Ideas to Life

3D animation plays a pivotal role in elevating the digital experience. Each animation is thoughtfully integrated, making the browsing experience lively without compromising performance. These elements align with Web3’s ethos, suggesting a digital landscape that’s both dynamic and innovative.

Balancing Innovation and Brand Familiarity

Designers also needed to ensure that ChainGPT Labs felt like an extension of ChainGPT’s established identity. The visual ecosystem leans into bold aesthetics while subtly referencing familiar brand cues. Strategic use of color, shape, and layout ties the Labs’ identity back to its origins, achieving a harmonious balance between innovation and brand recognition.

Why It Matters for Design Enthusiasts

For graphic and interface designers, ChainGPT Labs offers an inspiring case study in brand expansion. The project exemplifies how visual elements can maintain brand consistency while pushing creative boundaries. This thoughtful integration of typography, 3D animation, and a user-focused interface marks a new chapter for digital design in the Web3 space.

For a full breakdown of the design elements, visit the work of Sigma Software Design at https://sigmasoftware.design/.

Visit the website at labs.chaingpt.org

Web design artifacts


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Exploring Editorial Design in ‘EN TORNO A LA MATERNIDAD’

By abduzeedo.com
Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 03:31:25 +0000

Exploring Editorial Design in ‘EN TORNO A LA MATERNIDAD’

abduzeedo

Dive into the thoughtful editorial design of ‘EN TORNO A LA MATERNIDAD,’ crafted to resonate with themes of motherhood.

Pau Marín’s project, EN TORNO A LA MATERNIDAD, explores the essence of motherhood through a refined editorial design that merges visual storytelling with emotive impact. The design embodies the themes of care, strength, and the cycle of life, delivering a visual experience that’s as insightful as it is aesthetically appealing.

Design Approach and Concept

At the heart of this project lies a narrative-driven approach. Marín carefully crafted the layout to reflect the nuances of motherhood, using visual metaphors and deliberate design choices. The typographic elements are minimal yet impactful, guiding the reader’s eye through the content seamlessly. Serif and sans-serif typefaces interplay to emphasize the transitions between vulnerability and empowerment that define the maternal experience.

Photography plays a crucial role in this work, capturing tender moments that resonate with authenticity. Each image, strategically placed, adds layers of meaning, complementing the textual narrative. Marín’s ability to weave text and imagery together in a harmonious flow highlights the power of good editorial design to evoke emotions.

Layout and Visual Hierarchy

Marín’s layout decisions ensure readability while also inviting reflection. White space is used masterfully, giving the design room to breathe and allowing the reader to absorb the emotional weight of the content. The flow from one spread to the next feels intentional, never rushed, mirroring the natural rhythms of life.

The visual hierarchy emphasizes important sections, using bold headings and thoughtful subheadings. This structure not only aids in navigation but also underscores key messages without overwhelming the viewer. The balance between text, imagery, and negative space is a testament to Marín’s understanding of editorial design principles.

Thematic Consistency and Visual Metaphors

Colors in the project echo themes of nature and nurture, employing soft pastels and earth tones. These choices create a calming yet evocative palette that enhances the emotional resonance of the design. Visual metaphors, like the cyclical patterns in layouts, symbolize the never-ending cycles of care and love associated with motherhood.

For designers and illustrators, EN TORNO A LA MATERNIDAD serves as an inspiring example of how editorial design can amplify storytelling. The project encapsulates the emotional and cultural dimensions of its subject matter, offering a blueprint for blending design and narrative seamlessly.

Discover more about this project and Pau Marín’s impressive portfolio on Behance at behance.net/paumarn1.

Editorial design artifacts

Credits and thanks

  • Fina Perelló Andreu
  • Maria José Fuentes Perelló
  • Nuria Fuentes Perelló
  • Nuria Marín Fuentes
  • Claudia Marín Penella
  • Pablo Lázaro Ballester
  • Diane Gello
  • Irene Martinez De La Vega
  • Andrea Peregrín Moreno
  • Coribel Zubillaga García


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FLIPPO Pet Food: A Fresh Take on Branding and Packaging Design

By abduzeedo.com
Published On :: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 03:39:53 +0000

FLIPPO Pet Food: A Fresh Take on Branding and Packaging Design

abduzeedo

Discover FLIPPO Pet Food’s playful branding and clean packaging design, making waves in the pet food industry.

FLIPPO Pet Food is more than just a brand; it’s a lively celebration of real, natural nutrition for pets. Developed in Spain, FLIPPO takes a bold stand against traditional pet kibble, ushering in a wave of wholesome, fresh ingredients for our loyal companions. This design-centric approach comes to life through FLIPPO’s unique branding and eye-catching packaging, crafted by the talented team at invade design, Colombia.

A Visual Feast for Pet Lovers

FLIPPO’s brand identity is anything but conventional. It combines playful illustrations, vibrant colors, and friendly typography to create an experience that instantly captures attention. The visual storytelling here is intentional, aimed at communicating the brand’s commitment to quality and its promise of real food for pets. The design invites pet owners to rethink what they feed their furry friends, making every interaction with the packaging memorable.

One of the standout features of FLIPPO’s design is its use of clean lines and engaging illustrations. Each packaging element feels like an invitation to a healthier, happier lifestyle for pets. The color palette bursts with energy, reflecting the brand’s fun and light-hearted personality while reinforcing its serious commitment to pet health.

Thoughtful Typography and Brand Messaging

Typography in FLIPPO’s design strikes a fine balance between playful and practical. The brand uses bold, easy-to-read fonts that ensure key messages are clear, whether they’re displayed in store aisles or in a social media feed. This typographic choice complements the visuals, making the overall design both appealing and accessible.

Brand messaging leans into humor and relatability. FLIPPO’s playful copy engages pet owners with a tone that’s both fun and genuine. It’s a reminder that feeding our pets shouldn’t be a chore but a joyful experience, one that prioritizes their well-being.

From Concept to Reality: Behind the Scenes

The team at invade design worked meticulously to craft an identity that stands out in the competitive pet food market. Photography by Serena.Studio captures the freshness and quality of the ingredients, enhancing the appeal of the design. Together, these elements create a brand ecosystem that feels cohesive and authentic.

For those interested in design inspiration, FLIPPO offers a masterclass in branding and packaging that balances fun with function. Check out the full project and more by invade design on Behance at https://www.behance.net/madebyinvade.

Branding and packaging design artifacts

Credits

  • Identidad de Marca:
  • invade, Colombia
  • Team:
  • María Vélez
  • Agustin Hoyos
  • Mariana Castrillón
  • Tania Flórez
  • Tomás Saldarriaga
  • Mateo Ríos
  • ​​​​​​​Fotografía:
  • Serena.Studio


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Nature in the Space – Biophilic Design

By www.ecology.com
Published On :: Fri, 08 May 2015 10:39:03 +0000

By Joe Zazzera A brief history of biophilic design patterns in interior spaces “Nature in the Space” in biophilic terms means any design interventions that forge a direct, physical and ephemeral presence of nature in a space or place. One … Continue reading →


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For Generations Meiji Jingu Forest

By www.ecology.com
Published On :: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 12:17:54 +0000

In the heart of Tokyo nearly 100 years ago – in 1920 to be exact – more than 100,000 young volunteers planted 100,000 trees donated from all parts of Japan, to create a sacred forest for the new Meiji Shrine – a … Continue reading →


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How to Grow a Forest in Your Backyard

By www.ecology.com
Published On :: Fri, 15 Jul 2016 11:07:41 +0000

By Shubhendu Sharma TED Forests don’t have to be far-flung nature reserves, isolated from human life. Instead, we can grow them right where we are — even in cities. Eco-entrepreneur and TED Fellow Shubhendu Sharma grows ultra-dense, biodiverse mini-forests of … Continue reading →


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9 Social Media Marketing Tips to Deliver Better Results

By designshard.com
Published On :: Wed, 15 Mar 2017 19:36:25 +0000

Social media has quickly morphed into one of the most important marketing channels. Within a few short years, it has moved from being a mere fad into the most powerful marketing tool on the planet. Facebook, for example, is just over a decade old but no business can afford not to have a Facebook marketing … Continue reading 9 Social Media Marketing Tips to Deliver Better Results

The post 9 Social Media Marketing Tips to Deliver Better Results appeared first on Design Shard.


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Best WordPress Plugins for Boosting your Email Marketing Efforts

By designshard.com
Published On :: Thu, 06 Apr 2017 09:11:46 +0000

Being a modern business owner, you can’t overlook the effectiveness of an email marketing, especially when it comes to generating quality leads and higher ROI. It is one of the most easy ways to reach a large number of targeted web audience. It doesn’t matter how big or small your marketing campaign is, email marketing … Continue reading Best WordPress Plugins for Boosting your Email Marketing Efforts

The post Best WordPress Plugins for Boosting your Email Marketing Efforts appeared first on Design Shard.


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Wrike for Designers and Creatives

By designshard.com
Published On :: Fri, 29 Sep 2017 12:38:46 +0000

Collaborating on an online project management software for marketing is a huge part of being a designer or a creative, and more often than not you are juggling more than one task or project at a time. This makes managing a creative project online for creatives particularly difficult and what’s more, the line managers or … Continue reading Wrike for Designers and Creatives

The post Wrike for Designers and Creatives appeared first on Design Shard.


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  • Tips & Tricks
  • managing a creative project online
  • marketing project management tool
  • online project management software for marketing
  • task workflow management software
  • team scheduling software
  • Tools
  • Wrike
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Top 50 Design Blog Articles and Sites From 2017

By designshard.com
Published On :: Thu, 21 Dec 2017 14:02:40 +0000

It’s nearly the the close of 2017. Lots has happened and I’ve been reading about UX, Design Thinking, Design Systems, Agile, Block Chain, Crypto currencies, Machine Learning, AI, Startups and plenty more. 2018 seems to be shaping up to be an exciting year for digital! (and maybe we’ll stop asking ourselves, why didn’t we all … Continue reading Top 50 Design Blog Articles and Sites From 2017

The post Top 50 Design Blog Articles and Sites From 2017 appeared first on Design Shard.


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Can Your Logo Maker Do This: A Real Designer vs A Logo Maker

By designshard.com
Published On :: Fri, 16 Nov 2018 22:45:46 +0000

  Every business needs a logo and all major ones will view it as a key aspect of their brand building. A logo is the first impression a customer will get of your brand, so it has to look clean, professional and tell a story about who you are and what you do. Which is … Continue reading Can Your Logo Maker Do This: A Real Designer vs A Logo Maker

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What Is a Website Redesign & How To Plan For It Effectively

By designshard.com
Published On :: Thu, 22 Nov 2018 10:45:24 +0000

Websites have become essential marketing tools for businesses and it’s mandatory to keep them up to date and fresh always. This can be justified with the help of the statement made by a Danish computer scientist, Jakob Nielsen: “A bad website is like a grumpy salesperson.” This is where the need for website redesigning comes … Continue reading What Is a Website Redesign & How To Plan For It Effectively

The post What Is a Website Redesign & How To Plan For It Effectively appeared first on Design Shard.


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Redesign of Stavanger Golf Club Website ????️

By jepson.no
Published On :: Fri, 26 Mar 2021 09:29:09 +0000

I’ve helped Stavanger Golf Club through the years with webdesign and admin, and it was due for a refresh. I decided to try a no-code approach with WordPress. I first designed the site in UXPin (see version here), and then installed a fresh Local install of WordPress to get started. I used Astra theme along…


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Automattic raises $288m ????, WooCommerce growth continues ????

By jepson.no
Published On :: Wed, 15 Sep 2021 08:54:06 +0000

Earlier this year, Automattic raised $288 million in a funding round that valued the company at $7.5 billion. This impressive valuation was in part due to the growth of WooCommerce, which has seen a boost during the pandemic. With this new investment, Automattic had the opportunity to conduct a $250 million share buy-back. This gave…


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15 Best WordPress Plugins for Sidebars and Widgets

By www.isitwp.com
Published On :: Fri, 21 Jul 2023 07:03:09 +0000

Are you looking for the best WordPress plugins for your site’s sidebar and widgets? Most website owners use sidebars mainly for 2 purposes: That said, there are so many ways to get creative with these areas to improve user experience, add SEO elements, and make your site’s design more appealing. Check out how WPBeginner uses […]

The post 15 Best WordPress Plugins for Sidebars and Widgets first appeared on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.


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