Articles by John Wells

Using An Appropriate Coloring System While Designing Your Website

10 fresh highly useful free web design tools

February 17, 2018 John Wells 0

Web designing has become a very vital part of any business or service. You have to create your own website to boost up your product sales. In the previous decades, people have to rely on only the professionals in web designing to get their new website design done. They have charged more than the nominal fees for it as they were the only option for designing your website. However, nowadays we have so many facilities for creating a new website. Many ready-made tools and software are available to make you more convenient in the process of web designing. Therefore, you can now come up with your own, a highly professional and an appealing website without the influence of any professional web designers using the various free high-quality website designing tools and downloads.

You have so many such tools available online. However, you may face a little dilemma in selecting the right tool for the right task, as the options are not limited and new tools are being released in vast numbers each day. Therefore, this article comes as an inspiration to help you in finding some awesome and fresh tools that can help your web design job. Listed below are the top nine web building tools that can be useful to you.

Yeoman 1.0 – Modern workflows for modern web apps

Yeoman is an open source project which defines an opinionated stack for web application development. It includes a golden bundle of tools and frameworks, provided with documentation and authority. The aim is to help developers quickly build beautiful web applications.

Viewport Resizer

Viewport resizer is a browser-based tool and bookmarklet to test any website’s responsiveness. You just have to save the bookmarklet, go to the page you want to test the responsiveness, and click on your created bookmarklet and check the page in all kinds of screen resolutions.

Typicons

Typicons are free-to-use vector icons embedded in a web font kit for easy use in your UI, whether it be on the web or in a native application. Typicons save space and time by pairing a vector icon to a character, just like Webdings or Windings. Then, using the CSS3 pseudo-selector:: before, the appropriate characters are bound to their respective classes (eliminating the need to remember the correct index of each icon).

BootMetro

A simple and complete web UI framework to create web apps with Windows 8 Metro user interface. Flexible HTML, CSS, and Javascript for web apps that want to use the “Windows 8 App Store” style, without the need to run on Windows 8.

Proto

Proto helps you knock up quick responsive layout concepts by providing a set of predefined CSS classes. All that’s needed to get going is the proto.scss file and some basic HTML.

Photon CSS 3D Lighting Engine

Photon is a JavaScript library that adds simple lighting effects to DOM elements in 3D space. It’s rather processor-intensive, so please use responsibly.

Foundation

Foundation by ZURB is the most advanced responsive front-end framework in the world.

Fontello

Easy way to create a custom icon font for your site. Select images from a large collection, and make a webfont pack with one click.

Subtle Patterns

Free high-quality backgrounds or patterns for your next web design project.

Stylo

The idea of stylo is to let people design basic web apps using a Fireworks like user interface, ultimately exporting the finished design as CSS.

 

Must have free android apps for web designers and developers

January 31, 2018 John Wells 0

Android is a Linux-based operating system developed mainly for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Android is an open-source operating system owned by Google. What makes android special is the community support. Android has the support of a large developer community who writes applications. Android applications are used to extend the basic functionality. As of October 2012, there were approximately 700,000 android apps available in the app market, and the estimated number of applications downloaded from Google Play, Android’s primary app store, was more than 25 billion.

With these powerful apps, people can now perform almost all things on the go, which were previously possible only with computers. As far as web designers are concerned, they can now perform so many web design related things on the move using an Android powered device. That is the power of Android apps.

Here in this post, we have collected more than 5 best and useful android applications for web designers and developers. You can download the application from the play store,.

WM FTP Client

WM FTP Client is an FTP client developed with WinDev Mobile edited by PC SOFT.
This application will allow you to easily interact with an FTP server from your smartphone or your tablet.
You will be able to, among other things, rename, delete, download and send some files.

Adobe Photoshop Express

Edit and share photos virtually anywhere. Touch to crop, rotate, adjust color, and add artistic effects. Access all your photos and videos directly from your free Photoshop.com account. Quickly share with family and friends. Requires SD card. By downloading you agree to the Terms of Use at www.photoshop.com/misc/terms.html

DroidEdit (free code editor)

DroidEdit is a text and source code editor (similar to Notepad++ or gedit) for android tablets and phones with the following features:

– Syntax Highlighting for several languages (C, C++, C#, Java, HTML, CSS, Javascript, Python, Ruby, Lua, LaTeX, SQL, …)

Color Pal

Easily find color palettes and schemes for any design project. Whether you’re a web designer or just looking to paint your son’s room, you’ll find some of the best color palettes/schemes available.

Google Analytics

The Google Analytics app shows what is new and what is important on your Google Analytics profiles. See real-time statistics, customizable dashboards and intelligence events on your phone.

 

WebRank SEO

One of the Best SEO App in the Market.

Hurry! Ad-free version is available for a limited period only.

WebRank SEO gives you Website Ranks(Google Pagerank, Alexa Rank and Compete Rank), Sociometer(Facebook like tweets and google plus count), Pages Indexed and Backlinks in various search engines(Google, Bing, and Yahoo). A Search Engine Optimization(SEO) Tool for competitive website analysis.

 

Cool looking Google Plus business pages of top brands

January 30, 2018 John Wells 0

Google has recently launched Google Plus business pages which will enable businesses or brands to connect with fans in a manner similar to Facebook Pages. With the help of Google+ business pages, the company can start sharing information about their product or services and invite others to join in on the conversation. Even though Facebook pages are still more popular among business giants, google plus is increasingly gaining trust and popularity among the business community.

Here is a showcase of more than 20 Google Plus business pages of top brands worldwide. All the images are linked to their official Google Plus brand page.

Adobe

Adobe Google Plus business page

Amazon.com

Amazon.com official Google Plus business page

BMW

BMW Google Plus business page

Disney Store

Disney Store Official Google Plus business page

Volvo Cars

Volvo Cars Google Plus business page

Samsung Mobile

Samsung Mobile Google Plus business page

The Home Depot

The Home Depot Google Plus business page

eBay

Ebay Google Plus business page

Emirates

Emirates official Google Plus business page

UEFA Champions League

UEFA Champions League Google Plus business page

KFC – Kentucky Fried Chicken

KFC – Kentucky Fried Chicken Google Plus business page

Dell

Dell Google Plus business page

Cadbury

Cadbury Google Plus business page

The Coca-Cola Company

The Coca-Cola Company Google Plus business page

Angry Birds

Angry Birds Google Plus business page

HootSuite

Hootsuite Google Plus business page

Mashable

Mashable Google Plus business page

HUGO BOSS

HUGO BOSS Google Plus business page

The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal Google Plus business page

Audi

Audi Google Plus business page

Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine Google Plus business page

 

Mobile UX dissection – The right approach to deliver remarkable user experiences

January 7, 2018 John Wells 0

With an amazing population leveraging mobile technology to the fullest, the need for delivering the finest mobile experiences has become vital. As an app developer, you can make sure that your mobile experience meets the end users’ expectations in the best possible manner. For this, a possible strategy is to identify the potential problems that can hamper the performance of your mobile application. With a detailed diagnosis of your app’s UX, you can even gather brilliant insights on redesigning the applications for enhanced functioning.

So, keep on reading this blog to get a clear idea about mobile UX scrutiny which will save you from receiving bad reviews for your application.

Why and when to perform an evaluation of Mobile UX?

It is vital for you to be familiar with the difference between app testing and mobile UX diagnosis. Unlike the case of app testing, performing a mobile UX diagnostic will unwind a number of issues related to the usability of the application. If you too are planning to conduct mobile UX diagnostic, then the best time to do it is during the app design and development phase. Here, you can ensure that your app is in compliance with the practices and guidelines that need to be followed for developing high-end mobile applications. Although UX Diagnosis can be done by a single annotator, the process can be handled best when undertaken by multiple annotators hailing from different backgrounds and possessing unique expertise.

Now, let me walk you through the 4 Steps that are involved in the evaluation of mobile UX

Step 1 – Identifying end users and specific scenarios

As a mobile UX evaluator, you need to be sure about the target audience for your app. Also, you should step into the end users’ shoes and check out all the possibilities available with the mobile application. You need to seek answers to questions including: Which devices are being used by the target users? Which operating system version is being used by the target users? What is the main competition for the mobile app?

Step 2 – Perform the app UX analysis

If you have appointed a team for conducting the mobile UX diagnosis, then ensure that each team member is being allotted an individual work on different aspects as explained below:

Adherence to 80/20 rule

As per the 80/20 rule, a whopping 80% of app users prefer using just 20% of its functionality. You need to check out whether the vital 20% functionality incorporated within the app is intuitive or not. The results attained thereafter would allow you to cut down unwanted features right away.

Rapid Competitive Benchmarking

Well, Rapid Competitive Benchmarking is basically a process where you can compare your mobile UX with multiple competitors that offer similar functionality. Here, you can make a note of all the areas where your competitors are offering a better user experience. 

Reviewing the app’s overall UX feedback

The process of reviewing the overall UX feedback involves documenting the way users install your app, the cross-platform experience, the cross-device experience, reviews received by your app in multiple app stores and comments/feedback of users received via email.

Step 3 – Organize a Team Review session

Once your team is done with analyzing app UX, it is time for you to organize a team review session. This collaboration of all team members would enable you to compare and validate individual findings. You can ask one of the evaluators to facilitate the discussion, enabling others to verify whether they have come across similar issues or not. Finally, you should identify all possible solutions for the problems and jot down the same in the form of a consolidated list. If possible, you can even invite experienced app designers for reviewing your team discussion. Doing this would allow you to explore areas for further improvement.

Step 4 – Use a slide presentation for problems and feasible recommendations pertaining to app UX

Although a spreadsheet is a handy technique of reporting issues and solutions; choosing the visual way is perhaps a lot more impressive. Hence, you can indulge in creating powerpoint slides for summarizing your journey of diagnosing the mobile UX. Dedicating one slide to one problem will make it simpler for you to plan the re-design in a stress-free way. Plus, you can even incorporate the use of callouts and screen-shots for adding understandability to your app UX evaluation project. Grouping less severe problems together will allow you to address each one with an equal amount of attention.

Conclusion

Mobile user experience can make or break the reputation of your app. If you have just started with designing an app or already have one live, conducting a planned UX analysis will always work in your favor. I hope the overview presented above would have motivated you to gear up with Mobile UX analysis. By focusing on individual UX elements, you can effectively create a pleasing experience for the targeted app users.

 

5 reasons why e-commerce has blown away other sectors

December 13, 2017 John Wells 0

The e-commerce sector has grown by leaps and bounds. It continues to progress and evolve while experiencing high levels of growth both in developing and developed markets. A number of non-banking players have entered the fray, which are aiding the e-commerce market in its growth. Asia has become the biggest e-commerce industry in the world with sales increasing at a rate of 20.7% per annum.

The craze of online shopping has increased beyond expectations. The use of smartphones, ingenious payment products, and broadband connections, has helped in its growth. However, security still remains a big concern.

Merchants are endeavoring to associate with banks and non-banks to conceptualize innovatively, and consumer-oriented payment options. Their key challenge is to effectively assimilate offline and online channels, increase the modes of payment and customize online shopping for consumers. Banks too are helping in this process by providing faster, cheaper and more secure payment solutions. They have become open to change and are modifying their retail payment business.

Although we as consumers can see all positives, the e-commerce industry is not devoid of its own share of challenges. Since it is a relatively new enterprise, not many online retailers have the correct online marketing skills to sell their products. A sorted governance structure is also lacking. With an increase in the number of online frauds, security is but a major source of concern for this industry.

Despite all these issues, the Indian e-commerce sector is flourishing day by day. Here is why:

Increased employment opportunities

According to a poll by Assocham, most of the engineering and management students are opting to work in the Indian e-commerce sector as opposed to industries like finance, marketing, FMCG, infrastructure and consulting. E-commerce recruitments have gone up by 65% as compared to last year. This sector has created about 18 million online jobs with over 3 million Indians working under its tutelage.

It is predicted that this industry will increase its hiring activity by 60-65% and will possibly create about 5-8 lac job opportunities in the next five years. According to the poll, e-commerce companies are offering a package of about 10-25 lac per annum, which is far greater than the average salary of 4-7 lac offered by other companies to engineering and management students.

Unprecedented growth

The revenue generated by e-commerce has increased by 60 times in the last four years. The growth has been massive. No wonder that online marketing jobs have become so popular suddenly. Flipkart and Snapdeal have succeeded in raising funds from many investors, aiding the growth of Indian e-commerce sector by $3 billion.

Moreover, Amazon, the world’s leading online retailer has agreed to invest about $2 billion in India over the next couple of years. According to a report by Technopak, the size of the e-commerce market in India will reach $32 billion by the year 2020.

Focus on consumer needs

E-commerce is one industry where special preference is given to consumer needs and behavior. Online retailers are constantly vying to understand the psyche of customers pertaining to shopping behavior in order to serve them with the best of products and services. Customers are being targeted not only because of their demographics but also because of their spending patterns. An analysis of the same allows retailers to market their products in a much better manner. This focussed targeting is assisting online retailers in converting maximum leads into profitable sales.

Smart use of social media platforms

Social media platforms have taken the World Wide Web by storm. Every individual, whether old or young, is active on at least one social media website. E-commerce industry has employed the assistance of these websites to the best of their abilities.

They have but opened new channels for online retailers to effectively advertise and promote their products. An important platform for loyalty and branding, social media websites are normally accessed by individuals in the age group of 18-34 years. This has made them quite useful for constructive exploitation by e-commerce enterprises. These websites also provide an efficient forum for amassing customer feedback.

It is all about the profit

With e-commerce, it is all gain with minimum pain. The cost incurred initially is not much. All one needs is an empty garage, one IT guy, a good internet connection, and you are good to go. No rentals need to be given for workspace. Products are sourced and delivered directly from the manufacturer to the consumer, hence eliminating additional costs to retailers. In short, with e-commerce, there is a minimum investment and maximum output.

Top quality free jquery plugins for web designers

December 1, 2017 John Wells 0

Jquery is becoming one of the most sought-after skill-set for any web designer, it is such a powerful tool these days for front end development. It can provide more interactive user experience with very limited effort. Jquery plugins are becoming more and more popular among the web design community mainly because of its simplicity and effectiveness. Anybody with very basic programming knowledge can easily customize and install a jquery plugin in his web design project. There is a huge repository of free jquery plugins online, new plugins are being added constantly each day.

Finding quality fresh jquery plugins from the huge repository can often be a tough task for a common man. Here we are doing the research part for you and here is a showcase of more than 15 high quality fresh free jquery plugins for web designers and developers. All these plugins are linked to its original source.

Arctext.js – Curving Text with CSS3 and jQuery

While CSS3 allows us to rotate letters, it is quite complicated to arrange each letter along a curved path. Arctext.js is a jQuery plugin that let’s you do exactly that. Based on Lettering.js, it calculates the right rotation of each letter and distributes the letters equally across the imaginary arc of the given radius.

Responsive Img – a jquery plugin

Using a PHP file, Responsive Img creates new images on the fly the first time they’re needed and puts them on your server.
Therefore, you can add Responsive Img to any site, without creating new images.
Responsive Img takes pixel ratio into account and uses larger images for Retina display and displays with other pixel ratios.

typeahead.js – a fast and fully-featured autocomplete library

Twitter has open sourced a very nice project named Typeahead.js for building smart auto-complete form fields.
It comes as a jQuery plugin shows suggestion as-users-type and can feature top suggestions with the help of styling.

Jquery Joyride

Joyride is extremely flexible and lets you take control of how people interact with your tour. We programmed it to be cross-browser compatible with modern browsers and even used some fancy CSS to avoid images. Now let’s see just how easy it is to take your first ride without getting the fuzz involved.

FitText – Jquery Plugin

FitText makes font-sizes flexible. Use this plugin on your fluid or responsive layout to achieve scalable headlines that fill the width of a parent element.

Reveal: jQuery Modals Made Easy

Reveal Jquery Modal Window Plugin – Reveal is awesome because it’s easy to implement, is cross-browser compatible with modern browsers (with some graceful degradation of course) and lightweight coming in at only 1.75KB. What that means for you is that it’s fast, sexy and just works. Now let’s see how easy is can be to get Reveal working!

Orbit: A Slick jQuery Image Slider Plugin

Orbit: A Slick jQuery Image Slider Plugin
Sick of confusing and bloated image sliders that never work?
Rock ZURB’s Orbit for a mere 4KB
Note: Works best in Chrome, Safari, FF3.5+ ( but is tested for IE7+, FF3.5+, Chrome, and Safari )

Tablecloth.js – Making HTML tables suck less

We’ve all been there. Either you’re redesigning a large site or working on a completely new one… styling tables is typically tedious and time-consuming. If you’d rather spend your valuable time making the other elements of your site pretty, use a tablecloth to do the heavy lifting.

Picker

A jQuery plugin for replacing default checkboxes and radios. Replace those boring default checkboxes and radio inputs with a custom picker.

ResponsiveSlides – Responsive slider plugin

ResponsiveSlides.js is a tiny jQuery plugin that creates a responsive slider using elements inside a container. It has been used on sites like Microsoft’s Build 2012 and Gridset App. ResponsiveSLides.js works with a wide range of browsers including all IE versions from IE6 and up. It also adds CSS max-width support for IE6 and other browsers that don’t natively support it. The only dependency is jQuery (1.6 and up supported) and that all the images are the same size.

Custom scrollbar plugin that’s fully customizable with CSS. Features vertical/horizontal scrolling, mouse-wheel support (via jQuery mousewheel plugin), scrolling buttons, scroll inertia with easing, auto-adjustable scrollbar length, nested scrollbars, scroll-to functionality, user-defined callbacks and much more.

Flipping Circle Slideshow

A simple circular slideshow where we flip the image in order to navigate.
It’s an experimental concept and the idea is to flip a circle in a specific angle depending on which spot of the circle we click. There are three different possibilities for each side: top, middle, and bottom. For example, when clicking on the top right part of the image, the circle will flip in the associated angle, making it look as if we press down that part and reveal the next image that is on the back face of the circle.

stickyMojo – contained sticky sidebar jQuery plugin

stickyMojo is a contained sticky sidebar jQuery plugin brought to you by MojoTech. It is lightweight, fast, flexible and compatible with Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and IE8+. It will degrade gracefully in older versions of IE.

PageSlide

Clicking on a button or link slides the page over to reveal a hidden pane,
one that usually contains secondary navigation, a form, or additional information.

Sidr – jQuery plugin for creating responsive side menus

Sidr – The best jQuery plugin for creating side menus and the easiest way for doing your menu responsive.

Spectrum – The No Hassle jQuery Colorpicker

The No Hassle jQuery Colorpicker which is lightweight and easily customizable.

Super Scroll Orama

Superscrollorama is powered by TweenMax and the Greensock Tweening Engine. Go to greensock.com for documentation on how to use it. Why Greensock/TweenMax? Great performance, ease-of-use, expandability and basically because it is awesome.

 

Outsource Everything – Infographic

November 28, 2017 John Wells 0

You’re busy with important stuff like helping end users figure out where to find the “Any” key and ensuring that clients’ online storefronts are not de-indexed by Google. You don’t have time for mundane tasks like filtering junk email or booking a plane flight for the next family holiday get-together. Through the magic of technology with a guiding human hand, you don’t have to.

If you’re willing to part with the necessary cash, you can free yourself from time-sucking but necessary tasks such as answering phone calls, scheduling meetings and updating your social media profiles. While it is true that some of the most useful apps and software programs are low-cost or even free, others command serious coin. You should also not expect virtual assistants to work for free. However, when compared with your hourly rate you should consider the money you spend to outsource these tasks to be a worthwhile investment.

You must also invest time on the front end to ensure that your ongoing operations run smoothly. Check out software and apps to be sure that they perform the tasks you need. Interview potential candidates by phone or chat for virtual assistant positions to ensure that their skills match your needs and that your work styles are compatible. If you hire a virtual assistant through an agency, choose one that subjects its candidates to rigorous background checks. Remember, you are trusting this person with your personal information and mission-critical work files.

 

7 Uniquely beautiful online shopping interfaces

July 23, 2017 John Wells 0

Online shopping has become more and more popular day after day and new shopping websites are being introduced almost every day with unique and innovative features. Nowadays with the change in the lifestyles, there is a vast and drastic change in people’s shopping habits. People hate shopping in crowds and they are searching for unique and quality products for less in the convenience of their home. Since online shopping eliminates the middlemen, consumers can purchase things directly from the buyer in real time. This is the main reason why online shopping sites are able to give frequent discounts and offer to its customers.

The heart of any online shopping application is the user interface or website design. The design itself has the power to make or break the business. In conventional offline shopping, the sellers keep their shop attractive, clean and organized. They arrange their products in such a way that it looks impressive to the customers so that they will go for it. Similarly, look and feel plays a very important role in the case of an online shopping system as well. Since the product is not directly accessible to the customer in online shopping to touch or feel, people won’t buy them if it is not very well presented. The presentation part, therefore, is critical and needs very good attention and research. Webeden (a free website builder for small shops) is an easy and reliable way to make a shop interface that will help you sell products, so do check it out if you’re looking to create your own website.

Here in this post, we are presenting you with some cool looking e-commerce websites which are selected randomly from the online shopping world.  

Stylemint

Stylemint an innovative and unique online shopping experience which comes from Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen also known as the Olsen Twins collectively are American actresses and fashion designers. The website layout provides a super cool feeling with a clean minimalistic layout in simple lighter shades. Unlike other popular online shopping sites, Stylemint will not let you explore the product section right away. You have to be a registered user to see the product selections. You can use your email id facebook account to register. Once you are registered and logged in, they will ask you some questions and based on your answer they will generate a list of products best suited for you and presented to you in a personalized and attractive way. This intelligent mechanism is the unique feature which gives a personal touch to the entire Stylemint shopping experience. The shopping workflow and layout is all the way unique and fresh. The products are arranged elegantly and systematically.

Gilt

Gilt is another ‘member only shopping’ website, where you need to become a member to explore the product range. The best part about gilt is the entire sales take place online and you will not get their collections from anywhere else. It gets you something unique and new every day which is available on first come – first serve basis. If you want to get the most unique piece which has the fresh looks, keep an eye on their updates. Another cool feature to note is their advance preview service. They give you a preview of their upcoming items well in advance. The website layout looks really professional and attractive. They have used a product-centered design method which is the best approach for an ecom website UI. The products are presented in a way that it gets the maximum attention. They have a done a really good job in the product preview part, the product can be previewed as if you are looking at it in real. The entire website is on a grey theme which gives the product more attention and the products are looking more attractive to buy.

Myntra

The unique quality of Myntra is the wide range of products. They have the largest collection of lifestyle products which comes around 30,000 plus styles ranging from more than 500 top brands. This is such a huge product range for an online web store. Arranging and managing such a wide range of products is not at all easy and it is the most challenging part in the entire shopping website design, and they have done a brilliant job here. The product grouping, categorization, and presentation are simply awesome. The products are systematically grouped on the basis of category, brand, style, gender and what not. You could easily locate your favorite range of products simply with a click or two. The presentation part is very well done which provides a clear view of the product presented. The product can be previewed from many angles and even a video preview is available for many products.

Timefy

Timefy is a French shopping website exclusively for men’s designer watches. It has a huge collection of designer watches from across all top brands. The website design is simply beautiful, which uses lighter colors and shades of black and white primarily. The overall grey colored theme gives the website an elegant and professional look. The product presentation is amazing where the primary focus goes to the product image. It is designed in such a way that it doesn’t look cluttered when the number of products is too high. The best part about the design is, simplicity and minimalism. The shopping cart layout and design are highly user-friendly.

Firstcry

It is an exclusive online web store for Baby Care Products and kids accessories. It has an excellent collection of baby care products and accessories from all popular brands. The products are arranged systematically and in good order. The product presentation and preview is amazing. Though the website layout look bit crowded on first look, it is appealing and colorful. The entire theme is centered on kids, with cool bright colors and nice graphics. All little models who pose for dresses are looking cute and smart. Overall the website design and layout is perfect for a kids shopping website.

Solesociety

An exclusive online store for high quality shoes, handbags and other women’s accessories. The best part about the webstore UI is that, it is so simple and clean. They have done a wonderful job in making the web interface look simple and elegant. The colors used are primarily lighter shades, which gives it a complete professional look. The product photographs look terrific and high quality. You could preview the product from various angles and also can preview various color options of that product.

Zaino

Zaino sells exclusive bags and cases for kids. The website interface is too good as a kid’s store. It uses bright colors brilliantly in the base theme. Whitespaces are brilliantly used to prioritize content and to define the right flow. Product list and preview page layout makes this website more user-friendly. Even though the base theme color is pink, other colors such as blue-green and orange are blended along with it nicely to catch the attention of those little ones out there online. The slider on the homepage gives the website a lively effect and it catches the attention.

 

How to integrate Google Plus Commenting feature in WordPress blog

July 3, 2017 John Wells 0

Yes all of us are familiar with the development now that Google+ has added Google+ comments in the WordPress comments section now. Let’s accept it, we all love to see comments on our blogs as they signify recognition and to some extent, appreciation and WordPress being the best Content Management System attracts most of them. Now with Google+ too as a part of it, we have much more to look forward to in terms of getting comments on our posts and commenting on others to fuel interaction. However, lately people have been facing glitches in terms of adding the Google Plus comment system to their WordPress sites and there are more than one way to add this comment system to your site, be it through Code, Code for Thesis or through the ample number of plugins available.

Let us discuss in detail about Google+ comment system, the advantages and disadvantages it has and the process to add them to your WordPress website.

Google+ Comments: Pros and Cons

Though Facebook is still ahead, Google+ too has been able to gather a number of users with its sleek looking comment systems and the promise to increase their visibility which is why the whole Google+ comment system has come up. In terms of pros, we cannot deny the fact that it is Google at the end of the day, the king of SEO and it will definitely increase your followers and visibility. Another factor is that the Google+ comments will fuel your interaction with other bloggers which will ultimately be good for you. The other reasons would be the convenience of syncing with the Gmail account and the ability to just sign in with your Gmail account and get access to WordPress as well, and the other benefit or the SEO benefits which Google is known for. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is what makes or breaks your presence over the internet, which is why factors like page rankings and keywords hold so much importance. We also know Google is the most frequently used search engines ever and if you will use their own comment system, your posts are likely to score better when people enter the related keywords. This is a huge benefit of having the Google+ Comment System added to your WordPress site.

Enough of pros, now let’s get familiarized with a few cons as well. The disadvantages come in with things like unofficial plugins and nothing official from Google’s end till date, which means less convenience as the comments will have to be checked manually. This is because there is no notifications option present to track down the comments or replies you received on your blog. Also, a few might be worried about losing their comments as well, as though it seems next to impossible, some of us are paranoid enough to consider that Google will shut down one day and all our comments will be lost. Though far fetched, this uncertainty too can be counted as a con to Google+ comments.  This is all to it and now we jump to the tips to add Google+ comments to WordPress sites.

Adding Google+ Comments

This won’t be the toughest job you have done on your WordPress site and involves the download, installation, and activation of the Google+ Comments for WordPress Plugin. Once you have activated it, you will be able to gain control over it through Comments >> G+Comments. Not just Google+, you now will also be able to add other platforms like Facebook and other default WordPress comments and you can now choose the way the comments want to be placed. This can be done by going to Comments >> G+Comments, which will ultimately lead to its configuration.

Google+ is great also because it gives you the option of adding the tabbed commenting area which means that now you can also include other comments, as mentioned above. The other platforms include Facebook, Disqus and Default WordPress comments. The other features which this plugin provides you with include being able to arrange the order and the platforms which you would want to be displayed in the comments section and changing the label of each tab according to your own choice. Once you are done making all the needed changes, the next step is to click on the Save Changes button so that your changes aren’t lost. Once it is done it will be ready to be used.

Definitely, the pros outweigh the cons and it will not be a bad thing for you to use Google+ comments on your and other blog posts and WordPress websites. The whole process of adding Google+ comment system is also not a very tough task which makes it even easier for people to avail benefits of what Google has to offer us, in the best way possible.

 

Amazing latte art collection

May 23, 2017 John Wells 0

While most coffee drinkers would agree that making a good latte is an art in itself, there are other ways you can unleash your creativity using your coffee machine. Latte art is the term that applies to the patterns made in the milk foam that tops your favorite cup of Joe. Baristas in coffee shops spend a long time training how to make a flawless espresso, and the patterns that top your drink are the cherry on top. We’re all familiar with the pretty leaf and floral designs you commonly find, many of which were popularized by the renowned barista Davine Schoner back in the 1980s. But latte art takes the whole thing a lot further.

Imagine an impossibly detailed self-portrait or landscape painting, hard enough to achieve on a normal canvas. Now try doing the same work of art on a canvas made of frothed milk. That’s exactly what latte artists set out to achieve. Using the basic materials of espresso crema (the light brown froth that tops an espresso), hot milk, chocolate sprinkles and a sharpened point such as a pin, these talented artists elevate coffee pouring to a new level. It makes the whole endeavor even more impressive considering the short amount of time their creations actually last. As soon as the milk hits the coffee, the foam will begin to break up. The ephemeral nature of the artistry is one of its most touching characteristics.

Generally speaking, latte art is created by using two basic techniques. Free pouring produces patterns as you pour and is usually used for rosettes, hearts, and leaves. It takes a seriously steady hand and some expert movements of the jug to get good results. More complex designs can require two pours, maybe even more. The second technique is etching. Etched designs tend to be more intricate, and are often done with a coffee stirrer or a pin. Etched designs have an even shorter life span than free poured designs.

Here’s a look at ten incredible examples of latte art for your inspiration. Most of these have been etched, and require a high level of skill to create. We hope you enjoy them!

Planet Latte

An out of this world adornment for a seriously strong coffee. This artwork has mainly used espresso crema, with frothed milk applied sparsely to produce the planet.

Foam Art Bear Coffee

And who says that frothed milk can only be used as a 2D canvas? To produce a 3D effect like this one it’s a good idea to chill your milk jug in the fridge before you begin.

John Lennon Latte

You’ve heard about people seeing Jesus in pieces of toast, how about the Beatle who was even bigger than Jesus in a cup of coffee? This example of John Lennon shows an amazingly high level of detail, particularly around the eyes.

Manga-Inspired Latte

A cute manga-inspired design produced by simple etching techniques. The artist will probably have used two different width stirrers; one for the girl’s outline and a second, thicker implement to produce the banner decorations.

Pegasus Latte Design

Check out the detail on the Pegasus’s wings! It’s incredible to think that the artist is working at speed with such a limited selection of tools and colors. The tone and muscle definition around the forelegs is equally impressive.

Mickey Mouse Coffee Art

Here’s another emblem of the stars and stripes rendered in carefully crafted coffee tones.

Cute latte panda art

Low on detail but big on personality; a panda design is a simple but characterful subject for this design.

Colored Flower Coffee Foam Art

Latte art doesn’t always mean a shades-of-brown color scheme. Through clever etching techniques, restrained use of food dyes and a delicate spider’s web design, this designer has injected color vibrancy into a traditionally two-tone art form.

Cat Latte Art

We’re loving this cute cat. The way it seems to peer over the edge of the cup really takes 3D latte art up a notch.