Category: Web Design

Designing is the aesthetics part in web development, however now looking at the proliferation in the development world you get to delve much deeper and uncover the cognitive impact of the design world.

Now that you have gone through all the aspects of developing a highly functional and feature-rich web design, you now have to master the Photoshop design tool to articulate your emotions perfectly. Moreover, the execution part is a difficult task, as there are no restrictions on anyone to think on a subject matter, but implementing the thought process is what needs a lot of attention.

Photoshop is not an easy tool to master, it takes years of experience and countless of trial and errors. In this blog we discuss 5 top tips that will help you design seamlessly on your Photoshop tool.

1. Mastering the Photoshop tools

There are numerous tools in Photoshop you need to learn to become an expert designer. Talking about tools such as the Color panel and Swatches panel, it allows you to modify, copy and save colors for your website. Though this needs no explanation as it has powerful features that allow you to make a visually appealing content using the vibrant colors.

Further, the Color tool also allows you to create your custom color. For this, you need to open your Color Picker, you need to double click on the top box that is on the Color module or the left menu.

After doing that, you will get a vertical spectrum of color present in the slider that is used in creating a custom color you wish. Apart from this, you also get a specific color that has a specific hex value, which you can enter it in the appropriate box that helps you to find the color on its own. This also helps you select your color swatch as per CMYK or RGB values.

Further, there are tools such as the Layers panel, Custom Fonts & The Text Tool, the Select Tool, the Zoom Tool, the Crop Tool, the Eyedropper Tool, Custom Brushes & the Brush Tool, the Move Tool, the Eraser, the Fill Tool and Blending Options.

2. Metric or Optical Kerning

Optical kerning or metric kerning allow the users to kern type automatically anywhere in the Adobe CS using the Character panel. To know which one should be used and when, is dependent on the fonts that you are using and the number of built-in kerning pairs present in the font you have used. Optical settings in Photoshop will help you adjust the letters if you have combined different fonts; wherein you can use metric or auto-kerning. Moreover, optical settings are quite recommended for getting better results for display types.

Note that Adobe Illustrator has the same process for Kerning.

3. Using the White Arrow (Direct Selection Tool)

To select an individual path present among a group you can make use of the “White Arrow” and this allows you to do this without ungrouping. This tool is also known as the Direct Selection Tool that you can use without ungrouping. Note that using the Path selection tool or “Black Arrow” will help you to select all the shapes at once. You can also switch to the Direct Selection Tool and then click on the shape present in that group, and you can instantly change the stroke, fill or whatever without ungrouping.

4. Glyphs Panel

There is the Glyphs panel found in the Illustrator and InDesign, and this allows you to gain access to the font’s comprehensive set of characters. To find Glyphs you need to go down to Window > Type > Glyphs. After opening, then you need to create a text field and then click twice on the glyph that you wish to use. Further, it also allows you to explore the complete family of any particular font as you will get some glyphs that are present in Italics form. There are three families that are present in glyphs are Burgues Script, Bickham Script Pro, and Minion Pro.

Note: There are NO Glyphs Panel in Photoshop Versions older than Photoshop CC 2015. Both Illustrator and InDesign have the Glyphs Panel which allow you to see and access all glyphs present in a font.

5. “Lock” shapes to Make the Selection Easier

While working on your PSD file, you might get caught up among stacking paths and shapes on the top of each other to get the desired effect. This is quite frustrating when you are trying to opt for different paths that are available at different layers. One of the easiest ways to avoid all the confusion is to lock all the shapes that you do not wish to select or use.

This can be done by pressing Command + 2 (Mac) or by Control + 2 (PC). Now instead of clicking on the top shape and navigating to the option that says “Select Next Object Below”, all you need to do is to lock the shape. This allows you to select the shape whenever you want just by one click. Further, this allows you to get the Lock in the object menu at the top and also an Icon into the Layers palette.

Wrapping Up!

As we are well aware of the fact that Photoshop is quite a big development tool existing in the market from quite a while. This is the reason one needs to master the software as it is by far the most feature rich development tool existing in the market. It expedites the process of editing and helps you to come up with incredible web designs. This is the reason why Photoshop is rising high in the development world.

Content management systems have taken web design by storm. Nearly 480 million websites use WordPress, one of the most popular free Content Management Systems (CMS), making up 40 percent of the CMS market share. Still, nearly 70 percent of websites do not use a CMS at all. Many developers view using a CMS as an option for non-technical people. It’s true that designing a website using a CMS does not require knowledge of HTML or any other programming language. However, the advantages of a CMS reach far beyond simply providing a platform for the web design layman. In fact, organizations like Forbes, CNN, Warner Brothers and Sony use a CMS to build and manage their websites. Surely, these large corporations have a fully staffed IT department capable of using coding languages to design their websites. Consider five reasons a CMS is the right choice for any size company with any size IT staff.

1 – Balance Content with User Experience

A successful website, whether an intranet or an internet site, results from the mix of various roles. For example, communication and marketing staff focus on messaging, calls to action and user experience, while IT staff focus on things like functionality and SEO. A CMS balances these roles, making it easy for staff to what they do best, that is to produce content that appeals to their target audience.
User experience and quality content are just as important on your intranet as your external website. Your CMS makes it quick and easy to engage employees with relevant, up-to-date news, policy changes or fun promotions. Push important content out in just minutes with the confidence of knowing it will be published in a way that is consistent with the organization’s vision.

2 – Install Instantly

Businesses can literally complete their design, upload content and launch a new website within minutes when using a CMS. Even the most experienced coder must still take the time to create and organize web pages, images and graphics in the server’s web directory. While there is a level of satisfaction that comes with creating a site from scratch, most coders will admit there is also a level of frustration while you work out bugs and tweak your code for the perfect user experience.

Conversely, by using a CMS you get the advantage of using a platform that has been tested and tweaked already. While you may have to live with the architectural decisions of other designers, you get the benefits of being part of a large pool of users, and working with coders that have been required to build in flexibility for hundreds, thousands or even millions of users. Leverage their experience to get your intranet up and running quickly.

3 – Improve Workflow

A key benefit of an intranet is to organize your employee’s activities all in one place. They can communicate, manage projects, find files, get news updates and learn about the company all in one place. A CMS makes this workflow management possible by allowing content to be quickly added and removed. Your CMS gives you the platform to define an effective content creation process.

Develop a strategy and define roles based on your CMS. For example, your intranet content creation workflow may involve content authors, editors and a content manager. A CMS makes the process of creating, editing and approving content easy and efficient, creating a truly collaborative process that leverages the assets of all departments. In just a few key strokes, a content manager can see the status of all content, assign tasks, review drafts or give someone else the authority to do so.

4 – Intranet Customization is Still Possible

A common misconception is that using a CMS means that your website will not be unique, having a “boxed” look and feel. In reality, a CMS gives you the best of both worlds: all the benefits of a CMS plus the ability to customize. You get the benefit of a consistent intranet or website. Too much flexibility, allowing anyone to customize a page on a whim, will lead to a marketing nightmare. On the other hand, when you want to make logical changes, you are not wed to default CMS settings. While custom design capabilities will vary based on the CMS you choose, here is a simple example that will apply to most

Let’s say you have an employee blog that is managed through your intranet CMS. The CMS defaults to showing the first paragraph, then providing a “read more” link to continue reading. However, there might be occasions when you want two paragraphs displayed or just one sentence before offering the “read more” link. Add an HTML tag within your text editor to place the link right where you want it.

• Most CMS editors would recognize a tag like this: <xmp><!-more-></xmp>
• You could also use a full hyperlink tag like:
  <xmp><a href="fullURLhere">Read more.</a></xmp>

Most CMS platforms allow for similar HTML style and formatting codes that make it easy for you to customize the formatting on just one page. The amount of customization is a critical factor that must be considered when deciding on a CMS. How much customization is allowed? What is the charge if I need customization beyond my skill set?

We already mentioned that WordPress consumes 40 percent of CMS-based websites. The next biggest CMS software is Drupal at nine percent usage. However, another 40 percent are built on vendor platforms out of the mainstream. Why? While proprietary CMS software is not free, many times the advantages outweigh the costs. In fact, CMS Report puts “dedicated support” at the top of its list of benefits. Consider this. The most popular CMS platform, WordPress, only employs a little over 200 people to care for millions of users. CMS Report lists “lack of customer support” and “cost of improvements” among the disadvantages of open source CMS software. “Free” software is not free if you must hire support to help you customize. Therefore, it is critical to determine the level of customization and support you will need when selecting a CMS for your intranet or website.

5 – Improved Analytics

A survey of CMS users revealed that 63 percent use their CMS daily for reporting and analytics functionality. One of the most important parts of your content strategy is measuring its impact, even on your company’s intranet. Analytics provide insight into what is important to your employees and how engaged they are. Developing an efficient way to collect data is just one more time-consuming process when you design an intranet without a CMS. An effective CMS enables you to track performance and react accordingly.

While using a content management system is not required for running a successful website, it makes the task much easier. Additionally, a CMS makes the continued maintenance and content editing much more productive. Don’t presume that a CMS is just one more piece of software to train employees to use. In fact, the above mentioned survey found that only six percent of respondents say learning to use the CMS was a “major challenge.” The bottom line is that learning the CMS improved productivity with very little learning curve.

No organization is static. It is constantly evolving. Likewise, your website and intranet must evolve as well. Maintaining your intranet is key to engaging employees, which directly affects customer service, innovation, productivity, and ultimately profits. Whether you have the technical expertise to code your own website or not, give your business the advantage of a CMS.