I don’t like the title on this infographic, but I thought the numbers they report about the popularity of various social media platforms was interesting.
Source: Masters-in-Marketing.org
How to Get Minority Girls Psyched about Programming (Video)
Black Girls Code, lead by Kimberly Bryant, is an awesome program. Here’s a look at what they do.
5 Secrets to Speed up your Website
The average website user expects your website to load in 4 seconds or less. If your website is slow, not only are you losing so much business, but your SEO rankings also suffer. Speed optimization is important if you want to reduce the bounce rate of your website – the visitors will be happy, Google too will be happy with your site, and that can only translate to more business for your website.
So what steps can you take to improve the speed of your website? First, there’s the question of hosting. Knowing the right host and the appropriate hosting plan for your website will help a lot in improving its loading speed. Do you go for Shared, VPS or Dedicated Server hosting? Most people find the costs of the latter hosting packages too prohibitive, so they have to settle for a shared hosting plan. But whatever plan you purchase, you’ll need the following 5 tips to provide the optimum speed experience for your users. And it’s amazing the world of difference they can make.
1. Remove unnecessary plugins and themes
Your site’s loading speed is directly related to the number of HTTP requests made to the server. The more files needed to be served, the longer your page takes to load. Files loaded via HTTP request include: images, CSS stylesheets, and JavaScript and HTML files.
If you are using a CMS like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal, having many plugins running negatively impacts loading times as the number of HTTP requests gets higher. You can curb this problem by deactivating and deleting any plugins that you have installed but aren’t using. You might also be using some plugins that aren’t absolutely necessary; remove them too if they don’t add much value to your users’ experience.
You should also delete any themes you might have installed, since you can only use one theme at a time.
As an additional note, you may want to conduct a comment cleanup exercise, especially if your blog receives many spam comments. Switch off commenting on older posts too and you’ll have made some significant steps in trimming the database, hence faster load times.
2. Scale down your images
You will need to scale down your images both in terms of file size and dimensions. Compressing your images before uploading them can improve their loading speeds many times over, and one handy tool you can use to achieve this quickly is Google’s Page speed plugin for your browser.
Next, you’ll need to size the images to the right dimensions before uploading them. If you use WordPress, you might have noticed that it resizes images on the fly (for various display screens) after you upload them. This is an additional task the browser could do without. Why not use an image editing program like Photoshop to create the correct sizes before uploading the images?
3. Use a CDN (content delivery network)
A content delivery network, simply known as CDN, is a vast network of servers spread out across the world. It replicates the files you store on the server to the rest of the servers, allowing your web visitors to get served with content from the server that’s closest to them. This obviously improves the speed of file/content delivery in the browser and raises your SEO score. And if you offer file downloads on your website, a CDN will ensure your visitors are kept happy at all times due to the faster download speeds.
You can get started with the popular free CDNs like Cloudfare and Incapsula. You may also using consider MaxCDN or Amazon Cloudfront to store and serve your files. The differences may not become obvious for a regular blog, but for a photography or other media-rich website, a CDN can be too useful to ignore.
4. Utilize browser caching
As we noted earlier, using too many plugins in your CMS will increase the load on the server as more files and scripts will need to be pulled. The more complex the nature of your scripts or files, the longer it will take to load your pages.
For WordPress users, you can take advantage of the built in browser caching functionality using a plug-and-play plugin such as WP Super Cache. The plugin basically functions by generating static HTML page versions to be served in the place of dynamic pages. This will work perfectly fine for most websites.
Another popular plugin is W3 Total Cache, which works in a similar fashion but is slightly more advanced as you can integrate it with a CDN. The plugin claims to boost your page loading speeds by up to 10X. You could also try the Quick Cache plugin, much simpler to use but still works fine.
5. Minify your site files and scripts
Increase the efficiency of your script files by “minifying” them. For virtually every website, the user’s browser has to download several CSS and JavaScript files to properly render the site. This is done one file at a time, as the browser tries to build the final look as it should be. If you use a long range or scripts and stylesheets, this can take considerable time.
Enter Minify, an application hosted on Google that diligently compresses the file sizes of your scripts by removing unnecessary white space and rewriting faulty URLs to point to valid resources on your server. If you are a developer, you can download Minify from Google’s code repository for free to use with your scripts. An alternative great script to minify your files is Minifier.
Tracking your page speed
Finally, as you make all these changes to improve site speed it would be nice to be able to accurately measure your results. And you need not look any further than Google’s Page Speeds Insights extension which you can install on Firefox if you also have Firebug installed. Yahoo also offers an alternative tool in YSlow.
With either of these tools, you should be able to keep track of the improvements in speed for each step you implement. It’s the only way, after all, to be sure that you’re making progress.
Guest Author Ness writes guest posts on behalf of make-a-web-site.com. Check out their guide on how you can have your own website.
Web Teacher’s Top 10 Posts of the Year
Here’s what hit the sweet spot with readers on Web Teacher this year.
- Tip: Styling the label element with CSS
- Style a fieldset with rounded corners using CSS
- 10 Quotes All Graphic Designers Should Know By Heart
- Style Fieldsets like a Pro
- ARIA Roles 101
- Tip: What is a Wrapper Div?
- Three examples of fieldsets styled with CSS
- How to make HTML5 semantic elements more accessible
- Best 5 WordPress Plugins for Managing Multiple Blogs
- CSS3 Transitions: The basics
Thanks for reading!
Top 10 Issues Graphic Designers Will Face in 2014
The world of design is ever-evolving, which is why staying abreast of design trends and changes in the marketplace is so critical to your success as a designer. Whether you work for a design firm or for yourself as a freelance designer, you should be prepared for upcoming challenges. To help you prepare, here are the top 10 issues web designers and graphic designers will face in 2014. Are you ready for them?
1. Employed or self-employed?
Being employed by a graphic design firm means a steady paycheck and benefits such as health insurance and paid vacation. When the work day is over, it’s over, but the tradeoff is an income ceiling. Working as a freelancer offers more freedom and the potential for greater income, but has greater risks. With the impending changes in health insurance, the freelance lifestyle could become more expensive than ever before, causing many freelancers to seek full-time employment for the benefits.
2. Niche markets
Most graphic designers I know are jacks of all trades; they design anything they can get paid for. In 2014, the more you specialize your offering, the easier it will be to stand out from your competitors and land better, higher-paying clients. Pick your pony and ride it to success.
3. Continuing education
Remember those “The More You Know” commercials that used to interrupt your Saturday morning cartoons? Well, they were on to something. As the world of design continues to evolve to accommodate new marketing tactics and advanced technologies, so too must your knowledge of design and how it relates to marketing and development evolve. In 2014, you should continue to seek out opportunities to expand your knowledge of design in your chosen discipline.
4. Marketplace value
Competition from designers who charge far less than you – especially foreign designers – can threaten your ability to win new clients. In 2014, you should become an expert at selling not only the quality of your design work, but the value in your understanding of your clients’ markets.
5. Outsourcing
If you’re a freelancer, there is a limit to how much you can charge (at least, that clients are willing to pay), and there are only so many hours in the day. If you want to maximize your income, it’s time to consider outsourcing work to other talented designers. Perhaps you should adopt the agency approach?
6. Add-on services
Another great way to increase your income is to partner with companies that can provide complementary services. This will become more important than ever in 2014, as busy small businesses want to pass off their design projects and not have to contract with several companies to get them done. For this reason, it behooves you to establish partnerships with developers and printers and add your fee on top of any work they perform. White label partners allow you to put all work under your name.
7. Passive income
The cost of living continues to increase, yet you continue to face stiff competition in pricing. Specializing can help you charge more, but you can also take advantage of passive income opportunities such as selling your designs on posters, shirts, coffee mugs, and more. Devote some time each week to a new design you can sell via online product marketplaces such as Zazzle.
8. Pay raises
Whether you work for a design firm or are a freelancer, you need to work in annual pay raises, at minimum. Ask your employer for a raise; or, if you’re a freelancer, increase your fees by a set percentage every year to make up for inflation and increased cost-of-living expenses.
9. Trends vs. innovation
As noted, understanding and being able to apply contemporary design trends will land you more work and keep clients happy. At the same time, you need to differentiate yourself as a designer. How will you balance design trends vs. design innovation?
10. Value perception
It’s unfortunate, but graphic designers have been devalued by the same digital world that has created so many opportunities. Supply and demand dictates that marketplace, and designers are a dime a dozen online. That’s why it’s so important for you to work to change the perception of designers – or, at least, your own design work. It’s critical to demonstrate the value of what you do to your clients’ overall goals in order to lay a foundation for long-term success.
Guest Author Brian Morris writes for the PsPrint Design & Printing Blog. PsPrint is an online commercial printing company. Follow PsPrint on Twitter @PsPrint.
Syntax Blindness
An interesting post from Khan Academy about Newbie Syntax Blindness got me thinking about teaching syntax.
First let me point out that Khan Academy is dealing with a different situation than face-to-face teaching. Their problem is about finding ways to alert students who are working online with useful messages about what their syntax errors might be.
In a classroom, face to face with students, I do it very differently. I introduce either HTML or CSS syntax in minute detail. I discuss every bracket, space, comma, semi colon, forward slash, and quotation mark they will be using. I show lots of examples. Then when they begin the actual typing, I walk around and help them spot their errors.
I also teach them that when a page falls apart, look in the HTML for a syntax error right before where the problem appears. It will most likely be a missing quotation mark or bracket someone just ahead of where the problem shows us. I find that students invariably pull their hair out over the part of the page they think is broken, but never think about simple syntax errors or typos that may have occurred just prior to that. That usually where the problem is.
Another problem students have with syntax when they first begin hand coding is taking what they see on a whiteboard or a projection screen or a demonstration monitor and translating into finger strokes on their own computer. The details are minute and exacting. The more time they can spend developing some muscle memory around these strange new keys they are using on their keyboards, the better they will do. People who have been keyboarding for years can be thrown into beginner’s mode hunting for curly braces and brackets and slashes and equals signs.
If you are teaching, either face to face or in online classes, how do you teach syntax?
10 Video Tools Designers will Love
[Note. Take a second look at this gem from the archives.]
The mass popularity of video presents opportunities for graphic designers to dabble into video editing. Even if you’re not going to do video editing professionally, learn enough to make it part of your skill set, because video is likely to rule the future. Get started or become a pro with the following 10 video tools for graphic designers.
1. Adobe After Effects
Adobe After Effects is often considered the de facto program for video effects, titling and compositing. The cons? It is not user friendly for those with no video editing experience, and the learning curve is steep.
2. BorisFX
BorisFX is a plug-in suite that takes basic video editing programs to the next level. Superior keying and compositing tools adds another dimension to a basic editing platform, allowing you to do more with graphics and fonts. More importantly for novices, it simplifies effects so you can quickly add a professional touch to your videos.
3. Motion
Motion is the effects program that works in conjunction with Final Cut Pro ñ in other words, it is Apple’s answer to Adobe After Effects.
4. Adobe Photoshop
How does Photoshop fit into this equation? Not only can you alter video files, but you can also share work seamlessly with other Adobe programs such as Premiere Pro and After Effects. Photoshop puts most designers on familiar ground.
5. Smoke
You want high-grade, super-impressive special effects? Look no further than Smoke, available only for the Mac.
6. Toon Boom
Toon Boom allows you to make quick and easy animations that maintain a premium appearance, without a steep learning curve.
7. 3Ds Max
With industry-leading 3Ds Max, the only thing youíre limited by is your imagination.
8. Adobe Premiere
Adobe Premiere is a fairly basic editing program, but when you combine it with the power of Adobe Creative Suite, it is so much more. Working in conjunction with Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects, you’ll have all you’ll ever need to create high-quality graphics and compositing in one package.
9. Final Cut Pro
Much like Premiere, Final Cut Pro is a basic editing program, but with a decidedly Apple twist. It was a long-time industry standard for video editing; combing graphics, titling and compositing with ease.
10. Ultimatte
Ultimatte started out as keying software, but then transitioned into hardware. If you are serious about compositing and getting the cleanest possible work on green or blue screens, then Ultimatte is a must-have tool.
Guest Author Brian Morris writes for the PsPrint Design & Printing Blog. PsPrint is an online commercial printing company. Follow PsPrint on Twitter @PsPrint and Facebook.