How Big Data Is Influencing Web Design

Friday, March 31, 2017

As a web designer, you need to keep on top of a number of trends to stay on the cutting edge of your profession. Some of these trends, like fashion, are stylistic and ephemeral. Others, however, reflect a deep change in technology.

One trend that is rooted in a technological shift is how Big Data is greatly influencing web design. This is not a trend that will dissipate or be replaced by another aesthetic choice. Instead, it’s a trend that will only get more established in the years to come.

For this reason, it’s a good idea to understand what is meant by the term “big data” and how it affects your work as a web-designer.

How Big Is Big Data?

Big data is a large volume of structured and unstructured data.

According to CloudTweaks, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced every single day. That’s 2.5 with 18 zeros. They also say: “Looking forward, experts now predict that 40 zettabytes of data will be in existence by 2020. Three years ago, the entire World Wide Web is estimated to contain approximately 500 exabytes – which is 5 billion gigabytes, but only half of one zettabyte! 40 zettabytes is, therefore, 400 billion gigabytes!”

How Big Data Affects Web Design

Web designers have to design web solutions that will be able to handle massive amounts of data. Their goal will be to capture relevant data and use it to further a website’s goal.

In other words, we’re talking about data-driven design. Large amounts of data will have to be arranged and presented in a way that helps the clients reach website’s goals, like attracting more visitors and providing them with a high quality of service to boosts conversion rate optimization.

Benefits of Data-Driven Design

How will you use data to determine your design?

Here are some possibilities:

  1. You could use it to improve iterative design.
  2. You could use it to gather information on how people respond to the design.
  3. You could use it to understand how visitors benefit from the content presented on a website.
  4. You could use data visualization to get feedback to enhance future automation.

Your data-driven design will be used by a variety of different industries to improve products and services. For example, the healthcare industry will use data-driven design to get a better grasp of patient’s medical history so that they can determine the best treatment options. Big data will also help this industry get an understanding about patient’s background information—like where they live and the work they do for a living. This information will help them improve the delivery of patient care.

Criteria for Design

As a designer you will need to get clear on 3 factors when talking to a client about their website:

  • 1. Goals. You will need to understand what clients hope to achieve with their website and what data is relevant for these goals.
  • 2. Data processing. You will need to understand the structure of this data. This will include understanding the source of the data and how much of it is processed through the website. In other words, what’s the source, or starting point, and what’s the convergence, or end point?
  • 3. Platform. Based on understanding the website’s goals and the type of data it will manage, you will be able to suggest the best platform. How, in other words, can you best support the movement of data through the system?

Guidelines

When designing the website, here are a few useful guidelines:

  • 1. Testing. Slowly introduce the data into the platform, rather than simply inundating the platform with a large volume of data. This will allow you to understand how your structure manages to process large amounts of data in real time.
  • 2. Updating. Figure out how to keep the data relevant. Data can quickly become dated, so you will have to have some mechanisms for updating data and keep it fresh and current.
  • 3. Feedback loops. Use feedback loops to measure how data moves through a system. Feedback will allow you to tweak analytics to improve evaluations. Consistently optimizing resources will provide the basis for increasingly more accurate data-based predictions.

The Winning Edge

All things being equal, a company with a higher quality of business intelligence will flourish in the marketplace.

The post How Big Data Is Influencing Web Design appeared first on Web Design Blog | Magazine for Designers.



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20 Pinterest-Style WordPress Themes

Are you a fan of Pinterest? Then you definitely need to see these Pinterest-style WordPress themes that you can use to create your next grid-based WordPress website.

Explore their features, download and customize them to create artistic web pages. These include multiple useful characteristics that will assist you in creating cutting-edge multipurpose websites. Some of these may incorporate SEO optimization, customizable widgets, multiple browser compatibilities, responsive layouts, shortcodes, Google fonts, full-width design, grid layout, unlimited colors, translation-ready files, infinite scroll, and more. All these are available without writing any extra code lines.

These wonderful Pinterest-style WordPress templates have similar functionalities to the popular Pinterest platform, and they let you browse through multiple pins, like, share, comment, save, and more.

Take a look at all of these themes and start creating!

Pinable

Pinable is a Pinterest-style theme which you can use to create stunning websites. These templates support audio files, videos, galleries, quotes, and links. Download and start customizing!

Pinable Pinterest-Style WordPress Themes

Pinfinity

Use this lovely template to build a Pinterest look-alike website to share interesting assets, facts, etc. This theme was created for WordPress and it comes with neat features that will help you achieve a powerful website.

CSSIgniter---Premium-WordPress-Themes Pinterest-Style WordPress Themes

SuperGrid

Super Grid is a gorgeous WordPress theme with a fully adaptive layout that will fit any screen size. Download and customize it to meet your requirements.

SuperGrid-–-Just-another-RichWP-Demo-Server-Sites-site

Brick + Mason

Brick + Mason is perfect for various creative individuals or businesses such as design studios, photographers, etc. This theme has a lovely design with infinite scrolling, Google fonts, and other great features.

THE-MOLITOR-_-Brick-+-Mason

Inspire

Inspire is a professional-looking WordPress theme with a beautiful design that you can use for multipurpose websites. Take a look at its features and use it for your current or future projects.

Inspire---A-Multi-purpose,-Masonry-Theme-Preview---ThemeForest

InGRID

InGRID is a premium WordPress template with a fully responsive layout that will automatically adapt to any screen size, without any quality losses. Check it out and see if it fits your style!

InGRID---Responsive-Multi-Purpose-WordPress-Theme-Preview---ThemeForest

Ikebana

Ikebana has a minimalistic design that will impress you with its simplicity. This WordPress template is fully customizable and it includes powerful features.

Satori-Studio-_-Theme_-Ikebana

Remal

Remal is a premium WordPress theme with a design that is very similar to Pinterest. This template has a 100% responsive layout that fits perfectly any screen without problems.

TieLabs-_-Item-_-Remal

Pinboard

Pinboard is a beautiful WordPress theme with a very useful grid layout, unlimited colors, backgrounds, widgets, SEO optimization, translation-ready, and more.

Pinboard-Theme-_-MyThemeShop

PinStrap

Here you have another gorgeous WordPress theme with a layout and functionalities that are similar to Pinterest. See what it has to offer!

Brag-Themes-_-Theme_-PinStrap

Pinboard

This is a lovely Pinterest-style theme that you can add to your WordPress website. This is a premium item that has multiple useful features.

Pinboard-_-Just-another-WordPress-site

Pinboard

Here is an amazing WordPress theme that has a similar design and functionalities to Pinterest. This premium template uses a grid layout, comments, posts, widgets, etc.

Themify-Demos---Pinboard

Pintores

Pintores is a wonderful WordPress template with a fully responsive design that fits perfectly any screen size without content issues. See what you can use it for!

CSSIgniter---Premium-WordPress-Themes

Pinstagram

Pinstagram is a premium WordPress template which was created with a Pinterest-styled design. This theme has a grid that is perfect for viewing multiple posts.

Pinstagram-Theme-_-MyThemeShop

Pinshop

Pinshop is a Pinterest inspired theme that you can rapidly integrate into your WordPress website. This template has customizable features and useful characteristics.

Themify-Demos---Pinshop

WP-PinUp

Here is another wonderful WordPress theme with a Pinterest-styled design. Check out its full features and see if it meets your requirements.

SoloStream-_-Demo-Themes

Pin

Pin is a premium WordPress theme with a highly customizable layout that is very similar to Pinterest. This template has a fully responsive design that will automatically adapt to any size.

Pin-=-Pinterest-Style-_-Personal-Masonry-Blog-_-Front-end-Submission-Preview---T

TheWall

This is a professional WordPress theme which has the following features: responsive layout, grid design, user-friendly shortcodes, useful widgets, Google fonts, SEO friendly, and more.

TheWall---Grid-A-Licious-Blog-and-Portfolio-theme-Preview---ThemeForest

Fashionista

Fashionista is a lovely WordPress template with a Pinterest-inspired layout. This theme has a 100% responsive design, static header, social profile icons, sharing icons, unlimited hover colors, AJAX scrolling, widgets, and more.

Fashionista---Responsive-WordPress-Blog-Theme-Preview---ThemeForest

TheStyle

Check out this Pinterest-style template that you can easily integrate into your WordPress website. Check out its full features and use it to create stunning websites with powerful functionalities.

TheStyle-Theme-Preview

The post 20 Pinterest-Style WordPress Themes appeared first on Line25.



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20 Best Google Fonts for Headings and Body Text

Thursday, March 30, 2017

In this article, we’ve rounded up an excellent collection of the best Google fonts for titles, headings, and body texts. Each font has its unique design that makes it stand out from the rest. Most of these font families come with multiple styles such as thin, regular, medium, semi-bold, bold, black, and also, each one with its corresponding italics.

Some of these Google typefaces are perfect for newspapers, magazine websites, body texts and others for titles and headlines, where the text needs to have a strong visual impact.

All these Google fonts can be used for online projects. Browse through all of them and see which one fits your project.

Playfair Display

Playfair is a beautiful font that is perfect for titles and headlines. This typeface comes with various styles: regular, regular italic, bold, bold italic, black, black italic.

Playfair-Display--- Best Google Fonts

Rubik

Rubik is a wonderful sans-serif font that was created by Philipp Hubert and Sebastian Fischer from the Hubert & Fischer design studio. The full font family is available for free download from Google fonts.

Rubik---Google-Fonts

Libre Franklin

Libre Franklin is another great typeface that you can use in your online projects. This is available in many styles: regular, italic, bold, thin, light, medium, bold, semi-bold, extra bold, black, and more.

Libre-Franklin---Google-Fonts

Fira Sans

Fira Sans is a strong typeface that is available in multiple styles. Choose the one you find appropriate to your project and use it in your design to add a professional look.

Fira-Sans--- Best Google Fonts

Alegreya Sans

Alegreya Sans is a sans-serif font family with a lovely design that is perfect for long texts. You can download it in 7 weight styles, see which one fits your projects best.

Alegreya-Sans---Google-Fonts

Chivo

Chivo is an amazing sans serif font family which you can download in various styles such as light, regular, bold, black, each one with its italic form.

Chivo---Google-Fonts

Source Sans Pro

Source Sans Pro is a lovely font family that was created by Paul D. Hunt. This sans serif typeface that will look stunning in your designs. Take a look!

Source-Sans-Pro---Google-Fonts

Roboto

Roboto has a wonderful sans-serif design, it was created by Christian Robertson and it is available for downloaded from Google fonts.

Roboto---Google-Fonts

Poppins

Here is another stunning typeface with an amazing design that you can download and use right away. This is an Indian Type Foundry (ITF) with a sans-serif typeface which includes various styles: light, regular, medium, semi- bold, bold.

Poppins---Google-Fonts

Archivo Narrow

Archivo Narrow is a neat sans-serif typeface family which you can use in both printed and digital projects. This font is perfect for highlights and headlines.

Archivo-Narrow---Google-Fonts

Crimson Text

Crimson Text is a beautiful typeface family which you can download from Google fonts and use right away. This is available in multiple styles such as regular, regular italic, semibold, semibold italic, bold, bold italic.

Crimson-Text---Google-Fonts

Montserrat

Montserrat is a gorgeous sans-serif font family which was designed by Julieta Ulanovsky.  This font works great for headlines and other similar uses where the text has a strong visual impact.

Montserrat---Google-Fonts

Domine

Domine is a strong serif typeface which is perfect for body text in online projects. This font was created by Pablo Impallariested with intent to be used for newspapers, magazines websites, etc.

Domine---Google-Fonts

Bitter

Bitter is a serif font that makes online reading a pleasure. This typeface was designed by Sol Matas and can be downloaded from Google fonts in normal, italic and bold styles.

Bitter---Google-Fonts

PT Sans

PT Sans is an amazing font that was created by the designers Alexandra Korolkova, Olga Umpeleva and Vladimir Yefimov and can be downloaded and used for free.

PT-Sans---Google-Fonts

Lato

Lato is an open-source sans-serif font which is available in Google fonts in various styles: thin, light, normal, bold and ultra-bold, along with its corresponding italic.

Lato---Google-Fonts

Neuton

Neuton was designed by Brian Zick and can be downloaded and used for free from Google fonts. This open-source serif typeface has a simple but beautiful design that will get noticed.

Neuton---Google-Fonts

Inconsolata

Inconsolata is a great typeface with a lovely design that was carefully created by Raph Levien. This is a special font with a bold weight, with no italic version and can be used in many situations.

Inconsolata---Google-Fonts

Raleway

Raleway is an elegant sans-serif font that is available from Google fonts in 9 weight types, with its matching italic. This was designed by Matt McInerney and it can make your online projects stand out.

 

Raleway---Google-Fonts

Arvo

Arvo is a beautiful typeface that was created by the designer Anton Koovit. This open-source serif font is available for download from Google fonts.

Arvo---Google-Fonts

The post 20 Best Google Fonts for Headings and Body Text appeared first on Web Design Blog | Magazine for Designers.



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