If recent global events have taught us anything, it’s that life as we know it can change in an instant. The things that once seemed certain and knowable become anything but.
For web designers who rely on client work to make a living, this situation is especially daunting. After all, what happens to our clients greatly affects us as well.
When our clients enact things like temporary closures, cost-cutting measures and other assorted chaos, it eventually makes its way down to us. In turn, our workloads and revenue can take an unexpected hit.
So, how can you deal with this uncertainty? Here are a few tips to keep you moving forward.
Being a freelancer or part of a small agency is actually great preparation for uncertainty. Change and unexpected turns go along with running a business. So, you may actually be in a better position than you think.
To know for sure, you’ll have to assess your situation. Think about what is happening and determine:
If you’re facing a huge shortage in cash, hopefully you’ll also have more free time to make up for that loss. However, if the losses aren’t major, you may get along just fine.
Once you know where you stand, it’s a matter of looking at your priorities. Figure out:
From there, it’s about making the necessary adjustments. It might mean looking for new clients, or finding ways to increase revenue from existing ones (redesigns, retrofitting, adding new features, etc.)
Maybe you suddenly find yourself with a few less projects to work on. While this isn’t an ideal situation, it is also a wonderful opportunity. It’s important to find activities that help you make the most of the newfound openings in your schedule.
What looks outwardly like a slow time can actually be a great chance to improve yourself and your business. Sometimes, the hardest part is simply figuring out what you want to do.
You could, for instance, decide to learn a new skill. In the short term, this helps by keeping your mind occupied and engaged in something productive. Over the long haul, you can use what you’ve learned to increase your service offerings and revenue.
This time could also be spent on a personal project, such as a redesign of your portfolio. There is something exciting about building a new online home. And it seems like designers rarely have the time to work on their own website. You may as well take advantage of the chance to do so.
Finally, this could also be a good opportunity to help existing clients make some necessary changes. Be proactive by reaching out and offering to help with adding new features or fine-tuning accessibility. Or maybe it’s time to perform some other behind-the-scenes maintenance.
How is it possible to plan for the future when you’re in the middle of a very fluid situation? It’s a matter of staying grounded and realistic.
The truth is that none of us can really predict what will happen tomorrow. But, using the assessment you made as a guide, you at least know where you are today.
The longer we have uncertainty, the more likely we’ll face unexpected situations. Think about what could realistically change within the coming weeks and months. How might that affect your business?
Also, a word of warning: Optimism is never a bad thing – but don’t let it cloud your judgement. Being overly-optimistic can lead to short-sighted decisions. For example, planning an expensive vacation when you’re not really sure what your earnings will be six months from now.
It may be wiser to prepare yourself for a more extended period of instability (if not for yourself, at least for the market in general). Then, if things do turn out better than anticipated, you can breathe easier.
One can make the argument that, as the world has turned to the internet for so many essential services, web designers are still in great demand. So, even as uncertainty makes for an uncomfortable present, the future looks bright.
To stay in the game, it will take the ability to adapt to the new normal. We must serve the clients we have and find ways to add new ones to our portfolios.
Oddly enough, that’s exactly what we’ve done for the better part of three decades. If we’ve made it this far, we can find our way through even the most challenging of times. Hang in there!
The post Dealing with Uncertain Times as a Web Designer appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.
There’s a legend among the cheese connoisseurs of New York City. In most of the US, it’s illegal to sell raw (non-pasteurized) dairy products. The reasons why are complicated, but many non-Americans who were raised on fresh milk and cheeses are often surprised when they come stateside and are unable to purchase anything that came purely from a cow.
Nevertheless, there are pockets of independent retail shops in New York who have been quietly staging their own cheesy rebellion for years. These renegade shops continue to sell raw cheeses – preferred among gourmets for their supposedly superior taste and texture.
However, you can’t simply walk into one of these shops and pick up a raw round of cheese off the shelf. You have to specifically ask for it. Most people wouldn’t think to ask, and so they never know about the whole world of illicit flavor hiding in plain sight.
This, my friends, is an example of design mythology in action. A compelling story that piques your natural curiosity and makes you wonder if you yourself could ever stumble across something so unusual.
The best part is that it’s not merely something for cheese sellers – designers can master this skill as well, using their own personal stories to craft a compelling narrative that captivates clients as well as viewers. Maybe not as cool as illegal cheese, though. I mean, come on. That’s pretty epic.
The British street artist Banksy is known for his anonymity almost as much as he is known for his work. This is done deliberately – it builds up a powerful persona that people recognize (or in Banksy’s case, don’t recognize) immediately. They will hear your name and instantly recall how weird you are, or how many risks you take, or how excited you get when talking about your work.
Whatever your unique personality and communication style is, you can use it to transform your persona from dull to dynamic. Even if you think you’re not that exciting, you can still capitalize on some quirk of yours that will grab people’s attention.
Even being “boring” can be fascinating as a persona. American comedian Jerry Seinfeld is quite famous for being an average, everyday Joe. It’s how he built his comedy empire and became a legend on television screens across the country. So don’t be afraid to be exactly who you are, and never underestimate your appeal to your niche market.
What others may fine dull or strange or confusing, your audience will absolutely love.
You can definitely harness the same process for your design work as well, and create a compelling experience around the production of your work for your clients and your users.
Many artists and designers have used video to display their creative process to the fans of their work. People love to watch a creative person working; if you’ve ever tried to sketch in a public place like the zoo or the subway, you know this. Many strangers won’t be able to resist tilting their heads around trying to get a good look at your sketchbook.
When you display your own unique production style, clients and users will take notice, and your work will take on a life of its own in the stories people will tell each other about it.
You want those stories – that mythology – to take root in every aspect of your production and your marketing. It’s the single most important part of your reputation as a designer.
Storytelling is the most essential component of creating a mythology around yourself as a designer. After all, how else to get your mythology out there except in story form? But storytelling is a double-edged blade.
Sure, you have to get good at telling your own story. But it’s also important to consider the stories other people are telling about your work.
What people say about your designs, and how they say it, is vital to getting the best clients. You can definitely influence people’s opinion of your work based on the mythology surrounding it. People are more likely to respond positively to design that has a good mythology around its creation, than to design that has little to no mythology.
If you really want to stand out from the crowd, don’t take inspiration from the same things everyone else in your industry is. Find something else to embrace, perhaps from a different industry or discipline, and co-opt it for your own work.
Remember that it’s perfectly okay to steal ideas, just as long as you steal enough different ones.
If every designer is obsessed with one particular trend or style, and you’re just not into it, that’s perfectly okay. Read books, look at new and different designs, and discover even more things that will help you develop a totally unique visual style.
It takes more work, but if you’re willing to dig deeper, you’ll stand head and shoulders above all the copycats who are too lazy or afraid to strike out on their own.
It takes time to develop a mythology around your designs. Don’t expect it to happen overnight – people need time to get to know who you are as a designer and to adapt to your unique offerings.
Attracting quality clients who will rave about your work will help tremendously, as it will lend your business a credibility that you can’t get any other way. Remember, people are willing to tolerate almost any amount of eccentricity as long as others can verify that you can be counted on to deliver the results they want.
The post Developing a Sense of Mythology Around Your Designs appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.
Smart Interface Design Patterns Checklists PDF – Use this set of checklists to ensure that you’re creating smart design patterns.
How to Create an Emergency Message UI in WordPress – Add an attention-grabbing emergency message to your website that can be turned on or off with a click.
colors.lol – Dive into this “overly descriptive” collection of color palettes.
Styling Scrollbars with CSS: The Modern Way to Style Scrollbars – Finally, a viable way to style scrollbars across multiple browsers.
Emergency Website Kit – A free static boilerplate you can use to quickly serve vital information in an emergency.
How to read RSS in 2020 – A modern look at the still-useful technology.
UX myths to forget in 2020 – Debunking some common themes around UX.
10 Best Adobe After Effects Titles Templates – Set the tone for your video project with these outstanding titles.
Animated Custom Cursor Effects – Create compelling effects with SVG filters.
20 Beautiful & Free Resume Templates for Designers – Get the attention of your next employer with these stunning resumes.
Neomorphic Travel UI Kit Free – A free, trendy UI kit for Figma.
The 50 Best Free Icon Fonts for UI Design – Spice up your designs with these free font icon offerings.
Quick and simple image placeholder – Use this tool to generate colorful image placeholders.
Four Definitions of Design – Getting the “bigger picture” of what design really is.
Hook: Free Dark HTML Template – Get your “dark mode” on with this free template kit.
The post Weekly News for Designers № 534 appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.
The month of March was both a tough and exciting time for the WordPress open-source project. With COVID-19 declared a pandemic, in-person events have had to adapt quickly – a challenge for any community. March culminated with the release of WordPress 5.4, an exhilarating milestone only made possible by dedicated contributors. For all the latest, read on.
WordPress 5.4 “Adderley” was released on March 31 and includes a robust list of new blocks, enhancements, and new features for both users and developers. The primary focus areas of this release included the block editor, privacy, accessibility, and developer improvements, with the full list of enhancements covered in the 5.4 field guide.
Want to get involved in building WordPress Core? Follow the Core team blog, and join the #core channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.
It’s been another busy month for Gutenberg, this time with the release of Gutenberg 7.7 and 7.8. Gutenberg 7.7 introduced block patterns – predefined block layouts that are ready to use and tweak. This is an important step towards Full Site Editing, which is currently targeted for inclusion in WordPress 5.6. As a first iteration, you can pick and insert patterns from the Block Patterns UI, which has been added as a sidebar plugin.
Gutenberg 7.7 also includes a refresh of the Block UI, which better responds to the ways users interact with the editor. For more information on the User UI and Block Patterns, read this summary of the most recent Block-Based Themes meeting. Gutenberg 7.8, introduced on March 25, further enhanced this Block UI redesign. Both releases also included a suite of improvements, bug fixes, new APIs, documentation, and more!
Want to get involved in building Gutenberg? Follow the Core team blog, contribute to Gutenberg on GitHub, and join the #core-editor channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.
In early March, the Community team issued new recommendations for event organizers in light of growing concerns around COVID-19. Following this guidance, and with COVID-19 declared a pandemic, WordPress community organizers reluctantly but responsibly postponed or canceled their upcoming WordCamps and meetups.
As community events are an important part of the WordPress open-source project, the Community team made suggestions for taking charity hackathons online, proposed interim adjustments to existing community event guidelines, and provided training for online conference organizing with Crowdcast. The team is currently working on building a Virtual Events Handbook that will continue to support WordPress community organizers at this time.
Want to get involved with the WordPress Community team, host your own virtual WordPress event, or help improve the documentation for all of this? Follow the Community team blog, learn more about virtual events, and join the #community-events channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.
Last month, an experimental feature was added to Trac, WordPress Core’s bug-tracking system, to improve collaboration between Trac and GitHub. This month, to help make tracking contributions to the WordPress project across multiple locations easier, there is a new option to connect your GitHub account to your WordPress.org profile. This connection allows for more accurate acknowledgement and recognition of contributors. You can connect your GitHub account to your WordPress.org account by editing your WordPress.org profile.
For more information and instructions on how to connect your accounts, read the announcement post.
Defined coding standards is an important step in creating the consistent codebase needed to prepare for requiring PHP 7.x for WordPress Core. As such, coding standards have been proposed for implementation in WordPress Coding Standards 3.0.0. This includes new proposed standards for namespace declarations, import use statements, fully qualified names in inline code, traits and interfaces, type declarations, declare statements/strict typing, the ::class constant, operators, and more.
Want to get involved or view the full list of currently proposed new coding standards? Visit and add your feedback to the post on updating the Coding standards for modern PHP and follow the Core team blog.
Have a story that we should include in the next “Month in WordPress” post? Please submit it here.
