Category Technology

The history of modern art and design speaks volumes about an era that stands among the ones making an impact to-date.

The time when design started shedding layers and layers to welcome the minimalist streak has evolved to give birth to minimalist web designs.

Continuing the tradition, minimalism has penetrated the web design to flash its unique attributes on the fast-lane World Wide Web platform.

A modern minimalist website is different from that of the usual one.

It has more benefits, is more appealing to the users, and is a way to make the most out of few elements.

From experimenting with colors to simplifying the user-experience, minimalism piques the users’ senses and allowing them to pair their emotions and thoughts with a clutter-free design.

Sure, it’s becoming popular.

Most of the companies and designers are employing minimalism to create original designs with a light yet deep impression.

When well-designed minimalist sites collide with a user-focused approach, excellent user experience is created.

As much as it’s fun to play with minimalist web design, pinning it can be harder and trickier than imagined.

To help you understand what minimalism is about, this article takes you through a detailed approach to explore this modern concept.

As the article proceeds, you will also learn effective practices to master minimalist website designing.

What’s Minimalism and Why Choose It?

Popularly known as the art of ‘less is more’, designers use the term in several industries to refer to the same idea.

As little as it utilizes to create the maximum impact, the word itself hides much more than it displays.

Minimalism is about reducing the redundancy and removing the clutter.

While some believe it to be a method of introducing creative aesthetics, others think of it as a fundamental principle every website should follow.

In reality, minimalism is about simplifying communication, making it direct and transparent.

When designers create a web design, they usually focus on communicating the website’s message to the audience.

They concentrate their attention on reducing the number of unnecessary elements to the essential ones and maximizing the user experience.

Each component of a minimalist website is used to its optimum, so the quality remains able to deliver value without sacrificing the website’s usability and functionality.

With the bold types, imagery and colour play, the message hits the user like a train – seamlessly and directly.

When we say minimalism has benefits, you must believe it. Why?

Because an excellent minimalistic web design offers the following opportunities:

• Content utilizes fully
• Website becomes more responsive
• Page-loading time decreases
• Increases user retention
• Hierarchy presents at its best
• User doesn’t get stressed
• Navigation becomes intuitive
• Aesthetic appeal maximises

Components of a Minimalist Website Design

Minimalist web design has few but strong pillars that set the foundation of great design.

Let’s take a peek at the essential elements that have the creative power suiting to the taste for minimalism.

1. White/Negative Space

Every website is created with two main elements in focus – figure and ground.

The human mind notices the features on the front and ignores the surrounding area.

That area or the white/negative space creates balance and guides the users’ attention to the elements of importance.

2. Visuals

Minimalistic website design is incomplete without high-quality, magnetic visuals. As the figure elements, they guide the users’ attention and convey the messages you can link with the rest of the content.

As minimalism is about introducing one focus at a time, the images and videos used in this context must showcase minimalism by portraying one focal object at a time.

In fact, visuals influence more than usability.

Striking and relevant visuals are the vital minimalist characteristics that rule.

3. Typography

Types are a great way to convey the intended message as well as the tone.

In minimalist styles, the types and fonts used are typically bold and broad.

They’re meant to be experimented with.

The types tell your viewers what your web design is about and how you’re delivering it.

These give your message a language, setting its tone and personality with its attributes.

Moreover, each type, when matched with different messages and different characteristics, presents a unique and creative approach to the design.

4. Colours

Colours are the moving factor in the minimalist site.

They evoke emotions and can influence the viewers and users to take action.

Whether you’re using bright to dull and nudes to flashy ones, the colors can convey a variety of meanings, enhancing the impact of your design as well as your messages.

In minimalism, colours are usually used in contrast to making the figure pop out against a subtle background.

Whatever your ideas, the right choice of colors makes your website look more refined.

Tips To Master Minimalism In Web Design

Achieving minimalism in web design isn’t as easy as it seems, but following the right practices can help you get the experience you need for creating a minimalist site.

1. Create A Single Focal Point

Minimalism is about creating a single focal point that enhances your chance to communicate your message directly to the audience.

In all the professional sites created at a Dallas web design company or any other around the world, professionalism will peak at focusing on one figure in the webpage at a time.

The focal point could be a text, image, or video, aided with a secondary element to converge the attention.

It allows your users to retain the chunks of information for more extended periods in the memory.

Vincent Saisset uses nothing but the initial of his first name on the homepage.

The V gets all the attention until the user scrolls down to discover the developer’s portfolio.

2. Use Space For Your Good

White space or negative space gives life to your content.

It enhances the quality of how a text or image or any other media appears on the site.

The more you use white space, the more it can inch closer to easing the user experience.

Several sites use white space to let the content breathe.

Also, white creates a stellar contrast with the imagery to navigate the user’s attention without tiring the eyes.

Muraflex gives a stunning example of web design exploring the edges of white space.

The breathable area lets the user tune with the aesthetics of the design while keeping it light.

3. Make Animations Appeal To The Users

The animation is often viewed as fluff in the design world as it could weigh a website’s responsiveness down.

But with minimalism, animations used with respective plugins not only appeal to the end-users but also become a source of interaction.

These make the designs appear more professional, adding efficiency to the overall interface.

If you want to add animations, your designs could reach the next level and enhance the height of user experience without compromising other areas of website functionality.

4. Big and Bold Fonts Are The Go-Tos

As mentioned before, the choice of type is a critical factor in a minimalist design.

Most of all, it should be clean, clear, and readable.

You can use the typography as your focal point to state your message and create attention-grabbing texts.

However, you must stick to no more than one to three fonts, as using more would shun the chance of being transparent and legible.

If you’re in for some fun, experiment with a variety of fonts and different sizes.

Rezo zero presents as a clear-cut example of how a focused, readable text should look.

It’s broad. It’s bold. And it delivers the message equally well.

5. Choose HQ Images At All Times

People react to visuals more than they respond to the text.

Beautiful imagery overwhelms other functionality flaws, and it’s proven by the law of aesthetic usability.

For that reason, design in the industry is whole another topic.

Take your cue from every site that uses bold and high-quality graphics to set the emotional stage for your users.

Like colours, the viewers must be able to visualise their needs via these graphics.

Just remember that minimalism is about narrowing your focus.

It isn’t about just decoration; it’s about showcasing the product or service you’re offering.

Yelvy adds a fantastic touch to the website by directly showcasing the product line.

Beautiful imagery combined with a direct message gives you an excellent user experience.

Minimalism Can Speak Wonders About A Web Design

Minimalism is much more about creating a sense of wonder with the convenience of use.

You might achieve the looks, but dousing your design in functionality is equally important.

Without a smooth and sleek website, you can’t reach your goals and objectives.

In this article, we discussed some fundamentals and tips for minimalist design.

To get started, tune in with the minimalist vibe and design your web site journey with dedication and practice.

Author Bio

Loius Martin is the Creative Marketing Manager at Invictus Studio, a professional logo design company in Dallas.

With years of practice in the field, Loius is considered a seasoned professional with a smooth, serial streak for everything related to design.

After work, Loius chills with some classic jazz as he writes blogs and articles related to web design.

Designing a mobile app incorporates a typical yet complex process.

After failing, learning and succeeding, most of the mobile app developers follow the same process.

For the beginners and those who want to build an app for their business, it’s important to know how the design process flow.

The designing process typically includes the following steps:

1. Idea

The idea is the beginning of any development process.

In the first place, your idea should be liable to work on.

If you are looking for some mobile app developers, make sure your idea is viable to earn and capable of recouping your investment in the form of revenue.

Besides, discuss with the mobile app developer if your idea is technically feasible or not.

Check for the obstacles to face while implementing the idea?

Is your idea unique?

Do you have your competitors already in the market?

How can you make your idea better?

If you think your idea is worth working on and can give you returns, start working on it.

2. Specification

After the idea, comes specifications.

It’s crucial to gather specs to declares that what is your app for and how it is going to be accomplished.

By writing the spec, you would further develop, evolve and refine your idea towards a better product.

Some mobile app developers overlook the spec phase, but it shouldn’t be ignored at all because it brings things in clarity.

Many initial assumptions are clarified and elucidated in the spec documentation, keeping everyone know their job and help operate the work in a productive sequence.

3. Wireframe

The first deliberate design made in a project is Wireframes.

They are low fidelity mockups built based on specifications.

This part is usually handled by a UX designer; however, the involvement of all the team members is vital. Photoshop and Sketch are the popular software applications used for wireframing.

4. Prototype

After specs and wireframes, you are ready to present a solution for the first idea.

This phase helps in rectifying the mistakes or missing details in the specs.

Prototype brings forward the errors and counterintuitive flows of the app so that they can be fixed.

For prototyping and collaborative design work, you should check out  Framer, Figma, Marvel, or InVision.

5. Visual Design

Visual design is the final section of the design process.

The visual design process is based on all the previous sections you through designing an app.

For the visual design part, mobile app developers mostly use Photoshop and Sketch.

6. Development

Design and development of an app are the interweaved processes and require collaboration between the designer and the mobile app developer.

So, the design and the development process should not be done without the basic understanding of both areas.

Before getting the final product in hand, the designer and the developer usually keep revolving in the design and development processes and results.

Moving along the time, the design tools and the outcome, both have changed and improved to a remarkable extent.

However, the basic design process of a Mobile App is the same.

Moreover, if you are looking for a mobile app developer Dallas, you should know the basics of the design and development process to bring things to a settlement in a progressive way.

SEO continues to play a key role in how businesses connect with their audience.

While social media marketing has grown in popularity and notoriety, organic search still reigns supreme in 2019 and beyond.

For those in doubt, there are many facts and figures available that prove the value of organic search.

Here are 10 SEO statistics to help you understand why organic search matters in the big picture.

1.  There’s Over 40,000 Google Searches Per Second

According to Internet Live Stats, there are nearly 40,000 Google searches executed per second or about 6.4 billion searches per day.

When someone can’t decide who that actor is in that show they’re watching, they Google it.

If two friends are arguing over the answer to something, they Google it.

It’s become such a staple in consumers’ daily lives that the name “Google” has become genericized like Kleenex and Saran Wrap.

2. Google’s Penguin Algorithm Impacted 1% of Search Queries

Google has said it themselves: high-quality content will be rewarded and spammy content will be penalised.

This became very apparent with the launch of the Panda, which affected 12% of all queries worldwide.

Penguin’s launch impacted another 1% of queries, narrowing down the efforts by looking at keyword littering and anchor text usage.

Having the right distribution of keywords and anchor text plays a significant role in organic search. See more in this step-by-step guide.

3. Optimising Older Content Can Increase Traffic by 111%

According to research conducted by Backlinko improving the content you have in place and optimizing it for SEO can increase traffic by 111%.

That’s 111% more potential leads knocking on your door through organic search.

4. 30% of Mobile Searches Relate to Location

Having organic search traffic isn’t just about reaching a global market; it’s about reaching your local market.

If you’re in a city of restaurants, you want to be one of the first ones that show up when a traveler asks Siri or Alexa where they should eat.

5. Five Minutes of Google Downtime Caused a 40% Drop in Internet Use

In 2013, Google went down for five minutes. As a result, global internet traffic dropped 40%.

That means nearly half of the online world was engaged in activities pertaining to Google.

In 2013, there were 144.5 million smartphone users in the USA. As of 2019, there’s an estimated 248 million.

6. Voice Queries Increased 3,400%  from 2008 – 2017

According to research from Hubspot, voice search queries have increased 3,400% over the past decade.

7. Organic SEO is Around 5.7 Times More Effective than Paid Search

Another Hubspot statistic indicates that organic SEO drives more traffic than paid search ads.

At one time, paying for ad space was the be-all-end-all of online marketing.

8. 51% of All Website Traffic Comes via Organic Search

More than half of all website traffic is organic, according to BrightEdge’s Channel Performance Report.

The rest is a combination of paid ads, social media, and others.

9. 40% of Revenue Comes from Organic Traffic

The same report from BrightEdge indicated that over 40% of revenue is a result of organic traffic, making it the most powerful point of entry for lead conversion.

10. 91.5% of Traffic Stems from Google’s First Page

Does a first-page ranking matter?

Absolutely. 91.5% of traffic goes through first page results.

Many people never scroll to the second page after a search.

So, do you still think organic search doesn’t matter?

The development of Virtual Reality technology has increased dramatically in recent years in correlation with the necessity for technology to adapt and evolve, in order to keep up with consumer demands.

The rise of modern technology has meant that the world is going in an entirely new online digital direction which cannot be ignored or avoided.

This means concepts like virtual reality (VR) are becoming more and more popular and will soon become the future.

The proliferation of Virtual Reality has been contributed mostly by the increase in demand for VR applications.

How Mobile App Development Sculpts the Future of VR

The VR trend has been recognized by mobile app developers who have seized this opportunity and are now incorporating virtual reality when building mobile apps.

Many app developers have created several VR devices that have made the technology readily available for public use.

Such devices have made mobile phones function as virtual reality gadgets which has helped in expanding the VR market even further.

Mobility is perhaps the primary factor that has contributed to the success of mobile apps and so VR apps have taken the experience up a notch.

They have fundamentally allowed users to enjoy mobility to an extent that was not possible before.

You can now use virtual reality apps to explore many opportunities while you are in one place.

For instance, you can use VR apps to experience travel to somewhere you may never have been, even when you are in different geographical zones.

Most businesses have embraced virtual reality app development trends such as the likes of Sony, Facebook and Samsung which have already produced their VR enabled devices, one being the VR play station.

These apps now allow users to view places and services as reality and such results are driving the VR market, solidifying its future.

Improved User Engagement and Brand Loyalty

User interface is a crucial aspect in app development that enhances user engagement, thus increasing brand loyalty.

App developers understand the imperatives of user engagement and have created VR apps which have an improved user interface.

The VR apps provide users with real life-like experiences which ensure users are fully immersed in the app while using it.

As a result of this, they are able to engage in the app more which has improved user engagement and has led to an increase in customer satisfaction and loyalty

Mobile App Sectors That Are Leveraging VR Potential

Virtual reality mobile apps have improved how business operations are carried out, giving services a sense of seamlessness and ease.

Such transformation has led to improved business efficiency.

Retail Sector

The retail sector has experienced huge growth thanks to the intervention of virtual reality.

With VR, retail showrooms can showcase everything from their store without physically keeping the product on-site.

Whether it is showing furniture models or an array of fabric shades, retailers are able to show it to the customers and gain useful feedback about various products and insights on what works best for the consumer.

VR Applications Within the Travel Sector

The use of VR technology within the travel industry is still in its infancy, although a growing number of companies are beginning to experiment with VR headsets and finding great uses of them.

With the help of VR technology, getting guided tours across the world has become easy.

One of the best examples of virtual reality in action within the travel industry is the use of the technology for providing virtual tours of hotels and villas.

The key benefit of this is that it allows potential customers to experience aesthetics, without having to visit, offering more transparency than standard 2D images – something of which is a USP for businesses.

Some companies aim to take the use of VR application a step further, offering an entire booking system and user interface that can be experienced through a virtual reality headset.

Architecture

This is one of the main sectors that has seen a surge in the use of VR application in order to enhance businesses.

Virtual reality has benefited the architecture sector on an enormous scale and will continue to do so.

With the potential to bring transformation in the way engineers work on designs, it gives them several options to experiment with different aspects of a building such as material, lighting and layout as well as being able to bring ideas to life.

VR apps within the architecture sector also enable customers to go on a virtual tour of their potential project so they can get an accurate look and feel.

In addition to this, when it comes to editing the architectural designs, doing it prior to construction will save a significant amount of money as well as preventing miscommunication and complicated (costly) re-works.

To Wrap Things Up

VR technology has hit the ground running and is taking over the app market by storm.

Despite that, very few apps are able to support virtual realty just yet.

It is essential that the creation of innovative development apps with VR technology happens in order to tap into this vast potential and support the future of VR market.

Imagine this! You are on a solo camping or fishing trip and stumbling on your way to the river in the dark, both your watch and cell phone fall into the river.

You can’t retrieve either, since you can’t see, but you need to know what the time is.

Doesn’t matter why you need to know, but it is imperative that you know how long it is before sunrise. What to do?

Well, if you know same basic astronomy, you can use the North Star and the Plough (Big Dipper) asterism to tell the time to within about 30 minutes or so.

Here is how, but if you don’t know some basic astronomy and are a beginner to using stargazing equipment, refer to the image below before you leave on a camping or fishing trip.

This image shows the relationship between the Plough and Polaris, the North Star.

Note that the distance between the star and the asterism never changes.

The only thing that changes is the position of the Plough relative to the star, since the asterism completes one complete orbit around the star in the course of each 24-hour period.

Thus, the asterism will return to the same position relative to the star on the same date every year.

It is worth noting that the rate at which the Plough revolves around the North Star also does not change, meaning that the time it takes the asterism to compete a part of its rotation around the star, say 15 degrees, will always be the same, regardless of where in the rotational circle each subsequent 15- degree segment falls.

So referring to the image again, we can see that it is possible to divide the circle traced out by the Plough’s anti-clockwise rotation around the North Star into equally-sized segments- 24 in this case since the Plough takes 24 hours to complete one revolution around the North Star in an anti-clockwise direction.

For our purposes, one segment represents 15 degrees, or one hour of time.

Telling the time

Before you can actually use our Big Dipper clock, you need to remember that the relative positions of the Plough and the North Star as they are represented on Fig. 1 indicate the correct time, but only on the night of March 7/8, but this happens every year, so the clock is reasonably accurate from one year to the next.

So on March 7/8, the clock will show the correct time, midnight, but as the year wears on, you need to correct for the passage of time.

There are various ways of doing this, one being the addition or subtraction of one hour per month before or after March 7/8, but there is an easier way.

Here’s how:

• Bear in mind that the Plough takes 24 hours to complete one revolution. Therefore, and regardless of where in its rotation the Plough is, the passage of four hours will equal an angle of 60 degrees.
• So, remembering that midnight is represented by the Plough being at the top of the imaginary clock, it becomes a simple matter to gauge the angle between the pointer stars and the North Star from the perpendicular to where it is now. Every 60 degrees of movement translates into four hours of elapsed time. Subdividing each 60 degree segment yields a more accurate guesstimate of the actual time, but remember that the actual time read off the celestial clock will be accurate only on March 7/8. Thus, on this date, follow the rule below-

1. Midnight (24:00): The Plough is directly over the North Star.
2. 6AM (06:00): The Plough is due west of the North Star.
3. Noon (12:00): The Plough is due south of the Pole Star.
4. 6PM (18:00): The Plough is due east of the North Star.

Correcting for the date

Since a circle only has 360 degrees, and the Earth takes roughly 365 days to complete an orbit around the Sun, the celestial clock runs fast at the rate of 4 minutes per day, which translates into around two hours per month.

To correct for this deviation, you must subtract 30 minutes for each week after March 7/8.

Thus, if you read a time of say, midnight on May 7, (3 months, or 12 weeks later), you get a value of 360 minutes, or three hours that must be taken into account.

This would make the time on May 7 not midnight, but 9 PM, since you must subtract the time that the celestial clock had been running fast over the 12 weeks from March 7, to May 7.

To correct for Daylight Saving Time (when DST is in effect), add one hour to the calculated time to get a reasonably accurate time.

British TV is undoubtedly one of the best in the world, and when you’re at home, you’re spoilt for choice with all the great content available there.

Be it movies, sports, TV shows or news, nothing beats British TV.

And one of the most popular on-demand UK TV services for accessing all this great content is Sky Go.

With over ten million people hooked on to this service, it is one of the best in UK at the moment.

But there is one question that has bothered Sky Go fans over the years. Can you watch Sky Go abroad?

Sky Go is basically a service that is very similar to BBC iPlayer.

It lets you access all the programs you’ve missed out on and is one of the best services for catch-up TV in the UK.

It is also a great on the road service, since you can sync it up with your tablet or your mobile phone and get to see all that great content at the touch of a button.

But there is one thing that many of us Sky Go lovers complain about. That is the services of Sky Go abroad.

If you’re out vacationing in Spain, and want to catch up on a great British movie, there are chances that you might be completely disappointed when you realize that your Sky Go doesn’t work there.

The service is available, but you cannot watch any content outside UK soil using Sky Go.

This is a terrible thing, because with so many great things to watch, we don’t want to miss out on our entertainment when we’re out of the country, be it on vacation or on a work trip.

It is a pay TV service, and what you feel really bad about is not being able to watch all the TV content you want especially when you’re out on vacation.

So in case you’re in the USA, France, Germany or any other place in the world, you’ll be really sad about the fact that you are missing out on all the great TV that you could watch back home.

But there is no need to despair. There is a way in which you can watch your favorite TV shows on Sky Go abroad.

The process is quite simple and completely legal.

All you need to do is to install a VPN or an encrypted Virtual Private Network and voila, you’ll be able to access your favorite shows once again, even if you’re outside the country.

What the VPN does is to bypass all the restrictions which stop you from watching British TV abroad.

Basically, Sky Go gets blocked when your IP address shows that you are not on UK soil.

But with the VPN, you can get your connection encrypted. And watch all the awesome content that defines television, no matter where you are.

You are on a holiday or on business trip abroad, or you have shifted base to another remote country and missing your favorite soaps and other programs, wondering how to catch up with them.

No need to worry anymore.

You can watch close to 100 channels of UK Television from anywhere in the world, using the all new IPTV set top boxes.

No need for any satellite system. Not even a computer.

A broadband connection, with minimum of 2.5MEG download, is enough to enable you to watch a range of UK Television channels from BBC to ITV to Sky Sports, and many more.

You just have to buy a UK TV box and plug and play it on the television set in your room and there you are!

There are many types of set top boxes available in the market today like MAG250 and MAG254, which come with remote control devices.

Connect the set top box to your ADSL router and the TV will instantly start beaming all those shows that you were craving for, living thousands of miles away from home.

Using MAG250/254

It is an amazing light weight and easy to carry device.

It also comes with a remote control system.

One of the biggest benefits of using MAG250 is that it is compatible with almost all kinds of modern HDMI ready television sets.

It gives you a very high sound and picture quality and supports most modern audio and video formats, even subtitles.

It is a fantastic UK TV Box which will ensure that you never miss your favorite British TV show.

There is not much of difference between MAG250 and MAG254, when it comes to design and functionality.

Just that MAG254 is a slightly improved version of 250 with a better memory and a faster processor. Its remote also has more functions.

What is IPTV?

IPTV is an acronym for Internet Protocol Television.

It is a system that uses an Internet protocol for delivering television services.

IPTV currently has three kinds of services: Live Television, Time Shifted Television and Video-on-Demand.

All three kinds of services come at very affordable prices.

You can get an IPTV at very reasonable rates and they are available widely.

You just have to subscribe to the service, paying a nominal fee and the UKTV will travel with you, wherever you go on the planet earth.

So if you are looking for a cost effective way of catching up on your favorite UK shows, go ahead and get a UK TV box today.

Nowadays, most people can’t just let their gadgets slip away from their hands because of the Internet.

It enables everyone to see the world on the screen, even just a very few clicks away.

However, there is a product released in the market that is not only for one person to enjoy the web, but the whole family.

With Blade Stream HD IPTV, you can watch Sky TV anywhere in Belgium.

You can Watch Sky TV in Belgium using this gadget, with proper installation and of course, given that you have paid your Internet Connection or get the Sky viewing card from Insat International.

It would be a great weekend treat for everyone in the house, watching high definition videos on YouTube and other web sources.

Live streaming is made possible, which gives you an access to the movie series that you would like to watch online.

You can also invite your friends to watch the live streaming with you since you can connect the Blade IPTV set top box in your television.

With this device paired with a fast Internet connection and you can enjoy the best deals of television adventures.

If you have some visitors to come over your house in Belgium, then it would be easier for you to entertain them by just letting them watch whatever saved channels and movies you have or you can just ask them to browse online using your device.

It would give you no hassle in giving them the best relaxation of scanning the videos they wanted to watch, given your big screen available at hand.

If you are an expat, you can still make the most of the best features that the gadget and the Internet can offer.

You can choose in your subscriptions on how many channels you would like to get and what those channels are.

You can try whatever the TV network you would like to watch from your home country if there is available in Belgium.

There are premium channels you can opt to subscribe, while there are also those free ones.

Based on the physical attributes of the device, it has an elegant look of plain black and sleek model.

It can go, whatever the interior design of your living area.

The MAG 250 has two USB ports, which give you comfort on whichever port to use.

One good feature this gadget can give is that it allows you to record the favorite programs using your flash drive so you can watch them at your most convenient time and again and again.

Aside from high definition videos and digital music, you can also brown high resolution images, which makes them very nice to look at in a wide screen.

Watch Sky TV in Belgium in the most entertaining way with the best features of Blade Stream HD IPTV can offer.