Miley, Author at Daily Cup of Tech

All posts by Miley

Products

9 Exciting new features of Microsoft Office 2019 for the students

Miley on September 29, 2018

Microsoft office 2019 has added unique features ideal for students. The new Microsoft Office is specifically designed to save on time.

One-time Purchase

One of the exciting features recently added is the one-time purchase. You won’t need to update your software every time after expiry. It works well with Windows 10 operating system. You only pay discounted rates only when purchasing and no additional expenses are incurred once the purchase is done.

Favorable and unlimited learning for students

It is also dynamic software ideal for students in their educational journey. In advanced learning institutions, the availability of projectors to aid in learning is made possible especially with the advanced Microsoft Office PowerPoint. As a student, you are able to learn visually as the PowerPoint feature are advanced to make sophisticated and high-quality slide videos. You are at an advantage as the presentations made from this Morph and Zoom are advanced compared to the older versions.

Easy Data Manipulations and simplified mathematical calculations

Data entry, calculation and chart designing is now an easy task for you. You do not have to worry about spending a lot of time manually jotting formulas and mathematical interpretations. Microsoft Excel is now a walk in the park as such issues are no longer a bother to you. Time is saved through manipulating data in the Microsoft 2019 specifically the Microsoft Excel. Power Query and Power Pivot are implemented in the advanced software. You can now publish your charts and 2D to Microsoft business analytics service extracted from Excel.

Advanced drawing and design of models

Engineering students are also able to make maximum use of this user-friendly software. The Microsoft Office is downloadable compatible with any smart technology device. Drawing of plans and diagrams are enhanced by the Microsoft Office 2019. Your designs will have a three-dimensional overview and enhance your creativity even further. Students are able to create models in addition to accentuating the beauty of the models through the dynamic conversion of ink-to-text features. The One-Note has this major boost and is responsible for student-friendly features.

Effective-virtual distance learning

The first people to access more features of Microsoft Office 2019 are institutions that pay for licenses in large numbers then followed by a regular consumer and the last batch are the business people. Through proper utilization with these unique softwares, students are able to meet and interact with other students virtually. You can learn even when you are not within the classroom. Students also interact with their lectures conveniently.

Proper organization of emails

Students receive numerous emails for educational purposes. It may be tedious to go through every email if you need to locate the assignment given virtually. The additions on the Microsoft 2019 have made it possible to go through your email messages with ease. Travel packages, focused inbox, updated contact cards and office 365 groups are additional add-ins on the software.

Advanced security of your files

It is also security conscious and cost reduction on the purchase of software updates. The introduction of click-to-run features is advanced to amazing levels from the original Microsoft Office 2013 version.

Students get a free Office 365

Students are also able to get a free subscription to Office 365. In normal cases, Office 365 is subscription-based and you can pay for the services or updates monthly. Although students are favored because all the institution needs to do is input a valid school email for activation. The students and the teachers can get the dynamic virtual software to enhance their learning abilities in the classroom and school at large. All the advanced Office 365 plus the Microsoft teams are included in the subscription. Students are able to experience mobility and flexibility in their learning. The organization and access of documents are made easy thus saving on time.

Easy Access to your documents

Accessing, editing and saving of Microsoft files from your Mac are made easier and efficient. You are able to access your lecture notes and edit anytime possible. You are able to edit documents comfortably and with ease through another add-in feature Open Office which is compatible with Microsoft Office 2019. This makes working on your project seamless as the virtual software is compatible and can be downloaded to your Mac.

The Information Technology levels are moved to greater heights as education is also affected positively by utilization of Microsoft 2019 which is anticipated in the mid-year of 2018. To peak your Information Technology and education levels to greater heights, the download of Office student Mac will by far affect your learning skills positively.

Development Insights

Improving Your Customers User Experience: Micro-Interactions

Miley on September 26, 2018

One of the most important statistics in the world of marketing is the fact that a present-day internet user has a shorter attention span than a goldfish. That being said, you need to understand how to make them engage with your brand and your website without distracting them from your main objective, making a purchase, subscribing or further exploring your domain. Making your audience phase through pages and pages can be quite lucrative for your overall rank, yet, it really doesn’t do much to boost the overall user experience, especially if your loading time isn’t that impressive. Fortunately, with micro-interactions, you can do just that. Here are a few tips and suggestions.

1. Highly intuitive

The first massive advantage of the improved customer user experience through micro-interactions lies in the fact that they are incredibly easy to use. Think about the ‘like’ feature on Facebook. This universal symbol is more than a clear indicator of what the actual function does, yet, this is not your only option for micro-transaction implementation. In a lot of cases, the micro-interaction has a confirm button, which allows you to reverse the action before others are able to see it. Without this finality, your audience might be more content with playing around with your website, seeing as how they are confident that their interactions stay private until they deem otherwise.

More importantly, you need to understand that it is not a job of a micro-interaction to change the way your audience’s brain works, it’s only there to capitalize on this symbolism and association patterns. As we said, thumb up and heart were always positive symbols while the ‘x’ symbol, a broken heart, a minus or a thumb down always indicated something negative. Emoticons can also be quite efficient, seeing as how they have a simple graphic way of displaying approval and disapproval. Overall, you should study these behavioral patterns if you’re to connect with your audience.

2. Sense of control

As soon as they enter your website, your audience is in your domain, which is what robs them of some of their control. Sure, they’re there by their own will and they can shuffle through your offers, however, in order to make them really feel welcome, you have to show them that they are the ones whose actions matter the most. Any form of interactions can get you a part of the way but according to the guys from the digital agency from Melbourne, you can make all of these micro-interactions into a breadcrumb trail towards your CTA (call-to-action) button. After all, it’s much easier to make your audience interact with the most important element of your page if you’ve already persuaded them to do so several times over in the previous two minutes.

3. No need for the loading screen

The greatest advantage of micro-interactions is that they don’t require you to reload the page. Think about the Instagram ‘like’ button which immediately shows a red heart symbol (as opposed to the empty heart icon) when you click on it. Sure, interacting with your website in a different way would also be a probability, yet a loading screen can be a potential deterrent. By relying on micro-interactions, your pushing the biggest obstacle out of the way.

4. Keeping your users entertained

Depending on the content of your landing page or your platform, you might have a hard time keeping your users entertained. This is where micro-interactions come in, seeing as how they give your audience something to do every step of the way. By evoking emotions or using interesting animations, you can take this one step further.

5. Avoids unnecessary confusion

While this may not seem like that great of a deal, avoiding unnecessary confusion definitely improves your user experience. For starters, whether or not you’ve clicked a certain button shouldn’t be a concern with micro-interactions. On the other hand, if they’re poorly integrated or non-responsive, this could turn into an even greater problem.

Fortunately, most micro-interactions respond instantaneously, leaving your audience without a shred of doubt in their mind on whether or not the website received your order. Delayed reactions are even worse, especially when clicking twice on the same button has the potential to undo your first action. Overall, micro-interactions can be much more efficient at avoiding unnecessary confusion.

6. More reliable feedback

Due to the fact that micro-interactions make people more eager to interact with your website, you also get a more reliable feedback and an easier access to all sorts of user-related information. Most people automatically assume that we’re talking about the way in which your audience responds to your content but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Sure, micro-interactions are great, however, each intractable element you add to your page requires some additional resources. In this way, you get to see first-hand, which of these buttons are audience-favorites and which, they could easily live without. In other words, you’re using micro-transactions in order to alter your own micro-transaction strategy.

7. More efficient instructions

Finally, learning of the example is probably the most efficient didactic method, yet, a lot of people are still quite reluctant to do so. Fortunately, with the help of micro-interactions, your users can get an emulation of using your app or platform in a safe, learning-friendly environment. Sometimes, simply highlighting or flashing a button that your audience should click next can help make this learning process more seamless. Moreover, this can help gamify the entire experience of using the app, which is definitely a trend that goes ever in your favor.

In conclusion

The best thing is the fact that these seven aspects aren’t the only ways in which micro-interactions stand to improve the overall user experience. Sure, no matter how ingenious, these features don’t have the power to make or break your brand, yet, they do act as powerful enhancers. In other words, they can make all your efforts better and more relatable, which is what your web design efforts and your digital marketing campaign are supposed to be all about.

Development Insights

10 Traits to Look for When Hiring A Right-Hand Person for Your Business

Miley on September 24, 2018

Many of the world’s biggest companies were founded not by one entrepreneur, but by two or more partners who shared the same vision: Warner Brothers, Hewlett Packard, McDonald’s, Apple, Google, Ben & Jerry just to name a few. Of course, all of them had to overcome rough patches along the way, these examples show that two heads are better than one and that a business can accomplish great things if it’s ran by partners who complete each other.

If you’re an entrepreneur with a big dream, you shouldn’t feel at a disadvantage because you didn’t happen to meet your business partner in childhood and you didn’t go to college together. In many ways, hiring a right hand to help you run things in your organization is better, because you can look for traits that indicate they are the best possible match:

Experienced

It’s not impossible to succeed in the business world without prior experience, but the few success stories we can give as an example are actually quite scarce. In most cases, lack of experience leads to costly mistakes and you might not get a second chance to apply what you’ve learned from them. An experienced business partner can help you avoid them by providing valuable know-how, advising you on fiscal matters and providing market insight.

Supportive

Business partners should have each other’s backs. The right hand you are looking for has to believe in your talent and support you along the way because this is the key to achieving success. According to psychologist Sherrie Campbell, a partnership based on support increases trust boosts motivation and helps you stay positive in spite of setbacks.

Patient

In business, success rarely comes easy. It might take years of trial and error until you manage to develop that brilliant product or until you find your first customers. The person you choose as your right hand has to be patient and stand by your side for as long as you need. There is nothing wrong with wanting to work quickly, but this shouldn’t come at the cost of compromised production or rash decisions.

Dedicated

No matter how many qualifications a person has, they won’t help you if they don’t believe in your goal and aren’t dedicated to seeing it become a reality. Look for commitment in your business partners and you won’t regret it.

Visionary

The world’s greatest inventions were created by people who were visionaries and had the courage to think outside the box. Find yourself a business partner who isn’t afraid to think upside down and challenge the status quo.

Hard-worker

Success often comes at the cost of countless sleepless nights, never-ending brainstorming sessions and hours of pitching over the phone. Your partner has to be willing to do all this and work harder than every other employee when the situation calls for it.

Communicative

The way you communicate with your business partner is essential. Not only do you have to be open to each other’s ideas, but also accept positive and constructive feedback. Without communication, you won’t know what’s wrong and you will not make the most out of your collaboration.

Kind

In the business world, the power of kindness is underrated. Contrary to how popular media pictures executives, you don’t have to be ruthless and cynical to succeed. A partner who cares about the needs of employees as much as for the needs of the business is really valuable, so score that during the interviews as well.

Proactive

Proactivity is the trait of people who anticipate change before it happens and know how to react to it. Proactive people are those who have initiative, adapt in challenging situations and have a results-oriented attitude. Instead of having a passive mindset, where they wait for things to happen and then sit back as idle observers, proactive people try to anticipate and prevent problems and when they occur, they actively try to solve them.

Integrity

And last, but definitely not least, your right hand should act with integrity in all business matters. Associating yourself with someone who acts by unorthodox practices and is willing to cut corners for the sake of profit is very dangerous and could put your business at risk.

No matter what you are looking for in a right-hand person for your business, remember that the two of you should be compatible. Finding the Steve Wozniak to your Steve Jobs might take a while, but you should never rush your decision and you should only go with someone you can trust. Whether you are choosing an SEO agency or hiring an employee, integrity is paramount.

About the author

Brandon Stapper is the Chief Executive Officer of Nonstop Signs & Graphics. a Los Angeles Signage Company. At 20 years old, with no formal education and only a few hundred dollars, Stapper turned a $400 custom decal machine in a garage into a printing powerhouse. Nonstop Signs & Graphics has made the Forbes Fastest Growing Companies Award 4 years in a row and services 10,000 clients yearly.

Products

How Robot Lawnmowers Are Shaping Our Future

Miley on September 21, 2018

While for some people mowing the lawn is a way to relax, and stay connected to nature, others can’t seem to find the time to mow the lawn, or simply see it as a boring task they can’t wait to get done with, so they can relax in their beautiful garden.

That’s where the power of a robot electric lawn mower comes in to save the day. They require minimal maintenance and an hour or so to set up. That’s it. The rest of the mowing is left for them to complete. They are basically like Roomba for your lawn and even more.

Robot Lawnmowers Popularity

One of the reasons that robot lawnmowers are so popular is the fact that they require zero work or maintenance; you set it up and it does the rest all by itself.

If you compare it with petrol or ride on mowers you’ll notice that those two types require a lot more work, and time, which some people don’t really have. These types of mowers require regular maintenance, petrol, oil, and a good cleaning after each use. They are also quite noisy and dusty, in comparison to the quiet and clean cut of the robotic lawnmower.

The first robot lawnmower was invented in Sweden back in the ‘90s, but it took almost a decade for robotic mowers to truly take off. What was once considered a luxury owned by wealthier homeowners is now something many people can afford. New technology and inventions allowed for prices to go down, and the robot lawnmower became much more affordable.

Take the latest Flymo 1200R robotic lawnmower, for example. It costs only slightly more than a good petrol mower.

As prices come down even more over the years, robot lawnmowers will become even more popular and might even top electric and gas lawnmowers. I think we won’t be too far off if we say that 30 years from now our grandchildren won’t even believe us that we mowed the lawn ourselves.

How Robot Lawnmowers Work

Unlike with the traditional ride-on or push mowers, the robot mower doesn’t cut the lawn once a week on a Saturday or Sunday. It works day and night, come rain or shine and cuts your lawn daily, shaving a few millimeters off the top, turning your cut grass into a natural fertilizer, which keeps your lawn looking nice and green all the time.

The first and only thing you’ll need to do once you purchase your robot mower is to set its boundaries and limit where it can travel in your yard.

Some mowers have underground, while others have above ground boundaries, either way, you’ll need at least an hour to set everything up so that your mower can do its job safely and efficiently and you can get your well-deserved rest.

Robot lawnmowers work in random patterns to avoid leaving tracks in your garden; they also move quite easily around obstacles, flower beds and trees, and work well with uneven and slightly inclined areas.

Robot mowers are very quiet and unnoticeable; they won’t bother your neighbors, pets or kids and will offer you a peace of mind and a perfectly cut lawn that will make your yard really stand out.

Robot Lawnmowers Benefits

We’ve already seen some of the advantages that come with owning a robot lawnmower and I’m sure you’ve fallen in love with them already. The crazy thing is that there are much more benefits associated with robot lawnmowers that you might not even be aware of.

Let’s have a look at some of those benefits and see what makes these small robots so useful:

They save time, energy and money
They are quiet
They work day and night, come rain or shine
You can easily communicate with your lawnmower and set commands
They work around difficult obstacles and on difficult terrain
They recharge themselves
You’ll be safe from developing or worsening allergies because they do all the work for you
You have no grass clippings to collect
They operate at times you set for them
There are no toxic emissions
You don’t need petrol or oil, and there’s barely any maintenance required

Robot Lawnmowers Cons

So far you’ve heard a lot of amazing advantages that come with owning a robot lawnmower, but are there any downsides to using one?

Robot lawnmowers cut the grass perfectly and reach even the most difficult parts of your lawn; however, they do not collect grass and twigs, like other types of mowers do.

Another factor that you should consider before making your decision, especially if you’re on a budget is the price of the robotic mower vs. the price of petrol or electric mowers. Robotic mowers are generally more expensive than other types of mowers and are still considered a luxury to some.

Despite a few downsides that come with owning a robotic lawnmower, I have to admit that they are very convenient. You can simply sit back on your porch, and enjoy your weekend while it moves around your lawn, cutting and fertilizing your grass, leaving you with a greener and healthier-looking lawn than you ever had before.

Development Insights

MVP Development for Mobile App: Things to Know and Principles to Follow

Miley on September 21, 2018

Building a successful app with everything fine-tuned and designed to perfection is a strenuous task requiring years of creative effort and continued focus. The fact that seeing your app alive on app marketplace will take months is enough demotivation for many of us. What about creating and launching an app in a jiffy? What about quickly building an app that perfectly holds together your idea with a straightforward execution? Well, that is precisely what MVP development is meant for. MVP apps give you the pleasure of making your app lives much earlier.

What Is Minimum Viable Product (MVP) all about?

So many tech startups are mushrooming these days with brainstorming new and innovative app ideas. They have fewer resources, less money, and less manpower to take care of a large development project. But in a highly competitive and quality-focused app market, they cannot settle for less. With an ambition to stay ahead of the competition, they cannot settle for a sloppy app. The only solution is to build a minimum viable product (MVP) with few and most important features and the basic app idea executed to perfection. This urgency of the quick launching of apps with relevant features makes MVP a credible option now among many developers. For example, app developers in India the emerging market now considers MVP crucial for staying competitive. Because faster development cycle helps them stay ahead of the competition, where one of such solution worth checking out would be flutter development. MVP or minimum viable product in the context of mobile apps refers to the essential app with core features, design and user experience that expressly define the uniqueness and utility of the app. All other additional features or value-additions or design enhancements can be done upon this basic app built with MVP development principle. An MVP is neither the beta app version nor they are actionable app mock-ups. MVP apps are not also minimum featured apps unless it carries the principal app idea throughout.

Why develop an MVP app?

We have already seen that MVP mobile app serves mainly as the starting point for an app development project. The MVP app is the basic approach to shape an idea into a well-featured executable app. The enterprises can build MVP apps quickly, can assess the potential of the app idea without taking too much strain and can keep the cost lower at the initial stage of development.

Let us now have a look at the key reasons to go for an MVP app.

An MVP by boasting of the important app idea and quintessential UX element can help to launch a fully functional app in minimum time.
Taking less development time and costing too little MVP apps offer minimum development risk.
MVP app easily allows assessing the app idea through original market presence and user interactions.
All the guesswork and assessment without material grounds are no longer needed thanks to the option of building an MVP app.
An MVP also helps a business getting feedback of customers and all associates after launching a fully working app, not without it.
When people can’t decide about the features that suit their needs most, you can build a few MVP variants and help them make their choice.
MVP apps being stripped of the unnecessary elements are more performance-driven and least vulnerable to errors and bugs.
As the basic version MVP app always remains open to get better with subsequent development efforts.

Features and aspects that make MVP apps stand out

To beat the cut-throat competition in app marketplaces the developers and strategists always need to come with something genuinely viable, useful, unique and relevant for the users. This is why, shaping the basic app idea into a viable product is more important than building a fully-fledged, feature-rich app. This precisely makes MVP a commendable alternative. There are two basic sets of features, respectively as the user application and the admin panel. For the first one change can be necessary for contents and to meet the norms of respective platforms. Rest of the features in an MVP app depends as per the industry and niche. Let us describe features of MVP apps of various niches.

Features of E-commerce MVP app

Some key features of an MVP e-commerce app include the following.

Payment gateway with different options like credit and debit card, net banking, Cash on Delivery, PayPal, etc.
Navigation menu by-products, categories, and subcategories.
Ecommerce Cart
Customer registration and profile management
Order history management
Product page along with relevant filters
Product rate, reviews, and recommendations

Features for MVP food delivery app

The typical key features that any MVP food delivery app cannot do without include two basic sets of features, respectively for customers and the restaurant or food chain admin. Let’s have a look at these features.

Customer-side features

Geolocation and integrated map
Order list
Payment page with multiple payment options including credit and debit card, net banking and Cash on Delivery
Search option for food and restaurants with various filters
Restaurant profile and menu
Cart management
Notifications about order and delivery status

Restaurant-side features

Restaurant profile page
Menu page
Manage orders
View balance
Order history and analytics

Features for social network MVP app

If you are going to launch a social network app with a minimum viable product (MVP) features, the key elements that you need to ensure include the following.

Newsfeed
Registration, profile and timeline management
Friends and follower management
Creating posts
Tagging and hashtagging
Like or reactions to posts
Sharing posts
Reporting posts and profiles
Event-oriented notifications
Social bookmarking

Conclusion

So, the minimum viable product (MVP) is to boast of faster development of a useful app with all the most relevant features. Instead of opting for so-called cool or stunning features the MVP app of any niche concentrates principally on relevance and accordingly chooses the irreplaceable features that make it meaningful for the users.

Insights Products

Best Software Solutions for PCB Design

Miley on September 15, 2018

With the electronics market getting more innovative by the day it is important that the design software that is in place to support this is as innovative also. If you think of the size of a circuit board today compared to 10 years ago – now they are tiny whereas they used to be massive. This is all down to better technological advances in the electronics field and one that continues to be extremely innovative.

When you think of the designers of these products, the room for error on such a small appliance is quite big which further supports the need to have really good software for layout design which can keep up with today’s routing demands. There are many different packages out there now with the changes to support creative design engineers.

What To Look For In A Software Package

No matter what level of detail you want to get into with the end component that you are making, you will still be looking for a software package that makes it all very simple for you. These software packages on the internet look extremely complex but they don’t need to be. Here are some things that in a modern software package you would be looking for:

Storage – It sounds a no-brainer however you would be surprised the number of times you hear that people have run out of storage space in their library. Make sure that you check this out before purchasing and ensure that the storage space that they offer is adequate for your needs. Clearly, you want to keep as much of the original items in your library and do not want to have add-on storage options. Most modern software solutions have ample storage space.
Simulations – When you have finished designing a product, wouldn’t it be great if you could run a simulation to understand how it actually potentially performs? Most modern layout design packages have this option. Not only can you run it on individual components but you can assemble your products together and run an assembly simulation. Before the days of simulation, design engineers relied heavily on the robustness of their design and even the outcome of any FMEA activities that they would complete supporting this. If you do not run a simulation, you run the risk of designing components that are not fit for purpose and it is only when they have been manufactured that this all becomes clear. It’s much better to be pro-active.
Advanced Tools – When you think of advanced tools we are talking about things such as different views. Most modern software packages will have the option to complete the design in 2D or even 3D. The majority of designers prefer to complete the component level design in 2D but then move on to the 3D for the assembly, but you have your own choice on what best suits you.

Bear in mind that these software packages will also update very regularly, therefore, keep an eye out from the retailer or software originator to ensure that you get any updates downloaded.

Insights

4 Reasons Why Your Mac Needs Bitdefender

Miley on September 15, 2018

Each year, consumers lose nearly $2.3 billion due to malware infections. If you are an Apple loyalist, your computer of choice is probably a MacBook. These laptops have been one of the most popular in the world for years now and for good reason.

Rather than leaving the important information on your computer vulnerable to attack, you need to take advantage of the power of Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac. The developers of this program set out to make antivirus software that was both easy to use and very effective.

Read below to find out more about Bitdefender and why having it on your Mac is essential.

1. Take Advantage of the Bitdefender Shield

If you are like most Mac users, you want a program that continuously monitors your computer for malware and computer viruses. With the help of the Bitdefender Shield, you will be able to detect and remove threats without having to manually scan your computer.

Once you have turned on the Bitdefender Shield, you will not have to worry about nefarious malware getting onto your computer. Being able to set and forget your virus and malware protection will help you focus on more important things.

2. Cross-Platform Malware Detection Gives You Peace of Mind

During your time on the Internet, you will come across a number of programs that are made for other platforms. Many Windows-based programs can be accessed on a Mac computer. If you do not have comprehensive malware protection, hackers can use Windows-based programs to infiltrate your Mac and take the sensitive information stored on it.

The team at Bitdefender has developed a way to both monitors and protect Mac computers from cross-platform malware attacks. If you are confronted with a virus-filled program, Bitdefender will detect this threat and remove any viruses it finds along the way.

3. Fast Virus-Scanning Capabilities

Modern consumers have a notoriously short attention span. If you are concerned with getting your Mac scanned for viruses without having to wait a long time for the results, then the Bitdefender program is definitely for you.

The Bitdefender program combines speed and accuracy to provide consumers with lightning fast virus scans. Not only are these scans fast, they are very detailed. This means you will not have to worry about finding and eliminating viruses and malware on your Mac.

Source-Pixabay

4. Bitdefender is Consistently Getting Better

Using a cloud-based virus and malware detection program is essential when trying to guard your computer against new cyber-threats. The Bitdefender program is constantly updating and getting better with each passing day.

This means that you will not have to worry about your Mac being attacked by new hacking methods. Since this program is cloud-based, you will not have to worry about any drag on your Mac’s resources while updates are taking place.

The last thing you want is for your sensitive information to be compromised due to a lack of cyber-protection. With the Bitdefender program, you will have no problem keeping hackers at bay for a long time to come.

Development

Content Hub CSS Grid and More in New Web Design

Miley on September 12, 2018

It will be fair enough to say that there is hardly anything called a ‘new’ trend in web designing. It is merely the development and modifications of the existing patterns merely with the intent to make it more readable, appealing and conversational. In fact, it is the keystone that the designers focus on to make a long-running conversation more meaningful in web publishing. With all available tools for web designing, this facet has become more prominent in 2018 and will surely stay for many years to come.

The story and messages conveyed through websites these days literally takes you as close as it can. Any abstract or unreal issue or any complex topic is turned into smart content by designing a series of easily understandable paragraphs and implementing useful elements. The volume of the content or the number of components incorporated is not overwhelming anymore in websites these days.

Use of CMS

To make a website easy to understand and to absorb, the use of CMS in web design is crucial. All that is required for it is summarized as under:

You will need a little ingenuity
Deliver all the important aspects of the story in visuals
Use background images and videos more
Pay careful attention to the consistency of the stories while designing and developing and of course
Make the design and content model different from any standard design or blog posts.

If you want to engage long form in web design, you will have more diverse approaches irrespective of the fact that it is a broken grid or a standard column.

Content Hubs or Webooks

You can make cool web designs just like Tayloright choosing between webooks and content hub. Today demands to create beautiful and appealing content-focused websites, a trend that started in early 2017 and increased in 2018. You can expect to see more of these shorts in the future.

You will notice that several leading brands have ditched the traditional gated PDF approach and have taken on to webook distribution. This enables the users to embrace the potential of a website by publishing long-form contents that are also called “webooks.”

The CSS Grid

There has been a lot of change in the layout system and the first real layout is the CSS grid for any website. The purpose of this design is to organize contents in columns and rows and eventually give the developers absolute control of the screen.

Even the web flow will support CSS grid and help in managing the most common challenge in web design that involves diversity and inclusion of ideas as well as identities. It can be said as an appendage to this point that even the political climate plays a significant role in the inclusion and diversity in web design.

Gender Dropdowns Concerns

The web designers are also concerned about the gender dropdowns and its design choices and inclusion and options and even consider whether to include it at all in web design. Data validations and mechanics play a crucial role in the dynamics of computer interactions with a website. Since the wording of error message is very powerful, a filter in the advertising tools may have racist effects downright. It is important to uphold the existing relations and this is the primary thing that is considered by the web designers when it is upended. Therefore, the designers need to be diverse and inclusive in their design solutions like Tayloright.

Benefits of Virtuous Conversations

Gender bias has marginalizing and contradictory ways but it is required to make conversations mostly virtuous. This has specific benefits such as:

It provides proper feedback
It eliminates double standards
It offers an ideal and usable experience.

In other words, inclusion must be to the fullest to make sure it provides an optimal experience to the users.

Video as Publishing Medium

The video seems to be the swivel of modern web design that has brought in a polar difference in its effects, appeal and effectiveness. Publishers are clamouring for videos included in the design du jour and this switchover has provided better results. Now you can see it anywhere whether it is a news site or any other. Watching a video rather than reading the short form stories is more effective.

However, this popular trend is barely a neutral development as the outlook may not be suitable for the sites with this switch. Regardless, there is a positive note in such a switch. Video Cost Per Impressions is much better than display CPMs.

Blending Text and Video

The designers however never deviate from the inclusion of text in a website even if it has videos to explain things. The blend of the two rightly made enhances the strength of text. It makes the site a more creative and informational medium. Other features and benefits include:

It is comparatively easy and quick to produce
It is a cheap alternative inclusion
It is the primary format of almost all communications still.

Therefore, however ‘visuals first’ platform it may be, the text still plays and always will play a significant supporting role. Thus, texts are hard to go to the dinosaur way even though an image may be “worth a thousand words.” Pictures can never answer who, when, what, why, where, and how meaningfully with reference to the context.

Web Design Systematized

It can be said that web design is more systemized and has undoubtedly earned its place at the table. Conversations now are not restricted to simple assertions of values but it involves a more mature analysis. This has forced in more systematic web design to ensure that it is cohesive and scalable. It must provide the desired output of a brand across different and varied applications and environments.

The principle of design focuses on brand aesthetics translation, the functionality of modular components and to meet the unique need of the UI. The systemized language must simplify decision making. Therefore, the debate between content-first or design-first has resulted in more system oriented designs in modern times that is here to stay.

Author bio:

Maria Jones is a digital art fellow and multidisciplinary artist who is into design and development for the last ten years. She now specializes in the responsive design and used to write blogs and Tayloright about evolving graphics and web design concepts.

Insights Products

Facebook Advertising 101: How to Create Stellar Ads That Work

Miley on September 12, 2018

Image via Pixino

It’s no secret that Facebook is the premier online advertising tool for businesses. Rightfully so, Facebook’s advertising platform makes it simple for marketers to conduct granular searches for an ideal target audience. With this useful function, the task of creating beautiful ads is entirely left up to your prerogative and ability, or you can opt for some of the tools that can help you with dynamic creative.

Frankly, advertising on Facebook isn’t as convenient as it may initially seem. There is a wide range of obstacles modern advertisers face, even on Facebook’s advanced platform. One of the primary issues advertisers face is building ads that actually work. Now, how is the word “work” defined in this context?

You guessed it. I am simply referring to the complexity of encouraging people to view, engage, and click on your ads. Otherwise, what’s the point of creating business ads in the first place?

So, how can you develop outstanding ads that capture the attention of your target audience? What are some creative and innovative ways you can design your ads to achieve optimal results? Overall, how can you get the most return for your advertising investment?

Read on to learn how you can create stellar ads that will actually work for your business.

Coordinate Your Ads with Your Campaign’s Landing Page

When you are creating your Facebook ads, it’s essential to coordinate your ads to the content of your campaign’s landing page for two primary reasons.

First, you’ll receive a substantially higher Ad Relevance rating, giving you the incentive to pay less per click. Facebook Ads are starting to become more competitive, and its CPC rates are steadily rising as a result.

Next, align your ads with your landing pages can boost your conversion rate. When interested buyers click on one of your ads to make a purchase, they expect to receive exactly what they were promised in the ad. If this happens, your brand and your website can gain credibility with your customers who will likely do business with you again.

With the number of online scams spreading throughout the internet, trust is a determining factor to influence prospective customers to provide you with their payment information. Besides, the alignment of your ads and landing pages can effectively decrease your shopping cart drop-off rates.

Constantly Conduct Rigorous Experiments

Needless to say, all businesses are different. Each business has their own target audience, voice, and messages that they want to convey. Hence, you will only waste your time if you rely on industry research and experiments conducted by other businesses that attempt to inform you of how you should run your ad campaigns.

Try conducting your own experiments to generate marketing data you can use to analyze the advertising techniques that work for your business and the ones that don’t. One popular method of accomplishing this is to simply split test your ads.

You can begin by taking your best ad, making copies of it, and changing the headlines of each ad. When you’re finished, you’ll now have multiple ads to experiment with. During your experiment, record important data and metrics such as likes, shares, views, and comments to determine which ad receives the best response.

Once your first experiment is finished, move on to another element such as descriptions and images. Make sure you are testing one element at a time to gain the information you need to construct the perfect ad.

Invest in Video Ads

If you are creating fruitless ads that aren’t performing well on Facebook, it may be time to implement an innovative strategy to boost your ROI and conversion rates.

Investing in video ads is a perfect method of capturing the attention of your audience, and this option gives you the best opportunity to present a timely message in a creative fashion. Facebook allows businesses to create stunning video ads with their custom software, but it can initially be difficult brainstorming quality video ideas that will make your audience bow down and worship your products or services.

If you are struggling with the concept of producing the perfect video ad, take a look at Nike’s video ads for inspiration.

Nike Facebook Ad Video Embed Code

Nike’s video ads carry a motivational tone that successfully inspires their customers to purchase their products. Although Nike has a variety of celebrities at their disposal to market their products in these ads, you can craft an exceptional video and by just following this simple marketing principle: keep all of your ads relevant to your niche.

If you are running a barista, it doesn’t make much sense to create a video ad that’s full of promotions and no substance. What do individuals in your niche crave? For a barista, this obviously would be coffee.

Therefore, if you are promoting a free tasting event at your local barista, create a video ad that displays people drinking and enjoying your coffee and include a call to action at the end of the video. If a single picture is worth a thousand words, then a video should give you unlimited potential to spread your message to your audience.

Nike does this by displaying their products and allowing viewers to make their own decision about continuing with a purchase at the end of the video. Overall, investing in video ads are extremely efficacious for reaching your target audience. Nonetheless, be mindful that your video ads should tell your story and subtly promote your products or services.

Use Facebook Targeting to Your Ad Copy’s Advantage

When it comes to advertising your products or services online, it can be tempting to write your ad copy like you’re giving a speech on a stage. Though, if you want to be effective, create well-written ads that are personable. This means writing ads copy as if you’re selling to one person, and one person only.

This single individual is the person that you’ll have to convince to purchase your goods. Just as if you were a salesperson, you need to prioritize this person’s needs. Of course, your content has to be universal if it’s displayed on your website. However, Facebook gives advertisers the ability to narrow down granular audiences.

For example, if you are selling sportswear but want to create a message just for women, you can target your ads to women who are under 35 that live in the United States and are interested in exercising and fitness. Once you have your specific target audience, you can develop an ad that speaks directly to them.

Ensure That Your Ad Copy Matches Your Visuals

Most smaller business, usually in the B2B section, typically don’t have access to a ton of visuals for their social media networks. Consequently, when it’s time to create an ad, these businesses often scramble to find a last-minute image to accompany their campaign.

This can lead to creating an ad that mismatched. If your ad copy doesn’t align with your image, your audience will have no idea of what you’re advertising and your ad will be wasted.

Starbucks regularly posts captivating visuals that complement their ads. In their signature #StarbucksDate campaign ad, the copy mentioned that anyone who attended the event will receive a French press Caffe Verona with a delicious chocolate brownie. Do you know what images the company used in this ad?

You’re correct. The ad contained images of the French press Caffe Verona with the delicious chocolate brownie. By including a perfect visual in this ad campaign, Starbucks reminded its audience of what they would obtain if they attended their event, resulting in an outstanding ad.

Keep Your Call to Action Very Clear

The most effective Facebook ads have a clear and concise objective. Are you trying to obtain a lead, sell a product, or increase your brand awareness? Without this, your audience will see your ad, but they won’t know what to do or how to engage it.

Society6 sells and advertises custom cell phone cases, and their ads show the perfect example of how a call to action should be displayed.

This ad is much more than a beautiful depiction of quality iPhone cases; the ad contains a simple call to action that’s succinct and easily accessible to Facebook users. Once the image catches the eye of a prospective user, the only thing they will have to do is click “shop now” and they can move forward with their purchase.

Focus on the Offer, Not the Copy

Let’s begin this section by observing a quote left to us by the late Gary Halbert, one of the most brilliant advertisers of the 20th century.

“Strong copy will not overcome a weak offer but…in many cases, a strong offer will succeed in spite of weak copy written by marketing morons.”

In the broadest sense, Halbert communicated that a good offer will succeed on its own. This isn’t to say that excellent copy isn’t integral to an ad’s success, but the offer should always be attractive to be truly effective.

Let’s take a look at some examples.

Offer #1

Offer #2

Both of these offers are great, but there is only one offer that truly stands out. Which is it? You would be correct at selecting the second offer, and here’s why.

Although the first offer promises 50% off a women hoodie, the second offer will obviously elicit a more emotional response from its audience. Hence, it’s a very bankable offer. If you’re a dog lover, you will likely purchase the shirt just to feed the shelter dogs without realizing you just bought a shirt.

This isn’t to say that you should begin your own dog shelter, but you’ll only maximize your ad’s potential if you can sweeten up your offer. The best method of doing so is to sell an item without your audience realizing you are.

The fundamental lesson in all of this is to create compelling ads that don’t directly sell your products. Allow your offer to speak for itself, you’ll successfully entice your audience to transform themselves into valuable leads for your business.

About the author:

Rolando Herrera

VP of Marketing for Insignia SEO (Co-Founder)

Business Website: https://insigniaseo.com/

Personal Website: http://rolandolherrera.com/

I’m a marketing executive and entrepreneur that enjoys helping people and businesses grow their concepts. I’ve worked in corporate for Disney, Boston Market, and many others and helped them deliver their brands to consumers. I’m currently a co-founder of a marketing agency, Insignia SEO, with business in over 50 cities in the US. My expertise is in Digital Marketing strategies that use Organic Marketing, Content Marketing, Paid Search Advertising, and Social Media as the delivery of information to the consumer. I have over 10 years of experience in the Tech and Digital Marketing space and I’m passionate about the fruition of a concept in the marketplace.

Insights Startups

Indispensable Things You Must Consider When Hiring Mobile Application Development Company

Miley on September 10, 2018

The business is depending on mobile as mobile application market has grown significantly and playing important role in any business. Technology has growing day by day and small to large business is required to having their mobile applications. Therefore, it is unacceptable to make mistakes while hiring an app developer. You should be sure and careful before hire any app developer as it will make and break situation for you.

We are showing some common mistakes that you should avoid while hiring a mobile app developer for your mobile application.

Confirm the credibility of mobile app developer

This is the most important step before hiring an app developer or mobile app development company. You should ensure their skill sets; their portfolios, their past clients and much other required stuff. Also, try to connect with their past clients and discuss their experience with them, so you get a better idea before hiring any app developer.

Schedule an interview with the developer

This is another important fact irrespective to the company you should take interview of the mobile app developer who will engage in your project. You can better understand the developer’s skills, thoughts and whether s/he enables to understand your requirement or not.

Source: Pixabay

Don’t choose price instead of skills

We agree that budget main constraint of any project while hiring app developer for small and medium size company but that doesn’t mean you should give priority to price over technical skills. You should ensure you hire best app developers who have the right skill for your project and quite affordable, as well.

Don’t be in a hurry to go live

Developing a mobile application is not an easy process. It is a teamwork of all the stakeholders, designers, developers and QA team. None of the developers can able to create an application in no time, so beware from app developers who are promising to complete your application in a few days.

Expert in niche

You should hire an app developer who has worked previously in your industry, as it will give you confidence that they will complete your project successfully. Less knowledge of your niche will give you bad results and you have pitiable mobile application.

Source: Pixabay

Not owning your intellectual property

While you hire mobile app development company or hire an app developer, you should do contract with them for rights of your ownership of source code as well as other properties those are used in your application. It will be useful if you want to upgrade or any changes with other company.

Don’t continue with the unfinished team

You should be in daily communication with the development team and check the daily progress. At a certain level, you might feel that they are behind from the actual time & products are also not up to the mark and will not be able to achieve the deadline. At that time, you should move away from them and hire professional app developers that can fulfill your requirements and complete your project on time.

Conclusion:

We have tried to cover a few common mistakes business owners should avoid while hiring app developer. The world is full of competition and if you desire to stay ahead of your competitors then you should hire app developers who are professional and dedicated to their work. Theunpluggedweb is one of the best mobile app development company in the USA with the team of dedicated developers who are always keen to provide an innovative application for your business. We have expertise in iOS, Android, iPad, and many other technologies.