Your business card as an e-commerce entrepreneur is the order management system you use. If customers are enticed with your products’ showcase but get turned off by a tangled order system they are most likely to leave empty-handed. The two main options for managing orders are order forms and shopping carts. Which one suits you best? Let’s analyze this in a few simple steps.

Forms are traditional means of collecting order information used since the pre-web era. An online order form placed on your page would bring to view the purchase options and direct customers to the payment gateway. Shopping carts are terminals with complex capabilities, which require more resources. Both solutions give a good range of features:
- real time price calculation
- transactions processing or integration with online payment gateways
- opt-in for product features
- product image attaching
- anti-spam facilities (CAPTCHA)
- data encryption.
Before deciding for one or the other ordering system, it’s a good idea to ask yourself the following questions:
Are you an occasional seller or you run a well-established e-commerce business?
Consider using a shopping cart if your sales activity is among the main objectives of your site or blog. An order form is a good option if you don’t have a massive flow of products to sell, otherwise you will need to update the form each time a new product appears. Forms are light tools to embed on any page, while a shopping cart is like an axis the website revolves around.
If your aim is just to keep readers engaged by offering small treats every now and then such as vintage music tapes you found in the garage, then you would certainly use an order form placed inside a post. Or say you regularly insert “offer of the week”-like posts with bargains. The best scenario is again to have a small form on each page, featuring the products that are showcased there. On the other hand, for regularly updating catalogues of products, shopping carts are the best choice.
How many products / service plans will you be selling?
Whether you are a freelancer selling photo shooting packages or the owner of a handcrafted decorations business, you should estimate the range of your offers in order to choose the best ordering system. If your catalogue includes more than maybe four or five items then you should opt for a shopping cart. Order forms tend to become too cluttered at that level, which diminishes visual impact.
Will you use fidelity coupons or discount codes?
If affirmative, it’s recommended to use a shopping cart for full automatizing the process. With forms, this feature falls in the category of workarounds for the moment (yet accomplishable).
Do you wish the visitors to be able to navigate on various pages while their order is saved?
In this case you have two options. Either go for the form and display it within a link that will open in another tab or put up a shopping cart. Order forms can limit customer’s interactivity with the products if there’s a wide range of items to display. Shopping carts, on the other hand, require a multi-step buying process, implying that the customer returns to finalize the order.
What payment options do you give at checkout?
Most order forms and shopping carts integrate with the major payment processors. The challenge is to choose a system that offers all the payment options you are considering. Of course, it’s best to integrate your online shop with all the leading gateways in order to fulfill the needs of customers all over the world.
Order forms are a time-effective solution that suits bloggers who want to build an online store without a hitch, while shopping carts are a better fit for industrial retailers. The order management system is a key usability element that will set your business working.

Laura writes on behalf of 123ContactForm, web form builder that helps users create effective forms and surveys for every web platform. From order forms to contact pages, users can create and customize fully-featured forms for any business.

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High-end product and service firms around the world are constantly innovating in their approach to representing their brand online, weaving attractive web design and development around that special “something” that gets across the luxury and status associated with the label.

Whether the product is a tangible one like vintage wine or imported chocolates or a service such as events and hospitality, the developers behind the web sites of luxury offerings work hard to create beautiful, functional places for potential and existing clients alike to find the information they need while being lured in by the quality of the brand.

One of the best examples of a luxury niche requiring something extra in web design are top-of-the-line hotels in New York City, New York. With stiff competition from rival hotels, designers know that an online presence is the first step in winning potential clients over to their product. Take a look at some of these websites to get an idea of what it looks like when luxury products meet luxury web design standards (many hotels from the lists are courtesy of Luxury-Hotels.com):

1. The New York Palace

A beautiful combination of dark colors combined with excellent use of imagery make the website of the New York Palace hotel in midtown Manhattan a prime example of enticing design with a gleam of luxury. Prettiness aside, both content links and a room availability search form lie above the fold, giving visiting customers all they need at a moment’s glace and with minimal page movement.

2. The Peninsula New York

Focusing on using photographs of rooms and premises to lure potential guests, the website of The Peninsula New York hotel also features dark colors to get across its air of quality, utilizing Adobe Flash to present visitors with an immediate peek at what the hotel has to offer.

3. Hotel Giraffe

The designers behind Hotel Giraffe’s website saw fit to not only present images, availability forms and quick links above the fold but also added clean white space below for easier presentation of textual content. Visitors are given an attractive overview of any given feature of the hotel’s experience within the site’s header with more detailed information always easily accessible with a quick downward scroll.

4. The Mercer Hotel

The Mercer Hotel, a trendy set of accommodations located in New York City’s Soho district, has taken a different approach with its web presence. Instead of elegant design attributes, The Mercer focuses instead on absolute simplicity, giving potential customers the information they need with little else to distract them.

5. The James Hotel New York

Taking a middle road between overwhelming design and access to information is the website of The James Hotel. While, like its competitors, The James makes excellent use of scrolling photographs to give visitors a quick taste of what their hotel has to offer, the real focus is on the ability og customers to find the information they need and to make reservations with minimal clicks. Excellent use of sidebar placement to feature an accommodations search form makes this process easy, with top navigation links presenting an opportunity for a casual surf around the site only if desired by the visitor.

6. The Muse Hotel

The general trend of dark colors in the interest of conveying luxury continues with the website of New York City’s The Muse Hotel. Imagery was obviously a priority in designing this site and photographs play a major role throughout the inner pages, lying below only the main navigation links.

7. The Ritz-Carlton

A household name, even for those who have never stepped foot beyond its doors, is the Ritz-Carlton chain of hotels. With a brand as well known as Ritz-Carlton, the designers behind the hotel chain’s website took a road less traveled and one not seen previously in this list by maintaining a light color scheme and wide online interface. Like many of the other websites featured, photographs reign supreme here, with images used to convey the luxurious potential of rooms, events, food and premises.

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HTML5 has been launched and is all set to change the way have used web till now. It is basically a specification about how HTML can be formatted to deliver text and images on the browser optimally. HTML is a revised and advanced way to put all the data on the web together. HTML 5 offers offline storage, canvas drawing, native video and audio streaming support like no other, geolocation and several web applications. In addition, With HTML5 and CSS3 coded websites; the need of third party plugin is no more required. Several browsers such as Google, Apple, and others have already picked it up for implementation. Now, the websites will be more compatible across browsers and devices. Here, we have listed 5 best HTML 5 and CSS 3 websites for an inspiration.

Scientific Name

Scientific Name website is based on HTML5 and CSS3 with loads of features and functionality. This website runs on expression engine which is maintained by reckoned, freelance website designer named Owain Lewis from UK. This website is dedicated to teach people about different scientific names and their usage. As there is endless information that has to be covered, this website comes with a contribute section wherein in case of any mistake, feedback or any information can be shared. This website is compatible with new as well as old browsers alike with powerful, easy-to-maintain web pages.

The Elder Scrolls Skyrim

This website is developed using HTML5 and CSS3 tools including HTML5 video, audio, and canvas. Dedicated to the Elder Scrolls fans, this website has JavaScript combined with HTML5 tags to have reduced development costs, local data storage and easy code maintenance. This one is a beautiful site that all gamers especially the fans of Elder Scrolls will love to look at.

MW Template

MW Template is a website that is developed using basic HTML5 tags along with CSS3 and JavaScript. Dedicated to the best design mobile websites optimized for being displayed on handheld devices, MW Template pushes the bar above what is commonplace among mobile websites. It’s highly interactive and user friendly interface allows user to sail from one page to another easily.

Web Banner Gallery

Web Banner Gallery features the most attractive and effective banners from all over the world. This site features a user rating section where the visitors can come and vote for the banners they like. Web Banner Gallery has been built using HTML5 along with JavaScript and CSS3. This website also features a interactive and user friendly way to view the most acclaimed web banners from all over the world for webmasters to view and drive inspiration.

Agence DnD

This website is from the French studio Agence DnD, an organization with immense expertise in graphic and web design, e-commerce websites and mobile application development. Agence DnD website is a brilliant one with strong visual design backed-up with solid coding. The interface is smooth with fast loading pages and menus making easy access of information. The web pages are standard complaint and each one is coded with HTML5 and CSS3.

Alia Haley is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology, Auto and health. Beside this she is fond of adventurous activities. Recently an article on Ktm Motorcycles attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on Glass tiles.

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As a web designer, you have probably thought out every page long and hard. You keep an eye on the latest trends, look for the best tools to make your life a little easier and make sure that you user base is happy. But despite this, you very well might be falling into the same trap as so many other in the business: forgetting to account for the visually impaired.

In the past, this was less of an issue. Those with serious disabilities that prevented them from seeing a screen commonly use a reader to browse the web, and so design means little as long as it is compatible with their device.

But with the increasing userbase of people over 50, and age where visual problems begin to increase, and the surge in people who wear corrective lenses and eyeglasses, you have to keep it in mind. All designs should be somewhat catered to those who have visual impairments, which in the US is in the tens of millions just in the 45 and up demographic alone.

There are a few simple ways you can incorporate this knowledge into your design without affecting the overall concept.

1. Keep Your Spacing In Mind

I have lost count of the amount of times I have come across websites with close borders that don’t allow for enlarged text. Even people with slightly blurred vision might use CTRL + in order to increase the font for easier reading. Which on some layouts may break the look and cause overlap in columns or grid boxes.

The best way to get around this is making the layout size enough to accommodate sizes from 10 to 16 point. Test it on each size upgrade to make sure it is at least clear. Even up to 14 is acceptable, if you are working with limited space.

2. Create Plenty Of Keyboard Shortcuts

Plenty of people use keyboards only due to their inability to see a mouse cursor. When this happens, they need keyboard shortcuts to navigate properly. No one likes to have to Tab their way over extensive content, so offer an easy and basic shortcut code list that allows them to use the arrow keys and a couple of extras to work their way through. A good example of this is Facebook, which has a complete shortcut system for visually impaired or disabled users.

3. Provide Plenty Of Color Contrast

One of the best things you can do is give good color contrast. Anything that is too close in shade or tone to your background is asking for trouble, even for users who don’t have vision problems. It can cause eye strain for healthy eyes, and be completely unreadable for those with poor eyesight.

For healthy users, you can just have subtle changes in order to make it easy to view. If this is a big part of your layout, you are welcome to keep it. But you will have to create a higher contrast version for the visually impaired, otherwise they will be unable to read it.

Luckily, you will find that high contrast web design has been trending heavily the last few years. Especially colors like back backgrounds with white text, so it shouldn’t be a hard guideline to stick to.

4. Don’t Forget The Colorblind

One kind of visual impairment that many people trivialize is colorblindness. It might seem like just a small problem, but many conditions severely effect the way webpages are viewed. If you use a myriad of colors, you could be making it impossible for that percentage of users to view your handiwork.

There are a number of sites that will let you test your web page to see what it looks like to people with different types of colorblindness. One of my personal favorites is ColorFilter, which also have a number of useful links to learn more.

5. Give Full Access To Your Mobile Version

Some visually impaired web users will use searches to find the mobile versions of sites. That is because the viewing potential of these versions are better, due to their higher contrast, larger text and simpler designs.

Instead of only offering mobile versions for phones, give full access on the web, as well. It is an easy way to provide a more user friendly version with very little work on your part.

Conclusion

It is important to incorporate elements to your web design that provide access to those with visual impairments and other disabilities or problems. Don’t make the mistake of leaving these guidelines out of your design.

Annie is a web design blogger for Direct Sight – check out the site for detailed guidelines on purchasing glasses online.

Image Credits: 1, 2.

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Images speak more than words. Finding a tool which could potentially create wonders and add value to your work can be rewarding. The art and illustration in digital world has a popular rescue in the form of vector. Artists like Petra Stefankova and Leo Blanchette have produced some of the remarkable works of art using illustrative tools. One of the reasons for vector’s popularity lies in its ease of use. The images you can obtain have diversified forms ranging from being photo-realistic to the sci-fi ones.

Here is a listing of ten wonderful illustrations.

1. Book cover character
   
   There is an interesting book cover “Let’s Go to Monster School!” It is suitable for those who have love for monstrous art. The sketch can reach the final artwork with the help of the Illustrator and Photoshop. You can create a cute monster, asymmetrical green one, who could be the perfect professor in a class. The depiction is that of a funny monster teaching in a soiled classroom. It involves using a Pen Tool to create the image.

   Right from using an upside down teardrop to including the crooked and irregular teeth, the monster is fun to work at. Special effects come in the form of ‘warts’ (created using modified ellipses) and mode changing.

2. Beautiful trees
   
   Tree is one of the commonest drawings you must have tried your hands at.

   Creating a tree with a computer instead of crayons can be worth trying. It can be done by taking the photograph of a tree. By tracing its natural dimensions, a blue-print is prepared. You can use the diverse Illustrator tools to create an appealing tree image. Adding your own special touch would bring a remarkable difference in your work. Using the freehand drawing tools or the shape tools and the Layers palette, you can create an amazing tree. The different color palette can work out for obtaining customized atmosphere and surroundings. Create a colorful or dark or realistic tree out of your own imagination.

3. A car
   
   Creating a realistic looking car, irrespective of the type, is easy. Usually, the cars have similar body parts. It is important to have a clever integration of lights, mid tones and darks while making a realistic appeal car. The sharp edges add to the look. The Derwent Graphic Pencils and Fabriano Artistico Bright White Watercolor Paper can be potentially good tools when shaping the car. The mechanical pencils work well to contribute towards miniature details.
4. Complex circular designs
   
   The circular designs may look difficult to draw but are relatively easier to draw. The Illustrator can give helpful techniques, tricks and settings to get quick circular patterns.
5. The eye
   
   The realistic looking eye image is a delightful view. With a basic sketch of the oval shape having the circular iris, the eye image is not that difficult to draw. The mechanical pencil and color blender can do the trick for obtaining an attractive human eye image.
6. Human body
   
   The human body image has an important element of shades and depth. The Adobe Flash can animate the human body image to give a realistic look. It may look a tedious job but it is not so actually. A scanned paper sketch can be used. Keeping the body parts separate provides jointed figures giving an apt appeal.
7. Pet portrait
   
   Pet image is a popular choice. A photo can be used but a real pet serves better. Color pencils can be potentially the right tools although they may not be flexible enough when indulging in intricate detailing.
8. Wood grains
   
   The wood grains give an apt effect at chosen places. The Adobe Illustrator can be used to obtain an effective wood grain effect. The warp tools give a nice vector wood texture.
9. Crazy logo
   
   For the lovers of typography and logo design, a crazy cool logo can be the most sought-after image. The logo can be extremely appealing ID projects for organizations. It is quite obvious to want something unique here. A bunch of circles, with modulated and deleted segments, can create wonderful logo to catch anyone’s imagination.
10. Integrate skills
    
    A combination of two styles of illustration can transform a simple black-and-white graphic into a spectacular piece of work. When collaborated, the two (or more) styles can advance the effect of a work and possibly create a new thing. The Illustrator and Photoshop can be used to gain unique designs.

    There are numerous amazing illustrations to explore. The love and inclination for art can achieve unmatched dimensions with simple tools at disposal. Perseverance and practice remain the keywords when trying your skill at this juncture.

Alia Haley is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and luxury. Beside this she is fond of gadgets. Recently an article on Ferrari 599 GTO caught her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on wooden headsets and Electric Tankless Water Heater.

 

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Be it illustrations, metaphors, visual support for unspectacular text blocks, or an additional comfort factor for performing some specific task, beautiful icons are always of great assistance. Although there are several icons available out there, it is highly significant to settle upon the most suitable set for the innovative, fresh design. To help users and developers with their next design, we have listed below top ten novel useful icon sets that are sure to enhance the entire experience of experimenting with theme icons, fonts and much more.

1. Chalkwork HTML royalty-free icons

Designed to harmonize perfectly with other sets in Chalkwork Family, the free set of HTML-themed icons can be extremely handy. The purposive icon set incorporates 31 graphical representations of common mark-up elements. Available in three sizes, users can snap up the Chalkwork HTML Royalty in formats ranging from Windows ICO, transparent PNG, GIF, TIF, and Mac ICNS.

2. Hand pointer icons

Integrated with an extensive range of useful tools, the hand pointer icons feature 36 hand pointer icons of six different types. Users can acquire the set in six color variants which furthermore comprise of .psd source file.

3. Flavor extended

Developed for designers in web and user interface designs, the flavor extended set includes 177 icons in a resolution of 48 x 48 pixels. Weather it is a private project or commercial one, the beautiful icon set can be employed easily and touts to be the ultimate icon set for web designers.

4. Web injection

Infused with the ability to be used without attribution, the free web injection icon set comes with 26 stylish icons. Conceptualized and designed by Midtone Design Studio, each icon from the set is a .png at 48 x 48 pixels. Hand crafted by designer Jonathan Castro Fernandez, the set puts forth an immersive, enriched user experience.

5. File status Icons

Another useful icon set for appealing designs and layouts is File status icon set which contains 16 subtle icons. Users can benefit from the neatly laid icons for web applications that deploy Subversion based projects.

6. 2experts icons set

Users may highly appreciate the 2experts icons set as well for procreating new, fresh designs. Created using adobe fireworks, the intuitive and useful pack features 48 x 48 pixels PNG images. Designers can use the icon set for free.

7. On stage icons set

Infused with neat graphics, On stage icons set emerges as another great tool for designs – incorporating 49 free vector icons, including PSD. Available in PNG format, the icon set can be downloaded for free.

8. The browser icons

At the same time, the browser icons can be of great help. The pack subsumes nine web browsers available in 16 x 16, 32 x 32 and 64 x 64 pixels. The set provides major browsers such as opera, google chrome, internet explorer, mozilla firefox, and others.

9. Milky icons set

For users seeking an ideal, pleasant display on either bright or dark backgrounds, Milky icons set appears as an ideal pick. Integrated with 131 icons, the set brings all the icons primarily doused in green for enhanced convenience.

10. Coquette 4 icons set

Lastly, Coquette 4 icons set complete the designing process with rich graphics and topnotch usability. The playful free icon set has been powered by 50 new icons and features colorful and curvy icons. Coquette 4 icons set rightly bring all the playfulness to the user’s projects.

Alia Haley is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and autos. Beside this she is fond of cars and watches. Recently an article on HP calculators attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on Swiss Army Watches.

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When you are designing a website for a coffee shop or a small cafe, there’s plenty to consider. You need to create the cosy atmosphere of that particular place and make visitors almost feel the taste of fine coffee but not overdo images; be classy but not too boring, casual but not too messy…

Have a look at some of the great examples of coffee website designs below for good ideas how to do it.

1. Quills Coffee

Plain and simple, yet very attractive, this website from Quills Coffee is a beautiful and inviting design that’s perfect for any coffee blog or website. The image of two coffee cups and saucers, which attracts attention, immediately tells the visitor that the website is all about coffee of some sort.

Using various fonts can have different effects, and it can be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you use them. The example featured here uses at least four different fonts on the homepage alone. It’s a common idea that using too many different fonts can make the website look messy; however, this particular design doesn’t look anything other than classy and professional.

Adding humor to your website homepage can encourage your visitors to stay and have a further look around. The humorous statement “Unicorns are pretty cool too.” gives a sense of hilarity and amusement, which would cause people with a sense of humor to want to read more.

The main colors used for this website are warm grays and browns, which give the website an overall warm effect. Using colors that complement each other well is essential for creating the perfect website.

2. Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee

A bright and breezy website design is often very appealing, no matter what your website is about. This website design from Dunkin’ Donuts is witty, colorful and captivating. Pink and orange don’t seem like colors that would go together well, but the color combination works beautifully here. If you’re designing a coffee website for a cafe or coffee shop that also provides cakes (or donuts!), you could take a leaf from the book of the person who designed this website for Dunkin’ Donuts and display images of some of the delicious foods that can be purchased.

The orange background goes lighter towards the top of the page, until it is white. This prevents the background looking too dark and bright and causing visitors to focus their attention on the background of the website rather than the main images.

Many coffee websites that you come across will have an image of loose coffee beans or a large sack of them. Providing a photograph which shows where the coffee first came from gives the website a natural and pure feel.

3. Gorilla Coffee

Although only two main colors are used for this website, it’s difficult not to admire the bold and busy appearance of the homepage. If you want to design a coffee website using just two main colors, the secret lies in choosing the right colors. To get the same effect as this particular website, select two colors that are very contrasting (red and black being the perfect example). The most prominent color of this particular website is red; however, the dark black used for the gorilla makes this animal stand out on the homepage, reinforces the title “Gorilla Coffee”.

Keeping the website design plain and simple is never a bad thing. Displaying too many different headings, subheadings and banners all over the homepage of your website can put visitors off and make it look cluttered. Use links at the top or bottom of the page so that people can navigate their way around the website and go from page to page easily.

4. Cafe Rouge

Unlike the other designs featured, the website of Cafe Rouge is bright and bold with lots of information on the homepage. The dark red background contrasts beautifully with the lighter beige colored foreground. Using the background color on the foreground (in this example, the links to other pages) creates a lovely effect as it brings the two colors together in a subtle way.

A large banner at the top of your website is a good idea as it allows you to build the web page around it. Having small images here, there and everywhere only creates a messy and untidy feel to your website.

The website featured here has other images below the main image. This allows visitors to find out more information before even moving onto another page. This style and design is perfect if you’re creating an informative website that’s packed with facts, news and articles about coffee.

Conclusion

When designing any coffee website, think about the impression that you want to create. If you’re looking to create a bold and bright impression, make sure your website reflects that. Alternatively, if the impression you want people to have of your website is elegant, dark and artistic, choose darker colors and effective images to get this look.

There are plenty of ways to design your tea or coffee website to render how tasty your products are, share yours in the comments!

Annie is a creative blogger for Dobovo, the free resource for affordable Kiev apartments for inspired travellers!

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It’s not uncommon to come across web pages getting struck while loading. The ‘loading’ wheels struggling to rotate, the cursors going unnoticed are the worst part of a heavy web page. In fact page loading becomes most irritating problem if left untreated, let alone the subsequent issues that follow there after.

There are some simple tricks to make the fat page load in a better way and to make the experience less irksome, though they take the same time to load. Phew!

CSS templates or the xHTML templates can be used for quicker loading of the pages. CSS file is required for arrangement of objects on the web Page. These files have the parameters which specify the size, color, margin and positioning of the objects. JavaScript files are those which have instruction to handle specific events which occur on the webpage. These are detailed procedures and thus are the file size is bigger when compared to the CSS files.

When a page gets loaded, it tries to bring in the files in the order from top to bottom as specified. However there are inline javascripts which come within the html and not as separate files.

While designing the html care should be taken that the bulkier JavaScript files should be brought at the end i.e. these files should be at the bottom of the list of files being queried from the server. The necessary javascript instructions through which the alignment of the objects (like buttons, drop menus, icons etc) should be made ‘inline’ i.e. hard coded within the html code.

The CSS files should be brought in the beginning. This makes the html objects (like the buttons, icons, searchfields, images) to position themselves in the desired way and wait for the subsequent requests to fill the page.  Html5 templates make use of Javascript and CSS3 and can be used for animation experiences on a real time basis.

The JavaScript files whose instructions are not relevant for the alignment of objects need not compete with the CSS files. Initially the bandwidth should be completely used by CSS and then by Html files followed by javascript files making ‘loading’ a pleasant experience.

Even though, both pleasant and unpleasant loading take the same amount of time, the user will be continuously occupied with the orderly sequence in which the objects get filled into the page. The above tricks and techniques will be handy in avoiding the sand clocks!

The author of the above article has been working in the software development vertical. Blogging in spare time about latest technological developments and core technical issues is one of the many passions.

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Break free from designer block and point your browser to these inspirational websites that will make you rock your next project. From CSS and Flash, to furniture and imaginary characters – these are all you need to spark your work into a new level of awesomeness.

1. Deviant Art

An active online community for any artist, professional and amateur alike. The site has a great mix of work such as photography, graphic design, and even cosplay. Its user-friendly interface allows artists to not only submit work but derive comments and interact with other enthusiasts.

2. Threadless

Do you want to see people wear your graphic design? Take a cue from this community where users upload their designs to be voted on, printed, and sold! 10 designs are selected weekly so this site lets you be in the know which styles are well-received by the masses. Winners also receive commission and cash prizes, talk about inspiration!

3. From Europe

This site actually has a page called Inspiration, so click on that right away to get your creative juices flowing. Inside you’ll find the hottest tips from the field of design furniture, living, accessories and architecture. Get ready to be amazed with European innovations such as the tarantula tea light and the bended clock .

4. Mojizu

Believe it or not, this contemporary design community is for artists and for their characters. Remember how you love to doodle as a child? Then this is the place to improve your skills and get feedback from a large community of character lovers.

5. Kuler

It’s challenging to pick and mix colors when there are millions of combinations. With Kuler, a web-hosted application for generating color themes, you can experiment quickly with color variations and browse thousands of themes from the Kuler community.

6. Logo Sauce

One of this site’s mission is to inspire fantastic logo designs. They certainly live up to this by encouraging designers to expose their work, great and small to receive feedback and adoration.

7. The Little Chimp Society

This site is overflowing with news and updates in the realm of illustration. It’s a must bookmark portal for every website designer who wants to keep up with the latest sources of inspiration.

8. Most Inspired

Head straight to the Sites page for a fantastic one-stop-shop of inspiration on CSS based website design. Most Inspired not only offers eye candy but an entertaining blog and worthwhile tutorials too.

9. Colour Lovers

An international creative community that helps people discover their inner designer by providing a wealth of user created and shared color inspiration. The site also offers tools that make the creative process as simple as possible. No wonder there are now 745,446 COLOURlovers around the world!

10. The Best Designs

Grab your cup of inspiration from around the world with this website as it showcases only the most impressive designs from various locations: brochures, calendars, cards and web designs – everything is creatively mixed here! Aside from Flash and CSS, TBD has recently added a themes gallery which features some of the best WordPress Themes available.

Jennifer Moline writes for the PsPrint Blog about card printing, graphic design and small-business marketing.

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The New Year is quickly approaching. For many of us it sparks an urge for change. We make New Year’s resolutions to improve the way we look and live. For website and blog owners, this could spark the urge to change our sites. With new SEO metrics planned for the year 2012, redesigning your site might be a resolution you will want to make. Here are a few benefits of changing your current site for the New Year.

A Fresh Start:

There are times in website ownership where we feel our sites are outdated, bland, and have just lost their appeal. We get stuck in a rut where we are happy with the traffic we have but wish for more, we like the color scheme, but imagine better. The New Year is great reason to change the face of your site and create a fresh new look and appeal, ultimately creating fresh traffic.

SEO Readiness:

In 2012 there will be many changes to SEO metrics and how a site is ranked. This will affect all the sites that are currently live. We all know you must adapt to the changes in page rank or your site falls behind. Redesigning your site gives you the opportunity to prepare for the changes that are coming. With more emphasis on quality content rather than quantity of pages, you can adapt your site to utilize more quality.

Integrate New Features:

There have been new web design features that have popped up in 2011. Widgets, gadgets, and apps have been created to make your site more user-friendly, less cluttered, and more appealing to your followers. Many of us have spent all year putting off the addition of these features. Redesigning for 2012 will give you the chance to add these features, integrate more social features to spark interaction on your site, and increase conversion rates.

Opportunity for Migration:

It seems the popularity of WordPress boomed in 2011, yet there are many who have yet migrated to this easy to use platform. Use this time to make the move and see what the buzz is about. WordPress offers easy updating, scheduling, and a plethora of SEO tools and widgets to make your site more successful and easier to manage.

Take a New Direction:

The internet is always evolving and changing. Often our interests change as well. If you have lost interest in your site’s theme or niche, the New Year may offer a new direction for you. Determine if your site still interests you and the people who visit. If you have another idea for it, implement it in 2012 and regain your interest in your site.

Re-establish Marketing:

Marketing techniques change with the internet. Keywords, meta-tags, SEO strategies, and even social media trends are constantly moving in other directions. By redesigning your site you will be in the mode to change your marketing with it. Take this time to go over the effectiveness of your keywords, Adwords, and social media standings. Tweak whatever is needed for the coming year and increase your traffic.

Monetizing:

Many site owners are unsure of when the time is right to monetize their sites and blogs. If you have been putting it off now could be the time. Explore your options in affiliate marketing and advertising and monetize your blog for 2012 revenue.

The New Year promises many changes in the internet and how sites are perceived. If you are currently on the fence about changing your site, its direction, or how you market it, use the New Year as a reason to get things done and redesign. A fresh start for a fresh year may just be what your site needs.

Mark Williams has been in the web design Melbourne, Australia industry for over ten years and loves to share his ideas. As a freelance writer, he is able to bring a fresh perspective on many topics like this one.

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