Every designer needs to have a portfolio where he can display some of his outstanding website design works with meticulous precision. Since you are going to showcase your strength and your designing skills there, you will certainly like to make it look as elegant as possible. You should not make it look overtly complex rather, what you should try to do is to add freshness in it. A good and impressive portfolio can serve as a lead generation tool that can go long way to give a boost to your online credibility. Here in this article, we are going to share some golden rules of designing a beautiful portfolio website that can add dramatic twist to your existing portfolio:

Give It a Strength: Prospective clients consider a wide number of factors before sorting out the most eligible candidate for their projects. Now, they are not going to contact you right away. They will check whether you will be able to deliver the best service that they want or whether you will able to deliver your best even when you are under extreme pressure. So, it is clear that you need to show some character in the designing style of your existing portfolio. Your portfolio needs to have an innate convincing capability so that the clients do not think twice before sending you a business mail.

One more thing, you should get intimated by the sheer magnitude of the work because clients would definitely lathe the idea of hiring a website designer who is not confident of the successful completion of the project.

Clear Communication: Try to give your portfolio a voice. It should be designed in a way that can build up an effective communication with the prospective clients and you. The basic purpose of featuring sample works in portfolio is to educate the visitors about your designing strength. Try to add as many varieties of your work as possible in your portfolio as clients will definitely like to have a glimpse of your creativity.

Give it A Creative Twist: – Flaunting a different look is not the only option to make your portfolio look interesting and engaging. Unless you are adding your creative inputs in it, success is sure to elude you. Since competition is steeping up in every single day, you need to do something different otherwise, you are likely to get overshadowed by others.

Make It Visible: – You have a good website and your portfolio looks superb but you are not getting any business queries. Sound bizarre. Now, you would not have to be a rocket scientist to solve this mystery. The reason is your portfolio is not drawing that amount of traffic that it needs to convert visitors into clients. This cannot be done by featuring a mind-blowing design in the home page rather, this can be done by increasing the visibility of your portfolio by incorporating some techniques of search engine optimization.

Do Not make It Overcrowded: – Try to eliminate unnecessary elements from your portfolio section since these elements can make your portfolio look like a clutter. A minimal approach is what people expect from an experienced designer.

How often have you wished to have a collection of website design tools that let you fix some designing bugs easily without opening your old and trusted friends – Dreamweaver or Photoshop? Probably umpteen number of times that you cannot recollect correctly. Though there are over thousands of free  website design tools available online, not all of them are great and trustworthy. Some of them even fail to perform despite trumpeting big promises. Therefore, it is a bit trouble to form a collection of some great website design tools that can give you an edge over others. Here, in this article, we are going to feature some of the best and coolest web design tools that you cannot live without:

1. Quick Thumbnail: – Are you wasting half your time for creating thumbnail images of websites or any other objects? Let this amazing tool do this boring task for you. Quick Thumbnail is the best and the easiest solution when it comes to create thumbnails of different sizes right from your browser window. However, there is an option for uploading images right from your desktop or other drives for the same purpose. You can determine the size of the thumbnail if you wish so.

2. Convert Files: File conversion is another nagging job that can freak you out. With Convert Files, you will be able to convert different files such as videos, images and other objects meticulously and without taking long time.

3. ScreenCastle: – Recording screen is a great option for creating an interactive tutorial. But we loathe the very idea of downloading large files since it will take an awfully long time. Moreover, there are some software packages that can make your computer very slow and sometimes unresponsive. However, with ScreenCastle, you will not have to face this trouble any longer. This is extremely lightweight, it does not consume much bandwidth, and that means you can go ahead with your plan.

4. Joongel: – This is a great tool for those who are looking for great search results. If you are finding it hard to get the result that you want from Google along, here is an opportunity add an edge to your search option by using Joongel. This is a highly powerful tool for sorting out relevant information.

5. Mockingbird: – Finding it hard to manage vital information and data then Mockingbird is the ideal tool that you can have in your kitty. With its simple interface and easy to operate options, Mockingbird is really making a dramatic difference.

6. Flipping Typical: – Not sure about the fonts? Here is a chance to get a preview of the document in different fonts easily without facing much hassle. You can type in the text that you want to preview and it will give you the name of the font.

7. Cyclur: – If you are not good at coding still finding it hard to resist the temptation of showing feeds of multiple websites, Cyclur would be your perfect choice. It is a fabulous tool that can really facilitate your job to a great extent.

Constant improvement of skills is the basic requirement of survival in the website design industry. Since Internet is an ever-evolving field, you need to upgrade your designing skills consistently so that you can face the challenges of coming era with confidence. Success comes for a price in this domain and it has a short existence. Therefore, you need to be on the learning track throughout your career; otherwise, you may find it extremely hard to cope with the complex requirements of the clients. Here in this article, we are going to discuss some tips that can prove highly effective to hone your designing skills to a great extent.

Learn SEO: - You know the basics of SEO and can make a website SEO friendly. But still, you are not sure how SEO works. What are its parameters? So, it is the high time to increase your awareness about SEO, so that you can incorporate the concepts of SEO while designing a website and that will definitely increase satisfaction level of your clients. Since SEO is an emerging field, you need to have a fair level of authority on it. Creativity along with SEO knowledge will definitely considered as an added advantage.

Know The Topography: – Web topography is a complex field since it includes some advance technologies such as Cufon, SIFR etc. Topography descries the basic structure of a website. Unless you are good at handling web topography, you are bound to make a mess with the structure of a website. Try to go through some articles and tutorials such as Typetester, Typechart, Better CSS Font Stacks etc to get the hang of it easily.

Jump On JavaScript: – Obviously you are not a coder and we do not expect you to be. But as you are into website design industry, it is your moral and professional responsibility to learn some basics of JavaScript application since it will help you to speed up a website design as you would not have to ask a JavaScript developer for making some minor changes in a website. Moreover, JavaScript is no longer a Greek to Google and therefore, its usage in website is bound to increase in coming days.

Use a Sketchbook: – There is no better way to give expression to your thoughts than sketching ideas in pen and paper. At first things might appear incoherent and clumsy but gradually things will start taking shape. Try to get into the idea of brainstorming your loose concepts in paper because it will help you to organize different ideas into perfect shape and finally you will be able to produce something inspiring and creative.

Go Through The Basics Once Again: – Most of us likely to forget some of the basics of website design as we are leading a fast-paced life all the time. So, take a sudden break from your career and devote sometime for learning the basics of website design that includes “Design principles”, “Color theory”, “Web Usability”, “CSS techniques” and many more.

Attend Conferences and Events: – The importance of attending website design conferences that are held throughout year is often overlooked blatantly. But attending these conferences can help you to learn what are current trends and where our website design industry is heading.

Be Inspired: If you are finding your room stuffy, it is time to shut down your PC and go for a small stroll in the garden. Inspiration often times does not come so naturally. Sometimes, you have to find it in open place and taking a break from your daily duties can help a lot to get that inspiration.

It needs  guts, grit and strong determination to do something different when it comes to designing a single page website. Unlike multiple pages websites which are quite common, single page website does get fitted to the basic principles of website design. The structure of the website can be drastically or more appropriately horribly different and the approach has to be unique since the visitors have nowhere to go but to explore the landing page. So, it is quite apprehensible that single page website needs to have the vibe and a charismatic appeal so that visitors stick there for a long time. It gives you a chance to endow your website a brand new look by limiting all its content and graphical quality to a single page. Wondering how is that possible? Lets check out:

Single Means Simplicity: – Single page website needs not be simple all the time but simplicity forms its core. As you are going to have just one single page for covering all the topics, you need to be extra cautious that you are not messing up everything there. Do not put too many things for the want of place rather you can increase the height of the webpage and then can align and position objects as you wish. But make sure that it looks perfect and it is good enough to seize the attention of the viewers.

Do Not Neglect Navigation: Navigation still play a vital role while designing a single page website. You should not relegate the concept of navigation to the bin just because it just contains a single page. The concept of single page website has undergone a sea changed. No longer has it been treated as something ordinary rather it is now being treated as an art of design. However, as far as search engine optimization is concerned, it has some obvious shortcomings and therefore, it is up to you whether you go for a single page website or follow the route of multiple pages website design like the rest of the others.

Do Not Make It Heavy: As you are going to have just one single page, you should not make it heavy by adding loads of unwanted graphical elements, clumsy patterns, large background images and so. Try to stick to the basic principles of simple design and you will eventually be able to make a major impact. Do not be in a rush while designing a single page website and if possible use colors as opposed to images because it will help your website to load fast. Keep the usage of JavaScript and Flash to a minimal because if you use them profusely, you will just make it invisible from the eyes of Google.

So, we hope that you are now armed with knowledge but before going ahead with your next designing project here are something that you can check out. We have handpicked some of the best single page website that will sure to spin your head. Here it goes:

Cpeople.ru: A wacky look that is powerful enough to arouse the curiosity of the viewers. Concept is pretty simple but it is tangled with creative touches.

The Great Bearded Reef: – This is truly hilarious and amazingly interesting. Presentation is unique and everything is summed up consummately within the given space.

Zach Klein: Best example of how an ideal website design portfolio of an experienced website designer should be. It contains almost nothing and surprisingly enough it is its unique selling point.

Tomas Pojeta: Looks highly interesting and contains everything that you are looking for. Contact details are presented beautifully and there is enough space to have a clear view of the designing standard.

Illustration is not anything new in website design industry since it has been adopted numerous times for adding creative touches to an otherwise simple and average design. However, just a few years ago, designers were not so enthusiastic about illustration since its prospect was not as bright as it is now. Nevertheless, illustration as a form of art has managed to ride past difficulties before being emerging out as a refreshing and exciting trend. Modern website designers are finding this new platform more interesting and fertile than the traditional one as it gives them the opportunity to unfurl their creative wings while shaping the structure of a website. Here in this article, we are going to discuss various facets of illustration based website design, which is setting a new trend in this industry:

Illustration is Unique: The prerequisite of website design is that the outcome has to be unique in every possible way. Just making minor tweaks here and there or changing the images or color patterns does not necessary mean that your website is unique. Now, if you are into this field, you already know how hard it is to churn out unique designs each day. So, the only way you can make website look unique is by using illustration. However, you need to make sure that the illustration goes perfectly with the theme of your website otherwise it will be considered as a classic case of website design faux pas.

Illustration Works Well: – The main purpose of adding illustration in a design is to give it an edge. Though use of illustration runs the risk of making a website a little bit heavy, you can easily ignore it give its innumerable benefits. Illustration, if it can be employed properly, can make a website look truly elegant and highly impressive But if you want to make the most of it, you need to master the art of integrating illustration in a website without making it heavy and without making havoc with the overall structure of a website.

Illustration Is Not For Aesthetics: – The importance of illustration is not just associated with its amazing ability to add aesthetics to a website. Illustration can play an instrumental role in giving a website a funky and modern look that is currently a rage among website designers. You need to ensure that the illustrations are going to serve a purpose besides giving your website a distinctive visual twist before making your mind to integrate it within the structure of your website.

Here are some beautiful examples of illustrations that you will certainly like to explore:

K4lab.info: – It is the perfect specimen of what an ideal illustration would be. It looks superb and the color combination that is awesome.

Wpcoder.com: – Those who are a little bit skeptical about the probable impacts of using illustration in their websites, WpCoder.Com is an eye-opener for them. Despite flaunting a different look, this website looks professional and it manages to build up strong communication with the viewers.

Drupalcon.org: – This is another powerful and feature rich website that can inspire you to go ahead with your plan to design a website based on illustration. It looks gorgeous and elegant too.

You find website design highly interesting and you are determined to pursue you career in this domain. You know Photoshop, you are proficient in Dream weaver and you have a positive knack for designing something highly creative. But sometimes, you just forget some basic usability principles of website design while adding creative touches to a website. You need to understand that the main purpose of designing a website is not to add it in your portfolio. It has to be aesthetically pleasing and it should be good to look at. But above anything else you have to follow the principles of website design usability otherwise, you might find yourself in a tough corner.

Here in this article, we are going to discuss three main pillars of website design usability:

Make Your Website Scannable: – Sound weird but the fact is that online readers do not have the time nor have the patience to go through the details of your website from the scratch. They just scan your page and pick up something that is in bold letters or that are in bulleted points. Therefore, there is no point of filling up your website with long content. Try to use some images in the middle of the content so that the reader find it interesting and worthy enough to flip through some of the pages of your website.

Key point:

• Use subheadings, bulleted points and emphasized important words and phrases of the content of your website.
• Visit the website of Apple.Com, Adobe.Com for getting some inspiration from them in this respect.

Give Visitors What They Want: – Online visitors hate to be on a page that does not contain useful information. Therefore, in order to increase visitor retention, you need to make the visitors believe that they are on the right page. This can be done by presenting information without using visual gimmick. Be straightforward and be honest as far as your approach is concerned.

Key point:

• Use simple words and simple images. Shun any visual sorcery.
• Do try to show your creativity with navigation of your website.

Visitors Hate To Think: – Try your level best to make your website look simple because simplicity is the best element that can make a website look lively and truly irresistible. Do not feature anything in your website that can lead to unnecessary confusion. Do not use any trough words because visitors hate to scout for the meaning of a word while surfing online.

Horizontal navigation menu design is not a new-found area of work nor is it a novel attempt to add some variety in the sphere of website design. Horizontal navigation menu is very much a part of a website design process since it has been widely adopted and largely used by a significant number of website designers over the past few years and so. Surprisingly, it importance has not ebbed in present days. Modern website designers are finding it a truly amazing since it can play an instrumental role in enhancing the browsing experience of the users. Unlike vertical navigation menu which suffers from content and browsing limitations, horizontal navigation is remarkably from such nagging issues and that means by adopting this technique, you will be to add freshness and flexibility in your website. Here in this article, we are going to cover some of the fascinating aspects of horizontal navigation menu, just check them out:

Make a Division Between Primary and Secondary Sections: Figuring out what are primary objects and what are secondary objects of your website can play a pivotal role in the creation of a visual hierarchy. You need to place primary links at the fore of the horizontal menu and then place the rest of the elements wherever possible. Now it is up to you to dictate what the important parts of your website are by clearly positioning different elements and by positioning menus.

Use Familiar Names: – Try to shun complexities as far as possible. Do not try to use foreign names i.e. complex synonyms for simple and familiar phrases. If you can manage to skip this practice, which is quite common of a sizable section of website designers, it can help you to avoid some obvious complications or confusion.

For example, people have a general tendency for using “Reach Us” as against “Contact Us”. However, this can lead to unnecessary complication that can otherwise be avoided easily.

Place Call To Action Button On the Right: – Do not place your call to action button in some remote place since it may loose its vibe there. To make it work, you need to position at the right side of your website and if possible do not make it look overcrowded.

Add A Search Box: – Do not forget to add a search box because it helps a visitor to pinpoint information without going through all your pages. Search box should look unique and should be powerful enough to seize the attention of the visitors at the very first glance.

Try To Avoid Surprise Drop-Down Menus: - Horizontal dropdown menus are a rage these days but people are likely to miss them out since they are hard to locate. You need to add some signs for making people aware of the existence of dropdown menu.

Not an Yahoo moment for Yahoo as its millions of loyal fans are crying hoarse over its much speculated and much anticipated integration with Bing that is supposed to ring the death bell of a great search engine. This is pathetic reduction of a great search engine to an appendage of Bing. Yahoo which was once considered to be the arch rival of Google, has sold itself to Bing and it is no more a search engine. All its secrets that were developed painstakingly by some of the best developers of the world for years are in the hands of Bing, who is now revving up use this new arsenal to invade the territory of Google.

Yahoo Up For Sale
However, Yahoo is not going to acknowledge this fact. It still believes that it will be able to retain its position as a search engine in coming years. Shashi Seth, Senior Vice President, Yahoo! Search Products, in his latest post in YsearchBlog has proudly stated “Yahoo! Search will always be a Search Engine”. But the reality does not say so. It seems people are already shifting their attention from Yahoo search to Bing and we believe that Bing is relishing it.

Yahoo: The New Yes-man
The process of annihilation was started most probably on August 17, 2010 since in that day, Yahoo has posted three posts in its YSearchBlog for making people aware of the coming changes. As was to be expected, it tried its level best to convince the readers that this move is going to benefits the users by enhancing users experience but this is nothing more than just a façade. When the merger will be completed, we will like to have a new Yahoo, which will lack all its originality. It will just be a mere shadow of what it had once, it will be transformed into a yes-man of Bing.

Bing Is Better, Smarter
From now on, search listing on Yahoo! Search is likely to be powered by Bing. However, this change will come into effect in the US and Canada at the initial stage. It is likely to take 2 years more to complete the full transition in other parts of the world. Yahoo! Video, Image and Web search are now powered by Microsoft platform in Canadian and the US market.

Bing is visibly happy with the outcome. In its blog it has expressed its unbridled happiness for the successful completion of this task. Here are the excerpts:

Today I am happy to share that Bing is powering Yahoo!’s search results in the US and Canada (English only for now, the other languages will come in the weeks and months ahead).

What Should Webmasters Do?
Try to please Bing. This is all you can do since there is no need to please Yahoo anymore. If you can manage to get better ranking in Bing, we hope that you will be able to get better ranks in Yahoo as well. Try to keep a close eye on the latest developments and pray to God.