Discovering Minimalism in WordPress Themes - envato.com coupon

Minimalist design on the web has been around for years. Usually, design trends come and go rather quickly. So, what makes minimalism different?

For starters, minimalism is more than just your average design trend. It’s not about using a specific color scheme or type of artwork. It’s a technique that will help you simplify the task of focusing on content and navigating a website. In that way, it’s more of a practice in philosophy than a temporary fad.

Minimalist design continues to be widely implemented across the web – and for good reason. This design technique creates a clutter-free environment, thus making it easier for users to navigate and read.

If you’re looking to create a WordPress website that is both attractive and user-friendly, a theme that uses a minimalist design will get you off to a wonderful start.

Sometimes, it’s tempting to simply fill every last pixel of screen real estate with content or imagery. Minimalism resists that temptation by incorporating white space in order to give each element it’s own room to breathe. It’s the opposite of the overwhelming designs we saw years ago.

Today, popular sites such as Medium, Apple and even Microsoft embrace white space and simplicity in design to highlight content. Their design choices have resulted in sites that are straightforward and easy to navigate.

Let’s take a look at some popular WordPress themes that implement minimalist design. We’ll also explore a specific element in each theme that represents this popular design technique.

Focus on the Message

One of the big advantages of minimalism is the ability to clearly communicate your message with users. For example, take a look at the slider of the Blossom theme above. The image is large and attractive without being overwhelming. The text is large and makes great use of white space to ensure that we can easily focus on it.

Blossom also features a variety of page layouts, unlimited sidebars, pricing tables, team and portfolio layouts and is WooCommerce compatible.

White Space Creates Separation

The use of white space is one of the key elements of minimalism. Here on the Milano theme, we see how the spacing of both the section header and individual post listing make for an attractive, easy-to-read layout.

The theme includes a large selection of demo layouts, five menu styles, sortable masonry portfolios and a copy of Visual Composer.

Minimal Design, Maximum Content

A common misconception of minimal design is that it only works for websites that don’t have a lot of content. While it does work well for sparse amounts of content, minimalism can also be an effective way to showcase a site with a lot of content. Take, for example, the stunning layout of Paperleaf. The use of a well-spaced masonry grid and clear typography take away clutter.

Paperleaf is billed as a “clean and minimal” theme, and that certainly holds true. It doesn’t include a ton of unnecessary features – just the basics to get you on your way to building a minimal, yet content-heavy website.

A Contrasting Palette

A minimalist design often means using a color palette that provides some contrast. As we see here with Inverto WP, the use of various shades of black and white makes for an understated color scheme. This palette also puts the focus on your content, as well.

Inverto WP features the ability to have either a one-page or multi-page website. You’ll also find multiple portfolio styles, page and posts layouts and a visual page builder.

Consistency Equals Clarity

Using a consistent layout is key for just about every website – but it’s especially important in a minimalist design. Looking at the Everest theme, we see a demo site with a lot of products for sale. But the consistency of each product in the listing makes it easy for us to browse through them all without confusion.

Compatible with WooCommerce, Everest provides several homepage layouts, support for WordPress post formats and a copy of Revolution Slider.

Clean Typography

Typography in minimalist design should be clean. It should also let the user easily differentiate header text from body text. That’s exactly what the Creek theme excels at. Notice the all-caps bold styling of the header and the beautifully spaced descriptive text underneath. That makes for easy reading and a sleek, modern style.

Creek has you covered with four homepage layouts, several grid portfolio styles, pricing tables, along with custom templates for About and Contact pages.

Images, Uncomplicated

This lovely photo grid, as seen in the Minelight theme, could have easily become over-complicated. Had large amounts of text been added or even visual effects like borders or drop shadows implemented, the look could have been cluttered. Instead, a simple grid layout is allowed to just be. In other words, this layout lets the images speak for themselves.

Geared toward portfolio websites, Minelight comes with multiple layout options, CSS3 animations, mega menus and a selection of custom-built widgets.

Simple Utility

Let’s have a look at the header of the Ameera theme. It’s not loud or overwhelming in the least. But notice how nicely the logo stands out in the middle. To the left and right, there are understated social media links and a search form. There’s a simplicity to this layout that also provides functionality. The same can be said for the navigation bar just below.

Ameera is built for blogging and includes four home page layouts, several options for listing your posts, lots of custom widgets and support for 10 WordPress post formats.

Subtle Visual Guides

You won’t find many design elements on a minimalist site that are gaudy or distracting. For example, the use of icons in the Bookmarks theme provide clean visual cues that compliment the content – rather distract from it.

Also included are a page builder, mega menus and the ability to use parallax, video or simple color backgrounds.

Tone it Down

Design elements like pricing tables can often become too fancy and polished for their own good. It seems like they’re styled in such a way that takes focus away from the actual content. Contrast that with the elegant pricing tables we see in the FlyPage theme above. Using minimalist design, you have something simple and beautiful. With tables as attractive as these, your customers will have no trouble deciding which package to buy.

FlyPage comes packed with a visual page builder, several specialized page templates and lots of options you can customize.

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Understanding Remote Work - envato.com coupon

Working outside of a designated office is on the rise, but do we have enough understanding on what it really means to maintain productivity, collaboration and healthy lifestyle?

There are many flavours of remote work, and the definition of such is frequently being bent to fit a list of generous work perks. From remote-friendly to remote-first, let’s try to determine what differentiates remote work from traditional employment arrangements.

Remote work is distributed

The key identifier of remote is the distributed nature of where you perform your work duties. At its core, remote work embraces a worldwide-spread workforce which can collaborate effectively. There are many flavours of that approach, from remote within the country of origin of a given business to fully spread out, remote-first organisations.

In an ideal, remote-first organizations, companies should start by:

• Shying away from enforcing mandatory office presence
• Welcoming potential employees from anywhere on the planet
• Avoid setting global office hours (due to timezone differences)

Remote work is asynchronous

Asynchronicity, meaning collaborating and responding in your own time, is being thrown around as a differentiating factor between remote and non-remote work. This idea is incorrect; in reality, co-workers can be effectively asynchronous while sitting in the same office—when working on multiple projects or taking extended amount of time to reply to messages.

Unsynchronized work definitely does become more prominent if multiple employees are located in non-overlapping time zones and brings many benefits. One of them is being able to schedule blocks of uninterrupted work, boosting the ability to complete tasks more effectively. The nature of asynchronous communication, no matter which medium you use (email, Slack, etc.), also leaves us with a written backlog of decision making and ideas that are easy to reference later on. Lack of synchronicity is part of every workday and the only difference is that remote work embraces and takes advantage of it.

Remote work is flexible

While remote work requires quite a bit of discipline to maintain productivity to power through your tasks, the lack of synchronicity or headquarters presence means full flexibility and governance of your time. It becomes even more plausible as timezones don’t overlap at all.

Jason Zimdars of Basecamp, a well-established remote company, describes the joys of both pliability of time and embracing interruptions really well in his “Why I work remotely” article. This flexibility brings a new level of freedom that traditional 9-5 workers usually don’t have—spending more time with family, running errands, exercising and other activities that we usually struggle to find the time for.

Remote work relies on accountability

Every job comes with certain responsibilities, and it’s reasonable to assume that each employee would have a high quality working ethic. In a remote setting, when it’s harder to track work without well-established, transparent processes, accountability becomes crucial.

A remote work situation is built on trust: employers have to trust that their employees will perform their jobs, and employees are held accountable for being productive in their work and communicate its outcomes. It’s essential to understand that there’s more individual responsibility and accountability to see ideas come to fruition.

Remote work cannot exist without stellar communication

Communication is the pillar of remote work. The importance of clear, honest and concise way of expressing yourself in both written and spoken form cannot be underestimated. While the Web might make communication more realtime, it definitely doesn’t mitigate misunderstandings.

For a remote team it’s crucial to be effective and emphatic in the way they talk to each other as well as sensibly utilise tools that will aid this goal—from text chat software (Slack), realtime call services (Hangouts, Talky) through to screen-sharing apps (Screenhero) just to name a few.

The subject of remote work is complex, and communication, flexibility, and accountability are only a few aspects that define its success. Embarking on the adventure of implementing remote work in your organisation should start with fully understanding what remote truly entails, where to focus your efforts ensuring effective collaboration and inclusion of the remote employees.

 

Related articles:

• 10 Reasons Travelling is Great for Your Freelance Career
• How to Stay Productive as a Developer

 

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Technicolor Trends in Web Design for 2016 - envato.com coupon

Maybe it’s a backlash against the trend of hyper-minimalist web design, but lately, I’ve been wanting to fill the white space on websites with bright colors and fun, eye-catching graphics. Here’s a list of sixteen of my favorite digital downloads right now—from artwork, videos, WordPress themes, and even some make-it-yourself options—that are anything but minimal.

I scream, you scream

How fun is this ice cream vector illustration? It’s easily editable, scalable, and ready to print (but not to eat).

Paint swirls on loop

A bright, swirling video background adds some dynamic movement to your video. Another creative use: as a looped GIF as a header image for your website or Medium publication, like on Lenny Letter or The UX Blog.

Soda shop-inspired

If you know your way around Adobe Illustrator, try making your own bright background with this step-by-step Kawaii Soda Shop tutorial. Adding faces to the food is optional.

Pineapple patterns

Pineapples are having a moment in design: they’re showing up everywhere, from socks to media companies. And now, you can add them to your web designs! If pineapples aren’t your thing, we’ve got some illustrated bananas and watermelon in similar illustration styles.

And more pineapple patterns

This pineapple feature image isn’t included in the WordPress theme, but here’s what is included: a responsive, retina-ready multicolor theme that’s made for agencies, freelancers, and designers.

A little offbeat

This digital paper pack includes “angels, gods, heroes, and horses from the distant past”. Whether you use it as a greeting card print or a web background, it’s bound to get some attention.

Layers of flowers

Another make-it-yourself option, using a bouquet photo and some textured patterns as a base for the design. It’s easy to use your own background and text, to customize the message.

For your creative idea

This bright graphic screams “creative idea” (literally). It’s also an Adobe Illustrator file, so you could color it in to match the color palette of your website or blog post.

Shiny paper

This art pack takes a literal approach to the ‘digital paper’ idea, with textures and metallic colors that you might find on gift wrap, but with a noisy, glitchy art effect.

Click, click

Writing about technology or the internet, but tired of the standard stock photos of laptops and minimalist desk scenes? This digital art pack has bright, flat illustrations of tech-related items, like browser windows and file folders.

For a bright portfolio grid

Clean lines and bright colors: what could be better? This material design-inspired portfolio theme has the option of creating a different accent color for each page, which is perfect for highlighting client work or livening up your website.

Fancy florals

These pretty patterns come in a package of 45+ styles in the digital art pack. If you’re creating a blog or a website, a mix-and-match approach would be a creative way to create a colorful, varied design that’s still consistent and on-trend.

Just some floating mouths

Teeth & Mouths Graphics: the graphics pack you didn’t know you needed. We love the idea of using these as patterns for clothing (maybe a good Halloween look?)

Stripes and roses

This pretty and simple DIY design uses classic designs, with black & white stripes and pink roses – but we bet it would look just as eye-catching with some neon stripes or unconventional color schemes.

Watch the lights shine

These abstract, looped backgrounds are perfect for bright-yet-subtle movement in the background of a video or website (and as indicated by the tags, they might also fit in at a nightclub or as background to a DJ set).

Let’s go on an adventure

We love the overlay of illustrations on top of their real-life counterparts, like the hand-drawn leaves layered on the forest image. This outdoorsy image set also includes a night sky, a bow-and-arrow design, and a whimsical compass pattern.

 

Featured designs  from Envato Market, Envato Elements, and Tuts+.

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Top 50 Royalty Free Music Tracks – September 2016 Update - envato.com coupon

Finding the perfect music track to accompany your creative project can be a challenge. Whether you’re scoring the soundtrack for a new video, or adding a musical component to a podcast, the right song choice is pivotal for enhancing your work. Background music can be tough to locate, and questions and concerns about licensing may arise, so royalty free music is hugely beneficial to creatives.

We understand that finding the right music can be hard, which is why every month, we’re providing a list of the top stock audio tracks as judged by sales from AudioJungle:

Top 1 – 10 themes, September 2016

1. Uplifting and Inspiring Corporate by Aurus Audio

An uplifting background track which begins with a harmonic guitar melody and builds to a powerful, inspiring conclusion. This energising track would be perfect for a range of projects, including corporate presentations, tutorial videos and app promotions.

2. Upbeat Corporate by Lumen Media

This track has been specially mixed to suit the addition of a voiceover, however it still sounds awesome without one. This upbeat and motivational track includes 3 additional mixes to ensure you have the perfect sound available.

3. Energetic Indie Rock by Aurus Audio

With the addition of some cool background vocals provided by Zac Nelson, this track is loud, raw and quickly progresses to an energetic indie track. If you’re looking to add some energy and attitude to your advertisement or promotional video, this is the track for you.

4. Acoustic Inspiration by Two Mountains

Another collection of tracks for the price of one, including 3 versions (full, short and very short), this beautiful acoustic composition is perfect for a host of media projects. Providing a smooth, comfortable feeling, this track would easily pair with an inspirational video.

5. Upbeat and Inspiring Indie Rock by LeadSquid

Leadsquid provides 5 different versions of this atmospheric track, with a multitude of instruments featuring you’d be hard pressed to find a better piece of music for an active video showing off your vacation or skiing adventure.

6. Upbeat Corporate Uplifting Motivational by Studio89

As soon as you hear this track you’ll be reminded of those amazing videos of beautiful sunshine, cocktails and white beaches. But this track isn’t limited to reminiscing of vacations been and gone. Ideal for projects ranging from family BBQs to corporate promotional pieces, it’ll be difficult to find a more diverse track.

7. Summer Pop by Mood Mode

Best suited for TV advertising, movie trailers and travel videos, this upbeat, happy track inspires viewers to want to see more. With an optimistic electronic track and live instruments, this musical piece provides an uplifting beat to any project it is used in.

8. Inspiring by PR Music Productions

Fresh, clean and perfect for projects that are designed to inspire. Piano, acoustic guitar and electric muted guitar are the main feature instruments of this piece. There is a longer version of this track provided by the author, PR_MusicProductions and it is available as part of an inspiring pack.

9. Inspiring by Red Lion Production

This dynamic orchestral culmination features a beautiful piano. Starting slow and building to a punchy, inspirational climax, this track would be well suited to the big screen. However, don’t be intimidated, RedLionProduction’s track would lift any media project with the audience at the edge of their seat throughout the performance.

10. To Motivate by Tim Cat

TimCat really gets their claws into the modern and contemporary with this great track, perfect for presentations, advertising or just lifting the mood in the office. It includes 3 versions and they will even help make the track suitable for your project by customizing it.

Top 11 – 50 themes, September 2016

11. Inspiring Storytelling by PR Music Productions
12. Epic Three by Musical Smile
13. Corporate Inspiring Upbeat Uplifting by Stock Sounds
14. Inspiration by Amaksi
15. Upbeat & Inspiring Uplifting Corporate by Audio Trend
16. Motivation Pop Rock by Dmitriy Simf
17. Upbeat by Studio Monkey
18. Upbeat Corporate Technology by Aurus Audio
19. Uplifting Inspiring Motivational by Tunediver
20. Inspiring Cinematic Trailer by Audio Pizza
21. Upbeat Dancing Rock by Ikoliks
22. Inspirational by Art Haiz
23. Upbeat Acoustic Uplifting Inspiring by Stock Sounds
24. Indie Rock by Octo Sound
25. Emotional Inspiring Piano & Strings by E-soundtrax
26. Corporate Inspiration Background Uplifting by Stock Sounds
27. Inspiring Piano by JD Music
28. Upbeat & Inspiring Pop Rock by Blue Fox Music
29. Ambient Piano by BD Productions
30. Summer Pop by Top-Flow
31. Fun Energetic Pop by Forty Two Studio
32. In the Moment of Inspiration by Pink Zebra
33. Inspiring Cinematic Trailer by Alex Besss
34. Driving Indie Anthem by Sea Stock Audio
35. Upbeat Corporate Motivation Uplifting by Stock Sounds
36. Inspiration by Sound Around
37. Uplifting Summer Sports Pop by Boomopera
38. Epic Cinematic Adventure by Lead Squid
39. Piano Inspiration by Sound Cat
40. Rock The Party by Elevate Audio
41. Fun by Pony Music
42. Creative by SF Music
43. Aggressive Sport Electro by Cinematic Alex
44. Ambient by Anton 1988
45. Natural by Dolphin Mind
46. Background Ambient by Clean Mind Sounds
47. Let’s Go! By Manny Music
48. Corporate Technology Ambient Background by Peacock Music
49. Upbeat by Red Lion Production
50. Inspiring Upbeat Corporate by Silver Tiger Studios

 

P.S., if you’re interested in creating your own music tracks, check out our library of audio production tutorials.

 

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Affordances: The Designer’s Secret Weapon - envato.com coupon

Let’s get philosophical for a second. Pretend you’ve never seen a hammer before, but now there’s one in front of you. You see a hard metal part, with weird shapes, spikes, and knobs. Then you see a long wooden part, smooth, and a little bigger than the size of your hand. Which part would you grab when you pick it up? And what is a hammer for, anyways?

The hammer applies force to objects, but you only know that because of its signifiers. The hammer’s handle tells you that you can grab it. Its size, shape, and look are all subtle cues to its use, and even if you don’t know what a hammer is for, you can at least guess how to pick one up.

While affordances might not be a top priority for tool-makers, for interaction designers they are absolutely essential – otherwise users wouldn’t know what they can and cannot interact with.

Let Form Suggest Function: Affordances vs. Signifiers

Affordances are what a product can do. For instance, a website affords navigation. But how does the user know that function is possible? A perceived affordance is therefore how the user thinks the navigation might work, which of course must match the actual affordance.

The beauty of signifiers is that, when they’re used properly, the product feels intuitive and familiar, as if the user already knows what the feature is for. As Andrew Maier, co-founder of UX Booth, points out, the effectiveness of perceived affordances depends upon signifiers. A signifier can be anything that suggests meaning, whether a word, a shape, a color, or a movement.

Let’s look at an example from Behance. Their use of infinite scroll is one way to afford navigation. As you scroll downwards, a loading circle appears before more content loads, signifying that the content stream is dynamic. Without the signifier, you might be disoriented as to why a bunch of new content appeared (when it seemed as though the page was finished).

In this case, the subtle touch of a signifier provides a split-second interaction that results in an immediate understanding of the affordance.

If we look at the above screenshot from a higher level, you can also see other signifiers: the thumbs-up icon signals that liking content is possible, the arrow icon in the navigation signifies a dropdown, etc. None of these affect the functionality, but simply suggest that these interactions are possible.

Signifiers come in different types, each serving different purposes, and we can organize them into five groups:

• Explicit Signifiers – Obvious signifiers, such as words or appearances.
• Pattern Signifiers – Trends and customs that have been popularized to the point of common understanding.
• Hidden Signifiers – Signifiers that do not become apparent unless certain conditions are met.
• Metaphorical Signifiers – Using a metaphor to signify its meaning, for example, an envelope icon representing email.
• Negative Signifiers – Signifies something is unavailable or not working.

Knowing when and how to use these types of signifiers will provide a layered feel to your interaction design. Let’s go into detail for each.

Explicit Signifiers

The most obvious of the types, explicit signifiers include language or appearance to show function. Something as blatant as text reading “Click Here” would certainly belong in this category.

Explicit signifiers should only be used when necessary. Imagine how wordy (and annoying) your page would be if every link read “Click Here.”

In below the screenshot from Copyblogger below, the “click to play the video” instructions are an example of when an explicit signifier isn’t necessary (because the play symbol is so universally understood).

So what are the correct criteria for using explicit signifiers? Natasha Postolovski believes that it all depends on the context of use. Because they run the risk of making your product monotonous or even condescending, they should only be used in the following situations:

1. Users are likely unfamiliar with common UI patterns – If your target users are not tech-savvy, or if your technology is new or uncommon, being explicit will remove some of the learning curve.
2. No patterns exist for an action – If there’s no other way to explain an action, spell it out for your users. A good example would be a mobile app that requires a pull to refresh: it might be best to just say something like, “Pull to Refresh.”

In brief, only use explicit signifiers when subtler options aren’t as effective.

In the below example from Interaction Design Best Practices, the call-to-action is an explicit signifier. Using the text “Start using it now!” is a simpler way of conveying that information. An icon representing that message would be too obscure, and it’s not exactly a “Log In” because that implies you need to create an account beforehand. Since providing your email directs you immediately into the app, it’s best to keep the language explicitly clear.

Pattern Signifiers

No one really knows why clicking on a site’s logo takes you back to the homepage, but most of us know that it will. This is so common on most sites that it’s become an established trend, or pattern. Below we’ve listed some common patterns, most or all of which you’ll recognize:

• Blue/underlined links
• Logos returning to homepage
• Gray text in form fields
• Account manager in upper-right corner
• Accented and grayed dots showing position in multi-step tasks
• Arrows for scrolling image carousels
• Navigation bar across the top
• Search field with magnifying glass

Hulu makes excellent use of pattern signifiers on their homepage. In the picture below, you’ll notice the clickable logo for the homepage, the top navigation menu, the magnifying glass search field, the account manager in the upper-right, the standard video play button, and the image carousel with both arrow controls and dot positioning indicating that the user can cycle content. Since other video sites like Youtube and Netflix use similar patterns, this tactic increases familiarity (and therefore learnability) for the user.

Pattern signifiers allow meaningful interactions to happen at the speed of thought. For example, we intuitively know the magnifying glass indicates a search functionality. As such, these should be used whenever possible (especially if you’re designing for tech-savvy audiences).

The greatest strength of pattern signifiers, however, is also their weakness. Because its effectiveness depends upon familiarity, you’ll want to use these less if you’re designing for younger audiences (like children) or less technically adept people (such as the elderly, or those with limited technological access).

Hidden Signifiers

Have you ever accidentally moved your cursor over a piece of text and suddenly it changed color, revealing that it was a link? This is an example of hidden signifier, a subtle but useful way to illustrate a feature’s function. If you’re familiar with Pinterest, you’ll recognize how the options to Pin, Send, and Like a photo appear only when you hover over them.

The appeal of hidden signifiers is that they save space. You give the users the controls they want without sacrificing screen real estate – having your cake and eating it, too. But, hidden signifiers can be risky (you don’t want to hide important info), so they should be used carefully.

When to use hidden signifiers:

• Complex interfaces – If including every single signifier clutters the interface, hidden signifiers are a great way to simplify everything.
• Invested users – When your users are already invested in your product (i.e., if they’ve already bought the app, or your content sits behind a log-in wall), hidden signifiers are not much of a risk. But if they are still on the fence about whether or not they like you, it’s better to be explicit to quickly win them over.

When not to use hidden signifiers:

• Vital actions – Any functions that are necessary to use the product should not be hidden deeply; otherwise, you’re risking the user never knowing about your product’s essential features.

As a rule of thumb, ask yourself if the user could enjoy your interface without ever knowing about the action in question. If they can, you’re safe to use the hidden signifier. For example, selecting “Add to Favorites” for an item is an interaction that helps users prioritize content or products, but it isn’t a non-negotiable. Therefore, it’s acceptable to put the “favorite” function as a hidden signifier.

If you’d like to learn more about balancing minimalism with discoverability, check out this helpful piece by Dan Saffer, Founder of Kicker Studio.

Metaphorical Signifiers

A simplistic house icon means homepage, an envelope means email, a folder means folder. These are all examples of metaphorical signifiers, and rely on a user’s common sense (and familiarity with everyday objects) to draw a connection.

Metaphorical signifiers are closely linked with patterns; because metaphors have been so successful, they have been used repeatedly by hundreds of companies until they became established patterns. That’s why you most often see envelopes representing email instead of, say, the mailbox from the AOL era. But as technology advances, new functions require digital representation, and so metaphorical signifiers still live on the frontier of design.

You’ll find most metaphorical signifiers as part of an app or site’s navigation (as either icons on the page or menu items). As shown in the below example from the Chicago Works app, it’s not a bad idea to include some text next to the metaphors when you have only a few items. Combining text with visual cues will help users understand functions even faster.

One of the most important things to remember about metaphorical signifiers is context. A magnifying glass, for example, might indicate a type of search function on a website. However, in an image editor, that same icon might signify zoom in/out. Keep in mind your context when designing, and if you think there might be confusion, there’s nothing wrong with communicating more explicitly.

Negative Signifiers

Signifiers can also show that features are not available, at least not at the moment. In this case, the form suggests a lack of function. While not as common as the other types, a negative signifier is just as useful in explaining without explaining.

Typically, the most common negative signifier is grayed-out text, as with the Photoshop example above. A skillful use of negative signifiers will draw attention away from itself and back onto more usable options; the gray text seems to fade into the background, while the black clickable text stands prominent. Using grayed-out text to show unavailability has been so effective and popular, it has become a UI pattern.

Takeaway

Speed and ease-of-use are two of the biggest goals in interaction design, and signifiers create both. Knowing how to properly use signifiers is as relevant to a designer as knowing how to use colors is as relevant to a painter; the strengths of the different signifier types are akin to the differences in colors, and the skilled designer/painter knows the best time to use each, and when to mix them.

It’s a shame that something as useful as understanding affordances can be easily overlooked, but don’t make the mistake of ignoring them. Experiment with signifiers until you can confidently apply them; you’ll discover they can be one of the most powerful weapons you have in your design arsenal.

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Related posts: 

• 25 Useful Free Tools & Apps For Web Designers
• 50 Essential Cheatsheets, Guides & Docs for Web Designers

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50 Best Premium WordPress Themes – September 2016 Update - envato.com coupon

You’ve heard this a thousand times – WordPress is the most popular content management system (aka CMS) in the world. W3Techs reports that 59% of sites using CMS are built on WordPress. It’s so successful that it’s almost become a synonym for CMS!

The WordPress community has hundreds of thousands of designers and developers all contributing to pushing WordPress forward. Users love WordPress themes because it is painless to set up and can be used to create a business, personal, blog, corporate or portfolio site (to name but a few) and there are countless WordPress tutorials online. So how do you cut through the tens of thousands of themes available to find the best one for you?

Every month we showcase the best in WordPress Themes, as judged by sales from ThemeForest:

Top 1 – 10 themes, September 2016

1. Avada

“Avada is the swiss army knife of WordPress Themes – it does everything!” Collis Ta’eed (Envato CEO)

Avada is a versatile, easy to use and multi-purpose WordPress theme. This premium theme has been the #1 seller on ThemeForest for 4 years – can it ever be trumped?

2. X Theme

X Theme was built with the input of industry-leading experts with the goal of being on the cutting edge of WordPress development. Numerous individuals were consulted and asked them what sort of features they wanted to see in a theme from an SEO, design and feature-set perspective. The proof of successful is obviously demonstrated in sales. Did we mention that X customers can choose between Cornerstone, X’s own front-end page builder or the very powerful Visual Composer? Both plugins are included with each verified purchase.

3. Enfold

Enfold Theme describes itself as clean, super flexible and fully responsive, suited for business and shop website alike for users who want to showcase their work on a neat portfolio site. The theme is built on top of the Avia Framework and offers support for the WPML multi language plugin – who doesn’t want to internationalise their site?

4. BeTheme

BeTheme is another long time best seller on ThemeForest. With an advanced options panel combined with a drag & drop builder tool there is unlimited possibilities with this wordpress theme. Be Theme also comes with a HUGE range of pre-built websites so you can easily import any demo website within one click. Be’s catalogue of ready to go demo’s include everything from themes for accountants,ad agencies, bands, bars, carpenters, charities, freelancers, hotels, jewelers and record stores.

5. Bridge

Bridge is another WordPress theme that comes with a one click import feature for their demo themes. Choose your favorite design or style, import pages and settings and in moments can have a fully equipped website up and running. Bridge is also built on the flexible QODE framework.

6. Jupiter

Jupiter WordPress Theme has 28,000 active users worldwide – an impressive endorsement!

Jupiter’s creator Artbees describes itself as the fastest and lightest business WordPress theme on the market, which is super important in an age when search engines will rank or not rank your website over page load time.

Jupiter is a great option particularly for small businesses, enterprises and online shop owners and comes equipped with the WooCommerce plugin.

7. Flatsome

Flatsome is a best selling WooCommerce integrated theme which can create super fast websites with unlimited options using a very neat responsive page builder. This them also comes with 500+ Google fonts built in!

8. Uncode

Uncode is the result of many years experience creating beautiful web designs by a team of designers and developers who dedicate themselves to creating visually stunning websites. Based on Visual Composer and designed with terrific attention to detail, Uncode launched in November 2015 and has already securing a top 10 place in ThemeForest’s best sellers, can this theme usurp Avada?

9. Newspaper

Supporting YouTube integration and YouTube rating system, Newspaper is the top selling WordPress theme specifically for content, articles and blogging.

This theme have also integrates easily with bbPress Forum, BuddyPress and WooCommerce, plus responsive Google Ads and AdSense.

10. Salient

With over 50,000 total sales to date, Salient is definitely a deserving best in any WordPress theme list. Salient is designed to support any blog and website and is unique in it’s beautiful ability to display videos as backgrounds. The Salient team have also taken the time to build very easy to use shortcodes that any new and experienced creators alike will enjoy.

Top 11 – 50 themes, September 2016

11. The7 – Responsive Multi-Purpose Theme
12. Impreza – Retina Responsive Theme
13. Fevr – Creative MultiPurpose Theme
14. Brooklyn – Responsive Multi-Purpose Theme
15. Shopkeeper – eCommerce WP Theme for WooCommerce
16. Total – Responsive Multi-Purpose Theme
17. Kalium – Creative Theme for Professionals
18. TheGem – Creative Multi-Purpose High-Performance Theme
19. Kallyas – Responsive Multi-Purpose Theme
20. Stockholm – Multi-Concept Theme
21. Education – For Educational Web and LMS Theme
22. Porto – Responsive eCommerce Theme
23. Consulting – Business & Finance Theme
24. Massive Dynamic – Business Theme
25. Houzez – Real Estate Theme
26. Oshine – Creative Multi-Purpose Theme
27. Ronneby – High-Performance Theme
28. Photography – Responsive Photography Theme
29. Kleo – Community Focused, Multi-purpose BuddyPress Theme
30. Listify – WordPress Directory Theme
31. Voice – Clean News/Magazine Theme
32. Magone – Responsive Magazine & News Theme
33. WPLMS – WP Learning Management System Theme
34. XStore – Responsive WooCommerce Theme
35. Magneto – Multi Concept Newspaper & Blog Theme
36. REHub – Directory, Shop, Coupon & Affiliate Theme
37. SEO WP – Online Marketing & Social Media Agency Theme
38. Sahifa – Responsive News/Magazine Theme
39. Newsmag – News Magazine Newspaper Theme
40. Startit – Startup Business Theme
41. Pillar – Multipurpose Multi-Concept Responsive Theme
42. WP Pro Real Estate 7 – Responsive Real Estate Theme
43. Listable – A Friendly Directory Theme
44. BoomBox – Viral & Buzz Theme
45. Basel – Responsive eCommerce Theme
46. Nitro – Universal WooCommerce Theme
47. JobCareer – Job Board Responsive Theme
48. Unicon – Design-Driven Multi-purpose Theme
49. Real Homes – WordPress Real Estate Theme
50. Jobify – WordPress Job Board Theme

The post 50 Best Premium WordPress Themes – September 2016 Update appeared first on Envato.

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