Sufyan bin Uzayr

Filed Under

Published

June 25, 2014

No Comments

Recently, there has been a lot of buzz regarding long-form content. As you might of guessed, long-form content is anything that is, well, long, and is presented as an entity in its own right. Since services such as Medium have shed light on reader-friendly writing, more and more websites are seriously considering adding long-form content. In this article, I will be discussing considerations and points that you need to consider before adding long-form content to your website. So, What is Long-form Content? Simply put, long-form content is longer in length, when compared to your average form of content. However, beyond that it also […]

Free WordPress Themes: May 2014 Edition

Author

Filed Under

Community

Published

June 5, 2014

No Comments

May was a good month for free WordPress themes, and the official repository saw many new additions, especially towards the end of the month. In fact, even Automattic released 2 free themes recently! In this roundup, let’s take a look at some of the best free themes of May 2014. 1. Fictive Released by Automattic, Fictive is a WordPress theme meant for personal blogs and tumblogs. It supports post formats and has a custom social links menu, and is also translation ready. Demo | Download 2. Pictorico The second theme by Automattic, Pictorico caters to the needs of photobloggers and photographers. It […]

The Difference Between Prototype and Wireframe

Author

Filed Under

Published

May 19, 2014

No Comments

When it comes to design, wireframe and prototype are 2 very important terms. However, even the best design professionals tend to get confused between wireframing and prototyping, and tend to use ‘wireframe’ and ‘prototype’ as if they were the same thing. This is incorrect, because wireframing and prototyping are both two distinct processes, each with its own set of benefits. In this post, I will try to explain the difference between wireframe and prototype. Prototype and Wireframe: Definitions A prototype, as the name suggests, is a medium to high-level representation of the final user interface of the design in question. As […]

My Favorite WordPress Plugins

Author

Filed Under

Published

May 15, 2014

5 Comments

One of the best things about WordPress is the easy access to numerous plugins, which extend its use as a CMS. It’s a repetitive cycle—more and more new plugins are developed for WordPress because it’s the most popular CMS, and more and more new users are attracted towards WordPress because it’s easier to extend by means of simple plugins. Of course, the vast number of plugins in the repository are not all alike. Some are amazing, others are tolerable, and some are disappointing. When it comes to plugins, every WordPress user has his or her own preferences. In this post, I’ll talk about some […]

Is It Time to Retire Your Blog’s Sidebar?

Author

Filed Under

Published

May 8, 2014

19 Comments

When it comes to blogging sites, sidebars have been around for many years. Of course, there have always been blogs with special layouts that didn’t include a sidebar, but for the most part, the majority of bloggers have preferred having a sidebar (sometimes, even two). However, after the release of Twenty Thirteen, the WordPress theme that took us “back to the blog,” certain blog designs that didn’t employ the sidebar became available. Then, following the release of Ghost, and its free or premium “content-first look” themes, more and more WordPress themes became available—discarding the use of the sidebar. Question is, […]

Taking a Look at Ghost Buttons

Author

Filed Under

Published

May 1, 2014

No Comments

There’s a new design trend in the house, it’s called Ghost buttons. And in terms of design trends, these near-translucent buttons are rising in popularity every day. In this post, I’ll take a look at some websites that have already started using Ghost buttons! Ghost Buttons It’s difficult to properly define a Ghost button. Simply put, they’re basic shapes with a transparent background that is (ideally) delineated with a solid border. As such, a Ghost button gives an empty or hollow appeal, and blends with the overall design composition. Thus, when coupled with delicate typography and/or contour-styled graphics or a solid […]

BlackBerry: Fallen Out of Favor?

Author

Filed Under

Published

April 25, 2014

2 Comments

Recently, Microsoft announced that they will be rebranding Nokia as Microsoft Mobile. A company that once was a de facto entity in the world of mobile phones, Nokia surely seems to have come full circle. But, while the world is currently busy talking about Nokia, there’s another smartphone brand that has seen better days: BlackBerry. Alphanumeric pagers, email machines, and smartphones—BlackBerry seems to have done it all. But BlackBerry’s tango with stardom appears to be coming to an end, as the figures don’t looking promising. In this article, I talk about the historic rise and imminent fall of BlackBerry. Good […]

Free WordPress Themes: April 2014 Edition

Author

Filed Under

Published

April 24, 2014

4 Comments

April witnessed the release of WordPress 3.9, which brought many improvements and new features to the table. April also saw the release of several new free WordPress themes, almost all of which were geared towards personal blogging sites. In this roundup, we take a look at some of the best free WordPress themes released during the month of April 2014. Free WordPress Themes: April 2014 Edition 1. Crangasi Crangasi is a content-centric theme meant for personal blogs. It’s fully responsive and translation ready. Demo | Download 2. Resolution Resolution is a multipurpose WordPress theme mainly meant for magazine websites. It […]

My Experience With Ghost

Author

Filed Under

Published

April 10, 2014

3 Comments

It’s been well over a year since John O’Nolan expressed his angst about WordPress no longer being a pure blogging tool, and announced Ghost to the world. In the short span of one year, Ghost has earned a good number of followers and users, and it continues to grow in popularity. I tried Ghost shortly after it was first released to the public, and I found it to be too limiting. Obviously, you can’t expect to have everything right in the first release, so I decided to wait. Recently, Ghost 0.4 was released, and I decided to give it another […]

Hosting Recommendations at WordPress.org: Time for Change?

Author

Filed Under