Creating a successful website is much like producing a compelling film. Both endeavors require careful planning, a talented team, and attention to detail. Let’s see how the process of planning a website project can be likened to the stages of filmmaking.

Pre-production: Setting the Stage

In the world of cinema, pre-production is where the magic begins. It involves brainstorming ideas, developing a script, and assembling a team. Similarly, when planning a website project, the pre-production phase sets the stage for success:

• Define Your Vision: Just as a filmmaker envisions the story they want to tell, a web project begins with a clear vision. Identify your website’s purpose, target audience, and key objectives.
• Scripting (Content Strategy): Just as a screenplay is essential for a film, content is king on the web. Develop a content strategy that outlines what information will be presented and how it will be structured.
• Assemble Your Team: In filmmaking, you need directors, actors, and crew members. For a website project, you’ll require web designers, developers, content creators, and possibly marketers.
• Storyboarding (Wireframing): Just as a film storyboard visualizes scenes, wireframes map out your website’s layout. It helps you plan the user’s journey and functionality.

Production: Bringing Ideas to Life

Production is where the creative vision starts to become a reality in both filmmaking and website development. Here’s how the two compare:

• Filming (Design and Development): In filmmaking, this stage involves capturing scenes. In web development, it’s about designing and coding the site based on the wireframes and content plan.
• Actors and Props (Content and Assets): Just as actors and props are crucial to a film, content and media assets (images, videos, graphics) are essential for web projects. Ensure they are high quality and align with your vision.
• Directing (Project Management): A film director manages the production process. In web development, project managers oversee tasks, timelines, and resources.
• Set Design (User Interface): Just as a film’s set design creates the visual backdrop, user interface (UI) design sets the tone for your website. It influences the user’s experience and engagement.

Post-production: Refining the Work

After the main shoot, filmmakers head into post-production for editing, sound design, and special effects. Similarly, web projects go through refinement and testing:

• Editing (Quality Assurance): In filmmaking, editing enhances storytelling. In web development, quality assurance ensures that the site functions flawlessly, with no errors or broken links.
• Sound Design (Content Polish): Just as sound enhances the film’s atmosphere, polished content enhances your website’s impact. Review, edit, and optimize your text and media.
• Visual Effects (Interactivity and Animation): While film VFX create visual wonders, web interactivity and animation bring your site to life. Use these elements sparingly to engage users.
• Test Screening (User Testing): In filmmaking, test screenings gather audience feedback. Similarly, user testing helps identify usability issues and allows for improvements before launch.

Release: Lights, Camera, Action!

Finally, both films and websites are ready for their grand release:

• Premiere (Website Launch): Just as a film premieres in theaters, your website is launched to the world. Ensure it’s hosted on a reliable server and accessible to your target audience.
• Promotion (Marketing): Films are marketed to attract viewers. Similarly, promote your website through digital marketing, SEO, social media, and other channels.
• Feedback and Reviews: After release, both films and websites receive feedback. Listen to your users’ comments and continue to make improvements.
• Box Office (Analytics): In filmmaking, box office numbers gauge success. In web development, analytics tools provide data on user behavior, helping you refine your site’s performance.

Conclusion: From Vision to Reality

Whether you’re producing a film or planning a website project, the journey from vision to reality involves creativity, collaboration, and meticulous planning. Embracing the analogy of filmmaking can help you navigate the complexities of website development, ensuring that your online creation captivates and engages your audience.

When it comes to creating exceptional user experiences, designers often rely on a variety of libraries and frameworks to streamline their work and enhance usability. Here are some of the top libraries that can significantly boost your UX design projects:

• Bootstrap:
  Visit Bootstrap

  Bootstrap is one of the most popular front-end frameworks, known for its responsive design components and extensive CSS and JavaScript tools. It’s an excellent choice for rapid prototyping and building user-friendly, responsive web interfaces.

• Tailwind CSS:
  Visit Tailwind CSS

  Tailwind CSS offers a utility-first approach to styling, allowing designers to quickly create custom user interfaces by applying pre-defined classes. Its flexibility and ease of use make it a favorite among developers and designers alike.

• Material-UI:
  Visit Material-UI

  Material-UI is a React-based UI framework that implements Google’s Material Design guidelines. It provides a wide range of pre-designed components and styles, making it simple to create visually appealing and consistent designs.

• Ant Design:
  Visit Ant Design

  Ant Design is another React-based framework that emphasizes design consistency and best practices. It includes a comprehensive set of components and layouts inspired by the principles of Ant Design language.

• Foundation:
  Visit Foundation

  Foundation is a responsive front-end framework that provides a robust set of tools for creating accessible and responsive web designs. It’s favored by designers who require a high degree of customization.

These libraries can help you save time, maintain design consistency, and create user interfaces that prioritize the user experience. Explore them and choose the one that best fits your project’s needs!

In the competitive digital landscape, a website’s success hinges on its ability to convert visitors into customers or subscribers. To achieve optimal conversion rates, rigorous testing is essential. Here are different ways to test a website and strategies that can enhance conversions:

A/B Testing:

• Split your audience into two groups.
• Present each group with different versions of your website (A and B).
• Measure which version performs better in terms of conversion rates.
• Optimize elements like headlines, images, call-to-action buttons, or layouts based on the results.

Usability Testing:

• Recruit real users to navigate your website.
• Observe their interactions, frustrations, and feedback.
• Identify usability issues and barriers that may deter conversions.
• Use this data to streamline user flows and enhance the overall user experience.

Load Time Testing:

• Slow-loading pages can deter visitors and harm conversions.
• Utilize tools like Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to analyze and improve your website’s loading speed.
• Compress images, minimize code, and leverage browser caching to optimize load times.

Mobile Responsiveness Testing:

• With mobile users on the rise, ensure your website is fully responsive.
• Test it on various devices and screen sizes to guarantee a seamless mobile experience.
• Mobile-friendly websites often see improved conversion rates among mobile users.

Conversion Funnel Analysis:

• Examine the steps users take before converting (e.g., sign-up, purchase).
• Identify drop-off points in the funnel and rectify them.
• Streamline the conversion process to make it as straightforward as possible.

Multivariate Testing:

• Similar to A/B testing but on a larger scale.
• Test multiple variations of different elements simultaneously to identify the most effective combination.
• Useful for comprehensive website optimization.

Heatmaps and Click Tracking:

• Tools like Hotjar or Crazy Egg provide visual data on where users click and how far they scroll.
• Use heatmaps to optimize your layout and place important elements where users naturally engage.

User Surveys and Feedback:

• Solicit feedback from visitors through surveys or feedback forms.
• Gain insights into their preferences, pain points, and expectations.
• Use this qualitative data to make informed design and content decisions.

Security and Trust Testing:

• Ensure your website is secure with SSL certificates and HTTPS.
• Display trust symbols (e.g., trust badges, customer reviews) to instill confidence in visitors.
• Trustworthy websites often experience higher conversion rates.

SEO Testing:

• Regularly audit and optimize your website for search engines.
• Higher organic traffic from improved SEO can lead to more opportunities for conversions.

Browser Compatibility Testing:

• Verify that your website functions correctly on different browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.).
• A website that works seamlessly across all browsers enhances user trust and conversions.

Incorporating these testing strategies into your website optimization process can lead to substantial improvements in conversion rates. Remember that ongoing testing and adaptation are key to staying competitive in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

When it comes to designing web applications and UX, HTML and CSS are arguably the best tools available. Here are some reasons why:

1. Semantic markup: HTML provides a semantic structure to your content, making it easier for search engines to understand your content and index it appropriately. This, in turn, helps to improve the visibility of your website and attract more visitors.

2. Consistency: With HTML and CSS, you can create consistent design elements that will appear the same way across different browsers and devices. This helps to provide a better user experience and reduce frustration for your users.

3. Separation of content and presentation: HTML and CSS allow you to separate the content of your website from its presentation. This means that you can make changes to the design of your website without having to modify the content, which can save you time and effort.

4. Accessibility: HTML and CSS are designed to be accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. By using semantic markup and proper coding techniques, you can ensure that your website is accessible to as many users as possible.

5. Speed: HTML and CSS are lightweight and load quickly, which helps to improve the overall performance of your website. This is especially important for mobile users, who may be using slower connections.

6. Flexibility: HTML and CSS are highly flexible and can be used to create a wide range of design elements, from simple text to complex layouts. This flexibility allows you to create a unique and engaging user experience for your visitors.

7. Compatibility: HTML and CSS are widely supported across different browsers and devices, which ensures that your website will look and function the same way for all users.

1. Browser Compatibility: HTML and CSS are universal languages that can be read by any browser, making them accessible to all users.

2. Flexibility: HTML and CSS allow for flexibility in design, making it easy to adapt to different screen sizes and resolutions, and create responsive designs.

3. Accessibility: With the proper use of semantic HTML and proper markup, web applications can be made more accessible to users with disabilities.

4. Performance: Using HTML and CSS allows for more efficient website performance compared to other design tools, such as heavy image files.

5. Consistency: HTML and CSS provide consistency in design, which is important for building a recognizable brand and user experience.

6. SEO optimization: Proper use of HTML and CSS can improve the website’s search engine optimization (SEO), making it easier to find on search engines like Google.

7. Ease of maintenance: HTML and CSS make it easy to maintain and update web applications since they are easy to read and understand.

8. Versatility: HTML and CSS are versatile tools that can be used in conjunction with other tools and technologies, such as JavaScript and backend frameworks.

9. Community: HTML and CSS have a large and active community of developers and designers, making it easy to find resources and support.

10. Cost-effective: HTML and CSS are cost-effective design tools since they require little to no licensing fees and can be used on any platform.

Overall, HTML and CSS provide a solid foundation for designing web applications and UX, offering accessibility, flexibility, consistency, SEO optimization, and more, making them the best design tools for web development.

User experience (UX) design is a critical component of successful web development. It involves designing websites and applications that are easy to use, visually appealing, and provide a positive user experience. While many different tools and technologies are used in UX design, one often-overlooked secret sauce is HTML.

HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, is the standard markup language used to create web pages. It provides the basic structure and content of a web page, including headings, paragraphs, images, and links. While HTML is often thought of as a simple markup language, it actually plays a critical role in UX design.

One of the key benefits of using HTML in UX design is that it allows designers to create a semantic structure for a web page. This means that the HTML code accurately reflects the content and hierarchy of the page. For example, a heading tag (like <h1>) indicates the most important heading on a page, while a paragraph tag (like <p>) indicates the main body content. By using semantic HTML, designers can ensure that the structure of a web page is clear and easy to understand, which is essential for providing a positive user experience.

Another benefit of using HTML in UX design is that it helps designers create accessible web pages. Accessibility is a critical aspect of UX design, as it ensures that all users can access and use a website or application, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. HTML provides a variety of accessibility features, such as alt tags for images, which allow screen readers to describe images to users who are visually impaired.

Finally, HTML provides a foundation for other UX design technologies, such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and JavaScript. CSS is used to style a web page, while JavaScript is used to add interactivity and dynamic functionality. However, both CSS and JavaScript rely on the HTML structure of a web page to function properly. By using semantic HTML, designers can ensure that their CSS and JavaScript code is clean, organized, and easy to maintain.

In conclusion, HTML is a critical ingredient in the secret sauce of UX design. By using semantic HTML, designers can create clear and accessible web pages that provide a positive user experience. HTML also provides a foundation for other UX design technologies, such as CSS and JavaScript, making it an essential tool for modern web development. So if you want to create great UX designs, don’t overlook the power of HTML!

Podcasts are a growing trend that is here to stay. Have you thought about starting your own podcast for your company website? If so, here an example of a slick playlist you can implement. The solution is based on Javascript and CSS, making use of the

See the Pen CW Podcasts by david echeverri (@modelsofidentity) on CodePen.

Today’s web projects are quite different from the projects of decades ago. Mostly due to the internet and cloud-based software, the way we handle our projects has seen a revolution. Project requirements can change daily, and teams are expected to deal with situations as they arise. Stakeholders are asking to get more involved with the process, which means that they can change their mind at any time. Teams have to shift gears to respond accordingly.

Traditional project management is not geared to handle the new era of projects. The step by step style, set in stone timelines, and strict requirements have a hard time adapting to the need for change partway through a project. Today’s projects are often better suited for extreme project management.

XPM is meant to help you manage the unknown — those variables that change and pop up as a project progresses. At the end of your project, it’s about delivering the expected result, not simply the originally planned result. Those people who realize halfway through a project that the original product isn’t ideal have the leeway to modify the plan. Teams must be willing to make multiple attempts to get it right, instead of simply focusing on completing everything after the first attempt.

Is extreme project management right for your project?
Here are some common characteristics of extreme projects:

• Fast-paced work and delivery cycles
• Complex project requirements and outcomes
• Frequent changes to the plan as the project progresses
• Trial-and-error approach to find out what works
• Self-correcting process when things go awry to get back on track
• A step away from hierarchy in decision making
• People-driven projects, instead of process-driven

How to Execute Extreme Project Management
Extreme project management is meant to be fast. Start by gathering a team of people willing and ready to work with this method. If your team members rather go for slow work and getting every decision approved by upper management, it won’t work.

After assembling your star team, do this:

Create a project pilot plan expecting change, timelines may change, so you must think about leaving room for error.
Make sure your plan answers all of these questions —Who needs what, and why? —What will it take to do it? —Can we get what it takes to finish? —Is it worth it?
Schedule work in short cycles — a few weeks at max.

Have a kick-off meeting to give everyone the full scope of the work, and get people excited. Communicate expectations. Make project visibility a priority.
Talk with your client often, listen closely to their input, and act on feedback immediately.
Follow up work cycles with check-ins, review sessions, and re-alignment meetings if the project seems to be getting off-track.
When projects or cycles finish, celebrate every win. Do not overload your to-do’s so you can complete the project and Cut out extra steps.
If you identified with the challenges of traditional project management or the characteristics of extreme projects, consider reading more about XPM for your team.

So let’s talk about how to promote your YouTube channel the right way, and get more subscribers. I know a lot of you feel that you’re struggling to get YouTube subscribers, and I want you to stop focusing so much on that, what about some practical advice that’s going to help you get you subscribers, and grow your YouTube channel the right way; without doing any scummy or spammy tactics. With that being said, there are some things that I did start out that I think will help you, and are very important. I did a focus less on marketing and promoting my channel initially than I did on search, and I’ve done several videos on how to use tags, titles, and descriptions to help you rank better in YouTube search.

1. Convert users into subscribers

You don’t really need to worry about the subscribers immediately; the first thing you need to worry about is people actually watching your videos, because if you don’t get views, how are you going to get subscribers? Subscribers are a result of getting views; so think about first, what’s going to get your video view more, and get their attention. It’s not just enough to show up or to put it in Facebook or Twitter, people actually have to click on it, and actually watch it, enjoy it, and then subscribe.

2. Get the right subscribers

So how do you promote it to the right people that might care about it? Well first you need to really think about who your audience is; you know a lot of you sit there and you’re trying to do sub for sub, and you’re trying to self-promote your channel on my channel, and it hasn’t even occurred to you that the people who watch my videos, probably are not interested in the that you’re talking about. If you’re you know beauty blogger, or a fitness guru, or a YouTube gamer; there’s a real strong chance that my audience is probably not interested in that content because they’re coming to my channel for how-to tutorials, or figuring out marketing stuff to grow your business, or trying to figure out whether or not they can build their freelance career; the odds are that somebody who’s trying to learn Photoshop, or grow a business, or quit their day job, is probably not interested in spending time watching your gameplay videos; so that’s probably a bad idea.

3. Engage with your viewers first

The thing you should do is you should look at groups who are in Facebook, and people who are having Twitter chats, and you should engage with them, and then if you think that your video content is something that they would care about, based on the conversations that you’ve had, or the interest of the group; then share them there but don’t be spammy; actually write a little post explaining what this video is about, and who would care about it, and maybe they’ll be interested; also consider starting a Facebook fan page, and posting and promoting your videos there; again make sure you give it some context, so people know what they’re watching and why. The other thing is, don’t just tweet your videos to people for no reason; look at what they’re talking about, and see if your video can actually provide them some real value, whether it’s entertainment, or whether it’s information, whether it’s motivation even for what they’re trying to accomplish.

4. Link up videos you make from blog posts and articles

The other thing is, you should probably have your own website and blog; this is a great way to promote your channel because it gives you another opportunity to be found in a Google search instead of just a YouTube search; so really think about that. If you don’t know where to start with a website, consider getting web hosting from bluehost.com; you can actually use my link in the description, or in the info card up here, and that will take you to bluehost.com, so you can sign up for some hosting, start your blog; I recommend using WordPress because that’s going to actually help you rank in Google search. WordPress is one of those things where even if you don’t know necessarily how all that stuff works, which I will cover in future videos in my tutorial series; then you still have a real shot at ranking in Google because of the way that it’s set up, so you don’t have to know a ton about websites and coding to be successful at that.

5. Commenting to get attention

YouTube comments are not the place to promote your channel; in fact, when people do that here on my channel, all I do is ban them from the comments section, and report them as spam. What I will say is if you want to use the YouTube comment section to get people interesting you, have a real conversation, and make sure that the About section of your YouTube channels been filled out, so that if they hover over your thumbnail, they can actually see what your channel is about and whether it’s something they’re interested in or not, based on the fact that you’ve contributed to the conversation. Think about YouTube’s comment section as a room that you’re in, and people are talking, and they’re laughing; if you come into that room, and everyone’s talking about their relationships, and their significant others, and you come in, yelling about whatever you want to yell about; those people are going to kick you out of the room, and they now think you’re rude.

6. Use Voice of Mouth

So when you’re doing sub for sub, or telling people to check out your channel in someone else’s YouTube comment section, it’s actually the wrong way to promote your channel, and all you’re doing is hurting your channels growth because you’re being reported, and flagged as a spammer, and that’s not going to really get you anywhere. So just keep that in mind, and remember if you’re doing that in my comments section, you might think that I don’t pay attention to my comments because of how many subscribers I have, but guess what; I replied almost everybody; I kill 5 to 10 minutes of my day, every single day reporting spammers, and flagging people; yeah I do that.

7. Reward your Subscribers

Do everything you can to make your channel subscribe worthy, make it easy for someone to understand what the value of your channel is, and whether it’s a place for them. Think of your YouTube channel as an exclusive club for elite members that have particular interests and taste; you don’t want to have everybody subscribe to your channel, I mean maybe you do, but it’s not practical; your video content isn’t going to make everybody happy, so really care about the people who are subscribed to you, make sure that you’re encouraging them to share your videos, and make sure that you’re engaging with them; because if you’re replying to your comments, and you’re listening to your fans, then there’s a better chance there now share your videos, and promote your channel for you, which is just going to make it a lot easier, especially if you’re a smaller YouTuber.

Are you ready to convert your hobby channel into a Youtube Empire? This master guide will show you the most effective tactics and techniques the top 100 YouTubers use to create an all-year-round revenue stream. Check it out!

It’s time to ditch Facebook, before they ditch you as a publisher. Own your media. Facebook and soon youtube, twitter and even Pinterest are no longer viable options to learn or publish about current events and news. Multiple publishers have been shut out, or “ghosted out” of the newsfeed. Social media giants are now showing true face, they are political, they are moving towards the extreme, Orwellian left wing side of the spectrum. 2018 set a precedent, that is: we are censoring you if your political views don’t align with us. The rise of the soviet union of social media is becoming more and more evident. The irony is, you will see an increase in Facebook pages promoting child transsexualism, gay experimentation, and pro Trump bashing, while they close down, the independent journalist, the solo fact finders, traditional family businesses, Christian sites and other more conservative, traditional publishers, everything under the reasoning of they being “extreme” or saying offensive things that are offensive because they offended the feelings and hypersensitivity of someone else. The old days when you could post the funny meme will soon be gone. The tough police are nowhere, and is lead by the social media giants who once told us “we’re platforms” “not publishers”. Right now there is no difference between the way Facebook operates and CNN. in terms of content. They are algorithmically looking to steer opinion.

I have a business and I’m all about Facebook, is it reliable long term?
Stop please, stop relying on social media, and especially Facebook, see, using platforms is like renting an apartment, the landowner can kick you out without a notice, and you won’t be able to make a case against it.

Remember: Having your own domain and working on your own web properties is like owning your land. That’s where the efforts should be.

Are we living a new Book burning age?
Imagine this, a brand works for 8 years to build up a following. Facebook encourages that brands do this and give them the tools to do so. Then one day facebook simply shuts off access to that following, why? because you posted a meme. After seeing the countless alternative and conscious media pages shut down or lose all their reach, it doesn’t take much to see that what is actually happening is a mix of Facebook needing to make more money via advertising and censorship of certain voices. Many pages within this realm have even been “unpublished,” with no real explanation from Facebook as to why. These are pages that have spent years building up their platforms interacting with their followers and building a community. All that effort just to be kicked to the curb for no real cause?

It’s time to stop relying on Facebook, because they can just shut you out in one second for the wrong meme you post. Visit Websites Directly – Don’t rely on social media anymore. Take the time to go to websites you love directly, as this will ensure you see the content.

Scrolling through Facebook waiting for the next thing to catch your interest is basically the equivalent to flipping through channels on the television. Find your own content, according to what you are interested in. Unsure of what you’re seeing? Do your own research! It’s up to us to ensure we aren’t just rolling over and letting big corporations with their big agendas dictate our lives. Time to rise to this washed out Internet, take matters into our own hands and rise above!

Get a full web solution that you can actually own!
check out models of identity samples and services

Documentation is great, but only when meaningful, and only when you can use it. Designing a website is not designing an operating system, in web design, you are dealing with a few files and assets. Don’t get me wrong, but when you need to put together 500 pages of diagrams, 23 hours of meetings and fill in a wiki-page with articles so you can make sure you properly nail down one single web page, you are in trouble.

Solution: create a single “pilot-project” document in google docs, word or plain text, use it as the product plan guide and focus your efforts in building the actual thing, not the paperwork and BS on how to build it.

Check out the most insightful and fun-to-read guide “The Nightmares of Web Design”:

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