Software Training Online
Presented by Dallas Web Designer Craig Smith

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Searching For UI Design Inspiration? Here Are A Few Concepts

App designers are in high demand at the moment and there are a lot of design principles that you need to know as a UI designer in order to stay competitive.

Besides the obvious knowledge that you need to have about UI, UX, IxD and other acronyms, you also need to be inspired to deliver a modern project.

No client wants an app that looks like the first ones made for iPhone 4. Well, there are a few who want that, but we won’t cover that subject now.

Clients want modern looking apps. While the efficiency of an app is guaranteed by the knowledge you have of user interface design, user experience and usability, the modern design look of your apps depends on your imagination and, mostly, on your inspiration.

This is why in this article I’ve gathered beautiful and eye candy user interfaces for your inspiration.

Music App exploration

Music App exploration

Social calendar app mobile

Social calendar app mobile

Livo UI Kit

Livo UI Kit

Financial Management App (Animation Concept)

Financial Management App (Animation Concept)

SneakerUI

SneakerUI

Easy way to buy tickets

Easy way to buy tickets

Photo Messaging App — Design Concept

Photo Messaging App — Design Concept

Skydeck App

Skydeck App

Responsive Mobile Interface Online Store

Responsive Mobile Interface Online Store

Event App Concept

Event App Concept

Events App

Events App

Goskip iOS App

Goskip iOS App

Event App

Event App

Multimedia app screens

Multimedia app screens

Thai Airways Ticket Redesign

Thai Airways Ticket Redesign

Travel iOS App

Travel iOS App

Account feed app mobile

Account feed app mobile

Watches App

Watches App

Marline

Marline

Weather iPhone App

Weather iPhone App

Calendar App

Calendar App

SFa Day Dashboard

SFa Day Dashboard

Profile Anaylitics – Blu

Profile Anaylitics - Blu

Foodly Shopping Cart

Foodly Shopping Cart

News App

News App

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Contact Form 7 – Select drop down dates format

Contact Form 7 is great, but the format is slightly different than traditional forms. They wrap everything in quotes and it runs horizontal. So when it comes to dates, it can be quite tedious adding all that info in a format that isn’t easily accessible through a Google Search. In case you don’t want the datepicker and want to use a more traditional drop down for Month, Day, Year.

Here is a quick code to pop into Contact form 7. There are tons of code snippets for the traditional select drop down in HTML for dates but I didn’t find any out there when I was searching for Contact form 7’s format. Hopefully you will find this useful!

[select* menu-month "January" "February" "March" "April" "May" "June" "July" "August" "September" "October" "November" "December"][select* menu-day "1" "2" "3" "4" "5" "6" "7" "8" "9" "10" "11" "12" "13" "14" "15" "16" "17" "18" "19" "20" "21" "22" "23" "24" "25" "26" "27" "28" "29" "30" "31"][select* menu-year "2015" "2016" "2017" "2018" "2019" "2020"]

Contact Form 7 – Select drop down dates format

Friday, September 11, 2015

How to enable explicit_defaults_for_timestamp?

After upgrading my xampp with mysql to 5.6 I started getting an error when creating a new database. I looked everywhere for the answer. They kept saying put explicit_defaults_for_timestamp=1 but it wasn’t working. Turns out you have to put it in the right spot!

Open your my.ini file, present at “C:\xampp\mysql\bin”, find “[mysqld]” (without quotes) in next line add explicit_defaults_for_timestamp=1 and then save the changes.

How to enable explicit_defaults_for_timestamp?

Monday, September 7, 2015

What you should know about Email Marketing

Often times businesses will procrastinate how to start and strategize their email marketing efforts. Doing email marketing yourself can be hard. It is also more time consuming due to the content editing process. Unless you’re an salesman creating a informational looking email campagin can take patience to complete. And as most of us know, hours is proceeds.

So what are the perks of using and Email Marketing Business? Well, there are several. First, ISP relations. Second, ISP bulk mailing. Third, email creation software. Let’s start with ISP relations. Most email marketing businesses have a select team whose job it is to monitor the new Can Spam Act Guidelines and comply to those guidelines . This is something you're businesses will not have to think about in regards to your emails, because your email marketing business will be doing that for you're company. They are also dedicated if for some reason an ISP bars a domain. For instance, Yahoo pauses a domain from your email marketing group, the ISP conformity group will work soley with that ISP to get that domain lifted from the blocked list, thus lifting your ban and getting your messages back into the inbox.  

ISP Bulk Mailing is another good benefit you get by utilizing an email marketing company. Most spammers will mass send off of a single ISP, one time. This is a red flag for ISP monitoring groups in monitoring what may or may not be spam. Using an email marketing service, you get the benefit of stable bulk emails going to the many ISP company. This builds up credit with the ISP businesses and allows for less halted mail if suspected emails are identified for review. In addition, a lot of groups will use combined ISP’s to process mail. What this does is put you in consistent, verified ISP databases which will continue to grow your reputation as well as the email marketing company you are using.

Lastly, distribution software. As stated above, writing an email can be time consuming. It takes a lot less time if you’re using a group that provides a basic shell and template. Throw in the bells and whistles of social media, sharing, videos, image libraries, and you have a one stop shop for your email marketing. As you get the hang of using the software, you will become more versatile, and effective at developing your emails. Contemplating is a productive benefit when it comes to creating your email. This will allow your department the time to propose the options, and finesse your email to best represent your marketing plan, by becoming familiar with your email creation software.

Email marketing can be done on your own. Plenty of businesses do it, but the most profitable way to drive your efforts is to plan and purchase a great email marketing business that aligns for you. Knowing what they present in way of templates, pricing, tracking and reporting is the difference between giving out your business information on a napkin, or handing over a highly polished business card. Take your time, research, and try out a few options. You’ll find one that works for you're group.

Checkout our pick: Responsive Web Design Company