The other widespread way to find out readers views is to make a poll. Well, it’s clear enough what the poll is and the mechanism of info gathering is obvious. Once you would like to use this method, I recommend you check this digest of WordPress poll plugins.

The third thing I’d like to concentrate on is actually chat. We find out a lot (maybe even the most) from chatting in real life, the situation is the same on the internet. So, today I’d like to present 10 chat WordPress plugins, you can easily improve your site with.

* * *

Rumbletalk

Rumbletalk presents an excellent chat widget with plenty of useful features. It’s closely connected with Facebook and Twitter, it’s greatly set up for mobiles and tablets. The plugins also carries different themes, which can be changed by a user’s wish.

* * *

Simple Chat

As it comes from the name, the main goal of this plugin is simplicity. The chat is based on Google.

* * *

Live Chat

A considerable advantage of this chat is it doesn’t require registration. The plugin would work well for needs of public talking.

* * *

Simple Ajax Chat

This plugin would be especially interesting for people familiar with programming, because it gives wide opportunities for customization.

* * *

BoWoB Chat

BoWob plugin creates the whole autonomous social system of a website. Every profile can have friends, download pictures and of cause provide real-time communication.

* * *

Cartpauj PM

Cartpauj PM works with the private messaging. It carries different option for regulating the communication, moreover the possibility of ToDo features were added in the latest versions.

* * *

Barc Chat

Ease installation, anti-spam filter, full customization – these are just few of Brac Chat’s advantages. A user would need just to sign up with Facebook or Twitter in order to get into the system.

* * *

Casengo

Casengo is intended specifically for Customer Support needs. The plugin creates a chat, which allows your visitors contact your team your team with no problem.

* * *

AVChat

I haven’t forgotten about the communication via video, and AvChat is the best solution available for WordPress. It gives a chance to make a whole video conference within a website with the help of a webcamera. By the way, the plugin is fully compatible with tablets and smartphones.

* * *

BuddyPress Group Tinychat

This plugin is integrated with BuddyPress networking and make it possible to create chatrooms for BP groups.

* * *

I’ve tried to select plugins of different direction: text, video, customer support or simple chatting and so on. Hopefully, that would increase your chances to find anything you really need for your website.

If you have any additional thoughts regarding the chat plugins for WordPress – feel free to share them in the comments.

About the author:

Art Rivera: Deeply interested in everything connected with Internet, I sincerely suppose the web is the only future reality for the humanity through its inevitable involving into every part of human life. I’m not a great fan of cyberpunk concept, but the world is keeping that certain direction of total connectedness. And of course there should be someone, who can write the history, who would describe and analyze and enter in the record all notable changes and tendencies on the web. Hello, it’s me.

Today I’d like to share with 12 packs of blurred backgrounds. They are all free, so you just need to choose a collection you like, click a link and download a file. By the way, the examples can be used not only in web design, but also in app development, presentations, infographic and anywhere the neutral background would be suitable.

* * *

10 Natural Blurred Background

* * *

Wegraphics Blurred Backgrounds

* * *

26 Blurry Backgrounds

* * *

Blurrry

* * *

Blurrry 2

* * *

13 Blur Background

* * *

23 Blurred Backgrounds

* * *

15 Soft Backgrounds

* * *

5 Blurred Backgrounds

* * *

25 Blurred Backgrounds

* * *

Dribbble Background By Badhon Ebrahim

* * *

Dribbble Backgrounds

* * *

I’ve tried to to represent backgrounds of different styles to increase a chance for you to find something useful for your projects. Nevertheless, these examples are the ones I suppose to be the most interesting: you feel free to share your favorite backgrounds in the comments.

About the author:

Art Rivera: Deeply interested in everything connected with Internet, I sincerely suppose the web is the only future reality for the humanity through its inevitable involving into every part of human life. I’m not a great fan of cyberpunk concept, but the world is keeping that certain direction of total connectedness. And of course there should be someone, who can write the history, who would describe and analyze and enter in the record all notable changes and tendencies on the web. Hello, it’s me.

If you consciously approach to logo design, it’s surely better to deal with professionals. Today, we would like to make a brief survey of LogoBee Company, an award-winning expert with 13 years of experience in logo design services. Their website gives you comprehensive information on the company and its services. Logo samples gallery features finished projects together with interesting comments on selected design concepts. Actually, there are several galleries on site, as LogoBee has achieved recognition in stationery, graphic and web design as well.

Apart from paid services, the website offers free templates and tutorials from team professionals.

So, what is it like to work with LogoBee? All steps of cooperation are minutely described in process menu tab. Let’s throw a quick glance on their main peculiarities.

First of all, it is recommended to choose a pricing package suitable for your particular needs. There are four of them, plus one bundle offer. In case you feel confused, friendly website support service is always ready to help. When the choice is done, you can make payment in real time by credit card or using PayPal. All prices are stated in US dollars, no hidden fees or other “surprises” are waiting for you.

Immediately after the payment is received, the work on your unique logo design begins. From 2 to 4 professional web designers will be involved into the project development. In 2 – 5 business days you will have the ability to see from 6 to 8 options of the initial logo designs. The Next move is yours – select the final logo design or insert necessary corrections. Minor amendments usually take one business day.

LogoBee policy is rather loyal to the customer and if you are too captious, one redraw session will be provided free of charge. Only after your complete satisfaction and approval, your Logo Kit will be sent to you via the personal project page or by mail on a CD. Yes, everything is that simple!

Moreover, LogoBee has a catching affiliate program. Promote the company on your website and earn $20 – $50 for every purchase initiated by your link.

At the end of this short overview, it’s worth to mention that the company employs a creative team of designers, which works full day and caters to the customers worldwide. Such ordered schedule lets LogoBee guarantee its clients the highest quality of rendered services, utmost attention to details and efficient communication between the stakeholders.

That’s a real shame because images have always stood the test of time; but the fact that plenty of designers saw them purely as decorative elements with no real purpose whatsoever meant that the talk about images more often than not, centers on ‘how good they look”, and not ‘how they play an important role in website design’.

It’s important not to blame ‘images’ for their incorrect use by web designers. The truth is that images are as important today, in the scheme of things, as they were earlier. Today, a business’s online presence is only considered successful, if it’s profitable. This profitability is a result of buyers making a decision to buy the business’s products or services; and this buying decision is usually an emotional one.
So, what we can infer is that successful websites shouldn’t just be aesthetically or functionally sound, but must alsoproject the right emotions. And if you are to pick one design element that can help you build emotion into your websites, it’s an ‘image’.

Image Psychology

Right since the time we are born, images play an important role in how we assimilate information and understand how the world around us works. In fact, very early on in our lives, we are able to interpret the emotions behind images. For e.g. a baby cannot understand words spoken in anger, but an angry facial expression tells the baby all there is to know. As we grow older our emotional response to images become well entrenched and our mind becomes equipped with a set of predictable responses to particular images. What we feel when we see a particular image, is not a sudden realization, but an outcome of what we have kept learning since infancy. It’s almost like an indoctrination of sorts.

Take a look at this image:

You immediately know that the kid is angry. You don’t need to analyze or understand to get a feel of the palpable anger of the kid. That’s because our brain has been programmed since its earliest stages to understand an emotion exuded by an image.

Using image psychology in website design

Powerful images don’t just reflect a particular emotion but also create a relational association between the viewer and that image. The point being that these images are used for the sole purpose ofbringing forth the right emotion out of you.

Let’s pick an emotion like ‘sympathy’ to better illustrate this point.

Care is one of the world’s foremost NGOs and its online presence effectively captures the essence of its objectives and purpose. The core images used on the site elicit ‘sympathy’. The images fuel a strong sympathetic response from the viewers, persuading them to support all that this organization is doing. That’s the raw power of images.

Its website design uses images that showcase sympathy, and what’s more images are given the importance they deserve. It’s the images, their relevance and their quality that makes us want to read the associated text. It’s the images that make the website work.

Now, let’s take a look at another emotion – Passion

Reebok is one of the world’s premier sportswear brands and a sport is all about passion. Take a look at its site and tell me its images don’t showcase a passion for sports brilliantly. You look at those images and you begin to feel a passion for sports as well. The images on the site energize and make you want to do everything that the people in those images are doing.

The images are instilling an emotion which you otherwise might not have felt. It is this emotion which will make you want to buy a Reebok product. That’s their power.

Choice and Placement Walk Hand in Hand

If you are looking to use images to trigger a necessary emotion, its placement is also important. The right image and the right placement ensure the right impact. Take a look

This image hits you as soon as you open Mission First. It’s the centerpiece of the Home Page, and you can’t ignore it. If you want images to acts as facilitators of powerful emotions, then perfect placement is the key.

If your image is a tool to generate the right emotion in website visitors, it must be able to grab immediate attention. It shouldn’t be placed where it will be ignored, or where a visitor will register it passingly. It must be the leitmotif or better yet, the Pièce de résistance of a particular page.
Your image will only deliver value if your visitors sub-consciously understand its importance in the website’s design. For that to happen, proper placement is an absolute must.

Wrapping it up

Do not undermine the importance of images by thinking of them as mere designing accessories. They can play a stellar role in your website by acting as emotion agents. The perfect image picked with a view to elicit a persuasive emotion from your visitors, will go a long way in improving the conversion ratio of your site, and by association, its profitability as well.

Author Bio:

John Siebert is the President and CEO of TranquilBlue – A NYC Web Design Company that focuses on all kind of website design, mobile app development and search engine marketing.

The idea of each restaurant website is to charm the viewers with the yummy photos, and thus turn them into the visitors of the existing place. The design should look tasty, and this is what you get within the following theme. The sappy green color creates a positive tone and invites the visitors to the site. The design is built around the large slider with high-resolution photos. Gallery, featured blocks – all photos are in the focus of attention in this theme. This is how you can make people hungry and become real visitors of the restaurant the site promotes. To see how this site will look like, check out free template live demo.

Free Website Template for Restaurant Site:

To download the whole package of this template, visit the Free Website Template for Restaurant Site download page at TemplateMonster and type an email address that you want the free template package to be delivered to (don’t forget to uncheck the newsletter subscription checkbox in case you’re already subscribed, otherwise you may not be able to download the zip file). Feel free to use this template for your business, but you cannot resell it as a template.

Download Free Website Template for Restaurant Site with PSD files (25,4MB)

IMPORTANT NOTICE:TemplateMonster does not provide support services on free templates – including this one. We only provide support for the products that are being purchased from TemplateMonster. Our free templates are produced according to the latest web standards and we’ve been trying to make the process of working with them as easy as possible, so for people with minimum web development experience it should be easy to work with them. However, if you don’t have any experience, we recommend you to refer to the tutorials or community forums on how to work with platforms that each respective template is made with, or to hire someone to do the job for you.

Recently Google presented a remarkable option for download of Google Fonts to your desktop for offline access. This allows you not only operate with fonts within Windows and Mac OS systems without any need for internet connection, but also speed up processing websites with web fonts, because your browser wouldn’t require time to read font data. Anyway, it’s just a tip of the iceberg.

* * *

The font directory is powered through SkyFonts. This useful utility is intended to make the fonts installation as effortless as possible. One more handy feature is SkyFonts can automatically synchronize the typography on your devices (up to five). Then, no worries about updates – once the new characters are added they would be immediately installed on your device. SkyFonts would do for you almost everything; you would be left tet-a-tet with typography relieved from botherations of utility exploitation.

* * *

We shouldn’t forget that Google fonts are totally free of charge. The other wonderful thing is they are open source. Every skilled programmer can gain true benefits of that. The source files can be found at Google Code project.

* * *

Integration with SkyFonts would definitely improve Google fonts functionality, creating great conditions for web design. Moreover, it’s suitable for average users who want to increase speed of their browsers.

Please feel free to leave your comments regarding the described Google improvement.

About the author:

Art Rivera: Deeply interested in everything connected with Internet, I sincerely suppose the web is the only future reality for the humanity through its inevitable involving into every part of human life. I’m not a great fan of cyberpunk concept, but the world is keeping that certain direction of total connectedness. And of course there should be someone, who can write the history, who would describe and analyze and enter in the record all notable changes and tendencies on the web. Hello, it’s me.

The same situation is observed in web design. In the beginning of each year, analysts from all over the world make their predictions as to the coming trends. These projections are based on the analysis of multiple points influencing web development.

Today we would like to dwell on color palette, considered trendy for 2013 web design. With general tendency towards clean, flat, minimalistic designs focused on content, colors gain special significance as means of attraction, expression and motivation. Later on, you will be able to get a detailed notion of colors in vogue from the articles compiled for the purpose herein under.

In the meantime, let’s overview some of the main color trends characteristic for the current 2013 year.

First of all, it’s interesting to know the opinion of the world’s leading color authority. Yes, you are right; we are talking about Pantone now. Pantone Color Institute is recognized throughout the world as a color research and information expert, sharing its knowledge with professionals in fashion, commercial/industrial, contract and interior design, graphic arts, advertising, film, education and many other industries. According to Pantone, 17-5641 Emerald is the color of 2013 year.

“Lively. Radiant. Lush… A color of elegance and beauty that enhances our sense of well-being, balance and harmony.”

Having studied other sources, we can state that color trends are rather diverse this year. Bright and neon accents refresh the grayscale designs and prevent them from being gloomy. Soft pastel hues create clean stylish atmosphere, easy for visitor’s eye. The best thing about new color trends is that they perfectly match modern touch UI concepts helping to convey retro or futuristic mood, highlight important elements and separate content blocks.

Here is a list of colors and methods to use if you want your website look like a fop among average designs:

• 1. Greyscale with bright accents
• 2. Muted pastels
• 3. Neons and brights
• 4. Color blocking
• 5. Retro color schemes (oranges, peach or plum tones and dark blues)
• 6. Monotone colors (base color and two or three tints: blues, grays and greens)
• 7. Flat colors
• 8. Desaturated and light colors
• 9. Whites, grays and blacks as primary colors.

To continue our absorbing fashion chat, let’s have a look at the articles related to the topic.

* * *

2013 Color Trends on the Web

Here the author covers four color trends along with tools helping to tweak them.

* * *

2013 Color Trends for the Web

This is a concise entry identifying present color trends by means of simple explanations and illustrative examples.

* * *

A bit of color: The Color of the Year 2013 in Web Design

The article concentrates on emerald color as the winner in Pantone rating of 2013 and features the rest of the trendy hues beginning from 2000.

* * *

Making it Work: Flat Design and Color Trends

The post considers 2013 color trends from the point of their compatibility with flat layouts.

* * *

10 Web Design Trends for 2013 (Flat Colors and no more skeuomorphism)

The article enumerates 2013 web design trends, including flat color schemes and their usage in mobile devices.

* * *

10 Web design trends you can expect to see in 2013 (Calmer color schemes to reappear)

The abstract tells about calm color shift and names several primary colors for faultless application in trendy designs.

* * *

As you could know, web designer are such people that define and follow new tendencies rather quickly. In our case we can get a plenty of eCommerce platforms. These applications are developed exactly for online stores and include the elements needed to make the websites comfortable for a commercial use. Shopping cart, ordering capabilities and user account are in fact mandatory.

The amount of eCommerce websites has grown comparing to the last year: Alexa Top 1 Million ranking represents the number of 34,864. The permanent leader of the list is Magento – 26% of all eCommerce websites use this platform.

The well-known Zen Cart fell down to the 4th place. That has brought VirtueMart to the second place, though the amount of the websites powered by this platform decreased from 3657 to 3324.

* * *

It’s interesting to make our own statistics and to check the rating from DesignFloat blog visitors. Also, that would give a chance to see an eCommerce platform you like in the TemplateMoster’s inventory in the future.

* * *

Now let me present the 10 most popular eCommerce platforms according Alexa rating and shortly outline the pres and cons for each of them.

Shopify

Shopify got the first place in the list and it’s not surprising: this platform has everything needed for good eCommerce interface. The elegant storefronts and handy tools together with customization option makes the product extremely suitable for any online store.

BigCommerce

This platform is aimed to fulfill the needs of the small business. The other useful feature is that the software is optimized for selling on Facebook, eBay, smartphones and email services.

CoreCommerce

The main benefits of CoreCommerce are close connection with social media and high-quality customer support. The weak side of CoreCommerce is SEO and designs. Nevertheless, it didn’t impede it to take the honorable third place.

Americommerce

AmeriCommerce stands out with a multi-storefront option. It gives an opportunity to launch multiply eCommerce websites from one back-end.

Big Cartel

One more platform for small markets. Big Cartel is especially intended for different types of artists and craftsmen: designers, musicians, jewelry makers and so on, which forms a bigger part of the platform’s users. It’s obvious to me that Big Cartel gained popularity because of its suitable free package.

3dcart

3dcart is probably the easiest in using eCommerce platform. Its pricing plans are quite appropriate for small businesses. Nevertheless, the true fly in an ointment is a horrible customer support.

Volusion

This is a platform that pays attention to the mobile web a in proper way: spreading of smartphones makes mobile eCommerce more and more promising field. In addition to that Volusion offers a deep social media integration.

Magento

This shopping cart is open source, having a lot of great components: from advanced statistics to pretty look of admin panel. Magenta has the most numerous quantity of users among eCommerce platform for good reason.

LemondStand

Solid developer community, a bunch of helpful add-ons and comfortable interface makes PHP-based LemondStand a good choice as an eCommerce platform.

* * *

I can’t state that any of mentioned platforms is the best, because in any case we should take into account the product we sell, the scope of business, target audience and much more. Every detail should be considered. So, make analysis, choose the eCommerce platform fitting your business the best.

By the way you can also write your favorite platform in comments after finishing survey.

About the author:

Art Rivera: Deeply interested in everything connected with Internet, I sincerely suppose the web is the only future reality for the humanity through its inevitable involving into every part of human life. I’m not a great fan of cyberpunk concept, but the world is keeping that certain direction of total connectedness. And of course there should be someone, who can write the history, who would describe and analyze and enter in the record all notable changes and tendencies on the web. Hello, it’s me.

“Parallax scrolling is a special scrolling technique in computer graphics, wherein background images move by the camera slower than foreground images.”

Why do we need it in web design? Well, you could notice that web pages are made in 2D. That’s a problem a little bit, because we live in 3D world, so internet is not so spectacular for us as the real world. Parallax technique just gives an opportunity to make websites more alive and interactive: everything is for a user’s presence effect.

First used in old console 2D games, parallax scrolling recently gained a spreading in web design. That’s why – enough words, let’s take a look on live examples of parallax scrolling in web design websites.

* * *

inTacto 10 Years

* * *

Manufacture d’Essai

* * *

Head 2 Heart

* * *

Drug Treatment

* * *

Tokiolab

* * *

Ben the Bodyguard

* * *

Iutopi

* * *

Krystalrae

* * *

Smokey Bones

* * *

* * *

Fishy

* * *

Cultural Solutions

* * *

Egopop

* * *

Zune Journey

* * *

Cheese Please Game

* * *

These 15 sites are designed magnificently – no doubts. Also it’s questionless the parallax scrolling made a considerable contribution in that. I believe these inspirationable examples would facilitate new creative goals in your further projects. To improve this tendency I’ll prepare some tutorials of parallax scrolling making.

Don’t be shy to leave comments regarding parallax scrolling.

About the author:

Art Rivera: Deeply interested in everything connected with Internet, I sincerely suppose the web is the only future reality for the humanity through its inevitable involving into every part of human life. I’m not a great fan of cyberpunk concept, but the world is keeping that certain direction of total connectedness. And of course there should be someone, who can write the history, who would describe and analyze and enter in the record all notable changes and tendencies on the web. Hello, it’s me.

The other popularity is that YouTube is available for everyone unlike the TV. And you know, there are a lot of authors of original video content – smartphone era gave a chance to be an operator for everyone. Promotion potential is surely great: any company with a competent marketing team has a channel on YouTube. And if we’re talking about promotion, not only videos should be high quality, but also the way they presented must be remarkable. That means cool design for channels. So, welcome – the 10 best YouTube cover designs.

* * *

Apple

* * *

Nike Football

* * *

Pepsi

* * *

Panasonic

* * *

4oD

* * *

Rockstar Energy Drink

* * *

Disney Interactive Studios

* * *

FUNimation Entertainment

* * *

Venetian Princess

* * *

Lady Gaga

* * *

Unfortunately, Google introduced a new style for channels (so called YouTube One Channel Layout), which impacted negatively on their design: it gives an opportunity to change a header picture only. All of the presented channels keep an old look.

Do you have your own favorite designs of YouTube channels? Please share in the comments below.

About the author:

Art Rivera: Deeply interested in everything connected with Internet, I sincerely suppose the web is the only future reality for the humanity through its inevitable involving into every part of human life. I’m not a great fan of cyberpunk concept, but the world is keeping that certain direction of total connectedness. And of course there should be someone, who can write the history, who would describe and analyze and enter in the record all notable changes and tendencies on the web. Hello, it’s me.