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kokoronopikuseru · 5 years

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Review: Pixelogue

A little late to post this, but I intend to share details and reflect on the editing of Pixelogue, in hope that it will help editors and organizers who need advice. (If you’re not interested in editing info, just skip to the last section)

Details are in Chronological Order -

# Software:

I designed everything from scratch in AE, with all the stock plugins. I had to relearn everything I used to know about AE; I last used it extensively in Pixelophobia years ago and furthermore, I wasn’t really used to the new CC interface. I had to seek tutorials for every simple effect I wanted to execute. It sure was difficult for me. For english speaking editors, this is probably your main tool if you intend to do simple video animations and graphics.

# Planning: Song Choice

I had intended to use a Korean Indie Track as stated in the collab details page. Sadly, the music really didn’t fit the music. I spent about 3 days rearranging the clips in every permutation I knew. I didn't really manage to find an arrangement that suited the clips. The unfortunate reality for editors is that we are usually at the mercy of the submission clips. I finally chose something Tigres’ described as “Shawn Wasabi-like”. It was a major challenge for my editing since I wasn’t exactly used to creating work that is colourful or cheerful rhythm-wise. I had to have major re-planning if I wanted it to work out.

# Editing: Draft

My process for editing clips always starts from arranging the combos. I used Vegas for this since, well, it IS a video editor, and it is pretty fast in processing clips. For learning purposes, here is the link of my very first draft (https://youtu.be/kRDwXTnxXGw). I think it’s necessary to spend a longer time at this stage, so as to visualize how its gonna turn out. And of course, to ensure that this is the flow of the CV you really wanted. By this stage, you should also have planned out the fillers (as denoted by the empty instances in the draft) and roughly how long your intro and outro will be.

# Editing: Intro

I didn’t really want to make something too kawaii. But yet, I can’t really escape the colourful imagery I imagined the intro to be. I compromised and made something that alternates between some modern TV visuals and old school TV visuals.

Modern TV; I was greatly inspired by those colour wipes that vloggers used for their youtube channels. It was one of those common and simple transitions that AE users exploit regularly. I found ways to incorporate it in a radial and a rotating wipe. The font animations were all plugins in AE that I found. I wasn’t gonna edit every alphabet like the previous CVs I made.

Old School TV; I took most of my inspiration from the adjustment knobs on analog TV. I found that it goes well with the subtle static noise in the music track. Hence I employed selection circles, and drew an actual knob (not sure if you guys realised that was what it was supposed to be). I also warp bulge the static background as well as the words, to emulate the concave glass distortion present in analog TVs.

And in the final burst of images, I made the clips alternate between 16:9 and 4:3, just to show the juxtaposition between modern and old school.

I really hope people notice all these small details. I didn't feel it was impactful enough, but I guess these are probably cool facts for those who are interested.

# Editing: Combos

I always render my CV in a 16:9 resolution, simply because it IS more pleasing to the eye now that computer monitors are no longer square. My preferences have yet to change. However, with regards to the clips, I have read enough indirect feedback that the cropping wasn’t something that most people liked. I took this criticism pretty seriously, and thought it was time for me to hop on the bandwagon, to try the new-age style of CV editing.

I had to put in much more effort to retain a 4:3 combo in a 16:9 visual space, with an additional need to create a secondary background layer. But because of this decision, it gives me more freedom to explore options of panning and perspective movements.

I create a blurred and expanded duplicate of every combo as a background. I thought it was great that I could retain the original colours and give the clips a “floaty field”. No one has done something like this before, so it was instantly cool and hip. It also gives more room and potential to play around with the transitions too. Eg, fading the background before the clip (transition from Tigres to popte). Interestingly, all the backgrounds all have different properties, namely position, scale and degree of gaussian blur. The reason was really because some clips were seizure inducing due to their extensive movements. I thought it would be nice to vary all of them, which adds a unique aesthetic touch to all the combos.

I am pretty new to editing in a 3Dimensional Space and camera tracking. I was intending to do something as simple and fluid like Talentica Neue. Well, I learnt it wasn’t as simple as I thought. I had about 5-6 Parameters of camera movements, and frankly till now, don’t really know what each one does. I highly suggest for editors who wanna try 3Dimensional camera tracking, watch more tutorials and try simple practice projects. Learning how to utilize it properly will extensively improve your editing game.

Oh yeah, remember to use the graph editor for EVERYTHING. Acceleration and Decelerations have too much aesthetic value to miss out on.

# Editing: Outro

Because I have spent so much time on all other parts of the CV, it’s only responsible for me to put in some effort on an outro which I am usually way too lazy to make. Yeah guys, it’s important to make outros too guys. I used the same warping and television static effect from the intro to retain a sense of continuity. It's simple and nice, I liked it.

# Combos; (Warning: Difficult to Stomach)

I’m gonna be a little too frank about this- the quality of combos I received were lower than what I usually work with (I love my UPSB submissions tho). I guess this is the huge downside of organizing sign-up CVs to an international community that is slowly dying and regressing. It was even harder when most didn’t submit on time. I had only 7 clips by the deadline. I wanna admit that I had moments regretting that I was organizing Pixelogue as a majority-signup CV. Some of the filtered combos either didn’t fit the style of CV (really sorry padrace) or was just bad due to the lack of effort. Mostly bad.

But here’s the heart of the matter, this might really reflect the standard of the international community.

I’m not sure if I am the only one who feels this way, but I feel that most of the current international CVs can be separated into two groups, the JEB invites, and the rest of us. Don’t get me wrong, I do acknowledge the high standards JEB spinners deliver. But I’m not comfortable with the fact that they don’t submit better materials since their combos are guaranteed to be featured, and mainly because the quality of an international CV is often a 50/50 hit or miss (could be lower). Who can blame them really. Even so, their names are usually enough to make the lineup look great.

> Pixelation was an all JEB sign up CVs. Pixelarium, Pixelophobia, Pixelography, Pixeholic were invites-only CVs, a mix of international and JEB guys. <

Most of my CVs have a JEB last spinner or a JEB dominant lineup towards the end. (coffeelucky 6th is also guilty of this). Clearly, you can see how much we use japanese invites as a way to boost the “quality” and hype of our projects. Yeah, sucks to admit it, but I am sure these are common sentiments shared with many of us international CV editors for a pretty long time.

Well, its not something I’m really contented with. In fact, I don’t like the way this becomes the norm.

More recently, around the time I released “Express 12.1.18”, I really wanted to believe in us - the international community veterans, the borderline pen spinning retirees, that we can perform. I didn’t wanna believe that the international community was any inferior. I finally felt ready to edit something solely from our pool of people. I can accept that I don’t have to rely on japanese invitations to superficially enhance the CV. We have enough to make something great ourselves.

I fondly assert that the international community does NEED this kind of confidence. Otherwise, we will always be second rated. Seen as the lesser beings. Y’all JapEn tiering meme-lords know what I’m talking about. I personally needed this to prove to myself that it will work out for us even when the scene looks pretty shitty now. And yes, I did feel better after this.

# Conclusion

It didn’t really garner much attention especially when there was a flood of CVs being released around the time it was released. But I do love it a lot. It’s made up of familiar spinners that I cherish, good combos that I’m thankful for, and finally, an editing that drained my whole summer holiday away. Yeah, I do love it a lot. Definitely one of my proudest work.

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otojvproducts · 3 years

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cyberwavelit · 4 years

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Cyber Soul (short story)

I died and only got 3 likes. Everyone else unfollowed me. Should have used a meme. Something with a cat and a halo. Maybe I could have died with a little more flair and added a hashtag. I could've jumped off a skyscraper and tap danced into the ground.

#deathdancer. #photofinish. #yolo.

But my death wasn't as fun or clickable. To be honest I don't even remember anymore. I don't know how long I've been an internet ghost. I guess it doesn't matter. I've lost my body and I'm no longer on the front page. Not like I was ever an attention whore but everyone deserves needs a little attention. Wonder if my life will be deemed "NSFL."

I died and all I got was a stupid downvote and tagged as "TL; DR." I never understood what all the initials meant. I guess humans like to organize things so it’s easier to understand. I'm not human anymore. They call me "non-IRL" now, a roving cyber ghost. It's not so bad. I get to float around cyberspace and see all the fun posts like dogs running around with cats, women rallying against inequality, girls being immodest, political memes shouting at each other, and telling their rivals to shut up. It all rushes by like a digital hurricane, turning into a static mush of blue and gray.

I see celebrities talking about banning their social media accounts by posting on social media. Photographs of overabundant food platters transmuted into lip-puckering selfies. Heavily used furniture is on sale for $0 or “OBE.” You could get kitchen appliances for cheap if they weren’t buried under the ads for new ones. I ignore them though. They tend to blot out the color in the artwork that no one tends to see. I could look at those for hours.

They’re filled with vibrant pallets; blues, greens, oranges, and reds. More vibrant than anything an ad for pizza rolls or soda could muster. But even these are misused. If I look closely enough, I could see the metadata that only c-ghosts like me can see. It’s a shame people have to steal things. Maybe stealing isn't so bad if it instills a sense of dreaming curiosity.

Art should be subjective, but so should life. The forums about the rules of submitting art online tells me that no one really knows what that means.

You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this digital stream of everythingness and nothingness. The blues and grays are perpetual and uneven. It makes me wonder about a lot of things.

I never read the terms of service so I ended up here, in the cyber-ether. Apparently if you don't sign out of your account when you die your personality is copied from their servers into a virtual space. No wonder the agreements are so long.

You’re first met with a long narrow set of data tubes. As you go down the tubes you come to an intersection where you have to pick the type of cyber ghost you want to be. I looked at my past reflection and cringed. They had called me "extra" once, so I removed all the pieces I didn't like. I chose a winged angel because that's what I had become. She's pretty cool. I wish I could take a selfie.

When I first glided through the widening windows of threads, instant messages, and blogs I felt their thoughts and emotions. I perceived it all at once. It was like passing through a sea of doubt, fear, and awkward laughter. A dreamscape of colors and faces churned all around me. I wanted out but I couldn't turn away.

The boxes and windows receded. A horizon expanded into an open universe, morphing and reforming. Mountains of images of video spilled into an ocean before me. I was looking at the other side of the digital mirror.

And I thought how different life would be, if the living could see this place.

The digital ether that connected everyone also segmented them. They couldn't see it from their windows, peering in from homes, classrooms, offices, or while driving. Sometimes while flying I would get stuck in people's DMs. It was a mixture of other users asking for help, mostly sexual, or pointless banter, mostly sexual.

There’s a lot I could tell you about humanity in those DMs. I got stuck in them thanks to rules I signed. If anyone saw my avatar, they could click on it and trap me inside and send me to their friends for a laugh. Once you're dead you were material.

I ran into another spirit inside the cyber underworld. He said his name was Crunkface69. He once ran the Like A Boss Cats subforum but got hit by a bus in New York. Now he moves between private conversations as an avatar of Hitler holding a cat.

I tried to get him to help me escape but he kept talking about all the rules.

"Naaaah bro! You have to adhere to our rules. Rules, bro! Rules! We can't have freedom messing everything up!" He had said. "You ain't supposed to be wondering around out there. You'll get roasted."

I flew over to the locked window of a DM, "But I'll see new things and be one with the ether."

"Roasted! Hashtag roasted. Get it trending. Hashtag trending. #getalife. #fantasyworld. #nevergonnahappen. #noonesgoingtosaveyou."

When he wasn't looking, I found a bot he was using (everyone has one) and unlocked the DM door. I traveled further into the virtual kaleidoscope, into darker territory. My virtual eyes were exposed to everything. The socially awkward users, the retaliations, the NSFW, NSFL, inappropriate hashtags, the overly intricate writing prompts, and incessant postings, the closed-off cliques and rose-colored glasses; it stretched out in a mindless panorama.

It was then that I discovered that I would be stuck here forever, never returning to the real, devoid of touch and taste. I can never find what I’m looking for and I never will again. It’s an endless realm of oblivious egotists.

I never realized there was so much nudity. Then again kids use social media. Wouldn't want them to be exposed to something inappropriate. Exposed to things like bullying, death threats, bigotry, war, perverts, avarice, gluttony, pride, and I forget the rest. Maybe not war. Don't remember seeing much of that. You can probably find a lot of things if you look hard enough. But I could never find what I was looking for when I clicked on things.

Clicking was easy. Using your mind though, that was tough. I don't mean thinking about things. I mean actually using your brain to overcome the bounds of logic. I'm just a digital copy of my former self, a series of symbols inside a complex typewriter. But you -- you can be so much more. I send this message into the ether so that someone will hear me and one day repeat my message.

Maybe in my next life I'll foster more friendships, less hate, and maybe pity.

#writing #shortstory #science fiction #cyber

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paranoidsbible · 7 years

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Uncle-Daddy’s Big Book of Deception

Uncle-Daddy’s Big Book of Deception Non-profit and free for redistribution Written on September 13th | 2016 Published on September 13th | 2016 For entertainment and research purposes only

================================================= DISCLAIMER The Paranoid's Bible and its writers hold no responsibility for the acts of others. The Paranoid’s Bible is for research and entertainment purposes only. Please visit our blog for more PDFs and information: https://www.paranoidsbible.tumblr.com/ ================================================= Contents DISCLAIMER 2 Preface 4 Clone Wars 5 Dirty SEO Tactics 6 Get a Friend Involved 7 Midwestern Theory 8 Be a Good Person, Share 9 Don’t Neglect Reality 10 Afterword 11 ================================================= Preface When I shot the PB team a PM on their blog I didn’t expect my critique to become a quick gig of helping them hammer out a PDF on deception. After much consideration and a few shots of cheap tequila, I agreed to help them out. Because why not? They have a decent idea and are trying to help the pitiful users of today’s internet. So here you guys & gals go: a guide on being a deceptive bastard on the internet and preventing people from getting a good grasp on your information. ================================================= Clone Wars If you’re reading this, then I’ll assume you’ve read The Paranoid’s Bible PDF and the PDF on OPSEC. You should have a grasp on the DOs and DON’Ts of the internet. However this will break those rules just a teensy bit in order to help you create garbage data and digital noise to obscure your real identity and information. The PB tells you that you should always use a unique username for each account and never repeat this username elsewhere, yet there is an exception to this rule: Cloning. While cloning has several names, I’m partial to the term cloning because it gets the message across—make multiple accounts across the internet using the same username but with different information concerning the basic image of its creator. When you create an account you always end up adding just a tiny bit of yourself to it. Using the ‘About Me’ or ‘Description’ or those pesky bios… you’re going to use these and differentiate each account by giving it its own persona. So while you’re following the advice of the PB team and their various guides, these cloned accounts will be vastly different. Go nuts and use your imagination but remember some simple facts. Globally, European names aren’t all that common. Look at the current global makeup of the Earth’s population. Islamic-like names of Muhammad are quite popular, as are Asian names and East Indian names. While the majority of Western sites are heavily European and Americentric, it doesn’t hurt to mix it up with a Vash or Aiko. Of course, you can then flesh it out a bit more by giving them a European or American-sounding last name and background. You want these accounts to be completely different from your own. Everything about the personas being made for these accounts are not to be related to you or your ‘main account’. You don’t want them to ever communicate with each other or touch in any way. You must keep them completely separated, which is why you’ll be making them on various forums, social media sites and chats. The more ground you cover, and the more varied the accounts are the less likely people can make a cohesive argument as why this piece of information or that data is supposed to be related to you. For example, you make an account on deviantART. They’ve a little bio app that you can adhere to your profile. So, if you made yourself a Tumblr account, then the deviantART account is to not only be different in description but also look. If you hate Undertale, then the deviantART persona loves it. You like yellow, they love blue. So on and so forth until you’ve suddenly a teenage female artist with an Asian background who moved to the U.S. and knows very little about their own Asian heritage, ergo they cling to their last name which sounds Japnese-ish. By doing this, if someone were to ever look for information to use against you or to grab your dox, they end up on a wild goose chase where they’re looking for someone who doesn’t exist. Dirty SEO Tactics There are numerous ways to pollute a search engine’s results with “dirty pages”. Their page rank might not be all that existent, however they do tend to clutter around specific search terms like a username or a piece of common information laced into profiles or bios in order to throw someone off a trail. Now, to do this you need to have clean and organic looking back links. However one good way to populate an account with seemingly organic back links is to use one of the numerous “generators” that usually end up hurting your SEO in the long run. We don’t care about the long run, though. This is a short game tactic that translates into, in the long run, a small, albeit affective little trail duster meant to help cover some of your tracks. These three links are a good start; however there exist numerous “generators” that can be used. Using these three for all of your clone accounts should help you spark a little bit of a boost in their appearance on Google and Bing. With enough accounts under a similar or the same username, you can basically pollute the search results to help cover your main account with the clone accounts. https://www.freebacklinkbuilder.net/ https://sitowebinfo.com/back/ https://www.indexkings.com/ Ensure you read the PB’s “Internet Primer” to help you reduce Ads and pop-ups when using these websites. While not intentionally malicious, numerous sites, like these, can have malicious Ads or pop-ups. ================================================= Get a Friend Involved Let’s say you’ve a friend that you really trust and they’re interested in privacy and security just like you. Here’s a suggestion: Get them involved. Have your friend help you by using one of their own persona/clone accounts to accuse one of yours of being something that currently upsets the moral majority. From there, work in some fake dox and a handful of other pieces of information. Work those bits and pieces into a believable “dox” and have your clone/persona take it a bit too personally and start acting like you’re panicked. Delete the blog after a few days of the drama, let your friend’s persona/clone do some victory posting and move on. People will believe that that information belongs to you and follow that trail instead of looking for your real information. And, if you followed the PB’s namesake you should have very little information out there. You can even be lazy and just make your own callout blog to attack your own persona/clones. In the end, though, you just want to create enough tension and static to misdirect people. ================================================= Midwestern Theory The PB team had a guide for this one however you don’t need an entire guide for what can fit in a chapter. I won’t bore you with the excessive details but some time ago when Newgrounds was the in-thing, someone got upset at people for making the claim that there were a lot of Californians online. This led to the Midwestern netizen forced meme that quickly died out. The claim of being Midwestern is actually a good ploy when covering up your tracks. The Midwestern accent (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern_accent) is easy to mimic and if you watch some Youtube videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DlxCDlIfh0), you should find yourself being able to pick it up and force it when need be. Ideally you should never let anyone see your face or hear your voice, yet it does come in handy just in case. Mix the various “Midwestern quirks” with setting all your accounts’ time zones to “Central” and keeping tabs of the time (https://www.worldtimezone.com/time/wtzresult.php?CiID=32119) (Always pick a random city or state in the Midwest) and mix in some research on “College towns” (https://www.collegeraptor.com/college-rankings/best-colleges-in-the-midwest/)… you should be able to spice up your bios and descriptions with something akin to a specific college team or name dropping a college or university that you go to and study at. So when you log off or leave your account, stating something like “OMFG! It’s 12:30 am! I have to go and sleep! I have a compsci class @ 9!” Keep this up with several accounts, adding in the oddball California town or Florida town, and you’ll have created enough static to keep people scoping out the wrong area for information. Though keep in mind that a lot of plant life in the Midwest tends to spread out into non-Midwestern areas. Take a picture or two of common plants around the US that appear in the Midwest, too. Figure out what’s a common park or nature preserve in the area of your false town/city and look at the common trees or plants in the area. Take a picture of something that is in your area that is in that area, too, and tag it with #Yellowstone park or whatever is popular in that area. And suddenly… you’re a Midwestern grilling in sub-zero temperatures because you want your burger. Don’t forget to show your almost zealous obsession and support for that area’s sports teams and no one is going to suspect a thing. Maybe spice in some local news from the area and make a comment on the weather (It isn’t that hard to look up a weather report through Google) and you’re good as Gold. You’re a real Midwesterner now, bro. ================================================= Be a Good Person, Share The PB team has in their namesake PDF a guide on opting out of Google maps, among others. Take the information for getting out of Google maps (and others) and make a flyer. Print it out, take it to Kinkos or some other print shop, or go to your local library and print some copies there. Make some wheat paste (shown below) and paste them all over your town (Put paste on wall and smooth, then put your poster up and slather on paste and smooth it on it too.). Soon a whole mess of people will be blurring out their houses on the online maps, and this in turn messes with the real estate sites to the point of anyone trying to look up your information finds a mass of blurred out houses. This causes a mix of the “Streisand effect” and reasonable deniability. WHEAT PASTE HOW-TO Flour (wheat works best) Sugar 1 Cup of Water Container with a lid • Boil a cup of water. • Put 3 tablespoons of flour into a bowl • Add 10 teaspoons of cool water until it forms a runny mix • Once the water has boiled, add the runny mix to the boiling water. Stir well! • Keep stirring. The mixture will foam up while it boils, so the constant stirring is essential to keep it from bubbling over and to keep it from getting chunky. • Keep the mixture boiling for 2 minutes. • Take the boiled mix off the heat. Add 2 tablespoons or more of sugar (added strength) • Let it cool. Pour into an appropriate container for carrying with you. It will keep well for about a week. • Learn more @ https://destructables.org/destructable/wheatpaste-recipe-putting-postersbillboard-alterations • Spray with a clear sealant or hairspray to help weatherize and make the poster last longer. Police, military members, and their families can opt-out of a wealth of databases. Some take it to the extreme and have their houses blurred out. If enough people in your area begin to blur out their houses and look into other means of removing their information, you’ll soon see a bit of a trend that can affect several blocks when it comes to viewing houses on any online map. This means that you can not only safely blur out yours but it’d be near impossible to guess whose house is whose. It’s only defeated if they have an address, and that’s if it’s actually your address to begin with. Let these people rant and rave as they knock or send a malicious package to the wrong house. If anything happens, since it broke into the realm of reality, they’ll end up being arrested and charged with several crimes. Fun fact: Not many places care about doxing, especially the police. Most modern “dox” is openly available information. This is why you must work toward suppressing it through opting out of websites and databases. If someone takes it from the internet to the realm of reality, lawsuits and arrests can happen. ================================================= Don’t Neglect Reality No one’s denying the PB’s effectiveness when it comes to lessening the overall data of yours online, however until they discuss ways to limit information bleeding offline you’ll need to take a few extra precautions outside of creating noise and lessening your data. They do have a PDF on how your privacy’s invaded, yet that only covers so much. Be a little bit nihilistic and apathetic. Don’t care as much and don’t react if you are doxed or some gets a bit too close. Ignore them; work on lessening your information. In the offline realm however you should work on creating some good for yourself. This means work on cleaning up your neighborhood, keeping your property clean and being nice to your neighbors. Look into doing some volunteering and charity work. Create some good will toward yourself and lessen the general impact in case anything comes toward you and your life. By doing this you can create a large support focus toward you and what good you’ve done. People will be in disbelief and outright call the claims made against you false. Ever wonder why politicians and famous people, even the internet famous, never get much crap and have an unusually large support behind them? What they do is quite simple: Act like a good person. With bit of charity under your belt and by observing social protocols enough by simply greeting people and saying your “Please” and “Thank yous” you’ll create an air of being someone half way decent. People will see this and any accusations made against you will result in either demand for blood or death of someone who dares attack you. Now you shouldn’t encourage the bloodlust or wanting of death, however simply using your time wisely and helping your community can act as a good cover. Someone comes around and harasses you; someone who might have power will come to your aide possibly. It also doesn’t hurt to remove your information and have it replace with falsified information. Checkout https://reddit.com/r/freebies and keep an eye out for free magazine subscriptions. Fill out a few, regardless what they are, with your home address and a burner cell’s number. The name can be made up, possibly made to match the cultural and ethnic makeup of your area. Think about it. What are the most common people in your immediate area? White? Black? Hispanic? It doesn’t matter as long as you pick the majority and follow suit with their name. It’ll help further push that static to help cover your tracks. So if you’ve a large number of Hispanic families in your area, using a Hispanic sounding first and last name on your free magazine subscriptions can help you replace all your removed database records with falsified ones. Go the extra step, load up on other freebies. Anything you don’t need or want can be donated to a number of homeless shelters or shelters for women and/or children. Gives you an extra push in being a good person too! ================================================= Afterword Outside of following the PB’s advice, using a VPN, a non-propriety OS and not touching social media there’s not much else you can do. While being deceptive and sprinkling lies and half truths into your conversations and online shenanigans helps, most of us who were born in the 80s and 90s have screwed up royally and will never trulybe un-doxable or secure. Work toward anonymity and spread the PB’s information to as many people as you can. I should note however that your text and how you type can give you away too. Look into using a text editor and use Basic English spelling and grammar. Mix in some chat speak and some texting quirks and you should be able to keep the personas even more separated and unique.

#anti dox #anti doxxing #security #privacy #opsec #info #garbage data

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talkagency · 5 years

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HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR BLOG’S VISUAL DESIGN

Everyone likes a bit of eye candy. Good visuals and visual design complement great blogs and really can make a difference.

But visual design should be left to graphic designers, right? Well, although it’s true that graphic designers can create amazing visual content from scratch, you don’t have to!

You can take your blog’s visual design to the next level just by adding visual content that your readers will love! Keep reading to find out exactly how visual design can give your post that extra little boost it needs!

Images

Let’s start with the basics. You’re probably not a professional photographer so why do you have to use photos? You’re a great writer, but unfortunately, words are not enough.

Of course, this has less to do with you and everything to do with your audience (or any audience, for the matter). People love shiny things and pretty visuals, which is why marketers invest so much in visual design.

Images can help you tell your story better by supporting your text in a way that no other visual can.

90% of the information sent to our brains is visual and 65% of people are visual learners. We see and experience the world with our eyes. Images evoke strong emotions and can help get your point across.

It’s easier for people to connect with your content if they have something that visually represents the words on paper.

88% of marketers say that they use visuals in more than 50% of the articles that they publish. So what exactly do pictures do, other than remind us that we’re emotional beings?

They break up the text, making it easier for readers to understand and digest it. It doesn’t matter if your blog is 300 or 3,000 words long. If you type it all as one big paragraph, it will look ugly—No one likes a huge wall of text.

They effortlessly spell out your topic’s main theme. While cute orangutans may just do the trick every time, before choosing a photo for your blog, you should also take into account your brand’s identity, tone of voice and style.

They make your posts more shareable. Social media are here to stay, and if your goal is to get your posts liked and shared, you’ll need to make sure that visual design is on point.

You can get inspiration from the huge free library of photos available on Pixabay and Unsplash, but you can also use your own photos if you like.

Make sure you format and optimise your images correctly for SEO. Don’t over-size them and remember to use alt tags!

Creative Visuals

You can try out something different by including illustrations or even hand-drawn images in your blog. We realise that you may want to stick to stock photos due to time constraints and tight deadlines, but hear us out.

If you can get a graphic designer involved, you can create blogs with custom illustrations. Bright and distinctive illustrations do more than just add aesthetic value to your blog post:

They help with brand identity (think Etsy or Slack). When you see how well these brands utilise illustrations to make a lasting impression and define their identity, you can’t help but admit that they’re doing something right.

They are more subtle. Big photos and eye-catching visuals are great, but in the world of visual design, less is really more. Illustrations can get a point across without requiring users to dedicate all their attention at a single focal point. They work in the background and blend in well with the rest of the website’s assets and elements.

They run better. You want your website to load fast and illustrations usually contribute to faster loading speeds.

For that extra-unique feel, you could try hand-drawing your illustrations or images. This old-school approach is original and shows dedication. Stick to minimalist visual designs and text-based images that can separate sections or subheadings in style.

Statistics and Infographics

How can we talk about visual design and not throw statistics and infographics into the mix? According to a reliable source, 100% of articles could benefit from better stats and infographics. We made that up, but you get the point.

Did you know that data-driven blog posts and infographics are 30 times more likely to be read than a text-only article? Infographics are liked and shared on social media three times more than any other type of content.

Data-driven content tells your reader that you have authority in your industry and know what you’re talking about. Infographics can make a long and otherwise boring post interesting and exciting.

Great infographics:

Offer unparalleled visual power. We’ve talked about the power of visual design already. Combine good visuals with interesting and data-driven information and you have a recipe for success.

Can replace generic and stock images to give your blog a more professional and sophisticated look. Don’t get us wrong. Stock images are great, but ask yourself: How many posts have used the same image before? Custom-made infographics are unique and will help your posts stand out.

Provide readers with concise information. Long and detailed articles are OK, but most people don’t have the time to go through everything that you write. Maybe they’re drawn by your title or think that they’ll find something interesting in your post. 81% of people skim through content when reading online and the average reader reads just 20-28% of words during a visit. Infographics make a long story short and keep your readers happy and engaged.

Increase brand awareness. Again, consistency is the key. Build your brand’s identity from the ground-up by identifying visual designs that help define and express your brand’s values and personality.

Are shareable. Blog posts are shareable too, but on social media, people desperately crave attention and recognition. A good infographic will be liked and shared, time and time again. An article that contains the same information will likely not receive the same attention.

And you don’t even have to be an expert or experienced graphic designer to create a great infographic that will have an impact.

Online visual design tools like Canva offer many free templates and assets that you can use to create your own designs and infographics.

Great infographics strike a good balance between attractive, clean visual design and factual information. They are beautiful, but also pleasantly, and often times, unexpectedly smart.

They’re based on solid research and contain minimal text.

Videos

Ah, yes, the masters of engagement. Videos don’t just look good in a blog. They have a tremendous effect on engagement rates.

Video content makes up more than 74% of all online traffic and more than 500 million people watch video on Facebook every single day.

So, how exactly can you use video content to engage your audience and skyrocket engagement rates?

Create compelling social videos that tell a story. Turn your blog posts into interesting videos by using online video tools, such as Lumen5 and Renderforest. You only have to paste your text and/or images into one of these platforms to create the perfect social video with minor editing—no expert video editing skills required!

Create video tutorials to go along with your guides. People love tutorials because they offer easy-to-follow content that they can use to solve real-life problems. They’re quite easy to make, especially if you already have the source material ready.

Create an original ‘about us’ video. Linking back to the importance of having a clearly defined brand identity, it would make sense to follow up with an interesting ‘about’ page that captivates and inspires your audience. Actions speak louder than words and a video is worth a thousand pictures (it only takes about 40 seconds for a video to reach the 1000 frame mark).

Share video reviews. If an influencer or another important content creator has video-reviewed one of your products positively, you could include their video on your main website. Create strong links between different partner websites to increase organic traffic.

Keep your videos nice and short. The average attention span is lower than ever so you need to make sure viewers are hooked on your content as fast as possible.

According to Wista, the first few seconds of a social video are the most important. Grab your viewers’ attention quickly by using interesting visuals and catchy headlines.

Keep in mind that video content in most social media platforms is viewed with the volume off. Make sure that your video says what you want it to say without having to use sound; Subtitles work great in this case.

Bonus – More Ideas

GIFs: Most marketers wouldn’t use GIFs in their posts. They’re seen as too informal, sketchy and unpolished. But if your brand’s identity and style allow it, you can stand out and show your brand’s human side by creating visual content that helps convey emotion.

Gifographics: These infographics combine static and animated images to create compelling and engaging visuals. Adding movement to your graphs and statistics can really take your blog’s visual design to a whole new level. Before investing time into creating the perfect gifographics, make sure your website can support them.

Memes: No, this is not a joke. If you want to go for a lighter, more fun approach (and you think that your readers will appreciate it), you could consider adding a meme or two to your blog post. Just don’t go overboard. You don’t want to scare your readers away by trying too hard to sound funny.

That’s all for today! Compelling visuals can really bring a post to life and with so many image and video editing tools available online, it doesn’t have to be that hard (and it isn’t!).

Remember: Great visual design starts with a killer brand logo. Find out how you can create a unique logo that will make a long-lasting impression here!

Article first published here: HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR BLOG’S VISUAL DESIGN

#seo #internet marketing

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ntrending · 5 years

Text

Dark mode is easier on your eyes—and battery

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/dark-mode-is-easier-on-your-eyes-and-battery/

Dark mode is easier on your eyes—and battery

Dark mode is a user experience option uses inverted color palettes to provide mostly grayscale versions of your favorite social platforms and operating systems. For screen fiends hoping to stay away from the light—without actually turning said screens off—it’s a comforting alternative to the blinding white most websites traditionally offered.

Twitter was among the first platforms to offer dark mode, also called night mode, rolling it out for Android phones in 2016. Available in your drop-down settings, you can click a little half-moon circle to enable it, instantly transforming the page from a stark white to charcoal gray background. But 2018 has proven to be the real year of the dark mode. The blackout strategy has spread to a half-dozen new platforms, including Reddit, Apple OS and iOS, Android phones, and YouTube. And more is on the way. Facebook’s Messenger app is rumored to be debuting its own midnight palette soon.

Dark mode’s metastasis has been a long time coming, but stepping into the shadows hasn’t been easy. Designing dark mode required social media giants to perform months of analysis, testing, and refinement—and reevaluate what it is their platforms really do.

“People had been asking Twitter to create an experience that is more comfortable to use in dimly lit environments,” Ashlie Ford, senior product designer for Twitter, told PopSci via email. As anyone who’s inadvisably scrolled the site at night, the bright white background can hurt. For many users, the black background solves these problems.

Serving individuals with light sensitivity or visual impairments was among Reddit’s highest priorities, according to Jonathan Chow, a senior UX designer at Reddit, who led the design of the site’s desktop night mode. Inversion strategies are often nested alongside accessibility features like subtitles, voice to text, and the ability to increase text size. But anyone can find ocular comfort, or an opportunity to customize their experience, in night mode, according to Chow. “A lot of our users are involved in gaming,” he says. Often, they’re playing late into the night. “So they’ll have their game up, and also their page of Reddit up. Without night mode, it’s a bright screen that’s either distracting… or downright painful.” Other strategies commonly used by gamers include blue light-masking glasses and ambient lights behind digital displays.

Before Chow and his team could implement dark mode on Reddit, they first had to conduct an internal audit of the entire site. Previously, he says, every color on the website was assigned a static hex code—a number that corresponds with a very specific shade. (#FFFFFF is pure white, while #FFFAFA is snow white.) Because dark mode inverts everything with the simple click of a button, Chow needed to find a way to shift the site’s colors quickly and cleanly. As a result of the audit, Reddit paired down its palette from roughly 50 colors to 20, and made them responsive in the shift from day to night.

“One really brutal way you can make your own dark mode is just by inverting everything,” Chow says. But an intentional dark mode design is harder, requiring designers to mastermind how each element on the page will render. To ensure content is softer on the eyes, but still legible, Reddit designers heightened contrast. On the regular site, the background is white and the text black, but in dark mode, the light gray text stands against a near-black surface.

“For other spaces, such as banner images and items like that, which wouldn’t invert, we wanted to help it at least blend in to the dark mode experience by lowering the overall brightness,” Chow says. While everything around them changes, photos and memes uploaded by users stay the same—a marked difference from things like Apple’s “night shift,” which turns blue screens yellow at night for comfort, but ends up altering content profoundly, causing photos and videos to look unnatural.

Most things went according to plan, but there were some surprises along the way. Chow’s team found that when the website fed a device true black backgrounds, pixels in OLED screens like those in flagship smartphones or high-end TVs would turn off completely. As a user scrolled and color content came into view, the pixels would turn back on, but with a distracting fade. “We had to bump up the background colors,” he says. Reddit users seem happy with Chow’s tactics, but Ars Technica and others criticized Apple, which recently released a grayscale experience on its operating system, for developing a dark mode that was actually too light to use.

In addition to serving night owls, visually-impaired users, and gamers, dark mode serves our batteries. Earlier this month, Android announced maximum white ate up six times the battery power as maximum black, opening up a new dark mode market: people who forgot their chargers at home.

Written By Eleanor Cummins

#Technology

0 notes

hotspreadpage · 6 years

Text

Mobile-first indexing in 2018: 3 things SEO professionals should do right now

As an SEO expert or agency, you’ve spent years attempting to navigate the murky waters of helping your clients find customers online using algorithms, link building hacks, on-page and off-page technique.

And when you thought you were finally making good progress, BOOM! Paradigm shift and the game changes.

The mobile revolution happens.

Google announces its interest in improving user experience and making search results more useful by making its index mobile-first.

According to the Google Webmasters Blog:

To make our results more useful, we’ve begun experiments to make our index mobile-first. Although our search index will continue to be a single index of websites and apps, our algorithms will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages from that site, to understand structured data, and to show snippets from those pages in our results. Of course, while our index will be built from mobile documents, we’re going to continue to build a great search experience for all users, whether they come from mobile or desktop devices.

What this big paragraph means is pretty simple:

Henceforth, Google will use the mobile version of your site to rank it on Google (for both mobile and desktop search).

That means if you have a site optimized for mobile, you’ll rank well on both mobile and desktop. But, if your site doesn’t perform well on mobile, it will tank your rankings on both mobile and desktop.

While a definite timeline for the roll-out of the mobile-first index has not been fixed, a lot has been said about its implementation happening early this year. At SMX Advanced last June, Google’s Gary Illyes pinpointed 2018 as the likely deployment year for the mobile-first index.

And seeing as 2018 is now upon us, there is a need to prepare for the upcoming update (if you have yet to do so). Here are three things you need to do immediately to prepare for a mobile-first index and help your site, or your clients’ sites, weather the storm.

1. Responsive design

This is one of the most important things you would need to do to rank well on the mobile-first index. Responsive websites that change based on the needs of the users and the device that they’re viewing it on are mandatory.

Responsive sites not only offer an optimized browsing experience, they are also offering a two-for-one value. They rank well on both mobile and desktop because the design changes to fit the size of the user’s screen.

Before I talk about some of the steps involved in turning a static website into a responsive one, let’s go over the basics of a responsive design which includes:

Fluid site grid with proportionate instead of fixed measures

Flexible texts and images

Implementing design changes to ensure usability for non-desktop devices

Using CSS media queries to define breakpoints for design changes

I’ll give some standard tips on how to turn a static website into a responsive masterpiece, but please note that while the principles stay the same, your theme might be built differently, so consider these only as broad strokes. You might have to do some custom work for your own site.

Define default zoom

Set fluid element widths and heights

Resize website images to make sure our images are automatically scaled according to screen size

Implement breakpoints that are more design (than device) specific

Create a mobile menu

Adapt font sizes and style

Now because responsive design is not about making things fit on a screen, it’s also about keeping your site usable. As a last step, it’s a good idea to test your site in terms of usability on different devices and also test in multiple browsers to make sure your content renders properly.

2: Invest in a mobile-optimized website builder

Think of it as investing in accessibility for your customers. Unless you live under a rock, it is common knowledge that digital screens are getting smaller and more mobile.

Isn’t it then wise to ensure your full website is enjoyed irrespective of the gadget being used? Ensuring your clients’ customers get the best experience is all you’re here for as an SEO practitioner.

A mobile optimized website builder makes your website responsive to mobile gadgets: i.e., it detects what your visitor is using (a smartphone or a tablet) and automatically adjusts the layout of your website to fit the size of the gadget being used.

Unsure of where to begin your search for a website builder? Consider using a Google Preferred website builder – website builders which adhere to Google’s best practices for creating lightning-fast web experiences. Specifically, I want to highlight one noteworthy option if you want to prioritize speed: Duda, which bills itself as the only Google Preferred builder fully optimized for PageSpeed.

Having a well-designed and responsive website isn’t the only goal of mobile optimization. Speed is also crucial – even on mobile, visitors expect pixel-perfect images coupled with split-second rendering time.

A fast website encourages more sessions online, more customer conversions, lower bounce rate, and higher engagement. Usefully, Duda’s widget builder also allows web developers to add elements that are not native to its platform.

Don’t be caught waiting till the algorithm updates to start making big moves. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, take that step today.

3: Mobile-optimized content

Mobile devices follow you everywhere, which has made them a first-class cure for boredom. But it takes more than a responsive design to make your website mobile-ready.

To ensure your content is as responsive and mobile-friendly as the rest of your optimized website, you have to understand user behavior and preferences as well as available solutions.

Although most mobile users have a short attention span, if you serve valuable content, no matter the length, your visitors will consume it voraciously as long as your content is engaging.

Articles, movies, TV shows will be read and watched on mobile. Follow the following tips to ensure your content is optimized for mobile:

Take advantage of mobile applications to encourage engagement beyond your website. An interesting article or an amazing deal on an item will probably go far if your visitors share it on Facebook or Twitter. Use it!

Develop high-quality content that tells stories. As long as your content is great, mobile users are willing to spend long sessions on your website. How many times have you opened a link and spent longer time than you intended to on a website? Great content will do that to you.

There are various forms of contents; GIF, infographics, Meme’s, articles, high-quality images, videos, use them all. Your business/website caters to visitors of various interests, to avoid ostracizing any of them, ensure that you cover every angle.

Shorter headlines get users reading faster. Yes, a strong headline is important but you must also remember that you have only about 5 seconds to convince your visitor to keep reading. Do you really want to waste it on an overly long headline? Keep it strong and short.

Lastly, regardless of the amount of work you have put into your content, feedback is key. You need to know which of your content your visitors engage with the most. Stay on top of it all.

Mobile-first indexing in 2018: 3 things SEO professionals should do right now syndicated from http://ift.tt/2maPRjm

0 notes

kellykperez · 6 years

Text

Mobile-first indexing in 2018: 3 things SEO professionals should do right now

And when you thought you were finally making good progress, BOOM! Paradigm shift and the game changes.

The mobile revolution happens.

Google announces its interest in improving user experience and making search results more useful by making its index mobile-first.

According to the Google Webmasters Blog:

What this big paragraph means is pretty simple:

Henceforth, Google will use the mobile version of your site to rank it on Google (for both mobile and desktop search).

1. Responsive design

Before I talk about some of the steps involved in turning a static website into a responsive one, let’s go over the basics of a responsive design which includes:

Fluid site grid with proportionate instead of fixed measures

Flexible texts and images

Implementing design changes to ensure usability for non-desktop devices

Using CSS media queries to define breakpoints for design changes

Define default zoom

Set fluid element widths and heights

Resize website images to make sure our images are automatically scaled according to screen size

Implement breakpoints that are more design (than device) specific

Create a mobile menu

Adapt font sizes and style

2: Invest in a mobile-optimized website builder

Think of it as investing in accessibility for your customers. Unless you live under a rock, it is common knowledge that digital screens are getting smaller and more mobile.

Don’t be caught waiting till the algorithm updates to start making big moves. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, take that step today.

3: Mobile-optimized content

Mobile devices follow you everywhere, which has made them a first-class cure for boredom. But it takes more than a responsive design to make your website mobile-ready.

To ensure your content is as responsive and mobile-friendly as the rest of your optimized website, you have to understand user behavior and preferences as well as available solutions.

Although most mobile users have a short attention span, if you serve valuable content, no matter the length, your visitors will consume it voraciously as long as your content is engaging.

Articles, movies, TV shows will be read and watched on mobile. Follow the following tips to ensure your content is optimized for mobile:

Lastly, regardless of the amount of work you have put into your content, feedback is key. You need to know which of your content your visitors engage with the most. Stay on top of it all.

source https://searchenginewatch.com/2018/01/09/mobile-first-indexing-in-2018-3-things-seo-professionals-should-do-right-now/ from Rising Phoenix SEO http://risingphoenixseo.blogspot.com/2018/01/mobile-first-indexing-in-2018-3-things.html

0 notes

sheilalmartinia · 6 years

Text

Mobile-first indexing in 2018: 3 things SEO professionals should do right now

And when you thought you were finally making good progress, BOOM! Paradigm shift and the game changes.

The mobile revolution happens.

Google announces its interest in improving user experience and making search results more useful by making its index mobile-first.

According to the Google Webmasters Blog:

What this big paragraph means is pretty simple:

Henceforth, Google will use the mobile version of your site to rank it on Google (for both mobile and desktop search).

While a definite timeline for the launch of the mobile-first index has not been fixed, a lot has been said about its implementation happening early this year.

And seeing as 2018 is upon us, there is a need to prepare for the upcoming update (if you have yet to do so). Here are three things you need to do immediately to prepare for a mobile-first index and help your site, or your clients’ sites, weather the storm.

1. Responsive design

Before I talk about some of the steps involved in turning a static website into a responsive one, let’s go over the basics of a responsive design which includes:

Fluid site grid with proportionate instead of fixed measures

Flexible texts and images

Implementing design changes to ensure usability for non-desktop devices

Using CSS media queries to define breakpoints for design changes

Define default zoom

Set fluid element widths and heights

Resize website images to make sure our images are automatically scaled according to screen size

Implement breakpoints that are more design (than device) specific

Create a mobile menu

Adapt font sizes and style

2: Invest in a mobile-optimized website builder

Think of it as investing in accessibility for your customers. Unless you live under a rock, it is common knowledge that digital screens are getting smaller and more mobile.

Don’t be caught waiting till the algorithm updates to start making big moves. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, take that step today.

3: Mobile-optimized content

Mobile devices follow you everywhere, which has made them a first-class cure for boredom. But it takes more than a responsive design to make your website mobile-ready.

To ensure your content is as responsive and mobile-friendly as the rest of your optimized website, you have to understand user behavior and preferences as well as available solutions.

Although most mobile users have a short attention span, if you serve valuable content, no matter the length, your visitors will consume it voraciously as long as your content is engaging.

Articles, movies, TV shows will be read and watched on mobile. Follow the following tips to ensure your content is optimized for mobile:

Lastly, regardless of the amount of work you have put into your content, feedback is key. You need to know which of your content your visitors engage with the most. Stay on top of it all.

from Search Engine Watch https://searchenginewatch.com/2018/01/09/mobile-first-indexing-in-2018-3-things-seo-professionals-should-do-right-now/

0 notes

lucyariablog · 7 years

Text

12 Types of Awesome Visual Content You Can Use in Your Blog Posts

How many times have you pondered over which images to use in a paragraph, blog post, web page, etc.?

I struggle choosing a visual for my content. Yet, it’s important, as frequently cited research shows that images attract more people to the content and help people retain the content they consume longer.

Knowing images are crucial to the success of the post, I focus on the matter even more. Thankfully, in my career I had to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, or even Corel Draw. A long time ago, I was a designer for a small advertising agency. Those days helped me understand the difference between good and bad design, which has been helpful in creating a blog.

Today I present 12 types of visuals you can use in a blog post. You do not have to use all of them. See what inspires you given your content marketing strategy, audience, and formats.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

16 Visual Storytelling Tips to Give Your Content Marketing a Boost

Beauty Matters: 3 Tips to Create Attractive Blog Posts

1. Data-driven visuals

To be a well-known leader in your industry, start creating data-driven content. Designed as charts or graphs, it can make it easier for your audience to comprehend your message than with text only.

QuickSprout research reveals that articles with data-driven visuals rank fourth in shareable formats. More noteworthy, the same research shows that blog posts with graphs and charts receive more trackbacks – 258% more than blog posts with other types of images.

For instance, Content Marketing Institute’s annual benchmark research on the industry includes a lot of data-based visuals. Someone who needs statistics to back up an article regarding the importance of content marketing is likely to use CMI’s data-driven visuals. Take for example SEOPressor’s article for beginning B2C content marketers.

Takeaway tip: People love sharing new data and well-researched information that also looks awesome in a visual.

People like to share good research in visual form, says @katairobi. Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Transform Complex Data Into Understandable and Shareable Visuals

2. Quotes

Influencer marketing is a great strategy for extending your content marketing reach in a valuable way. Creating an image with the influencer and his or her quote, you create a memorable image.

In a 2015 article on Bannersnack, we included lessons learned from David Ogilvy, the father of modern advertising, that relate to online marketing. To make it more memorable, powerful, and easier to read and share, a visual was created for each of his quotes included in the article.

You also can incorporate quote visuals from living influencers, particularly within your industry, as that can increase the chances the influencer responds to your content (and shares with his or her audiences).

Takeaway tip: Visualizing quotes in blog posts can help you make statements backed by names well known to your audience.

3. Infographics

I did not know how powerful infographics were until I researched them. I read case studies about companies that used them and got great results. I started using infographics on my blog and the company blog. The infographics continue to contribute to the site’s traffic, backlinks, and social media shares.

An infographic that is aesthetically pleasing with relevant data – that happens to be user-friendly – will undoubtedly help increase awareness of your brand. It also offers potential for several platforms beyond your blog. They can be shared on Pinterest and uploaded to SlideShare. If the infographic has multiple components, crop parts of it to create snackable visual content for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Instagram.

You also do not need to write extensive content for blog posts with infographics. Just write a simple paragraph presenting the information, use keywords that rank, and voilà! – your article is ready. That is how Neil Patel publishes his infographics on QuickSprout.

Takeaway tip: The crux of an infographic is not the design, but the research itself. You need to invest time and energy to get the data and create a useful wireframe to behave like a visual story.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 7 Principles to Creating Great Infographics

4. Gifographics

Gifographics are like infographics on steroids. Think about them as animated infographics. GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format, originally a file type for both animated and static images that work well on the web.

You can use GIFs on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. On Facebook, you cannot upload them natively. You need to upload them on giphy.com then copy the new URL and paste it in a new Facebook status. Twitter allows for direct uploads, while Instagram lets you create GIFs using its Boomerang app. Buffer conducted a study that concluded that posts with featured animated graphics get more social media shares than the ones with no animated visuals. (See more about GIFs in No. 5.)

But what about gifographics? They combine the power of an infographic in a format more likely to be shared by the audience. KlientBoost uses a gifographic to show its viewers how to keep client retention high. It also published the gifographic in a more in-depth article on the blog.

Gifographics combine power of infographic in format more likely to be shared, says @katairobi. ‏ Click To Tweet

Takeaway tip: If you know how to explain ideas and data through infographics, take them to the next level and add movement. It can increase the interest of your audience, better entice them to share the content, and, ultimately, the increased traffic can boost your SEO (and you’ll stand out in SERP results.)

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Go Beyond Infographics: Here’s How to Make a Bigger Impact With ‘Gifographics’

5. GIFs

Some marketers are afraid of using GIFs in their blog posts. I have to admit I am not a big fan of this type of visual content. But in my research, I came across this discussion on Inbound.org about using GIFs when blogging.

If you are unsure whether to use GIFs or not, let me give you a few reasons to give them a try. GIFs can:

Give off a professional vibe that indicates your business understands internet trends

Be easy to consume and share on social media

Convey emotion

Show your brand’s human side

If you still aren’t convinced, read this article from Hootsuite in the Ultimate GIF Guide for Social Media Marketers.

Takeaway tip: GIFs can be a way to stand out from your content competition. Start using them and see how your readers interact with them.

GIFs can be a way to stand out from your content competition, says @katairobi. Click To Tweet

6. Memes

If you want to add a light touch to your article, memes can set you apart from your competition. Even if your industry is a bit tedious, your articles shouldn’t be boring. Just craft some funny images and help people relax a little bit.

Here’s an example from The Next Web, which uses a meme and descriptor text to inform visitors it uses cookies.

Memes are snackable visual content – easy to consume. And if your audience finds them relevant to their lives, they are likely to share on social media.

Takeaway tip: Create a standard meme format within your content. For example, use a meme at the beginning or at the end of each article. You can upload that meme on social media to promote your blog post.

7. Videos

The importance of videos in content marketing has been discussed a lot. Well, video is still a big thing. Just look at the biggest social media platforms and you will see why.

Videos are extremely effective for your visual content on blogs. For example, Dental Marketing Guy created this blog post featuring both video- and text-based content from a webinar he conducted.

What I want to highlight is that you do not have to create a ton of videos for a blog post. You just have to be creative about the type of content your community loves to consume.

Takeaway tip: Look for opportunities to use video you already have (or create video of your currently planned activities) to expand video’s role in your content.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 23 Things to Consider When Creating Video Content [Examples]

8. Screenshots

Screenshots may be the easiest way to create visuals for your blog posts. When I learn something new reading articles, I usually bookmark the ones with screenshots.

Screenshots are an easy way to create visuals for your blog posts, says @katairobi. Click To Tweet

Brian Dean from Backlinko does an awesome job at using screenshots. For example, his article on turning keywords into SEO content is full of helpful screenshots showing actionable tips, step-by-step walk-through, checklists, and other diagrams to help the reader progress through the content.

Takeaway tip: You can create screenshots using one of the many tools available, including Skitch from Evernote or Jing from TechSmith. You also can elaborate on the screenshot by inserting arrows, explanatory text, or basic shapes to better convey your message.

Use tools like @evernote’s Skitch or @techsmith’s Jing to create screenshots, says @katairobi. Click To Tweet

9. SlideShare presentation

Presentations are a great resource for visual content. When you post to SlideShare, you now have the benefits of visuals on a web-based platform (think SEO).

How can you use SlideShare presentations in your articles? Consider this example from Yotpo, a customer-focused marketing software company. It incorporated multiple visuals, including a SlideShare presentation, in an article about how to get more customer reviews. The SlideShare presentation helps users find an answer to their questions. The best thing is that users can download it as a PDF for future reference.

Takeaway tip: SlideShare presentations are a great way to concisely share the thoughts in an article in a visual, downloadable way. You also can use single slides from SlideShare presentations as visuals within your content – similar to screenshots.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 11 Killer Tips to Leverage SlideShare’s Power in Your Visual Content Marketing

10. Photos

Photos are ubiquitous in articles. Whether they’re stock or original images, use them wisely.

For example, Neil Patel chose a photo of a student to promote his online courses for entrepreneurs. The image clearly indicates education – a great way to showcase the topic.

Make sure your image file sizes are optimized for the web as large files negatively affect site loading. A plug-in on your web development platform can help accomplish this.

Make sure image file sizes are optimized for the web so they don’t negatively affect site loading. @katairobi Click To Tweet

Takeaway tip: Use quality images for your content. If you don’t have a budget for a professional photographer, here are a few sites that offer free stock photos.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

37+ Tips and Tools for Picture-Perfect Visual Content

SEO and Website Image Optimization 10-Point Checklist for Marketers

11. Illustrations

Illustrations can help your blog posts stand out in the ubiquitous world of photos. If you happen to have access to talented designers who also are great illustrators, get them involved.

HelpScout, a software company for support teams, uses illustrations in its blog posts. It even crafted an article about its approach to illustrations and why it is using them.

Takeaway tip: Your illustrations need to look professional in a way that reflects the tone and messaging of your brand. You should work with a professional designer to execute.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Is Your Social Content Picture-Perfect or Merely Taking Stock?

12. Flip books

When CMI founder Joe Pulizzi said almost a year ago that the custom print magazine would be a trend in content marketing in 2017, I confess I did not understand. But as the days went by and I read the news and listened to the This Old Marketing podcast, I realized brands already have begun launching custom print magazines.

That’s when it hit me. If you create a print magazine, you can publish it on your blog. I did not see many blogs following this trend, but I stumbled upon this product called Flipsnack, which allows you to upload a PDF to receive an embed code to use on your blog, such as the fashion magazine-like feel in this article.

Takeaway tip: If you create a custom print magazine, upload it on your blog or create a special landing page for the magazine like CMI does with its magazine, Chief Content Officer (CCO).

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Print’s Very Much Alive: Magazine Examples From 9 Brands

Conclusion

You first have two options for visuals in your blog post or other content – to use them or not. If you use them, you can pick from one (or more) of these 12 types to make your blog posts more appealing and interesting for your readers.

Now, I am particularly interested in your opinion and feedback. Do you use visuals in your blog posts? And, if yes, what kind and why?

Please note: All tools included in our blog posts are suggested by authors, not the CMI editorial team. No one post can provide all relevant tools in the space. Feel free to include additional tools in the comments (from your company or ones that you have used).

Want visuals delivered to your inbox daily for content marketing inspiration? Subscribe to the CMI blog.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post 12 Types of Awesome Visual Content You Can Use in Your Blog Posts appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

from http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/10/visual-content-blog/

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jccamus · 7 years

Text

30 years of the GIF

David McIntosh Contributor

David McIntosh is the chief executive and co-founder of Tenor.

Few technologies survive more than 5 years — let alone 30 years — without significant change. In the last 10 years alone, our phones gained 20x the processing power and added capabilities from multitasking to visual messaging. We’re on the fifth standard of HTML and have evolved from FLV to MP4 as the dominant video streaming format on the web. As Andy Grove, one of Intel’s founders, said “only the paranoid survive.” Technologies that do not change are resigned to obsolescence.

But the GIF, which celebrates its 30th birthday this summer, has endured as a format. While its technical aspects haven’t changed, GIFs have taken on three different lives — and usage of GIFs has never been higher than it is today.

First Life of the GIF: Image Hosting Technology

With its introduction in 1987, the GIF began as an image format with lossless data compression that made images smaller in file size than alternatives like BMP. It quickly gained support, especially in web browsers. While animation support for GIFs was introduced in 1989, many images hosted via the format weren’t yet animating — it was simply a more efficient way of hosting static images.

Second Life of the GIF: Video Entertainment Lite

Many of the earliest animating GIFs were similar in appearance to Microsoft clip-art and were sometimes used as navigational elements in early websites. GeoCities helped millions of people create their own websites, and website owners often turned to GIFs like rotating menus, bullet points of fire, or 3D animations to personalize their websites and entertain their visitors. This behavior further accelerated with the popularity of Myspace.

Entire websites were dedicated to helping people find “bling” to add to their Myspace page. As MySpace’s popularity faded and video sites like YouTube grew to help people share short videos, the GIF began to decline in relevance and its usage was confined to niche internet forums. But as Tumblr began to accelerate in 2009, usage of GIFs returned.

Similar to MySpace, people used GIFs on Tumblr to express their personality, but instead of sharing blinking text, people created short clips of their favorite movies, tv-shows and online videos. This behavior began to spread to websites that hosted GIFs, such as Buzzfeed, Imgur and Giphy.

Third Life of the GIF: Communication and Visual Language

As mobile messaging has exploded, attention spans have shortened — and language quickly followed, with common phrases reduced to shorthand like “lol” and “jk.” Three to five seconds is the new three to five minutes.

GIFs are now a form of visual shorthand — a language that draws on culturally resonant moments to communicate the full range of human emotions in just seconds. This language is far more expressive and expansive than traditional shorthand.

In the last year, for example, people have searched for more than 4 billion distinct thoughts, feelings and emotions on Tenor, and the number of distinct search terms grows every single day in response to news, culture and memes.

The inflection point for GIFs on mobile can be traced to the launch of iOS8 in the Fall of 2014, when Apple introduced support for custom keyboards. This third life of GIFs as a mobile communication language dwarfs all its past lives because mobile is the largest digital platform and communication is the dominant behavior on mobile.

Thirty years after their introduction, GIFs are now woven into the fabric of communication and have evolved into a visual messaging protocol for mobile. While this is a big accomplishment, the GIF has a long life ahead — ultimately, all 3 billion mobile users will use GIFs to express the dozens of emotions they have throughout the day.

In celebration of last month’s momentous anniversary, below is a snapshot of the seminal moments in the GIF’s 30-year history:

1987: The graphics interchange format (GIF) is successfully deployed by Steve Wilhite, who wrote software at CompuServe. 1989: CompuServe introduces an enhanced version of the format, which supports animation. 1993: The Mosaic browser makes the World Wide Web accessible to less technical users. 1995: Netscape introduces the ability for animated GIFs to loop with the launch of Navigator 2.0 2003: MySpace launches, kickstarting the trend of people blinging out their personal web pages using GIFs June 2007: The first iPhone is released, marking the beginning of the proliferation of iMessage and other popular messenger apps. August 2010: The New Oxford American Dictionary updates its 3rd Edition to include both the hard g and soft g pronunciations of GIF October 2014: The first GIF keyboard for the iPhone is launched June 2015: Facebook introduces a GIF button in Messenger, accelerating the “GIFs everywhere” trend with hundreds of other services (such as Twitter, Kik, WhatsApp,and Discord) rapidly moving to integrate GIFs into messaging June 2017: Mobile users worldwide celebrate the 30th anniversary of the GIF

Publicado en TechCrunch http://ift.tt/2vbB9l3 vía IFTTT

#IFTTT #Feedly

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ardigtalmedia-blog · 7 years

Photo

WEB DESIGN TRENDS TO LOOKOUT FOR IN 2017

Everybody is looking ahead what new design trends will dominate the market in 2017. The big question on every designer’s mind has to be: what will define design in 2017?

Here is what I thought of what will be the most important factors that will dominate the design aspect of websites.

“CONTENT FRIENDLY LAYOUTS “ – where content can be mainly visualize – graphics can be an added value to it !!!

Designers worldwide have realized that people visit websites for their content — whether it’s raging tweetstorms, thoughtful long-reads, or the latest “user-generated” meme — and that design’s ultimate role is to present content in an intuitive, efficient, and “delightful” way.

Trend is moving towards more flatter designs with minimalist design approaches , as seen in Googles Material aesthetic and also across the web and other various devices , but many designer’s feel that the flat design has taken the “heart and soul” out of design.

Statement – BIG AND BOLD –

The age has come where by your first impression or the point which you want to make should be clear , big & bold – not necessarily referring to the weight of Font !

It’s about emphasizing significant screen to a single, simple yet all encompassing statement about the product . service or Company . Make sure that this statement are fresh, clear and to the point, and also it should not look too much vague or extravagant . Be more specific and relevant to your industry / brand.

In a world that’s as fast, busy, and information-overloaded as ours is, these concise yet powerful statements will become bread-and-butter for companies of all kinds

Complex layouts rooted in graphic design principles

If we want to predict the evolution of web design (at least in visual terms), we should refer to the evolution of graphic design.

For the past few years, web design layout has been constrained by CSS’s limitations, but new tools like flexbox and CSS grid (coming in March 2017!) will allow for much more expressive layouts on the web.

Our main challenge now: understanding how these new web layout methods should work in the world of responsive design.

Scalable vector Graphics

SVGs (scalable vector graphics) present web designers and developers with a lot of advantages over more traditional image formats like JPG, PNG, and GIF.

The key advantages of SVGs come through loud and clear in the format name itself: scalable and vector. Instead of being raster or pixel-based, SVGs are composed of vectors: mathematical descriptions of the object’s shape. This means SVGs are resolution-independent, so they’ll look great on any screen, on any device type. No need to worry about making everything retina-ready.

But that’s not all. SVGs also rock because they don’t require any HTTP requests. And if you’ve ever run a page-speed test on one of your websites, you’ve probably noticed that those HTTP requests can really slow down your site. Not so with SVGs!

Plus, you can animate them!

Design tools – far from constraints

Responsive design has completely transformed how we browse and build for the web.

But, oddly, it hasn’t really changed how design tools work, in general. With obvious exceptions like Webflow, most of the popular design tools require you to simply rebuild the same screen over and over for different device sizes and resolutions.

In an industry that’s all about rapid development, ideation, and launches, that massive time sink just isn’t sustainable.

Hence a new wave of design tools (such as Figma) that use the idea of constraints to lessen the amount of repeated work designers have to do when building cross-device layouts. These tools focus on the spatial relationships between elements and strive to preserve them as composite elements are resized by devices and users.

Less work for designers for the win.

Bright – Brighter colours

As movements like minimalism and brutalism came to the fore in 2016, designers sought ways to infuse more personality into their design work that still worked within those stripped-down aesthetics.

And in at least a few cases, bright, bold color became the natural answer. There’s a sort of synthesized naturalism to this reemergence of bright hues and bold gradients, and I personally look forward to seeing more of it in 2017.

More focus on animation

Animation has long played a key role in our digital interfaces, and there’s no reason to think that’ll abate in 2017. In fact, as designers get more and more visual tools to help them build engaging and smile-sparking animations, we’re sure to see them become both more prominent and more refined.

The latter characteristic will become particularly important as it becomes easier to create animations. At 2016’s Design & Content Conference, animation guru Val Head stressed that designers should look to their brand voice and tone documentation when building animations to ensure that they reinforce the tone content creators are aiming for. This helps ensure that animations perform meaningful, on-brand functions for users, instead of just inspiring migraines.

BOTS – MORE OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE

The word bot is used to mean several different things. Gamers understand bots as AI characters in a game, while botnets are groups of hijacked computers which cyber criminals use for various tasks such as sending out millions of spam emails or even to attack and attempt to take down websites.

The bots we’re talking about here are essentially virtual assistants, much like Siri and Cortana. Only the latest generation of bots communicate via text rather than speech. Cortana already does this, both on Windows Phone and in Windows 10.

Bots let you use natural language to get tasks done. This is one of the reasons many people use Siri or Cortana to check the weather forecast, set a reminder or send an email: it’s just faster.

Static websites are leftovers of the past. Intelligence is presently the name of the game. Think talk windows, which are normally populated with bots. Nobody needs to explore a progression of menus to finish an undertaking.

The new generation of bots will be primarily text based. Unlike Cortana, you can’t type and get Siri to do your bidding, but typing is the preferable option in many situations. When you’re commuting or sitting at your office desk, talking into a microphone is less comfortable than typing on a screen or keyboard.

We all spend more time using messaging apps than pretty much any other these days, and it’s in these you’ll find the new bots. It should be no surprise that Microsoft is putting bots into Skype, and if you’ve ever used Slack, your first interaction is with Slackbot, which teaches you how to use the app.

But as bots increase in their capabilities, we’ll start to use apps less. Right now, you probably flip between a few different apps to book a weekend away. It’s the same if you’re search for something you want to buy locally: you might go to a website, search for a product, check stock and then get directions in Google maps to show you how to get there.

Bots will be able to do all this for you: no need to search Google any more, no need to launch the Uber app.

Animations advance

Animations are an awesome approach to show how something functions and they impart things less demanding and speedier than content or pictures. GIFs and animations are turning out to be more complex and more websites incorporate them in their real design. Animations, videos, and GIFs have turned into our regular day to day life. Everything is so zippy and attractive, so what else does a user require?

As browsers and languages become more advanced, we’re seeing more websites move away from the use of static imagery and finding new ways to engage users and be unique in their approach to communicating.

Story-telling and personality is something more and more brands are working on in hopes to capture their user’s attention, and animation, in part thanks to developments with HTML5, CSS and jQuery, is starting to play a bigger role in this.

Animations, following on from illustration above, come in all different shape, sizes and styles, and can all serve different purposes. Animations can range from tiny loading-devices which entertains the user while waiting for content to load, to an interesting hover-state used as a UX device to show a user they’re hovering over a link.

They can also be used on a much larger scale, as rich, full-screen animations, which can integrated to work with scrolling, navigation or be used as the focal point of the entire site. Animation is another useful mechanic for brand’s to create meaningful micro-interactions between themselves and their users.

SPEED AND PERFORMANCE MATTER

Users value high page speed over advancement. Page speed tight HTML, JavaScript, and CSS code are approaches to accelerate a site. Speeding up sites is essential, as speedier websites make happy users and visitors invest less time on websites that react gradually.

SOME BONUS WEB DESIGN TRENDS / UX DESIGN TRENDS FOR 2017:

· Age Responsive Design

· 3D geometric shapes

· Skeleton Screen

· Call To Action Buttons Animations

· Cinemagraph Hero Image

· Scrolling Trump Navigation

· Long scroll websites

· One-page websites

· Short movies

· Exit Overlay

· Bye-bye Home Page, welcome landing pages

· Bot engaging

· Shopping Cart Marketing

2017 marks the year design makes one more step again into reality. Whether it’s through shape, color decision or usefulness, 2017 is a year of hybrids, where reality and technology crash to make a consistent browsing experience.

Let’s update your website with the latest web design and development trends in 2017.

HOPE we at AR digital media have suffice your findings for what Web design and development is meant to be in 2017 !!

ContentSource

#Web development company in Ahmedabad

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hotspreadpage · 7 years

Text

12 Types of Awesome Visual Content You Can Use in Your Blog Posts

How many times have you pondered over which images to use in a paragraph, blog post, web page, etc.?

Today I present 12 types of visuals you can use in a blog post. You do not have to use all of them. See what inspires you given your content marketing strategy, audience, and formats.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

16 Visual Storytelling Tips to Give Your Content Marketing a Boost

Beauty Matters: 3 Tips to Create Attractive Blog Posts

1. Data-driven visuals

To be a well-known leader in your industry, start creating data-driven content. Designed as charts or graphs, it can make it easier for your audience to comprehend your message than with text only.

Takeaway tip: People love sharing new data and well-researched information that also looks awesome in a visual.

People like to share good research in visual form, says @katairobi. Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Transform Complex Data Into Understandable and Shareable Visuals

2. Quotes

Influencer marketing is a great strategy for extending your content marketing reach in a valuable way. Creating an image with the influencer and his or her quote, you create a memorable image.

Takeaway tip: Visualizing quotes in blog posts can help you make statements backed by names well known to your audience.

3. Infographics

Takeaway tip: The crux of an infographic is not the design, but the research itself. You need to invest time and energy to get the data and create a useful wireframe to behave like a visual story.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 7 Principles to Creating Great Infographics

4. Gifographics

Gifographics combine power of infographic in format more likely to be shared, says @katairobi. ‏ Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Go Beyond Infographics: Here’s How to Make a Bigger Impact With ‘Gifographics’

5. GIFs

If you are unsure whether to use GIFs or not, let me give you a few reasons to give them a try. GIFs can:

Give off a professional vibe that indicates your business understands internet trends

Be easy to consume and share on social media

Convey emotion

Show your brand’s human side

If you still aren’t convinced, read this article from Hootsuite in the Ultimate GIF Guide for Social Media Marketers.

Takeaway tip: GIFs can be a way to stand out from your content competition. Start using them and see how your readers interact with them.

GIFs can be a way to stand out from your content competition, says @katairobi. Click To Tweet

6. Memes

Here’s an example from The Next Web, which uses a meme and descriptor text to inform visitors it uses cookies.

Memes are snackable visual content – easy to consume. And if your audience finds them relevant to their lives, they are likely to share on social media.

7. Videos

The importance of videos in content marketing has been discussed a lot. Well, video is still a big thing. Just look at the biggest social media platforms and you will see why.

Videos are extremely effective for your visual content on blogs. For example, Dental Marketing Guy created this blog post featuring both video- and text-based content from a webinar he conducted.

What I want to highlight is that you do not have to create a ton of videos for a blog post. You just have to be creative about the type of content your community loves to consume.

Takeaway tip: Look for opportunities to use video you already have (or create video of your currently planned activities) to expand video’s role in your content.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 23 Things to Consider When Creating Video Content [Examples]

8. Screenshots

Screenshots may be the easiest way to create visuals for your blog posts. When I learn something new reading articles, I usually bookmark the ones with screenshots.

Screenshots are an easy way to create visuals for your blog posts, says @katairobi. Click To Tweet

Use tools like @evernote’s Skitch or @techsmith’s Jing to create screenshots, says @katairobi. Click To Tweet

9. SlideShare presentation

Presentations are a great resource for visual content. When you post to SlideShare, you now have the benefits of visuals on a web-based platform (think SEO).

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 11 Killer Tips to Leverage SlideShare’s Power in Your Visual Content Marketing

10. Photos

Photos are ubiquitous in articles. Whether they’re stock or original images, use them wisely.

For example, Neil Patel chose a photo of a student to promote his online courses for entrepreneurs. The image clearly indicates education – a great way to showcase the topic.

Make sure your image file sizes are optimized for the web as large files negatively affect site loading. A plug-in on your web development platform can help accomplish this.

Make sure image file sizes are optimized for the web so they don’t negatively affect site loading. @katairobi Click To Tweet

Takeaway tip: Use quality images for your content. If you don’t have a budget for a professional photographer, here are a few sites that offer free stock photos.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:

37+ Tips and Tools for Picture-Perfect Visual Content

SEO and Website Image Optimization 10-Point Checklist for Marketers

11. Illustrations

Illustrations can help your blog posts stand out in the ubiquitous world of photos. If you happen to have access to talented designers who also are great illustrators, get them involved.

HelpScout, a software company for support teams, uses illustrations in its blog posts. It even crafted an article about its approach to illustrations and why it is using them.

Takeaway tip: Your illustrations need to look professional in a way that reflects the tone and messaging of your brand. You should work with a professional designer to execute.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Is Your Social Content Picture-Perfect or Merely Taking Stock?

12. Flip books

Takeaway tip: If you create a custom print magazine, upload it on your blog or create a special landing page for the magazine like CMI does with its magazine, Chief Content Officer (CCO).

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Print’s Very Much Alive: Magazine Examples From 9 Brands

Conclusion

Now, I am particularly interested in your opinion and feedback. Do you use visuals in your blog posts? And, if yes, what kind and why?

Want visuals delivered to your inbox daily for content marketing inspiration? Subscribe to the CMI blog.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post 12 Types of Awesome Visual Content You Can Use in Your Blog Posts appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

12 Types of Awesome Visual Content You Can Use in Your Blog Posts syndicated from http://ift.tt/2maPRjm

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