Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Polya free font

Polya free font


Polya is a free font inspired by low-poly shapes, best suitable for headlines and big titles. Designed and released by Adrien Coquet.


The post Polya free font appeared first on Freebiesbug.




Polya free font

Polya free font

Polya free font


Polya is a free font inspired by low-poly shapes, best suitable for headlines and big titles. Designed and released by Adrien Coquet.


The post Polya free font appeared first on Freebiesbug.




Polya free font

Polya free font

Polya free font


Polya is a free font inspired by low-poly shapes, best suitable for headlines and big titles. Designed and released by Adrien Coquet.


The post Polya free font appeared first on Freebiesbug.




Polya free font

Simple And Gorgeous Android Wear Watch Faces

With the release of the first Android Wear watches, many developers have started releasing apps that work with the wearable. Along with apps that provide different sets of functionality to the device, developers have released watch faces that allows users to customize the look of their wearable.



In this list, we pick our favorite and best looking 25 Android Wear watch faces you can get from the Play Store. Some of them just tell time while looking good doing it. Others do so in a unique fashion while some have extra functions that add to their value. Without further ado, here are 25 beautiful Android Wear watch faces.



Binary Watch Face


Android Wear users with the ability to read binary in an instant should try out this watch face. The hours, seconds and minutes are translated into binary, which on the watch is shown as colored dots. You can change the colors of the dots, with premium features letting you display the time in decimals, for those who need a little help. [Download]


Binary Watch Face


Convergence Watch Face


The new UI language for Android, Material Design, will soon be on phones with the release of Android L. For fans of the design, you can add in a watch face inspired by it with Convergence. From the paper stack feel, colorful circles and drop shadows, it’s one of the nicer looking faces you can get right now. [Download]


Convergence Watch Face


Chrono Watch Face For Wear


Combining the look of both an analogue and digital watch face, Chrono offers up a lot of useful information at a glance while looking slick at the same time. It even lets you get ahold of battery information of both your wearable and phone, along with the day and date in the middle. [Download]


Chrono Watch Face


Matrix Face For Android Wear


This watch face emulates the famous Matrix digital rain on your Android Wear device, letting you peer into the Matrix while knowing the time of day. [Download]


Matrix Watch Face


Timeless – Wear Watchface


A minimalists watch face that includes beautiful background photos and will transition between them over time. If you prefer it without the background, you can disable it in the settings. [Download]


Timeless Watch Face


Human Time Watch Face


If you want a more human readable watch that doesn’t involve numbers, download the Human Time Watch Face. Instead of numbers, the display will show the time the same way people say it, like “Nine o’clock” or half pass ten. You can customize the look of the face, from the background to the font. [Download]


Human Time Watch Face


Aviation Watch Face For Wear


This watch face was a contest submission for the Moto 360 watch face competition. It is based on an aircraft speed measurement instrument. [Download]


Aviation Watch Face


Orbital – Wear Watchface


A very simple, black and white watch face that tells time using 3 dots that represents the hands on a clock. [Download]


Orbital Watch Face


TextFace For Android Wear


Another human readable watch face, this time with a minimalist bent and the date of the day. [Download]


TextFace Watch Face


Woto Watch Face


Fans of the Moto 360 default watch face currently owning other Android Wear watches should give this a try. It will help you fantasize about owning one. And on its own, it’s a good looking watch face. [Download]


Woto Watch Face


Terminal Watch Face


Tech geeks and CLI purist should consider the Terminal Watch Face, which will tell the time in a command line environment. It’s not an actual terminal so you can’t actually give commands to your Wear but it will make you look like a retro hacker. [Download]


Terminal Watch Face


Minimalist Wear Watch Face


True to its name, this watch face is a minimalist, analogue style clock. You can change the color of any of the elements on the clock and that’s pretty much it as far as customization goes. [Download]


Minimalist Watch Face


Ingress Wear Watchface


Ingress players should download this watch face, as it shows the time to the next checkpoint as well as the time to the end of the current septicycle. And it looks good to boot. [Download]


Ingress Watch Face


DigiWatch For Android Wear


A no-fluff digital watch face for Android Wear. You can change the font, size and background color of the watch face to your taste. [Download]


DigiWatch Watch Face


9elements One Watch Face


A human readable watch face that looks like a word search puzzle. The time will highlight itself among the words. [Download]


9elments One Watch Face


Planets Watchface Android Wear


A watch face for the astronomy junkie, Planets will display the position and rotation of the planets in the Solar System behind an analogue clock. The data is taken from NASA so you can be pretty sure of the accuracy of the planets. [Download]


Plantes Watch Face


Wear LCD Watchface BETA


How about a little bit of nostalgia? 90′s kids will appreciate the Wear LCD Watchface as it is mimics the Baby-G of their era. [Download]


LCD Watch Face


Weather Wear Watch Face


Not only will this beautiful watch face tell you the time, it can also keep you up-to-date with the weather conditions in your area. [Download]


Weather Watch Face


Chron Watchface


A great, futuristic looking watch face that looks like something out of Tron. If the colors aren’t your style, you can change them to something that’s less neon. [Download]


Chron Watch Face


12Hours Wear


An Android Wear version of the phone widget, 12Hours will sync up with your calender and represent them on your Wear as time blocks. [Download]


12Hours Watch Face


Speeds Watch Face


Emulating the aesthetics of a sports watch, this watch face even includes a speedometer for use when running and cycling. [Download]


Speeds Watch Face


Watch Face For Wear – Square


A simple watch face that is mean to to give your Wear a more sleek and classical look. [Download]


Squares Watch Face


Just A Minute: Wear Watch Face


This watch face shows you how many minutes are left within an hour. Perfect for those who like to keep track of time right down to the minute. [Download]


Just A Minute


Wear Watch Faces


A collection of great looking watch faces in one app, this one having 4 to choose from. My favorite has to be “Back to the Watch”, which gives you a watch face inspired by Back to the Future. Download it to see what other faces it has to offer. [Download]


Wear Watch Faces


Android Wear Beautiful Watches


Another collection of great looking watch faces, this time 10 of them in the package. They range from analogue, digital to human readable but all of them look well made and gorgeous. [Download]


Beautiful Watch Faces












Simple And Gorgeous Android Wear Watch Faces

Annoying Web Design Trends That You Should Avoid (Or Do In Moderation)

People love to follow trends. And there is nothing bad about that. In fact, in order to be “cool” following trends is a must. This is very important for web designers in order to keep up with the growing competition. But when it comes to following trends, web designers sometimes tend to overthink or overlook some of the most important details, especially for usability.


In this post, we’re going to try and point out some of the more “annoying” things of current design trends. When you understand what makes them annoying, you’ll be able to avoid doing them for yourself.



Infinite Scroll With Footer Content


Infinite loading is cool and in many cases people actually love the smoothness of it. Thanks to Pinterest, infinite scrolling is still hot up till now. The problem happens when a website scrolls automatically and it has footer content that gets pushed to the bottom all the time.


Here’s the perfect example of infinite scroll and footer combo.


annoying-web-design-trends-infinitescrollfooter.jpg


DVF.com uses infinite scrolling and they have their footer, well, at the bottom. I tried scrolling to catch up with the footer but the page just kept on extending.


This is not just annoying, this is a usability issue that needs to be addressed. Something that Facebook managed to solve quite easily. But when the infinite scroll was introduced to the site, they also had this problem.


annoying-web-design-trends-infinitescrollfooterfix2.jpg
(Image Source: Zachstronaut.com)


Parallax Websites Galore


Parallax websites are okay, and to a degree they are really pleasing to the eyes. These kind of websites used to be gems because of how rare and perfect they appeared to the regular user. Right now though it’s everywhere. The beauty in rarity is now dead, and even web design blogs are shunning parallax tutorials nowadays.


annoying-web-design-trends-parallax.jpg


Also, there is a slight misconception about parallax websites. There are people who think that a single page website that scrolls is considered a parallax site. This is wrong. Parallax websites display depth by having layers while regular single page websites don’t have the illusion of depth.



Now, parallax websites are great for introducing a product or a service, something that doesn’t need lots of text but a fancy presentation would be of help. The problem happens when parallax websites are used to replace regular websites with lots of content. Instead of separating them on different pages, they are all loaded up in one single page.


Another issue with the overuse and misuse of parallax websites, including regular single page websites, is when they get to the point where you need to scroll down for several seconds just to reach the bottom.


First, it can be tricky with browsing history. Secondly, these websites tend to be heavy in terms of loading the files. Which users with slow internet connection would definitely despise and most likely never visit again. But overall, when done right, parallax websites is still capable of captivating people’s heart.


Floating Elements


There seem to be a big fascination when it comes to floating elements in a website. Floating menu bars that stick around even after the users have scrolled down to the footer, floating social media icons that clearly begs to be clicked, and floating sidebar advertisements. This happens both on desktop and mobile websites.


Here are a couple of reasons why this is bad:


  • People who have small screens can’t fully see the content available.

  • It’s obnoxious.

  • Design-wise, they don’t look good at all.

annoying-web-design-trends-floatingelements.jpg


Take a look at the screenshot above. It’s my website and I hate 2 things about it. First is whenever I log in on my dashboard and visit the front page, the admin bar is always there to cover the links and search bar. Second is the menu bar itself that scrolls with the page. You can probably understand my frustration with this.


Here’s an example for mobile applications. It floats and when it’s closed, it appears after a few seconds (not minutes).



annoying-web-design-trends-sticky.jpg


Popups and Splash Pages


Splash pages are ancient. Popups are evil. But those that don’t provide value are basically the heralds of darkness (see screenshot below). And when I say no value, I mean popups or splash pages that exist solely to display a third-party advertisement or to solicit for Facebook likes and Twitter followers.


annoying-web-design-trends-popup.jpg


Splash pages are a thing of history and they should not be used at all. I’m not even sure why Forbes still clings to such a crude practice.


annoying-web-design-trends-splashpage.jpg


Popups are a necessary evil. And they work well. But people hate them. So, why do people keep on falling for these popups? Simple: it’s because they offer value. A free ebook, a discount coupon, great information that they will get when they sign up for a newsletter, and similar things.


My point here is as much as possible, try to avoid popups. However, if you can’t avoid popups because you have a product to promote, at least have the decency to offer something in return for people’s time (or email address).


Distracting Background


In every art form, beginners and experts alike love to tell everyone to always keep it simple, stupid! And rightly so, if the purpose of the website you are designing is to provide information, then the focus should be on the content, not on the background.



Here is an example of a website with a great fullscreen background.


annoying-web-design-trends-fullscreenbackground.jpg


If you head to the website itself, you will see that it employs several large images as a background. And it’s fantastically applied! The reason? The images used here are not placed there as a mere background, but as a means to direct people’s attention, to give visual cues on what really matters.


annoying-web-design-trends-backgrounddistracting.jpg


What do you think about the website shown above. Do you think it’s distracting?


Conclusion


It’s either by necessity or passion that the things above are born, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It only becomes “wrong” when they are used excessively or of without thought for the users.


Remember, designing is all about making people comfortable and to help them use your website with great ease, not to make them feel frustrated.












Annoying Web Design Trends That You Should Avoid (Or Do In Moderation)