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2013 Web Design Inspiration: Designing with Video Backgrounds

Igor Ovsyannykov — Tue, 14 May 2013 06:03:08 +0000

This article was written for Inspirationfeed by David Meyer. David is professionally engaged with CSS Chopper, a web development & design company based in India that serves excellence to its clients through rendering complete turnkey solutions. the company also provides off-shore outsourcing solutions with having talented developers for hire and other latest technologies.

Thinking out-of-the-box can help you to pull-off in the competitive design realm. The latest web trends influence us to incorporate beautiful video backgrounds in our web application in order to give jaw-dropping visual appearance. The engaging video backgrounds can surely work as the magnet to catch the attention of the online visitors and compel them to remain on your websites.

However using videos is a bit challenging concept and does not fit perfectly for every project. But it can certainly be the beginning to fly high. For incorporating video backgrounds to your site, you may even consult or approach professional Web Development Company to provide better idea & concepts. So let’s get in-depth to make you familiar with its aspects and what all you need to know to take off!

Why to Use Video?

Do you wish to hold on your visitors’ interests on your web application to render them enhanced surfing experience? Then certainly video backgrounds can do well for your website. Video is considered a great way to encourage the audiences’ attention towards the screen. Though, videos embedded to your site should be short and crisp, so that your users do not lose the interests or leave in between.

Video is an amazing way to build interaction with the users, thereby making them stand longer on your site. With the advent of HTML5 technology, integrating videos onto the website has become much easier. With video backgrounds, you can create a distinct experience for the users, who land on your website. The story telling videos of your company, could be the best way to catch the attention while rendering the information. Undoubtedly, video backgrounds could be the best tool to represent your creativity, with setting a new trend in the web realm.

From where to use the videos?

When you have made your mind to use videos onto your website, then the question arises – where to get the videos? Well, the best option among all is to create your own clips that showcase the ingenuity, uniqueness and precise information about your company or brand. Also you get the complete control over the contents and retain exhaustive rights over it. If you are novice to do so, it’s better to hire a professional Videographer to ease of your job. Though it would be a time consuming activity that may require expensive budget but certainly having remarkable end-results. Other available options (besides filming your own video) would be to consider creative commons licensing.

With this option, you have to search the popular videos from YouTube, MotionShare, Vimeo and SitePoint and use them on your site. But before integrating the video, it is necessary to find-out the licensing rules. Somewhere it could be the drawback, as you are left with the limited choices, in respect to your website nature and demand. Also, you have to refine the final videos from the heap of videos while removing the poor-quality videos and also the videos which are being used by another site. Lastly, you get a decent option to buy pre-made videos that are available on multiple video platforms like VideoHive etc., but charge a fee for that. Here you would not suffer the problems of refining the videos as you get high-quality videos.

Tips & Guidance

High-quality videos: When you capture videos, always ensure that they are shot well, using professional-grade quality such as shot from HD powered digital cameras/ camcorders. Besides that it should render the professional excellence when it appears on the screen. Such as all the elements or texts used, should be placed elegantly on the web page complementing the videos. Poor-quality videos can ruin the complete overlook of the video.

Less focus on audio: The video-only background may not annoy the audience as the video with audio sensation can. Surprising the user will think, the sound is coming from. If you are thinking to use audio, then make sure you are adding a click-to-start option that works when the user enables that option.

Evocative & meaningful: Also, you should keep in consideration that video background should be simple that are easily understood by the targeted audiences. Such as adding fast-paced action or heavy stuffing in the video could be perplexing the visitors from the core theme. The embedded video background should reflect the essence of website content. Integrating video on your site does not mean that you could embed any high-quality video, but it should effectively communicate with the audiences with rendering them the right message. Suppose your site sells clothing, then it would be perfect to embed the video that represent your unique fashion statement.

Short & crisp: Generally, the visitors don’t hold long for the videos that run too long. So it’s good to be on the safer side by embedding videos that finish in a few seconds and direct the visitor to the next phase. The videos that run in a loop while delivering the information (in the form of text etc.) of the site are likely preferred by the audiences.

Lesser Loading time: If the video backgrounds take long time to load then it is certainly a drawback. The alternative is to edit and compress the video files to make it result in quicker loading. However, flash based videos are not compatible to iPad, so ensure you are using the right ingredients on your site.

Want to see live examples Below showcased are a few stunning illustrations of video background concepts. Hope you will enjoy watching all!

Various Ways

Gundrun & Gundrun

The Wood

Russian Standard Vodka

John Galliano

Media Novak

Marisa Passos

I Surf Because

Spotify

Matter

Dromoland Castle

Nike Jordan M6

Neon Bible

Alexandra Posen

Life of PI

G-Star | The Art of RAW

Futuretainment

Eagle Clean

mediaBOOM

Windward App

Conclusion:

Integrating eye-catchy videos background on your website could be the best way to entertain the visitors, who are landing for the first time. Also, the website looks different from the mass of competitors that have not employed this design approach. However, do not forget factors like simplicity and ease to understand concept. And rock on!

35 Nice Examples of Flat Web Design

Igor Ovsyannykov — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 08:00:20 +0000

What is Flat Design? As Sabina Idler at Usabilla puts it, “flat design is a two dimensional design for a two dimensional screen.” Flat Design is an ongoing trend sweeping the design community. Well-known companies like Mashable, TheNextWeb, and Microsoft are already utilizing this design aesthetic.

Similar to Microsoft’s Windows 8 Metro UI, flat design shakes off unappealing drop shadows, inset shadows, gradients, subtle textures, and heavy bevels. It takes a fundamentally minimalistic approach by only using bare necessities like clean layouts, solid colors, and sharp typography. Holding hands with responsive web design, flat UI design is suited for mobile interfaces and is easier to code.

Skeuomorphic design is meant to look like its physical counterpart and possess real life characteristics. Thanks to Apple, the popularity of skeuomorphic design boomed since the launch of the iPhone in 2007. To find a common ground with users, designers got used to designing skeuomorphic user interfaces, icons, and web designs. The stitched-leather effect seen in many Apple-designed iOS apps is a good example of skeuomorphic design.

I think that flat design is visually superior to skeuomorphic design. While it’s very cool and beautiful, the calculator app on my iPhone does not need to be an exact replicate of a real life calculator. I completely understand that designers want to make my life easier by designing apps with familiar interfaces. However we’re not kids anymore, technology users are fully capable of figuring out creative, clever, and unique interfaces.

Trends come and go, so don’t get too attached to this one. While flat design might be the new cool kid on the block, in a few year from now he will lose his street cred. History repeats itself, don’t ever forget that.

For your inspiration we’ve assembled a beautiful collection of flat web designs. All images and headings are linked to their source. Enjoy!

Wistia

Into the Arctic | Greenpeace

Carrier

The Windmill Club

Scriptogr.am

Supereight Studio

LayerVault

2012 Year on Twitter

By Association Only

Squarespace

Built by Buffalo

Plover

Its a Shape Christmas

The Best of Kickstarter 2012

Budnitz Bicycles

Simone Marcarino

Fresh

Northbound Design

OnSite

Roy Barber

Lean Analytics

Foundation by Zurb

Sumall

Squidee

Kin HR

Geckoboard

Belancio

Dolbeau

Lowdi – Bluetooth Speaker

Profound Grid

Mark Simonson

Mud

Osborn Barr

Sumall

Tynan D’Arcy

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25 Beautiful and Inspiring Websites Using Bootstrap

Igor Ovsyannykov — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 07:43:04 +0000

Twitter Bootstrap is a toolkit providing simple and flexible HTML, CSS, and JS for popular UI components and interactions. This powerful front-end framework was created for faster and easier web development by Mark Otto and Jacob Thornton. One of the best features provided in Bootstrap is the structure design which allows you to develop a responsive theme and grid-based layouts that look great on tablets, smartphones, and laptops.

Since its release back in August 2011, the use of bootstrap framework for creating website templates has increased significantly. When compared to other responsive CSS frameworks Bootstrap destroys the competition. It’s one of the most mature frameworks with the largest user base at the moment, meaning that the support community is there to help you if you run into any kind of problems. Bootstrap provides a 12-column responsive grid, dozens of components, JavaScript plugins, typography, form controls, and even a web-based customizer to make Bootstrap your own.

Bootstrap’s popularity has made a huge dent in the development community and how mobile friendly websites are made. Today we collected twenty-five noble websites that are using Bootstrap. We hope the following websites will inspire you to investigate this framework further, and maybe even use it in the future. Enjoy!

Yasound

DIY

Flat-UI

Webflow

Pulse

Automatic

Womenandtech

GoSquared

Easel

MetroTwit

Tonx

Jetstrap

GatherContent

SoundReady

Breaking News

Desk

8020select

Kippt

Athey Creek

Codeacademy

Fleetio

Delicious

Divshot

Krunch Game

Your Karma

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35 Interactive Parallax Scrolling Website Designs

Designraid — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 06:29:15 +0000

Parallax scrolling is a special scrolling technique in computer graphics, wherein background images move by the camera slower than foreground images, creating an illusion of depth in a 2D video game and adding to the immersion. The technique gained much popularity in the last few years, along with web designers constantly pushing the limit on creativity. Today we collected some of the best parallax scrolling website designs we could find. We believe they offer an enjoyable user experience and also promote interesting ideas for you to rebound. Enjoy!

Authentic Jobs

The True Cost of an iPhone

Lost World’s Fairs

Reverend Danger

Guide to the App Galaxy

Hegarty on Advertising

Inception Explained

inTacto

NH Winter Holidays

Jan Ploch

Johan Reinhold

Cantilever

Ben The Body Guard

Bagigia

Erosbalazs

Digdog

Iuqo

Oliveyang

My Provence

Browser Awareness Day

Flowmedia

Whiteboard

New Zealand

TokioLab

Cheese Please

Marcus Thomas

Nike Air Jordan 2012

Putzengel

Soleil Noir

Fishy

Range Rover Victoria Beckham

Biamar

Smokey Bones

Ala

Krystalrae

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Top Interior Design Sites For Home Inspiration

Kate Simmons — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 07:11:24 +0000

Gone are the days when inspiration for interior design meant clipping pictures from Better Home and Gardens magazine. Nowadays the internet is the weapon of choice, with a wealth of information for amateur interior design enthusiasts or even just those who want to decorate their own home with a little bit of flair.

Here are 5 of the best websites for finding interior design inspiration for you own home, helping you turn the picture in your imagination into reality.

Inhabitat

It is incredibly hard to help sustainable living in mind when designing your home, simply because your head is filled to the brim with worries about prices and style. Enter Inhabitat, the premier eco-friendly interior design website on the web, helping you cut through the noise and find out ways you can decorate your home ethically and for less – all while making it look the piece.

If you are looking for some interior design inspiration, then there is really no need to go any further than Pinterest. A burgeoning social media website based on the idea of creating creative pinboards, Pinterest allows you to follow designers you admire (both professional and amateur) to help you spark your own creative mind. Pinterest is also a great resource because it has a large crafting community, meaning you can find easy tutorials on making everything from picture frames to book-ends. Once you get to grips with it, it truly is an inspiration book that just keeps on growing and giving.

Apartment Therapy

Simplicity is the watchword at Apartment Therapy, one of the most popular interior design websites on the net. Vowing to help people improve their homes while reducing their reliance on ‘stuff’, Maxwell and Oliver Ryan run Apartment Therapy to help connect people with resources to enable them to organize their space and make the most of their living arrangements – showing in their own words that ‘simplicity and luxury are not mutually exclusive’. Apartment Therapy places a high premium on simply, healthy living spaces that help you live and simple and healthy life, so if you need a change of pace as well as a change of space then this is the website for you.

**Design*Sponge**

Aptly called a ‘Martha Stewart Living for Millennials’ by the New York Times, Design*Sponge goes beyond simply being an online magazine dedicated to interior design and has expanded in recent years to cover everything from DIY tips to an etiquette column. It is obvious from the outset that the website is run from somebody who knows the design business, and Grace Bonney certainly fits the bill of a modern Martha with years of experience working for top-rank interior design magazines.

Decor8

Clever pun namer aside, Decor8 is a great website because it is not afraid to be fun, fresh and forward-facing: it is basically the hipster equivalent of a standard design blog. Founder Holly Becker is all about creativity and fostering creativity in your home and in your life. With tips on everything from creative furniture to creative living, it is hard not to let the creativity bug bite you as well – and because of this it makes for great inspiration.

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Creative Approach to Using Web Icons and Graphic Symbols in Web Design

Tatiana Titkova — Tue, 25 Dec 2012 09:28:51 +0000

There is no doubt, graphic symbols and web icons have more advantages over textual links. When used alone, without words, they can greatly save the web space, providing visitors with the pleasant browsing experience. Icons can say more than a few words can. They are much easier for users to recognize and to remember than any words, as they provide users with memorable metaphors.

If used carefully and creatively, icons and graphic symbols can greatly enhance or refresh any website design, whether it is a minor update for a holiday season or some major changes in website design. These small pictures, used to represent some action or content, are a great and cost-effective way to make your online presence more visually appealing and more use-friendly. They can draw visitors’ attention to the specific areas of the website and provide visual support for text blocks and other content.

Showcase of Creative Websites with the focus on icons or graphic symbols

Below are some catchy websites designed with the focus on web icons and graphic symbols. The websites were selected because they were attractive; their approach was creative and their interface uncluttered. Please note, this selection is definitely subjective and there are thousands of other worth-looking websites. If you want to share some of them with us, please leave your comments to this post.

Pearman

Candybuffet

Jetpeppers

Lorenzoverzini

Universesoffringe

Infobahn

Fitbit

Siyelo

Waterwisely

Aaugh

Drupalcommerce

Cabinetcohen

Statek-psychologia

Jorgeatgu

Newcompany

Moma

Pagodabox

Brunosousa

Seekmomentum

Eighty-three

Luhsetea

Fffunction

Greenways

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20 Interestingly Designed Wellness Resort Websites

Nick T — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 10:30:49 +0000

While one does not normally think of visiting a wellness resort for the design features, design can play a huge role in the effectiveness of treatment. This is why so many of the world’s top wellness resorts have unique designs that are designed to give visitors peace and relaxation in all senses. These following resorts have some of the most unique designs.

Visiting any type of resorts will not only refresh the body, but also the mind and eyes through well thought-out designs and features. Wellness spas usually provide an experience that you will never forget. Sometimes leaving the world and worries behind you is a beautiful thing. If you’re a designer working with a spa resort, the following examples should provide great inspiration. Enjoy!

Acupuncture Wellness Solutions

Berkshire Salon and Day Spa

Wellness Travel

Nectar Spa

Les bains de l’alhambra

Malinowe Hotele

Caldera Spas

Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa

Wellhealth – Spa Hotel

Therapeutic Massage

40 Fresh Web Designs For Your Inspiration

Igor Ovsyannykov — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 06:59:54 +0000

Today we bring you fresh inspiration from the world of web design. Inspiration plays an important role in the web design process. Keeping up and checking out the latest trends is a great way to see which way the community is going, what you should avoid, and looking into the future. Often many people will work in teams covering different aspects of the design process, although some designers will cover them all.

The most vital part of the website, along with functionality, is the way it looks. The 1990′s are over, so ugly websites should not even exist. Let’s face the truth, people judge by looks all the time. You think a cute girl, or guy for the women, isn’t going to get noticed as soon as he/she enters the overcrowded Starbucks?

Presenting a beautiful website to a first time visitor will make them stop for a second and say, “Wow, this site is pretty sexy!” Why look foul when you can look good? Focusing on designing a gorgeous website for any niche/industry is totally worth it, especially if it’s your brand. The sites below understand this and can serve as great inspiration. Enjoy!

Note: All images are linked to to their source.

Lisher

Bignoise

Red

Oxide Interactive

Mandrill

Chaos

Love-Luxe

Alien Bikes

Ignition Creative

Mailboxing

Julienrenvoye

Amperbranch

Charlottetang

Barbershop

Station Street

Viewport Industries

Eynsford Music Festival

Talentpool

Pulp Fingers

RAPP

35 Inspirational Grid Based Website Designs

Igor Ovsyannykov — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 06:00:29 +0000

Grid based websites are an interesting resource to be inspired from, teaching you how to make a site organized and present information in an ordered way. Many grid-based websites will feature a stripped down and clean design and make great use of typography. After all, it’s all about letting the content shine. Grid systems are not used only to make a designer’s life easier and help him design and code the site faster, but also for user experience, creating predictable patterns for the visitors.

Speaking of Grid based websites, did you know that Microsoft is going all in with Metro UI with the next release of Windows? Grid-based layouts have become very popular in web design. A grid is a series of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines that serve as guides to place elements in a design. To put it in simple words, grids are a system for creating order among elements in a website. Today we will showcase web design that applied this concept in a correct manner. Enjoy!