Adobe Illustrator is a popular tool for designing vector graphics, logos, icons, and more. I personally love using Adobe Illustrator to make personalized images for my small business and my website, such as favicons and logos for social media. Yet, it can be tough (or impossible) to justify Adobe Illustrator’s steep $239.88/year pricing. I also discovered that I didn’t even need all the features included in that price. So, if you’re looking for some alternatives, I’ve compiled a list of thirteen cheaper or even free options that you can use instead of Adobe Illustrator. Whether you’re a small business owner, […]

To understand human-centered design, let’s start with what it isn’t. Imagine you work at a gaming design company, and one day your boss comes to you and says, “Teenagers these days — they need to get off their phones. Let’s design a crossword-puzzle board game for teenagers — they’d welcome the opportunity to get offline.” Your boss has good intentions, but his intentions don’t match your consumer’s reality. His idea isn’t empathetic towards a teenager’s passions, and it isn’t a solution that fits their wants and needs. Now, let’s look at a real example of human-centered design: meal subscription boxes. […]

Adobe Illustrator is a popular tool for designing vector graphics, logos, icons, and more. But when you’re a web or graphic designer with a small budget, you probably can’t afford Adobe Illustrator’s steep $239.88/yr pricing and want a cheaper or free alternative. Luckily, there are plenty of top-notch free and low-cost options on the market, some of which offer features unparalleled by Illustrator. In this post, we’re sharing the top twelve alternatives to Adobe Illustrator so you can produce beautiful designs on a budget. If you’re shopping for a program that offers features comparable in quality to Adobe’s product, check […]

Have you ever lost your phone, keys, or wallet? If so, you’ve probably been advised to retrace your steps. Breadcrumb navigation helps visitors to your site do just that, but instead of searching the kitchen, bathroom, and front door area only to find their keys in the refrigerator, breadcrumb navigation shows users their current location and the steps taken to get there. Breadcrumb navigation gets its name from the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, where the brother and sister duo leave a trail of breadcrumbs behind them as they traverse the forest in order to show their return path home. […]

UX and UI are two terms that are often mentioned in the same sentence, but that doesn’t mean they are interchangeable. UX and UI are so often conflated that you could come across a job posting for a UX Designer where the job description mistakenly outlines the responsibilities of a UI Designer and vice versa.   Although UX and UI are distinct practices, they overlap and complement each other. For this reason, it can be confusing to understand what makes them different and how they work together to create a great product. UX and UI are two disciplines that work […]