Simplicity Rules

1. Keep your focus on the essential elements

The first step of our plan explains that you need to identify the most important pages and focus on them. We have analyzed dozens of websites, and half of them fail to achieve this because it was difficult to find information in a big mess of data and unimportant elements which were filling on the pages. 

If it is difficult for you to define what needs to be a focus, use the 80/20 rule, where 20% stands for what’s on a page may be presented and demonstrated, and 80% for the value of the content that people go for. Let’s say pay special attention to review snippets, testimonials, signup forms, and various call-to-action buttons. 20% of the performed site elements should deliver 80% of usefulness for a client. 

This first principle can help you to simplify a web design and to get amazing results. 

2. Delete all unnecessary elements

After you decide what type of information may be demonstrated on the website, it is time to eliminate all unnecessary elements. Delete unnecessary social media sharing widgets, sidebar elements, blog post-meta-details, or any other unnecessary links. 

3. Reduce the total numbers of pages

Getting rid of unnecessary pages will give your clients more chances to find necessary information. Otherwise, you have many risks to lose a potential client. Delete the pages that deep down inside a website and you know that they are not necessary. 

Tips! Think about the main aim of your website. What are the key things you would like to do? 

After you reduce unnecessary pages on your website, it would be easier for visitors to focus on the content because fewer places are to click around. As a result, your navigation menu will be simpler too.

4. Get more content above the fold

Web builders inform that people spend time above the fold of sites. So, if you want to increase the effectiveness of your website, we recommend placing the most significant content as well as call-to-action elements above the fold. 

Check a sign-up form; it may be upon the page so that the visitors can see it. 

5. Limit your color scheme

Analyzing websites, we noticed that there are many sites with a variety of colors. Such a variety of colors can be confusing and inappropriate. Limit your color scheme, and it would significantly simplify the website design visually. Study the web design trends and choose 2-3 colors to begin; use shades of the chosen color for the backgrounds and darker color for header and menu items. 

However, avoid color blindness because it would be worse than a colorful design. Your client cannot find anything and choose another website. Your main purpose is to create a website where the colors will not distract the eyes.

6. Relevant Imagery 

Custom photography is the best option, but sometimes the budget allows only stock photography. Choosing stock photos, be attentive, and find only relevant images to your website and message. We recommend to choose more conceptual images and follow some simple recommendations:

• Using images, do not think about just one page – remember the whole website;
• Use images with a consistent style; 
• Include the corresponding color scheme;
• Use gaze focusing; you need to find an image with a visual cue to attract attention;
• Use infographics instead of too many words, it will be easier for readers to understand and remember information;
• Make your images interactive so that the users can zoom, rotate them and change colors.

We present some simple recommendations for your attention that you can follow right now to increase the conversion of your website and simplify a web design.

Common Web Design Mistakes

• Your visitors may want to search for some information that they can not find fast, so do not forget to place a search box.
• Unorganized content is another popular mistake. Check the structure of the content, scan your presented information and leave only the most interesting on a web page. Do not neglect headings, sub-headings, bullets, paragraphs, and keywords. The information and design should be clear, accurate, and accessible.
• Inconsistent Interface Design. Some web designers create different designs for every web page within a website, it is unacceptable, and it confuses a user a lot. We recommend you use a standards template for every page with the corresponding links to the sections. 
• Unfriendly Screen. It is hard for visitors and sometimes even impossible to look through a website when the screen does not have an appropriate size. Check the most popular browsers, monitor the resolution they are using, and develop your website so that your visitors do not have problems with website optimization.

Conclusion

There are tons of websites on the Internet, some of them are attractive and efficient, but others are not. In the article, we have discussed the easiest tips to simplify a web design process and to get amazing results in no time. 

Let’s recap the issues to simplify a web site design:

1. Choose the essential elements and reduce unnecessary information, images and widgets;
2. Reduce the number of pages;
3. Place more content above the fold;
4. Choose 2-3 basic color, use shades and dark tones of the base color;
5. Find relevant images or do custom photography.

Building a website can be daunting, but the real challenge is to make it attractive, user-friendly, informative, and usable. While creating it, you need to remember that it is made to solve the users’ needs, to make them love your brand, and keep them coming back.

The post A way to simplify a web design process for amazing results in no time first appeared on Creative Alive.

Download More than 20 wonderful and festive free Christmas & New Year vectors await to find their spots in wishes greeting, so go ahead and take them all!

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The post Free & Premium Merry Christmas & New Year 2021 Wishes Vector Download first appeared on Creative Alive.

Do you want a website up and running in no time? Be ready to shed a lot of money, not!

This is where website builders kick in! For just a few dollars per month, you can get almost everything at just 1% of the cost. Website builders are a great option for people looking to create a website on a budget. A top website builder allows you to quickly set up a website in just a few simple steps.

Why Choose Website Builders For Simple Websites?

Custom website designing can easily cost you $2000 and up if you hire a professional. Not everybody has that sort of a budget for a website. Even simple alterations and continually updating require hiring a professional.

Best website builders give you complete control. It allows you to use the simple drag-and-drop functionality to create websites. You can log in to the admin panel of the website and edit the website yourself for free.

Who Can Benefit from Website Builders?

Website builders are the best fit for people with little or no coding skills. They can get a simple website up and running in no time with all the stunning features. They are the perfect solutions for small businesses and individuals looking to create a simple website with a low budget, like:

• Event Planners
• Artists and Musicians
• Bloggers and Writers
• Freelancers
• Small to Medium Size Businesses (SMBs)

Here’s Our Pick For The 10 Best Website Builders

We asked our experts- what are the best website builder? They recommended certain elements that make simple website builders outstanding. Here are our top 10 picks:

1.Wix

Wix is an all-in-one website builder that is a popular name. It lets you build professional and optimized websites all on your own.

Features

• Mobile-friendly themes for adaptive mobile websites
• More than 500 design templates to choose from in the library
• AI module or Wix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) can create a website in just 5 minutes
• Easy to use drag-and-drop Wix Editor for website building
• A fully functional eCommerce module to add an eCommerce store to the website

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid and premium plans start at $13/month with a custom domain.

2.Weebly

Weebly is extremely user-friendly and combines ease of use with SEO tools. If you’re a small business looking for the best features at low costs, Weebly is the right choice.

Features

• Great SEO prompts that are ideal for businesses looking to be found through Google
• Structured themes can be easily edited
• Beginner-friendly prompts avoid accidental deletion or changes
• A semi-professional domain name with the free plan
• Lots of storage space for a simple website for multimedia content

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid and premium plans start at $6/month and go up to $26/month.

3.Squarespace

It is an easy-to-use website builder that has plenty of award-winning website templates. There are additional tools like the logo-maker and blogging module.

Features

• More than one hundred professionally-made designs in different categories
• Completely visual and drag-and-drop enabled website editor
• A fully functional eCommerce store module to sell products online
• All-in-one SEO tools and SEO packages for search engines that let your website be found
• Advanced analytics for mapping the overall traffic trends of your website

Pricing: Free 14-day trial available. Paid and premium plans start at $12/month with a custom domain.

4.SITE123

Site123 is the easiest free website builder on this list. It is an affordable option that offers stunning features and an easy interface.

Features

• Website structure can be optimized for mobile devices
• Functional website content editor to edit texts and images in real-time
• Pre-made, editable content blocks for quick content generation
• Logo maker, blog module, and SEO tools to make the website unique
• Pre-made header/hero sections for the front page of the website

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid and premium plans from $12.80/month to $17.40/month with a custom domain.

5.WordPress

WordPress is a self-contained website builder that serves DIY beginner users. It’s fairly simple to use and has excellent features to build a visually pleasing website.

Features

• Hundreds of paid and free website templates included in the library
• Google Analytics, MailChimp, and SEO tools integration in the website
• Separate design customization interface and visual content editor
• Website statistics and advanced report for managing the website
• Thousands of plugins and addons available to create unique websites

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid and premium plans start at $4/month and go up to $45/month for a custom domain.

6.Strikingly

Strikingly is a great tool for creating simple websites in no time. It offers a range of features to create stylish and simple one-page websites.

Features

• 500MB of storage space with the free version
• Minimum ads. They are limited to scroll-triggered slide up ad
• eCommerce store to sell one product per free plan
• Creative control through the customization menu
• A plethora of professionally designed templates that are easy to edit

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid and premium plans available from $8/month to $49/month with a custom domain.

7.Jimdo

Jimdo is the perfect solution if you’re looking to set up an online store to sell products. With amazing features and a decent domain name with the free plan, Jimdo comes in handy.

Features

• 500MB of free storage for including multimedia content
• The detailed customization menu makes it easy to add elements to your webpage
• Hundreds of professionally-designed templates
• ADI-based (Artificial Design Intelligence) based Jimdo Dolphin editor
• Features to edit, personalize, and create advanced content blocks

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid and premium plans range from $9/month to $40/month.

8.Webnode

With more than 30 million users around the world, Webnode is a popular choice of free website maker. The minimum ads and lots of features for free make it a fan-favorite.

Features

• Quick and easy website building to get a website up and running in 5 minutes
• No pop-up ads or scroll ads with the free plan
• Most of the design settings are located in the dashboard for quick access
• Clean and minimal template designs to choose from
• A flexible and user-friendly editor that lets you make changes in real-time

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid and premium plans start at $3.95/month.

8.SimpleSite

Although the free plan gives you limited features, SimpleSite is quite decent to make simple websites.

Features

• Unlimited storage for including multimedia content (limited to 15 pages)
• Mobile-friendly editing from the mobile browser app
• Very easy to use interface with a thorough onboarding process
• A library with mobile-friendly templates for high adaptability
• Stunning website designs, blocks, templates, and layouts

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid and premium plans start at $11.25/month.

10.IM Creator

If eye-catching websites with lots of images are your need, IM Creator is the right choice. It will give you a decent set of features with the free plan too.

Features

• Unlimited storage for including images and videos in the webpage
• Eye-catching graphics and templates to choose from
• Neat and clean layouts to place content easily
• NGOs, artists, and students may avail premium at no additional cost
• Easy to customize the design of the templates with the IM editor

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid and premium plans start at $8/month.

Which One Do You Choose?

Al the website builders mentioned in the list have their uses. Wix is a complete solution for website building but is a little expensive. Webnode gives you many basic features at cheaper costs.

But when choosing a website builder look for the following:

• Low upgrade cost
• Clear domain and custom domain
• Minimal advertisements when on a free or freemium plan
• Free SSL certificate
• Sufficient storage
• An easy interface that isn’t clunky or frustrating to use
• Optional eCommerce functionality

The post 10 Best Website Builders to Create a Simple Website first appeared on Creative Alive.

Before the internet, playing bingo required a trip to a bingo hall or a church basement. Nowadays, dozens of websites offer access to bingo along with lotto, poker, virtual slot machines, and other games.

You can play bingo from home on the new websites. Better yet, you can fire up your smartphone and take bingo with you, playing whenever you want, wherever you are.

Experts say mobile gaming is the fastest-growing segment of the online gambling business. There’s an app for everything – and bingo is no exception. Mobile apps have helped fuel an explosion in the popularity of online bingo.

Today we’ll explain some of the reasons bingo apps have become insanely popular overnight. And we’ll tell you about a few apps that have impressed us as the best of the best in the online bingo world.

Why Is Mobile Bingo on the Rise?

Market watchers say more than 3 billion people own smartphones worldwide, and their phones give them internet access. This has made bingo available to a great many people, increasing the number of players worldwide.

Many of the most ardent users of mobile bingo apps are longtime bingo players. Smartphones and tablets let them play their favorite game from almost anywhere. Whether they are in their beds, riding on a bus or train, or sitting in a cafe, they can mark squares and claim prizes.

But it’s not just veterans of the bingo parlors who are flocking to play online. Millennials have embraced the game too. Mobile technology has introduced bingo to millions of younger players who might never have tried it otherwise.

The COVID-19 pandemic has played a role too. People love games, but they know they’re safer staying at home than jamming together in crowded casinos, sportsbooks, and gaming halls. Mobile gaming is the perfect solution – especially when the game is as fun and social as bingo. It helps people stay connected as they play.

Site operators are enjoying the boom in online gaming and actively courting new bingo players with sign-up bonuses, free games, and massive jackpots. Years ago, players could get deals like these only from the very largest and most successful bingo halls. Now they can enjoy them on their phones.

The future of bingo is surely mobile.

From Website to App

The UK Gambling Commission says that starting in 2017, more than half of online gamblers use mobile devices as their preferred gambling platform. That means there’s a major competitive advantage to making bingo and other games run well on smaller devices with touchscreens.

As a stopgap measure, gaming sites adopted responsive design principles to ensure their websites would work well on desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.

In the bingo world, smart site operators have adopted a mobile-first mentality. They first make sure the sites run great on the devices that are fueling the industry’s growth. Then they attend to the desktop version.

The logical next step? Apps for Android and iOS systems. Apps don’t suffer from the limitations of browser-bound games. They can interact with your device’s security, banking, and notification mechanisms. They offer a smoother and better experience to mobile bingo players.

Here are some of the market’s very best mobile bingo apps. 

Bingo Heaven

If you’re looking for a top-notch bingo app for your Android or Apple device, then you must try Bingo Heaven. Created by the developers at Super Lucky Casino, Bingo Heaven is one of the most popular free bingo apps on the market. More than 30,000 players use this app on Android and iOS.

Bingo Heaven offers some amazing power-ups, including a 2x payout, instant win, 2x free daub, and treasure chest. The app integrates with Facebook accounts so you can invite your friends to enjoy a game of bingo with you. Once you invite a certain number of friends to play, you will be awarded a prize.

Lucky Touch Bingo

When it comes to portable device compatibility, Lucky Touch Bingo has everything covered. The app supports almost all existing platforms, including Android, Apple, and BlackBerry devices. In addition to an amazing range of games, Lucky Touch also offers some great promotions. All newcomers get a 500% matching bonus on their first deposit, a 350% top-up on the second deposit, and 300% more on the third.

When it comes to games, you can choose from 75-, 80-, and 90-ball bingo. When you’re ready for a bingo break, try your hand at popular slot games like Queen of Legends, Treasures of Egypt, and Rubies and Sapphires.

Lucky Touch is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission for British players and the Isle of Man Gambling Commission for the rest of the world.

Wink Bingo

Wink Bingo is one of the few gambling sites that offer only bingo and slot games. The mobile app is elegant and simple, and the interface is a breeze to navigate. Wink Bingo is available for both iOS and Android mobile devices. To download the app, visit the Google Play store or the Apple App Store. The apps are free, of course.

Once you join the site, you can play bingo free for the first three days. Just navigate to the Newbies room.

Wink Bingo offers generous bonuses. When you make your first deposit, you’ll get a 200% matching bingo bonus and a 200% slots bonus too. The bonuses are limited to £100 each.

At Wink Bingo, most rooms are reserved for 90-ball bingo — a traditional UK favorite. The most interesting room at Wink Bingo is called “LotsaLoot.” It’s a 90-ball game that plays at the end of every month with a prize that reaches £3,000.

William Hill Bingo

William Hill is one of the leading brands in the online gambling industry. In addition to its legendary sportsbook and famously high-quality casino games, William Hill also has a great bingo app. 

Apple users can easily find the bingo app at the App Store. Android users can install the app directly from the William Hill website. 

The app employs the famous William Hill blue background. The user-friendly interface is so easy to navigate you’ll be playing bingo within minutes.

William Hill offers generous deals and promotions for newcomers, including a £25 bingo bonus and daily free bingo tickets.

William Hill supports a variety of banking methods. You can use debit cards, bank transfer, and e-wallet options like PayPal and Skrill for buying tickets and withdrawing winnings.

Conclusion

We carefully chose these bingo apps so you won’t get lost in a sea of options or get ripped off by scammers. These apps have top-notch security and they offer hours and hours of great entertainment. If you’re a bingo enthusiast, you surely won’t be disappointed. Good luck!

The post Why bingo apps are so popular in 2020 first appeared on Creative Alive.

Text to speech converters are a relatively new industry, but it is exploding with growth at the moment.  It is not only just about assisted reading, but it is becoming something bigger and more important as the days go by.

Here are just a few ways that it will be changing the world and different industries.

Current Text to Speech Converters

Before we get into the near future, I should lay out how the current climate is.  Normal text to speech converters like Notevibes and Naturaltts are setting the stage for what is expected out of a converter.

They are offering great features like adjusting the voice and using a totally different natural voice to convert as well.  Do not get it twisted and think that is all that is going on right now.  The crazy thing is that we are evolving to even more complex solutions.

Machine Learning

Do you remember in the science fiction movies when robots could speak exactly like us and in the same tone?  Well, that is looking like more and more of a possibility in the near future because of machine learning.

Mixing text to speech converters and a machine learning how to speak and mimicking humans is going to lead to some next-level technology.  Just think about a robot being able to have a conversation with you someday.  If that does not freak you out, then you are crazy!

Taking Over Education

Another wild reality is that it could possibly overthrow some forms of education.  The technology is already being used to help people with disabilities and not able to read, but it could advance even more.

It could be a possibility that text to speech converters end up taking over the education system because it would be cheaper for a school to pay a converter than a full-time teacher employee!  Even though that would be a long way away before it would happen, it is still a crazy thought to ponder.

No More Typing

The last point that I will leave you with is the fact that typing could be a skill of the past if we continue down this road.  Text to speech converters are big, but what if speech to text takes over?

It would be a thing of the past to type out your message or paper, because we could just use our voice.  It does make sense in some regards, because we can probably speak much faster than typing in most cases.  But there are certain drawbacks that could hinder the expansion of this idea.

The only thing that we do right now is wait and see how the text to speech world is going to change.  Not only are the converters getting better with their methods, but the entire industry has the ability to make a lasting impact very soon.  Keep your eyes peeled to see which industries it will affect and how many lives it will impact.

The post The Future of the Text to Speech Converter Industry first appeared on Creative Alive.

If you are a beginner in PHP and your manager assigned you a task to create responsive + interactive web form to upload image with certain conditions & Validations, then you came to the right place. Simple HTML pages are allowed to use PHP code in it and that PHP code can interact with the server to upload the files. We will try to explain all image upload conditions by showing you the proper code and interface GUI.

Check before we start:

1. php.ini file settings: Before we start we need to check our php.ini file having a maximum permitted size of files that can be uploaded is stated as upload_max_filesize. Settings should look like below:

file_uploads = On
upload_max_filesize = 150M 
post_max_size = 150M

2. Create Uploads folder: Create a folder named uploads along with your code where your images will be stored. This directory must have the read write permission.

Now let’s start coding

Step 1: Create index.html which will have a webform

Create a form in this html page, which use method attribute as “post” and enctype should be “multipart/form-data”. It specifies which content type should be used, without enctype file upload will not work. One Input file and one submit button is required. Your Code will look like below

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.4.1/css/bootstrap.min.css">
</head>
<body>

    <div class="my-5 mx-auto" style="max-width: 320px;">
        <h2>PHP File Uploader</h2>
        <hr>
        <!---method must be post and enctype must be multipart/form-data-->
        <form action="upload.php" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data">
            <div class="form-group">
                <label for="fileToUpload">Select image file to upload</label>
                <input type="file" name="fileToUpload" id="fileToUpload" class="form-control-file"> <!--input type must be file -->
            </div>
            <hr>
            <input type="submit" value="Upload Image" name="submit" class="btn btn-primary">
        </form>
    </div>
    
</body>
</html> 

we are using bootstrap 4 css to make it intreactive, Your Output will be like below:

Step 2: Create upload.php for PHP coding

PHP has a global variable $_FILES.This keeps all information of uploaded files like image name, image size, image path, etc in the form of an array.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.4.1/css/bootstrap.min.css">
</head>
<body>

<div class="my-5 mx-auto" style="max-width: 320px;">
    
<!-- PHP Code Start  -->
<?php
$target_dir = "uploads/";
$target_file = $target_dir . basename($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["name"]);
$uploadOk = 1;
$imageFileType = strtolower(pathinfo($target_file,PATHINFO_EXTENSION));

// Check if image file is a actual image or fake image
if(isset($_POST["submit"])) {
    $check = getimagesize($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["tmp_name"]);
    if($check !== false) {
        echo '<img src="'.$target_file.'" class="img-fluid img-thumbnail mb-3" />';
        $uploadOk = 1;
    } else {
        echo "<div class='alert alert-danger'>File is not an image.</div>";
        $uploadOk = 0;
    }
}

// Check if file already exists
if (file_exists($target_file)) {
    echo "<div class='alert alert-danger'>Sorry, file already exists.</div>";
    $uploadOk = 0;
}

// Check file size
if ($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["size"] > 500000) {
    echo "<div class='alert alert-danger'>Sorry, your file is too large.</div>";
    $uploadOk = 0;
}

// Allow certain file formats
if($imageFileType != "jpg" && $imageFileType != "png" && $imageFileType != "jpeg"
&& $imageFileType != "gif" ) {
    echo "<div class='alert alert-danger'>Sorry, only JPG, JPEG, PNG & GIF files are allowed.</div>";
    $uploadOk = 0;
}

// Check if $uploadOk is set to 0 by an error
if ($uploadOk == 0) {
    echo "<div class='alert alert-danger'>Sorry, your file was not uploaded.</div>";

// if everything is ok, try to upload file
} else {
    if (move_uploaded_file($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["tmp_name"], $target_file)) {
        echo "<div class='alert alert-success'>The file ". basename( $_FILES["fileToUpload"]["name"]). " has been uploaded.</div>";
    } else {
        echo "<div class='alert alert-danger'>Sorry, there was an error uploading your file.</div>";
    }
}
?>
</div>
</body>
</html> 

Your Output will be like below:

Now we will explain from this PHP code what all functionality covered

#1. Check your upload folder is having the file you upload

#2. If the file is already exist

#3. Check if the file is an image

#4. Check if the file is not a large file

#5. Check if the file is JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG only

You can download the code from Github

The post Basic PHP code for Image upload first appeared on Creative Alive.