What is UX (User Experience) and Why it is Important?

Methods of the UX Process

UX (User Experience) is very important for most of the company, in almost every market, whether you’re launching an app or highly interactive website, UX could also be a key aspect of providing flawless user experiences. UX, once a distinct segment concern, has officially gone mainstream.

User Experience (UX) is an approach that allows your users to interface your website or app without confusion and with ease, providing a smooth experience of your brand. It combines elements of design, psychology, research, technology and business to supply the simplest experience for the user.

The importance of UX shouldn’t be underestimated. Around 30% of individuals won’t return to a site after a nasty User Experience which number will only go up as UX becomes more prevalent. Whether you’re a multinational organisation with a long-time presence or a startup creating your first website, User Experience must be a crucial thing about your design process.

Let’s differentiate between UX and UI-

UX vs UI are often misunderstood, even by industry professionals and thus the lines are often blurred. Then, how can we differentiate between User Experience (UX) and interface (UI)? To be more elaborate, UX is how someone feels about your design, their thoughts and emotions whereas UI is how they interact with it, its features and functions.

Many people view it as UX vs UI but in reality, it’s UX & UI. They are related, not opposing. UX is described as a folks-first way of designing whereas UI is feature-first.

UI includes the look, feel, responsiveness and interactivity of a brand. A recent UX trend you’d possibly not even notice is UX and UI centric is dark mode or themes, which are designed both for look and functionality (UX and UI).

Methods of the UX Process

There are a variety of steps to travel through when developing user experience. Here are 7 basic steps to start with:

1. User Profiles and Personas

The first step within the process is going to know your audience. This allows you to evolve experiences that relate to the voice and feelings of your users. To start this, you’ll want to make a user persona, which may be a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer supported marketing research and data on your existing audience.

When you finish developing your user persona (or personas), you’ll have the profile of the person(s) your site entertains. Creating a persona consists of diving into your site’s statistics and other customer data while also conducting internal and external interviews and surveys. You can even ask “look-alike” audiences that reflect an equivalent trait as your current users.

2. Interface Testing

When you’re building an interface, the more data you’ll collect, the higher. Arrange a study to match the effectiveness and quality of experience between different user interfaces, including your current site. Something as minor as changing one word could impact the effectiveness of your page.

One most powerful tool for interface testing is Google’s Optimize platform. With Optimize, you’ll split your website impressions into two groups and show each of those groups a special version of pages on your site. Once you’ve got a statistically significant sample size, you’ll see which version is outperforming the opposite and make adjustments accordingly.

3. User Surveys

Interview existing and potential users of the system to realize insight into what would be the foremost effective design. Because the user’s experience is subjective, the simplest way to directly obtain information is by studying and interacting with users. An element on the page that you simply thought was working might sound completely invisible to the user, so a first-hand view of the way they interact with the web site can provide valuable insights.

4. User Flow Diagram

Make a flowchart revealing how users should move through a system. Start by deciding how you expect them to maneuverer through the location, then compare it to how they really interact with it. User personas will assist you here — once you understand the profile of the user on your site, you’ll better plan the optimal experience for them.

5. Sitemaps

Once you’ve studied the user flow visitors expect on your site, thorough planning is important. Start by building a sitemap for the pages you’d wish to create. A sitemap could also be a clearly organized hierarchy of all the pages and subpages within your site.

Creating a sitemap makes it easier to imagine how a user will get from point A to point B on the online site, and therefore the way many clicks it’ll fancy roll in the hay. Rather than implementing structural changes once the location is made, a sitemap helps your team eliminate bad ideas early while simultaneously showing you all the pages you’ll eventually need to design and write content for. It is an efficient tool for adding efficiency to the web site building process.6. Wireframes and prototypes

The visuals on each page matter whilst considerably just like the location structure, so invest time into creating wireframes, which are visual guides that represent the skeletal framework of web pages and supply a preview of your site’s look and feel. With a visible website framework in situ, you’ll eliminate usability issues before any page hits a display screen. This can save your company development time for necessary adjustments down the road.

6. Design Patterns

Patterns provide consistency and how of finding the foremost effective design for the work. With interface design patterns, for instance, picking the proper interface (UI) elements (e.g., module tabs, breadcrumbs, slideshows) surely supports their effectiveness results in better and more familiar experiences.

One tool that helps us manage UI consistency is style tiles. Style tiles are deliverables that show the planning of all modules on a site, right down to font sizes and colours. This document includes things like buttons, layout type, and even interactivity. Style tiles ensure a user will have a smooth experience across the whole site so they’ll be ready to better recognize the way to interact with the site’s elements.

7. Style Guides

Consistency is condemned to designing a memorable user experience through a brand. Style guides give writers and designers a framework during which to figure when creating content and building a design, and that they also make sure that the brand and style elements align with the owner’s goals.

Making your style guide is definitely accessible to anyone performing on a replacement website. One element on a page that doesn’t match up together with your brand’s image or voice can stick out as a sore thumb. If you don’t have a method guide, considering building one. You will get surprise how useful it’ll be, even beyond designing your site’s UX!

Conclusion

The world of UX design is vast and sophisticated, but with the proper expert’s assistance you can revolutionize your website, design and business. Smart designers know the importance of developing winning UX and UI.

Also Read Blog – The Principles of Website Usability

Advantages of GST for Startups

Benefits of GST for Startups and Small Businesses

The implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in India has enormously influenced the way startups function. GST has terminated some indirect taxes and combined everything under its own larger umbrella. It was introduced with a slogan of “One Nation One Tax” to ease compliance plans for businesses and specially for startups.

With the implementation of GST in India, the procedure for GST registration became centralised and also standardised. It shall remain almost like the service tax registration. Under the GST regime, the business would not need to obtain multiple VAT registration. As a single GST registration applies across India. Therefore, the procedure for getting GST registration would also become standardised. Thereby improving the convenience of starting a replacement business in India with none difficulties.

GST for startups: All you would like to understand before you register

The entire GST registration process takes place online, saving you the effort of running from one office to a different one.

Here’s a checklist of all documents required for GST registration for startups:

Company Pan card
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs incorporation certificate
Memorandum/Articles of association
Signatory’s appointment proof
Signatory’s PAN card
A Signatory’s Aadhaar card
PAN card & address proofs of enlist directors
Address proof for place of business (copies of lease agreement/ latest electricity bill/property tax receipt)
Proof of checking account (scanned copy of the primary page of bank passbook/bank statement/cancelled cheque

While the products and Services Tax (GST) is predicted to facilitate that growth, not all aspects of the new tax regime are startups-friendly. Let’s take a glance at how GST has impacted startups

1. Higher threshold for GST registration

Before the implementation of GST, any business with a turnover of quite Rs 5 lakh during a fiscal year was required to get VAT registration. However, any business whose turnover exceeds Rs 40 lakh during a financial year is required to register under GST. This limit is Rs 20 lakh for service providers like freelancers.

This higher threshold under GST has brought compliance relaxation to many startups in India, including small business.

2. Enjoy tax credit

A lot of startups in India are a neighbourhood of the industry. Prior to GST, they had to gather and pay service tax to the govt. Non-utilisation of the VAT paid on purchases made for business basis was one among the first concerns. There was no provision for claiming the credit of state VAT paid against the service accountability.

Since GST has brought several indirect taxes under its umbrella, the matter has been resolved now. Startups can withdraw tax paid on the purchases (for example office supplies) with the tax paid on their sales under GST.

3. Ease of running business

GST, there will be one single registration and less paper work. The business owners would now be ready to focus their energy in completing productive business operations instead of complying with complicated tax laws.

4. Expansion of business

Most small businesses restrict their business operations to at least one state thanks to inter-state taxes and sophisticated tax procedures. This limits their customer stand to the state where they’re located. GST will simplify the inter-state tax complications, reducing the value of supplying goods across states. This will inspire business owners to expand business Pan India; thus, increasing their customer base.

5. Reduced tax burden

Under the present scenario, businesses with turnover of but Rs. 5 lakhs don’t need to pay the VAT registration fee. This limit has been increased to Rs. 20 lakhs under the proposed GST bill. This will reduce the tax burden on the SMEs.

6. Cascading of taxes has been eliminated

Since GST was implement to bring all the indirect taxes under one umbrella, the sooner hassle of tax cascading (or tax on tax) has been eliminated. This translates to more direct savings for little businesses.

7. Online compliance processes

It has become extremely easy for little business owners to file their returns with the introduction of a web portal. A centralised digital system means they do not have to register separately with different tax entities and undergo the effort of navigating through manual workflows.

8. Easier Invoicing

Invoicing becomes easier because the tax apply uniformly and there’ll be no distinction between goods and services thereby reducing evasion and cash in of varied tax incentives.

9. Reduction in Transportation and Logistics Cost

Before the new GST regime, the state governments have applied their own different tax structure when it came to Octroi and CST applicability for interstate transportation of products. Therefore, the implementation of GST is often considered as a conquest by the central government in India and a welcome move for startups.

Conclusion

GST may be a pivotal reform, not just for startups, but major corporations also. The implementation of GST ensures that startups have a neater experience with tax compliance than under the previous regime, which they enjoy additional benefits, like smoother movement of products. Both of those benefits release tight budgets for operations and performance of services.

To get more information about GST for Freelancers visit GST for Freelancers and Bloggers

GST For Freelancers and Bloggers

Guide on GST for Freelancers

GST is applicable in India from 1st July 2017. It is also applicable to Bloggers, YouTubers, Service Providers and each one other kinds of Freelancers. The rate of GST in such cases is 18%. There is no doubt regarding this and it’s fairly clear that GST @ 18% is applicable on all Service Providers, Bloggers, YouTubers, affiliate marketers and other freelancers.

However, GST Registration will be necessary in such cases (if the whole value of services provided is sort of Rs. 20 Lakhs during the year) and Return filing & all other compliance would even be required to be followed.

Bloggers could also be a replacement profession in India a bit like the Doctors or Engineers. GST also is going to be payable by bloggers, affiliate marketers, YouTubers, and other freelancers at the rate of 18% of the whole revenue generated.

A GST of 18% has been applicable to be levied on services like marketing, blogging and more freelancing services when the services provided are within the economic boundaries of India. The tax will have to be collected from respective clients and deposited to the govt. of India.

If the supplier and thus the client are both from the same state, the classification of GST is getting to be as follows:

1. CGST @ 9%

2. SGST @ 9%

The overall tax paid is getting to be the same, i.e., 18%, but it’ll be paid to Central and government separately.

Your invoices must be clear to show your business Name, Address, Invoice Date and your GST number, your client’s GST number (if B2B service), GST amount and total amount.

Why do Bloggers or YouTubers come under GST?

YouTubers and bloggers represent the service induced liabilities under the GST Bill. A blogger comes under consideration as a supplier of services. Bloggers offer a platform to the advertisers to dispose of their advertisement.

Freelancers who are bloggers, app and web developers, content writers, etc. They have been exempted from registration under GST if their annual turnover is up to Rs 20 lakhs albeit making the interstate supply. Before this relief, GST registration was mandatory for a private who was providing services outside the state no matter their turnover.

This has an enormous impact on the small scale Bloggers and to other service providers which were mandatory to register for GST. A small- scale freelancer who was earning about 100,000 rupees once a year can’t hire a CA who will charge thousands of rupees to remain GST compliant. This burden of registration has been removed and now they have to register only their annual turnover is above Rs. 20 lakhs.

Export income remains exempted from the GST

Export income for online entrepreneurs means if you receive any income comes from a faraway registered company. In most of the cases, export income comes through PayPal from the clients.

AdSense income, Affiliate Income from Foreign registered company, Freelance income from PayPal is taken under consideration as export income.

Let’s Discuss some service provider who required to Register for GST

Freelancers: If you are a contract writer, designer, developer or digital marketer who is providing services of quite 20L annually.

Bloggers: You’ve to pay GST, if you are making online income through blogging. Because whom you provided sponsored articles, will have income from advertisements or getting a commission as an affiliate.

Affiliate Marketers: If your income comes from any affiliate marketing network based in India like Amazon or flipkart, then you’ve to pay GST.

YouTubers: Same as bloggers, Youtubers even need to register for GST if their annual income is sort of 20L.

Digital Marketers: You furthermore may have to return under GST if your business is above 20L once a year.

Perk of GST

You will get a benefit of the GST amount that you simply pay on your business expenses. GST on expenses is will be adjust in your GST returns against the GST that you simply pay on your business income.

What is the GST Registration Process for Bloggers, YouTubers?

The GST official portal is GST registration. This registration requires the business information, personal details, Details of the Business property.

If you’re unsure whether your yearly income will reach the bar of 20 lakh once a year or not, you’ll still charge GST from your clients. Just in case your income doesn’t reach Rs. 20 lakhs at the highest of the year, the GST you charge from your customers will be credit back to your clients.

Conclusion

It is highly mandatory for the bloggers, YouTubers, Affiliate Marketers to register for GST and send out their GST on time by generating GST invoices. Doing so will keep you safe from any risks like the penalty of not paying the tax.

For more details Read Simplest Guide to GST for Freelancers in India

6 WordPress alternatives for building your website

WordPress alternatives

WordPress powers an astonishing 39.6% of internet sites in 2021, up nearly 5% from 2020, which begs the question… what WordPress alternatives are powering the opposite 60.4%??

WordPress could also be the foremost popular CMS (content management system), but that doesn’t mean it’s right for everybody. WordPress caters to a selected combination of DIY customization and convenience, but if you personally fall outside that audience—say you would like less customization and more convenience—then you’ll probably be more interested in the alternatives to WordPress.

We discuss the 6 best alternatives to WordPress.

1. Wix

Wix is one among the foremost popular alternatives to WordPress, and maybe its fiercest competitor. As with WordPress, Wix gives people with no professional design experience a user-friendly platform to create the sites they need, no prior experience necessary. However, Wix features a few perks that WordPress doesn’t, like free web hosting—paying for web hosting is one among the best drawbacks to WordPress.

But these perks come at their own cost. Although you’ll do tons with Wix customization, it still falls short in comparison with WordPress. Just check out their app stores, where WordPress offers 58,627 plug-ins, compared to Wix’s 250+ apps. It’s also worth noting that Wix pricing isn’t always what it looks, so sometimes the free plans aren’t exactly free.

2. Weebly

Weebly (ecommerce by Square) follows an equivalent business model as Wix and Squarespace, but more attuned for cheaper and easier solutions. That’s good for time and money, but means it’s limited in customization and features.

Compared to WordPress, Weebly is a breeze. It makes building a site easier, but you’ll need to sacrifice a number of the looks, features, and functionality you wanted. But if you’re willing to trade customization for convenience, Weebly may be a good selection.

3. Drupal

So far, our alternatives to WordPress are that middle tier of site-builders: a mixture of convenience and customization. But what if you would like a real WordPress alternative, an open-source CMS with more personalization from more effort.

Drupal comes in second behind WordPress because of the popular choice of CMS. At times it can get a touch technical, so there’s a clear learning curve, to not mention there’s no drag-and-drop WYSIWYG editor, like Wix and Weebly. But that’s just the worth for flexibility—Drupal offers features and options for virtually any industry. Plus, it allows you to mix-and-match elements to make a singular blend, a bit like WordPress.

4. Joomla

If you want the complexity and community aspects of WordPress, Joomla could be the simplest WordPress alternative for you. Joomla is another open-source CMS, and may give WordPress a run for its money even within the blogging category.

Joomla features a lot of built-in features that are ready right out of the box, including SEO and multilingual functionality, which is out there on WordPress only through a paid plug-in. Even though it hosts a widespread community, the WordPress community remains larger, meaning WordPress has more add-ons and features for variety.

5. Jimdo

We’ve checked out the WordPress alternatives for both robust solutions and DIY customization. But what if you’re trying to find alternatives to WordPress that are quick and painless? Jimdo allows you to build basic and straightforward sites in no time with no hassle, but don’t expect anything too advanced.

Jimdo is for once you don’t want to bother with web design—you can even let Jimdo’s AI build a site for you during a few seconds, supported answers to a questionnaire. If you would like that sort of convenience, though, you’ve got to sacrifice individuality and personalization.

6. Squarespace

Squarespace is the other main opponent of WordPress alternatives, after Wix. This platform is similar to Wix, with a user-friendly interface designed for learners. That means if Wix was more appealing to you than WordPress, likely Squarespace are going to be, too.

The difference between Squarespace and Wix is subtle. Wix may be a little more user-friendly and Squarespace may be a little more advanced in customization. Despite that, Squarespace still offers less features and adaptability than WordPress, so if you’re trying to find more options, WordPress remains your most suitable option. On the other hand, Squarespace offers many beautiful, modern templates, so you’ll get an honest looking website more quickly and simply than with WordPress.

And if you’re trying to find something completely custom, you’ll even hire a Expert to style your website for you.

Picking the proper CMS or site builder for your needs is a crucial step, so don’t rush it. But none of those WordPress alternatives—or even WordPress itself—can prevent from bad design. No matter what platform or CMS you employ, you continue to confirm your website has all the proper visuals, layout and functionality for your business.

7 Characteristics to Make a Great Logo

Characteristics to Make Logo

If you had a thousand words to elucidate how great your company is, what would you say? Fortunately, that’s exactly what your logo characteristics do every day. So, the big question is: What does one want your logo to say?

Logos explain who you’re, what you are doing and the way your brand feels—all in only a moment. Colours, shapes, fonts and other design elements all influence how your audience experiences your brand. When you roll in the hay right, customers fall crazy with your initial sight.

Your logo which appears on all of your most vital marketing tools like your product packaging, stationery, leaflets, business cards, your website, and your social media accounts is your unique mark of ownership. As customers begin to note your logo everywhere, they start to associate your logo together with your products and services.

Even if customers forget the name of your business, company or organization, they’re likely to recollect your logo, after all, the human brain processes visual data sixty thousand-fold faster than text. Your logo design should give your products and services a brand recall value such when people see your logo, they will remember their experience together with your products and services.

It is something that customers can use to differentiate you from others who offer equivalent services or products. Sometimes, an efficient logo design also helps you to catch people’s attention and thus, it provides an excellent help in getting you an honest share of the market especially if you’ve got a logo that outshines that of your competition.

Your logo should be easy to read. That is, it must communicate something at a glance. Of course, it’s possible for your logo to possess many hidden messages, however, it’s important that it sends a message that everybody can understand quickly and describe to others if needed. For example, Apple’s logo design is very much simple yet customers are unlikely to forget it.

So how do you do it right? We’re here to tell you 7 logo characteristics all great logos have in common.

A great logo has the following characteristics…

1. The Right Shape

Graphic design is all about visual communication. The art of making a logo entails both knowing what you would like to mention and which visuals can say that. Certain emotions and feelings come to mind by certain images and even the form of the brand itself.

2. The Right Business Cues

Logos communicate need-to-know information about your brand. They achieve during a second what press releases, product descriptions and about pages do with paragraph after paragraph of copy.

Design cues that relate to your business can help convey information fast, which they will range from easy-to-miss subtle to smack-on-the-head bluntness.

3. The Right Colors

Just like shapes, each color has its own emotional implication. Often these meanings are fairly universal because they’re supported things we see within the world . Red, the color of blood, evokes feelings of urgency and application . Brown, the color of trees and wood, summon nature and land. And it’s a reasonably safe bet that folks everywhere the planet associate yellow with the heat of sunshine.

4. The Right Tone

There’s a reason cereal uses mascot for logos and law firms don’t. An confirmation from a cartoon tiger doesn’t go very far with alleged felons.

To beneficially optimize your logo, outline a solid brand strategy and identify your audience .

5. The Right Typography

All visuals can influence the vibe and mood of your logo. While that’s obvious for the pictures during a logo, it also applies to the typography. How your text looks can affect people’s perception of your brand even as very much like what it says.

Typography encompasses all visual choices in text: name your font and text size, but also details like serifs, boldness, weight, format, texture and therefore the way you extend the lowest of an L and use it to underline the rest of a word.

6. The Right Trends

You can also bring the newest logo trends into your design to speak that your brand is contemporary and relevant. Trends believe repeated usage and recognition to be effective, and that they change per annum , so smart designers stay top of what’s hot and what’s not.

7. The Right Sizes

Not size, but sizes—plural. In recent years, advertisers and marketers are coming around to the thought that having multiple versions of your logo is the best thanks to go, referred to as a responsive logo. That way, you’ll optimize your logo’s size to wherever it appears, whether a small in-app advertisement to a huge highway billboard.

The seven items in particular add up to making more memorable logos, which in-turn makes more memorable brands. And when an individual is deciding what to shop for or whom to try to do business with, you’ll be glad once they consider you.

Income Tax Implications for A Freelancer in India

Income Tax Implications

Unlike salaried professionals, tax implications are often a Gray area for those that are self-employed. Whether you’re a freelancer, small business owner or consultant, you’ll have to suit various tax-related formalities and implications.

Here are some tips that could help with understanding your freelance tax implications:

Compulsory Maintenance Books of Accounts

If your freelance profession falls into any of the subsequent categories like—

Information Technology

Company Secretary

Film Artist

Authorized Representative

Interior Decoration

Technical Consultancy

Medical

Legal

Accountancy

and your gross receipts exceed Rs 150,000 in any of the three instantly preceding years or in that particular year. Then you will need to maintain books of accounts.

If your freelance career doesn’t fall under any of the mentioned categories. Then you’d have to maintain books of accounts as long as your income exceeds Rs 250,000 in a particular year or the 3 preceding years.

You can pick between two methods: cash basis or accrual basis. The main difference between the 2 is that in accounting you’ll have to pay tax only if the income is with you.

Whereas on an accrual basis, tax liability arises when income is booked. In terms, in accrual accounting, revenue is booked once you raise an invoice. While in cash accounting, revenue is calculated when payment is received.

Within Indian Law a person running a business where he/she is the sole owner is termed as a Sole Proprietor, an equivalent applies with a Freelancer. A person earning on his own is advised a Sole Proprietor and needs to file income tax returns using the ITR-4 return form. If you have any other source of income (maybe your full-time job) you need to include that as well while filing your income tax return.

Filing your IT Returns

Income tax returns will have to be filed by filling up the ITR-4 form. You will be able to determine the tax slab you belong to and calculate your tax using the calculator on the ITR website. Keep in mind that you will be taxed on your net income. Make sure that you simply apply all applicable deductions before you reach your taxable income. As a private, you’ll claim the Section 80 deductions that are available to your salaried counterparts. As a freelancer in India, you’ll also claim the deductions available to business owners.

What is TDS and is it Applicable just in case of Freelance Work?

TDS is Tax Deducted at Source; The Government of India has built regulations by which a company paying an individual or another company for services offered to deduct tax at source. But just in case someone deducts tax at source they need to supply a Form 16 to the person whose tax has been deducted. You can then use this TDS amount while filing your Income Tax Return and look for a refund in case your earning for the year doesn’t exceed 2 lakhs.

Advance Tax

Advance tax is calculated by estimating the present year income then applying tax rates thereon. Tax deducted at source (TDS) / Tax Collected at source (TCS) and Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) credit shall be deducted to reach Advance liabilities.

Presumptive Taxation

Section 44ADA of tax Act, 1961: Profits and Gains of execs on Presumptive Basis

This section is applicable if Gross Receipts of resident assessed (who is engaged in profession as per section 44AA) is up to Rs. 50 lakhs.
As per the provisions of 44ADA section PGBP income will be 50% of Gross Receipts. Income tax will be calculated on the 50% income on the basis of slab rates.
Deduction of business expenses shall not be allowed as it is assumed that all the deductions are included as only 50% of the total gross receipts are taken for tax purposes.
There is no need of maintaining Books of Accounts as per section 44AA and get it audited as per section 44AB of the assessed declared income on Presumptive basis.
However, if the assessed declared income is lower than 50% but its Net Taxable Income is more than basic exemption limit then such assessed is required to maintain Books of Accounts and get it audited.

Goods and Services Tax (GST)

If your turnover exceeds Rs. 20 lakhs (or Rs.10 lakh for north eastern states), you’ll have to seek GST registration. Since GST registration is state-wise, you’d have to obtain separate registration for every state. To understand more about this tax, read another blog on Simplest guide to GST for freelancers in India

TDS and Refund

Under certain conditions, you’ll save even more by claiming back the TDS that’s deducted by clients.

Once you get used to it, freelance and taxes do go hand in hand!

Read Is Freelance Income Taxable in India

The Principles of Website Usability

Test Website Usability

Take a look at your website’s homepage. How many elements are there? Twenty? Thirty? Does your site have multiple uncertain links to different parts? Do you have a pop-up that conceals the page? If the solution to any of those questions is yes, your website is perhaps way too complicated and you would possibly be missing out on the advantages of excellent website usability.

But don’t just take our word for it: check out the websites that are winning awards and you’ll spot a uniform theme: many of them are incredibly simple and straightforward to use. This is for a number of reasons. The first is that simpler websites look better. The second is that simplicity and clarity are key elements in making websites usable, and website usability is one among the foremost important factors in effective web design.

What is Website Usability?

Website usability may be a feature of internet sites and how of designing them that focuses on the user’s needs. It utilizes user-centric design processes to make sure that websites are efficient and straightforward to use for the people that actually use them, instead of the people that designed them.

Beyond this basic definition you’ll quickly realize that creating your website usable (by making it simple!) is one among the foremost complex tasks in web design.

Clarity and utility are the 2 goals of website usability, and designers got to prioritize both. In other words, web designers are tasked with making websites that don’t just look appealing, but work exactly how users expect them to work, which isn’t any small task for even the most experienced designer.

When you’re designing for website usability, confine mind there’s no got to reinvent the wheel. While innovation and artistic approaches to style can look great, sometimes it’s best to stay with designs that use the user’s skills to use.

Principles of Web Usability –

Web usability is often classified into five key principles: availability, clarity, recognition, credibility and relevance. Here is a quick definition of each:

1. Availability:

Availability is just how easy it’s to access your website. Your website’s availability is often suffering from the online hosting platform you employ and by how compatible it’s with the devices users are accessing it with.

2. Clarity:

Clarity is the core of website usability. Visitors come to your website with certain goals in mind, and we promise those goals don’t include checking out your web design skills! If your website’s design distracts or confuses visitors, they’ll either need longer to seek out what they came for, or they could forget their initial goal altogether and leave. In either case, they’re leaving dissatisfied and unlikely to return back.

3. Recognition:

Recognition may be a way of describing the training process users undertake once they visit a replacement site. You might not feel that your website must be studied to be used, but actually, all sites require a minimum of a couple of seconds of assessment before a user can interact with them. The overwhelming majority of users will, as an example, have to navigate back to your homepage at some point, and most will search for a logo within the top left corner of their screen to try too so. If your website works differently, they’ll need to spend a couple of seconds learning the way to revisit the homepage. When you design for usability, strive to stay this learning curve as short as possible.

4. Credibility:

Even if customers can easily find the content or functionality they’re trying to find, if they don’t trust it, the web site is worse than useless for them. There are tons of ways to demonstrate your credibility through your website design, like being transparent about your business and goals.

5. Relevancy:

Relevance is probably the foremost complex issue in usability because it describes whether the content that your customers see on your site is engaging. Creating engaging content requires carefully defining your target audience, determining what they want and meeting their needs as clearly as possible.

How to Test Website Usability

Here’s the key point to recollect when it involves usability testing: good design may be a process, not an occasion. Organizations got to continually test their sites’ usability and use their findings to form their websites even better. You can’t make assumptions about the alternatives your designers and developers made during the building process; you’ve need to test them. Just because the structure they used looked good on paper doesn’t mean the top user will have a seamless experience.

Usability testing usually involves recruiting volunteers and asking them to use your website. By monitoring their clicks, mouse movements and behaviour, you’ll identify potential pain points or flaws within the design. The participant can vocalize any problems that they had and voice their feedback also.

Website usability is not optional. It’s a measure which will be applied to any website and describes how effective your website is and whether your website is an efficient investment.

This simple point can be easily forgotten. Your website design might work well for managers once they test it, but they know what your business does and the way it works. It might be a completely different story for your users. Re-focusing your design on your users, and on what they need to realize, can make your website more usable. In other words, making your website easier to use means more people will use it. And making it easier to use is best done by working together with an internet designer.

How to Evaluate Logo Quality

Questions to Check Logo Quality

Businesses have now realized the importance of branding because they need to determine a relationship supported trust and integrity with their consumers. Hence, visual components are necessary in making up a robust brand and that’s the rationale marketing experts recommend on using your brand logo everywhere! Your logo identifies your business. It has to face out, be unique and memorable.

Designing the brand may be a crucial process because you only need to catch on right! You don’t want to risk your company’s sales by making common mistakes during the brand design process. For businesses, time is money.

Let’s make a thing clear: “good logo design” is impartial. Personal taste and preference will inevitably become an element when assessing logo quality. Still, there are certain principles of logo design that a high-quality logo must adhere to, so it’s an attempt to check out the brand objectively. Pare it down and approach it with fresh eyes, albeit it’s hard to step back. We recommend thinking of the brand as a communication tool: it should speak clearly.

We’re here to assist distinguish what makes a top-quality logo for your business. Remember: whether your brand is bold and edgy or refined and stylish, you need to look good—and “good” doesn’t always mean flashy and expensive.

Questions to ask yourself when evaluating logo quality:

Does the logo personify the brand itself ?

First impressions are everything, and for several newcomers to your brand, your logo is probably their first experience of who and what your brand is all about. A high-quality logo will say exactly who you’re, right from the beginning. To get there, you merely need to ask, what makes your brand unique? Make sure you’re confident about the solution then make sure that your logo matches up.

A great logo will often have a built-in message or meaning which supports the brand’s overarching purpose and goals. Here, we’ll inspect two top-quality logos—one long-standing logo and one from a rebrand effort—which both thoughtfully convey a message.

Is the logo aesthetically pleasing ?

Let’s talk about aesthetics. A good logo shouldn’t only look good, but it should also adapt well to any space, and even have a way of individuality. A high quality logo is adaptable in various environments and unique to its brand. Let’s break down these two aesthetic concepts.

A quality logo is resilient

Great logos are chameleons: they appear good anywhere, anywhere and in any color scheme—yet still recognizable. Logo quality shouldn’t be impacted by whether the brand is big or small, or maybe digital versus tangible. It just needs to adapt.

A quality logo is Unique

The clever and unique logo design also means that the image will stand out in the market from the rest of the competitors. Many brands fail to create a brand identity within the absence of a powerful logo. So, make sure that your logo isn’t an imitation of famous brands or the logos of your competitors. You should try to create something that is unique from those logos that are already making rounds in the market.

Nobody likes a copycat—or a generic logo that blends into the gang. It can cause a scarcity of identity, also as confusion for the buyer.

Keep in mind that more and more brand interactions are happening in mobile settings. So, once you believe your logo looks unique, don’t ditch what it’s getting to appear as if in several settings, like your app icon. It’s essential.

How to Recognize Bad Logo Design and Avoid it

Is the logo memorable and identifiable?

Face it: a number of the simplest logos within the world also are the foremost widely identified. But being indelible and identifiable can mean many things.

Interestingly enough, one among the foremost memorable, identifiable global logos has barely changed since its inception within the late 1800s. We’re talking about Coca-Cola. The logo is really timeless, and despite many technological advancements in culture and society, the brand has remained constant through the years. Even the beverage packaging has barely changed, and consumers still cherish the nostalgic nature of the glass bottles. Coca-Cola is easy to spot in a crowd. It’s approachable and relatable. It’s ingrained within the minds of consumers young and old, male and feminine, labor and wealthy. Coca-Cola speaks to all or any, and that’s what makes it great.

A logo needs to be functional

In addition to being easy to recollect, an excellent logo must be functional. In this day and age, this suggests serving its purpose in both tangible and digital environments. Think about all of the places where a logo can live: A T-shirt, a sack, a card, a website, an app—the list goes on.

Think about what the user wants to ascertain during a digital space. More than anything, the brand should provide convenience and simple use. Symbol-driven logos tend to be the foremost versatile in both sorts of environments (look to Swirl, Resto, LovedUp and FitMarguerite for fresh samples of multifunctional logos).

Making a high-quality logo comes right down to embodying a brand, offering good aesthetics and being memorable. Now is the time to look at your approach to logo quality. Remember its sizable impact on your overall success!

Simplest Guide to GST for Freelancers in India

Guide to GST for Freelancers

When the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was started in July 2017, it replaced the VAT & Service Tax. While it brought in uniform tax laws for giant and little businesses alike, most businesses struggled with deciding if they needed GST registration. Today, much of the mist has lifted and most businesses have some measure of clarity.

As a freelancer in India, who has not registered under a business name, you’ll wonder why you would like to stress about GST. However, GST does apply to service providers. It’s an honest idea therefore to gauge if you would like to pay the GST on freelancers.

GST Registration for Freelancers

If you’re a freelancer whose turnover during a fiscal year crosses the edge limit of Rs. 20 lakhs, you’d be required to pay GST.

If you’re a freelancer who lives and functions from any of the North-eastern States, you’d cross the edge limit at Rs.10 lakhs and would therefore need to choose GST.

If you’re a freelancer exporting services over Rs. 20 lakhs, you’d need to pay GST. For example, if you’re designing an internet site for a US-based company and therefore the foreign currency you receive as payment exceeds Rs. 20 lakhs, you’d need to register for GST.

Irrespective of the mixture turnover, if you’re receiving payment for services under OIDAR (Online Information and Database Access and Retrieval), GST registration is mandatory.

What are OIDAR services?

Under the GST Act, OIDAR services includes:

1. Advertising on internet

2. Providing cloud service

3. Provision of e-books, music, movie, software via the internet

4. Providing information, retrieval or otherwise to any person in electronic form through a computer network

5. Online gaming

Which GST rates are applicable to freelancers?

The GST rates applicable to freelancers are 0%, 5%,12%, 18% and 28% counting on the sort of service provided. If there’s no specified rate for the service provided, you’ll need to charge 18% GST from your clients.

Documents required for GST registration

Your photograph
Copy of your PAN and Aadhaar card
Identity and address proof
Latest bank account statement or cancelled cheque
Your digital signature
Electricity or telephone bill
The rental agreement for office premises
No objection certificates

What are the invoicing rules for freelancers?

Any invoice lifted by a freelancer India should be GST-compliant. The invoice should contain all the required information like name, address, GSTIN of the service provider also because the recipient, SAC of services, date, the worth of service provided and so on.

How the GST Affects your Income

The GST on freelancers affects the customer and not the freelancer or service provider. This means that you simply charge the additional amount to your client. While it’s possible that some clients will choose a provider who doesn’t charge GST, most of them tend to look at GST registration as an indicator of your credibility.

How many GST returns does a freelancer need to file?

A freelancer will need to file 25 GST returns during a year if he’s registered as a traditional taxable person.

Is a freelancer eligible to say input tax credit?

The Indian freelancers, like any other taxpayer under the GST, are allowed to take the input tax credit of the services used by him for the motive of rendering service. For example, he could also be employing a laptop, electricity, telephone etc to supply taxable service. Further, the tax being charged by the freelancer also can be taken as input by the recipient of service. Therefore, we will conclude that the burden of GST doesn’t fall on the freelancer nor will his fee be reduced as he is going to be collecting the additional tax amount from the customers.

Default can Result in Penalty

Since all accounts are Aadhar and PAN linked, the government can more easily track your income through TDS deductions and payments made to your bank. Defaults may result in penalties and damage your credibility.

Voluntary Registration—the good and the bad

Even if your annual turnover is a smaller amount than Rs. 20 lakhs you can opt for voluntary registration. This would allow you to welcome projects from foreign clients, without worrying about possible defaults.

GST Filing

Once you receive your GST number, you would like to file regularly, regardless of your annual turnover. Delays in depositing GST would attract interest.

All payments will need to be made online. If your payments exceed Rs. 10000, the GST must be deposited with the govt on a quarterly or monthly basis. Annually, a complete of 37 returns would wish to be filed—three monthly returns and one annual return.

Clients who don’t want to pay for GST charges you have to explain to them that they can get a tax credit for it when they file for taxes. So, the clients who wouldn’t want to pay for GST charges are the ones who aren’t paying taxes or also aren’t interested in paying you.

To conclude, there are certain conditions under which GST is useful. Our suggestion would be to wait and watch before deciding if you need to register.

How to Recognize Bad Logo Design and Avoid it-

Recognize Bad Logo Design

The best designers are conscious of the foremost common mistakes which will happen when designing a logo—mostly because they’ve made those missteps themselves at one point or another during their career—and are now ready to catch poor choices before they create them.

In logo design certain “what not to do” occur more all the time than others, and seeing these fruitless choices in action can assist you sidestep them in your own logo design. Here, we’ve collected the foremost common mistakes in bad logo design, so you recognize what to seem out for. If you’re already guilty of 1 of them, don’t worry: we’ll show you ways to form it better!

1. Obsolete Logos –

Most usual problem with bad logo designs is that they’re using outdated techniques, visuals and effects. The logos which have been created decades ago—and not during a great way. Back within the 1980s and 90s effects like old-fashioned skeuomorphism, 3D gradients, computer graphics and certain fonts were used excessively, which now makes these logos look particularly dated.

How to Avoid it –

If you’re handling an outdated logo, the simplest solution is to offer it a redesign to move it into the 21st century. Sure, retro design is on trend.

2. Too Long –

It’s not that detailed logos are bad, but they’re just not scalable. For large billboards, paintings or vehicle wraps, detailed logos are literally great. If those were the sole places, you’d display your logo, detailed logos would be the norm, but consider how often your logo appears on much smaller, harder-to-see surfaces.

The problem with detailed logos is that they appear awful on small screens like smartphones, also as certain swag and merchandise, like pens or maybe business cards.

How to Avoid it –

If you don’t want to abandon your detailed logo, you don’t need to. A perfectly feasible alternative is responsive logos—designing variant logos for smaller sizes. In other words, keep your detailed logo for giant placements, and have a special one for little placements.

3. Hazy –

Again, if your logo looks great but doesn’t say anything about your brand, it’s still a nasty logo design. One of the goals of logos is to elucidate who you’re and what you are doing, albeit it’s the primary time someone sees your logo. That’s tough, but some particularly bad logo designs offer no information in the least, with ambiguous company names and seemingly random images.

How to Avoid it –

Sometimes the foremost obvious solution is the best: during this case, just add a description! You don’t need to give your whole elevator speech, in fact, with logos, less text is more, but you’ll easily add a couple of words to elucidate what you can offer to customers, or at least your name.

4. Generic Logos –

Logos are best when they’re memorable, while generic logos, or perpetuating an equivalent trend and designs as everyone else, have the other effect. Do what everyone else is doing and there’s an honest chance someone will confuse your brand with another.

The thinking behind generic logos seems logical—copy the logos that folks already like. But after a couple of months or years, the market becomes flooded with logos that are all doing an equivalent thing, and logos that were once unique become nothing more than dime-a-dozen.

How to Avoid it –

The best thanks to safeguard against generic logos are to stay abreast on what everyone else is doing. Check out our guide generic logos to understand which trends are most overused and to-be-avoided.

As we mentioned above, generic logos often start out nearly as good logos, so you’ll not want to abandon all the trends just yet. Just make certain to feature something that stands out.

5. Confusing Design –

Logos with irrelevant images or conflicting themes, logos that artistic look good can still miss their mark with confusing and unconnected imagery. This is a standard problem in any artistic endeavor; what’s within the head of the creator doesn’t always occur to the viewer.

How to Avoid it –

Opt for clarity above all else. You can use any of the strategies we advise above, like familiar icons, easily identifiable images and little text descriptions. It’s always an honest idea to urge a fresh pair of eyes on a design before finalizing it. Creators tend to miss the trees for the forest, so an outdoor perspective can reveal what doesn’t encounter love.

6. Conflicting Themes –

Logos can help to set the frame of mind for your brand. If you’re a significant brand for serious people, you’ll use angular shapes and muted colors to seem more professional. If you’re a tech company striving to return across as futuristic, you’ll use imagery like wire circuits or astral grids to speak of that.

The trouble is when themes are mismatched and you’re building the incorrect feeling for your brand.

How to Avoid it –

Both your imagery and your idiom should echo your branding goals. Using universally-recognized icons and therefore the preferred themes of your clientele may be a short-cut to effective communication.

So these were the unrecognized mistakes that lead to bad logo design and one should avoid it by using these solutions.