Month: August 2021

PSD to HTML
Insights

How to Convert PSD to HTML: Features and Steps

on August 26, 2021

Nowadays, the process of converting PSD to HTML isn’t new in the technology area. This is a quick way to add interactivity to static content. You can design first in any popular image editing tool, then convert to HTML. 

There are many approaches, including automated tools, self-coding, etc. The main thing is that you understand how to do this and what you need to pay attention to first of all dealing with templates. 

What is a PSD template? 

PSD template is a source code that is used for the layout of a full-fledged website. Such a sample contains the initial website’s elements size, layout, and design of all pages. 

If you want to create a high-quality PSD template, adhere to the following: 

  1. Create each design element on a separate layer  
  2. Use psd or tiff formats to save the template drawing (they support the multilayer structure of images) 
  3. Make the background tones of all website pages uniform 
  4. Group all layers 
  5. Use fewer background images so as not to overload the web pages 
  6. Make minimal changes to the text, as its distortion will increase PSD template weight 
  7. Size the template at least 1000 pixels in width to avoid its display distortion in the browser 
  8. Use standard fonts 

PSD into HTML: layouts steps 

Now, when we get acquainted with PSD layout, let’s see what stages the process of converting a PSD layout into an HTML consists of. 

Layout evaluation 

After creating the layout, it’s passed to the designers. They determine its complexity, how it should work, whether the page contains additional dynamic elements, etc. When the assessment is completed, it’s time to deal with the next step. 

Cutting design elements 

There are some nuances at this step. If you want all the elements to look good, their size in bytes or kilobytes must be small. The best way to save images is jpg, gif, or png formats. 

Layout 

At this stage, each designer applies a different layout method. Someone makes it semantic or first creates a frame with the main blocks, then each in detail separately. For others, it’s best to build all at once in order. 

Layout adjustment 

There is such a layout type as a pixel layout that is executed exactly according to the initial sample.  

It would be better if you check it against the layout, even when the customer doesn’t require an exact copy. 

Page cross-browser compatibility testing 

You need to test your website on how the site is displayed in browsers. The most popular ones worth checking out for are Chrome, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox. 

Bug fixing 

There are various reasons for bugs occurring – missing code elements, typos, ignorance of the features of browsers, etc. In any case, you should test your final product to ensure there are no bugs. 

Things to take into consideration when converting a PSD to HTML 

Layout types 

Before converting PSD to HTML, you need to decide on the type of layout. The choice depends on the device you want to display – mobile, desktop, or tablet. There are 4 types of layouts: 

  1. Responsive – great for desktops (shifts a web page layout) and mobile 
  2. Flexible – designed for desktops and mobile devices (when minimizing the browser or reducing the screen size) 
  3. Fixed – suitable only for desktops, because layout elements won’t move when the window is resized 
  4. Mobile-only 

Design components 

Analyze the structure of a web page: a logo, a header with an image, a navigation menu, flash animation, etc., a body with text content, and an authorization module. If you need to convert a PSD based on Photoshop, then make sure that all components are put together in a specific order and won’t distort the page appearance. 

Conclusion 

So now, you have a general basic understanding of the PSD to HTML conversion process. The main thing here is the quick process. However, don’t forget about the key points that will help you avoid mistakes and get the quality basic HTML code of a simple web page. 

Products

5 Business Tools You May Not Have Known Existed

on August 26, 2021

Technology is constantly changing and evolving. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the latest trends or even know specifics you don’t know about technology. Read on to understand a list of 5 business tools that may not be on your aware but are powerful and useful for modern-day business owners. 

GPS Tracker 

If you need an affordable way to manage your property, business, or even your company vehicles, then you need to know about GPS tracking. Tracking provides the ability to monitor one’s activities, and it has safety implications. Some GPS tracker has advanced tracking technology that keeps you in touch with your property without interruption. 

GPS tracking provides businesses with insight into their employees. Employees can record information regarding the company’s profitability, how well a product is selling, and whether the employees follow managerial decisions. This information will help an employer decide where to take the business to increase productivity and profitability. 

Google Sheet 

Google Sheets is a free and easy-to-use spreadsheet app from Google. It’s available on the web, an Android tablet app, and an iOS device app. With Google Sheets, you can create data tables to help analyze information or track trends over time. 

You can also use it to make charts and graphs for visualizing your data in new ways. You can also share those files with others, so they don’t have to enter the same data themselves—thus saving time and preventing errors along the way. Google Sheet will benefit your businesses by allowing you to save money by using fewer staff members for manual labor, such as entering data into spreadsheets one row at a time; this enables more efficient management of data and information by a few people. 

Slack 

Slack is a chat app for teams. It’s perfect for businesses that want to keep in touch with their clients, partners, and employees. Slack has Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS (iPad/iPhone), and web browser versions. 

With slack, you can receive notifications from your team members about what they’re working on or have done while keeping up-to-date using the instant message system. You can even share files easily without attaching them to an email or sending them as attachments. Slack benefits businesses by providing better communication between staff members and clients, leading to more efficient workflow. 

Microsoft Office 365 

Office 365 is an online subscription version of the Microsoft Office suite. It includes all the desktop applications you need to work with your employees from anywhere: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook. Office 365 benefits businesses by saving them money; they do not have to buy software or handle its maintenance and don’t have to provide the bandwidth for employees to download a huge file. 

Microsoft Office 365 benefits businesses by removing barriers between colleagues that would prevent them from communicating effectively. This way, your business will reduce costs by not sending business documents via email as attachments, which is time-consuming and costly. It will also help reduce costs by giving employees access to the tools they need from anywhere without purchasing individual licenses for Microsoft Office for each employee. 

Trello 

Trello is a free project management system that organizes your work into boards, lists, and cards. You can use it for anything from managing your household to running a company. With this tool, your employees will have the ability to collaborate on projects with their coworkers and share files easily without attaching them or sending them as attachments. The tool also makes it easy to add other users to your boards so that the whole team is working on the same thing together. 

Trello also helps small business owners stay organized while juggling all their responsibilities. This way, you will reduce costs by giving employees access to tools they need from anywhere without purchasing individual licenses for Microsoft Office for each employee. 

Closing Thoughts 

Whether you want to manage your team’s projects, track a shipment or keep tabs on the ever-growing number of social media channels out there, these five business tools can help. With all these tools, you will work smarter and make time for what is most important in your business. Using these tools, you will also keep track of where you are in relation to what needs to be done and assist those who need direction on how they should move forward with their work. 

Insights

Simple Ways Tech Can Help Automate Business Admin Processes

on August 21, 2021

Automating business admin processes can have a number of benefits for organisations, including reducing resource required, saving money, opening up capacity to take on additional, value added projects, as well as reducing the change of human error. Automating processes saves both time and money, key to keep an organization profitable and successful. 

Technological advances in the last few years have made automating processes much quicker, easier and cheaper, as well as simple to implement in organizations of any size. The automations can support with many different areas of the organization, and can be divided into core and support functions: core functions are those that generate income (i.e. the primary reason the business exists), and support functions are the ones that allow that core activity to happen, such as HR and finance functions. 

  • Customer Service 

A number of customer service processes can be automated without losing the human touch. In fact, automating the behind the scenes processes can free up more time for organizations to give their customers the personal, human touch.  

Systems can be implemented to provide an accurate and quick service at the initial stage, increasing customer satisfaction. More sophisticated software will also identify how customers like to be contacted, and additional follow up systems can keep customers warm, maximising sales potential and return on investment. 

  • Finance 

Organizations can use smart finance systems to monitor transfers of funds, payments from customers and payments internals and to third party suppliers. This overview across all platforms, such as digital wallets, bank transfers, credit and debit cards, and checks, means that it is much easier to spot if things go wrong. 

Quickbooks offers a range of options for businesses of any size to maximise their fraud prevention, thus minimising loss and insurance costs. By providing business with fraud-proof checks that offer protection against counterfeiting and tampering, they support with the other automated processes that limit the potential financial risks to organizations when dealing with multiple payment methods. 

  • Management 

By having automated systems in place to monitor time and attendance, leave, sickness and performance, managers are able to spend more time on value added activities with their teams. Not only are business costs better managed, a consistent approach is taken across the board to employee management, helping to boost morale.  

Additionally, at all management levels, it becomes possible to view areas of concern, where things are working well, and guide strategy going forward to help grow the business, and KPIs can be set in line with corporate strategy across the board. 

  • Increased Employee Productivity 

By automating repetitive processes not only is human error eliminated, but processes can also happen faster, as variations in speed due to staff morale, sickness and so on no longer impact these processes. It also means that as these things happen faster, the support activities that go alongside these can happen more swiftly and with greater certainty. For example, automating payroll means that amendments, which would need to be manually entered can be done more quickly and with greater accuracy. 

  • Staff retention 

By investing in technology, organizations better equip their employees to be successful, which tends to lead to a happier workforce that is less likely to leave. Investing in technology also signals to employees that the organization is current and keeping up with the competition, instilling confidence and loyalty from employees. Technology also provides flexibility for home or remote working, allowing a more flexible approach to work, improving the all-important work-life balance. 

Automation of certain processes can be hugely beneficial to organizations. Repetitive data-driven activities can be improved through the use of technology, eliminating human error and freeing up resource for other work. However, automation must not come at the expense of a tailored approach that supports all internal and external stakeholders. 

Digital Advertising
Insights

Top Tips for Successful Digital Advertising

on August 12, 2021

Using The Tools Available

Pay Per Click is PPC and Search Engine Optimization is SEO. Which will be best for you? It could be both. Usually, it will at least be one or the other. See, SEO applies even if you’re not specifically calibrating marketing for search engines. The way search engine algorithms works doesn’t care how or why you wrote content.

Because modern marketing must co-opt social media, there is a bit of a “system” in place. For example, if you’re on Facebook, and you just “share” something, there will be a limit to how “visible” it is. You might think this has to do with the ideological foundation of the statement, but not necessarily.

It seems outreach avenues like Facebook ads couldn’t compete if the field were entirely level. Test this for yourself. Make a post about something funny, make a post about something political, and make a post about some business pursuit you’re trying to build awareness around. Likely, the funny post will contend with the political post for prominence.

However, the post you made to advertise services or products will only get limited engagement. You will, though, see an ad to buy Facebook marketing for your “business” post. Accordingly, you can’t just trust in organic visibility on Facebook, and the same is true of YouTube. “Virality” isn’t as spontaneous as many would hope. In fact, on any social media avenue, relying on purely organic means of visibility likely won’t produce ROI.

ROI stands for Return On Investment. PPC and SEO can produce ROI, but they must be properly applied. With SEO, you want keywords, word choice, sentence size, paragraph structure, and imagery to align with known best practices. Said best practices shift as the “powers that be” intend.

To digitally advertise successfully, you must not only understand which avenues of outreach best match your business, but design associated content utilizing associated best practices such as using digital flyer, and those best practices change. With these things in mind, this writing will help you make the best choices for the digital marketing of your business.

MUST DO’S!

Personalize ads as much as possible – Drill down to what your prospects really want and need. Use messaging (their language) that will resonate with a specific problem – or personal interests like fitness – to grab and hold their attention.

Be creative! – If you want to catch the eye of prospects and customers and stand out from the competition, quit doing what everyone else is doing. Be bold and try different color schemes. Write headlines and copy that make people click on your ads. Like it or not, you must rise above the noise because ads are everywhere, and yours better be noticeable

Embrace data – Like it or not, data is a foundational piece to successful digital advertising. It doesn’t make sense to launch campaigns if you don’t understand the metrics, from exposure to visits, inquiries, leads, conversions, etc. See what patterns show up and adjust your plan and strategy accordingly.

Choose your platforms wisely – Focusing on one platform may not yield the best results, but focusing on too many produce unfavorable results. Learn where you target audience hangs out the most, and be on those platforms. Otherwise, you’ll waste your time, energy, and money.

Offer ungated content – The first impulse is to ‘gate’ content. However, decision-makers may not want to fill out another form and may go to your competitor who makes it easy for prospects and customers to get what they need and want. When reviewing your channels and funnel metrics, go outside of what looks successful because you may realize that you’ve been missing out on quality leads.

How to Use Google Analytics 4 Effectively – from Digital Marketing Consulting

The increasing importance of digital analytics tools needing to keep up to pace with changes in business and consumer behavior:

– Even the last standing bastions of brick and mortar are moving online and facing pressure to make sure their marketing budget is spent wisely.
– Major changes are seen in consumer behavior in the past two years, with mobile becoming the dominant method of doing research and shopping

Google is adapting to meet the needs of the current business environments and the people they serve. Hence, the launch of Google Analytics 4 came not just with a focus on helping businesses make better analytics-based decisions, but also with a focus on meeting consumer digital needs and their expectations of privacy.

Trends from Google’s data have shown that there have been significant shifts in the way consumers expect their online experience to be, as well as their perception of the way their data is being handled.

People are expecting their search intent to be understood by companies and at the same time, expect more transparency with how their data is used. These insights fueled GA4’s functionality which is to be a digital analytics tool that:

– Adapts to customers’ desire for privacy first
– Gives businesses a clearer picture of consumer behavior to help them adapt to their customers’ needs and gain long-term wins that improve the bottom line

Guide to Google Analytics 4 is here to help businesses ride the wave of change in their customers’ behavior and adapt to doing business post-pandemic. Here are a few quick points from Vidhya Srinivasan on how GA4 will help:

– Alerts on important trends where you need to take immediate action
– Predictive metrics to gauge the potential income from a specific customer group
– Google Ads integration
– App and web measurement in one platform
– Measurement that’s centered on the customer instead of by platform or device to gain a clearer picture of customers’ interaction with your business
– Simpler reports that will give you the ability to focus on specific parts of the customer journey
– Machine learning to help fill in the data gaps that come from the phasing out of cookies.

Retail Test automation
Development

Retail Test automation benefits that are generally neglected

on August 11, 2021

One of the most influenced industries with digital transformations is none other than the retail industry. The overall reputation of a retail organization is at stake and customer experience is at high risk when it comes to online commerce. But have you ever thought about what retail has to do with software and test automation solution?  Well, this makes sense. The importance of security testing either by manual or automation means is essential in order to prevent the high tech systems, software, applications, and websites from any malicious activity.  

Developing, testing, deploying, and maintaining IT-based solutions that can provide today’s shoppers with a seamless customer experience has become a very critical requirement of this modern age. E-commerce websites need to be constantly transformed to meet the demands of a highly competitive market.

Many retailers are now heading towards online stores because they think of online stores as a big financial hit for their respective businesses, yet they are unaware that online stores cannot guarantee success because these are the platforms or applications that are designed and run by imperfect creatures called humans. But if a business is successful in implementing best software testing policies and practices either via partnering with third parties for testing purposes.  

No doubt testing is essential but automation testing can bring wonders to your business if done accordingly. Various IT companies are providing automation testing services and selenium alternatives in this regard but you need to have an owl’s eye while deciding to partner with a third-party service provider. Because the more your application is safe, the more benefits you can reap.

Now let us direct you towards what automation has for retail businesses which many companies may neglect; 

Cost-cutting and time-saving – Retailers of today, are under increasing pressure to innovate quickly and deploy reliable and effective digital solutions. Software testing must be repeated frequently during the development cycle to ensure quality. Each time the source gets updated, software testing must be repeated on all supported operating systems and hardware configurations. Repeating these tests manually demands heavy costs and long durations as well. 

However, test automation drastically reduces the time and therefore results in relatively low costs.  

Enhanced precision – Even most serious testers make mistakes in dull and boring manual testing. Each time test automation is executed, it performs exactly the same steps and records detailed results. 

Testers freed from repeated manual testing have more time to create new test automation software scripts. For retailers, this means a few mistakes, better customer experience, and valuable brand protection, and potential sales growth. 

Deployment of seamless omnichannel – To improve the quality of software, the depth and scope of test scripts can be raised via automation testing. With the help of it, one can have an inside picture of the application and can also view the memory contents, data tables, file contents, and internal program status for the purpose of determining if the product is working as it was expected or not.  

Improved Security 

Mobile payment solutions, POS applications, and credit card mobile applications make retail companies easily exploitable to security threats. Hence, testers must pay attention to the performance analysis, authentication, and encryption of application to prevent these threats. Testers introduce a testing framework to increase security checks and used automated testing for this purpose. 

Integration across platforms and different parties 

A successful digital retail system demands integration between different parties and across various platforms. It is very challenging for testers to integrate several devices, applications, and networks. These challenges can vary from managing promotions on digital and physical platforms.  

Enabling Quick Feedback  

In the verification phase of any software project, automated testing is essential. It heavily improves the communication between developers, designers, and product merchants, and leaves room for immediate resolution of potential failures, thereby improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the development team. 

Conclusion 

With the transformation in the digital world, the retail business has become too complicated. Every feature of the digital system or software application requires careful and rigorous testing. That’s why automation testing has a prominent and significant role. Automation aids in the improvement of user experience reduces threats and security vulnerabilities and enables high-quality software development to gain as much as possible from the retail sector. There is an utmost need to utilize automated testing as the top-notch preferred method to defeat the challenges faced by testers. It can be absolutely concluded that automation testing has revived the retail sector and is of great importance for testers to help them to achieve their objectives without any hassle of heavy investments.