News
Coronavirus Update: AtmoVantage Operations Not Affected
As businesses across the United States are forced by the government to close operations I just wanted to take a moment to communicate to my current and potential clients that AtmoVantage remains unaffected by any government-mandated closures. Fortunately, my business...
How to Reset WordPress Websites Quickly (Including Multisite)
Life has no CTRL+Z, but thankfully, your WordPress site does. Whether you want to test various themes and plugins quickly, or you just want to wipe the slate clean and start over, resetting your WordPress site is the way to go. Deleting WordPress and re-installing it...
Notice About $0 Credit Card Charge
Original Notice date: February 8th, 2020 5:00pm EST Updated Notice date: February 10th, 2020 1:00pm EST Recently AtmoVantage was made aware that some people had a $0 transaction on their credit card statements from "ATMOVANTAGE". Upon learning of this activity an...
How To Create A WordPress Quiz That Delights Your Audience And Drives Sales
Throw out your downloadable e-books and checklists… interactive quizzes are the new way to engage with your audience, collect qualified leads and drive more sales for your business. Who doesn’t love a good online quiz? Whether it’s the challenge of...
The Top 13 WordPress Page Builders Compared (2019)
Say you’re planning to bake a pizza. What will the base, sauce, cheese, and toppings be? Thin or thick crust? Marinara or pesto sauce? Mozzarella, cheddar or Parmesan cheese? Pepperoni, mushrooms, anchovies? And let’s not even talk about pineapple here!...
How To Increase Your Newsletter Sign Ups And Reduce Unsubscribes
Creating an email newsletter can be a great way to provide valuable content for your customers and build a loyal following. The challenge is convincing someone to open their inbox to you in an overcrowded digital world… Start an email newsletter they...
Is WordPress An Actual Content Management System (CMS)?
Have you ever been at a party and heard someone (who’s probably had a few too many) blurt out that WordPress isn’t an actual CMS, and you then get incensed (probably because you’ve had a few too many too!) and an overwhelming need to step in and...
The Definitive Free WordPress Plugins List (2019)
Ever wondered if you can make your car fly? Perhaps, all you need is a set of wings, a new engine, a control stick, and air safety features. While I can’t guarantee that your car will fly after those upgrades, the right set of plugins can definitely skyrocket...
How To Create A Real Estate Website In WordPress That Gets Results
Building a badass real estate website in WordPress is no easy feat. But with the help of a few specialised themes and plugins, along with some knowledge of what makes a winning real estate website… you’ll be well on your way to creating a clean,...
Why Running A University Website Using WordPress Is Not Up For Academic Discussion
An introduction to WordPress in Higher Ed. School and university websites are about as challenging of a web design and development project as you could ever take on. A university website not only has to attract and recruit new students, it also needs to serve the...
The Beauty Trap in Design
I’m a sucker for beauty. It shames me to admit it, but my favorite experience as a UX professional isn’t solving problems for the user, or knowing that I contributed to a ten percent increase in the client’s conversion rate. My favorite experience, and maybe some of...
The value of quick visual storytelling
Story telling matters as a foundational part of communication between people. You can tell stories by writing, speaking, filming, drawing, coding, and much more. When dealing with humans, assume miscommunication. If you’re trying to explain something, part...
A widget becomes a block
For the past few months we’ve been converting WooCommerce widgets in WordPress to blocks. Widgets allow you to add a small feature, such as a paragraph of text, onto your website. I recently did a talk at WooSesh where I went over the work we’ve been...
Synthesizing usability test results
This week we got another usability study in the books by testing the most recent iteration of our signup and onboarding flow. Thanks to some help from our design operations team I was able to pull it off without a hitch. All I had to do was fill in a request, slightly...
Offline Principles
Cowritten with Megs Fulton Many of us design and build apps in air-conditioned offices in major cities, using the latest devices with perfect internet connections. We don’t often think about how apps should work without a strong internet connection. ...
What is a Creative Technologist?
Within Automattic Design, we have two communities of practice: “creative technology” and “product experience”. Every designer falls into one of these two communities. Having this distinction helps us to create balanced teams, as well as sharpen...
🌶 Spicy topics
Recently, the design team I lead was going through a period of low morale. I noticed this through conversations in 1-1s, our team Slack channel, and most notably in our team meetings. The designers were all working on some very big product problems and while the work...
Design Collaboration Meetup
Last week we held our first “Design Collaboration Meetup” connecting across product, dev, support, marketing, and human resources. And of course … design! At the gathering we were able to distribute our new playbooks and connect IRL in super...
Product Experience and Creative Technology Design Playbooks
You can visit our two new design playbooks up online over at: productexperienceplaybook.org Product experience design is the practice of creating products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to users. This practice begins with a deep understanding of user...
On sharing mistakes
At the end of every week, my boss asks us to write down a lesson we learned. Mine are usually due to a slip up I made. Here’s how it goes: I make a mistake, apologize to the person, and end up saying something along the lines of: “I should have done x,...
