For every web designer, having a selection of pre-designed and editable web UI elements is key to organizing and optimizing work-flow. Not only do web UIs allow you to rapidly prototype multiple web pages with uniformity, they also aid your personal creativity by having each elements basic structure in-place allowing you to give each your own personal design touches.
In this post we have 50 beautifully designed and editable pre-designed Web UI kits, all in .psd format, covering all of the major UI requirements of the modern web designer. You will find some basic kits that are perfect for small projects and we also have a huge selection of individual elements covering the more specialized areas of web design, including: Galleries, lightboxes, audio/video controls and players, calendars, specialized forms (contact, search, login…), progress bars, alert boxes… and much, much more.
Although this package is called ‘Button collection’, it also consists of many varied web element templates including: menus, media players, orbs and much more. Download Page →
This is a useful resource for all Photoshop using web designers. Its basically a blank template for Photoshop, it consists of one master PSD file, folders properly made (and editable), assets and grid folders and layer comps that are ready to use. Download Page →
When considering papercraft, your first thought will most likely be of all that boring stuff you made in school, like paper flowers, printable seasonal cards or even scrap-booking. It doesn’t exactly sound like a hobby that stimulates much excitement, for the most of us anyway. How wrong you are.
In actual fact, papercraft can be really cool and loads of fun, especially when you build one of the geeky printable templates we have for you in this post. Can’t afford a Mac? Build your own paper version. Into vintage gaming? Build your own pinball machine or classic arcade cabinet. Huge Star Wars fan? Build your own TIE fighter, AT-AT or even the Millenium Falcon. Into Angry Birds? Why not create your own table-top version. In awe of the Taj Mahal? Build your own. The list goes on and on… You’ll love them.
All of the papercraft templates below, which may at first appear to be quite elaborate, are very easy to build. All you will need is a printer, a craft knife (I used scissors and a steak knife for my R2-D2, worked great) and maybe some glue (to reinforce the interlocking tabs), and you are good to go. Have fun :)
These fabulous all classic mini pinball tables, available in many different designs (Terminator 2, Medieval Madness, Indiana Jones…), are very easy to build. You just need download the plans, print, cut-out and build. 2 images Template Download Page →
You could have your own Desktop Arcade Machine model in under an hour. Just download and print off the plans on to normal printer paper. The model comes in various sizes, and there is a choice of either a .pdf version and a .jpg version. Template Download Page →
All of these papercraft templates have been designed by CyberDrone and are available to download from Deviantart. There are 108 templates to choose from including all 11 doctors, various Tardis designs, Daleks and much more. Template Download Page →
Famous Monuments and Buildings Papercraft Templates
This huge selection of classic cars templates, from kamigei.com, includes various models from Japan, Germany, Italy and Great Britain. Here are a couple of examples: Classic Cars from kamigei.net →
Who understands the phenomenon that is Angry Birds? Anyway, if you would like to recreate your own 'Angry Birds' scene why not download these templates that are available from Little Plastic Man. Angry Birds Papercraft Templates →
Mobile browsing clearly does have its limitations, mainly from its smaller physical design, but it also limited by web sites not having a mobile version tailored for the smaller screen. Current mobile web browsing stats stands at 4.5% of total world-wide internet usage and, with the prediction for the next five years being that more users will connect to the internet over mobile devices than desktop computers, it is now time to act and make your website mobile friendly.
Of course, it does depend on the size and complexity of your site, but creating a mobile version of your site does neither have to be over-expensive nor very time-consuming, especially if your site has been built using WordPress. As everybody knows, WordPress is by far and away the most popular CMS, and with it comes a thriving community of designers and developers that constantly push its boundaries further and ever-more improving its functionality. Its community has realized for some time that the mobile phenomenon has been coming, and as such does have a multitude of themes, plugins and resources available that will help you create a mobile version of your site with the minimum of fuss.
In this article, Mobile Toolbox for WordPress, we highlight themes (free and premium), plugins and easy-to-follow tutorials that will help you create a mobile version of your site.
Despite its name iPhonsta does not exclusively only work on the iPhone, it works on most mobile devices, like Android, Palm Pre and Blackberry. The theme has a fluid layout, configures the font size automatically and is WordPress 3 compatible. iPhonsta Home →View the Demo →
This basic free theme works in conjunction with the Smooci (WordPress on Mobiles) plugin which is used to display the mobile optimised theme when your WordPress site is visited via a mobile device. Smooci 2 Home →View the Demo →
This is a minimalistic and lightweight theme that will fit perfectly with all the mobile phones resolutions. The three key features of this theme are: You can choose your own theme color from the theme options; The theme can have 100% width if you want the theme to fit on every mobile phone, or you can define a fixed width in pixels to target special users; The front page will dynamically create thumbnails for your posts. WordPress Mobile Theme Home →View the Demo →
Built with the incredible jQuery Mobile plugin, this theme is perfect for those who want to make a good looking and easy to read version of their blog. It uses most of jQuery Mobile features to guarantee an optimal ease of reading on mobile devices such as the iPhone, Blackberry or Android. jQuery Mobile Home →View the Demo →
Mobius is a feature rich free theme that is compatible with all touchscreen mobile phones (iPhone & iPod Touch, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Palm Pre, Symbian…). It comes packaged with three variations (Sky Blue, Amethyst & Rain Forest), its widget ready, native support of non-web fonts (@font-face) and also has optional Twitter and Facebook icons. Mobius Home →
The dotMobi WordPress Mobile Pack is a complete toolkit from dotMobi to help mobilize your WordPress site and blog. It includes a mobile switcher to select themes based on the type of user that is visiting the site, a selection of mobile themes, extra widgets, device adaptation and a mobile administration panel to allow users to edit the site or write new posts when out and about. The dotMobi WordPress Mobile Pack →
Carrington Mobile is an elegant mobile theme with that supports advanced touch browsers (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Pre) and is also backward compatible with older mobile devices. Carrington Mobile Home →View the Demo →
A beautiful 4 in 1 theme (Blackboard, Wood, Leather, Nature), with 2 widget ready areas, gestures based navigation and auto-resizes images. Automatic detection if a user visits your website from an iPhone and iPod touch, thanks to its built-in plugin that comes packed with the theme. Price: $22 touchPress Home →
1stGiantLeap Mobile is a HTML5 /CSS3 template tuned to look perfect in mobile browsers. The markup is device orientation (landscape/portrait) sensitive, so when you change device orientation by rotating it 90 degrees CW or CCW this template will look nice. Price: $15 1ST Giant Leap →
WPtouch 2.0 Pro allows you to setup a feature-rich and fast version of your website for touch-mobile devices with just a few clicks. It does come packaged with a wide variety of pre-built themes, or you could build your own custom theme with WPtouch’s Skeleton theme template. It scales post images, captions and videos automatically and breaks up content with ‘Load More’ links that use ajax to make browsing easier for visitors. Price: Its FREE for the basic version, $39 for Pro, $69 for the Pro 5 pack and $199 for the full developer pack. WPtouch 2.0 Pro Home →
Mobility is an iPad-ready WordPress theme with finger sliding capabilities and a custom drag-and-drop gallery admin. Both the regular and iPad versions have seven color options and the choice between a single or three-way JavaScript slider on the homepage. The iPad version can switch between portrait and landscape mode upon rotation. Price: $30. Mobility WordPress Theme for Web and iPad Home →View the Demo →
Obox Mobile is a WordPress Mobile Theme Framework that gives your site a unique and beautiful layout which is compatible for mobile devices. Obox Mobile comes packaged with two Obox Themes (MobiLight & MobiDark) as well as WooMobile from WooThemes. We currently use Obox Mobile for Speckyboy. Price: $50. WordPress Mobile Theme Framework Home →View the Demo →
Simple Mobile is feature-rich theme that works parallel with another theme and presented to mobile users only. It comes with 8 color schemes, collapsible multi-level menu, WP 3.0 custom menus support, 43 social media icons, a slick Twitter implementation (optimized for speed) and much more. Price: $20. Simple Mobile Home →View the Demo →
PadPressed functions as a WordPress plugin and allows publishers to take their content and make it perfectly formatted for the iPad. The most important aspect of PadPressed is its 100% design for the tablet touch experience. Each skin plays to a specific touch dynamic. SwipePad focuses on swiping to advance and a swipe featured slider. It notices the orientation (portrait or landscape) of a reader’s iPad. Price: $49 for a single license and $149 for a developer license. VIDEO PadPressed Home →View the Demo →
The My Mobile Page WordPress Theme is a minimal mobile WordPress theme with a modern look and a lot of cool features. This theme can be used for personal mobile pages, web designers mobile pages, artists mobile pages and many other. The theme use automatic resolution detection so you can use for small screen resolutions and bigger resolutions. Price: $20 My Mobile Page Home →View the Demo →
This is a joint collaboration between WPtap (plugin developers) and Press75 (theme developers) to release a mobile version of the video theme On Demand, providing a fully featured video solution for mobile platforms. Price: On Demand Mobile for $49, or with On Demand iPad for $90.00 On Demand Mobile Home →View the Demo →
Tap News is an iphone-app style mobile plugin/theme package that instantly converts your wordpress site into a mobile web-application experience. It is specially designed for iPhone/iPod touch, Android, and Blackberry touch mobile device. The theme features elegant iPhone-style sliding layout, and it will truly turn your site into a mobile application. Other features include thumbnail pictures, full support for twitter, social bookmarking, and email. Price: $49 Tap News Home →View the Demo →
iBusiness is a website template designed especially for the iPhone/iPod. It comes with 9 different themes, 3 page templates, 3 widget areas, PSD source files, Twitter stream, and much more. Price: $15. iBusiness Home →View the Demo →
The Video Tube theme is specifically designed for video blogging and content sharing on your mobile site. It fully supportsthe iPhone/iPod Touch, Android, and touch-based Blackberry devices. With all WordPress features and customized insertion functions, it makes adding Youtube and MP4 videos to your mobile site exetremely easy. Price: $49. Video Theme Home →View the Demo →
Sofa iBloggr perfectly fits to the iPhones 320px wide screen without the need for screen orientation switch. You can easily turn this theme into Blog + Flickr + Twitter mashup. iBloggr supports widgets, it has a built-in Plugger system, almost everything can be controlled from theme options page – including quick translation table, image size, Post excerpt length… Price: $15. SOFA iBloggr Home →View the Demo →
The News Gallery theme is designed with the photography blogger in mind featuring frontpage slideshow, thumbnail picture and gallery style layout options. It is the perfect choice for image-centric and magazine style WordPress websites. It comes with six stylish colors designed to fit your sites’ unique profile and style. Price: $49 News Press Mobile Theme Home →View the Demo →
iWorld is a jQuery powered feature-rich mobile theme. It comes with 10 color schemes, built-in slider & contact form (including validation plugin), Twitter & Flickr widget, a selection of social icons and comes with PSD source. Price: $25. iWorld Home →View the Demo →
MobilePress – Enable The Mobile Web → MobilePress is a free open source plugin that is flexible in that it allows you to customize your mobile presence by creating your own themes, creating themes for specific mobile browsers (iPhone and generic devices) and also allowing you to decide when to display your mobile blog.
WPmob Lite → WPmob automatically transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application-style theme, complete with ajax loading articles and effects, when viewed from an iPhone, iPod touch, Android, Opera Mini, Palm Pre, Samsung touch and BlackBerry Storm/Torch mobile devices. The admin panel allows you to customize many aspects of its appearance, and deliver a fast, user-friendly and stylish version of your site
WP Mobile Detector → WP Mobile Detector is a simple plugin that automatically detects standard and advanced mobile devices and displays a compatible WordPress mobile theme.
Mobile Kit → MobileKit is a small WordPress plugin created to make the development of WP mobile themes and apps simple, allowing theme designers to create more immersive user experiences across platforms and devices.
BAAP Mobile Version → The BAAP Mobile Version is a complete toolkit to help mobilize your WordPress site and blog. It includes a mobile switcher to select themes based on the type of user that is visiting the site, a selection of mobile themes, extra widgets, device adaptation and a mobile administration panel to allow users to edit the site or write new posts when out and about.
BuddyPress Mobile → This is a Mobile BuddyPress theme that has been optimized for viewing onthe iPhone and iPod Touch, and will also work on Android and some Blackberry devices.
Making your WordPress Blog Android and iPhone Friendly → This article is intended for those who already have a web or WordPress background. If you don’t quite understand how to put together your own templates, this detailed tutorial may not for you.
Mobile Browser Detection → This tutorial covers everything you will need to know about mobile browser detection covering a spectrum of various options, including a WP solution and a PHP solution.
Detect Mobile Browsers – Mobile User Agent Detection → This PHP function lets you choose how to manage your mobile visitors, they can be redirected to a page built for mobiles or you can use it to decide which markup language and stylesheet to show that user.
Add a Mobile Landing Page to Your Site → This tutorial isn’t about creating an entire mobile version of your site, instead it is a means of offering a quick introduction to visitors from the mobile world before passing them through through to your main site.
The wireframing process is the straight-to-the-point and completely non-tech stage of any web project. It only requires that you define a skeletal outline of essential page elements such as headers, footers, navigation and content area and should illustrate how to cater and respond to any possible interaction from a user. It is the most important, yet underused, stage of any web or apps development.
There are several avenues you could take for sketching a wireframe, most notably pen and paper (the easiest and most cost effective way), but for the sake of this article we have focused on apps that are not only highly effective and easy to use, they are also completely free.
We have covered free wireframe apps before (here), but a year is a long time in web development – some of the apps we had previously covered are either no longer completely free or are no longer available. And as such, we felt that we should compile a new list with more detail and covering all areas of design including web pages, mobile apps and application dev. As well as showcasing a variety of free apps (11 in total), at the bottom of the post, we have also highlighted some premium wireframing services that do offer free, yet limited, options. You may like to try them.
With Lumzy, you can create mockups of how your site or application will function by adding events from the extensive list of controls on offer. As well as having great tools for creating your mockup, you can also create Message Alerts, interactive Page Navigation, add Links to external content, and much more. It does offer a great set collaboration tools for live team editing and a chat engine for deliberating over designs. All of this and it is absolutely FREE. Lumzy Homepage →View Editor →
Mockup Builder has just recenly been released and looks very promising. It is feature-rich and versatile by allowing you create various prototyping styles, including: UI mockups, interactive wireframes, website layouts, desktop software prototypes and even sitemaps & screen navigation. Of course, it does come with great collaboration tools for sharing with clients and colleagues. And yes, it is completely FREE. Mockup Builder Homepage →View Editor →
The idea behind Tiggr (currently in beta) is to give you the resources needed to create prototypes (for web, app or mobile) that look and feel like the final product. It allows you to design from a large number of components, share (via email, Twitter or Facebook), you can collaborate with any number of users and will generate an HTML/JS/CSS so that you can preview your UI mockups very quickly. A 10 second registration (email & password) is the only thing you have to go through to use this fantastic FREE tool. Tiggr Homepage →
Frame Box does not have an extensive list of features (like the web based apps above). You can drag and drop, re-size and copy/paste the UI units, but its main focus, and why we like it so much, is that it allows you to create your mockup/prototype very, very quickly by using its very easy to use drag and drop interface. Again, this app is FREE and only requires a quick registration. Frame Box Homepage →
SimpleDiagrams (free version) is a tiny Adobe Air app that helps you express your design ideas quickly and simply. Drag & drop symbols from its libraries, add images or post-notes, export as a PNG are all of its features, adding up to just just enough functionality to create a decent mockup. SimpleDiagrams Homepage →
With iPhone Mockup you have a choice of using either the Pencil styled editor (screenshot above) or the Illustration editor (screenshot below). Whichever editor you decide to use, the functionality remains the same: Its a very simple and easy to use app that allows you to create your own iPhone mockups very quickly, share them with other people at the click of a button, and any changes you make will by synced to everyone who has the mockup’s URL. iPhone Mockup Homepage →Illustration Editor →Pencil Editor →
fluidIA is a downloadable web based design tool for prototyping rich user interfaces. It allows for rapid refinement and exploration of concepts using an object-oriented approach to design. The original idea behind fluidIA is to discover whether a group of interaction designers, IA’s, UX professionals and developers can create there own prototyping tool in an open way. Progress on FluidIA has been a little bit slow recently, but the actual app works perfectly for designing a wireframe mockup. fluidIA Homepage →Fluidia (GitHub) →
Pencil Project is a free and opensource Firefox addon for designing GUI prototypes. With its built-in stencils you can create linked multi-page UI documents and finally export your mockup in either HTML, PNG, Openoffice.org document, Word document or PDF. What more would you want from a wireframing app? This truly is an essential Firefox extension that any serious developer or designer should use. Pencil Project Homepage →Screenshots →
CogTool is a FREE and powerful general purpose UI prototyping tool with a difference – it automatically evaluates your design with a predictive human performance model (a “cognitive crash dummy”). You simply create a storyboard of your design idea with sketches, images or on a canvas with CogTool’s widgets, demonstrate tasks on that storyboard, then press a button to produce a valid cognitive model predicting how long it will take a skilled user to complete those tasks. CogTool offers a lot of support via its extensive user guides, step-by-step tutorials (video and articles), its forum and also offers example files to help you get started. CogTool Homepage →
Prototype Composer makes it possible to simulate how an application will look and function before any code is ever written. Instead of endless text entries, complex data hierarchies, or too technical UML diagrams, Serena Prototype Composer makes it easy for business users and business analysts to collaborate on requirements by building simple, high fidelity prototypes that simulate a working application. It is a tool for prototyping data, processes, activities and most importantly, user interfaces. The application also works as a fairly easy to use Project Management tool. The Community Edition is its free version which allows users to work in a sample project as well as in one user-defined project. Prototype Composer Homepage →
DUB – DENIM (Standalone Application for Win, Linux & Mac)
DENIM is a free desktop application that is available for Windows, Unix, and Mac OS X. DENIM describes itself as “an Informal Tool For Early Stage Web Site and UI Design”. It combines many of the benefits of paper-based sketching with existing electronic prototyping tools. It allows designers to quickly sketch an interface, preserving the important properties of pencil and paper: a rough drawing can be produced quickly and the medium is flexible. However, unlike a paper sketch, this electronic sketch is interactive and can easily be annotated and modified. DUB – DENIM Homepage →
Premium Wireframe/Prototype Apps with a Free Option Available
All of the Wireframe/Prototype/Mockup web-based applications below are premium services that do offer a free, yet limited, option. You may like to try them:
We have another amazing freebie for you today — a completely free single-page HTML5 portfolio template and all of the accompanying PSDs. It has been jointly designed by Hannah Milan & Joefrey Mahusay and is a beautifully crafted template perfect for any creative designer as a means of displaying their portfolio. This template is also a great exercise in practical and semantic HTML5, it is well worth downloading, dissecting and experimenting with the code.
This template has been licensed with a GPL General Public License, meaning you can freely use this theme for both personal and business use with no limitations.
Templates Features
This free single-Page HTML5 template would work perfectly for web designers, photographers and graphic designers as a means for displaying their portfolio. Have a look at just some of its features below:
• HTML5 website powered by Semantics and CSS3/Styling
A big thank you to Hannah Milan and Joefrey Mahusay for designing this template for us. They are both the founders and creators of HTML5beauty.net (a gallery of beautiful sites that use HTML5), SubmitQuickly (a service for to help your site gain exposure and link building) and WebDesignerAid.
Although this package is called ‘Button collection’, it also consists of many varied web element templates including: menus, media players, orbs and much more.
This is a useful resource for all Photoshop using web designers. Its basically a blank template for Photoshop, it consists of one master PSD file, folders properly made (and editable), assets and grid folders and layer comps that are ready to use.
