Your web app’s user interface (UI) is the first thing that users will see and interact with, so it’s important to make a good impression. A well-designed web app UI design can help you attract and retain users, and even increase conversions. Here are 10 things to consider when designing a high-converting web app UI...
At kc web design Kent we build a lot of WordPress websites. Recently we’ve been doing a lot of WordPress website design and a lot of UI/UX design but haven’t done an Expression Engine websites design in a while. In my previous post I spoke about the fantastic Updater plugin for adding automated updates to Expression Engine.
In this post I’m going to talk about the plugins and modules we use at kc web design kent when we build an Expression Engine web design project. So, here’s the basic list then a small run through of each one…
kc web design Kent’s Expression Engine plugins for web designers
I’m only going to provide a brief overview of each plugin to keep this post as short as I can so if you need more info about each one head over to http://devot-ee.com
SEO Lite
A simple but effective solution for adding extra SEO options for titles and meta to each page/post in Expression Engine. It took a few tweaks to get the homepage and default options working but well worth a look.
CP analytics
Always a standard plugin we add at kc web design Kent, the Control Panel Analytics plugins does just that – it adds a panel to the dashboard so users can see their Google Analytics stats from within Expression Engine.
Developer button
This one we recently found and it’s very simple but works well for web designs while in a development website design. All it does is install a new nag link at the top of the admin that has a dropdown with all the most used things you’ll need while developing a site in Expression Engine. Very handy while developing!
Word-Limit
There are a few standard add-ons that you just can’r do a website design without and Word Limit is one of them. It does exactly what it says, limits words and comes in handy for news snippets and excerpts.
Freeform
Freeform seems to be the go-to solution for Expression Engine forms these days and for good reason. Its easy to use and setup and works very well.
Mountee
Now, Mountee isn’t so much a plugin, but it does need a plugin to work. Mountee is actually an app for Mac OSX that allows you to connect to your Expression Engine templates like you would via FTP so you can work on your templates in Coda or Espresso locally and when you save the files it automatically updates Expression Engine. It has changed the way we code templates at kc web design kent and makes life much, much easier than having to edit your templates from within the Expression Engine admin system. A must for any web design!
NSM override css
A quick simple change to make the Expression Engine admin control panel a bit more client/corporate friendly. Makes it look a bit better and comes in a choice of colours so you can fit it into your clients brand a bit better. And don’t forget to change the logo of Expression Engine to your clients on the login page for that added bit of customisation!
SG tagstripper
Another simple one. It strips tags from content and you can specify which ones to keep and which ones to strip which is very useful.
Wygwam 2.6.3
This is the first time I’ve used an extended rich text editor and this one is great. It adds a lot more features for the client to use and allows you to add custom styles to be selected from the RTE. One feature that has made a huge difference is being able to specify a style to be used that will style the contents of the text editor content which gives the user a way to preview advanced styles within the editor. Very useful for any content thats heavily styled and needs to be viewed by the user while editing.
Snaptcha
Captcha in Expression Engine has never been perfect. Snaptcha makes it a lot better and far less intrusive.
Columnbo
This plugin enables you to construct tables and lists from field types and makes outputting data in custom columns and tables very easy. You can even specify the tags to use which enables you to output any set of tags to create your layout. Very useful for pricing tables and grids of data.
MX cloner
Another simple but very useful plugin especially when developing a website design. It lets you clone a post or page with one click in the Expression Engine admin so duplicating pages is very easy.
Owner and Director at kc web design ltd
With over 20 years of experience in web design and development I've successfully led teams at both global tech companies, including Fujitsu, and my own ventures, such as kc web design ltd and music startup Go To Hear. As the Founder/Director
of kc web design ltd and Founder and CDO of Go To Hear, I have spearheaded the design and development of top-class website designs all over the world.
of kc web design ltd and Founder and CDO of Go To Hear, I have spearheaded the design and development of top-class website designs all over the world.
Latest posts by Paul Ledbrook (see all)
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