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4 Apps Freelancers Need to Download Today

Many people dream of becoming freelancers because they want more freedom in their lives. Working as a freelancer can do that, but it comes with its own set of challenges. Luckily, you can get support from your mobile device. Just make sure you get these four apps freelancers need to download today.

Wunderlist

Image via Google Play

Operating system: Android and iOS

Price: Free, but in-app purchases are available

A successful freelancer usually has to juggle jobs from multiple clients. As someone running your own business, you want as much work as possible. That’s how you meet your financial goals and grow your reputation. At times, though, keeping track of your assignments is difficult. Wunderlist is a list-making app that will help you stay organized so you never miss another deadline.

Some helpful extra features include:

• Alarms that remind you of deadlines
• Collaboration tools so you can work with clients and colleagues
• Hashtags so you can organize your lists easily

Productivity Challenge Timer

Image via Google Play

Operating system: Android

Price: Free, but in-app purchases are available

Working as a freelancer gives you a lot of freedom to choose projects that interest you and to set your own hours. Sometimes, though, your lazy side will try to undermine your ambitious side. Unfortunately, that can happen when you’re trying to beat a tight deadline.

The Productivity Challenge Timer makes it easier to avoid distractions by encouraging you to focus on work. Productivity Challenge Timer is loosely based on the Pomodoro Technique, which breaks lengthy chores into smaller components so you can remain focused. It’s hard to stay on task when you’re writing a lengthy article that will take three hours. Breaking the assignment into 25-minute chunks, however, makes it relatively easy.

The Productivity Challenge Timer makes Pomodoro more fun by adding wacky alarms and irreverent titles. If you don’t meet your goals, your rating will eventually fall to Unrepentant Slacker.

FreshBooks

Operating system: Android and iOS

Price: Memberships start at $12.95 per month

Just because you’re a great writer, illustrator, or photographer doesn’t necessarily mean you have the accounting skills you need as a freelancer. That’s why you need an app like FreshBooks, which comes with several useful features to help you:

• Create and send invoices to your clients
• Accept credit card payments
• Track your business expenses
• Determine how much time you spend on certain tasks
• Generate reports for payments collected, taxes, and other subjects

You’ll need a smartphone with a large, high-definition display to make the most of these features. The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge has a 5.5″ Quad HD Super AMOLED screen that’s perfect for filling out forms accurately.

FreshBooks is clearly designed to make accounting easy for people who don’t want to spend much time going through records or doing math. Much of it is automated, so you can spend your time working on assignments that earn you money instead of wasting effort trying to get paid.

Shake

Operating system: Android and iOS

Price: Personal use is free. Professional accounts start at $10 per month.

Legally binding agreements make it possible for you to hold clients accountable for payment. Hiring a lawyer, however, costs so much that few freelancers will bother taking that step. With Shake, you get the benefit without the expense.

Shake gives its members access to a large library of agreements, contracts, and other legal documents. Freelancers should pay particular attention to documents that:

• Describe payment terms
• Name the owner of creative work
• Create an independent contractor relationship
• Prevent parties from sharing proprietary information

Shake is free for personal use, which means you get to use its starter forms to create, sign, and send agreements to your clients. Professional memberships start at $10 per month. By upgrading to a pro account, you can:

• Personalize and brand your agreements
• Get unlimited access to Shake’s library
• Attach photos to your agreements

The apps you download to your phone can make your life a lot easier. Whether you’re an established freelancer or you’re trying to start a new career, it’s worth adding these apps to your mobile device.

How to Create Amazing Infographics

Infographics are a highly popular and effective content marketing tool. While plenty of brands are sharing generic blog content to gain visibility, infographics combine eye-catching graphics with understandable text, to help educate and engage consumers. Thanks to the current surge of internet content and these past few years of technological advancement, average humans now have an attention span shorter than that of a goldfish. This is making visual content even more essential for capturing people’s attention.

It should not come as a shock that high-quality infographics are shared more than any other type of content. So if your goal is to provide quality and value to your audience, rather than generic clickbait, creating infographics might be the way to go.

To successfully market using infographics, you must first come up with a good topic. You can then begin your research, finding the right facts and statistics. Once you’ve gathered a variety of compelling facts and stats, you’re ready to craft them into a powerful narrative. Your text is there to support the visual elements without distracting from them. Once you’ve created a compelling narrative, you can then move onto your design style. It’s important for the design to be clear while still getting the data across.

If you want to get started creating your own amazing infographics, check out the information below and get working!

Visit Copypress to learn more about infographics.

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Seven UX Design Misconceptions That Simply Aren’t True

This is an old article from last year, but still on point!

As more experts and enthusiasts flood the UX world each year with new ideas, processes, and proposed regulations, it has become more and more difficult to discern legitimate modern UX concepts from fluffy ones. A career in user experience involves creating designs, making tough choices, and, most importantly, learning from one’s mistakes. After all, one can build a design around the idea of fixing mistakes. While a new idea might sound appealing, it does not make it a true UX standard. More often than not, mistakes become designs.

Have we been exposed to too many fancy concepts that simply aren’t true? Here are some of the common misconceptions and mistakes found in modern design and how to avoid them.

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What Super Mario Taught Us About UX

By Ward Andrews

Super Mario Bros. was the game that changed everything. It was the first game I’d rather play at home than in the arcade. It was “long format”, meaning you could race through the game if you knew all the secrets or, if you wanted to show off, you could dig in and try to complete every level of every world, collect every coin, and even access hidden warp zones and negative worlds. Some die-hards have even figured out how to play the game in a way that re-writes the software itself.

I was so excited about Super Mario Bros. and the Nintendo Entertainment System, that I sold my entire Star Wars and G.I. Joe collection to scrape up enough money get it. Talk about commitment.

But what a payoff in terms of entertainment and, inadvertently, learning principles that are integral to modern UX planning, design and execution. Here’s what my 10,000 hours with Mario taught me about UX design.

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