Top 12 Inspiring and Well-Designed Wordpress Blogs

With a vast number of WordPress hosting providers, beginners can get the extra help they need to build their blogs. And these people are discovering that WordPress is capable of so much when it comes to the visual design. There are already tons of free beautiful themes to choose from. What's more, there are many WordPress site builders that either are given out by WordPress hosting providers or can be found on the official WordPress site. Here's a list of 12 inspiring and well-designed WordPress blogs to help you make your design choices.

1. Mashable

At first glance, Mashable looks like a very content heavy blog that's hard to navigate. But when you continue looking at it, it's incredibly well designed. Mashable uses three columns to categorize their content. The newest posts are on the left, rising posts are on the middle and the hottest posts are on the right. The hottest posts are of course the biggest posts in the layout. A good amount of space is used between each post and the navigation is very clean and simple design.

2. Greenwich Live

Public service websites are known for having a reputation for ugly design. But Greenwich Library's site is outstandingly well done. The navigation icons and menu are very modern. The layout is very clean and well organized. The tutorial is taken from the pages of many popular app products. The focus of this site is largely on the user experience. Every part of the site feels intuitive and easy to use.

3. Travel Portland

Travel Portland is a tourism-based site designed to get people to visit the beautiful state. The big theme for this site is fun and interactivity. The site is visually driven and asks the users to click around the various photos to see what's going on in Portland and discover all the activities they can partake in. More importantly, it's fun. You can browse listings of seasonal events, top Instagram pictures and blog posts which are all accompanies by beautiful photos. The site does an amazing job in convincing the user to come visit.

4. Jess Mark's Photography

Jess Mark's Photography site uses a whimsical animated header done in the sketch style. It features a unique fun font, large navigation menus and neutral palettes to put the focus on the content and photos. Users are invited to browse photos on weddings, photo boots and portraits with big bold icons following the introduction. Sometimes a simple and well-executed blog style site is all you need.

5. Yoke

Yoke is a creative studio that runs a fun blog. The site uses a cool sketch animation as their hero image. From there, you are presented with a very minimalist three column post blog with great leading images. What really surprises you is the load out graphics when you go into a post. The blog succeeds with this minimalist approach due to small elements that make it stand out and engage the user.

6. Tinkering Monkey

Tinkering Monkey is a signage company that uses WordPress and a blog style design format to market their products. The first thing that you notice when you land on the site is the animated image that shows how they make the signs. This is followed by big and bold photos of completed projects. This simple layout shows that sometimes the design can be lead by the quality of your images.

7. Fubiz

Fubiz is a site that covers photography, art and design. As a result, their blog is very visually driven. They break down their blog into multiple sections. Each section is designed with a different photo in the background with accompanying posts. What Fubiz does well is using multiple layouts on one page. They arrange their photos and posts in a way that allows you to really appreciate them and makes you want to click on them.

8. Tesco

Tesco is a lifestyle blog that uses a four column card based design as a layout. The blog is very simple and features high-quality photography to drive clicks. The posts are organized by different categories which you can click on the top of the page. This creates a very organized and simple way to browse the blog.

9. Innocent Drinks

The Innocent Drinks blog uses a simple design and layout which makes the site very accessible and easy to use. The design is simple at first glance but then you start to notice all the little things that give this blog a big personality. Everything from the icons, brand images, typography, borders and graphical accents prove that the small things make a big difference in web design.

10. 500 PX Iso

500 PIX Iso is a photography blog that uses a fairly simple layout that anyone can model their site after. It features a hero image for the main post and transitions into a one column, one row blog post format. It then transitions into a four column card based design followed by widgets being placed at the footer. This blog is a great example of how to use multiple layouts on a site successfully.

11. Andy Hau

This beautiful portfolio site combines beautiful images with a simple design to wow the visitors. The images are cut on a fish eye shape (without the distortion) which is a very unique way of presenting the visuals. The graphical cues on mouse over are very user friendly as there is a pointing arrow icon that pops up. The website makes a great use of space and typography. Everything feels comfortable and relaxed to the eyes despite the site being visually driven.

12. Bark Post

Bark Post is a pet friendly blog that makes a great use of visual tags to categorize their content. What really impresses you is their navigation menu. They created a visual based navigation menu which displays a photo of the posts followed by the title on a small horizontal tile set layout. The photos are cute, fun and clickable which only makes the navigation menu more attractive to use.

This is just a small collection of inspiring WordPress blogs. There are many more examples to learn from. Make sure you get out there and see how other blogs are being designed to inspire your own vision. 

Researchers Design Moisture Responsive Workout Suit

How about an athlete's workout suit that breathe? Yes, a team of researchers belong to MIT has fabricated a workout No sweat suit that breathe. Its the great news for athlete's, ain't it?

This remarkable breathable workout bio technology suit having the flaps that ventilate by open and close in effects to the body of the athlete's body temperature and sweat.

If you closely go through this breathable work No sweat suit you may see the flaps that sizes from thumbnail to the finger sized. These precised flaps are lined with microbial cells in No sweat suit that may shrivel and enlarge in response to athlete's body temperature. These tiny microbial cells respond as smaller sensors/ actuators, that forces these flaps to open while a sportsman workouts that increases the body temperature and release of sweat. The flaps found in No sweat suit closes automatically when the body temperature becomes normal.

This team of MIT researchers have also made the athlete's shoes that are having the inner layer of the same microbial cells to ventilate the moisture.

OK! Why they use live microbial cells in inventing their No sweat suit? These scientific researchers says that these sensitive microbial cells need no other components to sense and react to wetness.

These microbial cells found in No sweat suit are also evidenced to be innocuous to touching and even ingest. These new tools of bio technology which are accessible nowadays could be fitted out quickly and also in large quantities, to explicit various utilities and especially to the moisture-sensitive.

The team has conducted a test with the microbial moisture-sensitive cells that responds not only open the flaps in No sweat suit but in addition also responds to wet conditions.

Wen wang, MIT's former research scientist says that they can reap the microbial cells with various genetic tools to produce new functionalities into the living cells. In the near future, they are planning to reap the odor releasing functionalities, thus perhaps going to gym the shirt can release good smell.

The biologists have found that the humidity plays the vital role in altering the structures and volumes of the microbial cells to certain proteins. The most interesting thing to declare here is that the MIT researchers use bacteria, yeast and other microbial cells to build this moisture-sensitive fabrics.

The initial research with the most common strain of E. Coli that was found to be swell and shrink that responds to changing humidity. They print the E.coli strains in a latex fabric begun to shrink while placing in a hot plate. The same was flatten out while exposed to steam. Thus, the researchers made this biofabric into the wearable no sweat suit specially designed for athletes.

After making the trial tests they have found this sweat responsive no sweat workout suit worked very well. This scientific MIT research team has also invented the shoes that breathe. They are also having the future plans to join hands with some sportswear companies to market their No sweat suit. They are also doing a lot of researches to make moisture-responsive bedsheets, curtains and lampshades.

Parasitic Robot Controls Turtle it’s Riding by Giving it Snacks

Developments in the Field of Robotics

Although in recent years,great development has taken place in the field of robotics; the usage of robots still tends to have some limitations. These comprises of their reduced capability of surviving rough routine functions together with the need of providing continuous energy source which does not seem to need recharging.

 Instead nature has shown increased flexibility and progress to the fluctuating situations over millions of years and this has motivated a team of researchers who have now utilised the concept of the flexibility and progress of nature together with robots. Latest experiments carried out by the team of researchers have portrayed that robots could be utilised for controlling turtles through strange parasitic relationship made between the two.

The provision of becoming overlords of the people, robots have now begun controlling turtles. Initially by getting the reptiles to associate a red light with food, the robots with shell-attached tend to dictate where the turtle seems to move in a tank, developing a somewhat strange parasitic relationship.Building their motion adequately strong for surviving the rigours of daily life is aconstantfightas the enigma of providing them with adequate energy to prevent long hours of recharging. This can be done with ease by nature.

Evolution Resulted in Unbelievable Variety of Effective Methods

Millions of years of evolution have resulted in an unbelievable variety of effective methods for animals to move and hence researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology – KAIST, in Daejeon have set about connecting this factor. At first robots had been glued to the backs of five red-eared slider turtles wherein they comprised of a processor, a frame which tends to get stuck out in front of the head of the turtle holding five red LEDs spaced apart together with a food ejecting tube.

Then they had to ride their turtle across five checkpoints in a tank that had been filled with water.The turtles had first been conditioned to associate a lit-up LED with food. The turtles thereafter just guided it utilising the LEDs, feeding it with snacks as a reward for going in the correct direction.

With the use of this procedure, the five robot-turtle pairs had completed the course satisfactorily and each hurried up with training. Dae-Gun Kim at KAIST commented that there were plenty of other animals which could later on also be utilised in giving robots a ride and it would be possible to apply it to several animals like fish and birds as per the purpose of the task.

Harnessing Some of the Motion of Host of Animals

In the near future, Kim along with his colleagues also wanted to be capable of harnessing some of the motion of the host of animal in providing the robot with power. Nathan Lepora at the University of Bristol, UK had informed that these robots could be utilised for surveillance, exploration or any place where there could be a problem for humans or robot to reach on their own.

Earlier insects had been controlled utilising electrodes and radio antennas linked to their nervous systems and this identical approach could present methods for parasitic robots to control their hosts directly. Lepora had commented that there could be definite ethical consideration though if robots and animals were capable of teaming up to explore a disaster are, it could be really useful.

Our Next Volvo or Audi May Have an Android infotainment system

Till now we had support for multiple Android devices via Bluetooth or direct plug-ins to the dashboard to enjoy the music or to do some navigation tricks from our smartphone. But things are changing at an alarming pace for the Android in the automobile which will help in unleashing a new era of Android support for better. Google has announced that upcoming range of automobiles from the Volvo and Audi will feature the Android in its full glory in the next generation infotainment systems. This is just one of small announcement made by the Goggle and more enthralling bit will appear at the upcoming Google I/O conference.

It is better than the Android Auto 

Google has launched the Android Auto in the past which made it easier for the automobile owners to access some of the vital phone functions from the behind the wheel. This system helped in bringing a simplified interface for the users to connect with their car without the need of physically attaching the phone to the console. The best thing about the Android Auto was that it helped in accessing a number of apps right on the interface which made driving a pleasant experience with the Android device.

Both the automobile manufactures namely Audi and Volvo are taking the Android experience to the next level by basing it into their infotainment system. It is worth noting that Audi has found some success with its MMI infotainment system in the recent past while Volvo’s Sensus Connect system is very much new. The decision of bringing the Android operating system into their infotainment shouldn’t mean that the manufacturers will pull the plug of their own homegrown infotainment systems. Instead they are aiming at making the buyers comfortable by offering an easy to use Android based interface in their vehicles.

Advantages of Android as the foundation

The greatest advantage of having the Android as the foundation of the infotainment in the Volvo and Audi is that it will help in accessing the vast library of Android applications. Google Play Store boasts of millions of apps in varied categories which is expanding at every given minute. Secondly it is tough to get developers to develop apps for any third party platform but having the Android foundation will ensure that developers populate the infotainment system with compatible apps quickly without much trouble. We are expecting to get more details on this foundation in the upcoming Google I/O.

One of the Volvo official has stated that having an Android foundation will mean that the company will be able to integrate the rich ecosystem of Android into their iconic Volvo user interface with ease and simplicity. There will be huge abundance of the popular apps which will help in bringing an integrated experience to the users which has never been seen before in an automobile. At the Google I/O both the automobile manufacturer will be giving demonstrations to give a wider perspective to the prospective consumers of its next generation infotainment.

Creators of the MP3 Declare it Dead

Rest in Peace MP3 as creators pulls the plug

We have enjoyed the music on our mobile and other portable music players with the help of widely used mp3 format. But the creators of the MP3 has declared its demise as the penultimate music format which means music will no longer be made in the mp3 format. This format was developed about two decades ago by a German research institute and they dropped the ownership of it. The institute named the Fraunhofer Institute of Integrated Circuits has stated that they had put forward a strong licensing program for the mp3 related patents but it has been terminated.

New advanced music format

Currently there are number of highly effective audio codecs boasting advanced features when compared to the old mp3 format. The current generation of the modern devices makes use of the advanced audio coding (AAC) and there is a definite move among the consumer electronics giants to place the MPEG-H as a new audio standard for some-time to come. This new audio format will offer an efficient storage option along with the immersive 3D audio experience to the users. Both of these formats are able to deliver more features along with the much needed higher audio quality at quite lower bitrates when it is compared to the mp3. It would come as surprise that the iTunes and Youtube are making use of the AAC as its main audio format for its service.

A number of tests has shown that AAC music format files does sound better than the old age format even at the same bitrate. Secondly AAC tends to be smaller in size even at the higher bitrate which means users will be able to get better quality music without wasting too much space on their file storage. The compatibility issue might be high for the AAC at the moment as it is only supported on very few mobile phones.

Age-format will still reign supreme

It should be noted that the developers had bid their farewell to the mp3 format but it will still be in wide usage on global scale as a number of people are still using the iPods and Mp3 based music players. It was developed during the 1980’s and gained huge popularity and support during the 90’s by emerging as the standard file type for the audio players, systems as well as the online music downloads. This format was developed accidently when developers were actually trying to find a smarter way of delivering music signal right over the telephone lines.

Later on this format was adopted for the distribution of the music using the compact discs and finally with the arrival of the Apple’s iPods it reached the heights of its popularity. The reason behind the wide popularity of this format was that it used to take just 10 percent of the storage space of the files. This format was also loved by the peer-to-peer sharing sites like Napster and the rise of the illegal downloads as well as digital piracy is also attributed to it.