Website find of the week
Not a huge fan of the word ‘barf’ but in this context, it works.
http://www.yourlogomakesmebarf.com/
Knowing my own limits and the fact that logos are outside of them, most anything I would create would make this site.
Design is (almost) always in the details
Just noticed a small little detail in my OS X Dock this afternoon that I had never noticed before. Not only did the designers at Apple take the time to design beautiful elements at the top level, they also took into account how they wanted the elements to interact with other things on the page.
The icon above the dock is a .PNG file of a theme I have been designing for WordPress recently. I have always noticed (and loved) that most of the icons on the desktop show what the file actually looks like instead of having just a standard .JPG or .DOC icon. What I hadn’t noticed before today is the fact that they were so detail oriented that they built in a reflection aspect off of the Dock for things in its proximity.
The image below is a screen shot of just an icon near it but it also works work open windows near the Dock as well. If you look below the icon on the left it has reflected the name of the WP_theme icon above it. Beautiful.
Designing for the User
Contrary to popular belief, there is some thought process and logic behind what I do. Yes, my job is still to make you look better; please let me continue to do my job. But in the process of making you look better I have to bear in mind that the prettiest option may not always be the best for your user.
Notice I didn’t say what was the best option for you. The problem is many times that you are too close to your product/service/brand to understand how others interact with it. Just because you like purple and gold doesn’t mean that 95% of your clientele does. Or the fact that you don’t want a website to scroll horizontally on your screen but you refuse to move your resolution up from a 800*600 pixel scree. I can think of 3-4 clients right off the bat that have had to overrule quality design decisions just because their wife/mother/spouse/other relative doesn’t like green (or any other color, button style or image).
Interaction Design (IxD) is the discipline of designing a system that a user can interact with. In English, it’s designing with the user in mind. It can apply to software design, website creation, mobile phone interfaces and even electronic devices. It’s all around you every day and depending on how well it was thought of and taken into consideration will tell a lot about how (and how often) you’ll interact with that product. (more…)
The world’s ugliest websites
More, please.
http://www.nikibrown.com/designoblog/2009/03/03/the-worlds-ugliest-websites/
I could add quite a bit to the list, maybe some day I will compile my own.
Cmd + Z
Remember New Coke? I was a tad young but I do remember the stirring that it caused when the Coca-Cola company decided to “update” their coke flavor over two decades ago and the fact that it didn’t take them long to re-introduce Coke Classic. It was a bad move on Coke’s part to take their century old recipe and change it up on the fly. Consumer’s weren’t happy.
I mention New Coke just in the fact that it’s the last time I’ve seen the public create such an outcry as to get the company to notice and revert back to their trusted roots.
Until now.
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