Blog
Showing posts with label Structure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Structure. Show all posts

Wednesday, 17 June 2009

How to Spot Quality within Web Design: Examples & Tips by wefunction.com

We all have certain RSS feeds we regularly keep on top of. I have certain ones pulled to my Google homepage that I like to check often like Smashing Magazine, Web Designer Wall etc etc. I have recently added a new one and found an interesting article on how to spot good web design.

Below are a sample of points taken from their article to give you a taster. Make sure you get over there and check out what they have to say.

Design using a grid system
Using a grid certainly helps you to understand the importance of spacing

Try & Try again
You can always use a method of trial and error until you find what looks right.

White Space isn’t a wasted space
Just because you have an empty area, it doesn’t mean you have to fill it.

Less really is More
Rather than trying to fit more in an area, fit less, give it space and keep just the vital important information.

Keep it Subtle
Small details that compliment the content are the key.

Think in Pixels
Borders, gradients, lines and shadows etc don’t have to be huge to be effective.

Before & After
Compare your results to how they looked before you applied the effects. Then you can see just how effective they are.

Is it Readable?
Don’t be scared of making your titles big and bold.

Have you thought about spacing?
Spacing can vastly improve readability.

Do your fonts fit the mood?
Make sure your fonts compliment the design.

Design using a Grid
Grids allow you to make the most of your space.

Test the Placement of Elements
Be the visitor, would you be able to use it.

Remove any unnecessary Elements
Anything that isn’t essential should be removed, or out of the way

Balance of Attention
Some things need to stay simple to allow others to shine

Build up your layers
Never just use one brush or texture, build your details up.

Experiment with opacity & Colour
Sometimes even 3% opacity can have a positive impact.

Don’t worry, Be Brave
Done be afraid to be too subtle, or too faded.

Experiment
A boring topic doesn’t have to have a boring colour scheme.

Variety
Try using gradients, patterns, brushes on your colourful backgrounds. Colour alone doesn’t make something look good.

Stick to a Theme
Make sure your colours are relevant to your product/service.

Keep it Relevant
If you’re going to do something very new and unique, ask yourself “does it make sense” and “does it fit with the branding?” if so then go do it!

Ignore everything you know!
Okay maybe not everything, basic principles may stay the same, but there’s no point looking for inspiration on new ideas, you’ll just be heading in the wrong direction.

Keep a level of quality
I think generally if your new idea looks good, and works well it’s much easier for you to justify.

To view the article in full click the link below.

Quality within web design


Text and image above are sourced from the article in question and copyrighted to FUNCTION

0 comments:

Wednesday, 22 October 2008

Pixel Perfect - an amazing tool


I colleague recently told me about a firebug plugin called Pixel Perfect. I thought the idea sounded good so had a look - creating looks of concern from the surrounding developers who already think I pixel push too much already. I was amazed. This simple tool creates another tab in your Firebug extension and allows you to overlay a jpeg visual in the actual browser. This has two benefits:


1/From a designer/bug checking point of view it allows you to overlay the visual and see what is out of place.

2/From a developers point of view it ensures precision by allowing them to overlay the visual when creating a layout, lower the opacity so they can see what they are coding below and ensure the visuals are met exactly. This will result in fewer visual issues needing to be fixed at the end of the project.

This tool seems to be feared by many developers who are happy enough to make it close enough to the design. However, they know deep down that the designer will only come along and say move that 2px up please so they might as well start harnessing the power of this tool and improve their accuracy and standard before it's spotted.

www.pixelperfectplugin.com

1 comments:

Friday, 23 March 2007

Design links and RSS feeds

[update - 13/04/07]
Some new sites (and sites I forgot to add) have now been added below. I have now included a file to be imported into your Favourites / Bookmarks if you want the entire list. Click here to download it. You will then need to save it to your desktop and import it into your browser. Don't forget you can import the entire RSS feed list into you reader below. The OPML file has now been updated so you may want to download them again to include the new sites and feeds.

After seeing several sites offering collections of design links and feeds I thought it might be useful to bring them all together into one mammoth list of ones I currently subscribe to or visit. Hope this proves to be useful.

You can import the entire list of RSS links into your reader using the OPML format. Click here for the entire mammoth list and select File > Save As to dump it on your desktop. There will be an option in your reader to import RSS feeds.

Feel free to add comments with sites you think are useful or just good and I'll add them to the list. This is more of an ongoing thing which I hope will grow into a useful resource for designers / developers.

Interesting Reads on Design and the Web



Design Showcase


Useful tools


Web Design

4 comments: