Smashing Magazine
The Messy Art Of UX Sketching
I hear a lot of people talking about the importance of sketching when designing or problem solving, yet it seems very few people actually sketch. As a UX professional, I sketch every day. I often take over entire walls in our office and cover them with sketches, mapping out everything from context scenarios to wire frames and presentations.
Although it’s sometimes easier to start prototyping on a computer, it’s not the best way to visually problem solve. When you need to ideate web site layouts, mobile applications or story board work flows and context scenarios, sketching is much more efficient. It prevents you from getting caught up in the technology, and instead allows you to focus on the best possible solution. Giving you the freedom to take risks that you might not otherwise take.
An Introduction To Object Oriented CSS (OOCSS)
Have you ever heard the phrase “Content is King”? Being a Web developer, and therefore having a job that’s often linked to content creation, it’s likely you have. It’s a fairly overused but true statement about what draws visitors to a site. From a Web developer’s perspective, however, some may argue that speed is king. More and more, I’m starting to favour that stance. In recent years many experienced front-end engineers have offered their suggestions on how we can improve the user experience by means of some performance best practices.
Unfortunately, CSS seems to get somewhat overlooked in this area while many developers (for good reason) focus largely on JavaScript performance and other areas. In this post, I’ll deal with this often overlooked area by introducing you to the concept of object oriented CSS and how it can help improve both the performance and maintainability of your Web pages.
Designing For The Mind
Editor's Note: Please note that this article is one of the previously published articles on our new subsite, Design Informer. Our aim is to bring professional discussions on Web design and development forward, and also encourage the community to engage in meaningful conversations on design processes. Design Informer was originally created by Jad Limcaco and is now part of Smashing Magazine. Feel free to take a look at the previous articles on DI as well as our subsites Coding, UX Design and WordPress.
Do you know what makes a design good? Is it merely an opinion, or is there something more to it? Breaking design down seems like such an abstract thing. Even the designers who are able to create thought-provoking work seem purely talented and have natural abilities that can’t really be nailed down to a process. But what if there were principles that captured why design and art worked the way that they do?
Clear Indications That It’s Time To Redesign
Redesign. The word itself can send shudders down the spines of any Web designer and developer. For many designers and website owners, the imminent onslaught of endless review cycles, coupled with an infinite number of “stakeholders” and their inevitable “opinions,” would drive them to shave their heads with a cheese grater if given a choice between the two. Despite these realities, redesigns are a fact of any online property’s life cycle. Here are five key indications that it’s time to redesign your website and of how extensive that redesign needs to be.
The first and most important indicator that your website is in need of a rethink is metrics that are beginning to tank. There certainly could be other reasons for this symptom (such as your product not fitting the market), but once those are eliminated or mitigated, a constant downward trend in conversions, sales, engagement activities and general user participation indicates that the efficacy of your current design has worn off.
So You Want To Build A Software Product
If you like the idea of being your own boss (I certainly do), chances are you get the itch sometimes to create your own product — a product whose direction you control, that you do not have to compromise on with someone else, and whose fruits you get to fully enjoy, instead of being paid by the hour or a flat rate. It could be a Web service, a WordPress plugin or a desktop application, but the core problem is the same: how do you pick an idea that will succeed?
Most of us take a very simple approach: we stumble on something that doesn’t work well for us or we identify a problem that we have a lot of experience with, and we think, “All right, I’ll just build x for y and make a mint.” The problem is that we don’t have any indicators of whether others feel the same pain and would be inclined to pay for a solution.
Mixing Up Illustration: Combining Analog And Digital Techniques
People often ask how I arrived at a finished illustration. Honestly, it’s different every time, but it always starts with a hand-drawn sketch. Sometimes, I paint it completely by hand; sometimes I’ll scan in a pencil drawing. Many of my pieces are 100% analog that I’ll show only at shops or galleries. Use anything you can; if the illustration would work as a wood carving, go that route. There are concrete steps one can take, but they certainly don’t have to be the same every time. My goal is to take a sketch or idea as far as it can go — and also, to get out of my comfort zone and challenge myself with every new job. For this article, I’ll use handcrafted brushes and Photoshop as my tools.
Concepting for me always starts with pencil and paper. If there is one consistent element through all of my pieces, it’s sketching. I love to draw. If I could establish and execute everything with a single pencil drawing, I would. The best thing to do is keep some type of sketchbook or journal with you as much as possible. Milton Glaser said it best: “Drawing is visual thinking.” Drawing creates many possibilities for any idea you might have. It’s then when the character’s personality starts to emerge. Then, I’ll add some volume to the sketch to show where the textures should really come through.
Holidays Around The World: Smashing Photo Contest
2012 is around the corner and the year is (already!) coming to an end. We'd like to know how upcoming holidays are celebrated in your city. Just send us a photo of your kind of Christmas or New Year's Eve and with some luck you may be the winner of some truly smashing prizes! We're giving away five wonderfully designed books as well as five golden tickets for our upcoming Christmas special bundle.
Of course, not everybody celebrates Christmas, but there is still something special about the atmosphere that upcoming holidays create worldwide. You may take pictures of your office New Year decorations, a market in your town or even a winter wonderland you've discovered! You can also make a photo of a special event — an event that makes you relate to the year coming to an end, or even your list of your New Year's resolutions, or anything else really. Just keep in mind to stay creative!
Effective User Research And Transforming The Minds Of Clients
Ah, the love of a client. That is indeed what we all seek as professionals, is it not? If we lived in a utopia, then that’s all there would be. Openness. Honesty. Passion. Flowing in both directions, client to service provider and vice versa. We want our clients to be right behind us in our ideas and open to new ones. In order for this to happen, there has to be trust.
Clients that deal with large agencies tend to place their trust in the big brand names of these shops. Freelance designers and small agencies do not always inspire the confidence in clients that large shops do, which means that trust has to be built, nurtured and never taken for granted.
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Who we are: e-Builder is the leading SaaS provider of capital programs and construction management software to N. American owner/operators. e-Builder exists…
- Jr. Designer - Zuno Studios - (Long Beach, CA) - FullTime
Zuno Studios is an award winning design studio focusing on interactive branding and websites and we're looking for a motivated designer to join our team. This…
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- Digital Marketing Manager - Country Music Association - (Nashville, TN) - FullTime
JOB TITLE: Digital Marketing Manager REPORTS TO: Sr. Manager, Digital Strategy DIRECT REPORTS: None DEPARTMENT: Strategic Marketing FLSA CLASSIFICATION:…
- Web Designer - Prevention.com - Rodale Inc. - (Emmaus, PA) - FullTime
Prevention.com is currently seeking an experienced Web Designer to work in its growing digital operation. The ideal candidate will be able to design a web experience…
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- iWebInspector: Web debugging tool for iOS simulator - http://t.co/ERlUsUIM
- @attasi It would be fantastic, Tom ;-)
- Actually very useful: Ultimate Power Users Tool List for Win - http://t.co/NqzIQMR4 - Anybody knows a similar list for Mac? #smtool
- Very impressive: CSS3 Lighting Effects by our Photoshop editor @attasi - http://t.co/mEfiZ6xL
- Useful: Your jQuery: Now With 67% Less Suck - http://t.co/nGd8KYhR
- A good deal: Divine: a Photoshop plugin for generating WP themes out of PSD - http://t.co/sZmlXWDE
- @JohnONolan Oh well, yes, that's true :)