This handy guide from startupsthisishowdesignworks.com will help you understand design, provide useful tips for startup companies and provide resources to help you find awesome design talent.
It answers questions like “What is good design?”
Good design can’t be achieved with glossy buttons or masterful wireframes alone. It’s a merger of all these principles into something that is meaningful and deliberate.
Well it’s a new day… And a new year! Perhaps the last year according to the Mayans(?!!)…
I love the year end lists of the “best of” this and that collections that pop up at the end of the year. Here are a few favorites that I’ve come across over the last few weeks that I thought I’d share with you.
From visual.ly blog here’s an article on some of the best visualizations of 2011. I really have fallen in love with infographics, but I really like this list because it also includes some interactive information (http://cnn-ecosphere.com/ was my favorite for sure – zoom in and check out the tweets around the world!) as well as some great videos that are packed with interesting and useful information. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did! Another wonderful couple resources for infographics are Good magazine’s infographic page here: http://www.good.is/infographics and http://visualjournalism.com/
http://blog.visual.ly/20-great-visualizations-of-2011/
Coming from venturebeat.com – here is a decent short list of the best web and mobile typefaces of 2011:
http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/22/best-2011-fonts/
The best wordpress cheat sheets that I’ve found this year are from wptuts+ (love all the tuts+ sites!)
http://wp.tutsplus.com/category/articles/cheat-sheets/
The best movie list of the year – errrrrrr… I have yet to find one that I totally agree with.
Rolling stone has a decent list here: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/10-best-movies-of-2011-20111207 but there are for sure a few in their list that I would swap out. They don’t really have foreign films or any documentaries listed. I could probably make a list of 10 top documentaries because I watch so many… One of my favorites from this year was Waiting for Superman. If you are a student, or work in any part of education – or if you have children or are the least bit interested in education as a whole it’s a must-see. The hangover 2 and Sherlock Holmes were quite good, and Drive – although it was nicely done was a bit too slow for me – artistic and beautiful yes but also slow. The Tree of life was again beautiful but I like it more as a visual background than a story.
Best music!? Ahhhh that’s always a list too long and complex…
An excellent blog and resource for any web designer, Above the Fold Blog — written by Brian Miller, author of the book Above the Fold, is worth a look or two. His articles are well written and this one in particular illustrates a very good (and important) point to consider if you are in the web design field. The war on templates. Are you for or against them? I am all for taking a template and customizing it completely to suit a client’s specific needs. I would never use a template as is without having done a design for the client first. Design must come first. I use wordpress templates so that I don’t need to rebuild functionality and it saves me time coding things that can easily be plugged in and tweaked. The question for me is “Why reinvent the wheel?”. I believe you should take the wheel, make it bigger and better – build on top of it and take it to the next level… What are your thoughts on using templates in web design?
Ultimately, I believe that this theme trend devalues the work I do as a Web designer. Clients no longer expect to pay what they once did for a Web site…
Like with every other trend in this ever-changing industry, it’s the designers who adapt that survive. So perhaps in the future you’ll see a line of “Above the Fold Themes,” but I’m not ready to make that leap just yet. I believe there’s still a dire need for brand-specific ideas that make companies more memorable and connect with their audience more effectively.
Ethan Marcotte is a name you should be familiar with. If you’re not yet, and you’re a web designer or developer – it’s time you look him up…! Ethan was the one who coined the term “Responsive Web Design” a few years back (wow, time flies!). He has since started a web site which now has a wealth of information and interesting posts (unstoppablerobotninja.com), as well as written a book called – yup, you guessed it! “Responsive Web Design” (which you can find on abookapart.com) . If you have heard of him, but haven’t had a chance to look at his site or book yet please do. It will only benefit you. I promise. His twitter account however is much more – er, shall we say – profane. So only follow him on twitter if you’re not easily offended.
Are you a designer or developer who’s looking for a template to start you off with responsive web and mobile design? Here are a few good templates with a free download that you can use to get you started. Skeleton is a collection of CSS & JS files that can help you develop sites that look beautiful at any size, on a 1600px screen or an iPhone. Skeleton is a great resource – but uses Media Queries with specific sizes (4 to be exact) which I still find can be limiting. If you’re looking for free liquid layouts instead of Media Queries please continue reading below.
Golden Grid System (GGS) is also a template that you can use to start your responsive design. Starting with 18 columns, each column on the left and right are used as the outer margins of the grid, which leaves 16 columns for your design. The other thing that makes this one different is that it includes resizing your typography, not just the layout or columns. Also click on the “Golden Gridlet” in the top right corner, it will show and hide the grid at any given size – fun! Also if you’re just starting to do fluid designs, make sure you check out the tips and faqs at the bottom where there are some useful links!
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