Reading Time: < 1 min“I’ll know it when I see it” is such a challenging phrase. On the one hand, it doesn’t offer any guidance toward the desired direction. On the other hand, that’s sometimes all anyone is able to provide. I think there are two problems behind this statement The goal isn’t clear. If there is a clear […]
Design
Design is more than veneer
Reading Time: < 1 minI’ve been listening to a lot of the “How to Take Over the World” podcast lately, and in a series he did about Steve Jobs, one line of his really stood out: Design is more than veneer. People often think of design as “making things pretty”, and while that may be a piece of it, […]
We are nimble, not fast
Reading Time: 2 minGrowing up in Michigan in the 90’s, I was a big fan of Barry Sanders. While the Detroit Lions were always the pits, Sanders was fun to watch. If you’ve not seen him play before, you can see some amazing highlights here or check out this quick gif: Along with those great clips, though, I […]
The history of the 72 dpi myth
Reading Time: < 1 minMost designers were taught in school that images for print should be 300 dpi (or “ppi” if you prefer – I use them interchangeably), and images for the web should be 72 dpi. While the print number is accurate in most cases, the web number is completely unnecessary as I explained in detail nearly a […]
Planning saves money
Reading Time: < 1 minWhen building a website, we always create at least a handful of wireframes so we can sort out what we’re doing before we really dig in. If you’re not familiar with the concept of a wireframe when it comes to websites, Brooke wrote an excellent post that explains them here. Beyond the great reasons that […]
Double your whitespace
Reading Time: < 1 minWhen you’re developing a marketing piece, whether it’s a brochure, poster, website, or something else, it’s temping to load it up with as much information as you can. I encourage you to think otherwise, and leave a lot more whitespace in there than you think you need. Here are two billboards that give a perfect […]
Don’t break the back button
Reading Time: < 1 minOver the years, the “back” button on web browsers has consistently been shown to be one of the most-used features on a web browser. As time as gone on, though, websites have found increasingly creative ways to break that core functionality. The folks at the Baymard Institute have showed four design patterns that violate what […]
Averages or adjustments?
Reading Time: 2 minIt can be easy to try to design something to fit “the average person”. But do you want to? Or more importantly, is it even possible? In many cases, an average may not exist. If you’re with a group of people where 50% are Christian and 50% are atheist, it’s not useful to say “the […]
Design everything you do
Reading Time: < 1 minWhile I would never be considered a designer, I’m always looking for ways to improve how I think about the world around me. I found a great example in an old blog post I was reading (the post is not available, but you can see it using archive.org here) where this concept came up: Design […]
What’s on the back of your cabinet?
Reading Time: 2 minIf you were to pull your chest of drawers out from the wall and look at the back of it, what would you see? In most cases, it’s just a piece of plywood or even some heavy cardboard. That’s not necessary bad (cost savings, etc), but it speaks to the quality of the design. Steve […]