CategoryWeb Design

April 2, 2009 — Complex design techniques are often time-consuming and, well, complex. Some of these advanced effects can add plenty of depth to designs, but when used in the wrong place, they do little more than distract viewers from the project’s intended focus. These effects may be precisely what a design needs to have the impact it requires, but even in these cases, they should be complemented by simpler effects. Simple effects and techniques are the building blocks of today’s designs. For example, what good is a stellar lighting technique if you can’t decide which colors to use or which text-based effects to use in conjunction with the effect? With a “less is more” mentality, we’ve selected 10 very simple and impressive design techniques that can drastically improve the performance and appearance of your designs. For more techniques, you may want to look at our previous articles: * 12 Useful Techniques For Good User Interface Design * Grid-Based Design: Six Creative Column Techniques Read more…

March 31, 2009 — Web design has come a long way since its beginning, especially in terms of styling. Take a look at a website from 10 years ago and compare it to one from today. The differences are enormous. One of the major changes you will notice is the background. Today, backgrounds are one of the core features that determine how visually interesting a website is. The background holds the theme of the website, and there are a vast amount of possibilities when designing a website background. This article goes over the best practices and popular trends of backgrounds in the current stage of innovative Web design. You may also be interested in the following related posts: * Web Design Trends For 2009 * Mobile Web Design Trends For 2009 Read more…

March 25, 2009 — In this article, we take a closer look at the nature of drop-down navigation menus and analyze situations in which they should or should not be used. Read more…

March 17, 2009 —

Editor’s Note: An updated collection of user experience research on breadcrumbs is available in Vitaly Friedman’s article, “Designing Effective Breadcrumbs Navigation”.

On websites that have a lot of pages, breadcrumb navigation can greatly enhance the way users find their way around. In terms of usability, breadcrumbs reduce the number of actions a website visitor needs to take.

March 12, 2009 — From a web designer’s perspective, it can be very interesting to look at the top websites from a particular industry to see how they relate to their target audience, the different approaches that are used, and how they compare to websites in other industries. Read more…

March 3, 2009 — Why use icons? Design is all about communication: it doesn’t matter how important or exciting the information that you’re sharing is if you fail to hook your visitors. When initially viewing a website, most users will first scan the page for visually interesting content, and only after something grabs their attention will they actually begin reading. Icons are a simple, effective way to draw users into the content of your website. Read more…

February 26, 2009 — You may have a personal portfolio website for a number of reasons. If you’re a freelancer, then you’d need one to showcase your work and allow people to contact you. If you’re a student (or unemployed), then you’d need one to show prospective employers how good you are and what you can do, so that they might hire you. If you’re part of a studio, then you might use one to blog about your design life, show people what you’re doing and build your online presence. Read more…

February 19, 2009 — By now, all good designers and developers realize the importance of usability for their work. Usable websites offer great user experiences, and great user experiences lead to happy customers. Delight and satisfy your visitors, rather than frustrate and annoy them, with smart design decisions. Here are 9 usability problems that websites commonly face, and some recommended solutions for each of them. Read more…

February 11, 2009 — Large organizations like Microsoft and Twitter face unique challenges that can lead to painful mistakes. This article gathers ten of the most common mistakes and misconceptions about their websites. Read more…

February 10, 2009 — It can be an interesting experience looking around at websites in particular industries to identify trends and see how they differ from those in other industries. In this article, we’ll take a look at the websites of major motion pictures to see what types of websites are being created. Movies are a big part of the entertainment industry, and in recent years their websites have become increasingly critical to their overall success. Read more…