Today, many apps make assumptions about user preferences based on personal data. They use this information to make decisions on your behalf, without any direct input from us. This type of design pattern, where user choice is removed, has recently been coined “anticipatory design”, which leverages data on user behavior to automate the decision-making process in user interfaces. Despite the good intentions imbued in anticipatory design, though, automating decisions can implicitly raise trust issues . In this article, Graeme Fulton will look at how you can give people confidence in the decisions made for them by using “light patterns,” which ensure that user interfaces are honest and transparent, while even nudging users to make better decisions for themselves.
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Designing with “big data” is a challenging task. Matan Stauber, however, took it to the next level. With an impressive outcome. Having studied Visual Communication at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Israel’s national school of art, Matan realized a very ambitious final project: an interactive timeline of our galaxy’s history — 14 billion years, from the Big Bang to today.
We talked to Matan about Histography, about the idea behind it, and how he managed to bring it to life. An interview about stretching the limits of what’s possible.
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Considering that most carousel implementations lack many usability details, one can understand why strong wording is often used in discussions about carousels. But there are alternatives to a home page carousel that both perform well and are vastly easier to implement. In this article, Christian Holst will go over the 10 implementation details he’s found that are required to make home page carousels perform acceptably with end users. He’ll outline how and why mobile and desktop implementations should differ and, lastly, suggest a simpler, problem-free alternative to home page carousels.
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When we design responsive websites, we tend to see responsive design merely as a collection of slightly differently sized rectangles, with a slightly different layout, sometimes with slightly different content poured into them. In this article, Vitaly Friedman features some of the slightly more obscure design patterns, such as responsive car-builder interfaces, mega dropdown navigation, content grids, maps and charts, as well as responsive art direction.
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In this article, Scott Lewis will share the fundamentals of how to create premium quality icons. These fundamentals are technical skills; anyone can learn and master them with practice. Remember that to create better icons, start from the general and work toward the specific. Every icon set submitted to Iconfinder is reviewed and evaluated for potential appeal to our website users and for potential commercial value as premium icons. When reviewing icon sets submitted to the website, we have a responsibility to our designers and to our customers to make sure all premium icons on the website are of the highest possible quality.
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In this article, Ben Callahan will help you be more successful with your web projects by starting at the beginning; by working from day one to help set your client’s expectations about what’s going to happen, and by working throughout a project’s life cycle to do the same. By the end of this article, you’ll find yourself more inspired to invest in your own understanding of how the web works, and more willing to invest in your teammates’ understanding. Ben hopes you’ll feel excited to try a new approach, but he also that you’ll be empowered to tear these pages up if they don’t work for you. Only you, your team and your customer can figure out the best way to approach a project. The time is now — so, get to it!
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When we started out with riddles, we wanted to have an entertaining yet challenging game that wouldn’t be easy to crack, and would keep our dear readers busy for quite some time. So, let’s get to the bottom of this! It was quite a journey, but we hope it was worth it. Also, a kind “thank you” to all the friends who sent out quite ridiculous, spammy and unrelated tweets at just the right time, so that this game would become possible in the first place.
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Does every site looks the same to you? With so many tools and resources, web designers have to be generic to fit content in frameworks and templates. If everyone just follows best practices, we’ll create the perfect web. In this case, what’s the point of web designers if there’s a recipe? Creating empty carousels and sexy hero images is easy. Adding meaning through design is much more difficult. In this article, let’s consider content, rules and pattern fatigue as major obstacles to creativity online. How can we break through it?
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Ideas begin with a small team of creative people at the heart of the company who communicate easily with each other. In this article, Dave Schools will talk about the six design principles inspired by the world’s greatest product designers and how they apply to 15 products using the steps of the product design test, such as immediate intuition, form and color agreement, approachable innovation, and replicable methodology. As you get accustomed to applying these design principles, you’ll be surprised by how your mind picks up on small things to appreciate, or to change, in the products you encounter every day.
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What’s going on in the industry? What new techniques have emerged recently? What insights, tools, tips and tricks is the web design community talking about? Anselm Hannemann is collecting everything that popped up over the last week in his web development reading list so that you don’t miss out on anything. The result is a carefully curated list of articles and resources that are worth taking a closer look at.
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