Voidnothings » Web

Dear Designer, You Aren’t That Special

Lance — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:57:18 +0000

Creativity isn’t ours. Just because you can draw better, doesn’t make you a better thinker. Design isn’t just aesthetics, it’s more than that. Even if the shiny stuff we do is what gets the most attention in our industry, it’s not what makes design what it is.

Whether you consider Frank Chimero‘s latest gig as a heroic undertaking or Andy Rutledge as a vocal dick(according to a comment), this article is worth reading.

Why Wireframe?

Lance — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:11:38 +0000

Wireframing, on the other hand, is all about corralling these ideas into a cohesive flow of pages with a clear, well-executed focus. A ruthless eye for editing is paramount: throwing every “nice to have” feature haphazardly into the mix will do nothing but create a mediocre product that frustrates users.

Managing UI Complexity

Lance — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 15:13:35 +0000

Interface complexity is an issue every designer wrestles with when designing a reasonably sophisticated application. A complex interface can reduce user effectiveness, increase the learning curve of the application, and cause users to feel intimidated and overwhelmed.

I’ve spent the past year redesigning a particularly complex application with my primary focus being on reducing complexity. In this article, I’ll go over some of the issues surrounding complexity and techniques that can be used to manage it.

Microsoft: Internet Explorer 6, time to move on.

Lance — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 04:25:09 +0000

With IE9 just around the corner, Microsoft is doing their fair share of publicity on eradicating their old bud, the champion of the last browser wars, Internet Explorer 6.

Rockstar Designer Hourly/Contract Rates

Lance — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 09:16:25 +0000

What is the current market hourly rate (contract) for a great web designer who can design (visual/ux/product) award winning user interfaces as well as develop them? Me: Price is what you pay for value.

Dark patterns – An Overview for Brand Owners

Lance — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 14:21:06 +0000

Normally when you think of “bad design”, you think of laziness or mistakes. These are known as design anti-patterns. Dark Patterns are different – they are not mistakes, they are carefully crafted with a solid understanding of human psychology, and they do not have the user’s interests in mind.

A Web Design Shop according to kids.

Lance — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:30:27 +0000

Click here to view the embedded video.

Quick Wireframes with Wirify

Lance — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 04:23:10 +0000

Need a quick wireframe of a particular site? Get one with just one click, thanks to Wirify and to Volkside for creating such a handy tool.

Wirify is a bookmarklet that lets you turn any web page into a wireframe in one click. It’s lightweight and works in many modern browsers.

Become a Layer Mayor

Lance — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 22:42:39 +0000

The Photoshop Etiquette Manifesto for Web Designers is a list of helpful and *subtle* suggestions to organize Photoshop Documents, making the transfer of them less painful.

Browsing the web late on a weekend night can be rewarding, here we have an interesting find. Thanks to HappyCog, always interesting stuffs for people who make websites.

DarkPatterns

Lance — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 07:07:55 +0000

DarkPatters.org is all about User Interfaces Designed to Trick People.
I found this site via Clearleft, its a nice addition to my online reference for UIs.