This category aims to advance a professional discussion on Web design and development. It features the opinions of active members of the community, and it explores the design process and the meaning of design and its various facets. Curated by Jad Limcaco.
Popular tags in this category: Opinion Column, Discussions, Workflow, Creativity, Skills, Design.
The Web industry is loaded with some of the globe’s brightest minds and revolutionary technologies. Yet, designers, developers, copywriters and other Web types repeatedly fail to reach their full collective capacities. The blame is typically put on big egos or lack of understanding, which is in line with such generalizations as the following: Designers care only about a website’s looks and have no regard for business objectives or user experience. Developers just want a website to work right, and will kill the design to make it happen. Copywriters want to show off their flashy vocabulary—and cause countless rounds of revisions.
Read more...We, members of the design community, are on an ongoing quest for knowledge and learning opportunities—anything we can find to enhance our skills and share the precious pearls of wisdom we’ve held close to our hearts. Given that most of us are where we are because of the shared advice we’ve managed to accumulate along the way, tips like these can be powerful tools for facilitating professional growth, which we all strive to achieve. And it helps the community to grow and improve. Thus, they should be not greedily hoarded, but rather openly shared.
Read more...There are literally dozens of articles online about how to write better articles, but I've never come across one with tips on being a better reader. This is a shame, because it's not all about the writer; for every writer of a Web design blog, there are 10,000 readers. So for something a little different, here are six tips for you to bear in mind the next time you're reading something online.
Read more...Intellectual property rights are often confusing and sometimes the topic of heated debates. There are those who question the worth of creative products and projects, claiming design and art are something anyone can do, regardless of training, experience, or any inherent ability. As creatives, a deterioration of intellectual property rights is a dangerous possibility. By going public with our work, we have no recourse to prevent others from using our designs, our photos, or our other artwork without paying us or even offering proper credit.
Read more...Websites are designed to be used by people of varying backgrounds, educations and technical levels. One of the challenges we face when designing for the Web is finding a way to create sites and applications that can be accessed by a widely disparate audience while avoiding the pitfall of sacrificing the quality of our work to cater to the dreaded ‘lowest common denominator.’
Even though it happens to me with some frequency, being told by a client that one of the requirements for their project is that it must be ‘idiot proof’ never fails to give me pause. The sentiment itself is offensive enough, but the concept also seems somewhat misguided to me. Do we really want to begin a project by assuming our site's users are idiots?
Read more...Do you know what makes a design good? Is it merely an opinion, or is there something more to it? Breaking design down seems like such an abstract thing. Even the designers who are able to create thought-provoking work seem purely talented and have natural abilities that can’t really be nailed down to a process. But what if there were principles that captured why design and art worked the way that they do?
Read more...This is the most exciting "Ask the Expert" interview that we've had so far on Design Informer. A few months back, I had the opportunity to speak with Milton Glaser thanks to one of his assistants, Scarlett Rigby.
I was able to ask Milton Glaser some questions about a few different topics such as art, design, education and more. If you're not familiar with Milton Glaser, he is a world renowned graphic designer who is probably most famous for creating the
I Love New York logo.
If you work at an agency or design house, chances are that most of your time is spent working on client projects. After months of bending over backwards to meet your clients’ demands, work may start to get a little stale. At this point, it’s okay to become a little selfish and ask yourself: “When was the last time that we have done something for ourselves?”
Seriously. When was the last time that an idea was expressed that interested everyone within earshot? When was the last time that the thought of a side project made you excited? If you can’t remember when that last time was, or worse, you have never taken part in a company side project… well, you might have a little problem.
Read more...
A review of questionnaires and worksheets used by actual Web design companies, including some of the leaders in the industry. Both online and downloadable forms are included, as well as the pros and cons for each format.
This article takes a closer look at the evolution of film title design and some particularly interesting titles from various periods in the history of cinema and animation.
A comprehensive overview of useful Web design checklists and questionnaires. With lists of points covering multiple areas from content to usability to accessibility to standards, you’re a lot less likely to overlook important parts of any site.
Printed Smashing Books
Smashing Magazine is dedicated to high quality content for professional designers and developers. Our printed books feature best practices for modern Web design, written by our experts for you. Get the books now!
TemporadaLivre is a prospering vacation rental startup that lives in Brazil. We launched around july last year and we've been gaining momentum ever since, so we already…
Fun, young, boutique social media agency with a tight-knit team, great energy and major national brand clients seeks driven, savvy, and creative UI designer with…
Smashing Magazine On The Road
Our editor-in-chief Vitaly Friedman will be speaking at the D-Day conference in Helsinki, Finland. Are you coming, too? Let's grab a beer! Details.
Located in Ancaster, CANADACarbonated Interactive is full service web design and development firm based in Hamilton Ontario. We serve clients across North…
Located in Lake Villa, UNITED STATES
Free eBook: "Best of Smashing Magazine"
We've got a gift for you! To celebrate our birthday, we've released a free eBook with best articles published here on Smashing Magazine over all these years. In PDF, ePUB and Mobi. Get it now for free!
With a commitment to quality content for the design community.
Smashing Media GmbH. Made in Germany. 2006-2012.
