I rarely remember my dreams. Sometimes they’re gone so quickly I’m not sure I ever actually had them. I don’t think I have reoccurring dreams, but then again it would be hard to confirm. There is one exception however, one dream which I’ve been having since 2005. In this dream I’m in a dark conference […]
Design is most effective when executed with knowledge of psychology. Knowing how people react to visual stimuli allows the crafting of an effective design, with out psychology you are guessing. Psychology itself is a vastly fluctuating and massive subject, but that doesn’t mean you need a PhD to use it in your design. There are […]
As a fan of Jakob Neilsen and a skeptic of the “every design should be responsive” methodology, I have been frustrated with the criticism of Neilsen’s stance on mobile websites. Recently I published my thoughts on the two sides (mobile specific websites and responsive design) hoping to cultivate a discussion on mobile design and why […]
I respect navigation more than any other element on a website. Little else commands the responsibility of navigation. Poor navigation leaves people dumbfounded, confused and frustrated. Great navigation effortlessly directs users toward the content or actions they desire and can reroute lost users while minimizing mental processing. Even the over glorified “call to action” is simply another […]
Earlier last week, I was pleasantly surprised when Jacob Nielsen posted a report on mobile web design which closely mirrored my own philosophy. The key takeaway of the article is that mobile specific sites are more effective than full content sites with mobile friendly presentation. After reading the article, I hoped the findings would put […]
I have shrugged off responsive web design for some time now despite it’s growing popularity. I first came across “the concept” four years ago; at the time, responsive design required Javascript and dynamically changed stylesheets based on viewport size. Suffice to say I have long been aware of the capability to adapt design based on […]
Trends come and go, people become excited about new concepts and old ones become old and boring. Much like fashion the trends of the web seem to resurface delighting some and aggravating others. I am often inclined to ignore the low-level trends as they are short-lived and don’t impact the web in a measurable way. […]
If your kick off meetings go anything like a majority of mine do, at some point or another the website owner begins to rattle off what “pages of content” they would like on the site. You may even encourage it by asking them (I know I did.) It seems like a logical step, essentially you need to get an idea of scope and one way to do so is to count up and outline what pages will be on the site.
I had the pleasure of attending a uxnet meeting tonight organized by local information architect Dan Cooney. While I am more of a graphical designer by trade, I greatly value and put heavy emphasis on user experience design. While graphic design is about communication, user experience design is about human computer interaction, and on the […]