Design

Mathew Carella gives some thoughts and examples on writing good CSS.

A very important element in design.

I just want the navigation on a responsive design big enough so my fingers don’t hit two or three buttons at a time.

Great resource.

In amateur art classes, artists are taught to keep three things in mind while designing: frame, positive and negative space. The frame is of course the border of the picture and positive space is the area occupied by the object drawn. Negative space is defined as the space that is around an object but inside the frame. Utilizing this space brings balance in the picture and harmony to its composition. The image created by the negative space may either be the subject of a picture or it may help that subject stand out.

Great article if you’re looking at responsive design and images.

Paul Lewis takes a look at antialiasing, what it means for developers and how it looks to users.

Rian van der Merwe takes you through a situation with a client where he had to convince them to focus on content during the redesign.

If done correctly, minimalist design is one of the best and most effective approaches to creating beautiful websites. Not only is the target audience subjected to less clutter and noise, but you can use colors, textures, and fonts to create a very simple yet very memorable experience for the person viewing your site.

Exactly. Minimalism doesn’t mean ugly or so spartan that it looks empty.

The first few things you do after a potential client contacts you about a web design project are the most important. In fact, these initial steps can spell the difference between a good or bad project.

I don’t envy designers. It takes talent to get the client to express what they want in a way the designer can satisfy their expectations.

Interaction Design is here to facilitate interactions between people and their environment, which in our case it is a website. Interaction designers are only concerned with how users and computers interact, unlike UX designers who take into account all user-facing aspects of a software or system.

Experience designer Aral Balkan has revealed plans to create an open platform that competes on user experience in the consumer space.

This is a huge undertaking.

Tim Bajarin nails it. This is what the ads are all about.

Interesting article on how Web sites have tried to adapt to touch screens.

Small roundup on CSS features that will enhance your web typography.

Gorgeous work.

I have to admit, Michael Mulvey made me laugh.

Eric E. Anderson:

Dumping a bunch of stuff into a sidebar doesn’t make you a blogger. Nor does it make your website more useful.

Anderson brings up some good points. I’ve tried to keep the information in the sidebar on The Loop very minimal, but there’s still more than what I’d like. This is the next project I’ll be tackling with The Loop’s design.

Another great way to use CSS.

The same person that designed Steve Jobs’ yacht.

It’s interesting when you use something that’s really well designed—it just becomes part of what you’re doing. However, use something that’s poorly designed and all you notice is the poorly designed tool. It takes away from the experience.

Artem Minayev wrote an interesting article that looks at different elements of a Website and what their design says about you.

Beautifies your CSS automatically so that it is consistent and easy to read.

Todd Burton:

We have a gaggle of graphic designers focusing on all of the wrong things. In a world where more and more people are interested in the relationship between design and the internet, we’re teaching them to think that graphic design is nothing more than a style preference.

Love this article.