Design

How about that for a novel idea — design your blog so it’s better for the reader. There are a lot of great ideas and thoughts here. You don’t have to follow them all, but it’s a good read to get an understanding of what works for readers and publishers.

Carrie Cousins looks at five characteristics of flat design.

Very impressive.

I love that these types of transitions no longer require Flash.

Ive is making the point that whilst embellishments (like skeuomorphic design elements) can be perceived as clutter, that’s not the core problem. The actual issue is that such designs focus on analogy rather than essence: a paper book itself, rather than the novel inside.

This is a great article from Matt Gemmell.

Robyn Morris:

Being a good designer means having a spirit of exploration and being OK with the reality that things may not always end up how you planned.

That can be applied to many professions.

Seth Godin:

If you use a typeface that reminds me of the script on the menu of a French restaurant, then no, I’m not going to instinctively believe that you’re a good doctor. If you use a thin, elegant wedding invitation font in your Powerpoint presentation, you haven’t been clever, you’ve merely confused me.

So true. I see people do crazy things like this all the time and it just makes me angry.

Geri Reid brings up a good question. Skeuomorphic design took the world on quite a ride, but it seems to be out now. While I don’t agree with her that Microsoft “struck a winning blow with the flat interface of Windows 8,” there is no doubt a change is coming.

I would like to see Apple update their interfaces, but not eschew Skeuomorphic elements altogether.

Remember Apple’s previous keynotes. The crowd didn’t roar and applaud for the flat design elements, they cheered when the Passbook app shredded a card with a realistic shredder that popped up on the screen.

Apple needs to refine that design, not replace it.

The finished product looks really nice.

What makes mobile typography special is the restrictive nature of mobile screens; they are small and used in brightly lit areas so that it is difficult to see anything. Therefore, when it comes to typography for mobile devices you have to be very careful about how you go about it. Most people would agree that there are three big components that help making mobile typography great: size, contrast and spacing.

A very interesting article by José Luis Antúnez. Every answer leads to another question, but they are all pieces that need to be worked out.

Seth Godin:

The original CD ROMs, for example, often had a home screen that started with a bookshelf, and you clicked on the ‘book’ you wanted to ‘open’ (excessive use of quotations intentional). Here’s the thing: bookshelves are a great idea if you want to store actual books on an actual shelf. They’re a silly way to index digital information, though.

I agree that design can’t get in the way of how we use something, but Skeuomorphic design also adds a level of familiarity to the new digital products we’re using. I’m still a fan of using it.

This actually happened. An e-commerce website had been designed and developed. Launch had been initiated, and it was abruptly taken offline in mid-air.

I can’t even imagine how heartbreaking that must have been.

This looks great.

I am a huge fan of negative space in design.

Jake Savin:

Software should empower you, not distract you. It’s a tool, and like any good tool it should feel like a part of you. Once you know how to use it, the software itself should fade into your subconscious.

Jake makes some good points.

I observed design students who were acting mindlessly, simply doing their assignments as presented. No creativity, no imagination, no questioning. That’s not what design thinking is about. As a result, I have changed my mind: Design Thinking really is special. Alas, it isn’t embraced by all designers, but where it exists, it is powerful.

Brian Suda for A List Apart:

Now it’s time we embrace the third epoch in performance optimization: symbol fonts.

Embedding a symbol font lets us move some of those tiny icons into a single font file rather than a sprite. This has the same caching and file size benefits as a CSS sprite, as well as some additional benefits we’re only now realizing with high-resolution displays.

I spent a lot of time thinking about the user experience when redesigning The Loop a couple of years ago.

A really well designed user interface is one that goes unnoticed by the user, whereas a poorly designed user interface forces the user to pay attention to it instead of the content.

Absolutely.

Jared Lewandowski explores something that’s become very popular in design — simplicity.

I’ve said it before, but I like skeuomorphic designs.

CBS News:

During his eight years as pope, Benedict XVI carried out thousands of official duties, but only once did he travel outside Rome to bestow the Vatican’s highest honor on a church, transforming it into a basilica — a sacred place forever.

I watched this last night and it’s a fascinating look at one of the world’s most beautiful and intricate buildings – and even after 130 years, it’s still not finished construction.