Design

I associate “undesign” with websites where the design and content is scaled back to the bare necessities, allowing for the quick implementation of a simple yet professional design.

Rian van der Merwe:

I understand and appreciate the arguments these designers and writers are trying to make, but as someone who teaches introductory courses on User Experience Design, this plead to call ourselves something else (or nothing at all) is problematic.

Barely a year after the unveiling of the BMW i8 Concept, BMW i unveiled the second variant of this innovative hybrid sports car. Like its Coupe sibling, the emotionally charged BMW i8 Concept Spyder combines intelligent lightweight design with the leading-edge drivetrain technology eDrive, while its open-top two-seater construction delivers an even more intense driving experience.

Impressive.

Selected from a pool of six finalists among more than 30,000 entries from 100 countries, design student Rodolfo Kusulas of Monterrey, Mexico and freelance designer Lee Dunford of Sydney took top honors in the Heineken Limited Edition Design Contest, and their winning design will be featured on the brand’s 140th anniversary bottle.

No, no, no! I like my Heineken in a green bottle.

The Next Web:

Most of the tweets you read on Twitter are forgettable, at best. Some of them are pure gold and worth memorializing in some fashion. But how? A favorite? A retweet? Emailing them to a friend?How about printing them out on toilet paper and wiping your butt with them? Amazing idea right?

No…just…no.

Aarron Walter:

Redesigning a website can be the seven-layer taco dip of hell. You’ve searched for inspiration on dozens of websites, captured screenshots, jotted down notes, consulted friends and colleagues, maybe even interviewed users. But despite your due diligence, your vision for the new website remains unclear.

Yeah, I’ve been there.

Would you like a new desk or cubicle? What if you could have one of these two designs? The Blackhawk Trunk is “inspired by the gleaming nose cones and fuselages of mid-20th-century aircraft” and the Mayfair Trunk “spares no detail with handmade distressed cigar leather, a solid wood frame and over 3000 hand-hammered brass nail heads.” Both are gorgeous and would look great in your home or office!

Unchanged since 1951.

Condensed variations of most fonts should be used sparingly or avoided altogether in most design projects with blocks of text. Although there are a wide-range of excuses to use them there is a simple reason why you should not: Condensed fonts can be very hard to read.

The disease is a designer killer. It’s a skills killer and most importantly it’s an imagination killer. Like the chicken pox, the “user design” disease is something we all need to get in order to become healthy, happy designers.

Having knowledge on how to create an effective landing page can increase the number of site visitors that take the desired action of the web page. Lets discuss factors and considerations that can lead to a better landing page design.

CNET:

The iPhone and iPad are truly elegant designs, but they are the rare exceptions in the rather drab world of consumer electronics. Most cameras, printers, computers, home theater receivers, and speakers are pretty sedate, but there is one product category that stands out: turntables. I’ve picked a choice selection that represents remarkable achievements in industrial design, and they’re highly functional, exquisitely engineered products.

If you have to check Wikipedia to find out what a “turntable” is, please ignore this article.

I still like Letterpress. I can’t help myself, I think I’ll always like it.

This is very cool. Certainly doesn’t fit for The Loop, but it would for many other sites.

As we look around the web, we see so many examples of designers who have brilliantly used color in web design projects to make the page or various page elements really pop. Even in some cases when we see designers opting for more minimal designs, using bold splashes of color can really take the look to fantastic new heights in very simple ways.

And I thought I was being bold with The Loop’s purple.

Yahoo! Travel:

While staircases are fundamentally a means to get from one point to another, they become cool—and worth seeking out—when the form is made at least as important as the function. Whether in shops, museums, or the great outdoors, the staircases we’ve found are inspiring works of public art and provide interesting perspective on a destination.

Even us lazy guys would enjoy taking some of these stairs.