A lot of great articles over the last couple of weeks, so I had a tough time choosing which ones I’d showcase in the irregular Funky Friday collection. I notice that there’s an increasing number of showcase posts about retro and retro futuristic design, which I very much applaud! I’ve highlighted one of the best collections here. I’m off to the Renaissance Fayre this weekend, getting dressed up in pantaloons and taking a couple of days off from everything techie (as well as watching staff reactions when they encounter my genuine English accent). In the meantime, have a great weekend everyone and hope you enjoy the links.
Design Technique
10 Useful Usability Findings And Guidelines – Smashing Magazine
It’s very easy to think you know what’s usable and what’s not. You might very well be wrong, though. To make a website as user friendly as possible it’s important to take into account empirical evidence from usability testing. Luckily, Smashing Magazine have pulled together a collection of tips based on usability studies into a great resource.
12 Tips For Creating A Great Portfolio Site – Noupe
Designers, artists, photographers, they all need a good showcase for their work. There are a lot of easy options online, places like DeviantArt or Behance are a great place to show your work. To really stand out from the crowd you need your own portfolio site, and you need to make it special. With excellent visual examples and great tips, Noupe sets you on the right path with this article.
3 Powerful Ways To Make Typography Talk – myInkBlog.com
I like design pieces to talk about specific examples so that I can really see what they’re talking about. This is a really great piece on good technique in typography, using the Square Eye website as a case study. Clearly laid out and very accessible, it’s an excellent guide on good practice and inspirational use of typography to engage with your visitors.
Design Inspiration
21 Retro Website Designs (Pt 2) – Inspiredology
Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know that I’m a total sucker for retro design. I particularly love 50s style design, or retro-futuristic styling. I thought I knew a lot of the best retro style sites around, but Inspiredology’s showcase has highlighted a bunch of new sites that I didn’t know existed. It includes some of the best retro styled web design I’ve seen in a long time.
Design Is For Grown Ups, Right? – This Is Aaron’s Life
Kids are more imaginative than adults. It’s amazing to watch kids create, they’re uninhibited by rules and structures and as a result they’re original and free thinking. We might be adults who’ve grown out of that, but looking at the way that kids create can teach us valuable lessons. How to break the rules, and how to remove limits to your creativity. Importantly, to have fun as well. Great article.
Freelancing
In Defense Of The Jack Of All Trades – Webdesigner Depot
I like the opening quote which finishes “Specialization is for insects”! There’s a strong argument that people looking to become web professionals are advised to specialize, so they can more directly market a specific skillset. While everyone is going to be better in some areas than others, this is an eloquent argument to the importance of having a broader set of skills and the business advantages it can bring.
7 Common Design Mistakes That Clients Love – Crestock.com
The Flash introduction, the page packed with far too much information, the garish purple and green color scheme. Clients want a lot of things that designers know are bad ideas. It can be frustrating to have to balance what you know is good web design with the client’s wants. Without ignoring the client, this article explains some of the most common problems and how to address the problem in a professional way, so that in the end the client appreciates the benefits of good design.
Social Media
9 Ways To Take Your Site To One Million Users – Think Vitamin
A summary of the points, and a video link, of a Kevin Rose speech about moving visitor numbers to websites into the stratosphere. Kevin Rose is clearly no slouch, having founded Digg, WeFollow and Revision3, so advice that’s well worth listening to. A great speech, but also really handy to have the nine points laid out clearly and succinctly.
Opinion
Do You *Really* Need A Redesign? – web design from scratch
How important is visual design? It can make a difference, but as this article clearly explains, without addressing underlying issues a visual redesign is pointless. Examining the importance of content and site aims over visuals, it acknowledges the importance of all factors. It’s something all web designers should read, because “redesign” needs to mean something far more comprehensive then a simple repackaging of the same product and content.
In addition to all the web pages linked to here, I’m choosing one of my favourite Flickr images from the past week available under Creative Commons. This week’s original image is by Flickr user Mara
