I talk about this subject too much and stumble on articles that touch on this subject multiple times daily. Today I found these two articles: Digital Web Magazine's Collecting for Design and A List Apart's Understanding Web Design.
Here are the highlights:
Jeffrey Zeldman implies the absurdity of it all, "What is the “London Calling” of television? Who is the Jane Austen of automotive design?"
Matthew Smith articulated it with unbelieveable conciseness, "...Good-looking design is useless unless we’re willing to conform to standard design patterns and accepted principles of user experience"Matthew Smith sums up the major points I've encountered in my months of research to learn how to impress the art community with web design. With a minimal graphic design background, I feel like I have been given the impossible task of creating a fine art piece in the medium of web design. The two things that I learned is that creating a better user experience is true good design and that good web design is not going to be good art. Make a site that is well formed, pleasing to modern aesthetics of popular design, and make it's primary goal to create the perfect user experience. Once you finish your MFA, then you might be able to make a web site that is also a peice of art but until then, just make sure you're a good web designer.
Sorry if you have already read 5 other posts similar to this. Reading helps but moving on improves you.
Process
I've been looking for more process articles to learn how to improve my design process.
Smashing Magazine interviews designers with some process related questions in 35 Designers X 5 Questions
Process: Collecting
Collecting for Design states that there are three parts to the improvement process:
- Reading
- practicing
- collecting
His article talks specifically about collecting which contains three parts:
- Integration
- Separation
- Creation
You should find a place to store your images (examples, screenshots, ect...) either locally (iPhoto) or on the web (Flickr), so you can easily sort them for reference.
Make the process as easy as possible so you will follow it with tools that help simplify (FlickScreen).
Sample Collections:
- Gustavo Pimenta’s Design Solutions on Flickr
- Clearleft’s Design Inspiration Pool
- Patrick Haney’s Web Design Inspiration
- Factory Joe’s Collection
Practice Makes Perfect
Try Tutorials
Best of Adobe Photoshop Tutorials
Gimme More
Please post process articles in comments!
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