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Minimal Is Hard I love this post about how to be a game designer minimalist because doing less is the hardest thing. The ideas shared are applicable to web design too. The Basics"The general purpose of minimalism in game design is to accentuate a game's specific elements by limiting the scope or detail of the other surrounding elements. For a simplified 'real world' example, imagine wearing a blindfold to place a greater emphasis on your sense of touch.
An entire game can be designed with minimalism as a core concept, but minimalism can also be invoked only when needed. Art, sound, gameplay, and narrative can all be subject to minimalist interpretations."
Read a great book, The Paradox of Choice by Schwartz, to understand why most websites lower conversion with too much choice. Designing a website creates the idea you can do more than you should. It's easy to create mess.
"Limiting" is an important word for any new web designer. Even as i write this I know chances are poor anyone working . on a websites wireframes is listening. There is something busy, chaotic and endless about web design.
Because we can do something doesn't mean it is the right thing to do.
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Great post for any web or graphic designer to read.
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Blockchain Be Coming Blockchain is coming and disruption will follow. Bitcoin is an example of a blockchain, but don't stop there. If currency can be "mined" and understood as an extension of those who use it isn't that statement true for all things?
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Insight into how blockchain will change web design.
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Smashing Perfect Sliders
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Great, comprehensive, and illustrated "perfect slider" tutorial from Smashing Magazine.
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UX Must Reads
If you're new to web design do yourself a favor and read at least two of these free User Interface (UX) design books. You'll save yourself time in the end if you know how to design for conversion, engagement, and functionality. That's not to downplay the need for excitement, but nothing turns more users off faster than a hard to understand website.
Free UX books will help save you design time, energy, and frustration.
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Wireframing Is A Pain But Less So
Wireframing, the act of prototyping web designs before writing code, is a pain. Less of a pain with these 10 wireframing tools all new to us.
We have used any of these tools, but xeroxing our wireframing template is old, hard to share, and takes too long.
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Rich Animations
Video is a must, but so are "rich animations". Rich Animations are infographic-like, fun and instructive graphics that come alive, play, and run much like a video.
Find examples in this Medium Post
https://medium.com/@lollypopindia/why-rich-animations-are-crucial-for-design-ab6e940fc8f6
Watching The Story of Stuff we realized there were some things, some hard things, better told via animation. A human narrator would have made the hard stuff too hard, but animating the devastation even our favorite stuff like iPhone create stopped the "rejection reflex" long enough to listen.
Not hard to see why animation is so effective. We've been brought up on cartoons, Sesame Street and Simpsons. If you aren't using animation to teach, engage, and make points you might otherwise not be able to make your website is less fun, effective, and profitable.
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Nine Graphic Design Trends
This post shares nine graphic design trends including:
* Move to Bright Colors
* Color Transitions
* Patterns and Geometry
Read about the other trends on this Web Design Ledger post: https://webdesignledger.com/9-graphic-design-trends-need-aware-2017/?_tmc=Ef7mhzj4NfxCTVDKZ0E0ah3VKpYeh2R183X9wdgYBbk
Agree and disagree with some of these trends. The bright colors trend seems obvious, but not when you factor in mobile first. Mobile doesn't handle gradients well thus the great flattening of images into more traditional "web safe" colors. Mobile requires simplification across the board images included.
That is NOT to say arresting images don't matter. Arresting images matter more than every since your content must cut through a mountain of clutter. If you're using standard stock cut luck with that "cutting through the clutter" thing.
Better to find arresting images like the one that got my attention long enough to read and scoop this post :). Marty
Marking basically, implies the way the organization logo and hues have been utilized to depict its picture to the outside world. It engraves the item you offer in the psyches of would be clients. It really implies that when one sees these specific hues and outline logo, the principal thing is to recall your image administrations and items. Letterhead Design Services
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AI & UX and UI
Mobile isn't everything it is the only thing at least as far as data architecture and design goes. The "mobile first" movement didn't go nearly far enough.
Mobile first means thinking about and changing how we think about User Interface design. As we're thinking about design we need to layer artificial intelligence (AI) in too.
AI impacts the sentient nature of the conversation between customers, websites and robots. Robots not of the Skynet variety but crawlers determined to understand, share, and search.
Mobile first isn't everything it is the only thing. This Adobe post provides an intelligent look into how AI will impact web design, user experience, and the customer journey.
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Tiny House Diary - Bathroom Vanity
Building a low volatile organic compounds house is HARD.
Today I wrestled with the bathroom. Monday I have a meeting with THD in Efland, North Carolina to wrestle with it some more. I'll document with another Martin's Tiny House Diary entry.
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Best of Japanese Design
Turns out the best of Japanese design is pretty good. These 15 examples cross the thin line between design, art and commerce and so so with a grace and beauty you'd expect from Japanese design. I'm building a "tiny house" based on Japanese design so I love it.
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Headphones Icons Design Contest
Today is the last day to enter our Headphones Game Icons Design contest on 99Designs. We've guaranteed the prize and the winner will be asked to create many more icons, so sharpen up your Illustrator and enter our contest today!
http://bit.ly/Curagami_headphones_icon-contest
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Best Web Design Job - Hiring Now
Best Web Design Job in the World is about Moon-Audio.com search for a new front end web designer, a rare event & possibly best web design job in the world for reasons we share in this Curgami post:
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Squishy Bendy Color
A new project from Adobe Research and the University of Toronto may take things a step further. Their Playful Palette lets you mix colors in a stretchy, blended puddle. The effect is downright beautiful. Each color mix is like its own little snapshot of wall-ready abstract art. But crucially, as you work putting colors to the virtual canvas, you automatically save the colors that you’ve already used around the wheel.
Sounds very cool great tool matched with a better UI from Adobe seems incongruous but we can't wait to try bendy squishy colors.
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High Design Posters
These posters are messages in bottles. In many cases, their design is timeless, brilliant, and inspiring. In other cases, the looks are dated but those posters teach valuable design lessons too.
One of the best way to learn how to design is by looking at good designs created by others. I steal from women's magazines, art books, artists, and whatever source inspires, is handy, and can be adopted or adapted.
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Going 3D
Introducing, 3D Yarn! A cool new spin on an old craft called needle-punch felting. Using a custom made machine, the material fibers are felted together. As YankoDesign explains:
"Introducing, 3D Yarn! A cool new spin on an old craft called needle-punch felting. Using a custom made machine, the material fibers are felted together row by row and layer by layer on a specifically shaped foam to create entirely new types of 3D cloth. The yarn is essentially drawn on the form which can be any shape or size. This innovative technique allows for waste-less, stitch-free and seamless creations of organic fabrics, like this stylish, seemingly monocoque sneaker that gives Flyknit a run for its money!"
3D yarn is too cool!
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Do Graphic Designers Need Code School?
Web design is, like most things, in the middle of an intense revolution. As the backend or reading and writing content to databases continue to move toward the front end of pretty pictures customers see and interact with designers will be tempted to attend a "code school".
Before you pay thousands in tuition to upgrade skills you may need to upgrade read this Curagami post first: http://www.curagami.com/code-schools-will-they-change-your-life/
Our Curagami post that places our experience at The Iron Yard Code school in Durham, North Carolina in the context of more than 13 years in web development. Before you pay for a school that will make many promises, read our code schools post.
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Emotional Branding Guide
This excellent guide to building emotions into your brands focuses on products, but every lesson here applies to web design too. Finding ways to infuse your web designs with relevant value, cultural, and "made to stick" messages, connections, and images are every designer's and web marketer's job.
Great primer on how to build emotions into your product, web, and services designs.
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Martin's Tiny House Diary
Ready my Hillbilly Elegy and watch a video of the Southern gothic metal roof redux installation on Curagami: http://www.curagami.com/martins-tiny-house/
Building a house is a many-sided journey. Today's Tiny House Diary post shares my Hillbilly Elegy and a short video showing t he installation of the southern gothic metal roof.
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Rock Mobile Or It Rocks You
You want to be on the right side of the "mobile" revolution, but where is that exactly. This post shares critical information about screen size that will help your mobile design rock!
Mobile design is more than small - it is confusingly so. This post shares the 15 mobile screen types and how to design for them. Can you afford NOT TO KNOW that? Answer: No :). Martin
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Mobile Marketing Tips
This is a MUST READ post if you're a marketer trying to understand how mobile is changing...well everything. Shorter, sharper, and seamless is our quick summary. Shorter and more VIDEO-centric because who reads anymore.
Sharper because the phone is flatter, less able to share nuance and variations. Simplify, simplify and simplify some more is a good way to think about "mobile first" re-design.
Finally, the opening point about how mobile and LIFE merge for millennials is worth reading several times. A life that isn't on a millennials smartphone has no validation. It simply doesn't exist.
The key to reaching millennials and everyone else these days is that smooth, beautiful device in your hand. Smartphones rule and here are a few mobile trends you need to know.
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Graphic Design Tools
We're not sure graphic design tools have a season, but we like many of the tools suggested in the "Best Graphic Design Tools for June" Post we shared on Must Design on Flipboard: https://flipboard.com/@curagami/must-design-me64h178y
Cool graphic design tools via Flipboarf
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Tiny House Diary
Yesterday was metal roof day. I've always wanted a metal roof and that desire stretches back across long forgotten southern gothic roots. My family is from the south despite my upbringing in preppie Connecticut.
If you have a metal roof share your experiences and I'll incorporate into my growing Tiny House Diary on Curagami: http://www.curagami.com/martins-tiny-house/
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Web Design Lessons from Westworld
This Curagami post shares Five Content Marketing Lessons from HBO's Westworld such as:
http://www.curagami.com/content-marketing-five-lessons-from-hbo-westworld/
Lessons don't end there. HBO's Westworld uses design in ways web developers and designers should steal including:
Design & Web Stories
Websites must tell stories, stories consistent with and supporting brands represented. Look at the examples in our YouTube video (https://youtu.be/IC4KHAIZKWM ) and particularly REI.com for ways to blend your brand's message and site design.
No Half Measures
You either believe in your designs, copy, website and brand or you don't. There are no half measures online. Half measures are like fear. Visitors can smell fear and know when they are being manipulated. Every webpage is s statement and you either believe in what you are doing or you don't. See the Red Bull example in the video for the impact BELIEF can have on marketing and movement creation.
Space
Great Designs need SPACE to breathe. White space may be the most important part of web design few think about. In our rush to crowd everything in we violate HBO's brilliant use of space, time and an unhurried process. HBO isn't trying to overwhelm or flood us into submission.
HBO would rather create one incomplete thread after another and leave them and us hanging. Space is confidence. When you're confident in your product, brand or site you do what you believe and learn from every interaction. When you keep throwing things at customers hoping they will comply, they never do btw, your marketing looks chaotic and confusing. Confused customers do many things buying and advocating are rarely among them.
Brilliant Little Things
Have you noticed how DARK the Westworld lab is? If you're wondering why Westworld's titles are so amazing look no further than the dark lab. Creating the CGI needed to have a cool lab is expensive. Better to create a great title sequence and leave the lab a little seedy and rundown since doing so saves money and helps the plot.
Websites can't look "seedy" so much these days, but they can do a few things brilliantly and let the credit spread. When asked how teams I've managed made over $30M in online sales I often explain it was what we DIDN'T do that mattered most.
The list of things we needed to do was always infinite, so we were strict in the very few things we did and could do. HBO proves the point. Spending millions on the lab would rob the show of it's seedy underbelly. Better to create a great title sequence with a few brilliant pieces like the robot dipper and the "world overview" than try and do it all.
Find our Content Marketing tips from Westworld on Curagami:
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Building Online Community
This Curagami post shares the 3 easy steps to building online community. This is not to imply building online community is easy since it is not. Winning hearts, minds and loyalty online isn't easy, but the steps you need to take are known and get easier as you practice, practice and practice failing in public more and more.
* Ask for Help
* Gamify
* Fail in Public
Rinse and Repeat. When in doubt go back to step #1.
One of the first books I read about website design, this would have been in 1998 or so, said use red, black and white because nothing looks better. These templates demonstrate how powerful these three colors can be all by themselves.
They also demonstrate the power of Occam's razor. Remove things down to a simple core and your website becomes more powerful due to one of those web design anomalies - less is more.