Blog 4

As I looked through various articles on Smashing Magazine, I found a common trend among them. I learned the valuable design tip of focusing on the user. One article talked about navigating through websites. It said that one must ask, “will users be able to find their way through the site and use proper navigation quickly?” This is a very important concept and fits with the Maeda’s law of simplicity, “organize.” The designer needs to make sure he/she designs the website in a way that is organized and easy to follow. Along these same lines there was an article about restaurant websites and their increasing popularity among customers. Restaurants need ways to “communicate core information quickly” and were creating more user-friendly methods. To further stress this point, there was even an article titled, “A Design Is Only As Deep As It Is Usable.” There must be a balance between appearance and usability. I explored some websites for restaurants and found some that looked appealing and were pretty well organized, but still could be improved by such things as replacing PDF-versions of menus with ones right on the webpage. I thought that the website for smashburger (www.smashburger.com) had a good mix of design and utility.

Another valuable design tip I found from these websites came from the article “Embrace Constraints: How Limiting Yourself Won’t Limit Your Designs” found in One Extra Pixel. From reading the article I gathered that it’s more important to have a focus than to be creative. The first main point in the article was “Work for deadlines.” I learned from this section that if you push yourself to make a time limit, you can actually switch which side of the brain you use. If you don’t have time to think critically and analyze your work, you will switch from using your left side of your brain, to your right, which is the creative side. The second main point was “Design isn’t always creative.” I have always focused on the pure artistic side of design, which I have found appears unattainable for me. However, I discovered that while the aesthetic value is important, it comes second to functionality. The main goal for designers is to create something users can use, which takes me back to the first design tip I talked about. The final point discussed in this article was to “Understand the constraints.” It is always good to know what is required in a design from the client and to make sure to use this. Even though other designs one comes across may seem better, they won’t necessarily work for every project. The article stated, “The problem here is that those great elements in the other design are so great because they are harmonious with the design whole. Chances are they will not be harmonious with your design because you’ve dropped them in late in the process with no real justification for their presence.”

Designers have the task to keep up with their craft and there are all sorts of options and ways to do so. From the article “20 Methods for Upping Your Current Design Skills” I found one of the best things to do is to start with the basics. This involves: practicing with color, knowing typography well, doing tutorials, getting technical, using a sketchbook and re-learning the basics. Designers can also go conferences where they can learn new things and connect with others. Another way to keep up, as mentioned in this article is to “learn from your mistakes.” Both Zach and Jacky talked about the importance of learning from your mistakes. I would agree with Zach when he said he hates making mistakes, as I’m sure most everyone else would. However, like Jacky stated, “We can learn from our mistakes rather than taking them negatively and as a sign of failure.” There is so much to grow from if we look back at things we have done wrong and realize ways in which to improve. The article said that no one makes perfect web designs, so there is always room for improvement. I would say a final way for designers to keep up with their craft is simply to get on any of these web pages we were assigned to look at. If they read through the articles and try some of the things suggested, or even just look at designs for inspiration, they can be informed and succeed.