Posts filed under 'Design'
Third World Designer
I was sitting, as usual, at my home computer (piece of shit with a 14″ monitor that shows signs of failing) playing with a comp for a website when I heard the kids’ laughter. Our little neighbours, brother and sister, were playing with polythene bags.
Colours of Tradition
Tonight, the tradition of five hundred years is alive in Kandy, the last capital of our Kings. The Maha Perahera of the Dalada Maligawa has taken to the Streets. As I watch the live telecast, I’m dazzled by the beauty of this majestic spectacle.
Three Clients and a Designer
Every design project is unique, and so is every client. Every meeting has it’s own lesson, and every mad feedback it’s reason. And some clients are just lucky.
Flow with the Design
A design project you don’t love not only results in a poor product, but also affects the work that you really love doing. To make life easier for those designers who might face this dilemma, I have some guidelines.
The Smoke Requirement
No matter how much they say they want to inform people, some corporate and government types have an inherent inability to make things transparent. For them, the design should make things blurry; leave room for speculation; drive the user off the site ASAP. Designers should be able to understand this ironically hidden requirement, and create solutions accordingly.
From a Grasshopper to the Masters
May 31st marked 10 years of Zeldman on web. June 1st marked 10 years of Jakob Nielsen at Alertbox. They defined what an internet laggard in Sri Lanka will choose as a career.
An Exercise on Bullshit
I’ve hit designer’s block with a logo design project. My rather mediocre design ideas have been politey turned down by the client, and no amount of bullshit seems to convince him. This is an exercise to check my bullshittability and to learn from masters out there who’d be willing to give a helping hand.
Inspiration is out there
We often look for inspiration from the works of other designers. When it comes to design, original thought is supposed to be dead. Busy searching other people’s heads for ideas, we often forget to look at the richest resource of all: Nature.
Where do you draw the line?
Developing with web standards is great. We all know the advantages, we have proven it to our clients, and they are convinced. However, it begins to suck big time when a client comes up with a request that web standards can’t deliver. Should the perpetually broke designer decline the job, or should he return to tables?
How local is local?
Web interfaces everywhere look the same: the way US web designers do them. From a usability perspective, similarity is a good thing on a globally accessible media like the web. However, when catering to non-US communities, interface design can do with a bit of localisation.
