Personality in Design Our lasting relationships center around the unique qualities and perspectives we all possess. We call it personality. Through our personalities, we express the entire gamut of human emotion. Personality is the mysterious force that attracts us to certain people and repels us from others. Because personality greatly influences our decision-making process, it can be a powerful tool in design. Personality is the platform for emotion#section1 Interface design lives in a broader category called Human-Computer Interaction, or HCI, sitting among computer science, behavioral science, and design. I’ll let you in on a secret. Emotional design’s primary goal is to facilitate human-to-human communication. I’d like you to pause for a moment, and recall a person with whom you recently made a real connection. Hold on to that memory. Let’s think of our designs not as a facade for interaction, but as people with whom our audience can have an inspired conversation. Personas#section3 Brand name: MailChimp
Freelancers: How to Work Better with Your Clients Working with clients all day long may sometimes lead to stress in a freelance schedule. Long working hours, impending project deadlines, and constant criticism from clients can really bring down one’s enthusiastic spirit. Thus, building a compromise with your client is imperative to the success of any project. As the provider, you have to be honest, sincere, and above all respectful of each of your clients’ opinions. (Image source: Fotolia) In this guide I would like to share a few tips for assembling open communication between freelancers and their clients. Read Also: Freelancers: 5 Ways To Lose Your Clients on the Same Page There are plenty of times where we misunderstand the goals of a specific project. To avoid such an embarrassing scenario keep your communication channels open. To stay on the same page keep a list of all project ideas and changes over the project timeline. Always be Open to Changes How to Pitch your Ideas Accepting Rejection Rejection is simply a part of compromise.
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Roadmap to Freelancing: Getting the Deal (Part 2) Working as a freelancer is just like any other business. You need to market your services to attract prospective clients. I know many of you may be uncomfortable or too shy to sell even your own service. Unfortunately, you have no option. You have to get out of your comfort zone and start getting projects in. To get the “work”, you must first get the deal. Well, let’s get to work. Read Also: Roadmap to Freelancing – Part I Utilizing Social Media Thanks to the Internet, there are now many social media platforms for designers to start their networking efforts and receive attention. Interestingly, in job board sites, you can select the projects they post there in accordance to your requirements, such as the budget, the location and your skills to streamline your choices. (Image Source: FreelanceSwitch) The point I would like to say here is, to start getting the jobs you want, you first need to attract prospective clients. Sending a Quote Why? A Little Negotiation (Image Source: FreelanceSwitch)
Gestalt Principles Applied in Design By Michael Tuck Web designers, like other artists and craftsmen, impose structure on the environment. We enforce order and beauty on the formless void that is our blank computer screen. We do it in different ways — creating an organized layout first, writing text and content first, or even basing a design concept on an image, a color palette, or something that visually trips your trigger, whether it’s a sunset or a Song Dynasty painting. Wherever you gain your inspiration, it’s often not just the particular element that sparks your artistic impulse; it’s the totality of the element and its surroundings. Grasping that totality concept — both the individual element and the whole in which it exists are important both separately and together — is essential to understanding how gestaltism influences our design choices. We’ll cover 6 principles related to gestalt, in the context of design, and they are: ProximitySimilarityPrägnanz (Figure-Ground)Symmetry"Common Fate"Closure Source: Dr. Mr. Symmetry
8 Contract Clauses You Should Never Freelance Without Quick question: Did you have a freelance contract when you first began freelancing? Yeah, me neither. Well, you should. Working without a contract is an invitation to be taken advantage of. (Image Source: Fotolia) If you started freelancing without a contract, I bet it wasn’t long before you felt that you needed one. Read Also: 9 Things You Should Know About Freelancing Full-Time The fear of contracts We know the importance of contracts but we’re just so intimidated by them! 1. The most important thing to ensure sustainability in your services is to make your rates clear. If you’re charging by the hour, include a minimum and maximum work-hour clause. 2. Spell out a payment schedule. How you get paid also needs to be included in the contract. Related: 10 Tips To Invoice Your Freelance Clients Professionally 3. Oh boy! The larger the team that deals with you, the more internal conflicts they have to iron out. 4. Different freelancers charge different kill fee. 5. 6. 7. 8. Conclusion
Responsive Web Design The English architect Christopher Wren once quipped that his chosen field “aims for Eternity,” and there’s something appealing about that formula: Unlike the web, which often feels like aiming for next week, architecture is a discipline very much defined by its permanence. Article Continues Below A building’s foundation defines its footprint, which defines its frame, which shapes the facade. Each phase of the architectural process is more immutable, more unchanging than the last. Creative decisions quite literally shape a physical space, defining the way in which people move through its confines for decades or even centuries. Working on the web, however, is a wholly different matter. But the landscape is shifting, perhaps more quickly than we might like. In recent years, I’ve been meeting with more companies that request “an iPhone website” as part of their project. A flexible foundation#section1 Let’s consider an example design. Becoming responsive#section2 responsive architecture .
Designing the Perfect Call to Action Every email you send should have a purpose, and that purpose should be reflected in the call to action (CTA). If you’re not sure what your call to action should be, ask yourself the following questions: “What do I want the recipient to do?” Paired with the tips from this infographic, the answers to these questions can help you optimize your email design and reach your goals! Click on the graphic below for an enlarged view. Don’t forget there are no rules when it comes to creating great calls to action, just guidelines. More CTA resources There are a ton of resources out there aimed at helping the web world get better at creating awesome CTAs.
What Makes a Design Seem 'Intuitive'? By Jared M. Spool Originally published: Jan 10, 2005 In a recent usability test, I once again witnessed something I've seen a hundred times before: a frustrated user claiming he knows exactly what is wrong with the interface he was fighting with. I think he used the I-Word no less than 25 times during the session. People Intuit, not Interfaces To those who police the English language, interfaces can't be intuitive, since they are the behavior side of programs and programs can't intuit anything. But, I believe that English is an adaptable medium, so it's ok with me if we call a design intuitive. To answer that question, we first have to look at how people understand the design in the first place. Current and Target Knowledge Points Imagine a long wall where you'll line up all the users who will use your design. On the right side, we'll put everyone who knows everything there is to know about the design. There's another point that's of interest to us: the target knowlege point.
How To Create An Editorial Calendar to Publish Blogs, Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter, and Email Newsletters | Reach Customers Online | Connect with Low-Cost Tools and Know-How How To Create An Editorial Calendar to Publish Blogs, Facebook Fan Pages, Twitter, and Email Newsletters This article is an exhaustive overview of how to design, create, and use an editorial calendar with links to additional articles, templates, and more. It brings you up to date on how best to create an editorial calendar and process to manage online and offline publications, including content published in email newsletters and social media sites Twitter and Facebook. This article strives to provide a comprehensive overview of all possible resources online compared to other articles which may be publication-specific or focus on one viewpoint of how to create an editorial calendar. When this article was first published in 2003, most online publishers had never seen an editorial calendar unless they came from a publishing background. Most importantly, this article is written for people with no little or no publishing experience. The Editorial Process The Publishing Process
The Messy Art Of UX Sketching Advertisement I hear a lot of people talking about the importance of sketching when designing or problem-solving, yet it seems that very few people actually sketch. As a UX professional, I sketch every day. My desk. Although starting a prototype on a computer is sometimes easier, it’s not the best way to visually problem-solve. Many articles discuss the power of sketching and why you should do it, but they don’t go into the how or the methods involved. Sketching ≠ Drawing Some of the most effective sketches I’ve seen are far from perfect drawings. Sketching is an expression of thinking and problem-solving.It’s a form of visual communication, and, as in all languages, some ways of communicating are clearer than others.Sketching is a skill: the more you do it, the better you’ll get at it. When evaluating your sketches, ask yourself, “How could I better communicate these thoughts?” OK, let’s get started. Work In Layers Technique Why? Starting with a light-gray marker makes this easy. Caution Tools
Cashmore Offers Peek at Mashable Model New York—Mashable has come a long way from its beginnings as a Wordpress blog that a 19-year-old Pete Cashmore launched as a way to connect with his peers and learn about social media and tech as he went along. Cashmore, in a Q&A keynote during the 2011 FOLIO: Show held here, discussed the importance social media has had with the site's audience growth, which is now at 20 million uniques per month. The company is still fairly small, said Cashmore, numbering around 50 employees, with the edit team taking up the bulk of that, around 25-30 staff. Cashmore singled out the community division as particularly unique, noting its "listening" role which has become a key method for determining where and how to distribute content on the site and along the various platforms. In describing the way Mashable evaluates the performance of its content, Cashmore noted the fine line publishers have to take.
Color Theory for Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color