The restaurant has been around, in some form or another, since ancient Rome, and its function – to bring people together over a conveniently cooked meal – has changed very little in all that time.

There’s another benefit of restaurants that specifically applies to designers and other creative people, and that is to stimulate your creativity. That’s right – it’s been proven that socializing improves your intelligence. Not just academic intelligence either – interacting with friends and peers actually helps to make you more creative.

When you go out with others, you’re exposing yourself to an influx of new ideas that can’t help but positively influence your creative process. And food is a natural bonding agent, which is why so many creative ideas are born around a lunch or dinner table with other designers, artists, musicians, writers, et cetera.

Today, I’m going to explore the idea generation process familiar to so many designers who eat out with friends: the “awesome idea scribbled on a restaurant napkin” process.

It’s very high-level stuff. No, really! The lowly napkin sketch (or scrap paper or ledger pad sketch) has been used by everyone from babysitters all the way up to top creative executives at Microsoft and Walmart to bring to life important ideas that change the world, or at least bring in more profits.

Some experts say that the business sector is too dependent on language to express ideas that really should be expressed using visuals (i.e., sketches). That’s good news for us designers, but how exactly do we adapt it to our working process to make things easier for ourselves and our clients?

We designers all know the advantages of sketching: it’s a way to sort out our preliminary ideas and eliminate the ones that aren’t right for the job.

Of course, you don’t have to sketch on a napkin, but any kind of sketch is more useful than just thinking about the idea, because it requires you to use a different part of your brain.

Image Source

When you think, or read, or write, you’re nurturing the connections your brain makes between the different thoughts you have (called ‘neural pathways‘), and increasing your brain’s “elasticity.” When you add drawing to that process, you’re exercising important motor skills that can actually feed your creativity.

Personally, I prefer to sketch on paper. Why? Because it allows me the opportunity to step away from the computer for a brief moment and collect my thoughts on something I can touch and hold in my hands.

That’s important to me, and to a lot of designers whose work almost always ends up on the computer one way or another.

We humans respond to things that are interactive, and that allows us to make a direct impact on something. Ever wonder why more and more vending machines are see-through, rather than opaque?

The working mechanisms of those machines are engaging to our brains – we love to put our money in the machine, and literally see our desire (to have a refreshing beverage or snack) being fulfilled right before our eyes. It’s fun.

And guess what? Your clients are the exact same way.

If you’re a designer or art director redesigning a company’s brand identity, how do you make sure everyone there understands the creative vision you have?

Well, you could tell them. But most people aren’t going to take notes and will end up misinterpreting what you said at some point or another.

You could show them a presentation, which might work for some people. But I think that printing out handouts of your sketches, and walking people through them is the best way to involve them in the decision-making process.

Sometimes, sketching can be used to effectively communicate ideas to people – designers or non-designers – in ways that far surpass, say, a PowerPoint presentation.

Think about what you’d rather have in a department meeting: a dry, preachy collection of slides, or a sketchbook to work out your ideas about the company’s creative direction?

Just like a clear-windowed vending machine allows us to see the effect our money has on it, involving people with live sketching gives them a democratic insight into how design decisions are made.

It can turn a lofty, complicated mess into something that’s easy for everyone to understand. And we all know that an informed client is a happy (and oftentimes repeat) client.

You don’t want to just talk at your clients and lecture them about things that are going to go over their heads. Your clients aren’t stupid (well, hopefully not).

They are running a company, after all. Clients like to feel creative, or at least like they’re contributing to something to the creativity of their businesses. And what better way to make grown adults feel powerful and in charge of something than by handing them some paper and making them draw like grade-schoolers?

All joking aside, people love that stuff. It creates a feeling of harmony and democracy in the company, as anyone, from the janitor to the CEO, can make a sketch.

As Lou Levit explains in his article, How Sketching Will Take Your Design Process to the Next Level, sketching allows you to “dig deeper” with your idea process, uncovering more design solutions that often work much better than the initial ideas you start out with.

Image Source

Another downside to simply absorbing information via presentation is that it tends to lead your client through the design process with minimal challenge to their own imagination.

Because of this, your client may not really understand your reasoning behind a more nuanced design solution, and may fight you on it. Presenting sketches is one way to quiet those feelings of misunderstanding. The more your client can see of your process, the more likely they are to trust your judgement.

The key to engaging your clients with sketching is to think of your design meeting more like a restaurant date with friends. Obviously, you should probably keep the celebrity gossip and alcohol consumption to a minimum, but the general feeling of creative camaraderie should be the same.

Engage your clients with spontaneous sketches, draw things out for them that you might otherwise just dryly explain, and observe the difference yourself in their level of understanding, engagement, and trust.

You don’t have to make them draw too, though, as I mentioned before, many people do love that. But just like passing around a napkin at the restaurant table to your friends can result in weird and wonderful new ideas, incorporating sketches in your meetings with clients can propel your projects to heights that you never would have expected.

The post The Idea Generation Process of Scribbling on a Napkin appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

The woman leaves the room for a moment, and when she comes back, she is dismayed to find that the children have all begun scribbling on the walls.

There are squiggly lines of color everywhere, ruining her pristine, white paint job. Imagine you are this woman. What do you do next? Do you praise the children’s artistic contribution to the decor? Or do you grab the nearest sponge and start scrubbing frantically before the company comes over?

If you’re like most moms, the answer is obviously the latter, but why? Is it because you want to tyrannize the kids? Infringe on their self-expression? Probably not.

More likely, you just want to maintain a sense of order in the house. Three toddlers running amok with crayons would quickly become chaotic. And in a world of chaos, no one is happy; neither you nor the children, even though they were the ones who started the madness.

Defending Design Simplicity

Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said that “perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” That’s a nice quote, but what does it mean in the practical sense?

Sure, it’s telling us that simple is better than complicated. Most of us know that instinctually. No one wants a pen that’s also a steam iron, a soap dispenser, and a toaster oven. But how do we avoid ending up with one? Here’s a secret: it doesn’t just happen.

Source: Quote – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Most people have an idea of the perfect simple, elegant solution to their design problem. The downside is, so does everyone else who has the same problem. Put them all in a room together, and you’ll have no consensus, but pandemonium.

Everyone will contradict each other, and sometimes even themselves, in pursuit of the “ultimate” solution that will be universally beneficial.

In one of the greatest paradoxes of human nature, when everyone has a say in what they think will make everyone happy, the result – invariably – is that no one is happy.

The underlying imperative of de Saint-Exupery’s words is that there must be someone in charge of a process who makes the single, final decision.

There must be one person – or a small, unified group of persons – who will ruthlessly prune the savage garden of the horde, creating a result that is not what anyone said they wanted, but what is truly needed.

They must be able to think globally rather than provincially. They must be willing and able to ignore what people say and focus on what is objectively best.

They must lead, and they must be vigilant about it. Any slack during this crucial moment, the final verdict will unravel the entire operation, resulting in a quagmire of confusion that will suck everyone under.

In other words, they have to act like Moms.

Don’t Make a Mess

People like to believe they’re an important part of a decision making process. And they are – just not quite in the way they think.

A consumer’s role in the design process is both less and more important than it often appears. It’s less important because what people tell you they want is almost always irrelevant.

That might sound harsh, but it’s actually a good thing. Recall the earlier example of the multi-purpose pen. Everyone you question will tell you something slightly different about what they “really” want in a pen.

Some people will want a pen that can light up. Others will want a pen that does arithmetic. Still, others will want one that can write underwater, or that is made out of living plant fibers, or that will give off a heavenly aroma of freshly baked cookies.

If you’re a reasonable sort, you’ll want to take everyone’s ideas equally seriously. It’s only fair – the customer is always right.

Plus, you might think all those ideas sound equally as cool – who wouldn’t want a pen that can do all of those things? In magical unicorn land, it would be perfect, a must-have item. But here’s the thing about the real world: when you add features, you get mass, and mass equals mess. Let me repeat that: features = mass = mess.

And a mess is completely at odds with de Saint-Exupery’s words of wisdom above. Nobody likes a mess. That perfect pen dreamed up by your well-meaning consumer test group would be the size of a wine bottle and weigh as much as a brick.

Sure, it would have all the features everyone asked for, but who do you think is actually going to use it? What people say is irrelevant.

As a designer, you must be prepared, like a good, caring mom, to give them what they need.

A consumer’s big, important role to play in a design process – their time to shine – is in demonstrating what they really, truly need in a product. Contrary to the things people say, what they need is extremely important. It is only through solving a need that any designer can hope to have a career. But how do you tell the difference?

If you can’t trust people to tell you what they need (and you can’t), how can you possibly figure it out? Should you guess? Do you simply create things arbitrarily, assuming you instinctually know what everyone’s needs are?

Of course not. That’s just as careless as adding too much mass. Do you embrace your inner creep and watch them intently, observing their habits and formulating an ideal solution based on what you see?

Well… yes.

People love to tell you how iconoclastic they are. Everyone else is one way, but they are different because (fill in the blank).

The truth is, the majority of human beings on this planet are remarkably similar in behavior, even people who might superficially be categorized as “different.”

True deviations from the norm are often frightening – sociopaths and murderers – or patently obvious mental or personality disorders. The rest of us – natives and immigrants, extroverts and introverts, liberals and conservatives, iOS users and Android – we’re all more alike than we typically care to admit.

And when we come together to form a market for a product, our actions as a unit usually prove it. We demonstrate what we really want, what we need, by how we behave; what we buy, when we buy it, how we pay for it, or even if we pay for it.

This is the meat of good design, the thing that makes it revolutionary. You must indulge your inner creep, or your inner mom, and let your market speak to you not with what they say, but with what they do.

The post Avoiding Design by Committee appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Technically, creativity and commerciality can’t exist without each other – you need funding to continue designing, and there would be nothing to design for pay without creativity.

Is there a difference between so-called “commercial” work and work that’s done purely for the joy of creating? Should they be separated?

A Jumble of Confusion?

Should you risk confusing potential clients with a mish-mash of work, or should there be a clear separation of commercial work and weird, creative stuff that is less commercial?

Personally, I think that the best potential clients for you would benefit from seeing the full extent of your creativity. It allows them to more accurately judge whether you’d be a good fit, not just for a one-time project, but also for future work, and any fun opportunities you might miss out on if they only see you as a one-dimensional designer.

But what will it do to your personal brand to mix styles? As I said, it can be a good thing to be weird and creative, because clients may take notice of your creativity. Personal projects are very important to maintain as a designer.

They can help you open up new avenues of creative inspiration that you may never have discovered had you only stuck to your client work. I’ve heard many stories of people being hired for amazing freelance and in-house jobs simply on the basis of a great personal project that got a lot of traction.

Too Weird To Appeal?

On the flip side, you may feel that your personal projects are really, really out there in terms of appeal, and might do more harm than good if you combined them with your professional work. The question becomes: can your personal work actually be too weird to associate with your commercial projects?

Well, yes, it can.

There is such a thing as too much disparity between what you do for clients and what you do for yourself. If that’s the case, just keep them separate. You can make a new brand for your weird stuff, and keep the commercial stuff in its own space.

Analytics & Tracking

Keeping things separate makes it easier to track what’s working to gain you clients, and what’s not. Every piece of work you publish online, personal or professional, is going to contribute in some way to people finding out more about who you are as a designer.

You want to always make sure you’re sending the message you want to send to anyone who is watching. If there’s non-commercial work mixed in with commercial work, it can confuse things as far as tracking and analytics goes.

This goes for any kind of work that you don’t want associated with the work you present to potential clients. Say you did a piece that you’re really not proud of, maybe just for the money or for some other reason. You can’t stand to look at it, but you’re afraid to remove it from your portfolio for some reason. Time to get rid of that thing!

If a potential client sees it and wants to hire you to do the exact same thing, what are you going to say to them?

Never include work that you hated doing in your portfolio, because you’ll often find that that is the exact thing clients will want to hire you for the most.

Don’t believe me? Just do a few more crappy projects and you’ll see for yourself.

Be Like A Mullet

You may have heard of the joking description of the mullet haircut popular in rural areas in the US: business in the front, party in the back. Sometimes, it’s good to organize your design work like a mullet. Yes, I’m serious.

Put your professional work that’s relevant to meeting the needs of your clients front and center, and place your “fun” projects that you work on simply for your own enjoyment on the back burner, to be shared with your friends and other designers who are interested in seeing it.

Even publishing work under two different names can help make the separation clearer to everyone.

The post Separating Your Personal & Commercial Design Work appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

I have a confession to make: when I started writing this article, I was stumped at how to best phrase my main idea. I had something important I needed to tell you wonderful readers, but I just wasn’t sure how to do it.

Then it hit me that I wasn’t approaching it in a writing voice I recognized as being “mine.” I was attempting to get too lofty with my idea (since it’s so important and all), and missing the point of my own message. How’s that for irony? In your face, Alanis Morissette.

I eventually decided to scrap what I was originally going to write about, and start over in my own personal style. I love telling stories, and I think that’s where I shine as a writer. Plus, I’m incredibly modest, as you can tell.

So, what is voice? What is personal style, and how can we creatives develop it? One thing’s for sure – it’s not just something for writers to think about. Creative professionals of all stripes struggle with developing their own unique way to express their ideas, especially with so many amazing people out there doing things we admire and are inspired by.

It can be hard sometimes to separate what you admire from who you are, but it’s certainly doable. The key is knowing how to interpret the feedback you get from others.

Translating The Conversation

It’s entirely possible to say one thing dozens, and sometimes even hundreds of different ways. Typography is the best way to illustrate this point. A poster that doesn’t hold back with the chunky slab serifs is going to have a completely different emotional impact than one that uses a delicate, understated script – even if the message is exactly the same.

The design language you use will be different depending on who it is you’re trying to reach. I say language quite deliberately because I compare what we do for our clients as designers to what an interpreter does for two people who speak different languages.

Interpreters create commonality and facilitate conversation between two opposite forces, much the same way that a designer facilitates a communication between their client and their client’s audience. You take what your client has to say and tell it to their audience in a way that’s clear for both parties to understand.

When you develop your own personal design voice, you are effectively alienating those people who don’t care for your style, just like a baby’s brain closes itself off to all of the potential sounds a human being can make in favor of the particular set it learns from its parents.

When you’re born, you can effectively speak every language. But the more you learn and listen, the more certain words and sounds take precedence over the others.

By the time you can talk, you’re communicating in whatever your first language is, excluding all the others you could have learned instead. It’s impossible to try to learn every single language in the world, so why should you try to earn the approval of every single person with your design work? The best way you can use your own voice is to reach people who want to hear your specific message.

The world in general wants you to be bland and inoffensive, easy to understand and digest. But your niche audience wants the compelling visual narrative that only you can give them.

When Inspiration Becomes Copying

Without a doubt, the best way you can expand your own design fluency is by learning from others. Like I said, there’s a ton of exciting, creative work out there that inspires us all, and the argument has certainly been made many times that there’s “nothing new under the sun” in terms of ideas. But there comes a time when design inspiration can go too far and veer off into plain old copyright infringement.

In 2010, copyright representatives for Dutch author Dick Bruna successfully sued Japanese heavyweight Sanrio for copyright infringement over Sanrio’s white bunny character, Cathy.

Bruna, who created the white bunny character Miffy in 1955, said explicitly that Cathy was “a copy” of his famous children’s book bunny, who was very popular in Japan several decades before Sanrio began licensing their character designs. But Sanrio’s Cathy was pretty obviously done in Sanrio’s own style – the bunny character looks very much like their iconic Hello Kitty.

Was Sanrio merely designing in their signature style, or was it in fact a deliberate infringement on Bruna’s copyright? There are plenty of incidences of simultaneous design, when more than one person comes up with the exact same or a series of very similar ideas at around the same time. But as a general rule, unless you can prove in court that you were the original holder of a copyright, it’s not really a good idea to fall victim to that kind of unknowing.

Doing your research, involving yourself in the creative community, and making sure you know who your competition is are vital steps to maintaining your reputation as an original designer with an original voice.

As Albert Einstein said, “the secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” Being inspired means not being ignorant of what your peers are doing.

Remember, your main goal as a freelancer is getting repeat customers who respond well to your unique voice. If you’re telling your own stories and drawing from your own personal experiences, it’s virtually impossible to create designs that look just like everyone else’s.

You can’t help but be original when you’re being authentic.

The post Finding & Using Your Own Design Voice appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

• Who are you designing for?
• Are you putting your client’s needs first?
• Is showing off the project in your portfolio a motivating factor?

You’d like to think that most designers are ethical. And they’ll keep their focus entirely on client needs.

But we’re all human. And sometimes, we add bells and whistles to a project for the wrong reasons. We may not even be aware of what we’re doing.

It comes down to those little decisions we make during the design process. Sure, they can enhance our portfolios. But they may not have a positive impact elsewhere.

Thus, understanding our motivation is crucial. Are we focused on our clients or ourselves? How can you tell the difference? Let’s try and identify who that fancy feature is benefitting.

Look What I Can Do!

I’m fascinated by all the cool trends sweeping the web. Sometimes a new feature will grab my attention. And I simply can’t wait to use it in a project.

Parallax scrolling is a prime example. It’s a widely used effect. But I’ve yet to add it to one of my projects.

Then, I found myself working on a website that seemed like a good fit. It included a stunning hero image that would wow users. So I implemented it.

Technically speaking, the result worked well enough. I beamed with pride when thinking about my accomplishment. And I know that my client will love the aesthetic.

The reality was different. My client wasn’t thrilled about the feature. They correctly pointed out that the effect was distracting to users. It took attention away from the page’s goal of driving conversions.

It turns out that the effect made the site harder to use. It didn’t help visitors find what they were looking for any faster. If anything, it got in the way. So, what went wrong?

Looking back, I was focused on the wrong thing. I used parallax scrolling just because I could. And it didn’t improve the finished product.

I wasn’t happy with myself. This was like a child being mischievous to get a parent’s attention. It may work. But not without annoying someone along the way.

Features Should Have a Purpose

Don’t get me wrong. We can still make use of cutting-edge features. But the feature needs to serve a purpose. Whatever we implement should solve a problem or improve the user experience.

Microinteractions, for instance, can be a great way to guide users along a path. They can make processes more intuitive. And animation can call attention to an important piece of information. It’s all about picking the right time and place for using them.

We run into problems when adding features without defining their purpose. Think about what a given feature should accomplish. Is it just for showing off? Or will it benefit both users and your client?

Web design is nothing if not a “me too” industry. We often use these elements to prop up our ego and income. Plus, none of us want to appear to be behind the times.

But we may come to a different conclusion if we’re honest about the project’s needs. Many (if not all) of these extras can likely be left out.

A good rule of thumb: If it doesn’t add anything useful to the final product, it doesn’t belong.

What about Client Requests?

Web designers aren’t the only ones adding bells and whistles. Our clients often request these features as well. So, what do we do in these instances?

It’s a tricky situation. We want to keep our clients happy. But we also need to think about best practices. And we owe our clients an honest assessment.

Therefore, the same philosophy should apply. Discuss feature requests with your client. Be sure to mention the pros and cons of implementing them. Most importantly, try to define their purpose.

It may be enough to change their mind. And if not, at least you tried to put the project’s needs first. You can’t win them all.

Design for Your Project, Not Your Portfolio

Great design exists to make things better. However, getting there takes a lot of thought and some soul-searching.

In the end, it’s about finding the right solutions for the task at hand. Having an impressive portfolio means a lot to our success. But doing right by our clients means even more.

With that in mind, it’s OK if your portfolio is missing those trendy features. Maybe you haven’t found the right time yet. There may be an opportunity to implement them down the road.

It’s more important to help clients solve problems and achieve their goals. That will mean more to your chances of future success than anything else.

The post How to Balance Client Needs vs. Building Your Portfolio appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

For example, I take my routine to the next level. I start each morning the same way: I turn on my computer and open the apps I need – all in the same order. Maybe I’m a bit obsessed?

But this behavior goes further. It also applies to the way I build websites. There are certain styles and layouts that I’m comfortable with.

Don’t get me wrong – I do like some variation in how things look. But I also have a preferred way of working. Thus, I become unnerved when someone asks me to change.

There’s both a level of fear and frustration when leaving one’s comfort zone. But it can be a more rewarding experience than our brains will allow us to believe.

Let’s explore why projects outside of our sweet spot can cause such discomfort. Along the way, we’ll discuss some things we can do to meet these challenges with enthusiasm (or cautious optimism, at least).

Finding Your Design Happy Place

Success breeds complacency. That’s why, in the world of sports, it’s incredibly hard to win multiple championships in a row. Maintaining that same level of intensity is difficult.

In web design, successfully completing a project makes us feel great. But it can also result in becoming formulaic in how we do things.

Our process may evolve in some areas. But overall, we do what has led to positive outcomes in the past. It’s a natural reaction.

This approach is also great for efficiency. Especially when we have multiple projects to manage. Repeating these steps allows us to get more done in less time.

That is, until someone comes along and disrupts our happy little pattern.

Thanks for Ruining a Good Thing

Has a client ever asked you to create something that isn’t your style? It can throw you off your game.

I’ve been in this situation before. A client wants a unique layout for their site. Hearing this makes me feel a bit insecure. They were well within their right to ask. But I immediately felt like I was going to fail.

What was I so afraid of? They’re asking me to go beyond my comfort zone. Since I haven’t built this type of site before, how can I possibly succeed? Maybe this project will destroy my confidence. What if I disappoint my client?

This is an irrational way to approach the situation. I’ve been at this for long enough to where I should know better. But, like it or not, that’s usually my first reaction when life takes me to unexpected places. I don’t count it as one of my strengths.

Take a Deep Breath & Come To Reality

The biggest hurdle in these situations is taking the first step. Maybe it’s the fear of failure or the sense that you aren’t good enough. But it seems that the longer you avoid doing uncomfortable things, the worse you feel.

The solution is to get to work. Eliminate any distractions and spend some quiet time with your project. You may find that a decent idea can grow into something better. Pretty soon, you’ll be on your way to a successful outcome.

Problem-solving is a part of design that doesn’t always come naturally. When you’re handed the same problem over and over, you solve it the same way. But when handed a more unfamiliar riddle, you might be unsure of the answer. Uncertainty is uncomfortable, after all.

For me, the initial panic usually gives way to laughter. I wonder why I ever worried in the first place. Practicing patience and allowing myself room to experiment often leads to positive results.

With that in mind, here’s what I’m going to tell myself the next time I face a similar project. Maybe it will help you, too.

• You’re Not Being Punished – Being uncomfortable can be the worst feeling. It’s as if a curse has been put on me. I know that’s not the case (at least, I don’t think it is). But it’s important to remember that this is just another challenge in a life full of them. Others have been through far worse.
• You Might Fail Initially – Your first idea may not be the best one – but that’s OK. You have to start somewhere. Design is a process. And it’s particularly tough when you’re swimming in uncharted waters.
• You’ll Get It – Eventually – Working a different way often requires some trial and error. It also takes a bit more time. Patience and persistence are keys. If you keep working, you’ll end up with the right answer.
• The Experience Will Make You Better – Oftentimes, the best way to combat being uncomfortable with a project is to force yourself to do it. The reward is that you’ll feel more confident about having taken it on. You’ll also be able to lean on this experience when facing future challenges. That’s good because another one is always just around the corner.

It’s All Part of the Job

When you think about it, web design (and life) would be pretty boring if we did things the same way every time. Still, going outside your comfort zone is hard.

Your initial reaction may be to run as fast and far away as possible. But that leads to complacency and stagnation. Neither trait is good for your career.

It turns out that the key to dealing with these situations is to work through your fears and preconceived notions. Along the way, you’ll find that your design skills are much more flexible than you might have thought.

The post Taking Trips Outside of Your Design Comfort Zone appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Designers don’t always get to make that decision, though. Clients often provide images for their websites. And they may insist on using a particular image, even if it’s of poor quality.

But there’s still a chance to get the best results. It’s all about understanding the role photography plays in web design. Educating clients (and ourselves) can make a difference.

With that in mind, here are some tips for choosing the best photos for your website.

The Image Subject Should Be Relevant to Your Website

First and foremost, a photo should reflect the subject of your content. It’s not an exact science, however. Thus, there’s room for interpretation.

The easiest solution is to hire a professional photographer. They can provide a perfect match for your needs.

But that’s also beyond the budget of many organizations. That leads to the inevitable use of stock photos.

Stock photography may not always hit the nail on the head. But you can still use it to convey a message. That may mean using a more generic image.

For instance, let’s say that you’ve written about the benefits of hiring a piano tuner. Perhaps you don’t have any images of someone tuning a piano. But the odds are that you can find photos of a piano. Better yet, an image that focuses on its internal parts.

The goal is to find images that keep the user focused on your subject. Perfection isn’t required. But don’t stray too far from the content’s messaging.

Think About Color and Post-Processing Effects

Tools ranging from Adobe Photoshop to CSS allow us to tweak an image’s color composition. We can change the hue and saturation. Or even convert the image to black-and-white.

But it’s important to consider which colors make the most sense for your project. The branding of your website is a big factor. As is the mood you’re hoping to create.

For instance, a full-color photo on a dark background can make a bold statement. But black and white might be perfect if subtlety is your goal.

Post-processing effects should also be considered. Not every image will be a good candidate for the specific look you want to create.

Let’s say you’re applying a color overlay to a series of header images. You’ll want to be sure that the photos look consistent when the effect is applied. If an image looks out of place, it may not be the best fit for this use.

Image Size and Orientation Matters

The images you choose will likely be cropped before they are added to your website. Even with broadband connections and 4k monitors, gigantic images (with equally large download sizes) aren’t user-friendly.

Therefore, it’s important to consider how you plan to use a specific image. What impact will cropping have on it? This is where an image’s size and orientation come into play.

Consider a background image placed within a hero area. This is typically a wide, landscape-oriented photograph. Attempting to stretch a portrait-oriented photo into this spot is not advisable. It will likely lead to undesirable results.

Pixel size is also important. It’s best to choose images that are larger than you need. This allows you to crop the image to suit. Enlarging a small image generally leads to poor display quality. With that in mind, look for an image that will fit your desired use.

And don’t forget mobile devices! You may need to adjust an image for small screens. That could include displaying it in a different orientation.

About Your Client’s ‘Terrible’ Photo

We alluded to situations where a client insists on using a photo (a.k.a. the “wrong” one). It’s easy to dismiss it as a bad idea. But we should be cognizant of both their feelings and thought processes.

Discussing the matter with them will help you gain insight. Start by politely stating any concerns you have. Maybe the sizing won’t work. Or the quality just isn’t up-to-snuff. Regardless, it’s best to get your thoughts out in the open.

Also, try to find out why they chose the image. It may be the best photo they have available. On the other hand, it may hold some sentimental value.

From there, you can offer them some options. Things like adding effects or making it part of a collage could help.

Clients are usually flexible when it comes to images. Plus, they need to know that you’re working in their best interest. That way, they’ll be more likely to meet you in the middle.

Therefore, don’t interpret their initial request as a final answer. There’s likely some room for compromise.

Better Photos = Better Website

A nearly infinite number of images are available at our fingertips. It’s easy to just grab one and put it to use. But is it the right one for the job?

It takes effort to find the best photos. Consider your site’s subject matter, color scheme, and sizing requirements. That will help narrow your search. From there, it’s all about experimenting with different options and determining the best fit.

It’s also important to communicate with clients about their ideas. Work with them to make the most of the opportunity.

Photography can truly make your website stand out. Therefore, take your time and choose wisely!

The post A Quick Guide to Great Website Photography appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Designing websites for other people can be a lot like rolling dice. Sometimes you get lucky and your client loves what you’ve done – no changes required. But more often it seems like a nearly endless process of making revisions until they’re fully satisfied (if that’s even possible).

It’s a common refrain for web designers. But we’re not totally helpless in this area. Even though we can’t fully control how our clients will react, there is one strategy that can help keep the situation from getting out of control: Explaining your design decisions, preferably right from the very start.

A Proactive Approach That Yields Results

To clarify, we’re not advising that you craft a huge laundry list of every last detail. And certainly not before you’ve handed in a mockup.

What we are talking about is providing clients with a general rundown of what you did and, more importantly, why you did it. This is something that could be delivered along with your initial design.

This helps us accomplish a few things right off the bat:

It Provides Context

Clients are often more willing to accept something if they know the reason behind it. In the case of a website, this could mean anything from understanding why you chose a certain layout to why you reconfigured a navigation structure.

If your line of reasoning makes sense to them, it’s more likely to avoid the chopping block.

It Facilitates Productive Conversation

Once in a while, you’ll run into someone who is very quick to make harsh judgements of your work. This not only stings your ego, it can also make the design process that much more difficult. If nothing else, it kills your motivation and might make your client a little wary as well.

These reactions are often based on a client having a very different expectation for what they were going to see, as opposed to the design you provided. By offering up a clear and simple explanation, you can at least partially offset the element of surprise.

While they still might not love the design, the subsequent conversation can be much more productive. This will result in a better final product.

It Demonstrates Your Professionalism

Submitting a design for review with no real explanation is a bit like dropping someone off in the middle of a strange city without a GPS. Sure, they may find their way around, but it probably won’t be as pleasant of an experience.

That’s why, if nothing else, taking the time to help guide someone through a mockup reflects well on you. It shows that you put serious thought into your work and are willing to have an open line of communication. This is a great way to help build the ever-important client-designer relationship.

What You Should (And Shouldn’t) Include

There’s a delicate balance when it comes to spelling out various details of a design. If your writeup is too long-winded, you’re bound to bore or confuse clients. They may even skip it altogether.

Therefore, the key is to provide a document that serves as a general outline. Focus on the most important parts of the design, such as:

• Header and footer;
• Navigation;
• Hero area or other featured content;
• Anticipated areas that will use animation or other special effects;
• Mobile-specific elements;

For example, if you have set up an area of the home page for a specific type of content, make sure your client understands the intent. Likewise, if you expect to use a slider in the hero area, it’s something you’ll want to mention.

A good rule of thumb: What seems obvious to you may not be so easy for others to figure out. Don’t assume that everyone will automatically pick up on your thought process.

So, what should you avoid mentioning? That really varies based on the client and the project itself.

In general, it’s probably best to stay away from highly-technical aspects – such as how you’re going to build a particular feature. Most clients aren’t so worried about how you achieve something so much as they want it to look good. Start off with the basics and offer to elaborate on any particular areas of concern as needed.

Please Explain Yourself

In the end, writing out the thought process behind your design work is all about creating a more collaborative environment. Remember, when it comes to design, you’re the expert. When you provide clients with a better understanding of where you’re coming from, they can make more informed decisions.

Not only that, they will be more likely to make any changes within the framework you’ve outlined for them. That’s the difference between perhaps tweaking a font or color as opposed to ripping apart entire templates.

So, on your next project, try pointing out the design decisions you made along the way. While there’s no guarantee that your client will sign off on it without changes, you both should be in a better position to deal with what comes next.

The post Why You Should Explain Design Decisions to Your Clients appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

For example, if your client is late to a meeting, you would probably assume they got stuck in traffic. It’s a simpler and likelier explanation than, say, assuming they got temporarily abducted by aliens and had to fight through an endless maze of plant monsters to get to the meeting on time

That’s a prime example of the kind of over-thinking that many designers are prone to. We’ll go over the importance of ditching the unnecessary when developing design concepts, and why it’s so hard to do in the first place.

Not only will you be a stronger designer when you insist on simplicity, but your clients will be much happier with your work as well.

Image Source

text_block id=158382 description=”Marketing-Design”]

Considering New Options

Here’s a scenario that I think perfectly illustrates how designers can use Occam’s Razor to de-clutter their designs. If you know me, you know what I’m about to say: something about food! Okay, so, you and a group of friends go out to eat at a buffet-style restaurant, and you begin piling up a huge assortment of food on your plate. Your friends are giving you funny looks, but you explain that you’re really hungry and will be eating a lot.

However, when you finally sit down to dig in, you get overwhelmed with the variety of options in front of you. Where do you jab your fork first? Decisions, decisions. Your friends are having no trouble polishing off their smaller meals and going to get seconds. It occurs to you that you didn’t have to put everything you were going to eat tonight on your plate at one time. There was a simpler solution right in front of you that you didn’t even consider. Oops.

Design works the exact same way. No matter what you want to accomplish in a design, there is almost always a simpler way to do it that will obtain the same result with less distraction and clutter.

Deconstructing a design concept to its bare elements while still maintaining the integrity of the design brief allows you to solve clients’ problems with the power of economy. Always go out of your way to make things less complex, because…

Complicating Things Is Natural

I’m not sure why so many people think that simplicity or minimalism in design is easier to do than complexity. But it’s a pretty depressingly common thing for a non-designer to think.

I’ve personally worked with many people who just did not understand what it took to create a simple design layout. And I didn’t even try to strangle any of them. They say in entertainment that you can never be too rich or too thin. Well, in the design industry, you can never be too patient.

Back when I did the in-house grind, a co-worker once told me that whoever created the SPAM logo was: “just a slacker. I mean, how hard is *that* to pull off?” He was under the impression, like many non-creative professionals, that it was somehow “easier” to create something simple like the SPAM logo because it wasn’t as complex as, say, directing a customer service staff of 50 people (he was a VP of Operations).

Getting A Close Shave

Having designed “simple” logos and directed staff teams, I can say with a fair amount of authority that, if you’re doing it right, the latter is far easier than the former, and here’s why.

As a designer, the most important thing you can deliver to your clients is a way to funnel their core values into a working system. That includes the visuals, of course, but visuals are almost near the bottom of the list for design requirements. Sure, anybody can put some plain text in a box. But the knowledge of whether or not that’s appropriate for the project you’re working on is what makes you the design expert, and not your client.

Always remind yourself that design is about solving a problem and communicating a core idea to your user. Whether it’s a squeeze page on a commercial website, or the can opener in your kitchen, all design should strive to use the fewest amount of elements to make the easiest user experience possible.

If you find yourself stuck in a heavy jungle of clutter, walk away for a minute and ask yourself what simpler way you can use to achieve the exact same effect you’re striving for.

Image Source

The DNA Of Clutter

Nature is predisposed toward complexity. That means that, in general, simple things get more complicated over time. Single-celled organisms evolve into multi-celled organisms, and so on. Evolution is not the most efficient designer, and sometimes nature’s solution to a problem is to just evolve something else to solve it.

Then, once the need for it is gone, it just sort of sits there. That’s why we have an appendix, tonsils, and other weird remnants of things we once needed for survival, but now… not so much.

And it’s not just us. There are plenty of examples in the animal kingdom of species that have vestigial, or formerly useful, limbs, organs, behaviors, and instincts. They aren’t useful anymore, but, thanks to Mother Nature (also known as the worst art director in the universe), they’re there to stay.

What this all means is that we humans are built from the ground up to take simple things and make them complex. Think about a nomadic people’s village versus a modern metropolis in the West or East Asia. Huge difference in complexity, but all human civilizations started out the same – very simple and basic.

To make something simple from something complex is against our very nature. This is why Occam’s Razor exists in the first place. William of Ockham, the 14th Century English scholar who first came up with the idea, knew that people had a tendency to think up fanciful solutions to problems that only needed a simple fix. Try this explanation the next time you encounter a client who doesn’t think design is a “real” job.

If you struggle with simplifying your designs, remember that it’s not really your fault. It comes with having a human brain and seeing things in many layers. But through your designs, you can constantly challenge yourself and your users to take the simpler road.

You won’t always end up with the world’s most elegant solution, and that’s okay.

But by reminding yourself that there’s always a way to do it simpler, you can ensure you’re always communicating the clearest message.

The post Taking the Occam Razor Approach to Design appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

However, this approach isn’t necessarily the best one for either your health or the overall quality of the project. This is what I like to call the “race to nowhere”.

Of course, it’s easy enough to talk about slowing down. But doing it is an entirely different thing. When you have deadlines to meet and constant demands on your time, how can you possibly take a deep breath?

While we can’t do anything about our existing deadlines, there are some solid reasons to slow down future projects. Here’s why your next project should move at a more manageable pace.

Speed and Carefulness Can’t Coexist

To paraphrase an old saying, if you want it cheap, fast and good – pick two. Achieving all three isn’t all that realistic. But speed alone would seem to indicate that a project would both cost more (so that you can make it your top priority) and result in less attention to detail.

Quite often it seems like the faster we try to work, the more mistake-prone we become. Coding itself is an artform that requires your total attention. Who among us hasn’t missed a comma or semicolon that led to a broken website?

But beyond functionality, working at lightspeed tends to mean that we miss the finer details of a design. Things like subtle effects and microinteractions often turn a good design into a great one. When you look back on your work, you may find that it’s just not up to your standards. It’s not something you’ll want to feature in your portfolio.

There are certainly situations where going full speed ahead is necessary. However, this doesn’t mean that we should make a habit of working this way on every project.

Nice and Easy

Slowing things down a bit can be very beneficial. For one, it enables us to experiment more with various design elements in an effort to find the perfect fit. We can determine, for instance, whether our card layout looks better with or without rounded corners. Or maybe that those call-to-action buttons look better in blue than red.

This extra time also allows for more thorough browser and device testing. It’s never a good idea to push a project out the door while crossing your fingers that it all looks decent on the new iPhone.

Perhaps most importantly, more time means the ability to review key user tasks and processes. This is especially important for critical items such as eCommerce, where any wasted steps could cost you a sale.

When you give a project a little time to breathe, it can provide a welcome boost to the final outcome. You’ll be better able to ensure quality and that things work the way you intended.

Convincing Clients

One of the key challenges in enacting this change may just be getting your clients on board. Personally, I’ve worked with a number of people over the years who were always in a hurry. This, in turn, has compelled me to do the same.

But just because someone is in a hurry today doesn’t mean they’ll stay that way in the long run. I have seen instances where someone simply had to have it all ready in an instant, then made me wait things out while they took care of their end of the bargain. In those cases, the project usually doesn’t hit the initial deadline.

Therefore, it requires a little bit of tact on our part to demonstrate the benefits of taking more time. Part of this entails asking why they’ve chosen a particular timeline for getting things done. Sometimes, it’s a legitimate reason such as a big conference or a new product launch. In those cases, there might not be much flexibility.

However, there are also times when you will work with those who are just used to everything be done right away. Here, you might have a good shot to convince them to slow their roll. Explain the design process and that, if the ultimate goal is getting it right, that’s going to take an investment of time.

Once a client sees that rushing the process often means cutting corners, they may come around to your way of thinking.

Worth the Wait

For many of us, the act of getting things done quickly is deeply ingrained. When you have a business to run and bills to pay, it would seem like a natural response.

But good things do indeed take time. And while we can use any number of tools and frameworks meant to improve efficiency, there are still parts of the process that shouldn’t be rushed. Design is right at the top of the list.

So, if you’ve been running around like a cartoon character for each and every project – slow down. Take a look at what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. You may just find that spending even an extra hour or two on design can lead to some fantastic results.

The post The Case for Slowing Down the Design Process appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.