Every once in a while, you get challenged with designing the boring and dull stuff. Usually, this is something like a table. Or anything else that is used to present the user with lots of data. You know, the boring stuff. How to make this more attractive (because we believe that’s important, right?) is often a hurdle. Asking ourselves how to make it visually more appealing is often not the solution, asking ourselves how to improve the…
I know the struggle of trying to find the right design books, and how often we Google things like “best books for designers 2020”. I’ve been there, I’ve Google that, a lot. And now I have collected 52 books about design and can tell you what books I like best. Best books for designers in 2020 10. A dictionary of color combinations Starting off with a fun one! The people who know me, know that…
An extended guide on font pairing: how to combine different typefaces or fonts successfully.
When I was still in college and wondered how to choose a typeface, I would do some research on a typeface and find something like “this typeface has been designed for easy reading”. That would suffice and I would pick the typeface. Today I laugh about my past ignorance, because there are so much more reasons to pick or not to pick a typeface. Interested in the difference between a typeface and font first? Read…
When we talk about typography, we either refer to it as a typeface or a font. And in most situations, it’s fine to use either one. But they actually mean two separate things, and it might be helpful to use the correct version to avoid miscommunication. (And to not annoy your creative director of course). The difference between font and typeface Most articles I’ve read take too long in my opinion to explain the difference.…
As James Chudley states in his book “The Usability of Web Photos”, some people find it strange to talk in term of usability if we talk about photos. But photo’s help us create a certain desired user experience in more ways than we mostly think. Often people use photo’s as a place filler, just to have something in the header of their site. Or they don’t want to spend too much time on choosing an image, I’ll…
Using images in your webdesign can be really hard. Because beginners often face the problem that the images actually makes their design looks worse than without an image, but they don’tknow why this actually happens. Or maybe you have to use two or three images on the same page, but only one images actually fits the design, and the others don’t seem to fit where they are right now. How do you solve and handle this? There are a…
Whitespace and balance in design is kind of a vague and artsy subject. So don’t expect mathematic solutions on how to make your design look better. It’s about developing a way of looking at your design, seeing things differently, and then being able to make your design look better. That’s what you will hopefully learn today. Weight & Balance Balance in design is all about weight. Every element in your design has a certain weight. Some…
