Malleck Design :: Blog » Web Design

Trends

Joe — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:52:00 +0000

There’s always been a debate on whether creative professionals should follow trends or blaze their own trail. Most people, I think, would say, “Be an individual, don’t copy, be original”. And while I agree mostly with that idea in theory, practically speaking and from a business standpoint, it doesn’t really work.

As a creative professional that does business for business, I have to think of what the client needs over my own need to be original. In my opinion, it is probably more important to the client to have a current looking website that follows some kind of trend, than to have a completely original piece of art. Not all, of course, but most.

This isn’t to say that designers, photographers, and writers shouldn’t add their own style and originality to their work. Of course they should. That’s what can set them apart in the marketplace. However, I think that originality and creativity should be used in the context of current trends and business needs, all to better serve our clients.

What do you think?

Killing the Artist

Joe — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:05:39 +0000

One of the hardest things to learn, when venturing out on your own in the design world, is that you shouldn’t be too attached emotionally to your work. Clients come to you for a creative solution to their problem, and they trust that you are going to provide them that solution. Some clients give you all the freedom in the world and let you have your way with their website, brochure or whatever. These projects are always a pleasure to work on because it feeds the artist that is in most of us. For the most part, however, clients have their own idea of what the end result should look like, generally. Sometimes they have preconceived idea, or they simply do not like what you have done after they see your first iteration. There are times when it doesn’t matter how detailed a brief you get or how many interviews you do, sometimes you just miss the mark. They don’t like your design for some reason or another, valid, or invalid—dosen’t really matter. This is where you have to kill the artist in yourself and think like a business person.

What’s so bad about the artist?

An artist creates works of art that are expressions of his thoughts and feelings. He is attached to his work emotionally as it is essentially part of him. While most designers are artists at some level, and artistic sensibilities play a huge role in crafting effective design, the artist must not be allowed to rule when it comes to work for clients. Why? Because the artist is too emotionally attached to the work. When a client, or colleague, criticizes the work, the artist takes it as a criticism of himself. And it’s understandable that he would. To the artist, this piece of design is representing his thoughts and feelings expressed in color, layout and type. He thought to himself during the process of designing, “Man wait until people see this, they’re going to be blown away!”. What he should have been thinking is, “Man, this is going to do exactly what the client wants to get done, in a creative way.”This mentality is focused on client needs and the solution to their problem and not a focus on self-gratification.

Killing my own artist

I have had to come to grips with this personally. And it wasn’t easy. There was a client that was great from the get go. They seemed flexible, they liked the work in my portfolio, they pointed out some sites that they liked and colors that they were looking to use. All good. So I got to work. I was pumped. The design was looking awesome. One of my personal best, in my opinion. I was so excited to show the client the first mockup and to hear them say “Wow, that is so incredible! Thanks for going the extra mile.” Boy was I surprised when I heard “I don’t get how you got the idea that this is what we were looking for. It looks nothing like the sites we showed you that we liked.” My heart sank. I couldn’t understand it. I put so much of myself into the design. And that was the problem. I was designing for me, not the client and their problem. In the end I had to start over and I got the job done for them in a way that pleased them and solved their problem. In my opinion the end product wasn’t as nice artistically than the first design, but that is irrelevant. What matters is that the client got what they paid for.

Conclusion

Now I’m not saying that you should not try to push yourself to create the best work you can, or that we shouldn’t use our artistic sensibilities in what we do. I’m just saying that maybe we need to redefine what “best” means to us as individuals. Is it great work if it solves the problem for the client but dosen’t get praise from your peers. I think so. Sometimes we have to bite the bullet and do things that we may not be fully on board with just to please our clients, because that is why we are in business.

15 Incredibly useful jQuery navigation tutorials

Joe — Wed, 26 May 2010 03:02:33 +0000

Having a clear, usable navigation system in place is key to any website design. There are many things you can do with CSS to spice up the navigation and make it more interesting and click-able. But you can take it a step further by using some cool jQuery techniques. Listed below are some amazing tutorials that will help you learn some great techniques to incorporate into your designs. Check them out and let me know what you think!

This week’s super nice website – David Fooks

Joe — Tue, 18 May 2010 00:19:56 +0000

I’m always on the lookout for well designed websites. I love seeing the innovation that talented web designers bring to their projects. It’s both inspiring and motivating. Every week, I’ll be posting an article that features a favorite site that I’ve discovered. I’ll breakdown what I like about it and why. I hope that these articles will inspire you.

This weeks pick: David Fooks

David Fooks has done well with his little portfolio site. He keeps it minimal, but maintains interest throughout the site.

The Homepage

What I like about the homepage is that it takes an original path, but it doesn’t over complicate things or confuse the user. The use of illustration gives the site sense of mystery. The first thing I wanted to do was see what the jellyfish and the bear were all about. Upon rolling over them a little speech-bubble came up letting me know what this link was pointing to.

This feedback is what makes the illustrations work as navigation. The jellyfish and the bear are also effectively doing what I assume David wanted them to do: attract attention. Most likely users who go to this site will click on either of these illustrations pointing them to one of David Fook’s portfolios.

The Navigation

The main navigation also uses cleaver little illustrations with the same type of feedback as the links below. The icons are used well, and communicate what they are effectively.

The Portfolio

The portfolio section is a nice set of thumbnails ready to be clicked. This is a great way to organize portfolio peices. It gives the user the ability to quickly scan the work and until they see something that resembles what they are looking for.
Once clicked, the thublnail takes you to a project detail page that discusses the project. The entire portfolio can be navigated through this section as well without having to go back to the portfolio page.

Call to Action

Every site should have a clear call to action. This site’s call to action is on every page near the footer. A large graphic urging the user to “contact me” is used to clearly state what the user should do.

Conclusion

This site is one of the better sites that I’ve seen. Classy, elegant, and cleaver. David Fooks has done an incredible job and avoided the trap of over-designing. He has proved that simple does not equal boring.
Visit This Site

What do you think?

A case for Photoshop

Joe — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 20:18:37 +0000

I’ve been seeing a lot of articles being published these days on whether or not to use a graphics program, like Photoshop or Fireworks, to design mockup of a website. The new trend seems to be going towards designing in browser using mostly markup and skipping Photoshop all together. There have been lots of great articles written by some really good designers who subscribe to this technique (This one is especially good).

Some good points

At first the technique sounded like it could be a good idea. And for some projects I think it would be. A content-heavy site that would need to have a stiff structure to organize the content could be designed with mostly markup, as the graphic elements would be minimal. It would certainly be easier for the client to grasp what the site would look like in the browser, and it would also cut out a step in the process. These are all great points.

I still use Photoshop.

Most of the sites that I design are for small businesses. These clients needs a site that gives voice to their message through the design. Using Photoshop to create my mockups allows me, in my opinion, to be a bit more creative and push the boundaries. I get to let my artistic instincts guide me. Making revisions to the PSD is much simpler that messing with the code. Getting things lined up and approved before the coding part makes the whole thing go much more smoothly. Also, code is boxy. And when you start with code, I would imagine that it would be hard to get away from that square look. This article is a good counter point to the in-browser argument.

Like I said, I could see designing in-browser with mark-up as beneficial for some projects, but not all. I think that it would behoove (yes, behoove) any designer to adopt both techniques and apply them accordingly.

Collection of Organic Web Designs

Joe — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:44:54 +0000

While doing research for any given design project I come across some amazing stuff. Below is a collection of some of the best designs I came across that had an organic/natural look to them. Some of them are incredibly intricate, while others more simple and minimal. All, in my opinion, are fantastic. Enjoy!

Beerenberg

Arvorecer

Brizk

Organic Supermarket

Wake Somebody Up

Help Your Habitat

Aussie BBQ Legends

Hard Row to Hoe

Occasions by Elizabeth

Green Label

Gleninlen Farm

Chris Kaufman

Skateboard Company Websites That Shred!

Joe — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:27:55 +0000

Once upon a time, I fancied myself a skateboarder. I wasn’t very good, but I dedicated over a decade of my life to it and had a blast along the way. With the busyness of work, family, and life in general, I haven’t been able to skate very much. But I like to reminise on the old days and see what’s going on in the world of skateboarding from time to time.

Today was one of those days. I started looking up company websites to see what they were up to. As a designer, I was also looking at the design of the company sites. The design of the different company’s sites varied. Some were pretty lame, with no attention to the design at all, and some were really impressive!

Here’s what I found on my little online journey.

C1RCA

Circa’s website has a nice, minimal dark design. It really allows the content to stand out. The flash content gallery offers up an easy way to brows through loads of content. They obviously have one or a few designers/writers/photographers creating content for the site, keeping it fresh.

Anti–Hero

This is a unique design. Nice non-structured layout with hand-drawn navigation. Another great touch to this site is the scaling background image. Pretty simple site with only links to footage of a featured skater. Overall, a cleaver design.

ZERO

Zero’s site has a nice layout that scales up and down with the browser window. Nice minimal design as well.

Birdhouse

The Birdhouse site is just ok. I think the best part is the header. The home page feels cramped. The typography could be a little better. You’d think an international superstar like Tony Hawk would have a better site!

Zoo–York

Zoo York’s has a nice little flash site. I like the gold elements in the design. They’re product section is laid out pretty well too. A little slow loading though.

Conclusion

Many of the websites I found were’t that great. I am surprised that there weren’t more skateboarding company sites with killer out-of-the-box design. I think there may be an untapped market here!

Great examples of vertical navigation

Joe — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 23:22:24 +0000

These days it’s quite normal to find the navigation of a website located across the top of the page horizontally. But, sometimes an additional vertical navigation is needed to draw attention to specific areas of the site. Other times a vertical navigational system may be the best solution for a given design.

In researching vertical navigation for a particular project, I ran across some amazing examples. Listed below are some of the best that I found.

Worship Leader Insights

Hommu

House Industries

Metal Mother

Open

Riot Industries

Conclusion

Navigation is one of the most important elements in web design. It must be clear, understandable, and attractive. Both horizontal and vertical navigation systems can be effective in a design. When do you think a vertical navigation is the best solution?