|
Web Design & Development
|
 What I like the most about web design is that there's always plenty to learn, regardless of how experienced you are. To become a better designer you have to appreciate the fact, that are seemingly unlimited resources available to you. Each of us needs to take our own unique approach to personal development that works for us.
The design community is filled with sources of inspiration and helpful sites for encouraging growth in abilities. I'd like to share with some information that works well for us. I hope that some of it will be applicable for you as well.
Tips for Learning from Other Designers
The online community of designers truly is a big community, where we can learn from talented individuals who are willing to provide some of there experience. All of us have our own unique strengths and weaknesses as designers, which makes it easy and convenient to give and take.
It's not the case where the most experienced have nothing to learn or no one to learn from.
Improving your skills can come in a few different forms. You could pick up a book, follow online tutorials, look at inspiring examples from other designers, accept a challenging project, or just play around and experiment on your own. But, the most effective way is to mix it up and learn in a few different ways.
Ask Questions
Having a network of other skilled designers can be very handy when you need some help. Many designers are willing to help, you just have to ask (and it helps to have an existing relationship).
You can also take advantage of forums that are available for this purpose. If you don’t have an existing network of designers, start to get out an meet new people, whether it’s online or off.
Read Books
Many of us spend so much time online that we forget of the more traditional resources that are available. There are some excellent books on design on just about any subject you need help with. This is one method that I like the most!
Bookmark Designs for Inspiration
Those of us who read design-focused blogs and/or visit design galleries constantly come across designs and examples of work form other designers that can inspire us in our own work. With no system to keep track of these items, you may remember one of them but have no way to get back to it when you need it. A bookmark manager like Del.icio.us is an excellent solution for this problem.
The other thing that I’ve learnt about being in contact with other designers is just how welcoming and sharing this industry is, it’s brilliant!
|
|
|
Web Design & Development
|
If you're first starting out as a freelance Web Designer, you need to think about how much you're going to charge, and how exactly you'll charge. A lot of people have different methods for coming up with their prices, but this is just to get you started. This guide only deals with charging per project. There are other ways of charging clients, but the easiest and perhaps the most widespread method of pricing is per project.
Before you quote a price, you need to take a few things into consideration: first of all, you need to determine what your web design project will contain.
- How many pages will need to be created?
- Are there images and/or design that need to be used, or will they be created as part of the project?
- Is there content for the site, or will that be written by the designer?
- Will there be any Flash, multimedia, programming or scripting required?
- When do your clients want the project completed? The more urgent a project is, the more you can generally charge.
- How much experience do you have? The more Web design experience you have, the more you can charge. Keep in mind, however that if you don't have a lot of Flash experience and that's what your clients want, you shouldn't rely on your six years of HTML coding to increase your prices.
- How much do you want to make?
For example, you might have a project you would love to do, because it would be fun, or interesting or challenging. Your bid might reflect that. On the other hand, you might feel uncomfortable doing a job or would have to do extra work just to complete it, such as if you would have to hire a database programmer to complete the project.
These steps should give you a great start in developing your own freelance pricing guide. You can change pretty much everything in this to work for your needs. These formulas are very simple and very flexible.
One of the advantages, besides the obvious of having a pre-determined pricing guide is that you can change it on the fly.
|
|
|
Web Design & Development
|
This article covers the most important features of designing clear web pages.If, after a hard work, you have defined what your web site's content should be, and worked out where your content elements will sit on the page, you may choose to design a clear web page.
That means to arrange various elements on the web page and to maximize the web user's chance of using the site successfully. One fundamental principle is simplicity or economy: Don't use more techniques than it is necessary.
Clarity is all about the relationships between elements
The most important element of effective visual design is creating relationships to show:
- what is part of what
- what is different from what
- how different elements relate to each other
Tools for designing the display layer
Next, we will describe each tool and discuss how we can use each one of them for our further design purposes.
The primary design tools include:
- Contrast
- Colour
- Richness
- Dynamism
Contrast
Contrast is the primary tool of eye control. It is the difference in color and light between parts of an image that attracts the eye. In order to work, contrast needs to be balanced against areas of low contrast.
Colour
Colour usually attracts the eye and it is one the most important tools. It must balance with other colours and areas of low colour. Use colour sensitively to make a page attractive and easy on the eye, and also pick out items with special attention.
Richness
Richness can be created through use of colour, pattern, layering, and 3D effects such as gradients, shadows and highlights. The eye can linger on richer areas, so use specific areas of rich detail in key areas.
Dynamism
Movement is another factor that attracts the eye. This doesn't mean that an element must actually be animated - some shapes (such as diagonals) and busy patterns can suggest movement.
Approach
Before you design the actual visual interface, get clear on the relative priorities of the elements on screen.
Usually, the most important elements will be those that:
- Identify the site/page (answer "Am I in the right place?")
- Link on (many pages are stepping stones to others, rather than ends in themselves)
- Provide content or feedback
Other design elements may have softer purposes, but can still be important, such as:
- Branding which creates a certain feel or personality
- Subtle guides to help a user use a form or navigation interface effectively
The trick to successful visual design is finding a balance that achieves as many of these (sometimes conflicting) objectives as possible.
|
|
|
General
|
Hi everyone! How are you today? We have the pleasure to announce that our blog is created!
Here we will discuss everything about website, web design and a plenty of other interesting things. Don't lose the chance to find out a lot of interesting stuff and to have a great time!
So, let’s start and enjoy it!
|
|
|
