Drawar

2013-02-07

When Trends Betray Context

Some of my favorite words to read on Twitter are: “X just redesigned.” I get giddy because I never know what I am going to see on the other side of the link. I always assume though that it is going to be something great. So consider my disappointment when I clicked over to the new Newsvine page.

Aesthetically, it doesn’t look bad. Far from perfect, but there are uglier news sites out there. The issue I have is that they took the Pinterest-trend and applied it to news without thinking about how news actually works. Think about a top news story, Aaron Schwarz’s death for example, and how new pieces are added to it daily, weekly, or monthly. It simply isn’t one headline that can fall down the page and into the archives. The story develops over time and the design should reflect that. The Newsvine layout can’t achieve that.

The designers (or more likely their bosses) see something cool and stuck it into their category of site without thinking about the context of their site. There is no way they could sit down and stare at the design and think it is easy to browse the news. You know the best news site I visit every single day? Hacker News. If a story is still relevant it stays at the top of the page until it is time for it to fade and another one takes its place. That is how news works.

When you let a trend betray the context with which your design is trying to work in, then that design will fail. There is a ton of innovation still to be done in the online news space, but this is a backwards move that lacks innovation. While the old design was a bit dated, it still knew its context. This design is trying to be something it never can be.

2013-01-29

Introducing 3by9

When I created the CSSVault a million years ago, one of the things that I always wanted to do was to write a long critique on each design that was featured. This obviously would’ve taken up a lot of time and for my goals at the time it was just easier to post a screenshot of the site. Whether we want to admit it or not, designers like to browse through galleries looking for inspiration. Rarely do we want to sit down and do some reading about a design.

A little bit later, one of the first iterations of Drawar had a section where you could ask for critiques on a design. It wasn’t the most popular section of the site for a number of reasons:

It isn’t easy asking complete strangers for feedback.
It isn’t easy giving complete strangers feedback.
If you aren’t popular it can be hard getting any feedback.
Most people don’t know how to offer feedback.

I love dribbble and have the utmost respect for Dan and his team. They have built a tremendous site. However, I think the original purpose of the site has fallen by the wayside and allowed the “gallery” crowd to take over. This isn’t the fault of the community, the site was built more for this type of behavior than for feedback, but it is clear that designers are still itching to get feedback on their designs.

A Drawar Feature, Now A Product

The concept behind 3by9 started off as a small feature for the next Drawar. I wanted a way for anyone to get great feedback on their designs as they moved through the courses. As time went on and I looked at other solutions I found that they all suffered from the same setbacks as their predecessors. Knowing a thing or two about creating communities I took my knowledge and believe that I have created a place that will allow anyone to get the feedback they crave.

As a designer, you can’t get better by designing in a bubble. Your designs need fresh air and need to be viewed by others. You have to be able to post your designs without hoping to get a ton of likes, faves, or comments. You shouldn’t have to worry about a popular page or if you have enough followers. You just want to know what people think about your design.

I believe 3by9 will be that community and I hope you decide to give it a shot. You can request an invite now for when doors open in two weeks. Let’s create a place where we can all get better at our craft together.

2012-12-12

Design makes what is complex feel simpler, and makes what is simpler feel richer.

— John Maeda

2012-12-10

Simplicity does not mean want or poverty. It does not mean the absence of any decor, or absolute nudity. It only means that the decor should belong intimately to the design proper, and that anything foreign to it should be taken away.

— Paul Jacques Grillo

2012-12-05

Great Design is Jargon-Free

…never use a fancy word when a simpler one will do.

Scott Berkun

When talking about good web design, so often content is left out of the discussion. The funny thing about that is the content is what makes the site most of the time. There are exceptions of course, like photo-only sites, but almost every website out there guides you through the design with words.

Using jargon doesn’t make a design standout. It just confuses the message and if you can’t get the correct message across, then your design has failed. On Emersian I describe Makers { Vault } as so:

Finding the right tools to really nail a design can be a pain in the ass. It can also be very expensive. Makers { Vault } helps you find that one design resource you need at a good price.

Imagine if I had described it like this instead.

A social-sharing conglomerate meant to proliferate your toolbox through generous price incentives that epitomize what a bargain should be.

I don’t even know if that makes sense and I wrote it. One of the reasons simple is hard to do in web design is because it is extremely difficult to write simple and effective copy. Instead we often try to mask it by over-describing and filling the design up with words that we fill are intelligent. It is no different than using a ton of drop shadows and gradients to mask the lack of spacing and weak typography in a design.

If you’re a designer who doesn’t like to handle the copy because someone from Marketing always comes in to do it, then how can you effectively portray your design vision? It isn’t always possible to control the copy, but with a better understanding of what makes great copy in a design you can at least provide your feedback and stand your ground to copy that might potentially ruin things. One of the most overlooked designers in any field is the copywriter. They are so undervalued and yet can help transform your design from something that is good enough into something great. It is important that you don’t let copy become a roadblock to great design.

Finally, once you’ve nailed the copy, make sure to make it look good. Typography is the foundation of the web.

Examples

These are just two examples of companies that use copy that is easy to understand and it helps to magnify the design around it.

2012-11-29

Starting from scratch

It has been a while hasn’t it? My apologies for that, but when I said that I wanted to make something great I kind of forgot the part where you need a great idea to back it up. So I took some time off and didn’t spend all of my time thinking about Drawar. Instead I pursued other things and found that I had other interests. Over time I started to see some themes develop in my life with regards to design and how easy it is to forget what makes design great.

Then one day I thought about how web design as a profession doesn’t really exist anymore. Sure it exists in a large capacity today, but tomorrow it could disappear. In its place will be the idea of the designer. Someone who can traverse the different mediums and produce a great website along with a killer app and if need be a poster worth framing on the wall.

You see, at the beginning of their careers/development I believe every type of artist and designer starts from the same foundation. This includes painters, musicians, architects, and web designers. They all want to produce something that has rhythm and harmony. As you dive deeper into the process of each they start to get a little more specialized, but at the beginning, design is design.

The Internet has been a blessing and a curse for digital designers. It has helped so many gain free knowledge on how to design, but because of this there is so much to learn for anyone trying to enter the field. Because of this you get people that learn their design trade by visiting web galleries and Dribbble, and copy what they like. Over time they start to develop the skills that help them produce something that is pretty good based off of the trends they know. Unfortunately, they usually don’t understand why a design works the way it does. When a design looks good it does so not just because you used Helvetica or Proxima Nova, but because there is a flow to everything. When every element of a design can stand on its own while also working in harmony with the elements around it, then you have something great.

A lot of this design education usually happens in schools. These are great places to learn fundamentals and to also get feedback. But what about the people who wish to learn at their own pace? What about the people who don’t necessarily want to become full-blown designers, but would like to have an understanding of design? Where do they have to go?

As we’ve seen over the past decade, great design can have a huge impact on the world around us. If everyone knew just a little bit about design then imagine how much greater we could make the world. I would like Drawar to be a place that helps everyone to learn the Why of design. There are a ton of tutorials and books that can teach you the How.

It is my hope to make Drawar an online design school if you will, but without the ridiculous tuition, schoolyard bullying, and the awkwardness of sitting at lunch by yourself. Instead of nothing but long articles for you to read over, there will be exercises, peer reviews, and a community built around helping each other learn about design. You won’t learn Photoshop or how to build a web page, as I said before there are plenty of places to learn that. Instead you will learn color theory, typography, what is the purpose of grids (beyond just plugging them), and most importantly why designers make the decisions they do.

I want to create this because I often forget why design is done the way it is. It is a good reminder to go back and make sure you understand your foundation instead of continuously plowing ahead and sticking more trends into your portfolio. Even more so I want to create this because every person that wants to understand design or pursue it as their career deserves a place where they can make it happen.

When will this launch? I’m not making any promises, but I like the idea of 2013. What? You want me to narrow that down? Fine, fine, a beta in the first half of 2013.

2012-11-16

If it isn’t beautiful, it probably shouldn’t be at all.

— Yves Behar