Better Design

We shouldn’t judge a book by its cover… but unfortunately, we do. All the time, every day. Hardwired for survival, we look at what’s around and make snap judgments. Is this safe? Will it hurt me? Can I trust it? In a split second, our brains hand back the answer. Yes. Or no. It’s as [...]

We recently started a side project working with people who have never had a website, a blog, or anything that requires more than opening an email – and sometimes they can’t even do that. They’re all small business owners. When I spoke with them about their business, they all had one common question: “Why is [...]

Nobody likes cluttered sites. You may not know what makes a cluttered site, but your customers definitely know when they’re trying to navigate one. There are flashing ads that give them a headache, tons of links with vague titles, social media ad-ins overwhelming the site, and a sidebar longer than the Encyclopedia Britannica. And in [...]

This week I was on a mission. I needed information—and fast. Ok, maybe not life or death fast. More like finish-this-project-before-the-deadline fast. It probably would have been possible to figure out the gaps in my knowledge by trial and error, but I didn’t have time to waste. So I asked for help. There’s always someone [...]

Pick a site, any site. What’s the first thing you notice? What draws your attention right away? Where do your eyes land? What do they do then? Do your eyes flow over the page? Do they follow a specific path, flicking to the left, then skimming over to the right and maybe down the page? [...]

Creative people always try to think out of the box and look for the next brilliant idea. We want to create something so unique and incredibly outstanding that it makes the rest of the world pay attention. But how far is too far? How much can you stretch the boundaries of convention? Where is the [...]

A well laid-out site tells visitors right away whether this site is going to give them what they want or not. And the best sites use conventions in their designs and layouts. A convention (in this case) isn’t a crowded floor in a fancy hall. When speaking of convention in terms of web design, it [...]

A logo is an intrinsic part of any business image. A well-designed logo does wonders for a company’s brand, and a bad one can do a lot of damage. Logos are a common area of graphic design. Many an art student’s first project is to design a simple logo for himself or herself or a [...]

“You do your best work when you don’t think too much.” I laughed when I read the words that James had typed to me. It was true. “It’s funny,” he continued. “There’s ‘don’t think’ and ‘don’t care’. When a person doesn’t care, I see it right away. When a person doesn’t think, the results are [...]