I have finally managed to book SXSW. I am going to be staying 4 miles from the Convention Centre, a bit longer than the 2 blocks that I had when staying in the Hampton last year but will be great fun all the same.
I’m really looking forward to it, SXSW is by far the best geek event known to man.
This year, although not booked yet, I should be taking my girlfriend with me too.
See you there!
Don’t be afraid to experiment on your blog design. Your users tell you what they like and dislike.
When you’re looking for inspiration and trying new creative ideas, which we all can agree on that fresh ideas that make the good designer. Experimenting on client’s work can be risky. Being a safe designer is not always a good career choice however there are some things that if you’re wary about, you can test.
Well, that’s where your blog comes in. As a designer your blog is a bigger asset than you think. You can do what you like with the design because, it’s your’s. Want to try something? Skewed or rotated text but unsure how it’ll work. Try it on your blog.
The users of your blog are probably just as opinionated as you are. Actually, it is safe to say your readers are more opinionated than you are. You know if you do something that they don’t like, you will hear about it. Try something, weigh up every good and bad comments you get (take the latter less seriously) and you can get a good idea of how something will work in the field.
The best applications are not only the ones with features that are created to make you think you actually need them, and couldn’t remember what you were doing without them, but also ones that are instantly usable. A lot of applications try to sway from any other web application in the bid to be more ‘fresh’. It’s not helpfull at all to a user.
Users are generally familiar with a set of standards on their GUI and when they’re not, its actually quite frustrating.
Generic Website Layouts This goes for websites too, generally there is a certain structure of websites and if user’s want to navigate they can find the navigation easy by experience.
It’s the same for web applications, if I sign up for a new one; I want to be able to navigate around it easily and know how to use it rather than familiarising myself with a new set of rules. Users are lazy, they don’t want to familiarise themself with such and why should they? They want quick, reliable, easy programs and you’re providing the service and you have to compete to make the best.
In this era of the internet it is so easy to roll out applications thanks to RubyOnRails and other optimised programming languages. It is no longer about features but also of AJAX and usability. There are many clones out there for many applications trying to compete on little things so really, you have to make the user fall in love with your application within first sight.
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