Design Rules to Live By #4
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This weeks design rule is about some of the simple things that can make or break a design.
always remember that design is in the details.
Sometimes it can be easy to overlook the simple things that can make a design great, not to mention some of the simple elements that contribute to the overall quality of a finished product and or design. Some of the elements are actual things that we can do to our designs while we are cresting them in Photoshop/Illustrator. Other elements are not really graphic related as they deal more with layout and the quality of our content. Here are a few simple things that can easily be overlooked.
1) Don’t suffocate your content, give it room to breathe.
2) Use the double up spell check. Run an actual spell check, then re-read to catch any spelling errors that spell cheque doughs knot
3) Give a third and fourth look for message and vision consistency. Does the content match the voice of the design?
Those are only a few… there are countless others… for some really good tips on subtle design improvements check out the Dan Rubin and Bryan Veloso’s session from the 2007 Webmaster Jam Session.
What are some of the details that you often see overlooked, or subtle little features that you add to a design to improve it?
I couldn’t agree more. On the web, lately, it seems aesthetics has taken the spotlight, obscuring accessibility, extensibility, usability, and other aspects that have just as much importance (if not more so).
If you watch people surf the web, almost nobody (besides us designers) ever stops to mention how pretty a site is, but they’ll always scream and shout at the first broken link, pop-up ad, or other annoyance. To design well for the web, details HAVE to be addressed… often times the details are what the users are looking for anyway.
Thanks for starting this discussion. It’ll be interesting to see what things people add to your list.
Super easy item often overlooked (and personal pet-peeve): the favicon.
Garth´s last blog ..Portfolio at Krop.com
Kerning and leading.
I see poor kerning and leading all the time. They’re very subtle “rules,” but when done correctly, they can make your typography happy
Thanks guys for the comments!
I am actually seeing small things on my site that I plan on improving (as a result of putting this post together), and I am also open to suggestions.
Aaron I
In most cases, don’t use more than 2 typefaces on a page – 3 at the most. Fonts should look as if they belong together, preferably even from the same family. Never use all caps in serif or script and a very basic rule for fine art or photography pertains to print or web design as well – make sure your overall page design keeps the eye circling the content & doesn’t lead it off of the page (for example, don’t use photos with the subjects facing to the right on the extreme right hand side).
Its always the little details that set great designs apart from the good ones. I wrote a post about this a while ago over at web design ledger:
http://webdesignledger.com/tips/design-is-in-the-details
Niki Brown´s last blog ..Who Inspires You?
Great article Niki!
Thanks for commenting
I agree. You must have room for a site to breathe. There’s not much use in cluttering up a site with too many details. I follow the philosophy from the book “Don’t Make Me Think”. Simplicity and usability are key! Thanks for the great blog post.
John Wooton´s last blog ..Twitter Updates for 2009-03-08
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If there are design rules then there are a lot of design criminals and absolutely no design police. Maybe a few design citizens signing design petitions in a design dictatorship. I really do hate “design”. It seem so obvious to me, what should go where, without the underlying theory. I always turn back to my voting booth analogy. Why would you place a sign explaining how to vote in a voting booth. That just sounds dangerous to me. Look, all the people who replied know it. But those who don’t never will.
I love web 2.0. I mean I hate it and everyone who says web 2.0 without vociferous disdain in their tone. I know there are some great things that have come out of this ‘movement’ but all the cookie cutter /template/ PSD slicing sites, trend setting trends, and other convolutions really remind me of why I couldn’t stand being around Flash developers back when having huge flash movies was considered ground breaking.
To me, there are two kinds of developers, artists and adobe fans. Artists are either naturally talented or they worked hard at it because they love what they do, and now they’re good. Adobe fans can’t wait to get their hands on the latest Adobe product, and duplicate tutorials for his portfolio, eventually they also get good. They’re like the auto tune artists who sound like crap on a live stage. I’ve watched many tutorials and when I got good, saw them again and realized how poor a tutorial it was. But I still learnt something, that’s why mediocrity will always be king. Because the layman can’t tell crap from carp.
I think it takes 10% of the time to get a site up, then you spend another 90% of the time to “polish” it, aka adding details. Good sites have a common trait, that is paying attention to details. Good read Aaron.
Jin´s last blog ..Complacency
Don’t run your copy too wide, or it’ll be a real chore to read. I see this all the time, and unless the writing is incredible, I won’t bother reading it. AisleOne suggests that a column of type should be 40-80 characters wide, which seems about right. http://www.aisleone.net/2009/design/8-ways-to-improve-your-typography/
Good post.
Even after the 2nd spellcheck , i continue misspell words and publishing. I am damn stupid gr