Website design is the process of planning and creating websites that can be read/viewed by web browsers
39
votes
6answers
2k views
Why do some logos look.. old? How does design age?
This drives me crazy.
What makes design look old? How subjective is this? Who decides?
Look at this Bell logo:
It's from 1969. And boy, does it look that way. It's simple and minimal, but.. it ...
36
votes
5answers
2k views
Are “web-safe” colors still important?
Years ago, it was always strongly recommended that web designers should only use web-safe colors.
Have studies been done to see if this is still the case? If so, what's the answer?
Edited to add…
...
26
votes
16answers
88k views
Web Safe Alternative to Myriad Pro Font?
Is there any font that I can use in my font stack that is more or less similar to Myriad Pro and web safe?
25
votes
7answers
928 views
Should web designers make a free mockup?
I have some potential clients that ask to see something before accept the work.
Now, should I make, for example, a free mockup or It's better to find another client?
23
votes
6answers
4k views
Designing around an awful logo
I'm looking for some opinions on how to approach an interesting problem I've encounted.
I dabble in UX/graphic design, specifically for the web. Mostly static sites. I do this all on my own time as ...
20
votes
10answers
574 views
What web graphics formats to use?
Web sites can contain JPEG, GIF, and PNG format graphics. Which ones should be used, and when?
19
votes
5answers
676 views
What is meant by “busy”?
What do web developers mean when they think something will make their site look "busy"?
What gives this feel of busy-ness?
17
votes
12answers
1k views
Do web designers need to know how to code?
As a front end web developer I work with many different designers and sometimes find it frustrating working with design comps where no thought was put into how to accomplish the design in basic CSS ...
17
votes
8answers
847 views
What are common mistakes that you see in “professional” designs? [closed]
This might be too subjective but I'm curious about other peoples' experiences. Mods, please close if this is too far into "not a real question" territory.
I see many questions on this site about ...
17
votes
2answers
526 views
How can I improve my color selection skill?
I'm a web developer, started to become a web designer. However, I think my understanding of colors is not practical yet. There are tools out there that can give you color harmonies, and more stuff, ...
17
votes
11answers
7k views
What DPI should be used for what situations?
I've been seeing the word 'DPI' pop up quite a lot when I export my work out in Photoshop and Illustrator. While I know that DPI stands for 'dots per inch', and that if you have too low of a DPI on an ...
16
votes
8answers
12k views
Is there a standard width for designing web page mockups?
Is there a standard size for the width of a website in a mockup? What is that size? Why?
15
votes
4answers
460 views
How to direct users eyes on a website
There is a common principle in photography that a photo should lead the viewer's eyes. This is frequently accomplished with a line that runs across the photo. Recognizing how the observer will scan ...
14
votes
8answers
557 views
Fireworks for website design - why?
I've used Photoshop to design (more or less) every website I've made in the past 9 or 10 years. I hear people going on about Fireworks saying that it's excellent for web design and prototyping.
When ...
13
votes
10answers
1k views
What real advantages do web templates such as Bootstrap or HTML5 boilerplate have for a designer?
Note, this is about design much more than development.
I build sites from scratch with completely hand written CSS and HTML.
I've known about pre-build css templates such as Bootstrap or HTML5 ...
13
votes
4answers
762 views
What should one ask when gathering graphic design requirements for a website
I'm a software/web developer and recently we've been working with a graphic designer that lives in another state, so the contact with the client falls into my responsibility in all aspects, and one of ...
12
votes
2answers
133 views
What is the effect of ligatures in web, regarding SEO
All designers love ligatures but vanilla web typography just sucks. I heard of smartypants that solves many of thoses issues, bringing sexy quotes, gorgeous ampersands and all. It's just perfect, ...
11
votes
3answers
2k views
Should I Save Images Intended for the Web as PNG or SVG? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What web graphics formats to use?
When exporting out images intended for websites, should I save it as PNG (Transparent background) or a SVG? Why?
11
votes
5answers
283 views
What's a good (and easy) way to show that a screenshot is a screenshot?
I'm using Mac OS X 10.6 and I like the system screen grab tool. By default when you grab an entire window it will put a bit of a shadow / gradient below it, with transparency, using a PNG image - ...
11
votes
5answers
629 views
Developer to Designer path: How To
Being a developer wanting to be a designer, I'm really interested in learning how to create top notch UI for websites, mobile apps, etc. However, I know nothing about PhotoShop or anything related to ...
11
votes
1answer
246 views
How can a design be balanced and yet have a focal point?
The concept of a focal point seems to be a fundamental one in web design, yet doesn't a focal point mean a page cannot be balanced?
Surely by definition a focal point means that the page's 'weight' ...
10
votes
2answers
285 views
What to do if your website design got stolen?
Let say your website design got stolen. You saw your design being used from a different site or company. The only difference from your design is the logo and some images.
What actions can you do to ...
9
votes
8answers
1k views
Is it ethical to copy the work of other designers?
I am not a graphic designer. I do not consider myself one. I have no grasp of color theory, nor the means or sense of style to create harmonious and tasteful designs. I do, however, possess a good ...
9
votes
5answers
2k views
Learning Photoshop just for web designing
I want to become a web designer, so I'm watching a lot of Photoshop video tutorials, but some of those tutorials are not useful for web designing. For example, some movies are about skin, or teeth or ...
9
votes
2answers
360 views
Clients always think they are a better designer than I am.
When I am designing a new website or application I am very meticulous to get every detail right so it is beautiful while still user friendly.
Almost always however, the client has better ideas. They ...
9
votes
6answers
976 views
Good Place to Start Learning Web Design?
I'm very interested in learning Web Design and have learned some basics regarding HTML and CSS a few years back from W3Schools, but I never learnt how to develop websites that are up to today's ...
9
votes
1answer
197 views
How to make a color APPEAR the same on different backgrounds?
Background on color perception:
Due to the nature of the human eye and visual processing by the brain, there's an optical illusion that the same color will look different depending on the background. ...
8
votes
9answers
4k views
Good color palette, usable for the color blind.
I'm designing a chart right now, that will slowly have more items added to it. I'd like to create an list/order of colors for the items, that will be most usable for the color blind to differentiate ...
8
votes
4answers
302 views
Do high-content areas of a website need to be white/light-colored?
Many websites that are designed to be easy to read (eg. nytimes.com or ilovetypography.com) use white backgrounds with black fonts to make the content easy to read. Is it necessary to only use light ...
8
votes
3answers
664 views
Is there a trend away from left aligned web site designs?
Most web sites that I see are centered, and I'm wondering if there's some sort of unwritten (or written) trend away or against left aligned sites?
8
votes
1answer
218 views
How to hire a graphic designer?
I am developing the backend for a website. I always had the trouble of making an attractive design for my websites and have never hired any graphic designer yet. I have no logo nor web template.
What ...
7
votes
6answers
269 views
How can I ensure that users will think a button is clickable?
I had to make a page with a couple links on it, so I thought I would try to make the links big and decorative:
But I ran into the problem that people didn't realize it was a button, so they didn't ...
7
votes
10answers
4k views
Should I (a web designer) stick with gimp, or buy Photoshop?
I am a web designer.
I do not use/own any adobe products... except for watching flash videos online of course.
I currently use gimp 2.6 for my graphic needs. It's free and I know how to use it.
The ...
7
votes
3answers
1k views
Charging an Intellectual Property transfer fee for design work
So, you've finished a design job (eg. a logo design) and the client asks for your IP surrounding the logo, eg copyright, original artwork files, notes, sketches, all of that stuff that went into ...
7
votes
5answers
302 views
Mockups: Coding vs Drawing?
This isn't about web design but about interface design in general. Is better to code Interface Mockups or "draw" them in a graphics program, like GIMP, Photoshop, etc.?
7
votes
9answers
447 views
What's up with the one-page website design fad?
I've seen an influx of websites that put all of their content on one page, ala this site. Even the sites on some of the lists I see in Smashing Magazine do this (like this one, with what seems like a ...
7
votes
3answers
3k views
What are the responsibilities of a web designer
HI All -
I am a Coldfusion developer with over 2 and half years of experience. I have some experience with Javascript, jquery and sql.
I was thinking to learn Web designing too in my free time. What ...
7
votes
4answers
3k views
Photoshop Color Settings for web design
What color profile settings should be used in Photoshop for web design? Does monitor calibration effect save for web images?
I keep my monitor calibrated with a colorimeter and want to make sure my ...
7
votes
4answers
5k views
What browser width should I use to design a website?
I am working on graphics part of the website and been asked to design a website in Photoshop. I wonder what are an average dimensions and browser widths for a website so i can create my mockup with ...
7
votes
1answer
135 views
Literal versus indirect imagery
I have a client who is pushing the use of very literal imagery for her website: waving hands for success, a finishing line for the end of a process, and so on. We're trying to make more use of ...
6
votes
13answers
661 views
Why do people keep telling me my site looks awful?
I've developed a website, and recently was looking for a job. Practically all interviewers, after taking a quick glimpse at it, told me my site was designed awfully (but liked the concept). I should ...
6
votes
5answers
17k views
Text in my Photoshop image looks “blurry”
I am creating a website header in Photoshop CS5, however when I look at it, the text looks very blurry and I have no idea why.
I use the Web preset. What do you recommend for the sharpest and best ...
6
votes
4answers
535 views
With the invention of CSS3, should a web designer use Photoshop?
I see that many designers create beautiful web design works in Photoshop, but now with the arrival of CSS3, when they want to change that to HTML & CSS, they simply start from scratch and create ...
6
votes
3answers
131 views
Is it a bad idea to change a single - major - element in isolation?
Our team just had a rather strong argument over an issue. The issue:
Some team members want to "update" one of our websites by changing the colors of the left navigation bar, and maybe also the ...
6
votes
6answers
3k views
Where can I get images for commercial use?
I am running a web site design service for local small business owner. I want avoid legal issues on the images I use. usually, the images in the flicker is forbidding commercial use. Where would be a ...
6
votes
5answers
259 views
What materials should a web designer using Photoshop send to a developer?
I have been implementing mainly web and desktop applications and this is the first time that I actually started working with a graphic designer on a web site that is for public use. In this case the ...
6
votes
4answers
681 views
Using stock images for mock ups
When making a design (as a freelancer), how do I handle stock images?
Do you buy the stock image(s)? Or do you find an image via Google or whatever and later replace it with a similar stock image?
...
6
votes
4answers
278 views
Sources of inspiration for the graphical design of a business intelligence web application
I'm looking for sources of inspiration for the graphical design of a web application.
The application is used to display historical information on industrial processes. In the back end there is a ...
6
votes
2answers
124 views
How to design a site without pictures
A site I'm creating is a directory which sorts and displays information for about 300 businesses which are part of a specific business partnership/network.
The site is meant to provide information to ...
6
votes
3answers
181 views
Do you have a “formula” for the webfont vs graphic type threshold?
Disclaimer:
I realize there is not a perfect "formula" for this question. I'm looking for your experiential working practices. If you don't have any, I won't hold it against you.
Over the last ...
