Hot answers tagged ui
11
Yes, this question is incredibly broad. Maybe it's OK as a wiki article.
For starters, define 'we'. There are many, many people and roles involved with designing web sites and they all tend to have different common mistakes.
To give this question at least one answer, I'll toss out issues I've seen that seem to pop-up over and over again:
using wireframes ...
10
Pixel fonts aren't terribly different from tiny print fonts when you get right down to it*. The one big exception is that you know what the medium will do with pixel fonts -- a very big advantage.
There really isn't an ideal pixel grid, per se. Obviously a larger grid gives you more room to work. The smallest types I've seen work successfully are 7px ...
4
The good ones do.
Generally a good designer has a library of custom patterns they refer to. Most "found-on-the-web" patterns are lacking something whether it's good seams, transparency, or whatever. There are some good one's out there (subtlepatterns.com being one of those). But they are rare.
There are millions of tutorials on creating patterns.
Once you ...
4
Unfortunately, no.
You can highlight all layers then choose Options for Selection from the Layers Panel menu. Picking a color at that time will set all the highlighted layers to the same color.
The colors aren't random; they walk through the list of colors available. While the order of the list may have been arbitrarily picked by the developers, the colors ...
4
There's also a paid one here. It says it's available for Illustrator, Fireworks, Visio, OmniGraffle, Axure, Keynote and PowerPoint, and the Illlustrator single license is apparently something like $24.
3
Download the psd here click on the blue-button.psd text in top left corner
Its all done with gradients, inner shadow for the highlight at the top and for the shadow round the edge i used a bevel. You can download the psd above ^. Its all a little off just were a picked random colors from the jpeg.
3
We likely need a lot more context here. This is as much a user experience issue as it is graphic design.
My gut reaction upon hearing "requires 50 items at the top-level navigation" is to stop things immediately and get some content experts in to make sure that's truly a requirement (vs. an arbitrary want).
As it is now, it seems like a shotgun approach ...
3
I would highly recommend using the open/closed hand cursor when manipulating on-screen objects. The open hand on hover, and the closed hand on mouse down and when dragging.
This standard is used in many popular applications, not the least of which is every Google app where dragging one or more objects is required (e.g., G-mail message list, a Google Map). ...
3
Beware, this is more of a 'sentimental answer'. I'll try to be concise.
This still happens to me and will probably continue to happen, or at least I expect so. For me, it's not only the things I created five years ago, but those I finished last week. I always think there's something else I could have done to improve it.
I don't actually think there is a ...
3
“Half of art is knowing when to stop.” - Arthur William Radford
I always remind myself that I see everything 50,000 times more than anyone else ever will. It's very, very important to have fresh eyes on things regularly.
I try and work on a variety of projects which entail different designs entirely. This way, if I feel one design may not be up to ...
3
Generally yes, In my experience the designers will create most texture effects like that on their own, if they feel confident they can do it. There are of course alternatives like free image sourcing sites, and paid sites as well like istockphoto.com etc.
When I'm designing a website, I tend to make the textures myself to avoid copyright violations on ...
3
On http://jquerymobile.com/resources/ there is a listing including a link to the icon author's website and the actual files can be found as a zip download on github. Even though there is a .eps file in the assets folder, the icons in the .psd file seem rasterized.
Maybe contacting the author directly would be a possiblity, if you really need the vector ...
3
I personally don't find emoticons appealing, but it's clear to me that someone who loves them has gone to a lot of trouble with these. If you look at them closely, you'll see alot of care given to the coloring and shading, plus all the the "cutesy" tricks of no nose (usually), large eyes, exaggerated expressions and so forth. They chose very well known ...
3
I would create a different hierarchy - one for the login and one for registration. You could probably do something like:
Login:
Username
Password
Need a login? Register:(goes to new page)
Once a user has logged in you can give them a launch page like:
Welcome, Your name here.
Button for settings -- Button for Credits
That way, you're ...
2
A good hierarchy is critical - DA01's suggestion about using cards is excellent since it lets you visually organize your categories before starting to code.
Plan for accessibility - controls that enable the largest group of people to easily use it make for the most popular designs. Stuff like redundancy (icons AND text), color coding (yes, it's less useful ...
2
If you can only drag them up or down, what I'd suggest is, on hover, to show an icon next to it along the lines of two arrows. Bad ASCII version:
/\
\/
Alternatively, a common cue is the 'grippers' you see to resize things like in the bottom corner of your web browser. Bad ASCII version:
///
2
I imagine one of the reasons why you are having difficulty with this shadow is because it kind of gets smaller in the center, it doesn't go all the way to the ends.
I would re-create it using a new element:
Create a white rectangle (your page) over a gray background
In a nee layer under the rectangle, draw a black oval shape the size of your desired ...
1
You need to determine the value of your time first. Basically, figure out what dollar value your expect to get for work. When working on private projects, you need to (metaphorically) pay yourself too. For example, If I'm doing a personal project, I first determine how much it is worth to me. If it is something I actually make money off of, this is easy. It ...
1
I think a very common mistake in web design is evident on the mobile web.
If you browse the web on a small mobile device, such as iPhone or BlackBerry, you will notice that sometimes the buttons are too small.
Now this isn't always the button itself, but one mistake that is made is that there is often not enough room around the button.
Lets assume we are ...
1
If you are talking about web forms, I'd still recommend using a red - but not a saturated red (something like E03030 is nice) and do in-line validation after field entry. Use an error symbol and mark validated fields using a green symbol but not a saturated green (30B030 is nice). Then the error fields will stand out better as the messages are directly in ...
1
You mention the game is a MMO adventure? What exactly is the theme of the game? I'm getting a sci-fi vibe from it to be honest. The menu is very -- heavy. I would suggest toning it down, putting emphasis and what needs to have emphasis. I just did a quick reskin:
I think if you have a non static background (that is NOT distracting) it will help create a ...
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