Dustin Senos shared how getting value from creating wireframes eluded him early in his career. Now, every bit of his work benefits from this practice. What changed? He started using paper. > I want to share a simple technique I now use to force myself to explore and validate multiple directions before I dive into visual design. For the rest of this article, a “wireframe” is a sketch on paper. Paper wireframes are quick to make and reinforce that ideas are cheap and safe to throw away. Paper, al…
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It's taken some time for certain industries to adopt to change. But banking is one that is improving.
Bethany Heck gives a long, in-depth explanation of why it can be acceptable to go against the widely held opinion of “do not use too many fonts” in a design. She starts by recognizing there is a reason this specific guideline came to be: > We can all point to questionable designs that use an excessive number of typefaces. You can sense when a designer is trying to compensate for a deficiency by throwing more typefaces into a piece. But she goes on to give good advice for this “rule” (which can…
The HBR gives an interesting look into the changing landscape of pro-customer successeting (my own term coined as marketing, customer service, and product management slowly morph into an amorphous blob of goo before our very eyes). It gives fascinating insight into how successful companies are putting value, and therefore money, into the customer journey. As a customer success professional, I can’t help but admire the scale and finesse achieved by Sungevity (a solar panel retailer) as describe…
Similar to the post I wrote for the InVision blog, Thomas Byttebier covers the essential traits of typefaces suited for use in a UI. His main points are well put and similar to those I made. But he takes it a step further and covers a list of good typefaces for potential use. And the verdict: > All these typefaces definitely don’t burst with personality or creativity, yet they’re crammed with clarity. And in user interface design, that’s only a good thing. Well put. Source [http://thomasbytte…
I had the pleasure of getting down some thoughts on how type plays a vital role in UI design. It was one of my last tasks with the InVision team. And one dear to my heart! Of course, on a subject like this, I'm merely standing on the shoulders of those who laid such a solid foundation. Thanks to the likes of Robert Bringhurst [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bringhurst], Cameron Moll [https://twitter.com/cameronmoll], and Oliver Reichenstein [https://twitter.com/reichenstein] for sharing th…
Jason Tselentis makes the case for designing “type first”, then outlines a process for doing just that. His premise is good: > Today, mobile first has become second nature, but in order to ensure the design works well on small to medium to large screens, you have to think “type first.” My own habits have changed slightly over the years, but as I don't tend to design large scale sites or applications, a robust process has not been necessary. But if I were to create one, I can't see myself using…
In a similar vein to the previous post, Random House recently launched an update to their site. It's responsive and the type is well set. Ordering books online can be a risky proposition. But the Random House site gives each book [http://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/235173/] a thorough summary. It's the most pleasurable experience I've had previewing potential books to purchase (apart from Amazon reviews, natch). Whether you're looking for a new book or not, the site itself is worth a look.…