design principles – DesignWebKit https://designwebkit.com Design News Blog, Web Design Blog Tue, 04 Oct 2022 21:46:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.4.16 Tips for Luxury Design with Art – Artworks Tips https://designwebkit.com/design/tips-for-luxury-design-with-art-artworks-tips/ https://designwebkit.com/design/tips-for-luxury-design-with-art-artworks-tips/#respond Tue, 04 Oct 2022 21:44:54 +0000 https://designwebkit.com/?p=25443 Interior created by a designer, high-quality furniture, well-thought-out lighting, finely-appointed textiles, elegant knickknacks – is this the exhaustive recipe for a cozy home? Or have we forgotten something? Oh yes, here is something without which the most expensive interior would not come to life – works of art: paintings, sculptures, ceramics. Matching art to an

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Interior created by a designer, high-quality furniture, well-thought-out lighting, finely-appointed textiles, elegant knickknacks – is this the exhaustive recipe for a cozy home? Or have we forgotten something? Oh yes, here is something without which the most expensive interior would not come to life – works of art: paintings, sculptures, ceramics. Matching art to an interior is easy – just choose what you like and hang it beautifully on the walls. However, a well-appointed interior often contains inappropriate paintings or objects, and there is no visual harmony. How to create an aesthetically perfect interior? Let’s listen to some tips from designers or just visit our website and look through our artworks tips.

tips-for-designer-developer-collaboration

Tip 1. Replacing

Let’s start with this option – you have a small collection of artwork that needs to be placed in a renovated interior. A new interior is a new life of the house, it requires rethinking, filled with new details. You must critically review your collection and choose what is unconditionally suitable for the new space. The rest of the pieces can be donated, sold, or set aside for better days. Placing an established, conceptual solid collection certainly requires extraordinary effort. In general, you should create a unique interior for it, as if surrounding art with walls rather than the other way around.

Tip 2. Filling

You’ve bought a house, flat, or office, and, with the help of a designer (or your own impeccable taste), you’re renovating and want to fill the interior with art from scratch. This is a great option, as there is nothing stopping you from letting your imagination run free and creating a unique collection specifically for that space. Large paintings, photographs, sculptures, or objects are usually planned as early as the planning stage. Designers will keep the works of “favorite” artists in mind and suggest several options (and possibly even commission a new work in the desired style). You can rely on the designer’s choice or follow the artworks tips and choose the artwork yourself.

Tip 3. Chance for Contemporary Art

Age-old art can be bought at auctions or from art dealers who work with antique dealers. It’s a specific industry that requires a significant financial investment. Contemporary art is much cheaper (unless you include the high-end, internationally renowned artists), and the selection is vast. Where can I buy contemporary art for the interior? At art fairs, galleries, showrooms, private dealers, special online art marketplaces, and lastly, from artists you know, if you have any. It can be interesting to combine vintage and ultra-modern, vintage and youthful. Budget for your art and plan your shopping around it.

Tip 4. Fits of No

How exactly do you plan? How do you buy what you need and don’t get it wrong? To visualize the art in your interior, you should use one of the programs available. Take photos of your favorite works and paste them into the interior in specific places, respecting the scale. This way, you can see if the artwork fits in color and size. Sometimes, you must give up on the pictures you like to find the best option. Take your time and experiment with different works. It’s not uncommon at first glance to dislike a painting or object, but it suddenly becomes perfection in the interior.

Tip 5. Color Balance

How to match paintings by color – designers call it ‘color script’ – and should it be done? Aren’t we reducing the autonomous meanings of art in this way? In contemporary interiors, yes, we do. Today it is no longer enough to buy a lovely seascape in oil on canvas, frame it in a gilded frame, and hang it in the living room, as it was done in the 19th century. The motto of contemporary art is not to be boring, lead, or attract attention. And its non-boring presence in an interior is resolved through harmony with its surroundings, through dialogue. Not only complementing but also contrasting colors, textures, shapes, and ideas. A clear choice of colors and high-quality framing and lighting will ensure perfect harmony – even if it is provocative! Then the art in the interior will cease to be a decoration (like the above-mentioned landscape) and become part of the conceptual solution.

Tip 6. Fill Empty Spaces

What are the best spots in the interior for art? The most successful places, according to designers, are partitions between windows (which will become a natural frame for pictures or photographs), walls near the dining room table, and generally large walls on which you can hang a big spectacular picture or several small ones. Otherwise, you have to rely on the specific interior. Sometimes, an unobvious space can be beaten up excitingly. It’s essential to consider the angle of view and lighting. The most expensive work can be lost if it isn’t backlit in a dark corner and well-lit.

Tip 7. Create Story

An attractive, striking interior with artwork is always a story. Tell stories, makeup legends. For the people who visit your home, office, or restaurant (after all, art can be present in any room), it’s essential to get on the same page as you, to read the “book” you’ve created with art. A book about distant lands or elegant solitude, wealth and good fortune or eternal childhood, the city or the ocean. All these beautiful stories can indeed be “written” with color, light, and objects of art.

Tip 8. Your Opinion

We’ve said a lot about choosing a piece of art for your interior and not a word about how to choose it for your host. No painting can appear in a house if those who live there don’t like it. And no designer can decide whether you want image or graphics, abstractionism or realism, landscape or still life, yellow or blue. Don’t treat a work of art only as a splash of color. It’s your friend for years to come, your companion. One of the essential artworks tips is – if the work doesn’t touch something in your soul, feel free to discard it.

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Guide on Using Textures in Design Projects https://designwebkit.com/design/guide-on-using-textures/ https://designwebkit.com/design/guide-on-using-textures/#respond Fri, 28 May 2021 12:30:16 +0000 https://designwebkit.com/?p=24160 Textures in design offer a great way to add depth to your lifelike projects. Texture gives you the feel or surface pattern of an object. It works with other visual elements to create a quality graphic design. For this reason, you are never to compromise on the quality of the texture. Depending on your design,

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Textures in design offer a great way to add depth to your lifelike projects. Texture gives you the feel or surface pattern of an object. It works with other visual elements to create a quality graphic design. For this reason, you are never to compromise on the quality of the texture. Depending on your design, you should be incorporating a relevant texture.

Guide on Using Textures

Using Textures in Design Projects – Types of Textures

Natural Textures

Natural textures can bring life and warmth to your design. Mother nature is full of many things that have textures on a certain scale. The object’s texture can be smooth, rough, soft, hard, matt, and glossy. The texture will stimulate the sight and touch senses.

Artificial Textures in Design

Artificial textures comprise a wide range of surreal patterns that humans fabricate. They can be washed out texture, fabric, paint-brush, and wall surfaces. Designers can create a wide variety of artificial textures with the use of a modern image editor. You can combine different types of textures to create a unique texture design.

Using Textures as Backgrounds

Background texture can add a perceived appearance of the subject. Background texture can be used selectively to enhance certain parts of your artwork. Certain types of textures in design can make your graphics appear more 3D. It can show that the original graphic artwork is printed on the texture used in the background. Many people like to use texture backgrounds to create a vintage aesthetic appearance. You can use a textured background with distress marks to replicate a vintage appearance. For example, you can use textures in black and white photography, portraits, and buildings.

Overlaying Textures in Your Artwork

Textures as an overlay can offer vintage or worn appearance to an image. The textures in design are placed in a new layer over the original image. Changing the layer blending mode will help you to achieve an effect. You can play with the different options to achieve different effects. Sometimes, the effect will look great. At other times, the effect you create will look weird. The blend mode has to darken for adding darkening effect and lightening group for adding lightening effect. You can move and resize the texture layer and make changes to the layer opacity.

How to Find and Use Textures in Your Artwork

Planning is the Key to Create a Texture

The first step of creating any texture is to plan properly. You can take your time in gathering the references of the final result texture you would like to achieve. It is also possible to use mood boards to plot out the details and coloring of the textures. You can start by working with the broad features and leave the fine features to the end. Now and then, you should render the texture image from far away. It should be looking good at every distance. Remember not to put too many details in the texture. Otherwise, it will look busy.

Download Free Textures on the Web

All over the web, websites are offering free textures. Usually, there is a download button you can press to download the free texture. However, before you download, make sure you check the page for information on whether you need to give any credit to the author. You don’t want to get into copyright issues for not following the author’s instructions to give credit to him. Many of the textures you found online are high resolution and large, so you should not have any problem using them.

Shoot Your Textures with a Camera

If you have a camera, you can take a walk around your neighborhood and shoot some textures. You can check out the moss on the exterior walls, the tarred highway, old wall in the house, grass, anything that has scratches, and marble surface. You must shoot your texture in the highest resolution possible. It should have a balance between darkness and light. It can be hard for you to find enough textures to shoot for building your own textures library. You may want to get started by downloading some textures online for free. In the meantime, whenever you found some cool textures, you can use your camera to take photos of them and add them to your library.

Create and Scan Your Textures

Sometimes, it is inconvenient for you to go outside to shoot textures. You can create your textures by using the tools you have at home. For example, you can use your color pencil, watercolor, or crayon to design the texture yourself. Afterward, you can scan it into the image editor program. You can use your scanner to scan a table surface, tray surface, decorative paper surface, etc., to create the texture you like.

Applying a Texture to Text

Not only can you apply texture to a graphic design, but you can also apply it to text. You must emphasize the legibility of the text to ensure that it remains readable after you apply the texture. Textured fonts are often used in creating beautiful poster art and text logo. By adding texture to the font, it can become the focal point. This is why it is recommended that you use a clean background for the textured font. If you decide to use textured fonts, you should avoid the use of decorative fonts. Sans serif fonts are best for adding texture as they are highly readable and spread your design statement to the public.

Using Paper Texture in Background

Paper texture is one of the most popular choices for the background of modern artwork. Paper texture is perfect for creating a minimalist background for your artwork. You can buy different types of paper with decorative textures from your local stationery shop. It can also be the brown paper shopping bag. The brown paper bag can be crinkled, so you need to flatten it before scanning it. You need to ensure that the paper texture is scanned in the highest resolution to ensure that no detail is missed.

Creating a 3D Effect with Texture

You can use texture to build three-dimensional layers in your design. You will need to use opacity and transparency features in your image editor to achieve the effect. It is also possible to put an embossed frame over the part of the picture where you apply the texture to create the 3D illusion. You need to have at least 2 graphics to create 3D texture. One will be used as the background, and the other will be the focal point.

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How Landscape Design Software Can Help Recreate Your Home https://designwebkit.com/design/landscape-design-software/ https://designwebkit.com/design/landscape-design-software/#respond Mon, 27 May 2019 10:51:15 +0000 https://designwebkit.com/?p=21499 Create extraordinary structures in the comfort of your own home with great landscape design software!

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If you’re a creative soul sometimes you get a sudden itch to recreate the space around you. You may find yourself repainting your house once a year or moving the furniture around to make a different look just to scratch that itch. When you want to completely recreate your home inside and out, then most importantly you want to be the one to create a design with the help of a landscape design software.

Being creative has its advantages. While not all artists are architects, that doesn’t mean you aren’t able to customize your home and bring your renovation ideas to life. Here are some tips and tools to do it.

Landscape Design Software Tools

Have you ever seen technical drawings from an architect? Blueprints, drawing desks, and the proper drawing tools are simply not part of the regular art supply. So why not use 3D landscape design software? These digital tools will help you can design beautiful structures with a few clicks to start making your dream home designs a reality.

What Features Do These Landscape Design Software Have?

Landscape Design software tools

Digital Design Libraries

Most landscape designing tools have an easy to use digital library that gives you access to a variety of design ideas and templates for indoor accessories such as furniture and fixtures. For outdoor designs, you can select trees, pool placements and lapa structures.

The digital library has a content browser so you can find your favorite accessories by keyword, making everything quick and easy. Once you’ve found your favorite structures simply click and drag the items onto your design board. With the content browser, you can explore new designs and features as they’re added.

You’re also able to save your favorite structures and accessories into categories for easy accessibility.

Landscape Software Design Templates

Using your digital library you can create templates. Templates are particularly useful if you’re designing landscapes for clients. You need a program that will allow you to do more work in a short amount of time. Landscape templates allow you to get the job done faster and more efficiently.

Software design templates can either be created by you or you can download pre-designed boards according to your preference.

Easy Edits

apps to make video edits adobe premier pro

There’s bound to be edits that you’ll need to make when you’re designing your structures. Select design software that will allow you to make changes easily. Landscape software such as VizTerra detects changes that have been made and recalculates your design.

All you have to do is click and drag your structures to reposition them. The program will automatically update your landscape after every edit you make.

Designing Tools

In order to design professional structures, you need the correct tools for the job. Integrated digital tools aid in customizing your structures down to the last detail. You’re able to reshape and redraw items to suit your preferences. With easily accessible tools and creative design thinking you can do the following:

  • Change from 2D to 3D fast
  • Show topographic terrain
  • Reposition objects
  • Measure your landscape
  • Fit to scale
  • Customize items
  • Adjust the size of a structure

With today’s high tech features and computer screens providing clear images, you can get a true sense of what the final product will be like.

Change Landscape Resolution

You’ll need a precise view of the property you’re working on, so you should opt for design software that allows you to view landscapes in every angle at high resolutions. This will give you an accurate aerial view of the property you’re working on and will provide you with the following advantages:

  • Calculate per square foot
  • Measure the perimeter accurately
  • Assess every outdoor detail on the property
  • Redesign landscapes remotely without visiting the site
  • Detect potential risks on the property safely

Many mistakes and challenges can be avoided, saving you time and money in the long run.

How to Construct With Landscape Design Software

website design

You can use the tools and functions mentioned above to start constructing your landscape. In order to create safe landscapes, you’ll need proper data and some finalizations. With the following features, you’ll be able to construct your landscape effortlessly with minimum drawbacks.

Reveal Calculations Instantly

In order to build hardscapes, you need the proper calculations. Using digital design software that calculates your structures accurately will save you a lot of time. You’re able to access the measurements of every design instantly.

Programs that calculate structures accurately will shorten the time of construction as you’ll have all the data you need at your fingertips.

Analyze Complicated Measurements

Landscape software can measure the most complicated structures and save the data instantly. The information is saved digitally and can be viewed whenever there are adjustments to be made.

This allows you to calculate the material needed for hardscape structures such as concrete placements and dirt displacements.

Print Site Plans and Blueprints

The most crucial parts of any construction are blueprints and site plans. Without these plans, you can’t get construction companies to execute your designs effectively. Blueprints provide construction companies with the exact landscape details they need to start building.

Your software should always have an option to print out your site plans quickly and easily. You can present your printed site plans for your construction company for approval.

Additional Beneficial Landscape Design Software Features

Landscape software should have as many features as possible to make your life easier as a designer. Some landscape design programs are basic and can’t provide you with a lot of detail. If you select software with the below features the program can be highly beneficial to you.

Export to Other Programs

Not everyone uses the same software as you but your software can be compatible with other programs. The most popular design tool is AutoCAD as it’s used by many architects and engineering firms.

Select a program that’s compatible with other software tools such as AutoCAD so you can share your designs easily with other teams.

Video Presentations

creative approach

After you’ve done a full digital construction you can see how your landscape looks in a video presentation. The video presentation will bring your design to life showing you full 3D rendering of what your property will look like after construction is complete.

For professional presentations for clients, you can integrate digital effects. These effects include showing what it looks like during different times of the day.

Day time features are important as some clients want rooms to be constructed where there will be the most sun exposure. You can feature daytime mode in your video presentation.

Irrigation Lines

Software that can map out the exact position of the property’s irrigation lines can be extremely effective. With an accurate presentation of irrigation mapping, you can integrate sprinkler systems and water piping systems effectively.

Social Media Compatibility

Sometimes clients or even construction companies prefer to use other means of communication. You’ll need a program that will allow you to share plans, videos and images of your designs via social media.

The most popular social media platform is Facebook or you can use LinkedIn for a professional modern approach in design industry. Be sure to send your designs via a private message on the preferred platform for privacy purposes.

Free Software Trials

Some landscape software tools offer free trials. The free trial gives you the opportunity to test the program before buying it. When selecting a landscape program make sure the software has the following features:

  • Easy design library access
  • Intuitive tools that are easy to find and use
  • Effortless installation process
  • Multiple design functions
  • Video features
  • 2D and 3D design
  • Photo modes
  • Device compatibility

Designs you Can Create with a Landscape Design Software

Landscape Design Software

Software programs are designed to help you find and select the structures you want simply by clicking and dragging them onto digital drawing boards or layouts. Some programs allow you to scan your property from the inside and outside using a camera so you can adjust the structure digitally.

Construct Outdoor Designs

If you’ve always dreamed of designing a unique patio area where you can sit and read a book or drink a cup of coffee, landscape software can help you make it real. In fact, you should take a look at all the outdoor constructions you can create with landscape software.

Swimming Pools

You can design the shape and size of the pool you want. You can even measure the amount of water the pool will need based on the size. Use the day time feature to see where the property gets the most sun during the day so you can plan the swimming pool in this area.

Fire Pits

Having a fire pit in the backyard is the perfect outdoor feature to have for night time outdoor events. You’re able to construct an outdoor fire pit that’s safe and big enough to build a bonfire. Design the shape and perhaps include seating arrangements around the pit for comfort.

Outdoor Entertainment Area

Construct a safe area to have barbeques for family and friends. You can construct an open spot with an integrated bar and perhaps a gaming area. You can either place a cover over the area or have a completely open-air construction. Use your design tool to change and edit the area according to your preference.

Plan the placement of your outdoor structures digitally to see how they will look. Once you’re satisfied you can start physically constructing your outdoor designs.

Indoor Decor Using Landscape
Design Software

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Change Color Schemes

Repainting your house may make you hesitant as you’re not entirely sure the colors of the paint will complement the décor. Before repainting you can simply change the color of your walls digitally to see how it will look.

Reconstruct Walls

If you’re bored with how plain the walls are in your house, perhaps integrating edged frames or making the walls high might suit the room better. Higher walls with longer windows create elegance and allow more light into the area.

You can also change the shape of the walls and use different materials to build them. Stone walls are popular around fireplaces as stone is safe to contain the fire. Stone walls also add a rustic look to areas of your house particularly if you’re going for earth tones and winter-themed décor.

Retile Kitchens and Bathrooms

Re-tiling a bathroom or a kitchen can either make or break the atmosphere in these areas. With your landscape design tool, select the color and material that may suit your bathroom and kitchen area. Lighter tiles are usually used for bathrooms as it represents cleanliness and purity.

Multi toned tiles that are systematically placed to create patterns are perfect for kitchen areas. You’re able to design these features digitally to see how it looks before you retile.

Final Thoughts – No Construction Commitments

The premise of landscape design software is to see how the designs will look before you physically change structures. If you’re not happy with the design you can simply start over.

Now anyone can be an architect with landscape design software. You can create unique structures with a click of a button. Why not try your hand at digital landscape designs? You could create extraordinary structures in the comfort of your own home.

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UX Design Books – 10 Must-Read Ones https://designwebkit.com/web-design/ux-design-books/ https://designwebkit.com/web-design/ux-design-books/#respond Wed, 30 Jan 2019 11:09:21 +0000 https://designwebkit.com/?p=20929 These UX design books are on the list of Top 10 for a reason. They have helped thousands of UX designers to create the most attractive designs for their audience. They will help you, too.

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For every trying or expert UX designer out there, as well as those who want to strive online, there’s a lot to learn before you master this process. Books are your biggest and fairest friend. So, if you want to improve your bad UX skills and stop making poor choices, you need the boost what experiences can give. And what better way to learn about experiences than from the written words of those who lived them? These are UX design books.

“UX design is an essential skill for any designer, and it doesn’t just serve in the goal of creating websites and apps. UX design is so much more. If you want your website or app to succeed, you can’t make it happen without it. People won’t choose, use or buy things they don’t enjoy or like.” – says Angel Pierce, writer at BrillAssignment.

To turn into a brand, you need the power of UX design books to help you. This can be intimidating, but reading through our list of best design thinking books should make a whole lot of a difference in your path toward becoming a great UX designer.

The Design of Everyday Things

ux design book

The first in our list of UX design books is the one you’ll probably find on any great designer’s bookshelf. It is the starting point and the boost for every aspiring designer, a guide that covers the basics, use, and understandings of the UX design.

Anyone who is attempting to design something that people will use must put their hands on this book. People say that it changes the perspective and helps designers interact with others better, as well as persevere the poor design and avoid bad choices.

The author of this book speaks of the ‘Norman door’. This door represents the specific moment when people pull a door instead of pushing it, usually resulting from poor design.

The book was first published under a different name, The Psychology of Everyday Things. Ever since it has been edited and republished several times, but Norman’s ideas and perception of human experience have remained of the highest value for those who read it.

In the book, Norman uses cognitive science to explore the psychology of people and objects. That makes it even more crucial for designers to use more user-centered approaches in their designs. Norman uses case studies which illustrate the difficulties of designing something perfectly. The importance of good design has on the success of its designer.

Even though it was published back in 1982, it remains one of the highest praised user experience books even today.

Solving Product Design Exercises: Questions and Answers

ux designer

The second in our list of user experience books is the masterpiece by Artiom Dashinsky. This is a more recent book, but already a trend among UX and UI designers. Its purpose is to prepare designers for interviews and their future design roles in digital, tech companies. It teaches the basics, as well as the tricks for mastering design, and the importance of doing it right.

Dashinsky’s book talks of popular companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon, who look for focused designers that know more than just the visual. Their ideal candidates are the ones with the ability to use visuals, but also solve various business problems. It explores your preparedness for a take-home designing exercise or an unannounced whiteboarding session, which as you know already, are common with designers. On top of that, the book includes advice for any designer from some of the highly successful designers and leaders who worked in those huge companies.

This one is perhaps the most diverse in our list of best design thinking books. It captures many aspects and ideas found in the UX design world. The author who’s a former senior product designer at the company WeWork says that schools for design don’t teach people the mindset. The transparency in the top design businesses is too low for you to know what they actually need. He takes more of a holistic view for solving UX and UI design problems, such as health, equality, and sustainability.

UX Design Books: Usable Usability

ux design

Eric Reiss enjoys all the popularity one can get among fellow designers. He is a world-renowned expert in the area and the writer of ‘Usable Usability’. A book will help you get one huge step forward a great UX career.

In his book, Reiss explains usability and its importance, as well as provides tips on how to do this. The third one in our list of UX design books is divided into two: ‘Ease of Use’ and ‘Elegance and Clarity’. These two parts of the guide are full of real-life examples with an engaging and inspiring tone. It’s perfect for fresh and current designers in the UX field.

Reiss is an honored expert at FatDux, an UX design company in Copenhagen. Not so long ago, he took the role of a Professor of Usability and Design in the Master of Digital Marketing Program in Madrid. Right there in the introduction, the author talks about the knowledge he shared in this program.

The goal of the third of the user experience books in this list is to show two sides – the sides of the coin that is usability. The ‘Ease of Use’ is the side that does what people want it to do. The ‘Elegance and Clarity’ is the side that does what people expect it to do.

When you start reading a book, you’ll find yourself in its psychology. This is common psychology in all people, one where usability has both sides, even if one of them is more subconscious than the other.

Smashing UX Design

UX design books

The UX Directors from CX partners joined forces with the Smashing Magazine and published one of the top UX design books you can find – ”Smashing UX Design”. It’s a book specifically aimed at developers and web designers, and an authoritative masterpiece from experts in this field.

This book has four parts. The first one overviews the user experience. The second one researches and evaluates the user experience. The third one speaks of techniques and tools for the designing process. Lastly, the fourth one explains the design components of UX in detail.

It is a very detailed, diverse UX design manual that’s raised tremendous interest among designers. It has an understandable and concise style, making it a perfect read for everyone, including those with little experience in UX design.

If you wish to master the UX design, this is an ideal resource. It takes a high spot in our list of UX design books because of its sixteen UX design research techniques and tools readers can use for their projects. In the pages of the book, you will find some highly useful tips from experts who’ve worked in the UX industry for a collective 30 years. These tips come in the form of guides for using the techniques, testing, wireframing, information architecture, prototyping, sketching, etc.

The Smashing UX Design book also includes case studies from projects that explain the techniques and their usage, checklists to select the most effective techniques for a particular project.

UX Design Books: Process and Guidelines for Ensuring a Quality User Experience

ux store

The title of this book choice in our list of best design thinking books isn’t the only thing that is detailed. This book is as lengthy and detailed as it goes. However, it makes for a very effective read if you want to become a better UX designer. All of its many pages combine great technology and UX design knowledge. So you might want to spend the time to get to its very last page.

Regardless of your experience level, you should read this book by Harston and Pardha. Their approach to human-computer interaction theory and UX design is refreshing and quite broad, combined with many practical and effective techniques.

This lengthy read will surely boost your designing skills. It combines UX techniques for evaluations, design, and prototyping. Its authors guide readers through design creation and ideation, requirements extraction, and practical design production.

In 2013, the UX Book was the winner of the Most Promising New Textbook Award from the Association of Text and Academic Authors. It is known for its practical applications, as well as the breadth of actionable techniques with some grounding in HCI theory and concepts.

Choosing this piece from our UX design books list will give you access to guidelines for processes and principles of UX, as well as guidelines for devices and interaction. It also includes some inspiring real-world contributions and stories from expert UX designers.

Design for Real Life

ux design reading

The authors of ‘Design for Real Life’ have used a different approach – examples from services and sites that help designers improve their UX techniques. It is one of the best design thinking books for a reason. It gives you tricks you can instantly implement into your work and achieve results.

You’ll be surprised to see the realistic approach and honesty of Sara and Eric. They speak of UX designing as something that is not universal or accepted by all. They acknowledge that it is impossible to please everyone with a single design. However, they provide tips for making your design as likable as it can be.

The book is based on the harsh truth we all know but don’t talk about. You can’t look inside the minds of every user and create the perfect design for them. The honesty in it is refreshing. The authors speak of our inability to predict who will select our design and who will reject it. However, they also speak of designing with help of compassion and techniques to attract more users.

In addition to using their experience, Sara and Eric use examples from over a dozen services and sites into instant principles you can use right away. This is a great book for everyone who wants to learn more about UX design.

Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

New website design - main image

The next in our UX design books list is ‘Don’t Make Me Think’. First published back in 2000, this book has helped hundreds of thousands of designers and developers. They sell Krug’s guide on UX design in over 400,000 so far, and the number is growing.

Why wouldn’t it? This has proved to be the perfect book for all who want to learn more about information design and intuitive navigation, its principles, and techniques. Krug has published his third edition of the book with a fresh perspective that somewhat reexamines the principles of UX design. It is what made this book a classic and a bestseller among designers worldwide.

The book might be short, but it is enriched with a new mobile usability chapter and many new examples. Like the previous editions, it is well-illustrated and perfectly fun as well as informative to read.

When designers create for the web, they think of an ideal user, a user persona. This is a person who sits calmly in front of his screen and has all the time in the world. It is the ideal user. With that user in mind, designers simply expect that people will be instantly accepting and welcoming their design.

This book tells you the truth – nothing about UX design is simple.
It speaks of actual designing, no strings attached. Designing for real life requires getting rid of all those opinions of the ideal user and customers. The author shows designers how to examine these biases and better understand the target user.

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

New website design - main image

According to Weinschenk, UX is all about the people. The author of this book is a behavioral psychologist with tremendous experience in UX writing. More specifically, she’s been one in the 1980s. So that’s as much of a UX expert as you can get. Naturally, the book of this expert has gotten its place in our list of top user experience books.

This book speaks of 100 things, making it quite versatile and very informative. It shares tips about the font that people read, ideal line length, common errors people make, etc. Through the use of research and science, the author answers all the questions you might have had about UX design. They make it perfect for literally everyone, including those who are new to UX design.

After publishing this successful book, Weinschenk published a sequel ‘100 More Things’, and another one called ‘Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click’. However, these aren’t quite made to be read continuously, so you can start with one and see how you like it.

On every two or three pages, you’ll find a new chapter. All of this makes for an easy, yet highly helpful reading.

By reading this book, you will learn how people see and ‘recognize their environment. Then, you will learn how they read and what they prefer while doing so. Later follows how people think and process information, which should help you spread your information and create the design in the most accepted form.

And finally, there’s the matter of what motivates people, more specifically motivation by mastery, progress, and control.
Susan’s book is light reading, making it a must-have book for your list even if you have limited time. It might be short, but it is definitely full of gems. One hundred of them to be precise.

UX Design Books: Thinking, Fast and Slow

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Well, this book in our UX design books list isn’t strictly a book for UX design, but it is definitely a smart read. Learning about how people think and make decisions, as well as behave in a given situation should tell you a lot about how you should attract the right audience.

The ideas in this book will certainly open up your mind to endless UX design possibilities. It’s no wonder – the book is written by a Nobel Prize winner. Daniel Kahneman won the economic science Nobel back in 2002. This was an unusual win due to the fact that the author of this book is actually a psychologist.

What you’ll read in this marvelous book is how irrational humans can be. ‘Thinking, fast and slow’ is profound and lucid, as well as extremely entertaining. In fact, it is so enlightening that David Brooks from New York Time declared that it ‘will be remembered hundreds of years from now’.
All that fame around this book makes this an obvious choice to read, doesn’t it?

Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience

web design in Microsoft Office Suite 2019

Finally, the last one on our UX design books list is the Lean UX book, one that helps you find the perfect strategy that will define your role within a given company. This book is different from the rest in the list in the sense that it explores user behaviors through testing and research. It also helps you base your decisions on the findings.

It is a great guide that will help you survive in the competitive business world. In it, Gothelf explains how you can do your projects in a collaborative manner, as well as solve the user problems without creating new ones. The reading might get quite chunky. So you might want to get rid of all distractions to get the best out of it.

Final Words – UX Design Books

10 Must-Read UX design books

User experience designers are surrounded by many buzzwords such as flat design, no UI, skeuomorphism, etc. Lean UX probably falls in the same category. However, the book by these two authors convinces you that such buzzwords can actually be very valuable to those who wish to understand the UX industry better.

The book tells the truth about the work of most UX designers – lean. We obviously understand how important moving towards is. But desperately we need a change in our design approaches. It’s what the book is all about – how to fix the faults and get the best out of UX design.

For this purpose, the greatest tool the book offers you is collaboration. They don’t just tell you to work with others but detail a lot of practical tricks and techniques for collaboration. Some case studies that demonstrate their effect in real-life situations.

Did you find what you’ve been looking for? These books are on the list for a reason. They have helped thousands of UX designers to fulfill their goals and learning to create the most attractive designs for their audience. Start from any book you like and move forward. As you come to the end of the list, you will be enriched with excellent techniques and knowledge. They will aid you in creating the most promising UX design you could have ever imagined.

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7 Actionable Website Design Ideas To Increase Conversions https://designwebkit.com/web-design/website-design-ideas-to-increase-conversions/ https://designwebkit.com/web-design/website-design-ideas-to-increase-conversions/#respond Fri, 20 Oct 2017 07:34:27 +0000 https://designwebkit.com/?p=17373 The website design ideas are intense. They are capable of providing you favorable results and are of capable to stand on the company’s beliefs.

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How a website will perform and whether it will be successful or not depends on two major factors, UI and UX. These two aspects are the primary reason to bring traffic to the website. Now, the trends related to these two fuels change yearly, but the unique and working ones remain. The website design ideas are intense. They are capable of providing you favorable results and are of capable to stand on the company’s beliefs. Their main aim is to meet the user’s desire in many ways. It then leads to the fulfillment of the target as well.

website design ideas

We have tried to compile such website design ideas in this article.

“Vector Treat” For Your Eyes

Vector Graphics are valuable in any website’s marketing plan. These illustrations are incredibly pleasing to our eyes. As the famous saying goes “a picture can speak a thousand words.” Similarly, these virtual vectors can meet your website’s aim with a much lesser content amount.

These visual elements can help you to interact with your audience on a one-to-one basis. These visuals are very relatable when it comes to the users personally. This technique is known as Visual Marketing. And it is quite a popular way to promote your brand these days. You can use some vector images that will create content that converts.

Vector Treat

When you incorporate these graphics instead of some typical images it directly influences proportionality rate of your website. You can find loads of website to get free vector designs, icons, and images. And then you can use these as assets. Vector Graphic is one of those web design ideas that you should never ignore.

Let “Navigation Menus” Lead You To Your Path

We all know how important is “Navigation Menu,” it is an essential element in UI of a site. It will be a shame if a user quits the website because they have to witness a cluster of links. To prevent this, you can include a navigation menu. You can make these menus interesting to enhance the user experience; this will stimulate your target audience to explore your site.

Navigation Menus

The UI type plays a significant role in determining the type of navigation menu which you should use.

Hamburger Menu

This menu is lovable and is certainly one of the menus which are most talked about. Many corporate sites have adopted this form. The most admired thing about Hamburger Menu is that it gives a clean look to your website. This form can add a unique style and diversity to your website.

Hamburger Menu:

Vertical Navigation Menu

If you ask me for a sought-after navigation menu, I’ll name Vertical Navigation Menu. The majority of the navigation flows through the top in the website where it is used. Here you will notice that menus are displayed vertically, and are aligned with the page. In case you don’t like hampering the content flow on your website’s main page, in that scenario you can hide this navigation menu with no trouble. These vertical navigation menus are generally on the left side of the page. It provides a suitable extra screen space for the website.

Vertical Navigation Menu

Navigation menus have been affected quite a lot from modernization and are improving traffics on the websites. You can find various modern navigation menus for your website and choose your needs accordingly. The designing of menus aren’t so easy in web designing. It is one of the elements which will determine if users linger on your site.

Breadcrumbs: Track and Trail

Now we will talk about a menu which is known as “path-builder.” This menu leaves behind the track which can be used to monitor the way by users. It takes UI experience to a whole new level. This graphical element works as a natural navigational aid. Its design is intelligent and leaving the trail helps the audience to get an idea of the exact path.Breadcrumbs

 

These menus are of three kinds, namely:

  • Location Breadcrumbs
  • Attribute Breadcrumbs
  • Path Breadcrumbs

Now it’s solely on your website which menu you want to pick. E-commerce websites have different needs which require logical category. This menu is perfect for making user’s search friendly and comfortable.

Video Backgrounds: Crazy Website Design Ideas!

It is no secret that visual representation takes the user experience to a better level. In fact, it`s a great way of conveying your thoughts from website’s main page. Video Background is one of the craziest innovative website design ideas which is trendy and fruitful.  It can make your website stand out in the crowd. Moreover, it is useful in engaging your users to be glued to your site and develop an interest in your brand.

Video Backgrounds

It will help you to display your beliefs efficiently. You can get video background plugins from many websites. These are tools which are cost-effective and are worth getting. It will be a factor in increasing traffic on your website as it’s visually appealing.

Lazy Loading: The Only Laziness Which Will Save You

Now, tell me how many have of you have left a website because it takes a lot of time to load and you grew impatient?

It is common to abandon a website which takes forever to load; it is the reason why many of your potential customers might be turning away from you. The solution to this is to use Lazy loading technique which enhances user experience. It improves the loaded seed. This idea will save your website’s life by fighting off the user’s woes regarding the speed issues. You can find several plugins to assist your website and to implement this lazy load effect.

Banners & Pop-Up Website Design Ideas

Banners and Pop-ups are always looked upon as a matter of annoyance for most of the internet folks. Hence, for making the situation better, they needed evolution. Therefore, Google laid down guidelines that needed to be followed by sites before popping up banners.  Now it is one of the most efficient ways to engage with users. They changed the popping nature of these banners to emerging on the screen for first few seconds. This is a good way to fight with the bounce rate that earlier was a huge problem.

This process will generate customers for your business and will help you lead to prospective paths. These banners usually catch more eyeballs than the natural elements. Opt-in forms are most renowned pop-ups which are useful in extracting emails subscriptions. This process is evolving the change in conversion rate tremendously. Hence, it is one of the revolutionary ideas in website designs.

Welcome To The World Of “Animation”

To understand this situation, you can directly imagine meeting a dull man, how you felt? Were you propelled? And if yes, why? Now compare this situation of how you feel when you meet an active person who is full-of-life and is happy. There is an impact on your mood because of environment made by these individuals. Similarly, interfaces can change users’ mood. That`s why it is crucial to add animation to your website since it will lure users there. It will drive them to be a great distance. Moreover, it can affect the possible conversion rate on your website. When we talk about animation it was never targeted at boastful representation, in fact, it was aimed subtlety.

Animation can connect users with you on a personal as well as on emotional level. It can excite them; you can manipulate how they feel about your brand. And, lastly, it holds the power of conversion as well. It is certainly something no one should ignore.

A Gift from Us – “Cinemagraph”!

Humans love motion; our brain is obsessed with it. Cinemagraphs is a mixture of photos and videos. These are called moving pictures. They occur at such a speed that our eyes can’t detect that these are single moments captured by the camera. These are saved as a gif or in another format. They play with our minds and fool us into spending a much longer time on that website. It is a genius idea that is used by different websites to grab users’ attention. In addition, it saves the bandwidth. Therefore, it can convert a dull website into a lively one. Obviously, you’ll have to take extra care for it. Keep it subtle and be careful that it is on loop. It will make UX better and give you higher conversion rates.

Conclusion

The ideas that we provided is highly innovative and trending in the market right now and will probably stay this way. These can increase your website traffic exponentially and make the user experience great. They are not known for directly impacting SERPs ranking. However, they will eventually decrease the bounce rate. Now, this is not a small achievement as you all already know. Making UI and UX better will stop those people who leave your site and will engage them with your content. As a result, you’ll be more successful in delivering your message to your targeted audience. It will be noticed by Google, and it will pick your website up. Hence, it will increase your SERP ranking indirectly.

Developers should look out for innovative ways to increase their conversion rate. With these tips and website design ideas, you will for sure get motivated and have the knowledge and now you can make your platform much better for your users. Use theme designing software available on platforms like Designhill to incorporate these website design ideas.

Ultimately website design ideas stimulate the growth of your website which will determine the growth of your business.

All the best, we hope to see you at the top!

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Designers and developers: No need to chase after technology innovation https://designwebkit.com/web-and-trends/technology-innovation/ https://designwebkit.com/web-and-trends/technology-innovation/#respond Fri, 08 Sep 2017 10:38:45 +0000 http://designwebkit.com/?p=16854 A wise old saying stated that if something ain’t broke, you should not fix it – can that be applied to the Internet as well? Let’s have a look on why web designers and developers may not need to chase after technology innovation at all times.

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In the World Wide Web, things are usually changing at a staggering pace. What is cool and innovative today may be considered dull and obsolete tomorrow, just because some new technology innovation and trends appeared overnight. As a result, web designers and developers often struggle to keep up with everything, but is that really necessary? Is newer always better?

technology innovation

A wise old saying stated that if something ain’t broke, you should not fix it – can that be applied to the Internet as well? Let’s have a look on why web designers and developers may not need to chase after technology innovation at all times.

The Internet is Mature

The Internet is Mature
By definition, innovation is the action of creating something new and better or finding another approach to something. This implies that innovation is always good, but is it?

One of the most common mistakes professionals make nowadays is to mistake “new” for “innovative”. There are numerous new trends out there, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all good or innovative – they are just different from what’s already out there, and unfortunately, most of them are the bad kind of different.

A solid reason not to consider the so-called innovations is the fact that, by this point, the Internet had plenty of time to become mature, with numerous trends and fads coming and going. We had the flashy era, we had the serious era, we had a funny era, the minimalist era, and everything in-between. It’s safe to say that pretty much all styles came and went already, so there’s very little new left to innovate, so you might be better off focusing on perfecting instead of innovating.

Resources are EVERYWHERE

html5 for beginners
Using the latest tools and technologies doesn’t necessarily make you better at your job, and this applies very well to web designers and developers. Instead of being on a wild goose chase after the latest conceptions and technology innovations out there, a better idea is to make use of the tremendous amounts of existing resources and use them in a creative way.

Designers and developers a few years back wouldn’t even dare to dream about the resources and options they would have at their disposal nowadays. Just take into account the fact that you can create a website or app from scratch in a matter of minutes using online tools and little to no technical knowledge. Now imagine what happens if you DO have the knowledge to customize it – the only limit is literally your imagination.

Machine Learning is Not Taking Your Job

Machine Learning
Another very common misconceptions that’s highly used to support adopting any technology innovation out there is the fact that machine learning and artificial intelligence are winning ground, and that they might soon replace web designers and developers, and while it may seem as a valid point, it isn’t for a very simple reason: artificial intelligence and machine learning may be good at automating tasks and replacing humans in some scenarios, but they are far from being smart enough to replace humans in tasks that involve interacting with other humans, and that’s exactly what a website does.

A human web designer will always have a better understanding of what a human visitor wants and expects from a website, will understand better how a certain element will impact the visitor. Human psychology plays a very important role in UX design, and machines are still far from understanding psychology, let alone know how to manipulate it at a level a human can. This is why web designers and web developers are safe – they will not be replaced by machines anytime soon.

Identity is important for technology innovation

So you’re a web designer or developer and you were having doubts about the security of your job, and its direction and you are now pretty sure that your job is not going anywhere, but may not be quite sure on the innovation part just yet – why should you stick to the classics?

Well, the main idea is not to resist technology innovation, as the world is constantly changing, as mentioned before, so you won’t get anywhere by resisting evolution. The important aspect is to be consistent, and not completely change direction every time a new fad shows up. People are creatures of habit, so when they access a certain website, they expect it to look and feel a certain way. Sure, an upgrade is always welcome from time to time, especially if it adds new features or functionalities, or improves upon the existing ones, and it will be accepted, but a complete redesign or reshape every three months, when “an innovation” pops up will just make the site or service feel like it lacks identity and direction.

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4 Crucial Mobile UX Design Principles for Your Next App https://designwebkit.com/design/mobile-ux-design-principles/ https://designwebkit.com/design/mobile-ux-design-principles/#comments Thu, 31 Aug 2017 11:46:34 +0000 http://designwebkit.com/?p=16734 The recent mobile UX conversations have undoubtedly benefitted from the ongoing smart phone revolution. That`s why, the following post explores some of the time-tested mobile app UX design principles to trigger positive reactions of the end users.

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With an overpopulated mobile app market to cope with, one has few seconds to grab the attention of their end users. The following post emphasizes on putting function ahead of beauty (using UX Design Principles) especially when it comes to developing a successful mobile app.

As I transitioned from academia to industry, I learned the technology being discussed wasn’t from the same board frame of reference that I was taught in my research-based institution. Though, the recent mobile UX conversations have undoubtedly benefitted from the ongoing smart phone revolution. Still, I find them unnecessarily driven by tactical adoration and lacking a conscious consensus especially in regards to the fundamental principles of the mobile-user experience.

UX Design Principles

If the internet has put the world at our fingertips, mobile apps have put it beneath our thumbs, do you agree? I am sure you do! The following post explores some of the time-tested mobile app UX design principles to trigger positive reactions of the end users. Well, I do not presume these principles to be all-inclusive or authoritative but they’re a pretty good place to start.

1 of 4 UX Design Principles – Understand the relationship between a user and their mobile devices

Though the concept may seem like a given, however, the depth of that relationship goes way deeper than you realize. I would rather say, the relationship exceeds a physical level which even includes the exchange of bodily fluids. For example, if someone asks to borrow your phone to make a call. And you hand it over. Imagine that level of trust! How many of you would lend your mobile device without hesitation? A very few, I guess! From a gooey physical level to a level of data privacy and security, there is an intimate bond between an individual and the mobile device respectively. “I am my phone. My phone is I.”

UX Design Principles

>Henceforth, a UX design company requires assuming a semi-guarded state of primary users. After all, it’s their responsibility to protect the end users. The increasing trend of embedding ourselves into our mobile devices allows companies to realize what might happen if they lose themselves.    

2 of 4 UX Design Principles – Figure Out the user’s state on the basis of the screen size  

Have you ever been looking forward to seeing a particular movie since the day it was green lit, and now it’s about to release? You finally booked the seat on the largest IMAX screen in the tri-state area and all of a sudden you realize that the person sitting next to you has a very annoying laugh. Are there any chances of walking out? Probably fairly slim to none.

Now, what if the movie was played out in a college dorm on a 22-inch desktop? And a guy sitting next to you is having an annoying laugh. As a result, you might abandon the experience right away. Similar concept works on mobile devices. Undoubtedly, mobile devices are the smallest screens, and therefore, the design must accommodate the user’s varying commitment and distributed attention.

No matter how conditions will change depending on experience type — game, banking application, or the like — but the underlying impetus remains the same.

3 of 4 UX Design Principles – Unlike other interfaces, mobile interfaces are supposed to be truncated  

One of the dreaded task for the end user is the act of transferring the data from the old device to the new. Although, a few notable attempts were made earlier to ease this burden. For example, GSM service providers pushed device manufacturers to save all user data to the devices SIM card by default, but its limited storage capacity offered a poor user experience. Later on, the practice of syncing was introduced to improve mobile user experience.

The concept involved the pairing of truncated mobile interface with a full-sized desktop interface, enabling the user to enter the address book via a QUERTY keyboard. And it may quite interest you to know that this isn’t limited to smartphones, it has even been incorporated into a wide swatch of consumer-grade devices.

4 of 4 UX Design Principles – Design for the real mobile platforms

It is very easy for anyone to get caught up in the moment of the latest tech demo, press release, or rumor and end up creating unnecessary segmentation across an already complex landscape. It’s all about focusing on the mobile platforms (the real ones) that have emerged constantly over time, i.e. voice, messaging, the internet, and applications.

Final Thoughts about UX Design Principles

I hope I have successfully illustrated the UX designing principles and my findings could spark and contribute to the larger conversation and consensus-building process. As mobile UX designers, we have both opportunity and choice. The opportunity is to establish the foundation UX design principles, which are still emerging, experiential space. While the choice lies between getting caught up in the excitement of the buzzword or asking ourselves the difficult question of what foundational principles I am following.    

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