November 2010 | Shawn Johnston of Vancouver, Canada

Persuasion Triggers in Web Design

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Yet another great article by Smashing Magazine, this one on the things that get us to act when faced with website pages. Turning users into consumers is the holy grail of web development and most especially UX design. What encourages people to sign up or purchase? What gets them over the hurdles that keep them from moving forward? A great read to be sure.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/11/29/persuasion-triggers-in-web-design/Read the Article

The 7 Heavenly Virtues of Design

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A very clever post from Web Design Depot about desirable qualities in designers. It ironically really captures my personal approach to clients, that of pleasantness, kindness and humility.

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2010/11/the-7-heavenly-virtues-of-design/Read the Article

Designing for Content Management Systems

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Another great article by Smashing Magazine, this is a thoughtful look at designing around the needs and, to some degree, the limitations of content management systems. As a WordPress developer and designer, this is something I run into a lot, explaining to clients why some things can’t be done certain ways in order to remain dynamic. CMS’s offer a lot of flexibility for clients and nowadays, most serious designers are developing sites on one platform or another. Working with my clients so they understand the why is a key point to the success of the project.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/11/22/designing-for-content-management-systems/Read the Article

Responsible Development

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Mark Hout over at Cognition wrote a fantastic article on “Responsible Development”. He addresses an issue I run into from time to time, that of trying to match clients dreams and expectations to the realities of the technology we use to bring their sites to life. Just because a thing might be possible, doesn’t mean it should be done. Just as a site must be easy to use for your users, a site that is impossible to update because of all the custom shinanigans is a site that doesn’t get updated. It’s a great read, his opening line is brilliant, “When Happy Cog undertakes a development job, one of our goals is to empower our clients with the necessary knowledge for them to help themselves.” I couldn’t agree more.

http://cognition.happycog.com/article/responsible-developmentRead the Article

Failure By Design

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I fabulous article by Francisco Inchauste over at GetFinch.com about how failure teaches us how to succeed in the future. As a creative, you’re constantly battling with yourself, the battle of taking creative chances knowing that your client may not like them. It’s hard to put so much of yourself into a thing that may not be loved, but that’s how we learn and how we grow. Great insights, highly recommend the read.

http://www.getfinch.com/finch/entry/failure-design/Read the Article

Web Designer’s Guide to Font Replacement Methods

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Font replacement has been the holy grail of web design/development for years and those of us lucky enough to be a part of this revolution are lucky indeed. Personally, my opinion on the methods, I love Typekit but the subscription based method makes it difficult for lone guns like me to use. Fontspring’s single purchase model and use of the @font-face methodology make it a no brainer.

http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/typography-articles/a-web-designers-guide-to-font-replacement-methods/Read the Article

8 (more) Faces

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For those of you who haven’t heard about Elliot Jay Stocks brilliant new magazine 8 Faces, this article is a great review of it’s purpose, where it’s been and where it’s going. For me it’s a must read and any web designer serious about their craft will take note.

http://www.idsgn.org/posts/8-more-faces/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+idsgn+%28idsgn+%28a+design+blog%29%29Read the Article

Myth #27: UX Design is about usability

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I’ve told my clients many times that part of making a site usable for your users is to make it memorable and fun to spend time with. Studies have shown that professional and well crafted design elevates the trustworthiness of a site as well as it’s credibility. In many cases, especially if you’re selling a niche service or product, well crafted web design makes it easy to remember to come back to and to tell friends and family about. This is a wonderful article over at UX Myths articulating this very well.

http://uxmyths.com/post/1533970267/myth-27-ux-design-is-about-usabilityRead the Article

Learning to Love HTML5

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I’m still grappling with HTML5 and what I should be implementing in my code today. This is a great article over at Smashing Magazine that shares some thoughts and ideas about how to do just that.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/11/10/learning-to-love-html5/Read the Article

Fitness in Design

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Gavin Elliot writes a fantastic post about mental and physical fitness for Designers, that a healthy brain and body impacts our creativity and inspiration. I myself get out for an hour a day in the middle of my day to get some air and recharge. I also go to Yoga a few nights a week to stretch, tone and centre myself.

http://www.gavinelliott.co.uk/2010/11/fitness-in-design/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gavinelliottblog+%28Gavin+Elliott+Blog%29Read the Article
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