It’s Sunday it must be time for another design roundup……
Quotes of the week
“If your app was an employee, what kind of employee would it be? When it’s employee performance review time, how would you rate it?”
- Kathy Sierra @ Creating Passionate Users
“Lots of people are saying that Twitter is a fad and it won’t last. You know what? That’s fine. Not everything has to last”
- Jeremy Keith @ Adactio
9rules design community this week
I’ve done my usual weekly summary over at the 9rules notes and started another competition Design a month.
Design thoughts of the week
My thoughts haven’t been so focused on design (well not for the early part) as I’ve been doing some interface design. Whilst this is of course ‘design’ it requires more consideration on other areas and this is something I’ve been thinking about.
- When is something usable?:
When does something cross the line from being usable or not being usable? What makes something more usable than something else?
- Colour and it’s effects on user experience:
Yes, this is one of my ‘pet’ areas but I’ve been more thinking (building on from last week) about the concepts and colour that are the ‘norm’ online and how using these can aid a design. I’ve been thinking for a while of mood and design and this is more taking existing and expected colour behaviors into consideration.
- Being in the mood:
I’m nicely busy currently and couple that with having a cold and not being a happy clappy designer this week, I’ve had a few issues designing a couple of things. It reminds me how being in the ‘mood’ is something you should consider as a rule to use when can and not ignore it just because you are busy.
- What do I assume should be know about design?
It’s hard being in the industry from the things you ‘assume’ people will know and understand. I’m trying to work towards not assuming as much as it’s become apparent I sometimes do. I enjoy those wake up calls of ‘heading up bum and talking jargon’, but they aren’t great to have and should be used to cut back on the designer speak.
- Is a square or circle more pleasing to the eye?
A bit of a random thought but one I’ve been thinking about. It sort of follows on as to the effect of shapes on us. Do we think certain things when we see certain shapes?
That’s the week for me then.
You got me with that last bit… do shapes (like color) have rules? I’ve not really thought about it. Off the top I would say yes definitely. But now you have me wondering about whether or not what I think I know is just my biased opinions (girls are more attracted to curves, round shapes; guys straight lines, squares) or based on some type of fact or myth. I’ve search for color meanings and read whatever I can find on the subject. But I’ve never searched shapes… off to Google now. Thanks for making me think about this stuff.