Posts Tagged ‘design’
We’re committed to changing the way we do things around here. A lot.
One of the changes on the horizon is to push our design services in a direction closer to a human-centered approach. That’s a tall order when we practice a medium that is roundly criticized for doing more to make people anti-social than anything else. Adopting design methods historically reserved for industrial design and product development won’t be easy in interactive design, but we’re committed to it as a path for Gorilla.
Aren’t you just talking about user-centered design?
I get that question a lot. In some ways yes, but Chad Camara has a post on his blog that encapsulates the differences very well in my opinon. We’re striving to focus on real, human improvement in our offering, not just improving efficiency. I will be challenging all of Gorilla’s clients to consider how their product or service improves the lives of their customers. Focusing on holistic design concerns in addition to efficiency is something we’re seeing as critical to the mutli-channel environment. People are smart enough these days to know when you’re trying to sell to them versus have a relationship with them. For a lot of our clients, user-centered just isn’t going to cut it anymore.
We’ve got a lot of work to do in this respect. The ephemeral nature of digital media is going to be an advantage and a drawback. The technology moves far too quickly to be mired in research for too long, but the relative ease of deployment means when you consider the long view, you can take a cyclic approach that will put human concerns first.
It will be interesting and challenging no doubt to see where this direction takes us in the years to come.
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When presented with the opportunity to design custom user interface elements in web projects, I often struggle. Technology has opened doors to allow for a homogeneous online experience regardless of browser or operating system and allows for graceful degradation. The ability to style these elements can be appealing to me as a designer. After all, when creating a specific aesthetic, the last thing I want is the browser to dictate what I can and cannot do. Companies with a strong desire to have a consistent brand experience usually like this option as well. This is especially relevant for HTML form elements such as radio buttons, dropdowns, and text fields.
So why don’t all sites utilize these styled form elements? The biggest dilemma I have comes in the form of usability issues. Since browsers use a default set of form elements, users quickly become accustomed to them. If you use Firefox every day, sometimes without realizing it, the native controls become your accepted standard. Even though changing the border color of a text field may not make it completely discernible, it still alters the experience. This can be especially important for sensitive web forms. Here at Gorilla, we design a fair amount of ecommerce sites where there can be a high rate of cart abandonment when landing on the payment page. If controls are poorly conceived, you run the risk of confusing or alienating the user. For this matter I believe the form elements on such pages should remain un-styled, leaving it up to the user’s browser to provide a familiar experience.
However, there are instances where a styled text field can be a welcome change. Common examples of this practice are the search field at Zappos.com or Apple’s attractive MobileMe.com login page. As long as it is not overdone, blends well with the design, and fits the audience, custom-designed non-critical form elements can be a pleasant addition.
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On a recent web exploration, I came across a write-up featuring “50 well designed apparel sites” and took note of something. Their ‘purchase this item’ buttons were all considerably different. But, among the variety pack of buttons (image at end of post), there were some distinct similarities.
Color
First up is the obvious – color. Of the 16 I randomly chose to write about (very scientific), 7 were gray-scale, 7 were red or pink, and 2 were oddballs. Red is an attention grabbing color, which helps the button stand out in a crowd. Most of the gray-scale buttons use high contrast to increase their attention grabbing abilities.
Function
Secondly, let’s talk about function. There are two main ways to label this type of button. One of which being, “Add to Cart” and the other being something like, “Buy Now.” Surprisingly, the trend with this set is 13 out of 16 featuring some form of “Add to Cart.” I think this detail, the function, is the most important part of designing any button. There’s a very clear distinction between “add to cart” or “buy now,” and the button should reflect that.
The other interesting trend that pops up here is ‘add to cart’ functionality by way of size selection. This is new to me, and although I appreciate the innovation, I’m not sure leaving off an ‘add to cart’ or ‘buy now’ button is a good idea.
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Yesterday was a snow day in Chicago, 
so I used a bit of my down time at home to tidy up some things. One of them was my home computer’s desktop. It’s a complicated mess of icons, and I haven’t changed the background image in months. I’d been thinking about putting a new background image on my desktop for a few days, ever since one of our designers here had his monitor quietly sabotaged with Justin Bieber photos while he was away from his desk at a meeting.
Even though it’s the first cluster of pixels I encounter every morning after booting up my machine, my desktop had become the equivalent of stale website content: never updated, without purpose, long-forgotten. It needed maintenance. It needed to be de-cluttered. It needed to be simplified, like most things involving the web.
With this in mind I ended up finding my way to Simple Desktops. This site was put together by Facebook product designer Tom Watson, who culled together “a collection of bling, drop shadow, and gradient free desktops to help keep you stay focused but also provide just enough eye candy to not be bored.” Some are more inspiring than others, but all are free to download. I really liked “Force Quit,” “Cassiopeia,” and “Tron Light.”
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Attractive online store fronts that allow for a speedy shopping experience for customers and an increase in sales for merchants are usually the crowd pleasers. However, sometimes designers struggle to create thoughtful and innovative layouts for Magento sites without crippling essential usability features. Finding the right balance between beauty and function while keeping the user engaged with eye-catching design is crucial to ecommerce success.
This post highlights 13 creative and inspirational Magento sites that push the boundaries of design on the Magento platform. Some of these sites might have elements that sacrifice usability for beauty. Observing these examples can inspire new design ideas and educate us on usability mistakes. A few reoccuring themes throughout these sites are excellent use of white space and minimalism, detailed product photography, and engaging typography.
Shure Axient
Grenson
Jamón Premium
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