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Design

Perfectly Paired: Using Symmetry in Web Design

Symmetrical design relies on principles of balance, rhythm, proportion and unity to create a style with mirroring sides. Symmetry happens when the composition of design is distributed evenly around a central point or axis. This symmetry can be horizontal, vertical or radial in form. But symmetrical design is not always identical design. Objects can have approximate symmetry as well. This is more prevalent than you might think and can be a great design tool. Here Carrie Cousins looks at different types of symmetry and how they can be used effectively.

Ivo Rangelov

2506

Design

Create Colorful Glossy Rating Stars

Follow this quick tip and learn how to create glossy rating stars. Diana Toma will add highlights with the help of the Blend Tool and an Art brush and this way she will obtain a pretty simple glossy look. Also, depending on the color palette of some websites she will try different variations of colors.

Ivo Rangelov

2068

Design

Creative Background Styles and Trends in Web Design

It is sometimes the least noticed part of your website design. Other times it can be attention-grabbing. Mostly, though, the background sets the tone and provides context for the information on your site. Backgrounds can come from a lot of things and are wide-ranging in scope. You can use images, patterns, solid colors or some combination of them all. Carrie Cousins is going to look at different types of backgrounds that are used well and explore why they work.

Ivo Rangelov

1715

Design

Towards A Retina Web

With the recent announcement and release of the Retina Macbook Pro, Apple has brought double-density screens to all of the product categories in its current lineup, significantly paving the way for the next wave of display standards. While the fourth-generation iPhone gave Reda Lemeden a taste of the “non-Retina” Web in 2010, he had to wait for the third-generation iPad to fully realize how fuzzy and outdated Web graphics and content images are. In the absence of industry-wide standards to streamline the process, each Web designer and developer is left to ensure that their users are getting the best experience, regardless of the display they are using.

Ivo Rangelov

1497

Design

Boosting Your Mobile Design With Light Effects

Light effects have been spicing up graphic designs for years. It’s a great way to add interest, realism, abstractionism, or even energy to a bland experience. Some designers consider light effects to be just simply decorations or even a cheap fix to a bad design. However, used properly light effects can really make an impact on the overall design and experience, including your mobile web site.

Ivo Rangelov

1821

Design

Creating A Lasting Impression

Carolyn Knight and Jessica Glaser can agree that the work they do should inform, should be appropriate to the client and their audience and should, of course, look good. But there’s a fourth attribute worth aiming for: creating a lasting impression. Visual memory is fascinating — they often use it without realizing. If, for example, you ask someone how many rooms they have in their home, before answering, most will walk through each room in their mind’s eye (possibly even with their eyes closed to aid concentration), adding up as they go. If graphic designers can tap into the benefits of this phenomenon, providing visual triggers to keep the subject matter of their work fresh in the audience’s memories, they will surely enjoy advantages.

Ivo Rangelov

1766

Design

Create a 3D Gold Trophy Cup Using Illustrator

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a gold trophy cup icon using two stages of design: 3-D modeling, creating of elements of the icons and coloring with creating glare and shadows on the surface. Let’s get started!

Ivo Rangelov

2597

Design

Designing For Device Orientation: From Portrait To Landscape

The accelerometer embedded in your smart devices is typically used to align the screen depending on the orientation of the device, i.e. when switching between portrait and landscape modes. This capability provides great opportunities to create better user experiences because it offers an additional layout with a simple turn of a device, and without pressing any buttons. However, designing for device orientation brings various challenges and requires careful thinking. The experience must be as unobtrusive and transparent as possible, and you must understand the context of use for this functionality.

Ivo Rangelov

2078

Design

Paper Prototyping as a Usability Testing Technique

Paper Prototyping is a technique that consists of creating hand drawings of user interfaces in order to enable them to be rapidly designed, simulated and tested. As simple as this technique may look like, it has been effectively used since the 1980s and is likely to continue to be used with a guaranteed degree of success for many more years to come. The objective of this article is to define paper prototyping and explain how this technique can be used for usability testing. Justin Mifsud opted to write the article mostly in bullet form so that it can act as a quick reference.

Lubov Cholakova

1345

Design

10+ Free Useful Tools to Make Infographics

Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information or data. These graphics present complex information quickly and clearly, using signs, maps and technical writing. Infographics are very popular these days and can be found frequently on many websites. Here’s a list with 15 useful and free tools that will help you create beautiful and creative infographics.

Lubov Cholakova

2182

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