Learn to think about design in terms of color, texture and type instead of homepage, carousel and button and you’ll see thoughtful design and inspiration everywhere.
Pulled out of the coffee shop today, saw a building that made me think, “that’s actually a perfect color for client X.”
Far more than I’d like to admit I find myself stopped on the street staring at the typography of a sign or menu posted in a window. My friends make fun of me.
This is a shift I’ve just started noticing. Previously I think I only noticed design decisions on websites. The web was what I was designing, so I paid attention to the web with a designer’s eye.
Now design is borking my whole deal, man. Everything is designed and I notice it everywhere like some tinfoil hat wearing, motorola RAZR using conspiracy theorist. Goddam design.
A client recently asked me this question and I want to share my response.
“How can we communicate major authority, that we are the “de facto” leader in this space?”
Good question. I listened to an interview with Ramit Sethi yesterday — his outlook always grounds me back into what matters (in an industry full of butt-plug headlines and ’149 unbelievable business insights that will ninja-kick your blown mind into unmatched glory/shame India virtual assistant work from home photoshop download!’.
He was talking about how his goal isn’t short term revenue, it’s long term revenue, not sales today but buyers for life.
Of course, he has the luxury of thinking like this. Why? Because his products are built on TONS of research, feedback, proof, results. He can be as strong in the messaging and marketing about his products as he wants, he can spend as much money on marketing and advertising as he wants, because he knows the shit is the shit.
There’s design that builds trust, differentiates, communicates effectively, feels fresh. There’s design that feels quality and strong and well thought through. Your site will be all of those things. In some ways this is the “Market Leader” element you’re asking about. But I think the real “market leader” feel comes from the degree of confidence, boldness, honesty you get to utilize in your customer interaction… because it’s proven. Like Ramit.
A list of reasons why the team at EdenSpiekermann use Keynote instead of PhotoShop for all the heavy lifting in their design process:
- Ease and spread of use
- Flexibility and non-destructive editing
- Clever grid lines
- Animations for prototyping
- Libraries/third party add-ons
This is interesting to me. I would never have guessed. I’ve used Keynote enough to be skeptical, though I’d like to give it a try.
If you think about it more as an intelligent wireframe it starts to make sense. Wireframes are so important and never all that helpful—when the client sees colors and pixels and images and layout that’s when they start to get interested/concerned. So keynote may be a good way to bridge the gap between grey boxes and final designs.
Designing in Keynote resources
Very cool list of resources, videos, etc, on designing with Keynote: Keynote Kung Fu.
Friendly Internet Reminder: Making things for other people is really, really hard.”Frank Chimero
Responsiveness isn’t just something we can build into our product. It’s an attitude we can adopt. We can learn to listen to the changing environment, to be available to respond. ”Wilson Miner
What do we want to spend more time with? What shapes us? What nourishes us? What do we want to see grow?”Wilson Miner
Design is the choices we make about the world we *want* to live in.”Wilson Miner
