Rod Motta - User Experience Visual Designer » minimalism

Web resolutions for mobile devices

Rod Motta — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 06:11:13 +0000

Here’s a list of web resolutions popular on mobile devices as of February 2011 presented by Uxbooth.com with their published article, Considerations for Mobile Web Design (Part 2): Dimensions, by David Leggett. The author explains a few points about display dimensions and solutions for layout design.

Certain web design styles are popular for a reason

Rod Motta — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 05:18:14 +0000

Sometimes popular web design styles can deter us since we love to create something original. As designers we like to see variety, but of course, our internal and external clients like to mimic and see consistency. Some of the more popular web design styles are:

Illustrations
Printed paper
Realism
Imageless & typography-focused
Minimalism
Vintage look
Large images & photo backgrounds
Rich & slick user interfaces

While many designers seem to be very against trends and already popular styles, one must understand that these certain styles are popular for a reason. That reason is that there is already something about them that works, whether it be efficiency, viewer-connection, or interesting visual appeal. The goal is to always view popular styles from an intuitive standpoint, and take from them what works best. This is the only way to learn and gain experience as a web designer, even when developing one’s own particular style.

Quote: Making the simple and the complicated

Rod Motta — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:38:52 +0000

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”
- Charles Mingus

The concept of simplicity

Rod Motta — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:32:12 +0000

Making your interface smaller, hiding advanced functionality and taking out the obvious is the path to a simpler interface. Along this path you’ll face many obstacles. For every feature you hide or take away, there will be people who complain and demand that you bring it back. But every one of your users has different needs and uses your web app or website in a different way. If you listen to all the feature requests and needs, and go as far as addressing and implementing them all, you’re unlikely to arrive at the zenith of software design.

For those looking for some base concepts on the idea of simplicity, here are John Maeda’s Laws of Simplicity:

Reduce – The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction
Organize – Organization makes a system of many appear fewer
Time - Savings in time feel like simplicity
Learn – Knowledge makes everything simpler
Differences – Simplicity and complexity need each other
Context – What lies in the periphery of simplicity is deﬁnitely not peripheral
Emotion – More emotions are better than less
Trust – In simplicity we trust
Failure – Some things can never be made simple
The One – Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful