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Worth Reading

2013 was the year of the battle… Flat Design vs. Realism

Learning Xcode as a Designer by Meng To
If you’re not convinced that Storyboard is the future of CSS or are not directly working with Xcode, this post will at the very least inform you about how to prepare your designs and the limits of what is possible.

The Best of 2013 for Designers by Cameron Chapman
Fantastic round-up from Webdesigner Depot. They have put together their “best of” compilation for designers from last year with more than 130 entries.

Tarantinoing Our First iPhone Application by Codie Westphall
Why you should prototype your UX and skimp on the pixel-perfect mockups.

SVG Drawing Animation by Mary Lou
Here is a little experiment that explores the usage of SVG line drawing animations to precede the appearance of graphics.

What is the DOM? by Chris Coyier
If you are not very sure what the DOM is or does, then this CSS Tricks post is for you!

SVG Files: From Illustrator to the Web by Ian Yates
This useful tutorial takes a look at the basics of taking SVG from Illustrator to the web browser.

Creating Timeless Designs by Addison Duvall
We’ve all seen examples of ‘classic’ design – work that gets talked about for months, years, and even decades after it has served its initial purpose. But what actually goes into creating work of that caliber?

What’s Ahead in 2014 for Responsive Web Design?

10 Web Predictions for 2013 by Craig Buckler

What Changed in Web Design This Year

Best WordPress Snippets, Hacks and Tips from 2013 by Jean-Baptiste Jung

Why We Still Need Web-Safe Fonts by Alexander Dawson

New Resources & Services

gulp.js – The Streaming Build System

IceCream – Simple and Light Responsive Grid System

Planetary.js – Interactive Globes for the Web

Fluidbox – Replicating the Medium Lightbox Module

Designer Freebies

Interactive Flat Design UI (HTML5 & CSS3)

Freecons V2 (155 Icons, PSD, AI & EPS)

5 O’clock Shades Icons (16 Icons, PSD)

Modern Social Media Icons (344 Icons, PSD & PNG)

Odin Rounded Font

150+ Animated SVG Icons
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Thank you, dear Smashing readers, for your support — it means the world to us. On behalf of the entire Smashing Magazine team, we wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2014. Let it be the best year of your life. — Ed.

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for over five years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month.

This post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for January 2014. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper!

Please note that:

• All images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper,
• You can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our Desktop Wallpaper Calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

Smashing New Year

“2014 is here! Wish you all amazing new year.” — Designed by Matej Pindroch from Slovakia.

• preview
• with calendar: 1280
  

Named “Parker” in memory of Jazz saxophonist Charles Parker, WordPress 3.8 has been released.

This new version of WordPress brings many interesting features to the table, such as the redesigned admin interface and new admin color schemes (eight of them in total). The admin interface is now responsive, and sports Open Sans as the new font.

Beyond that, the Theme Management section has also been revamped, and it now shows bigger thumbnails and screenshots, to help you preview themes easily. Widget management too has been improved, and eight Dashboard widgets have been cut down to just four.

WordPress 3.8 also comes with a new flagship theme, Twenty Fourteen, which comes with a magazine style design including a grid and homepage slider.

However, this new release was not without its share of drama. Matt Mullenweg seemed not very happy with the efforts of the Accessibility team after it was learned that keyboard navigation did not work as expected in the Theme Management section.

That said, WP 3.8 has been released just two months after version 3.7, which shows progress towards a rapid development cycle for WordPress. In that case, WP 3.9 too might be out sooner than expected!

Have you updated to WP 3.8 yet? If so, what are your thoughts? Share them with us using the comments below!

I’ve travelled 2517 miles to try to solve 50 problems in 50 days using design, a journey that challenged me to fundamentally rethink my understanding of the user-experience design process.

I set myself a challenge. I wanted to test the limits of design’s ability to solve problems — big and small. To do this, I left the comfort of my computer chair and set out into the unknown. Every day, I had 24 hours to observe a problem, attempt to solve it and then communicate the solution.

For more of an introduction to the adventure, “50 Problems in 50 Days, Part 1: Real Empathy for Innovation” gives an overview of the project, as well as argues for the importance of real empathy in developing truly problem-solving solutions. For more, take a look at the 50 Problems in 50 Days website.

In this second of three articles, I’ll share what travelling 2517 miles taught me about not knowing and about the value of incompetence in fostering innovation — in other words, how I learned that being an idiot is OK for me, and is OK for you, too.

Day 42: Homelessness

It was 7:00 am, and the sun was already shining in beautiful Turin. Leaving my hostel early, I set out to find my problem to tackle that day. I found myself walking with commuters, immersing myself in my surroundings and observing.

As I walked one of the city’s many high streets, I passed shops that were not yet open. Looking around me, I gradually became aware of shapes by the side of the road. Looking closer, I realized there were people asleep in the doorways of the stores.

I was familiar with homelessness, having researched the problem in a past project and having witnessed it in several cities during my adventure. However, I was more conscience of it here in Turin.

I stopped walking and thought.

Assessing what I was seeing — and perhaps in a moment of foolishness — I decided to make homelessness in Turin my problem for the day. My question became, How can design address the problem of homelessness in Turin?

I knew that trying to tackle homelessness in 24 hours was a ridiculous undertaking. However, with my knowledge and research, I had some experience to direct my thinking.

I got to work.

I began by interviewing passersby about what they knew of the problem in the city and about the social and political factors that might have led to people living on the street.

I observed people interact with the homeless.

I analyzed. I created mind maps documenting what I knew of the interdependent factors relating to homelessness, analyzing perceptions and comparing them to the realities.

I worked. And I worked. And I worked.

And I came up with absolutely nothing.

My effort resulted in pages of notes, yet I struggled to come up with any tangible ideas. The ideas that came to me seemed inadequate to the complexities that I knew of the problem.

I was getting nowhere.

Exhausted, I sat down at the edge of a busy public plaza.

As I did, my eyes adjusted to the surroundings. In the corner of the plaza sat a middle-aged woman. She was dressed in black and was looking down at her feet. I soon realized that she was begging.

Observing her interact with passersby, I realized something important: that I knew nothing about her.

Until that point, my work had been directed largely by my past experience with this problem, rather than by what I was seeing right in front of me. In a moment of foolishness, I decided to scrap all of my day’s work so far and start again.

Standing up, I left the plaza and went back to observation, research and analysis. This time, I approached the situation afresh. As I spoke with people, I tried to re-understand the problem as if I had never dealt with it. In doing so, I based my questions not on what I thought I knew, but on a search for new insight.

I turned a corner, and suddenly there was a flash in front of me.

An elderly lady was coming right towards me! Before I knew it, she was clutching at my shirt sleeves, speaking to me in fast pigeon-English, asking for money!

My mind raced.

A simple interaction took me completely by surprise. (Image: Bogan Suditu)

Questions started popping into my head, great questions that built on my previous research, questions that recognized the complexity of the problem! But stopping myself from focusing on what I thought I knew, I decided to ask her one simple, naive question:

What do you need my money for?

As she answered, something unanticipated happened. She told me why she needed any change I could spare, and as she did so, I forgot all of my questions and listened to what she was saying. In that moment, I suddenly understood the problem.

As she spoke, I found myself faced with a very human dilemma.

On the one hand, I wanted to give and to be compassionate. On the other hand, I didn’t know how my money would be spent and was concerned that it might be used irresponsibly. In the end, I didn’t give.

This one simple insight sparked a multitude of ideas in my mind and led to my eventual solution.

Where my foreknowledge and experience had taken me in circles, being prepared to forget what I knew and approach the problem naively yielded insight as clear as day. I was able to tackle this problem not because of my competence in it, but because I was prepared to be incompetent.

Not Knowing

Trying to solve 50 problems in 50 days demonstrated to me the value of incompetence in solving problems and the danger that competence sometimes presents.

From checkout processes to apps, we build up proficiencies in how to solve certain types of problems during our careers as designers. This, coupled with repeated exposure, enables us to develop a measure of expertise in our field.

Every designer should strive for expertise. However, my adventure taught me that sometimes this expertise can make us neglect a vital tool in truly solving problems: It can make us forget “not knowing.”

Our accumulated expertise enables us to quickly establish how to tackle a particular challenge, the factors related to the problem and the limitations of our reach. While this experience is vital, familiarity with a problem can also restrict us to routine ways of thinking and can prevent us from seeing beyond what we know and discovering what we don’t.

As designers, the quality of our solutions will always be fundamentally linked to our understanding of the problem. Learning to approach both new and familiar problems naively enables us to do something important. It enables us to look beyond what we think we know and to fully immerse ourselves in the problem we are trying to solve.

Innovation In Incompetence

From asking “Why is a used toilet roll on the floor?” in Berlin (day 32) to questioning why people keep getting hit by bikes in Amsterdam (day 28), I unearthed unanticipated insights from otherwise ordinary situations by approaching problems naively. This did not negate my knowledge; rather, it enabled me to spot assumptions and limitations in my thinking. In doing so, I was able to discern more accurate insights and to foster more effective solutions.

Documenting the people-weaving techniques of cyclists in Amsterdam on day 28

Being prepared to “not know” is difficult. Everything we think to be true in life is based on what experience has taught us. Therefore, being prepared to approach a familiar design challenge naively is difficult. In short, it can make us feel a little stupid and challenge our desire for expertise.

Ultimately, though, trying to solve 50 problems in 50 days taught me that real design expertise isn’t always about knowing the right answers, but in knowing when and how to ask the right questions.

From responsive design conventions to e-commerce store layouts, when we are prepared to re-evaluate what we know and to approach familiar problems afresh, we give ourselves vital opportunities to better understand and better solve those problems.

Methods For Anyone And Everyone

Below are just some of the methods I developed in my journey. Use them, build on them, and develop your own. Our aim should be to find methods to more deeply understand the problems we are trying to solve and, in doing so, to better serve the people we are designing for.

Choose to Not Know

Creating an interactive communication tool for hostel staff on day 29

When we’re briefed on a design problem, more often that not our brains start to do something amazing: They start to solve. We find points of reference to frame the challenge by recalling experiences that might help.

Suppose we’re given a brief to “design a website to help festival-goers find music venues.” Upon hearing this brief, we’d have two choices. Choosing to momentarily put our experience to one side and “not know” what this solution might look like accomplishes two things:

1. It compels us to dig deeper.
   Starting with no answers compels us to dig deeper to find the best solution, rather than be drawn to the obvious half solutions that might meet the need. Being prepared to approach a new problem naively forces us to immerse ourselves in the world of the people we are designing for. Rather than let our experience direct our thinking, by saying “I don’t know,” we make ourselves really pay attention to the people who do.
2. It fosters creativity.
   Not retreating to past experience opens our mind to consider solutions beyond what we know. These solutions could be better, more inventive and more intuitive — we just have to be prepared to look for them.

Ask Stupid Brilliant Questions

Designing a simple tool to locate and navigate to free Wi-Fi on day 35

In my journey, I learned that one of the best methods for unearthing valuable insight from familiar design challenges is to ask (seemingly) stupid questions.

Suppose we’re asked to create a website to help someone sell their home. Our experience could give us useful shortcuts to skip the basics in order to deal with more unknown aspects of the project. However, rather than asking “What content should go on this website and how shall we structure it?”, asking a naïve question like “Why do people sell their home?” or even “Why do you need a website to achieve what you want?” could unlock insights that shape the entire direction of the project.

Likewise, asking naïve questions of the people we’re designing for gives us an opportunity to listen and to challenge our assumptions about the problems they face. Rather than asking end users “What specific resources would you like to help you sell your home?” making a naïve statement like “I’ve never sold a house before. What’s it like?” helps to dig below the surface to root out the underlying problem.

Question Convention

Creating an interactive and non-invasive tool for crowdsourcing book notes on day 47

Designed conventions are vital. By including conventions in our products, we are giving users a shorthand to more easily understand and use the solutions we have created for them. However, while the conventions we use are often an excellent shorthand, they are not necessarily the best way to solve the problems we’re tasked with.

Experience teaches us that certain problems can be solved with conventional solutions. It is easy to assume that a wayfinding problem is best solved with a map. While conventions enable us to solve quickly, innovation is born of a natural distrust of convention and a desire to create smarter, more intuitive experiences. Suppose we’re asked to create a music discovery service. In digital applications, music is conventionally represented as images of album artwork or as rows in tables. Following suit and having users browse music in this way would be easy. But our aim should be to create a solution that better meets the needs of the people we are designing for. In almost every other situation, discovering music is rarely a visual experience — it’s auditory. How would this affect the decisions we make when designing this service?

For a great (and really simple) example of this in practice, look at Christian Holst’s article on “Redesigning the Country Selector.” Regardless of whether you agree with his solution, challenging convention enables us to create smarter, more effective outcomes.

These are just some of the methods by which we can embrace naivety and challenge what we think we know in order to better solve for the people we are designing for.

It would be ridiculous to overlook the role of convention and the role of experience in creating intuitive, useable products. But by being prepared to challenge what we know, we set ourselves up to discover what we don’t.

The Solution

So, what was the result of overlooking my experience, re-evaluating what I thought I knew and re-approaching the problem with the mindset of a beginner?

Sitting down outside a metro station in the centre of Turin, I reconsidered my dilemma of being asked to spare some money.

On the one hand, I wanted to give and be compassionate. On the other hand, I didn’t know whether my money would be used responsibility. In the end, I didn’t give.

As I sat outside the station, I looked up to see commuters ascending the stairs from the underground platform. Reaching the top of the stairs, they would throw away their travel ticket and continue their journey.

Watching this simple action was my eureka moment.

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The solution I created would repurpose Turin’s metro system. When buying a ticket, the buyer would be invited to donate a tiny amount (as little as €0.20).

Then, when leaving the station, instead of throwing their ticket away, they would be able to leave it in the hat of someone living on the street, a donation that could be converted to a night’s stay at one of Turin’s shelters.

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With this solution, people could be compassionate while knowing exactly how their donation will be used.

Since publishing 50 Problems in 50 Days, this solution has been one of the most shared and most discussed. Being contacted by organizations and individuals around the world to discuss how to implement comparable solutions in their cities has been amazing.

Conclusion

Being prepared to re-approach design challenges naively is vital to innovation. From shopping carts to apps, our accumulated experience helps us to confidently solve based on what we think to be true. However, it can also negate one of our greatest assets as designers: humble incompetence.

Even in the most familiar of situations, when we are prepared to “not know” our client’s business (say, the format of a website or the mindset of the user), we are able to expose our assumptions and seek new insight. In doing so, we empower ourselves to better understand the problem and to foster a more effective solution.

Ultimately, we must dig deeper into the problems we are tasked with solving and aim to better solve for the people whose lives we are affecting every day.

In the words of Irene Pereyra, Global Director of UX and Strategy at Fantasy Interactive:

In order to be innovative, you have to be fearless, you have to be comfortable with being different, and you have to be willing to stand apart from the crowd… In order to be forward-thinking you have to let go of the status quo, and you have to rephrase the problem.

Stay tuned for the final part of this series on my 50 problems. In it, I’ll share a selection of small lessons on what travelling 2517 miles has taught me about process, discipline, innovation and the power of design to solve problems big and small.

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Branded website design is ultimately centered around two things: product and audience. Meaning, the site’s design needs to effectively showcase products in a way that will resonate with the target audience. Once a designer identifies where a brand’s product and audience meet, the visual problem-solving process becomes streamlined and simplified, and the site’s design becomes clear, focused, and targeted.

Below we take a look at a handful of sites that effectively showcase their products through the overall design.

Expressive Visual Elements in Men’s and Women’s Fashion Sites

The world of fashion websites is a great place to start in this discussion, because the industry is intrinsically linked with creativity and expressiveness. In other words, unlike some other types of ecommerce sites, the design can be more abstract and loosely associated with the products. As you can see from any number of fashion illustrations or collages, supplementary visual elements are not only a welcome addition, but often an essential component of many fashion sites.

Women’s Fashion

For example, Free People is a retailer that specializes in bohemian, feminine clothing and accessories. So a simple or minimalist design would hardly be expressive of the right atmosphere, no matter how beautifully their products are photographed. Instead, the site hits just the right note on its homepage by using an atmospheric and evocative style of photography that is more about an idealization of the target audience’s lifestyle than it is about featuring specific pieces of clothing. Handwritten typography and floral illustrative elements top off the look, adding both depth and texture to the design.

Men’s Fashion

In comparison to the previous example, Narwhal Co. has a fairly straightforward website design that features their merchandise more prominently. This makes sense; as a purveyor of “distinct accessories made from recycled ties,” their unique products are more in need of an immediate explanation than the average fashion site. But the combination of a subtle background pattern, iconography in the navigation panel, and rounded typefaces help to create a sense of friendly, playful style that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Edible Products: High-End Versus Casual Design

Depending on the target market, webstores with an edible inventory can span the visual range between practicality and simplicity (for an audience looking for quality ingredients at good prices) and luxurious opulence (for a customer looking to indulge). This makes for an intriguing diversity in sites with similar products but completely different goals. A good example can be found in the comparison between tea and fine wine stores; while they both lie in the category of life’s little luxuries, tea is more of an everyday, simple, and cozy drink, while wine culture is more exclusive and high-end.

Tea

Argo Tea’s everyday simplicity is perfectly reflected in its light, bright, and clean aesthetic. This site expresses its friendly, straightforward brand through its warm and colorful palette, clean imagery, and simple type. The only decorative element to be found on the homepage is the vector bubble effect rising above the navigation bar, which helps to add a touch more of the whimsical approachability the site is going for.

Wine

Stag’s Leap Winery has quite a different visual philosophy, which presents a strong contrast to Argo Tea. The muted color palette, elegant script typeface, and quiet simplicity of its homepage make it clear this brand is positioning itself as a more luxurious label. These elements come to a peak in the traditional and intricate logomark, which adds just the right touch of historical authenticity to a company that is hoping to evoke a sense of timeless quality.

Divergent Brand Positioning Between Two Audio Webstores

There are also often significant differences even between sites that sell the same type of product. The target audience can and often does vary widely within a specific market niche, and stores need to cater to these different types of customers.

The two sites discussed below give very different impressions on a glance, but they’re actually more similar than the previous examples. A little more time spent on each shows that both have a sleek, simple navigation, organization, and typography. A few more commonalities between sites makes sense when the product is the same; both are selling technological devices, so it’s crucial that they offer as streamlined a user experience as possible, no matter who their audience is.

Crafted Minimalism

The light, sans-serif typeface, quiet color scheme, and crisp photography used on BeoPlay all give customers a sense of neutral elegance. These elements are combined with a complex and varied navigation style that keeps the site from feeling stale as you move through it.

Edgy Modernism

Instead of going after the same refined crowd that BeoPlay appeals to, SkullCandy uses its design to appeal to a younger, edgier audience. The dark background color and contrastingly bright imagery and effect-laden text offer a different visual experience from the previous example, but the transitions are similarly flashy and well-executed.

When comparing the design styles of various online stores, it becomes quite clear that the combination of product and audience is an essential component of web design; in fact, if you narrow down your target audience as successfully as these examples, your design decisions will, in many cases, almost be made for you.

You might also like…

Creating a website can be a daunting task, especially if you haven’t taken time to think about your final result in great detail.

If you’re a new business, it’s important to know your brand identity, and stick to a theme, perhaps the colours within your logo. Your brand identity aims to make you instantly recognisable, so it must show accurately on your website.

If your website is an ecommerce site, the emphasis must be on the products, so a straightforward design is a good option. Knowing which pages you need are also important, because it can allow you to determine the pages that should match, and determine the pages that should differentiate themselves.

Target audience is another important consideration, and by thinking in great detail about the types of people purchasing your products and services, you’ll begin to understand how your website should be laid out, and what details must be included.

Content is important, and it must be regular, but too much content can make a website busy, and less is definitely better in grabbing an individual’s attention.

Finally think about the devices people now use to view products and services, many people use mobile phones, perhaps more than they do on a laptop r computer. So content must be easy to read on a range of devices, and making sure your website is mobile friendly is important. A responsive design could work, but only for websites that are not too complex.

Here are the best freebies for designers from last month (July 2013). We have free GUI templates, icon sets, fonts, Photoshop brushes, PSD templates, textures… and everything else inbetween.

Here they are:

Icon Sets

Coucou Icons (PSD, AI, EPS, & PNG)

Download Page

It is that time of the week again, a chance for you to sit back and enjoy some of our favorite web and mobile designs from this past week.

Fontwalk

For this weeks giveaway we have 10 WordPress themes of your choice to giveaway from ThemeFuse, one of the most popular suppliers of premium WordPress themes.

To enter this competition all you have to do is comment on this post and tell us how you’d like to use your free theme.

About ThemeFuse

When it comes to the world of WordPress themes, ThemeFuse is at the top of the list as one of the most premier providers. With so many options, you are sure to find a WordPress theme that will meet your needs. Style and design come together fluidly in their themes, with all beautifully designed and coded, and offering unique features and options from which you can choose from ensuring you get everything you need.

The samples below are just some of the themes ThemeFuse offers:

PixelWhiz – Designer WordPress Theme

If you are looking for a graphically stimulating design and need a creative approach, this theme is perfect for your needs.

Conexus – Responsive WordPress Theme

A multi-purpose WordPress theme that can fit perfectly for various business industries or more laid back creative shops.

Metro Vibes – Metro WordPress Theme

A modern and responsive metro-style WordPress theme that is perfect for a creative agency or a portfolio showcase website.

The Muse – Inspiration WordPress Theme

A minimalist inspiration WordPress theme for anyone that wants to start a blog and believes that content is king.

Voyage – Travel WordPress Theme

Videos, photos, and other media can be added to a portfolio or personal blog that even links to your iPhone.

MobilityApp – Mobile WordPress Theme

Smartphone application creators can also use WordPress themes. There are themes that promote mobile application downloads iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.

Click here to view more themes from ThemeFuse: ThemeFuse WordPress Themes.

How to enter the competition:

All you have to do to enter is leave a short comment below telling us how you’d use your ThemeFuse theme.

This competition will run for the next seven days, ending on the 8th of August 2013. All winners will be chosen at random and will be informed via email within 2 days of the competition ending.

Just to show some love, you could also Like ThemeFuse on Facebook.

All the best!

Last weeks PixelKit Giveaway has ended and it is time to announce the winners. Here they are:

Congratulations to our winners. PixelKit will be in touch with you over the next few days with your prize.

Name: Chev
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Name: Almone
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Name: Nimsrules
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Name: Crazyhunk
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Name: Kieran
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Name: Yad Faeq
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Name: Robert
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Name: Joan
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Name: Jean
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PixelKit is a UI kit and design resource subscription site (only $39 for a full year!) that makes it much easier to finish jobs faster, with a more professional, clean and crisp look. Thus saving you all of that wasted time searching for that perfect UI kit. They also recognize that designers constantly need access to new stuff, so, they are committed to adding new GUI kits, icon sets, premium graphic packs and everything else on a regular basis.