Navneet Panchariya - Web Designer | UI Designer | Front End Developer

Responsive web design is popular and it's absolutely no secret. It's what experts are calling for and what many brands are switching to. It's not just about creating a mobile-ready site, but about making your site visible to every browser size, whether via desktop, tablet or smartphone. The tricky part about designing for responsiveness is creating a site that looks good big and small. You have to take lots into consideration before you break open your design program and go to work. It's an extra step that typically ends up being well worth it in the finished product. It's very evident when a designer doesn't plan for responsiveness; sites tend to look really bare and boring. It's absolutely imperative that designers maintain their creativity throughout responsive sites. With more people using tablets and smartphones, you want to be sure everyone is able to view your site. Here are some tips to help you keep creative and effective when designing ...

When I was first introduced to graphic design, I was extremely young and a member of a pretty popular message board. Posters showed respect for other members by presenting them with these things called "sigs" - they were little rectangular graphics that fit in the reserved area for a person's signature. If you're familiar with message boards and forums, you know exactly what I mean. If not, it was just an image that showed up at the bottom of someone's message. This wasn't an exclusive concept for these message boards, as many did use this feature. Back then, I downloaded either Adobe Photoshop 4 or 5 (it was so long ago, I can't recall the version). I went to work and eventually taught myself how to do many of the things these other designers were doing. The designs we made were elaborate and colorful. They were fantastical and made people feel like they were mystical creatures hidden by the cloud of reality. These sigs were nothing but decora...

Responsive design is a relatively new term in web design. It was only coined three years ago in May of 2010, when web designer Ethan Marcotte used the term in his article for A List Apart. Today, there's even a mini debate going on regarding whether responsive design is here to stay or whether it's just a flash in the pan. Only time will tell, but for now, it's clear that responsive design strives to make the user experience as comfortable as possible. Responsive design is a web design philosophy that focuses on creating sites that give users an enhanced viewing experience. This includes features such as effortless navigation and reading, and a minimum of browser resizing, scrolling and panning. All of this takes place across a range of different devices, from desktops to smartphones. Since this web design approach is still in a fledgling state, you may not be totally clear on what responsive design is all about. Is it more about seamlessly displaying conten...

Nostalgia is very common in the world of web design. We see it in varying degrees in vintage and retro styled websites, as well as in small touches on otherwise-modern designs. A lot of designers likely give very little thought to why they might design a site with a nostalgic feel. They simply like the style, or feel like it's the correct choice for the particular project. But they may not think about the psychological reasoning behind that choice. A better understanding of why certain design elements and conventions have the effect they have, and how to best use those effects, can make us better designers. The end result being that our projects are more successful and our clients are happier. Nostalgia as a medical condition? The term "nostalgia" was invented by a medical student, Johanne Hofer, in his Basel dissertation in 1688. It was described as the anxiety felt by Swiss mercenaries fighting in the lowlands of France and Italy, away from their nat...

I browse the internet everyday, on multiple devices. I use my Macbook Pro, iMac, PC, iPad, iPhone and yes even my television. So it really bothers me when I see websites that aren't optimized for larger screen resolutions, or that take two minutes to load on my mobile device. We've all embraced the concept of responsive design. Very few people argue against it. In fact, the only convincing repost I've heard recently is that a client is unwilling to pay for the extra time involved. But as with any new practice, myths have grown up to counterpoint it. Let's see if we can bust a few of those misconceptions... Responsive design is all about mobile Yes the mobile web is exploding and yes it is the driving force behind responsive design, but when we think of responsive design we need to consider more than just mobile. With the introduction of retina displays and video game browsers, internet users are now viewing websites on larger screen resolutions and i...

While fine art is a subjective field, graphic design is more formulaic in its fundamentals. An effective design should make people feel a certain way and take a certain action. In this article I'd like to share Gravity Switch's web design principles and our thinking behind them. Those rules are: define goals first; focus on users second; design for emotion; follow the rules of visual design; build a clear, visual hierarchy; be consistent; break the rules (when necessary); don't overuse gimmicks; and finally test, measure & improve. Define goals first I bet you thought I was going to say "focus on users first", that's what most people say. Forget that, let's start with your goals. Begin every website design project with a brainstorming session that outlines clear, realistic website goals that reinforce to your business objectives. To better illustrate this let's look to Amazon. Their objective is to maximize product sales. Throug...

I'm a lucky person. Every day I get to do what I love, which is helping clients work out what their web project is going to look like. As any good account handler or project manager will tell you, their primary role is to make sure that a project goes as smoothly as possible. This can mean managing people on both sides of the fence, and keeping everyone happy is no mean feat. I'm a big believer that getting a project off to a strong start is integral to the success of that project, and for me that means helping the design team hit the ground running, and making sure they can begin doing what they do best as soon as possible. I've read plenty of material recently describing account handlers as having a negative effect on the creative process of a project. These criticisms range from the account handler not allowing the designer access to the client throughout the project, through to making the designer jump through hoops on the whim of a client. Whilst I'...

One of the most important tasks on your plate as a web designer is usability. Usability is defined as a gauge of the quality of the user's experience when interacting with your website. Any website you design should always be seamless from the standpoint of the user. They should find your site easy to navigate without having to first undergo special training. Usability is normally based on several different factors. A person looking through your site wants their ease of learning to be top-notch. They'll want to quickly learn the user interface so that they can jump right in and accomplish fundamental, navigational tasks. Efficiency of use is another factor: after they've learned to navigate your site, they'll want to accomplish tasks speedily. Even if the user has used the site before, they'll need to easily remember enough of the process to be able to use the site effectively the next time. This is called memorability. When they're using your site, they...

There's an expression in advertising that goes "I know that 80% of my advertising isn't working. I just don't know which 80%". The same logic applies to all forms of design, including web design. If only we knew which part of our page content, layouts and workflows were not working as well as they should, wouldn't that be amazing? It would seem like a godsend to know what works when it comes to user experience design, to have confirmed in harsh quantifiable data which of two layouts, elements, or routes is the optimum and this is the promise of A/B testing. It is a powerful tool, but it is not a panacea and over-reliance on it can not only blunt your judgment as a designer, but also paradoxically result in sub-optimal solutions. In this article I'll take a look at some of the pitfalls of using A/B testing, and how such comparative testing can be used as part of a designers toolkit, rather than a dominant design methodology. A/B testing has ...

We all know that there are a few differences between small businesses and larger corporations, especially when they begin considering the web design aspect of their marketing plan and branding. And while for the most part, the nuts and bolts basics are often the same for both, small business owners and freelancers often have to make many more considerations before they get to the actual design. Before approaching a designer, small business owners should already have some solid ideas of what they need and what they want (which can sometimes be two very different things) ready to present. Larger corporations have creative departments and teams at the ready to bring the company's brand to the web with ease. The people at the top rarely have to get their hands dirty with the details. The same is not true of small businesses. We cannot just say, 'we need a website' or 'our site needs a new look', and hand it off from there to our subordinates without truly th...