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

Oh, look! It's a brand spanking new, shiny technological feature. And it probably helps that it's being implemented by Apple products. A couple of great sites (like this one) have already started using it. What does it do? Will it be around forever? What does it mean and when or why should I try it? We're talking about becoming retina ready. I'll be honest with you; when I first heard about it, I just threw it to the side. It's mainly on Apple devices and I figured it was something only they could do. It wasn't a huge game changer because lots of other people couldn't affect it. But boy, was I wrong. Now, I've perused a couple of sites and heard from a couple of 'experts' and it seems like there's a real fascination with being retina ready. Let me also say, the fascination is mainly for web designers and artists who care about things looking good. I'm sure if you asked the average person (without an Apple device) what retina-r...

The web is full of people discussing the finer points of the design field. Many who are focused on figuring out exactly what design is, and even what design isn't. Many points have been made, and just about as many have been contested. This is a good thing. The more we dissect and explore the boundaries of our field, the better grasp we gain on our craft. So I tend to be very open to these discussions. I like to see them unfold and see what they uncover or reinforce about the industry. But recently on Twitter, I happened upon one such discussion that I felt obligated to challenge. Immediately I was drawn back to a discussion we had on the Dead Wings blog years earlier that tackled a query that hangs out in this same area. Is there creativity in design? To me, if there is creativity in the field that you are working in, and not just in the field but required to make the most of efforts put forth in the field, then designers fit under the moniker of creatives. So I am...

If done correctly, minimalist design is one of the best and most effective approaches to creating beautiful websites. Not only is the target audience subjected to less clutter and noise, but you can use colors, textures, and fonts to create a very simple yet very memorable experience for the person viewing your site. Of course, switching to a minimalist design will mean that you only have a select few pages of information, but the result is desirable on multiple levels. Creating a mobile-friendly site will become loads easier, your audience will find your content easier to read, and your site will look more professional. Read on to learn more about why minimalism works, and how to apply this beautiful approach to your designs. Why it works Less is more This famous saying by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is the ultimate representation of minimalism. These three words of wisdom really get the message across, while being concise and to-the point. Likewise, a de-clut...

In order to deliver a clean, fresh, and - more importantly - effective user interface, usability tests are required. It is very unlikely any designer, regardless of his reputation and skills, will be able to design a good product without doing some kind of research and testing. Usability testing is a technique used for evaluating a product by testing it on users who are part of the respective target audience. Testing is used in many fields, but today we will focus on user-centered interaction design and how to test when designing and developing such a product. Every product has an intended purpose, and the scope and aim of usability testing is measuring if a product meets this purpose with regards to a user. The four principles Behind every usability test there are different goals, which pertain specifically to the observation aims of the tester. The results can be treated as a control measurement or a baseline. Because several tests can be conducted throughout a pe...

The introduction of Windows 8 saw a massive overhaul of the Windows user interface in line with the Windows Phone interface in order to be more intuitive for people using touch screens, and Apple have subtly been adapting OSX over time, streamlining features that are becoming increasingly shared across their mobile and desktop operating systems. Whilst we have yet to see a touchscreen Mac, it's obvious that the touch screen revolution is looming upon us with users spending more and more time on their mobile devices than home PCs. With this in mind and an ever increasing proportion of browsing taking place on smartphones and tablets, websites must decide how they will adapt to people accessing their content without a mouse and keyboard. Whilst the default response to this has often been 'just make a separate mobile interface!', a solution that has worked well in the past on smaller mobile devices such as phones, there is very little scope for the middle group occupie...

I ought to know a lot about charities and non-profit organizations. My parents are career missionaries; and I grew up in an environment where everyone I knew was dedicated to improving the lives of others. My family moved around a bit, and I spent my childhood and teen years in several different missionary communities in Canada and Mexico, each of which organized their own charitable endeavors. In Ontario, it was a literacy program. In Sinaloa, we brought healthier, organic food and donated goods of all kinds to orphanages and daycares in low-income communities. In Jalisco, there's a free kitchen for the children of a very poor neighborhood, where they can get at least one good meal per day. In Nuevo León, there are good people going to children's hospitals to try and cheer up the patients and their relatives alike. As the resident nerd, it often fell to me to create promotional materials and websites for whomever I happened to be working with at the time. After all...

Freelancers are somewhat of a singular breed according to some of the outside perceptions held about us. We hear it all the time from friends and family, even at times from near strangers, that they could never work for themselves from home and actually be productive. Without some predetermined hierarchical structure that pits someone above them demanding results from them each day they are in the office. They are amazed at the power of will that we seem to exhibit, without any pressure from the higher-ups to keep us motivated. But they fail to see that we are motivated by the need to remain in business for ourselves, and so the motivation to keep on task is generally already in place. Most freelancers have a powerful need to eat and have a roof over their heads (okay, so less over the heads and more over the workstation or proverbial power centers), and still there are motivators driving us forward. So for freelancers reaching that motivation is not so much of a problem, but h...