Mar 13, 2012

8 Tips to Follow for iPad App Designers

Most of us didn’t understand the real use of iPad but still we bought it. The touch keyboard wasn’t as quick as our laptops, still we used it. And, before we even realized, the iPad had become an integral part of our lives. Now, no gadget is complete without the plethora of apps (good or bad) that come running alongside. iPad was no different. A market came into existence and everyone was looking for “iPad compatible” design. Guess what, the keyword iPad compatible is already being searched over 50,000 times on Google every month if Google’s Keyword Tool is to be believed. And then there are multiple related keywords. It simplyshows how important the iPad market has become for app designers.

8 Tips to Follow for iPad App Designers
(The usual) NOTE - This discussion will not teach you how to create a riveting iPad app. And, trust me when I say that “I am NOT covering the usual tips that have been covered a zillion times already on other blogs!”

How Many Instructions are too Many?

Personally, I hate apps that have a lot of instructions. What is the use of designing an app when you cannot keep it simple? If your app requires the end-user to read the thick user manual over and over to easily use the app then, my friends, you have just designed a flop app. Remember that you give out instructions for your app users so that they get the feel and move on to the real app. Your list of instructions should never be a turn-off for the app users.
So, avoid the usage of a “question mark” icon on every possible screen of your iPad app. Let the app be the instruction booklet in itself. Seriously, I hate apps with too many instructions!

Now, Don’t Confuse “Hints” with “Instructions”

You know what? Sometimes I feel bad when I get the feeling that my reader may have misunderstood me. Above, I asked you to avoid using too many instructions for people to be able to use your app. “Hints” are a different ball game altogether. Hints are a form of “positive poking” that helps the users move on when they are struggling. So, its good to give away hints to keep the app users interested.
WARNING - Never overdo your take-my-hint-and-move-on style in your app. The end-user might just lose the much wanted interest.

Layout Must Change Comfortably With Orientation


The image above says it all. In the case of orientation sensitive devices like iPad the layout of an app must not be broken with the change of orientation of the device. Though the broken layout might not hamper the productivity of the app, it is surely a turn-off for the end-user. Who would want to use an app that does not understand the orientation of iPad? It is like using an app which was never designed for iPad (or any other orientation sensitive gadget for that matter) in the first place. Consider checking out the Holy Grail of Mobile Layout?

Always Display the Username On Screen

This might sound weird, but with devices like iPad this is a must. iPad is the sort of gadget which will be used by multiple members of a family. I am not saying that iPad is a family gadget, but in many cases it might just be. One family member uses the iPad and then another picks it up. Who would want to use an app or an interface while someone else is logged into it? Worst case would be that you would never know if someone else is logged in until you figure out the data is not yours. Like the eBay app for iPad which won’t display the logged in user’s ID:

So, it is suggested that you clearly show the logged in user’s ID on every page of your app. It will help clear any sort of confusion and unwanted situations.

Never Overdo the Gestures

Users of iPad know that the device understands tapping and sliding. You don’t have to write it in bold and make it overly obvious. A slight mention of “Tap me for more” is all that is needed to keep the users looking for more. You don’t have to explain to the end user what tapping means, how it can be done and what are its advantages. Don’t make it look silly.

The White Space..Pleeeease!

Don’t tell me that this is one of the obvious tips that has been discussed already. I have to discuss this over and over til you guys understand the importance of it especially in the context of iPad like devices. See, devices like iPad can stretch your design or make it look cluttered. If you are creating an app especially for iPad then you can minimize the clutter, but what about the times when the app has to be updated every now and then?
Dynamically updated apps can sometimes break because of the different sizes of images that are pushed on daily basis. So, design your app in a fashion that there is lot of free space available. It helps the user’s mind to relax. Also, it automatically de-clutters the result.

iPad Hails Minimalism. So Should Your App!

Steve Job’s speech below has nothing much to do with the minimalist looks of iPad (and all other Apple devices) but somewhere or other they all connect. I’ll be shocked if you tell me that you haven’t seen this video before. Which bunker do you live in?
One quick glance to your iPad and you will know how simple it is. The device is packed with extremely amazing technology but it doesn’t show off. Now, will you consider designing an iPad app that pops out of your gadget especially when the gadget itself is placed comfortablly in your hands? Follow minimalism and see how your app merges itself with the amazing iPad interface.

Touch is Good but Don’t Over-Use it

Quickly, check the image below before I start explaining what I want:

The CNN app for iPad features a sleek-looking navigation bar at the very bottom. This bar makes it easy for readers to quickly go through various stories and read whichever stories interest them. See how CNN minimized the usage of browser buttons by pushing the important content on one screen itself. It is good that iPad features feather touch experience but sometimes too much slide and touch kills the experience too.
Make it comfortable for the end-user and see how they fall in love with your app.

Conclusion

Tips to design iPad apps are available everywhere. I’m not saying they’re not valuable or useful. but sometimes you have to think about the small things that can be the reason why people ditched your app. Design but don’t overdo it. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

40+ Highly Entertaining Website Headers for Your Inspiration

The header of a website is the most important and crucial element that needs to be visually appealing and engaging and at the same time very functional to assist the visitors in navigating the website. Since the header is the first thing your visitors notice, you have to be very careful in designing this crucial part of your web design. With an appealing and attention grabbing header design, you will surely increase chances of your website being explored more by your visitors.
Here is a small round-up of some exceptionally designed, and creative, headers for your inspiration. See for yourself how far header designs can go as far as the creativity is concerned. Do let us know your opinion about this compilation. Your comments are always more than welcome!

40+ Highly Entertaining Website Headers for Your Inspiration

1. The Pixel

Beautifully designed header that not only fulfills the function of a header in a web design, but also improves the overall look of the website.
The Pixel

2. Pralinenschachtel

Simple and uncluttered design focusing on simplicity, yet keeping it very creative and visually engaging.
Pralinenschachtel

3. ICFF

Loads of colorful elements and illustrations make this header design a visual treat for the website visitors. The color theme is simply ravishing.
ICFF

4. Juan Diego Velasco

Wow! Such an appealing and charming header I have ever seen. The credit goes to the designer who successfully delivered his creativity and imagination into a beautiful design.
Juandiegovelasco

5. Art 4 Web

Artistic is the word that describes this header design. With loads of vibrant colors, this header truly is the highlight of the website design.
Art 4 Web

6. Bern

Although quite simple yet extremely effective design that uses beautiful color combination and appealing effects to grab the visitors’ attention.
Bern

7. The Alamo Basement

Here the main header area is covered with an appealing illustration that captivates the onlookers right at first glance. Below that, you will find the navigation menu.
The Alamo Basement

8. Sob Controllers

This brilliant header design has been created by keeping a close and detailed look at the visitors’ perspectives and this is the reason they have come up with such a stunning header design.
Sob Controllers

9. Cult Foo

Creativity and innovation have been taken to the next level in this header design. You will simply be mesmerized with the beauty and attractiveness of its design. Quite a unique approach.
Cult Foo

10. Ready Photo Site

In this header design, you can see the use of quite bold and bright tone colors that effectively turn out well with their layout. The use of visual element is simply the highlight of this design.
Ready Photo Site

11. Bei Blog

This header makes you feel that you have entered the galaxy. The color theme is excellent and all the design elements complement each other.
Bei Blog

12. UGS Mag

Although unique and creative in its own way but quite clumsy and cluttered. May be the background image could have been little bit better.
UGS Mag

13. Source Bits

The website loads a bit slow however the design of its header is simply outstanding. The header is different from the standard website headers.
Source Bits

14. Mark Forrester

With such a soft color tone and nice graphics, this header design sets itself apart from the other headers in this collection. The creative approach of the designer must be praised.
Mark Forrester

15. Marchand de Trucs

This uniquely designed header is different from the ordinary website headers. The navigation is placed at the side while the header area features only the most important links.
Marchand de Trucs

16. Barcamp Bordeaux

With bold typography and large images, this visually alluring header design attracts loads of visitors’ attention while providing an effective navigation plan.
Barcamp Bordeaux

17. Cup Cup

The header of this website goes well with the name of the website. Furthermore, the color selection is amazing.
Cup Cup

18. Broke Design

A simply innovative approach for a website header. You will see an extraordinary use of creativity in this header design.
Broke Design

19. The Farmer and the Chef

This is another brilliantly designed header that speaks volumes. You can notice excellent creativity and originality of the theme being incorporated well in the design.
The Farmer and the Chef

20. Barleys Green ville

This header design is a rather atypical design for a website header, however, this unusual design truly stands out mainly because of its subtle look and appeal.
Barleys Green ville

21. The happy time cafe

The appealing illustration and classy color palette are the key points in this header design that not only grab the attention but also make this header design a creative one.
The happy time cafe

22. Feed Stich

Another beautiful example of a subtle header design. The color selection is truly soothing and pleases human eyes.
Feed Stich

23. Bupla

This header design presents beautiful images to grab the attention of the onlookers as well as provide necessary information in its navigation plan to assist their visitors.
Bupla

24. Pixel Resort

A colorful, lively and energetic header design is this. The use of color is excellent and will definitely bring a positive change in your mood.
Pixel Resort

25. Bad Health

The header features loads of faces demonstrating different people with bad health. This is such a nice approach to portray the main idea of the website.
Bad Health

26. Mike Dascola

Mike Dascola’s header is the perfect combination of creativity and functionality. This headers features an unusual color combination that makes this header design memorable.
Mike Dascola

27. Inspiredology

This is another competently designed header highlighting the importance of creativity and ingenuity.
Inspiredology

28. Boompa

Simple and uncluttered design that focuses on the simplicity and minimalism. The color theme is also very refreshing.
Boompa

29. Living Design

In this header design, you will notice the creative use of images along with right kind of typography that can simply make a design outstanding.
Living Design

30. Toasted Digital

Here is another excellent example of a unique header design. Although this header design is somewhat similar to the standard headers but still it has some appeal.
Toasted Gigital

31. Field Runners

Bold and beautiful illustration along with sufficient information in the navigation menu makes this header design a memorable one.
Field Runners

32. Erics Empire

In this header design, the designer has made use of some dark colors that successfully turns out well with the overall design.
Ericsempire

33. Just dot

Just Dot makes use of a creative approach when designing their header as you can see the visually appealing mouse over effect and excellent typography have been incorporated well in the design.
Just dot

34. Cochemer Stadtsoldaten

This header design is somewhat similar with loads of other header designs that you see on the net however the use of images and font selection are something that must be praised.
Cochemer Stadtsoldaten

35. Florida Flourish

Florida Flourish’s header design can be described as being sophisticated and stylish while presenting all the basic functionality.
Florida Flourish

36. Giselejaquenod

This is not an ordinary header, and this is the reason why it has been listed in the showcase of creative header design.
Giselejaquenod

37. Kulturbanause

Nature is the best source of inspiration and this is apparent from this header design. See how inspiring the nature is.
Kulturbanause

38. Digimurai

Simple but attractive header design that does not perplex its visitors with plenty of graphics and ambiguous navigation.
Digimurai

39. Jasonreed Webdesign

This visually alluring header design has been created by keeping the visitors’ perspectives in mind; therefore, the website users can relate themselves with the company.
Jasonreed Webdesign

40. Nomilk Today

In this header design, you can notice the use of big typography along with subtle use of color that blends well with the other design elements.
Nomilk Today

41. Web Burza

The color palette and high quality graphics are the highlights of this header design that are making it exceptionally alluring and fascinating.
Web Burza

42. Alexandregomes

With soothing colors and well placed design elements, this design makes its place in our showcase of creative headers.
Alexandregomes

43. Racket

Last but not the least, the creativity being presented in this header design is also above the par; and this is the reason why this design appeal loads of visitors.
Racket

Jan 28, 2012

How to Properly Redesign a Website


Redesigning a website happens very often on the internet today. It can be thanks to the new technologies that appear one after another (and every one of us wants to stay in fashion) or because the rules change from month to month. Whatever the reason is, it is quite important to do it properly and to ensure the new design will bring you more advantages over your competitor than the old version.
We don’t redesign a website only for the sake of spending money. We do it because we feel that the site needs a visual revamp, we feel that our visitors want to see something new from a visual stand point. Considering the redesign is entirely for the users, it’s them we should focus on when we think about creating a new identity for our blog, publication or whatever kind of webpage it is.
How to Properly Redesign a Website
The bigger and more important your webpage is, the higher the probability to fail when redesigning it is. Why? Because when you have to take hundreds of thousands or millions of users under consideration, it might be difficult to please all of them – quite frankly, it is impossible to do it. I personally experienced leaving a website I liked only because they changed the design – and I am aware of how the web works. If I left that webpage for good, I am wondering how many other users that don’t have anything to do with design did the same.
In order to increase the probability of your redesign being successful, I have created a list with some tips for you.

Make sure you need to redesign


When you already have users that come back to your site, most of them expect certain things; they know where the navigation is, where to search for content, where to find archives and so on. By redesigning you will most likely change those things.
Image by buritikid
If you are lucky enough and have a responsive community, you can even make a poll and ask them if they think the site needs to be redesigned. If you don’t have such a community, the decision will be up to you and will be more difficult to make unfortunately. Try to ask fellow designers about the particular website and see what they think about it.

Involve your users


The second step in a redesign process is to involve the community base. This can help your new website to look and suit your audience better, because you get feedback from them and use it to inform your designs.
A good tip would be to try and keep the main elements in the same place, or at least to ensure the functionality is similar. Moving the sidebar from left to right is confusing for the first time; the same with the navigation – if you had a dropdown menu before, either go with this type again or simplify the navigation. It’s important to always make sure the user doesn’t find the new website more difficult to navigate  than before. Thus it’s necessary to avoid a total redesign. More important, involve the users in the process.
Image by Dominik Gwarek

Test the website


Testing the website doesn’t only happen behind the closed doors of an agency, but also with the users. Offer them the option of testing the new website – and make it visible. Afterwards, allow them to send you feedback through forms or a survey and always keep track of it. This is another way of involving the users and helps because, I am saying it again, the user is always the focus. You never redesign for yourself, but for them. Allowing them to test the new design before it’s done will also give you the opportunity to adjust it. Expect this to be a difficult process, because you will start with some ideas and will end up with a different site – but make sure your visitors will appreciate it and will come back afterwards.

Don’t change the layout right away


This is a strategy most of the social media sites use. Whenever they change the layout, they either allow you to stay with the old one for a predefined period, or change to the new one and give you the option to go back to the old style. Why do they do this? The answer is simple. Not everybody has the required time to get used to a new layout when the designer wants. Getting used to a new style takes time and if the user doesn’t want to spend that time right away, give him the right to do so.
Allow users to change to the new design (and specify it is still in beta) and give them an option to go back to the old one. Sure, don’t keep this forever, but look at Facebook. They only force everyone to update their layouts to the new ones after one or two months after they make them available for the first time.
Some of the users decided to go for the new “Timeline” of Facebook. I decided to keep the old layout because I liked it. Moreover, I didn’t even think of getting the timeline because Facebook wouldn’t allow me to go back to the previous style. Therefore my Facebook still keeps the old style. But as a matter of fact, Facebook will update my layout to the timeline very soon, when the old style will not be available anymore.
This is an interesting strategy and is very well implemented in social media. Therefore think of implementing it with your site’s redesign.

Allow feedback even after the process is done


You redesigned the website and now it’s on. Users can’t go back to the old one and there is nothing else to do other than accepting it as it is. Fair enough, but allow the users to give feedback.
There are lots of tools you can use for this on the internet and this way you will make sure that if something is wrong, users will point it out to you- this happens mostly if you have a responsive community supporting the website, but it is always worth trying.
If a lot of your users feel the same thing is wrong, make sure to fix it as soon as possible. This way they will feel like they’re a part of the community and, since their opinion is valued and taken into consideration, they will happily continue their stay there.

Make the reasons behind your decision clear


It is always smart to tell your users why you think it is important to redesign a website. Some of them have no idea of design changes, usability or new technologies and I am afraid they don’t even care – they just want to be able to use the website like they were accustomed to. Changing the design will not allow this for a period, until they get used to the new layout, therefore some of them might be against you customizing the style.
Thus, explain to the users why you think it is important to make changes. Use some basic theories and explain that being up to date with new technologies will allow the website to offer even more and will probably even make it load faster. When they hear about speed, most of them will be excited about the new design.

Make a guide for the new layout


If you make major changes to your website, then creating a photo, text or video tutorial about this would be great, interactive and helpful. I am sure the visitors now knowing what to do next will appreciate the tutorial which will allow them to adapt faster to the new design. This gives them the impression that you care about them – which again will make them come back to your page.
In case you already redesigned your webpage and it kind of failed, there are solutions for you too. This happens if you hear way too many complaints from your community and you don’t want to spend money on a new design again, but want to do something to improve the atmosphere for your users.

It’s about your mistakes


If this happened, then it is probably your mistake as a designer, because you either did something wrong during the development process or you failed or miscommunicated with the users. It is clear that if they are not happy with the new design, there is something wrong and it’s obviously something major that you’ll need to address.
This is the perfect moment to show how close you are to your community. It can be on Twitter, Facebook or even on the site, make sure people find out you want to fix your mistakes. Let them speak and let them tell you what was wrong, this way it will be easier for you too, when you will have to decide on the solution.

Use their feedback


When they send you feedback, make use of it as much as possible. Acknowledge some of the complaints and show the community you are involved and want to change everything for the best. This will, again, make your life easier, because all the feedback you get and discussions you stir with the community will end up with some conclusions, ideas and possibilities. It’s much easier to repair a mistake when you are backed up by your community, then when you are not.

Go back if you need to


There is no shame in acknowledging that your redesign has failed, therefore if the community strongly asks for it, you can go back to the old design. Sure, going back to the old design means you still have to use resources to redesign (that is where you started from in the first place), but at least until you prepare a new strategy the number of visitors will not decrease.
It is really important to keep the community happy and the way of doing it if you are in this situation is to allow them to go back to the old style. Don’t force this into them, it will definitely get confusing for the ones who thought well of the new layout. Just offer the option of choosing their own style. This will, for sure, solve the problem in the short-term and will allow you some time to prepare the new design better.

Always follow opinions


The most important thing whenever you launch a new design is to monitor carefully the community and their behavior. Google Analytics is the best tool you can use, because it is free and gives you an in-depth insight into how the users spend their time on your site. If the number of visitors decreases soon after the launch date, it might be because of the new layout.
"Just my two cents"
Image by claymor
This is the time when you have to start interacting more with the visitors and ask what is wrong. The bottom line is that many users would rather stay on a bad page if the designer is interested and involved with them, than staying on a very good page where the designer doesn’t really care. You have to show your community you care about them.
Another way of keeping track of the opinions is to closely follow social media posts. Most users actually prefer Twitter and Facebook when talking about these kinds of changes, so keep an eye out there too. This is another way to show your users the redesign is for their own good.

Bottom line


The conclusion is that redesigning your website is not as easy as it sounds. Not being able to involve your community in this important decision will most likely turn your project into a failure and will drive the users away. Thus it is smart to keep the community close and use their feedback and opinions – in the end, everything you do is for them – at least consider their opinions. This way you will be closer to success than if you do this the other way around.