I learnt something truly delightful last week: a greek paper, Eleftheros Tipos, was among the five best designed newspapers of the world for the past year. I’m glad E.T. design got awarded because I absolutely love its print design and I’ve been following its progress since its redesign first launched.
But when I recited the story to my family, my sister had an absolutely negative approach. She couldn’t believe how such a newspaper got an award, because according to her, E.T. is a very difficult to read and skim newspaper.
That brought back memories – noone cares about your design dude, remember?
Are we sure that what us, designers, consider a cool design, is a cool design for everyone else? No, I don’t think there is a perfect design that can work as a panacea and please all people, but still. A newspaper gets a design award, and a potential reader absolutely hates it. Why?
I don’t take myself off this – when I see something I can’t have a professional opinion on, for example some print ad or poster that’s considered well designed, 90% of the times I’m like, wtf. People like this? The fake Bauhaus effect and diagonal lines? These usually bore me to death. But other people seem to love them! What gives?
Where do we err? What should we do to design things that both our users and fellow designers will love?
Image courtesy of snd.org
Whew, that was a mouthful.
I was browsing the other day when I stumbled upon (literally, not using the tool) a weird site: at first, I’ll confess, I thought those green rolls where BP oil barrels. But they aren’t! They’re sushi rolls! I think!
Try hovering them. They move! Moving sushi rolls! Kawaii!
OK it may sound cheesy, but I like how the used the dojo metaphor in conjunction with the sushi one. Even though I hate the auto-play video on the front page…
Last week, the new redesign of the Basecamp landing page was announced. The trend-setter 37Signals managed to take a quite usable and efficient landing page and make it into something even prettier and more interesting, setting again new standards in landing pages design.
I especially like the subtle texture and colours used, as well as the big, clean, shiny screenshots that attract the visitor’s eye at once. For some reason, this version of the landing page actually made me click on the videos and see them all, something that the previous version has not made me do. They’re kinda cool by the way, especially the Threadless one, be sure to check them out.
I’m not too sure about that big button though. For some reason, a gradient-y, shiny button feels kinda out of place, but maybe it’s just me. Moreover, the screenshot thumbnails differ from the full screenshots – why? (Try it for yourselves, check out the third one – do you see what’s shown in the thumbnail anywhere?) And maybe, maybe, the whole page feels kinda dense in the middle. But then again, it provides loads of useful information at a glance, which is good.
Knowing a bit about 37Signals, I’m sure this is not the final version of the landing pages. Minor redesigns and tweaks will surely take place during the following days – and that’s what every great design must endure. Countless tweaks, till it achieves the desirable standards.
I already use Basecamp with the rest of the CSS3.gr folks to keep things in order, and I must tell you, it works. I consider upgrading to a paid account soon, since you can’t beat some of the features it provides.
