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To Spec or Not to Spec

28. April 2009

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To Spec or Not to Spec

There’s been much debate of late regarding speculative or ’spec’ work and the associated problems (and benefits) of it. Blogs have been buzzing for a while with negative rants by some high-profile designers regarding the practice and sites such as the infamous NO!SPEC project have gained backing from some big names which in turn has encouraged [...]

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20 Steps to Better Wireframing

18. February 2009

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20 Steps to Better Wireframing

Possibly the biggest mistake in any development project is failure to plan. Recently, the owner of a prospective start-up told me that planning was unnecessary and a good developer could just start coding. This, I promise you, will end in tears. Wireframing is one of the first steps in your planning process and arguably it’s one [...]

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15 Tips for Freelancers Starting Their Own Business

28. January 2009

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15 Tips for Freelancers Starting Their Own Business

So you’re a skilled developer or design freelancer who has established a handful of customers who pay your bills and provide you with an income. That’s great. You may wish to keep things just the way they are or you might want to build on this and build up your own small business. If you’re [...]

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Tips for presenting your work

13. November 2007

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You’ve put in the long hours day and night for the last week and it’s time to finally present your concepts to the client. Your concepts are solid and you feel it’s exactly what the client and, more importantly, the audience needs. Don’t let a bad presentation take your beautiful work and turn it into [...]

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Deliverables That Work: Design Description Documents

21. August 2007

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Communicating design is tricky business. Designers have invented all kinds of deliverables to handle this job, but we continue to run into the same issues over and over again. First, we forget things. We leave out some small element that, as it turns out, is absolutely essential to making an interaction work, so we need to [...]

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Home Sweet Homepage

14. August 2007

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We have all had clients who want the impossible — and never more so than when it comes to homepage design. They have a never-ending list of requirements, which mainly revolve around cramming as much content in above the mythical fold as is possible. This desire to display everything on the homepage is born out of [...]

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Winning is a pitch

9. July 2007

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You know the scenario — a fantastic brief arrives in your inbox. A great client with a challenging problem is interested in working with your company to fulfill their business objectives. The only snag — they want you to work up some ideas and present them at a pitch. Oh, and while they’re at it, [...]

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How To Think Like A Client

21. May 2007

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Clients are evil… at least it can feel that way sometimes. They seem to hinder more than help and so often they “just don’t get it”. We can talk enthusiastically about accessibility, standards and best practice but so often we are met with the blank stare of indifference from clients. They interfere in our designs [...]

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