Loud Dog Links

April 28, 2009

• jQuery checkboxes
  These sure are purdy.
  by: Matt DeClaire | tags: design, javascript, jquery

April 27, 2009

• Font Squirrel
  "100% free fonts for graphic designers. All with commercial-use licenses."
  by: Matt DeClaire | tags: design, fonts

April 23, 2009

• Our Favorite Typefaces of 2008 (Typographica)
  Typographica's favorite new typefaces.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: design, fonts, inspiration

April 21, 2009

• Hunkering: Putting Disorientation into the Design Process (Jared Spool)
  Hunkering is pausing for a minute to compare the reality of your design to the vision of your design, reconciling and aligning the two. If you don't do this already (unconsciously), consider doing it consciously.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: design
• In Defense of Eye Candy (A List Apart)
  Research backs up claims that aesthetics make a difference to a product's usability and success.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: design, usability

April 12, 2009

• An Icon, Despite Itself (NYTimes)
  The glass Heinz Ketchup bottle represents the triumph of aesthetics over usability.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: design, usability

April 7, 2009

• Design View / Andy Rutledge - Gestalt Principles of Perception 3: Proximity, Uniform Connectedness, and Good Continuation
  Go Andy! More design principles that we employ at Loud Dog with every project. It's nice to touch base on these and confirm that our internal dialogues are consistent with these fundamentals.
  by: Jodi Wing | tags: design, layout, usability, webdesign
• Aesthetic-Usability Effect (Mark Boulton)
  Interesting argument regarding the impact of aesthetics on perceived usability.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: design, usability

April 2, 2009

• Daring Fireball: Complex
  Nice article highlighting the path to building great, sustainable products using the iPhone as exhibit A of a complex system which started out relatively simply and was iterated and evolved.
  by: Martin Ferrini | tags: Apple, complexity, daringfireball, design, development, evolution, iphone, louddog, platform, simplicity, strategy, technology, ui, usability

March 31, 2009

• Hello Google (Graham Jenkin)
  Interesting response to Douglas Bowman's leaving Google post.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: design, usability
• The Elegance of Imperfection (A List Apart)
  There's been a bunch of commentary recently on the purpose and art of visual design, especially in response to Douglas Bowman leaving Google. This timely article explores how imperfection can give a design a more natural, accessible feel.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: design

March 10, 2009

• In Defense of Readers (A List Apart)
  Good point about designing. When you're designing for print, you need to remember two audiences: people reading your stuff, and people looking at your stuff. When you're designing for the web, you need to remember people using your stuff as well. Most remember the latter two audience, but forget the people who just want to read. Don't forget: copy sells! And if you can't read it, it can't sell.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: design, webdesign

March 4, 2009

• CSS Border Slants
  This has been around for a while, and it is a hack, but it shows ingenuity and can be incredibly useful.
  by: Matt DeClaire | tags: css, design

March 3, 2009

• cufón - fonts for the people
  Another font generator.
  by: Matt DeClaire | tags: design, javascript
• typeface.js
  Someday we will be able to serve our users the fonts they deserve. Until then, I'm still looking for an alternative I like.
  by: Matt DeClaire | tags: design, javascript

February 25, 2009

• Good design: The ten commandments of Dieter Rams
  The only commandments worth taking seriously.
  by: Martin Ferrini | tags: advice, art, design, designer, dieterrams, ideas, innovation, inspiration, louddog, rams

February 24, 2009

• 9 Common Usability Mistakes In Web Design
  by: Matt DeClaire | tags: design, usability

February 23, 2009

• mParallax
  I love parallax.
  by: Matt DeClaire | tags: design, parallax

February 19, 2009

• The Hofmeister Kink: A Lasting BMW Design Detail (New Media Campaigns)
  Fascinating look at "the Hofmeister Kink," a design element from BMW that other manufacturers have copied to make their cars seem more upmarket.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: design, interesting

February 16, 2009

• Outsourcing artwork through 99designs.com (Successful Software)
  99designs.com is a "design contest" site. Things like this are absolutely horrible for designers, but very interesting from a business perspective. (And, hey, this is what the market is all about.)
  by: Josh Orum | tags: business, design