Dlod
Posts About Print to Web
In the first blog post about transitioning from print design to web design I used the variable size of the browser window as an example of how designing for the web requires a slight shift in thinking for print trained designers. To follow that up I thought it might be useful to talk a bit more about specific strategies for designing for a frame with variable dimensions.
The strategies for designing for the variable width of a browser and the strategies for designing for a variable height require quite slightly different approaches, so I’m going to handle them in different posts. This post focuses on how to handle designing for an unknown width.
Fixed Width Layout
The easiest option to implement technically and design wise is to constrain your content inside the browser window by setting a fixed width. Your design effectively sits in a block and in a larger window either floats in the middle or sits on the left or right edge.
Graphic Design, Interactive Design, Print to Web, User Experience
Posted: February 15th 2010
The transition from print to web isn’t as straight forward as it may first appear. With a slight sense of burning shame I offer up one of my very first web failures so that you may be spared my pain.
I’ve been thinking about my early experiences of applying what I learnt at design school to the web. I majored in photography and got an excellent but very print orientated education. After I graduated I started doing a lot of web work and looking back I fell into a lot of pretty obvious gotchas for traditionally trained designers.
So maybe it’s worth writing a few posts about making that transition. A good place to start I think, is to look at a fundamental mistake in approach a lot of us make when we first take on web projects. Although basic visual design principles are the same in both web and print scenarios, a lot of the specific techniques we develop to apply those principles in print rely on manipulating graphic elements that are unpredictable a web environment. The problem is that often our first reaction isn’t to rethink those techniques but to try and manipulate the web environment to make it more like the print one we are familiar with.
Fail, Graphic Design, Interactive Design, Print to Web
Posted: January 19th 2010
View by Category
- Dlod
- Fail
- Graphic Design
- Interactive Design
- Jetsum
- Print to Web
- Someone Else's Train
- Uncategorized
- User Experience
