PrettyUsable – Aesthetics

6Nov/093

Political web design, a showcase

With the impending Lord Mayor's show in London on the 14th of November I thought we could take a look at some political websites. Technically these sites should be flat out amazing, selling a politician is a hard job, and no cheap persuasive tactics will work on such a cynical crowd; something a bit special is needed. We'll also look at some government websites where information is key.

I'll try and include political sites from around the Globe as to avoid leaving anyone out, however please be warned that i terms of 'good webdesign' it's pretty slim pickings.

Tagged as: design, persuasive, political, showcase, web, webdesign, website Continue reading

5Nov/091

10 Web based typography inspirations

As discussed in our last article, there are many ways to get interesting type onto your web designs (or more specifically onto your web developments). This article will provide a little inspiration in the form of a showcase highlighting some great uses of type on the web - including my own portfolio site! I'm not going to be going into details or explaining the complexities of how type can aid in persuasive design and usability; I think I'll save that for another day.

Oh, I'll also be including some links to other lists of great uses of typography ... just to fill the gaps.

Tagged as: content, design, fonts, inspiration, showcase, text, type, typography, web, webdesign Continue reading

2May/093

Effective and Appropriate Pagination – a showcase

Pagination is the system by which the information on a newspaper, bookpage, manuscript, or otherwise handwritten, printed or displayed document is laid out. In a strict sense of the word, it can mean the consecutive numbering to indicate the proper order of the pages, which was rarely found in documents pre-dating 1500, and only became common practice circa 1550, when it replaced foliation, which numbered only the front sides of folios. Pagination can also refer to the process of organizing information on web pages. For instance, threads on a bulletin board might be paginated such that 50 appear on each page. wikipedia

Pagination can be a minefield for a web designer. Decisions need to be made whether pagination is actually needed or not; and if it is then whether to use numbers, or dates, or any other quantitative or sequential measure. Once you've ironed out the details of exactly whats needed you then need to make it look good, flow with the sight and ultimately provide a functional navigation tool for your users. Sounds easy huh?

Tagged as: Aesthetics, design, layout, navigation, ordering, page, page numbering, pagination, Usability, Web Design Continue reading

3Apr/094

10 Persuasive web sites with fantastic usability

Aesthetics and usability are not mutually exclusive, and this list proves it.

I'm a designer that firmly believes that usability is integral to any design, but I also feel that aesthetics should never be sidelined for functionality; a careful balance of the two must be adopted, and this, I feel, is what makes a great web designer. I hope this provides some inspiration and encourages usability, especially when designing beautifully sleek front ends that often disregard it completely.

It's important for me to note that when I describe a user friendly web site, I'm not necessarily talking about accessibility; however accessibility is factored into my decisions.

Tagged as: 10, Aesthetics, examles, intuitive, list, persuasive, Usability, usable, Web Design, web sites Continue reading

Welcome to PrettyUsable

'PrettyUsable' is a blog focused on designing user friendly, persuasive and aesthetic web content. As this blog is dedicated to the design end of web production you won't find a lot of scripting banter; but if you look closely you'll see some squeezed in here and there.

PrettyUsable is run and edited by Nathan Hornby, a London based UX Design professional, and contributed to by other professionals of the web design industry.