PrettyUsable – webdesign

16Nov/091

5 Must-read books for interactive content designers

Although the all mighty internet provides guides, tutorials and blogs galore; sometimes nothing beats a good book. I've come across several great reads and thought I'd share them with the masses. Some you may know, some you may have even read; but check out the list and seriously think about getting hold of these titles.

Tagged as: books, design, everyday, information architecture, interaction, interactive, mind, smile, things, web, Web Design, webdesign Continue reading

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

5Nov/090

Typography in web design and development

So you've just started a new design and it's already filling up fast with text content; but have you considered all your font options?

You pretty much have 3 options. Use web safe fonts; i.e. fonts that are likely to exist on all/most computers. If you're using a non-standard font then you could always export it as an image; or lastly but not least you could use one of the javascript/flash embedding techniques which are becoming rather popular.

Tagged as: cufon, design, embed, flash, fonts, graphic, safe, sifr, standard, swf, type, typography, web, webdesign Continue reading

3Aug/090

Silverback – Guerrilla usabality testing [REVIEW]

Well here's a first for pretty usable, and hopefully not a last; a review of software built to improve the quality output of the web designer and/or web studio. Silverback is Mac only, so if you want to give it a try, upgrade your life and buy yourself a mac.

Tagged as: app, application, eyetracking, guerrilla, mac, macos, osx, persuasive, picture in picture, reaction, Resources, review, silverback, testing, Usability, Web Design, webdesign Continue reading

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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.