Web Design Ideas » Design

I Heart Post-Its, Why Post-Its Is An Effective Designer Tool

valiik — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:13:48 +0000

by Giancarlo Gallegos

Now, that I got your attention. I want to tell you a secret.

I love Post-Its. Period. I think they are one of the best inventions in the world. If there is anything I cannot live without, it would probably post-its. Okay. Maybe that might be an exaggeration. But, who has not benefitted from that yellow 76mm squared colored adhesive piece of stationery? I could never think of a more effective tool in reminding me of the things I need to do, of creating a stick man flip book, of communicating with others during meetings, of flagging emails print outs, bookmarking the last read chapter of my favorite novel, etc.

Lets Travel Back

If you are one of those unfortunate ones who is not familiar with Post-Its, here is a brief description of what they are. A Post-It note is a piece of stationery with re-adherable strip of adhesive on the back. It was designed to temporarily attach notes to documents and other surfaces such as walls, desks, computer screens, and so on. The most common color you would see is the yellow 76 cm square note (see image below). The unique thing about Post-Its note is that it uses low tack adhesive the can enables the note to be easily attached and removed on any surface without leaving marks or residues.

It was co-invented by Art Fry and Spencer Silver of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Comapany or 3M, in March 9, 1970. Leveraging its yellow note success, 3M decided to manufacture other product related to the Post-It brand such mini post-its, highlighter pens with post-it tabs, etc. Computerized versions came out soon after.

Common Uses of Post-Its

As I was researching on ways to use post-its, I stumbled upon a very interesting article that provided a good laugh of various ways of using that yellow stationery note.

1. Leave a Love Note for Your Spouse (Who does not love a kinky note stuck in your briefcase?)
Create Your Daily To Do List
Take Notes on What You’re Reading.
Let Everyone Know a Machine is Out of Order
Write a Book in a Few Hours
Be Passive Aggressive With Your Boss (Afriad to ask for a raise?)
Give your toddler something to do
Create a Stick-Man Flip Book
9. Torture Cat (Stick a post-it on the cat’s hip and watch her go dizzy trying to get if off. I’m serious, it’s fun. Only one at a time though, more than that would be cruel.)
Communicate with others during seminars/meetings
Cover the surface of your co-worker’s entire cubicle with Post-It’s
Create wall art
Brainstorming with Others.

14.Remind Yourself of the Name of Person Lying Next to You (One night stand? Don’t forget the name, stick a post-it on her/his head)

Personalized Notes as a Gift.

16.Be Passive-Aggressive with Your Roommate (Hate your roommate? Leave him/her Post-It notes everywhere)

Use a stack of yellow post-it notes to get offered a job (Jim Kukral got creative in a job interview & got the job …see his video below or at http://jimkukral.com)
Write a Note to God.
Nag Yourself to Save the Earth
Take Notes at a Seminar
Use for a wedding dress.

A Designer Tool: A Challenge To Creativity

But, how does Post-It benefit us designers? One of the greatest challenge that designers face is creativity. I previously wrote an article on Mind Mapping and described various ways mind mapping can spur our mind to be more creative. In conjunction with mind mapping, Post- Its is another effective and creative way to keep us developing interesting ideas. I developed a system for myself to bring a pad of post-its to wherever I go. If I suddenly get inspired or get a “light bulb” moment, I scribble it down on a my post-it and stick to my visual diary to mind map later. It may or may not be useful but it keeps me entertained and my mind working.

In addition, post-its are a great way to get your brain to fire up. What do I mean? In my previous article, I mentioned that there are times when creative designers experience blocks similar to a writers block. In my experience, post-its have helped me get my mind working by creating alternative uses for them. Here are some of examples of what you can do with post-its:

Challenging The Paper Napkin

More importantly, Post-Its are effective management tools. As a freelancer, apart my calendar, I use post-its to remind me of the things I need to do for a client. I make sure that I keep a folder of every client I work with and in that folder, ideas or discussions are sometimes written in post its which I can review and work on later.

Recently, I read an article written by Bill Bartman, a selfmade billionaire and author of the book, Bailout Riches. In his article, he challenges the business owners and entrepreneurs to fit critical elements of their businesses on a table napkin. My own proposal is use Post-its instead of napkin. Post-Its are smaller. Ergo, if you can identify the critical business elements to fit in the small colored stationery then you know what your business is all about.

Some of the ideas, I mentioned here may or may not be useful to you. In my mind, these are just some example on how common day items can be a source of inspiration for us designers. I guess, the only ingredient needed is just our imagination.

Giancarlo Gallegos is a writer, communications designer photographer, entrepreneur, and a post production professional based on New Zealand. He is the official photographer for a little pink pig’s travel blog called The Adventures of Spider Pig. You can view his work on www.giancarlogallegos.com. On his spare time, he travels, cooks, drinks coffee and mind maps new ideas.

Eye Catching Flash Website

valiik — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:54:15 +0000

When thinking about a completely Flash based website, one (me) thinks, “that’s so early 2000’s”, integrating traditional HTML/CSS with Flash works a lot better and turns out cleaner and takes up less resources. Then, once in a blue moon, you find a site that is done so well that you can’t say much to criticize. Here’s an excellent example of what a real professionally done fully flash website could be. Love it.

Source: aToastToBadTaste.com

Design Spectrums as a Balancing Act

valiik — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:41:33 +0000

Building a design spectrum is a method of visualizing the overall aesthetic and functional elements in a web design. It is important to use a gauge when measuring these properties to maximize the web site and ensure a balance is achieved between form and purpose. In web design, there are usually three spectrums that you can employ to measure if you are creating the right end result based on your objective. Spectrum one is to design the website to influence its users to generate a certain impulse, emotion or finish an objective. Spectrum two is used when your web design is focused on maximizing assistive tools to help the user complete the task generated by the design. The third spectrum is utilized when a product has functional and an aesthetic agenda, which require the web design to be attractive yet of good use.

A purely aesthetic approach would put your plans in spectrum one, where the design’s significant objective is to create sensory fulfillment, visual properties as well as color and stimulation are most important. Generating tools and creating portals or registration pages belong to spectrum two, where physical and behavioral stimulus is reinforced. In this spectrum, aesthetics are not important. Ergonomics and proportion is important in spectrum three; thus designs for projects like crafts, construction as well as objectives that mix visual and kinesthetic elements are best put in this category.

Usability against Aesthetic Value

This has always been a concurrent discussion in the design community, often referred to as “design versus usability” or a running argument that the elements of purpose completion is directly opposite to overall visual stimulus. One must need to consider that the overall design is influential; therefore an eye in aesthetic requirement is also important. It is practical to use one spectrum as compared to multiple design spectrums, it has often failed to deliver when a web design becomes a jack of all trades; trying to excel in both aspects.

A fundamental key to this is maintaining a balance between pleasing additions to a design and completing its functions. There are superior aesthetic sites that are functional and useful due to the developer’s diligent efforts to balance all elements in the layout, although this is not a concrete definition that all websites need to be on the aesthetic side.

When does your site need to be beautiful?

With websites whose primary objective is to promote product functionality helping the user achieve the completion of his task and fulfill the end goal of a specific objective is more important that creating an aesthetic feel to the project. In some cases, products that have a serious functional objective may be perceived as negative if drowned in high-end aesthetics and coloration. One must take into consideration that the more graphics embedded in a page, the slower it loads. This is often a disadvantage especially if high speed access to a specific site is detrimental.

The important thing to remember is to figure out the site’s ultimate objective. This will increase the chances for success and objectify the purpose of the product which will save you a huge amount of time avoiding redesigns. Placing specific markers at the start, middle and final review of the design to see if you are following your design spectrum will make sure that the objectives are met and you have a perfect balance between use and form.

Incredible Magazine-Style Designs

valiik — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:19:42 +0000

For those times when you need some inspiration for a magazine-style website layout, this nice list of 25 incredible examples form Vandelay Design should do the trick. I especially like the 1st one – bmi Voyager, it is really cool looking. Check them out, let me know which one you like the best.

Source: 25 Magazine-Style Layouts for Your Design Inspiration

Unique, Simple & Clean Blog Design

valiik — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:34:37 +0000

The cleanliness, the amazing use of “white” (shades of gray) space is what caught my eye on this blog design. The bold reds bringing important elements out. This blog design allows the visitor to be able to navigate with ease thanks to it’s simple navigation and pretty standard layout structure. I think this blog’s ease of use approach is the best that I’ve seen in a while.

Source: RoqueAlonso.org

Web Design Ideas » Design

I Heart Post-Its, Why Post-Its Is An Effective Designer Tool

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