Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Facebook delivers a better UX for businesses

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Every business today seems to have its own Facebook business page, and with good reason; Facebook is a huge force in marketing as the world’s second-most visited website, and no business wants to miss out on potential leads it can pick up from having a Facebook presence.

In the last few days, the company has been finalizing the rollout of its new business page that are characterized by a cleaner look and feel. One of the most prominent changes that users will notice is that the tabs are gone and have been replaced by a left-hand side navigation. Also, the call to action buttons on the page—CTAs like “shop now,” “learn more” and “sign up”—are all more prominent than they ever were.

Facebook began experimenting with these new designs a couple of months ago, but they’re only now being rolled out on a wider basis. The past couple of months has seen a few, different iterations of business pages. For example, at first, business pages sported a bigger Cover photo and removed any display ads that usually showed up on the right-hand side of desktop pages.

The user experience drastically changes thanks to this redesign. The profile picture will not block a page’s cover photo anymore since the latter has been moved to the right. The cover photo after the redesign still retains the same dimensions: 828 X 315 pixels.

The striking, blue call to action button is now at the top right of the page, just beneath the cover photo. Businesses also enjoy more customization, as this call to action button can be configured to show exactly the kind of action the businesses want their customers to take. For instance, shopping at their retail site, watching a video, learning more about their product or service, or booking an appointment.

The theme of this redesign is a cleaner and more minimalist look. The removal of the right-side display ads greatly help with this appearance, as Facebook is attempting to make desktop business pages more consistent with the recent mobile updates for its Facebook pages from earlier this year.

As far as usability goes, the biggest improvement comes from the removal of the page tabs. Without the tabs, a business page now feels like a traditional site, with navigation down the left-hand side of the page. As a result, users should feel like they can navigate the entire page more efficiently as they browse from one section—such as About, Likes, Events and Events—to the next.

In the last several weeks, more and more users have already begun remarking on these changes. Most users should now be able to see the improvements to the redesigned business pages—Last week, a Facebook spokesperson asserted that this redesign rollout is almost finished. On August 3rd, the rollout was expanded; by this week, you should be able to see exactly what the new business page looks like.

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Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Does startup efficiency kill design originality?

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Once upon a time, the web was full of crazy ideas. And no, I’m talking about the wide array of conspiracy theorists and the like (they’re still everywhere, watching as you read this). The subject I’m actually referring to is design.

Back in the day, the web was a bit more of an experimental playground for both professional and aspiring designers. You saw it in the use of different navigation styles, color schemes and typography. It also led to sometimes outlandish layouts, use of multimedia and graphics.

The results weren’t always pretty (or even professional), but you can’t say that designers weren’t trying to make the most out of the medium.

Do the evolution

These days, the web isn’t so much of a playground. It’s grown up, put on a sensible business suit and tends to lean more towards quiet consistency than bombast. The old Wild West, it seems, has developed into a sprawling suburb. You can practically smell the Starbucks from here.

The old Wild West, it seems, has developed into a sprawling suburb. You can practically smell the Starbucks from here

While it may sound like I’m a little nostalgic, I actually like the way things have evolved, for the most part. As designers, we’ve learned from the mistakes of the past and have done a much better job at following standard practices. We’re doing more to ensure usability and accessibility. They are all wonderful byproducts of a more mature industry. We’ve never had it so good.

What’s changed the most, of course, is the array of tools we have at our disposal. They help us publish content more easily and design modern, functional websites in a fraction of the time. The tools have changed how we work. So, it would seem that they have also changed the way we design a website. The question is: how has that affected our creativity?

Rapid development

A lot of designers these days use frameworks in the design and development of projects. Whether it’s a front-end framework like Bootstrap or Foundation, a theme framework like Divi (or the whole WordPress commercial theme industry, for that matter)—there are great reasons to use these tools.

When used properly, they take some of the pain away from the design and development process. With pre-made layouts and UI elements built-in, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel, so to speak. That can both save designers time and save clients money.

The race for efficiency

Sometimes, though, maybe we lean on tools a little too much. For example, I tend to use FontAwesome on just about every new project. I think it adds a nice aesthetic, along with helping draw a user’s attention to specific items my clients want to promote. And, while I don’t use any front-end frameworks at the moment, I can certainly see why you’d want to. You can use them again and again to create an attractive site.

If you’ve got a busy career…then you’re all about doing quality work as efficiently as possible

There’s the rub. We tend to use these items over and over because that’s what they were designed for. If you’ve got a busy career and are working on multiple projects simultaneously, then you’re all about doing quality work as efficiently as possible.

We’re busy and on a tight schedule to get things done. Therefore, it’s easy to fall into the trap of repeatedly using ready-made elements the same way every time. Maybe we change a color or add a border, but it’s essentially the same element used in the same way.

It’s certainly not a crime or a sin. But, in a way, it sort of takes the fun out of the design process. Some might think it’s a bit of a bummer. Others may look at it as the industry maturing to the point where mass-production simply leads to a little less variation in style.

In some ways, you could compare it to the auto industry. Honda makes a whole lot of Accords, but they are all essentially built on the same chassis. They only come in a certain few colors and have a limited number of options. Well, web design certainly hasn’t become that regimented… but you get the point.

Does originality still matter?

Make no mistake, there are designers out there creating some original (and beautiful) work. And there always will be those who forge their own unique style on the web.

But as we look more at the mainstream, things can feel a little ho-hum on that front. Perhaps that is to be expected, seeing as how the web has become such a necessity in our daily lives. After all, most designers and clients don’t have much incentive to break the mold. There’s too much at stake to take what may be seen as an unnecessary design risk.

The job of a website these days is to simply look good and simply work as expected

In that way, maybe it’s not as cool to make something original as it used to be. As mentioned earlier, we’re now at a point where user experience is such an important part of a designer’s job. Thus, the job of a website these days is to simply look good and simply work as expected.

If all that means a more homogenized web, then maybe it’s not such a bad thing.

You can’t go back

While I miss that feeling of stepping into uncharted territory from the web of the past, I also understand that it just doesn’t mesh with the realities of today. So, maybe we can’t go full-on crazy with our designs anymore. So what? On the bright side that means we may not cringe at our past work five or ten years from now.

Still, I’m going to challenge myself to see how many smaller, less drastic elements of originality I can put (or sneak) into my work. While I’m sure that they won’t all make the cut into the final product, maybe a few go in unnoticed.

The city of Austin, Texas has a famous slogan of “Keep Austin Weird”. Maybe we can do a little bit of the same for the web, just to keep a small piece of the legacy alive.

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Monday, August 8, 2016

The best new portfolio sites, August 2016

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Hello readers! This month, the line between web design and art continues to blur as more designers adopt the post-modern aesthetic for their work. The concept of usability continues to gasp for breath.

We could call it “post-usable design”, perhaps. This is why I try to feature some of the more normal-but-professional-looking sites in with all of the artsy stuff.

But then, these are portfolios. This is where designers are generally going to go a bit wild. These sites are pretty good-looking all the same, so I advise you to take inspiration from the aesthetics, then figure out how to do it all with CSS and HTML alone, if you can.

Fabio Rocha

We start off with the portfolio of one Fabio Rocha. Really, I’m starting us off with an easy one. It’s nothing too complex, just simple, mostly-usable imagery and text in screen-wide sections. It’s pretty, the typography is good. Bonus points for another good use of yellow.

K Logic

And now I throw you into the deep end. K Logic is a marketing company’s portfolio site, and that’s as much as I can tell you. Oh, and their work is presented in case studies. The rest is all Arabic to me. Literally.

It’s worth a look. As a designer, I’ve been accused of making a design look too “box-y”. This shows us what a box-y site really looks like, and how well it can work. It’s also good for those of us who don’t work with RTL languages to see how other designers handle it.

Goran Filipovic

Goran Filipovic’s portfolio is elegant and stylish, with great typography. Nothing too spectacular in the layout department, but then, it doesn’t need it.

I’ll never be a fan of preloaders, especially the ones that just plain block your view if JS is turned off, but everyone who actually sees the site will be quite impressed.

Leeroy

French Canadian agency Leeroy (which sadly has nothing to do with Leeroy Jenkins) brings us a more classic-feeling design with thin fonts, lots of black, and a generally minimal aesthetic. They might depend on animation a little too much, but it’s still a pretty site.

Trama Studio

I’m a sucker for good typography and diagonal lines on a website. Trama Studio gives us both in abundance, along with great usage of color. I’m starting to see the choice to go with a carousel for your portfolio as less of a ‘brave choice’ and more like something that’s bound to break eventually, but the aesthetics of this site hit me right in my soft spot for minimalism.

Mute

Mute brings us what is almost a classic feel these days, with decent type, a full-screen masonry layout for the portfolio, ands lots of illustrations. Nothing too new, but it looks great, and their work is as inspiring as their site.

David Guba

David Guba gives us a master class in how to present a small amount of content without using huge text, or leaving the site feeling empty. It helps that his site does it all with style.

Tarful

Tarful is a web and app studio. Their site is a bit on the conventional side, but still has good UX, typography, and overall style. And they don’t depend on JS for literally everything!

Take a lesson from them on those grounds alone, portfolio designers!

Cosme Faé

Cosme Faé’s portfolio is dead simple, but oh-so-pretty. Plus, this is one of the best examples of the partially-overlaying-text-on-images trend that I’ve ever seen. The contrast, and use of a proper display font truly works wonders.

The pleasant aesthetic of that trend is not to be underestimated, but sometimes people forget the ergonomic aspect.

Mosaiko

Mosaiko takes a very… interesting approach to their portfolio. Most of their work was outsourced to them by other companies, so their actual portfolio is restricted by confidentiality terms. You have to request access to see it.

That… does make me curious, but not enough to request access for myself. But then, I don’t need to hire them.

The rest of their site is pure minimalist goodness. And I mean real minimalist.

Shawn Park

If you’re going to put animation everywhere on your site, the animation and the site had better both be smooth and beautiful. Shawn Park pulls it off, though. Seeing how some elements worked actually made me curious to see more.

I also kinda like the portfolio that can pop-over on any page when you click the link. That way, his work is the most easily-accessed part of his site, not even needing to load a separate page.

Kultar Singh

Kultar Singh’s portfolio is another of those “conventional but pretty” sites. Everything looks solid and professional, and I like the use of white space. There is the occasional odd use of asymmetry, but as a whole, it’s good, and worth a look.

Convoy Interactive

Convoy Interactive makes a bold statement with its use of bright lime green in its navigational elements. While the rest of the site looks subdued, almost plain except for some asymmetrical flourishes, the bright green just begs to be clicked on.

You know, once your eyes adjust.

Lynn Schmidt

Lynn Schmidt’s portfolio brings us back into the world of post-modern design that looks really cool, but lacks usability. All the same, the site looks good, is somewhat surprisingly responsive, and is fun to explore. Click on photos to your heart’s content.

Claudia Doms

Claudia Doms’ portfolio is one of the cleverer ones on this list. The whole thing looks like a spreadsheet. In fact, it basically is a spreadsheet of her clients, and what she’s done for them. The main difference is that this one will open up a little to show off her work.

Frankly, of all the sites on this list, I might like this one best. It’s very creative, mostly usable (once you get the idea), and fun to play with.

The only big downside is that it’s not responsive. To be fair, I’m not sure how you’d make it responsive, and keep the theme, but there you go.

Velvet

The portfolio for Velvet is largely monochromatic, and a little abstract. If I had to describe the style, it would be “grown-up grunge”, or “millennial artsy type”. It’s the kind of aesthetic embraced by those who want to look professional, but also like they’ve kept their edge.

It works, though, and is fun to explore. It’s a trip through some very artsy brains, that is still surprisingly usable.

Abby Stolfo

Abby Stolfo’s portfolio is by far the most delicious-looking on the list… by default. It’s a food styling portfolio, after all. There are galleries, of course, but you can see the quality of Abby’s work in the design alone, because bits of food are used as decorative elements.

And now I’m hungry.

OUI R

OUI R (Get it?) throws you right into their work with a carousel. In keeping with this theme, each portfolio page is designed to be browsed horizontally. It certainly sets them apart, but might throw off a user or two.

That said, it looks great, with good typography, a great use of white space, the whole thing looks modern and elegant.

Jeremy Vitte

Jeremy Vitte’s one-page portfolio embraces the collage style, with portfolio pieces scattered seemingly haphazardly over the page. I kind of like the way you can see each project as a whole in a side panel. If you’re going to use JS for layout, might as well go all the way, right?

The overall effect is both unassuming and professional, with a touch of that post-modern feel. It’s sort of saying, “Oh hi there. I’m just chilling with the work I’ve done for Vogue. Wanna see?”

Ben Pearce

Ben Pearce is a sculptor. I’d almost be disappointed if his site wasn’t minimal and post-modern. I’d take away points for the transition/preloading screens, but they’re actually kind of entertaining.

femmefatale

Design studio femmefatale goes even further by mixing elements of modern art into the design itself. Some of these are animated, and some aren’t, but it looks great.

On top of looking great, the whole thing is kept simple and usable, which makes me very happy.

Rofikul Shahin

Rofikul Shahin’s portfolio brings us back to some more traditional, but no less impressive design. Solid type mixed with bold colors draws the eye without any gimmicks. It’s good, usable work.

It’s a little weird, these days, to see a design that’s more adaptive than fluid-responsive, but that’s forgivable.

Peter Hol

Peter Hol’s one-page portfolio is part portfolio, part résumé, as it prominently features a timeline of his career so far. It’s a dead-simple site, with a mostly dead-simple design, and it’s easy on the eyes.

It’s spiced up with only simple flourishes, like the stylized border on the left, and I like that.

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Sunday, August 7, 2016

Popular design news of the week: August 1, 2016 – August 7, 2016

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Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.

The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.

Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that were posted, so don’t miss out and subscribe to our newsletter and follow the site daily for all the news.