New Year, New Web Design Goals
Yep, it's December 31st. Which means tomorrow everyone will be kicking off the new year with gloriously over-zealous resolutions for 2009. And why not? It's good to challenge yourself, to set ambitious goals and get pumped up about progress. I'm big on self-improvement and growth, so I always make "in the year ahead" lists for myself. This year I'm skipping the weight loss and exercise goals. Being 6 months pregnant is a great excuse for laziness and extra chocolate. Instead, my list includes a whole bunch of ideas for career growth.
My biggest web design goals for 2009 are:
#1: Improve my design vocabulary
Although I took plenty of art classes in high school, my college major (Electronic Media Art & Communication at RPI) was less traditionally "artsy". The training I got there was perfect for my eventual career in web design, but I sometimes feel like skipping Art 101 left me with a few shortcomings. I often lack the right words to effectively communicate my ideas. Rhythym, balance and proportion are not words that regularly roll off my tongue. Choices I make based on gut instincts and years of experience could easily be backed up by common design principles like these, but I have trouble coming up with the right terms when I am presenting my work.
This also applies to web design patterns (like those named here or here ). Even though I see things every day and incorporate them into my layouts, I don't always know the right terminology for the elements I use. If I could refer to them in a clear and consistent manner I would be a more effective presenter.
Actions to take: I'm an avid reader and a visual learner, so I plan to read more books about design principles. Two recommended to me are Primer of Visual Literacy by Donis Dondis and Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual by Tim Samara. I own Graphic Design: The New Basics by Ellen Lupton which I can highly recommend to others with the same goal. Any other suggestions?
#2: Get more involved in the design community
Aside from blogging here at Inspire and attending monthly Refresh the Triangle meetings, I have been seriously slacking when it comes to community involvement - both online and in the "real world" here in Durham. I can rattle off all sorts of excuses but the truth is I'm a homebody and an observer at heart and sit on the sidelines all too often. I learn a lot from other designers and give very little in return. I also know virtually no one in my new home state. Time to stop being such a wallflower!
Actions to take: Blog more frequently, leave thoughtful and constructive comments on other people's blogs more frequently. Attend more local events and make a point of chatting with people I don't know at these events.
#3: Seek more offline forms of inspiration and artistic outlets
Like I said in my post "Overcoming Inspiration Overload", I'm burned out on all the CSS galleries and page after page of the same design styles. I'm sick of sifting through posts titled "25 Most Fantastic Mind-Blowing Blog Designs Ever Created". They aren't helping me think creatively. I want to consider things from different angles and produce work that is unique. I think that getting offline more will help me bring a fresher approach to my designs.
Along that same vein, doing something artistic other than web design seems like a healthy goal. I used to do all sorts of artsy-crafty type things but in the past few years I've let a lot of my free time go to lousy tv shows and mindless web surfing.
Actions to take: Use my sketchpad before my computer. Go to at least 3 art shows here in Durham. Collect pretty bits of offline design and create an inspiration board for my home office. Use my Nikon d-40 for more than just family photos. Pull out my art supplies and put them somewhere tempting so I will be reminded to use them.
#4: Continue to improve my understanding of User Experience design
Sitting next to a crazy good UX designer like Jackson Fox has its perks. One of them is that I'm constantly learning new user experience design principles. Although the user has always been my primary reason for every design decision, I've been soaking up more and more theories and real-world examples through our daily interactions. And with each new thing I learn, I get more and more interested in the how and why behind user-centric design.
Actions to take: Again with the reading... I am currently halfway through Web Form Design by Luke Wroblewski, and plan to squeeze a few more books in this year. Edward Tufte is at the top of my list. I'm also subscribing to a few high-quality UX blogs including Jared Spool's Brain Sparks and Luke W.'s Functioning Form.
#5: Simplify my everyday processes
It seems like life online keeps getting more and more complicated.... and I won't even get started on my offline life. Every day at work I juggle dozens of software programs and hundreds of passwords. And I'm obssessed with checking my favorite blogs, Twitter feeds, and Facebook updates. I'm keeping up with way too much stuff that isn't really important and neglecting things that could make every day a little smoother.
Actions to take: Pick the software programs and services that are essential to my work. Focus on learning them inside and out, including keyboard shortcuts to speed up my work. Drop any software, service or blog I no longer find useful. Start using a Password Manager. (Any suggestions on a good one?)
Those are my top 5... ambitious, but doable. How about you? What design goals would you like to acheive in the year ahead?
Nice goals. I am totally in agreement with you on #3. CSS galleries easily become tiresome. You may already do this but one thing that helps me out a lot is to pick up an art/design magazine and look thru it, even looking at the ads are inspiring to me because 95% of them are extremely creative. Communication Arts is my favorite but there are many others you can find at Borders or Barnes & Noble that are just as good.
Regarding the password manager. if you are on a Mac, i’d highly recommend 1password.
I especially agree on #3 as well. I feel like stepping away from the computer is underrated. I plan on spending more time baking, cutting hair, and drawing (things I enjoy but still get my creative juices flowing).
Another vote for 1Password - I’ve only had it for a couple weeks and it has already changed my life.
I second the recommendation for 1Password http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password
Just like Quicksilver, I can no longer live without it.
Whoa! Who gave you my NY Resolution list?? I concur on all points. Went to the Adobe Max in San Fran -holy inspiration- this year and realized just how much I suck. So, I bought a new mac, CS4 and some Eric Meyer books. Probably going to kick in a Lynda.com subscription to get to those parts of CS4 lying undiscovered by me, stuck in my old patterns of use. Living in Alaska I am pretty much online for inspiration, Max made me realize how much I need to get out of the chair and get to some live art. We’ve got loads of talented artists here, just need to get out there and experience it.
These are all really good goals, some of them I need to do as well. Since I’m a recent graduate I really need to do #2 and start developing my networking skills.
As for books, I recommend “Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual”. I discovered it a few months back and absolutely love it. It’s one of those books that should be required reading in design programs. And “Graphic Design: The New Basics” I checked out the book’s site, http://www.gdbasics.com/, and thought it was pretty interesting but I haven’t bought it yet.
Like everyone’s saying, a lot of these really synced with my own resolutions!
#1 Ditto, I find myself leaning on the “make it shiny” philosophy too much, and I’m consequently losing the vocabulary (especially in terms of layout). Ended up ordering ”The Elements of Graphic Design” and ”Geometry of Design”, hope to review them here if they’re any good. The two you got sound great, maybe we can do a cross-Viget bookswap sometime in 2009!
#3 That was exaccctly why I was so excited about the conference I mentioned in Campfire. We all need to get away from the computers.
#5 As sad as this is, I’ve found the biggest cut I’ve made is slashing back the design blogs I read to just 5 or 6. Thankfully, I work at a office where truly interesting reads get floated my way anyhow, and I don’t need to constantly pour through mediocre content to find the gems.
I got on the keyboard shortcut kick this year too, and found a really good way to jump-start it: Try doing your work, for just an hour a week, without using the mouse at all (except for link and Photoshop-canvas clicking). This’ll force you to find your most-used shortcuts really quickly, and you’ll pick up a ton of new ones for every hour you spend.
Count another vote for 1password. And as far as I know, if you visit www.macheist.com right now they are giving it away for free as a part of their holiday bundle! Go snap it up, it’s totally amazing, and beyond that Agile has been fantastic with their updates and gracious promo offers.
Yes, Thank you for this article. It was like reading my own mind on every single point.
I do need to study more books on design and specially content layout. I got a great one recently, but it’s in PDF and I find myself never reading it.
Designing the moment : Web interface design concepts in action
I need MORE! heheeh.
I also lack at getting out and meeting other web designers. I live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and the community here is lacking. I signed up for Meetup.com, but I always skip the events. I have to go to one this time.
Thank you again! Great blog post!
On password manager, check out Vidoop which remembers the passwords so you dont have to and uses visual images rather than words
Very nice goals.
I stumbled upon your site by pure accident, but ended up spending quite some time here reading your posts. You gained a new fan! haha.
I am also big on self development, and each year set myself a number of web-related goals. For example, if i start a new website, i want ‘it’ to reach certain goals within a certain amount of time.
Top page on digg, decent seo rankings, bringing in x amount of income and so on. I think if you dont set yourself goals, your never going to improve on your own ability, so i really like the goals you have made, and i wish you luck in acheiving them.
Thank you for such lovely article.
Being a beginner my self in web design. this year I will make a habit of working with customized method. basically I always shift between the softwares and do not follow the method which puts me in all sorts of problem.
grrr… I was resolving to make NO resolutions this year until I read this post and I kept thinking to myself… Ya, I should do that. Ya, I should do that. Ya, I really should do that too… sigh...now I have a list of new years resolutions! Thanks for the inspiration and the reminder that its always good to challenge yourself!
Thanks for all of the recommendations, I’ve got my Amazon Wishlist loaded! Looks like I missed the 1Password giveaway but $40 is worth the brain space I’ll get back when I get let go of some of my obscure logins.
Doug, I’m up for a Viget book swap anytime!
Nice goals. I am totally in agreement with you on #3. CSS galleries easily become tiresome. You may already do this but one thing that helps me out a lot is to pick up an art/design magazine and look through it, even looking at the ads are inspiring to me because they are extremely creative.
Excellent set of goals and ideas !!
I agree on all the points, and I feel that some times I’m in that same design bubble .
one needs to step away from the computer and seek off line
inspiration. Totaly agree with 3#
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Hi Doug!
I just want to print this article :) But the print version is yet to be fully polished. I hope you guys spend sometime :) Viget inspire is a really nice resource for me....
- Lance on 'What To Expect When You're Expecting CSS/HTML Handoff'.
- Erik Wallace on 'What To Expect When You're Expecting CSS/HTML Handoff'.
- Jonathan on 'Switching Mindsets: From WordPress to ExpressionEngine'.
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