Hicksdesign

Old now, but in 2010 Jon Hicks reviewed a bunch of Fireworks alternatives: http://hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/fireworks-alternatives-on-trial-acorn… Well worth a read. It reignited on Twitter last week: https://twitter.com/Hicksdesign/status/329882707507154944 https://twitter.com/Hicksdesign/status/329882861337464832

In my experience, of the best ways to get started in design is to replicate other people's designs as perfectly as you can, just to get the hang of designing something good. For example, the other day I recreated the hat icon here: http://hicksdesign.co.uk. This is mine: http://cl.ly/GYHw. If you make one thing every day, you'll eventually be pretty good at fleshing out your own ideas. Resources: http://pttrns.com; http://teehanlax.com/blog/iphone-4-gui-psd-retina-display; http://dribbble.com

Some responsive sites to test it with: http://hicksdesign.co.uk, http://happycog.com

While I largely agree, I think there is a contradiction between (1) giving mobile users the option to see it as a 'full' (i.e. desktop) version and (2) Fitting the design to the screen size. In the quoted example (http://hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/finally-a-fluid-hicksdesign), while a great implementation of fluid design, on my mobile device I don't have the option of seeing what it looks like on a desktop (it doesn't let me zoom out to a larger screen size)

It's not necessarily the fact that site is designed to be resized or not it's more about the careful consideration of how a site will look at various sizes. Take http://hicksdesign.co.uk/ for an example. You can tell that the site was designed for various resolutions but uses the same codebase to support them. I don't think the two problems are mutually exclusive.

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/ is a useful reference point for creating fluid design. Essentially you can specify different css depending on the width of the browser window, which means you can cater to multiple types of user. For a real example: http://hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/ implemented a 4-column layout at the end of June that looks great on both my 1920 monitor, and my mobile. Try resizing your browser window to see the effect in action.

I'd guess any plausible explanation would also have to account for the fact that basically every Adobe product on the Mac has gotten much worse over time with the exception of Lightroom. See this blog post, and the comments that follow for the comments of hardcore Adobe users: http://hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/a-big-assed-post-about-fireworks

Jon Hicks work always impresses. http://hicksdesign.co.uk/

One reason why this isn't the perfect solution it may sound like is that often different size icons have slightly different designs. Near the end of this post: http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/branding-firefox Compare the 128x128 and 48x48 icons, and then compare the 48x48 and 16x16. As you go from 128 to 48 much of the detail in the fox's fur goes away, and as you go from 48 to 16 it becomes a simple gradient and the detail on the planet disappears as well. If they simple resized a vector image, the 16px would be a muddy mess. (There are probably much better examples somewhere, but this is just the one I've used in the past- apparently, for the last 10+ years...)

Actually, John Hicks did the Firefox icon: http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/branding-firefox

And the Firefox icon too. *http://hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/the-icon-handbook

John Hicks (of Firefox-icon-fame) is a colorblind designer. He gives some hints for coping on his blog sometimes -- http://hicksdesign.co.uk/tag/colourblindness/

You can't really. CSS backgrounds are the main reason you need to use padding (instead of margin): margins exist outside an element, while padding expands within the box itself (beyond the content, but permitting the background to remain visible). To visualize it, http://hicksdesign.co.uk/boxmodel/ is probably the most oft-cited example - certainly the one I find most helpful.

He's using CSS media queries, similar to what's being done here: http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2010/04/using-css-media-queries-ipad.html Check out the code he uses to make this happen near the bottom of his main CSS file: http://hicksdesign.co.uk/css/layout.css

A couple that come to mind: http://subtraction.com http://cubancouncil.com http://madebyelephant.com http://jasonsantamaria.com http://markboulton.co.uk http://hicksdesign.co.uk

Yick. I do like (and use) Jon Hicks' style for Google Reader, though: http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/tag/googlereader/

Maybe not "daily", but very frequently: here is a small selection of some of the small sites on my newsblur newsfeed list: [0] http://www.jamesaltucher.com : Much self-pity, but also sometimes quite funny. http://www.astrobio.net/latestnews_rss/news.xml : Is there life on other planets? http://kaygun.tumblr.com/ http://www.friday.com/bbum : Coding, hardware projects, generally interesting. http://bestyoucanbe.blogspot.com/ : Insights into the education system in regard to the raising of his neurologically non-typical son. http://blog.lmorchard.com http://ex-muslim.org.uk : Oppression of atheists in the Muslim world. http://clojurefun.wordpress.com : Clojure! http://scientopia.org/blogs/goodmath : Bad science, denialism. http://blog.willbenton.com : Music, logic, programming, etc. http://www.groklaw.net : Maybe not "small"; detailed analysis of important legal cases. http://hicksdesign.co.uk/journal : Web design. http://www.holovaty.com/ : "I'm co-creator and co-Benevolent Dictator For Life of the open-source Django Web framework" http://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~bwjones : Combines talented photography, photoessays, and study of the retina. http://lee-phillips.org : I regularly check my site to see if it's still working. http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca : Language issues; can be amusing or stupid. http://freethoughtblogs.com/maryamnamazie : Freedom for women in the Muslim world. http://math-blog.com : Infrequently updated, but often…

Beautiful graphic design is something I'd like to learn, and it is something I have not invested much effort in yet. Tutorials like those on SmashingMagazine can tell you the how but can't teach you the why. Any graphic designer/art student will tell you that learning how to draw is all about learning how to look. I'd like to be able to do design myself but realistically it is easier to become friends with good designers (yes, you pay them but it is more like working with a partner than a hired gun). In lieu of taking classes, go to art openings. I've met very few designer developer individuals. That being said here is a list of some resources for (previous AskYCs, rest of them learning how to make icons) (which is a stepping stone to Tap Tap Tap UI). http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1487274 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1290147 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=66863 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=227406 http://web.archive.org/web/20050101092500/http://mpt.phrasewise.com/st… http://hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/principles-of-icon-design http://flyosity.com/tutorial/crafting-subtle-realistic-user-interfaces… http://steveweller.com/articles/tabbar-icons/ http://speckyboy.com/2009/04/28/35-tutorials-to-create-amazing-vector-… http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2010/05/some-good-advice.html