Context is King

All Hail the King
He stands in His honour
And speaks what is true
He is the King of Context

We’re all aware of the adage “Content is King”, but just because we’ve always been taught this, is it necessarily the case? As designers we are beginning to take a more holistic approach to web design and we are also beginning to explore a myriad of different factors to determine what makes a website work well and convert results (I hope!). (more…)

An example of minimal web design

A lot of my recent articles have talked about simplifying your website and reducing unessarry elements in order to deliver a clearer message. Well this post talks about the key to this issue: minimalism. In an age where the client often pushes more and more content upon you, it can often seem a herculean task to produce a minimal design. But even in this situation we can apply principles of minimalism to improve the design. (more…)

A typical istock image with an additional layer of cheese

The case against I-stock imagery is growing by the website and we are in now in real danger of producing faceless websites which reek of staleness, mediocrity and laziness.

You now the theme; ethnically diverse suits shaking hands with ridiculous Colgate smiles… (Does this even happen?). I don’t even think the majority of these people look real…they are so polished they almost look fake. Would you do business with a fake? Strong images should evoke emotion and be thought provoking; i-stock images are the polar opposite of this. (more…)

Continued from Part 1…..

Similarity breeds good design:
“Things that are similar are perceived to be more related than those that are dissimilar”

#5 Colour
The most obvious technique in design to create attention is to use colour contrast. To create contrast you obviously need to choose dissimilar colours. Contrast is a fundamental technique in web design and key elements like CTA’s and buttons should carry more contrast in colour in order to draw more attention. Also you can categorise elements by using the same colour. (more…)

**Announcement**: Okay I don’t want to scare too many of you away with another design psychology based article but as I’ve said before I think it’s imperative that we should use psychological techniques more in our designs. I’m not saying design is completely scientific or mathematical, but I do believe the best design comes when proven theory works in harmony with art. We as designers need to understand the implications of our actions and by understanding psychology we can truly begin to discover the effect our designs will have; this isn’t a game of chance. (more…)

Our offices are now open and usual office hours of 9.30am - 6.00pm are resumed. Support issues can still be submitted by emailing support@ihm.co.uk

Just a quick reminder that our offices are closing on Wednesday 23rd December and will open again on Monday 4th January. So I’m afraid for this period there will be no phone support. However we will still be dealing with your enquiries which you can submit by emailing info@ihm.co.uk if you have any questions or would like a new site for 2010.

I know what you’re thinking; information / data graphics (*IDG’s) are boring scientific or mathematical diagrams found in a dust collecting lump known as Mr textbook. Well let me tell you things have changed and I would now argue that the IDG can be just as powerful (if nor more so) as a photo or an illustration. The meaning of IDG’s graphics is to convert raw numbers / characters into symbols. (more…)