Make Small Design Changes
written by Allan on December 12, 2008
I see so many good designs floating around the internet, these designs would be great if only slight changes were made. These small change are usually better because they emphasize or de-emphasize parts of the page, improving the visual hierarchy.
Good design is a series of small decisions that collectively turn into a good design. The difference between a good design and a great design might be a very small overlooked detail. No design is ever finished, there's always room to improve. Here's a good design that I made some very very small changes to that make it better. The image you first see if the original design, it's fantastic. Take your mouse and hover over it and wait a second, you'll see my changes. It might take your eye a second to see the changes.
What I did...
I enlarged the font size on the navigation so your eye picks up on it more quickly. I gave the individual stories a little more spacing and separated the columns a tad as well. The date on the article I made less eye catching, it's just not that important. Are these changes mind blowing? No, they're minor changes that can greatly affect the outcome of the design.
if you're in firefox, click on the image and you'll see my noted changes
The Problem...
As a designer I have a tendency to cram things into a site, this isn't a good thing. You need to give you visitors eye breathing room. The original design "www.GOOD.is" had was cramped. It caused my eye to speed up and hurry thru the elements. Give your user's eyes white space/open space it's a key piece of good design.
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Allan loves his family more than breathing. He lives in Panama City, Florida & grew up washing cars at his family's car washes. Oh and Allan hasn't worn underwear since 2004.
6 Comments
“Good design is a series of small decisions that collectively turn into a good design. The difference between a good design and a great design might be a very small overlooked detail. No design is ever finished, there’s always room to improve.” <— you are a genius—i’m passing this along, thanks!!
Thanks for the post, that’s the stuff I like to read about here. The ranting/lifehacking stuff not so much.
The original design seems to align the empty-space column in the right third of the page. It doesn’t align anymore in your redesign – was that on purpose? Did you consider keeping the grid in place?
Jörn, I’m confused both designs follows proper alignments I just gave a little more spacing in the design.
This should explain it better: http://fuzz.bassistance.de/alignment.gif
The top part isn’t two columns and I didn’t want it appear that way.
Hi, nice changes you’ve made.
Do you have any idea who’s the original design firm responsible for GOOD.is site?
Regards!