It's easy to surf hundreds of websites, hunting for the design that can serve as inspiration for an upcoming project. Inspiring designs go by, but they are helpful only when the designer has begun to understand why they are effective. Learn techniques to put design inspiration to work for you.
The hook
In front of the computer screen, eyes glazed over, we surf the web for inspiration, looking for the design that will get creative juices flowing.
It’s called hopscotching, and you’re guilty of it. Going from link to link, as though you were in a book store, pulling books off the shelf to look at the cover, and then replacing them; in five minutes' time, you will have gone on your way, forgetting the edgy layout of the site.
Is it a waste of your time? No.Could you do more with these sites than simply appreciating them? Absolutely. We can use to our advantage the hundreds of websites we visit purely for their design. Rarely has a new idea developed independently; the greatest inventions of computers and the web have been brought about by looking around, assessing what needs haven’t been met, and then inventing something to fill the void.
Sure, there are flukes, such as Comic Sans and <blink>, but even internet greats can make errors.
In our time hopscotching, we can track appealing designs, so that the next time we sit down to develop our next great project, we can draw from effective designs and match them with our own interpretations.
Subscribe to link rollers, such as StumbleUpon, and track discovered sites.
Four or five twitter feeds are great, and a few classic design galleries are fine for the inspiration arsenal, but to separate you from monotony, capture links from the internet as a whole. Many of us subscribe to RSS feeds, but if you’re looking to feel the pulse of web design, you will be held back by only refreshing what you've liked before.
Unless you take your first big steps out onto the internet, and get links you may not have encountered otherwise, you will only be redesigning the same thing over and over again.
Note what you like about a site
It may seem like you're spying on the enemy or cavorting with the competition, but keeping notes as you encounter sites will help you gain an objective view on your tastes. There are plenty of websites that have layouts that must have seemed avant garde to the designer, but now that they're in action, you can see that the design's implementation isn't effective. Don't blame the designer -- a few poor placement decisions or font choices aren’t reflections of poor design skills; rather, the designer could have gained better insight into their designs if they had seen similar sites in action. When we have a list of things that we’re in to, we can use it as a guide as we develop projects.
Note what you would change.
By the same token, we can avoid design faux pas by keeping tabs on what hasn't been working for other designers. It's like the "worst dressed" list that comes out after award shows, but more constructive. When we design, we can check our lists of don’ts to make sure we’re avoiding the same mistakes our colleagues have made.
Talk about designs with other designers
One of the best things to do is to talk to your friends in the business. Don’t barrage them with links (unless you're the youtube person, who has daily link offerings -- in this case, you have other things to work on,) but a casual online discussion every once in a while about effective web design will help you gain a deeper perspective. One discussion, ending with I think that would be a good technique to use can help both designers vocalize the thoughts they would have cast off later. Think of it as professional development, but from the comfort of your own desk.
Make a web development wish list
There will never be a consummate web designer; someone who claims to have a grasp on all of the fields of web design is someone who hasn’t been in the trenches deep enough. As you talk with people, view designs, and look at your own work, jot down a wish list of techniques you hope to one day master or incorporate into your designs. Make them personal: I would like to incorporate sIFR more heavily into my works. This charges you with a goal, the application of sIFR, and a destination, my works. As you build your notebook of design inspiration, mark sites that feature your wish list techniques. When we can see applications of web design elements, they become less like design dreams and more like reality. All you need is some elbow grease.
And maybe some caffeine.