Stand alone Complex

Human-Computer Interaction, Drawings, Dolls, Design

[mayyamap]

[mayyamap]

Apple pencil

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Mike Monteiro: 13 mistakes designers make during design presentations

[mayyamap]

Asking for update when you quit an app?

Have been thinking about it for a while b/c most of the times you are required to update an app when you just open it. However, this experience is annoying and it is a waste of users' time unless they find something else to do, which is already adding barrier before people start to use it. 

So I was thinking, can an app ask for update/require update when the user is closing the app? Lets do some research on this first...

[mayyamap]

Debugging With LLDB and Xcode - Tutorial 1 - Popu…:

[mayyamap]

I am learning adding colors~~ 

Origincal drawing from Weibo @Code討

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Nuanyu

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Some notes about typography esp. for web design

Reading from http://ilovetypography.com/2008/02/28/a-guide-to-web-typography/

  When you use typography, you need to care about four main points: contrast, size, hierarchy and space.

For contrast, apart from the aesthetic value of typography, it is mainly used to improve legibility. So enough contrast is necessary for users to read. If you use color reversely (i.e. white type on black or blue), the paragraph should better not be too long.

Size is a difficult problem that I have struggled with. I normally never make the size smaller than 12px but it is hard to determine how much you want to increase it. The performance of the size just varies too much on different screens. I am not sure if 16 is too big but I have seen font size as 18 and find it pleasing to read. The size of font also depends on the content.

One thing that is not mentioned in Hierarchy is that when you try to use Hierarchy, it is better you make the contrast obvious enough so that readers may not think it is a mistake you made instead something you deliberately made.

Space is always something amazing. The suggestion that keep the line space at least 140% of text size is really a good choice (for web design).

I have been dealing with printing stuff these days and have to say some of the rules are quite different in printing. But these suggestions give me a clear guideline about where to pay attention to when using typeface.

[mayyamap]

Copy is Okay

Changing is always hard. I switched from computer science to design a while ago and everything just changed. For example, I used to treat quantifiable problems that can be answered as right or wrong but now everything becomes so vague. The requirements are broad and sometimes the clients do not know their requirements.

I have been fumbling my way in the beginning and might still be a little struggling now. But I do have a lot of good recommendations from my perspective. I would like to recommend one familiar strategy that can be used in several areas, that is “To Copy”

When learning programming, we often need to use a new language without learning. A dirty and quick way to get started is to look at how others write the code and try to make something similar. Books or tutorials do help but sometimes it is just more realistic to do it that way. Design, to my surprise might also work that way. When I wonder where I should start (mostly hi-fi or visual stuff), I tend to look online to find inspiration and take some elements from them. This is quite common as far as I am concerned. I found designers get inspired from one another quite often.

So if I do not know how to start designing something, I would definitely look online and take some elements, combining or changing them. This might not work when it comes to more serious work, yet this is a nice starting point if you are stuck somewhere. 

[mayyamap]

transition from development to design

I got an awesome article about how developers transform to design. Here is the link:

http://somerandomdude.com/2012/01/10/transition-from-development-to-design/

An interesting thing is that the author suggests that we do not stop coding.

Another thing suggested is that we should learn to write and speak. Design for me is an way of communication, that conveys your idea and thoughts along with the product to the audience. However, in the industry, a third party exists who are not the user but the client.

Communicating the thinking to clients and audience behind your work is as important as the work itself.

As for me, communicating the thinking not only helps others understand the rationale of your work but also gives yourself a chance to reflect on what you are doing and if they make sense. Sometimes we are stuck and only by looking back by ourselves can we find an alternative. One way to practice this skill is to record and share your thinking on the blog which is what I am doing now:)

[mayyamap]

I am learning photography myself these days! It is so fun to combine lighting, structure, colors altogether.

[mayyamap]

First time to draw in so many colors and first time to draw a bird.

It needs to be more detailed though. Currently I am setting my time of drawing to an hour. I am way tooooooo busy when studying for a degree and working for a client. But I am enjoy my new life now.