nemetral.net | Insightful posts on design and code
In part 1 we saw how modern design blogs usually manage to gather a wide audience using Presentation techniques and special Features. In part 2, we will finish the roundup of features every design blog must have. Next post, part 3, will dive into the different types of content modern design blogs usually fancy publishing.
Design blogs are popping up all around the web these times, the newest ones trying to reach a wide audience through long compilation-style posts on all possible subjects related to web design, while already established names hire guest writers to renew their content at a breathtaking pace. Most of these blogs, though, tend to converge towards a similar model featuring (at least) 15 must-have features. Here is an exclusive roundup of what makes a design blog reach the fame.
It is always a pleasure to detect new trends in web design along the random walk of your daily browsing or, if you're busier, with the help of "institutional" trend finders (or creators) such as SmashingMagazine or DesignMeltdown. One of the classic trend (and debate) is about "dark background designs" as opposed to "white background designs"; although "dark background designs" usually refers to black-based designs, it seems we should seriously consider another color: brown. For a few months I've seen a few major blogs being redesigned, all based on some kind of brown backgrounds (see redesigned screenshots first, as compared to previous designs).
Clients pay big bucks for sexy frontend designs but don't want to be lost in ugly and unusable backends. Historically, many an administration interface had awful table-based layouts with complicated menus and unreadable data. It is time to reverse the trend: UX goes beyond frontend, and if we can code beautiful frontends, we should build beautiful backends too, all the more as backend designs are reusable. After Wordpress, Basecamp and the likes, here is an inspiring list of 10 sexy, though probably less-known, backend designs.
Nemetral is a freelance webdeveloper with 8+ years experience in the industry. On nemetral.net you will find insightful posts on design and code, tackling various topics related to webdevelopment from a highly educational perspective.
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