Thoughts on Digital Life

This summer I want to bring you a set of blog posts about Visual Webdesign. Recently I started noticing basic design knowledge is lost in the digital world. In the responsive era many webdesigns have become... well... kinda boring. Its all colored boxes. Many sites look quite similar. The only difference between the wireframes and the design is color. And I think Visual Webdesigners can do better. We've become lazy. This series is intended to stop designers for a single moment to realize we can do better. Visual Design is so impressive and so valuable to every project - that you need to get the basics right. Visual Webdesign I think there are 5 elements to visual webdesign: color, typography, shapes, pictures and motion. I want to dive into these elements one by one. My aim is to put a blog online weekly for the next 5 weeks - diving into one of the elements every week. This week we'll start with Color. Color There are many aspects to color. Did you kn...

Last week I was invited to visit the Hieronymus Bosch show currently showing at the Noordbrabants Museum. I was involved with the concept and realisation of the campaign website for the exhibition so I was invited to visit this amazing exhibition. Hieronymus Bosch As I stood there, alone, in front of a masterpiece I had seen on my screen over a hundred times in a period of just a few weeks I was amazed how interesting it really is. Hieronymus Bosch died 500 years ago this year. He lived from around 1450 till 1516. The paint on those paintings, the concept, the realisation has been made over 500 years ago. Yet, if you look at the big success of the exhibition, people still find his work amazing and want to see it. After 500 years it still matters greatly. Webdesign It's a big contrast to my work. My work is always fast and temporary. A website, app or anything else I create is not timeless. The campaign website for Hieronymus for instance runs from Jan 1st until the end...

This article is again about webshops. Webshops need conversion. Webshops need to sell products. I decided to take a look at my user journey when looking for a new laptop, Adobe software and some shoes. Here's how Zalando, Dell and Adobe made me feel and what they could improve. Zalando First of all Zalando isn't responsive. Your mobile experience is different from your desktop experience. The mobile experience is better, because the flow of information is positioned better. When you view a product on desktop format, the conditions of Zalando (about shipping and payment) seem to be the most important - as they are presented first. On the mobile version these are presented last. It gets better though! You can view a product at a larger format, ideal when looking for new shoes. You can see this in the image shown above. The bigger image is shown over the price and order button! Thats a conversion killer right there. The image below shows the same page if I don't roll over...

In this post I'd like to dive into Design Principles. To me, they are one of the best things ever in this line of business. What are Design Principles? Design Principles are a set of rules you define with your client. They provide direction in your design process. They give the design process a clear and shared vision and help in making decisions. Finally, they describe the meaning of your product or service to the customer. I myself mostly use them for the clear and shared vision and as an aid in making decisions. Principles first! It's important to write the Design Principles before starting the webdesign. You need everyone to agree to the Design Principles before you start your design task. There's a simple reason behind this: think first, act after. If you're developing the Design Principles during the design phase you'll most likely write them so they match what you're doing in the design. Example: I always have a Design Principle stating "Cu...