Web Design Book - The I.T. Crowd DVD Box Set

If you live in the UK you should have seen the superb TV sitcom The I.T. Crowd by now (pronounced I.T - not “it”!). If not, shame on you!

Anyway, one of my pet subjects is attention to detail. It’s a really important thing for any designer to have and the show has it in spades. However, the DVD box set takes this attention to detail to another level.

Within 3 seconds of putting the DVD into my DVD player, I was already convinced this was the best DVD box set ever.

I don’t want to spoil it too much, but I’ll leave you with this screenshot of one of the DVD menu screens.

Also, check out this great I.T. Crowd cross stich.

I’m in love.

It’s not with a girl. It’s not even with a goat. It’s with my lovely new Nokia N95.

(more…)

One of the myths surrounding design is that “design is subjective” … by which people usually mean it doesn’t matter that much.

That’s a load of old cobblers, to be quite honest.

Good design DOES matter and it’s not really subjective at all.

Take the example of Dorset Cereals. They’re a small company based in … you guessed it … Dorset, who have been making breakfast cereals since 1986. They’ve got a great product - a range of muesli which not only tastes delicious but is clearly differentiated from the competition, as it has almost no “dust”. Yet until recently I’d never heard of them.

Now, they’re the third-largest muesli brand in the UK with a slew of awards to their name. Why? In 2006 they rebranded, moving from a traditional muesli packaging to a stylish new design. Here’s how the “Super Cranberry, Cherry and Almond” package looks in the old and new styles:

(more…)

I don’t really agree with this guy’s definition of Web 2.0, but I can’t help admire the way he explains it using this video on You Tube.

It’s a great example of information design. He explains some quite complicated concepts if a simple way.

Source: Conversationblog

Book recommendation

If you’re interested in design and want to understand how to explain complicated information in easy to digest visual ways I’d recommend the book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte.

It’s not an easy read for beginners, like an In Easy Steps book would be, but it an absolute classic and a must-read for anybody whose job involves “making complicated things simple”.

I’m a sucker for a funny design, and I just love the way the menu on this kids exercise DVD site works.