Are you still designing web sites like it’s 1999? If so, you’re in for a surprise. Since the last edition of this book appeared five years ago, there has been a major climate change with regard to web standards. Designers are no longer using (X)HTML as a design tool, but as a means of defining the meaning and structure of content. Cascading Style Sheets are no longer just something interesting to tinker with, but rather a reliable method for handling all matters of presentation.

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In this latest addition to the “Web Design” series, we explore the very best of electronic commerce website design.

WEB Design: E-Commerce (Icons)

Now that people are using online shops to buy everything from computers to groceries to clothing, e-commerce has become a major player in the sales market – to such a degree that recent research has estimated that about 10 per cent of US “brick and mortar” sales are even influenced by online shops. From small retailers to online superstores.

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Have you ever heard the phrase “Content is King”? Being a Web developer, and therefore having a job that’s often linked to content creation, it’s likely you have. It’s a fairly overused but true statement about what draws visitors to a site.

From a Web developer’s perspective, however, some may argue that speed is king. More and more, I’m starting to favour that stance. In recent years many experienced front-end engineers have offered their suggestions on how we can improve the user experience by means of some performance best practices.

Unfortunately, CSS seems to get somewhat overlooked in this area while many developers (for good reason) focus largely on JavaScript performance and other areas.

In this post, I’ll deal with this often overlooked area by introducing you to the concept of object oriented CSS and how it can help improve both the performance and maintainability of your Web pages.

The Principles Of OOCSS

As with any object-based coding method, the purpose of OOCSS is to encourage code reuse and, ultimately, faster and more efficient stylesheets that are easier to add to and maintain.

As described on the OOCSS GitHub repo’s Wiki page, OOCSS is based on two main principles.

Separation of Structure From Skin

Almost every element on a styled Web page has different visual features (i.e. “skins”) that are repeated in different contexts. Think of a website’s branding — the colors, subtle uses of gradients, or visible borders. On the other hand, other generally invisible features (i.e. “structure”) are likewise repeated.

When these different features are abstracted into class-based modules, they become reusable and can be applied to any element and have the same basic result. Let’s compare some before and after code so you can see what I’m talking about.

Before applying OOCSS principles, you might have CSS that looks like this:

#button {
	width: 200px;
	height: 50px;
	padding: 10px;
	border: solid 1px #ccc;
	background: linear-gradient(#ccc, #222);
	box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, .5) 2px 2px 5px;
}

#box {
	width: 400px;
	overflow: hidden;
	border: solid 1px #ccc;
	background: linear-gradient(#ccc, #222);
	box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, .5) 2px 2px 5px;
}

#widget {
	width: 500px;
	min-height: 200px;
	overflow: auto;
	border: solid 1px #ccc;
	background: linear-gradient(#ccc, #222);
	box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, .5) 2px 2px 5px;
}

The three elements above have styles that are unique to each, and they’re applied with the non-reusable ID selector to define the styles. But they also have a number of styles in common. The common styles might exist for branding purposes or consistency of design.

With a little bit of planning and forethought, we can abstract the common styles so the CSS would end up instead like this:

.button {
	width: 200px;
	height: 50px;
}

.box {
	width: 400px;
	overflow: hidden;
}

.widget {
	width: 500px;
	min-height: 200px;
	overflow: auto;
}

.skin {
	border: solid 1px #ccc;
	background: linear-gradient(#ccc, #222);
	box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, .5) 2px 2px 5px;
}

Now all the elements are using classes, the common styles are combined into a reusable “skin” and nothing is unnecessarily repeated. We just need to apply the “skin” class to all the elements and the result will be the same as what the first example would produce, except with less code and a possiblity for further reuse.

Separation of Containers and Content

The second principle described on the OOCSS GitHub wiki page is the separation of containers from their content. To illustrate why this is important, take the following CSS:

#sidebar h3 {
	font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	font-size: .8em;
	line-height: 1;
	color: #777;
	text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, .3) 3px 3px 6px;
}

These styles will apply to any third-level headings that are children of the #sidebar element. But what if we want to apply the exact same styles to third-level headings that appear in the footer, with the exception of a different font size and a modified text shadow?

Then we would need to do something like this:

#sidebar h3, #footer h3 {
	font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	font-size: 2em;
	line-height: 1;
	color: #777;
	text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, .3) 3px 3px 6px;
}

#footer h3 {
	font-size: 1.5em;
	text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, .3) 2px 2px 4px;
}

Or we might end up with something worse:

#sidebar h3 {
	font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	font-size: 2em;
	line-height: 1;
	color: #777;
	text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, .3) 3px 3px 6px;
}

/* other styles here.... */

#footer h3 {
	font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	font-size: 1.5em;
	line-height: 1;
	color: #777;
	text-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, .3) 2px 2px 4px;
}

Now we’re unnecessarily duplicating styles, and might not realize it (or simply don’t care). With OOCSS, we’re encouraged to give more forethought to what is common among different elements, then separate those common features into modules, or objects, that can be reused anywhere.

The styles that are declared using the descendant selector in those above examples are not reusable, because they are dependent on a particular container (in this case either the sidebar or the footer).

When we use OOCSS’s class-based module building, we ensure that our styles are not dependent on any containing element. This means they can then be reused anywhere in the document, regardless of structural context.

A Real-World Example

To further illustrate how OOCSS can be used, I’ll use something similar to what I did on my site’s recent redesign. After coding the inner header element on my site, I realized that the basic structural styles for the inside of the header could be reused on other elements on the page.

So here’s something along the lines of what I had when I started styling my header:

.header-inside {
	width: 980px;
	height: 260px;
	padding: 20px;
	margin: 0 auto;
	position: relative;
	overflow: hidden;
}

A few of the styles listed here are unique to the .header-inside element. But the rest can form a module that I can reuse. So I can abstract the structural styles into their own reusable class. Here’s the result:

.globalwidth {
	width: 980px;
	margin: 0 auto;
	position: relative;
	padding-left: 20px;
	padding-right: 20px;
	overflow: hidden;
}

.header-inside {
	padding-top: 20px;
	padding-bottom: 20px;
	height: 260px;
}

The styles belonging to the .globalwidth class cover the following:

• A fixed width
• Centering using margin: auto
• Relative positioning to create a positioning context for child elements
• Left and right padding of 20px
• Overflow set to “hidden” for clearfixing

Now we’re free to use these styles on any elements that require these same characteristics by simply adding that class to the desired element — without writing a single extra line of CSS.

For my site, I reused these structural styles on the primary content element and the inner footer element. Depending on the design, these styles could also apply to a horizontal navigation element that might appear between the header and the content, or any other element that has a fixed-width and needs to be centered on the page.

After adding the “globalwidth” styles to these elements, the markup would look something like this:

<header>
	<div class="header-inside globalwidth">
	</div>
</header>

<div class="main globalwidth">
</div>

<header>
	<div class="footer-inside globalwidth">
	</div>
</footer>

Some may feel that this type of styles abstraction clutters the HTML and goes against the principle of separating markup from presentation.

But putting aside any debates about how this might affect the markup, no one can question that this abstraction has now made it easier to track down and modify the common styles that are used to structure these three elements.

The Media Object

One of the pioneers of the OOCSS movement is Nicole Sullivan. She’s created a reusable module called the media object which, as she explains, can save hundreds of lines of code.

The media object is a great example of the power of OOCSS because it can contain a media element of any size with content to its right. Although many of the styles that apply to the content inside of it — and even the size of the media element itself — could change, the media object itself has common base styles that help avoid needless repetition.

The Benefits Of OOCSS

I’ve already alluded to some of the benefits of OOCSS. Here I’ll expand on these.

Faster Websites

The performance benefits of OOCSS should be fairly clear. If you have fewer styles that are repeated in your CSS, then this will lead to smaller file sizes and thus faster downloading of those resources.

It’s true that markup will be more cluttered and thus create larger HTML files. But in many cases the amount of loss in markup performance will be greatly surpassed by the amount of gain in stylesheet performance.

Another concept to keep in mind is something that the OOCSS wiki refers to as performance freebies. This refers to the fact that every time you reuse something in your CSS, you’re essentially creating new styled elements with zero lines of CSS code. For large, high-traffic projects, these “freebies” could be a crucial performance gain.

Maintainable Stylesheets

With OOCSS, instead of a constantly growing stylesheet full of specificity wars, you’ll have an easy to maintain set of modules where the natural cascade plays an important role.

When making additions to an existing site, you won’t be adding new styles to the bottom of your stylesheet without regard for what came before. Instead you’ll be reusing existing styles and extending your styles based on existing rule sets.

With this type of forethought, it’s possible to create entire pages while coding very little CSS. Any existing CSS modules can serve as a basis for all new pages, and any new CSS will be minimal. In some cases you might even be able to create a new fully-styled page without coding a single line of CSS.

These maintainability benefits also extend to the robustness of your stylesheets. Because the styles are modular, pages built on OOCSS will be less likely to break when a new developer starts to use the stylesheet.

Points Worth Noting

OOCSS has created a great deal of discussion in the community, raising some controversies. Here I’ll try to dispel a couple of common misconceptions.

You Can Still Use IDs

If you decide to work exclusively in an OOCSS manner, then your styles will be based largely on CSS classes, and you won’t be styling elements using the ID selector.

Because of this, many have falsely claimed that OOCSS encourages dropping the use of IDs completely. But this is not true.

The rule to avoid IDs is, more specifically, don’t use IDs in selectors. So it’s perfectly acceptable to use OOCSS principles (and thus avoid styling using the ID selector) while using IDs in your HTML for JavaScript hooks and fragment identifiers.

Of course, you may have a situation where you already have an ID applied to an element that you know is unique to the page. So, you can save a few bytes by avoiding adding a class to that element and instead style it using an ID selector. But even in this instance, it’s much safer to rely on a class to ensure you don’t run into specificity problems in the future.

Dealing With Smaller Projects

For smaller sites and apps, you could certainly make the case that OOCSS would be overkill. So don’t take this article as an advocacy for OOCSS in all circumstances — it will vary depending on the project.

Nonetheless, I think it’s a good idea, at the very least, to start thinking in terms of OOCSS in all your projects. Once you get the hang of it, I’m sure you’ll find it much easier to get it working on bigger projects where the benefits would be more noticeable and relevant.

Some Guidelines For Implementation

Getting started working with OOCSS could take time. I’m still working on it, so I don’t claim to have all the answers and experience in this area.

But here are some things you might want to start doing to help you get into an OOCSS mode of thinking:

• Avoid the descendent selector (i.e. don’t use .sidebar h3)
• Avoid IDs as styling hooks
• Avoid attaching classes to elements in your stylesheet (i.e. don’t do div.header or h1.title)
• Except in some rare cases, avoid using !important
• Use CSS Lint to check your CSS (and know that it has options and method to its madness)
• Use CSS grids

There will obviously be times when some of these rules will be broken, but overall, these are good habits to develop and will lead to stylesheets that are smaller and easier to maintain.

Follow Nicole Sullivan’s Work

If you want to continue learning about OOCSS, the most important person in the industry to keep up with is Nicole Sullivan.

In addition to posting articles regularly on OOCSS on her blog, Nicole has done a number of presentations with accompanying slideshows. Below are some that you might want to check out:

• Object Oriented CSS (Slideshow)
• High Performance Websites: Nicole Sullivan (Video)
• Our Best Practices Are Killing Us (Slideshow)
• CSS Bloat (Slideshow)

Conclusion

Many people fear the OOCSS ideology because it seems to go against many of the so-called “best practices” we’ve learned. But once the long-term benefits of using OOCSS are understood, I’m sure many developers will become converts.

Overall I think OOCSS has a bright future in CSS development, and it’s a concept that all developers should start incorporating into their projects — at least on some level — to help create Web pages that are faster, more efficient, and easier to maintain.

© Louis Lazaris for Smashing Magazine, 2011.

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for over two years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month.

We continue to nourish you with a monthly spoon of inspiration. This post features 30 free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for December 2011. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper!

Please note that:

• All images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper,
• You can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our Desktop Wallpaper Calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?

December Blue

“December Blue is reminiscent of a scene from a classic Christmas stop motion film.” Designed by Colin Whitehurst from Philippines.

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Retro Christmas

“Inspired by the old Christmas cards and 50′s style.” Designed by Joao Lima Jr. from Brazil.

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Sweater

“I really like christmas sweaters, and you are better.” Designed by Zachary Vandehey from USA.

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Christmas Winter

Designed by Shravan Mishra from India.

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Firebirds

Designed by Matej Loncko from Slovakia.

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Crayon’s Snowy Sailing

“When I was a little girl, I was greatly fascinated about the magic of crayons. I still am. This illustration pays homage to the humble crayon. A life shared with children (and grown-ups who refuse to grow old). A small but a colorful, textured life. This winter season, I want to portray “Crayosa” as she peacefully sails through the snowy sea, carried by the stack of crayons in different shades of blue and purple.” Designed by Jessette Dayate – Catral from Singapore.

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Sign Of The Times

“The Holidays, the Winter Solstice, the End of the Calendar Year. Make sure you stop and enjoy December for it will be January before you know it.” Designed by Deidra Wilson from USA.

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Winter Wonderland

“I took this photo whilst walking in the heavy snowfall in the UK last December.” Designed by Ben Young from UK.

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Holiday Lights

“It’s that magical time of the year. One can never have enough twinkle and glow!” Designed by Tirelessweaver from Canada.

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• Without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1440×1050, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Merry Christmas Wallpaper

“Have a pleasant christmas and enjoy this beautiful time.” Designed by Christian Goldemann from Germany.

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• Without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440

Simple December

Designed by Lisa Temes from Canada.

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Hand Drawn December

“Warm, hand drawn letters defrost a cold month.” Designed by Sean Mccabe from USA.

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• Without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440, 2560×1600

Tongue Stuck On Lamppost

“Boy with tongue stuck on lamppost.” Designed by Josh Cleland from USA.

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Pixel

“Christmas for pixel-lovers!” Designed by Lotum from Germany.

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Winter Flakes

“A slightly different take on the traditional green and red of the holidays with delicate snowflakes and a touch of mistletoe.” Designed by Soochie from USA.

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Jingle All The Way

Designed by Aeri Jeong from Australia.

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Father Frost

“Happy new year! Na zdorov’je!” Designed by Cheloveche.ru from Russia.

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Candy Cane Monster

Designed by Agnieszka Malarczyk from Poland.

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Merry Xmas

“Merry Xmas to all! December is the month of christmas, parties and shopping, and we all love it! Merry Xmas  —  don’t you just LOVE December?” Designed by Supreet Singh from India.

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Night Snow

“Watching swirling snowflakes in the night sky is one of my favourite parts of the winter season. Cold, but beautiful!” Designed by Natalie Schulze from USA.

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Love Christmas

Designed by Mateusz Mackowiak from Poland.

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Pow Time

“I’ve created this wallpaper in hope that december brings us many inches of bright white snow. There’s plenty of fun outside with this frozen water anyway!” Designed by Marek Chrenko from Slovakia.

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Who Ate All The Christmas Cookies???

“Just a bit of Christmas fun with the birds Pipita and Milo. This time with a new (still nameless) character: the magpie stole all the Christmas cookies Pipita just made and of course she’s angry at Milo (as usual). Have a fun Christmas (and watch out for cookie thiefs!;))!” Designed by Nicole Bauer from Germany.

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The Little Things

“A wallpaper to represent the “Holiday Spirit” that is less commercial, and more inspirational by illustrating 150+ little things that mean everything.” Designed by Winsome Interactive from USA.

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International Christmas

Designed by Roland Szaboka from Hungary.

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Deer December

Designed by Crystal Ho from Canada.

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Turkish Barbecue

Designed by Credo Global from Turkey.

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Give More

“Remember to always give more than you take. If we could all do this, the world would be a much better place.” Designed by Nathan Miller from USA.

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Time Is Ticking Away

Designed by Marcus White.

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Southern December

“I can’t help but associate December with chilly nights and roast chicken, but here’s a little something for the Southern Hemisphere! Picture taken at Kamari beach, Santorini.” Designed by Suety Kwan from USA.

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Mister Snowman

“Mister Snowman is coming.” Designed by Thomas Danzo from France.

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Please note that we respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience throughout their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.

A big thank you to all designers for their participation. Join in next month!

What’s Your Favourite?

What’s your favorite theme or wallpaper for this month? Please let us know in the comment section below!

© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2011

Hiding your email address from robots and spammers is a common task that is carried out on a lot of WordPress powered blogs. This code snippet will obfuscate your email address therefore protecting it.In your WordPress theme directory, open the file you wish to modify and add the below code. Remember to change the email address with your email address.

<?php antispambot('name@email.com',1 ) ?>

Since the dawn of the Internet, the demand for good design has continued to skyrocket. From Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and beyond, designers have remained on their toes as they define the trends and expectations of our online universe.

The Internet is a great designer’s playground, and online businesses are growing more and more appreciative of what can be gained from a bit of well-executed eye candy. Over the past two years, this fact has become the backbone of a growing trend in online marketing: the infographic.

Infographics are visual representations of information, or “data viz” as the cool kids call it these days. The term “data viz” comes from “data visualization,” which implies that sets of data will be displayed in a unique way that can be seen, rather than read. This visualization should not be left up to interpretation, it should instead be designed in a way that provides a universal conclusion for all viewers. In the simplest terms, infographics are not too different than the charts and graphs that programs like Excel have been spitting out for years.

Of course, just as Web 2.0 changed 1.0, today’s infographics are far more eye-catching than simple pie charts and bar graphs. Today, infographics compile many different data visualizations into one cohesive piece of “eye candy.” They have evolved with design trends, received some creative facelifts, and the Internet is now getting filled with interesting information delivered in enthralling ways.

While some design trends come and go, infographics are here to stay. With brands like USA Today, The New York Times and Google and even President Obama getting behind them, infographics are becoming a powerful tool for disseminating huge amounts of information to the masses. Companies large and small are using infographics to build their brands, educate their audience and optimize their search engine ranking through link-building. This is why learning how to design a good infographic is a must, and avoiding the common pitfalls of infographic design could mean the difference between landing a big client and losing them entirely.

Wrapping Your Mind Around Data Viz

Designing an infographic is not the same as designing a website, flier, brochure, etc. Even some of the best designers, with portfolios that would make you drool, cannot execute an effective infographic design. Creating infographics is a challenge and requires a mindset that does not come naturally to everyone. But that mindset can be gained through practice and by sticking to certain standards, the most important of which is to respect and understand data viz. Here are some simple rules to follow when wrapping your mind around proper data viz.

Show, Don’t Tell

A rule of cinema is to show, don’t tell. The same holds true for infographic design. The foundation of any good infographic is data viz. As an infographic designer, you may or may not determine the concept and compile all of the research for the final design, but either way you are responsible for turning that information into a visually stimulating, cohesive design that tells a story and that doesn’t miss a single opportunity to visualize data. Take this portion of an infographic about Twitter by ViralMS as an example:

This Twitter infographic writes out the data, rather than visualizing it.

What’s wrong with this infographic? It breaks the first rule right out of the gate. When you have an opportunity to display information visually, take it. Here, the tweets per second could have at least been shown in a bar graph. This would enable someone to quickly look at this section and see what’s going on; by seeing the various heights of the bars, the eye could have quickly gauged the differences in tweets per second per event without having to read anything.

If you’re having trouble adhering to this rule, try keeping all of your text on one layer of your AI file (excluding text inside charts and graphs). Every once in a while, turn off the text layer and see whether the infographic still makes sense. If there isn’t any data viz, or if a bunch of pictures are missing context, then you are doing too much telling and not enough showing.

If the Client Wanted an Excel Chart, They Wouldn’t Need You

It might sound harsh, but it’s true. If infographics were as simple as laying out a bunch of standard charts and graphs on a page, then clients would not need to search out great designers. Many tools are online that can create colorful pie charts, line graphs and bar graphs, so you have to take things to the next level for your design to stand out. Taking the data from above, which of the two graphs below do you think would make a client happier?

Two ways to visualize the data from the Twitter example above.

If you answered Graph B, you’re catching on. Of course, not all data lends itself to creative and unique graphs. Graph A might work very well if the rest of the infographic shared a similar aesthetic. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and produce a traditional bar graph or pie chart; nevertheless, always consider ways to dress it up, as in the examples below:

Ways to dress up simple graphs for an infographic.

Typography Should Not Be a Crutch

Typography can make or break a design, but it should not be the solution to a data viz problem. More often than not, designers begin an infographic with a great deal of energy and excitement, but they lose steam fast as they continue down the page. This often leads to quick decisions and poor solutions, like using typography to show off a big number instead of visualizing it in some way. Here’s an example:

TravelMatch’s infographic highlights too much.

Whenever I see this, I’m reminded of the “Where’s the beef?” ad campaign, and I think, “Where’s the data viz?” Although Sketch Rockwell is one of my all-time favorite fonts, this is a perfect example of relying too much on typography.

Any time a research number is provided to you for an infographic, ask yourself how it can be visualized. Percentages can always be visualized with creative pie charts; numerical values in a set can usually be turned into a unique bar graph; and when numbers don’t fit on a consistent scale, you might be able to visualize them in a diagram. Here is another way the above data could have been visualized:

An example of how to visualize the TravelMatch data, rather than relying on typography.

Typography Has Its Place

All that being said, typography does have its uses, which should not be ignored when creating an infographic. Most of the time, you will want to focus your creative typographical energies on titles and headings. The title of the infographic is a perfect opportunity to use a fun and eye-catching font and to give it a treatment that fits the theme or topic. Just make sure the title isn’t so distracting that it takes away from the reason we are looking at the infographic in the first place. The truth of the matter is that some infographic topics are boring, but the right title design can engage people enough to scroll through.

Similarly, headings help to break up an infographic and make the data easier to take in, giving you another chance to let your font-nerd flag fly.

The title of an infographic is your chance to draw attention to the design.

Organization And Storyline

Organizing an infographic in a way that makes sense and that keeps the viewer interested is not always easy, but it’s part of the job for most infographic designers. Usually, you will be given a lot of data and will need to create a visual story out of it. This can be challenging at first, but you can follow some general rules to make things easier.

Wireframe the Infographic

Wireframing an infographic enables you to work out a storyboard and layout for the design. You may have an idea of the story you want to tell, but as you start laying things out, you might hit a wall and have to start over. Having to reorganize after having already done a lot of the design is incredibly frustrating. Avoid this by setting up your storyline at the start to determine what data to show and how. Set aside an hour to sketch things out and make sure it all makes sense. This will also help to ensure that the color palette you will choose drives attention to the important points and keeps the eye flowing down the page.

Think Outside the Box

As you wireframe the infographic, you will identify section breaks that help to tell the story. Most infographics online have a vertical flow, in which each section has a heading to distinguish it from the last. This gets boring fast. Organizing the data and sectioning off information without relying entirely on headings and color breaks is a good way to break the monotony.

For instance, rather than going for a typical one-column layout, you could use two columns in certain parts. You could also break up sections with borders, with backgrounds of different shapes or give the entire design a road or path theme. Here’s some outside the box layouts to get your creative juices flowing:

There are many unique ways to lay out an infographic that will keep the viewer engaged.

Tell a Story

All good stories have a beginning, middle and end. Infographics deserve the same treatment. At the beginning of the infographic, introduce the problem or thesis. From there, back it up with data. Finally, end the infographic with a conclusion.

Visualize the Hook

Every good infographic has a hook or primary take-away that makes the viewer say “A-ha!” As a designer, you should make this hook the focal point of the design if at all possible. Placing the hook at either the center or very end of the infographic is usually best, so that it grabs more attention. Give the most important information the most visual weight, so that viewers know what to take away. Here are some examples of well visualized hooks:

Hooks should either be in the center, beginning, or end of the infographic and need the greatest visual emphasis.

Cleaning Things Up With Color

The difference a color palette can make is amazing, especially in the world of infographics. The right palette can help organize an infographic, evangelize the brand, reinforce the topic and more. The wrong palette can turn a great topic into an eyesore, harm the brand’s image and convey the wrong message. Here are some tips to consider when choosing colors for your infographic.

Make It Universal

In Web design, it’s always important to choose a palette that fits the theme of the website and that is neutral enough for a diverse group of visitors. Because infographics are primarily shared online, picking the right palette for an array of visitors is equally important. You must also consider what looks good online.

For instance, dominant dark colors and neons typically do not translate well on infographics; neon on black can be hard to read, and if there is a lot of data, taking it all in will be a challenge. Also, avoid white as a background whenever possible. Infographics are often shared on multiple websites and blogs, most of which have white backgrounds. If your infographic’s background is also white, then deciphering where it begins and ends will be difficult.

A Three-Color Palette Is Easy on the Eyes

With all of the data that goes into an infographic, make sure that the reader’s eye easily flows down the page; the wrong color palette can be a big barrier to this. Choose a palette that doesn’t attack the senses. And consider doing this before you start designing, because it will help you determine how to visualize the various elements.

If picking a color palette is hard for you, stick to the rule of three. Choose three primary colors. Of the three, one should be the background color (usually the lightest of the three), and the other two should break up the sections. If you need to add other colors, use shades of the three main colors. This will keep the palette cohesive and calming, rather than jarring.

Use the Tools at Your Disposal

When picking colors, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. A number of great websites out there will help you choose the right palette for your infographic. Adobe’s Kuler offers fresh themes and a searchable database, as well as an easy tool to adjust the palette that you’re interested in. One issue with Kuler is that all of the palettes have five colors, and the colors are sometimes from completely different families, rather than shades of a few primary colors, so finding the right palette can be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Another color-picking tool is COLOURlovers. This database is easier to search through: it breaks palettes into different themes and can be sorted by favorites. While most of the palettes also consist of five colors, the colors are not always given equal weight; instead, the tool suggests which should be dominant. Here are some good and bad palettes for infographics:

Final Thoughts

While these standards are important to consider for most infographic designs, sometimes an infographic comes along that breaks all of these rules and still succeeds immensely. In the end, clients like “eye candy” and designs that “pop!” While such terms are subjective (and annoying to most designers), we all know a great infographic design when we see one, and your clients do, too. Use these rules to guide you into the infographic realm, but create your own techniques and standards after you’ve gained some experience.

© Amy Balliett for Smashing Magazine, 2011

HTML has been on a wild ride. Sure, HTML started as a mere markup language, but more recently HTML’s put on some major muscle. Now we’ve got a language tuned for building web applications with Web storage, 2D drawing, offline support, sockets and threads, and more. And to speak this language you’ve got to go beyond HTML5 markup and into the world of the DOM, events, and JavaScript APIs.

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Right there in the center of my boilerplate for design proposals is a section that I glare at with more resentment each time I complete it. It’s called “Deliverables,” and it’s there because clients expect it: a list of things I’ll deliver for the amount of money that I specify further down in the document.

Essentially, it distills a design project down to a goods-and-services agreement: you pay me a bunch of money and I’ll give you this collection of stuff. But that isn’t what I signed up for as a designer. Frankly, I don’t give a damn about deliverables. And neither should you.

(Image: Snoggle Media)

Case in point: for months now, I’ve worked consistently with a particular client for whom I do almost no work on actual design artifacts (wireframes, prototypes, etc.). Rather, I hold frequent calls with the main designer and developer to go over what they’ve done with the product (i.e. poke holes in it) and what they should do next (i.e. help prioritize). Some days, they hand me wireframes; sometimes, a set of comps; other days, live pages. Whatever the artifact, our purpose is always to assess what we have now versus where we need to get to. We never talk about the medium in which these design ideas will be implemented; we focus strictly on the end result, the vision of which we established long ago and continually refer to. And in working this way, we’ve been able to solve countless significant problems and dramatically improve the client’s website and products.

It’s not about deliverables. It’s about results.

Understanding why this works depends on understanding the real role of the designer and the deliverables they create.

A Designer’s Work

First, consider the role of a designer compared to what we actually spend most of our time doing.

What designers are hired to do — the reason why companies seek out designers in the first place — is what my friend Christina Wodtke calls “The Big Think”: we’re hired to solve problems and develop strategies, determining what needs to be achieved and making design decisions that help to achieve it. But because companies have a compulsive need to quantify The Big Think, designers end up getting paid to create cold hard deliverables. Our very worth, in fact, is tied intrinsically to how well and how quickly we deliver the stuff. Heck, we’re often even judged by how good that stuff looks, even when much of it goes unseen by a single user.

Is this how it should be done? Absolutely not.

Hiring a designer to create wireframes is like hiring a carpenter to swing a hammer. We all know that the hammer-swinging is not what matters: it’s the table, the cabinet, the deck. Clients don’t hire us to wield hammers, but to create fine furniture. It’s not the process they need or the tools, but the end result.

In theory, companies understand this. In practice, not so much. They cling to the deliverables.

The Essence of Deliverables

So let’s look at what a design deliverable really is.

The purpose of a design artifact, whether a wireframe, prototype or sketch, is to illustrate our thinking. Pure and simple. It’s part of the thinking process. It’s also, according to some, a record to look back on later to aid when reconsidering decisions, tweaking the design and so on. But let’s be honest: people rarely look back at these documents once the design grows legs and starts walking on its own. More often than not, significant changes result in new wireframes, and minor tweaks are made on coded screens, not back in the deliverables that we were paid so much to create.

(Image: HikingArtist.com)

Most of the time, design artifacts are throwaway documents. A design can and will change in a thousand little ways after these documents are supposed to be “complete.” In terms of allocating time and budget, design artifacts can be downright wasteful. They can even get in the way; designers could get attached to ideas as they transition to functioning screens, precisely when they need to be most flexible. Every design is speculation until it’s built.

Like it or not — and some of you will surely disagree — we can survive with fewer deliverables. Of course, what this looks like depends on how you work.

Breaking the Deliverables Habit

The most important parts of any design project are the vision of the end result, the requirements for it, the design itself, and a way to measure its success.

Interestingly, only one of these parts involves complicated design artifacts. The vision is merely a statement that describes the purpose and desired outcome. Requirements are but a list. Success metrics? Another list. The only part that involves more than a simple, concise summary is the design itself. And nothing requires that process to involve layer upon layer of wireframes, prototypes and comps before going to code. (More on how to change this in a minute.)

(Image: lucamascaro)

Comps, of course, are a must when graphics are involved; in addition to necessarily being the source of the graphic files to be used in the actual design, they define the visual language, the specifics of layout, spacing, typography, etc. Creating wireframes, on the other hand, as quick as it is compared to creating coded screens, can take much longer than going from sketch to code. So, consider cutting the load down to what’s most essential and useful: the interaction model.

In other words, you don’t have to create wireframes and comps for every idea or every screen; just for the toughest screens, the ones that define the most crucial interaction paradigms. Use them to iron out the model, not every last detail.

It’s time for more design and less stuff. Consider the revised process below.

1. Strategy Document

Distill your research on users and the business down to a short vision statement on what the user’s experience should be like. Add to this a list of design criteria (specific guidelines or principles for the design), as well as success metrics (how you will know that the design is achieving your goals). You should be able to do all of this within just a couple of pages; and keeping it short will help to ensure that everyone reads it.

2. Activity Requirements

Write a list of tasks that users should be able to perform, and functions that the system should perform that will benefit users. Prioritize the ones that will appear on the screen.

3. Sketch

To apply the design criteria and meet (or exceed!) the requirements, sketch a dozen or so ideas — in Keynote, on paper or on a whiteboard — and then take pictures of the sketches. Sketch the toughest, most complicated and most representative screens first. These will frequently determine the interaction model for most of the design.

4. Comp and Code

If you’re not doing the visual design yourself, collaborate with the graphic designer to iron out the details of the most representative screens and any other screens that require graphics. At the same time, collaborate with the developers to identify issues and areas for improvement throughout the process.

Forget the lengthy strategy documentation. Forget the deck of wireframes. Just short summaries (long enough to get the point across, but short enough to be able to do quickly), sketches and comps, limited to the things that need to be brought to a boil in Photoshop. Skimping on the deliverables can save a lot of time.

Untying Deliverables From Project Fees

Of course, sufficing with this shorter list of artifacts and untying deliverables from your fees require a change to the design process. In short, we need to shift the emphasis from documentation to collaboration.

Set the expectation from the beginning that you will work with stakeholders collaboratively. They will help you think through the design at every step. You will not be a wireframe monkey. Rather, you’ll focus on The Big Think. And you’ll do it together. If the client is unwilling or unable to spend time and energy on the design as you develop it, find another client. A client who is too busy to get involved in the process is a client who doesn’t care about their customers.

Collaboration is essential to great design. No one person can think of everything or always have the best ideas for every aspect of a product. It takes a group to make this happen. This might require you to occasionally browbeat the client into being available for frequent discussions on new and developing ideas, but the result will be infinitely better. And with the added input, you can focus less on stacks of deliverables and more on converting rough ideas into comps, prototypes and/or functioning pages that give undeniable weight to those ideas.

In practical terms, this means working closely and constantly with the visual designers and developers (assuming you’re not doing this work yourself). And it means frequently reviewing what’s being done and discussing at a deep level and at every step how to make improvements. It means talking through every detail and making sure someone has the job of being the resident skeptic, questioning every idea and decision in the interest of pushing the design further.

Break The Habit

By focusing on The Big Think, the deliverables will matter less. And for a designer, focusing on beautiful products is a whole lot more rewarding than dwelling on the step by step of deliverables. On your next time out, consider breaking the deliverables habit. Go from idea to code in as few steps as possible. Hefty amounts of collaboration can cure the sickly feeling that you’re an overpaid wireframer, empowering you to build designs that you know are killer work.

© Robert Hoekman Jr for Smashing Magazine, 2011

Google I/O 2010 – Developing With HTML5 Chrome 201 Mihai Ionescu, Arne Roomann-Kurrik – This session covers the HTML5 APIs available to Google Chrome and Google Chrome OS applications and Google Chrome extensions.

Learn how to design web applications for a Google Chrome OS netbook using the latest web technologies. For all I/O 2010 sessions, please go to code.google.com

HTML5 Boilerplate

HTML5 Boilerplate is a “rock-solid defualt for HTML5 awesome.” In this video, Paul Irish, the man behind the project will show you how you can use HTML5 Boilerplate to get your projects up and running quickly while keeping best practices covered. Paul will start with an overview of HTML5 Boilerplate before diving into some examples and demos to give you a feel for how you can jumpstart your next project with HTML5 Boilerplate. ** Head over to marakana.com to learn more about HTML5 and open source development **