The popular blog platform WordPress announced last Wednesday that it is reaching out to the Community to improve it’s UI. According to Automatic’s email list-group, the basic framing, left nav, and other modular elements aren’t up for grabs, but the Settings, Site Admin from MU, and Media Uploader are looking at a UI facelift. Pages [...]

We all hit points in our work, especially as designers, that seem a little hopeless. Whether it’s from the creative design aspect or from the technical coding side, or even the flow of business, there’s no way around it – we will have a few dull moments. But, dear reader, never fear – there are [...]

For those of you who spend hours at your computer (who reading this blog doesn’t?), you probably remember the time you thought your desktop looked awesome. Maybe you found a cool wallpaper or a neat icon. But it’s time to take it to the next level. NerdTool is a nice little enhancement for Mac users [...]

There’s no doubt that 2009 was the year of Social Media. Just look  at this Top 9 of 2009 list. It’s dominated by Interface and experience improvements for the topic.  There were so many to choose from but we could only pick 9. I mean come on,  Top 14 of 2009? Seems a little odd, [...]

Hi there. I’m Amy. I design interactive experiences that are so unexpectedly nice, people write me to tell me that they wish they had a need for my software, just so they could have an excuse to use it. I’m no superhero, I just have a secret weapon. Which I’m going to share with you, right [...]

One very important concept in any area of design, including interface design, is that of space. What is space? Well, obviously we aren’t talking about needing any kind of extended astronomical knowledge; space is the area with which we choose to do things. Today we will talk about this area in many different ways. White space White space [...]

Big Goal Number Two As an interface designer, you are often given assignments with one big goal in mind: make this interface as usable as possible. Now, ancillary to this goal are a lot of “mini-goals”, such as maintaining a holistically congruent branding image, communicating certain messages, conveying certain feelings, developing for certain platforms, and the list [...]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benimoto/ / CC BY 2.0 It’s Thanksgiving. A day to eat turkey and pie. A day to watch a parade, and then football. A day to think about the Mayflower, if you feel like it. A day to… give thanks. And I, as editor, am very thankful for the readers of FYI. That’s why I am [...]

Today’s three-minute-tip will again revolve around Photoshop. We will take a look at a few ways of working better with smart objects. For this tip, you will need both Illustrator and Photoshop. I’ll be working in CS4. Vector vs. Raster A smart object is basically a vector object inside Photoshop’s (mostly) raster world. If you don’t know [...]

We can all enjoy a good conversation. Many companies, including “big business,” have learned this and, as of late, have implemented it more than ever before. The truth of the matter is that people are more willing to trust a laid-back, conversational person than they are the stiff-necked (ex-)marketing guru. We can see this conversational [...]

The name says it all. If you’ve come here, we mean no offense – there’s just a few career killers that we probably all have been guilty of at one point or another. These concepts definitely apply to interface designers, but if you’ve arrived at this post and you aren’t an interface designer, don’t check [...]

We recently were given the opportunity to interview one of our (awesome) readers, David Platt. David is an interaction, print, and identity designer and artist. Check out his interactive portfolio here, and also head on over and take a look at his artwork here. David had a lot to say, so let’s dive in! FYI: So [...]

We recently were given the opportunity to interview one of our (awesome) readers, David Platt. David is an interaction, print, and identity designer and artist. Check out his interactive portfolio here, and also head on over and take a look at his artwork here. David had a lot to say, so let’s dive in! FYI: So [...]