Resources

1. http://ilovetypography.com
2. http://www.fountaintype.com
3. http://www.fontshop.com
4. http://dribbble.com
5. http://www.behance.net
6. http://www.smashingmagazine.com
7. http://www.fontshop.com/education
   

Real Fonts on Web

www.Typekit.com
The easiest way to use Real Fonts on website.

Email Preview

www.Litmus.com
Email preview with different browsers and devices.

Prototype Packaging

Salsa

“And Then There Was Salsa” from Frito Lay Dips on Vimeo.

Dashboards

A Guide to Creating Dashboards People Love to Use & Reference for data visualization

A good dashboard should have following features:

1. Support casual use
2. Lead to action
3. Customizable
4. Explanation before information

Book Designs

http://nytimesbooks.blogspot.com/

Pre ad

Boire et Conduire

Cette publicité est un bon exemple d'utilisation de l'humour dans un sujet sérioux. L'audience pour cette publicité est jeune. À mon avis ils vont apprécier cette créativité.

Green Party's Poster

Very beautiful poster designed for Green Party Canada, target audience was age 20-30, the occasion was a music festival hosted by Green Party to communicate its views.

Flowers and green colour used in the poster communicate the party’s motto of sustainable growth.

Yellow Icon - Icon Study

http://yellowicon.com/portfolio/show/2/port/69/no

Icon Designing - 10 Tips

1. Capture the Characteristics of the Object
2. Generate an Interesting yet Clear Metaphor for the Icon
3. Beware of Cultural Differences
4. Keep Icons Simple and Versatile to Fit Into a Range of Projects
5. Use a Consistent Light Source
6. Draw Icons in Vector Format
7. Use Raster Foramt for small size icons
8. Design Icons to Work at Large Formats as well as Small Scales
9. Use Out of the Ordinary Color Combinations
10. Carefully Plan out Your Design Process

Ubuntu ‘Flat Icons’

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DapperUbuntuIcons

Ubuntu icons are flat, like mounted on a wall, shadow behind the object. Unlike Apple or Windows, Ubuntu is using same style (flat icons style) for 48x48 and 32x32 icons, and still Ubuntu icons look elegant.

.PNG Transparency Test

This PNG image has transparent and translucent areas/colours; my earlier experience was that IE cannot render PNG transparency however when I tested this page with IE 8 I could see the transparency.

Apple Toolbar Icons

http://devworld.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/XHIGIcons/XHIGIcons.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000967-SW25

Typically, toolbar icons are not as rich in detail and photo-realism as other icon types, because they are intended to be small, streamlined representations of application-specific objects and tasks.


Designing Toolbar Icons

The primary purpose of a set of toolbar icons is to provide users with easy access to frequently used commands

• small
• unambiguous

http://devworld.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/XHIGIcons/XHIGIcons.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000967-TPXREF102

Level of Detail

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511280.aspx#detail

• 16x16 size of many of these icons is still widely used and therefore important.
• The details in an icon of this size must clearly show the key point of the icon.
• As an icon gets smaller, transparency and some special details found in larger sizes should be sacrificed in order to simplify and get the point across.
• Attributes and colors should be exaggerated and used to emphasize the key forms.
• At 16x16, the icon for the portable audio device could easily be mistaken for a cell phone—so the ear piece is a key visual detail to show.
• Simply scaling down from the 256x256 size does not work.
• All sizes need relevant level of detail; the smaller the icon the more you need to exaggerate the defining details.

96 DPI for 16x16 icons

96 DPI for 16x16 icons - aero guidelines - Icon study
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511280.aspx

For high dpi

• Windows Vista targets 96 dpi and 120 dpi.

The following tables show examples of scaling ratios applied to two common icon sizes. Note that not all of these sizes must be included in the .ico file. The code will scale larger ones down.

dpi	Icon size	Scale factor
96	16x16	1.0 (100%)
120	20x20	1.25 (125%)
144	24x24	1.5 (150%)
192	32x32	2.0 (200%)

Above icon standards are for .ico file, what if your icons are in JPG, PNG or GIF format; i tried using 96 dpi for jpg, png and gif, I could get 96dpi for jpg and png but not for gif

Icons for Windows 7

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371715(VS.85).aspx

Intuitive User Experience

[This documentation is preliminary and is subject to change.]

For the first time, Windows 7 allows developers and their end-users to control their computers by touching the screen. Touch and multi-touch features provide a natural, intuitive way for users to interact with PCs. The developer platform includes high-level gesture APIs, as well as low-level touch messages and touch input APIs. The top-level UI elements, such as the Start menu and taskbar, have larger targets than previous Windows releases, making them easier to select with a finger instead of a mouse. Visual feedback is provided for tap and double tap. Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer 8 are both touch friendly and easily integrated with Windows 7 applications.