I’m forever trying to make my local image workflow easier. I work with images as part of blog posts, images as part of sites I’m working on, images headed to social media… images everywhere. Almost always headed to the web. If we’re taught one thing about images and the web, it’s that they should be optimized.
For me, that means dragging every single image onto ImageOptim before using it. Monotonous repetitive tasks are fertile ground for computerization, so let’s computerize it.
The Desktop is my staging area
It’s just how I work. Things I’m actively using go on the Desktop. I do whatever I’m doing with them, then move them away. I keep it pretty tidy. Images are one of the most common things that end up there. Perhaps it’s a screenshot that needs to get resized, then optimized, then uploaded somewhere, then deleted.
The Desktop is a convenient place, for me, for all that to happen.
Making any image on the Desktop automatically optimized
What if we didn’t need to optimize images because any image that was on the Desktop was automatically optimized? That’s what we’re shooting for here.
One way to approach this would be to set up a Grunt/Gulp/Webpack/Whatever watch task to watch the Desktop. Then if an image file appears there, run an image optimization task. A lot of us probably already do this with the web projects we work on. This wouldn’t be much different.
Except… that we’d need to gulp watch (or whatever) from the command line every time we restarted. I bet there is some trickery to avoid that. Like putting the command into `~/.bash_profile` or something. I didn’t go down that road, though, because…
Enter Hazel
A number of recommendations from folks turned me onto Hazel. It’s basically a watch task for macOS, with a UI to set up all the stuff you want it to do. For example, you can watch your Downloads folder, and if the type of file is a Movie, you can automatically move it to the Movies folder. Cool.
That makes what we want to do real easy. We watch the Desktop folder and if the kind of file is an Image, open it in ImageOptim.
See this image? The one right above? It was automatically optimized with Hazel and ImageOptim.
Simple, indeed
This is a pretty simple and obvious thing that I could have done years ago. That’s why I’m blogging it, I suppose. It’s a simple thing that has helped me a ton and might help you. Most importantly, I’ve actually stuck with it. Sometimes I try out some workflow optimization and it doesn’t stick. This has.
Unlike fonts, colors, and so on, we tend to add animation in as a last step, which leads to disorganized implementations that lack overall cohesion. If you asked a designer or developer if they would create a mockup or build a UI without knowing the fonts they were working with, they would dislike the idea. Not knowing the building blocks they’re working with means that the design can fall apart or the development can break with something so fundamental left out at the start. Good animation works the same way.
I feel it all the time, I’m sure you do too. I feel this guilt when I fail to do something that the design community has insisted that all designers must do.
When I jump right into high-fidelity prototypes, I feel guilty. When I rely too much on my own assumptions rather than user insights, I feel guilty. And, when I fail to start a pattern library at the outset of a new project, I feel guilty.
For the first two points, sure, you should feel guilty. These are best practices for reasons I won’t get into here. (Don’t believe me? Take a look here, and here.)
But should you feel guilty for not starting a pattern library?
I’ve realized that the answer is No. You shouldn’t.
I’m not suggesting you don’t need a pattern library at some point. You do. Just maybe not right now. In fact, creating an obligatory pattern library too early in your project could be slowing down your process.
How? Well, at the beginning of a project it’s beneficial to be a little messy. Keeping things loose is key to a Lean UX process as you test assumptions to determine what your users need. Now is not the best time to focus on your pattern documentation.
After a while, though, the strain of not having a pattern library will set in. You’ll know that it’s time to start investing in your pattern library when these four signs emerge:
You’re having the same discussions over and over again
Developers will often tell you they abide by the principle of DRY?—?Don’t Repeat Yourself. This keeps their code clean, and free of redundancies.
Pattern libraries can help product teams follow this principle as well.
By the time we were a few months into building our app, my team was feeling a sense of deja-vu when discussing our designs. What pattern do we use for opening a modal again? What should the text field look like on this page?
A shared pattern can help avoid these cyclical discussions. Now, when the question of what pattern to use comes up, we have a reliable point of reference.
Your team is referring to the same patterns by five different names
“Let’s use the modal that fades as it shoots up and has a typeahead search field.”
Yes, I said this in a meeting. No joke. This was one of those moments when the stark realization of our need for a pattern library set in.
Pattern libraries can help create a common language across your team, and departments. When you say “frying pan”, you can assume I have the appropriate image in my head. In the same way, you could say “Modal List Picker” and your team will know exactly what you’re talking about.
Small inconsistencies are mounting
It’s an unfortunate reality, but your app will have a few tiny fissures at the start. An outcast font here, some renegade margins there. That’s OK. You’re still figuring things out.
Over time, though, these tiny fissures begin to add up to more serious cracks in the user experience. Your app may start to feel unpolished, asymmetrical.
Malcolm Gladwell once wrote how people can detect fraudulent art within seconds. You don’t want to risk your users writing off your app in the same, unconscious manner.
The process of creating pattern library can help your team focus on identifying and fixing these inconsistencies before they get out of hand.
New teams are working on the product
During the initial stages of a new product, it’s common for a small team to take complete ownership. This keeps everyone focused, so they’re able to react to customer needs and insights as fast as possible.
As the product grows, the amount of teams and contributors will grow as well. Without pattern documentation, new teams may rekindle the pattern debates you thought were over.
A pattern library can help in communicating the what, how and why behind your patterns to new teams and stakeholders.
It’s best to remember that pattern libraries are tools, not dogma. Yet, if you’re designing a product, you’ll feel the guilt. You’ll worry you’ve ignored practical advice and have let your team down.
That’s OK. It’s more important to take some big leaps of faith, watch your ideas fail, and keep on learning and iterating.
You’ll build a pattern library someday, don’t worry. The time will come when you can’t ignore strain. Best of all, it won’t feel like an obligation.
It’ll feel like an epiphany.
[– This article was originally posted on Medium. Republished with the author’s permission. –]
A nice buzzword is receiving a reality check. In doing so, we might notice that it’s not as new as we thought. At the same time, it’s easy to be put into practice. We’ll show you how.
Visual Storytelling From Waaay Back When to Today
Move into any Stone Age cave. As soon as you discover some cave paintings, you’re right in front of the first known proof for visual storytelling. Storytelling via images, as well as understanding them is rooted deep in our DNA. You’d have to ask an expert if you wanted an answer to the question why.
I suppose that it’s because characters were not a part of the core equipment of the early days of human history. Communication was done with hands and feet, just like you know from your last trip to Italy; it was visual.
The first movies were silent. Of course, this wasn’t done on purpose. There simply was no proper way of recording image and sound synchronously. So they just played some music to the running pictures.
Silent movies are the purest modern form of visual storytelling. As the images had to work without sound, storytellers had no other option than making the images as expressive as possible.
And after all, that’s what visual storytelling is all about. Tell a story that is supported by visuals, such as images and videos. The word “supported” might be a little too weak. Basically, the visuals are supposed to tell the story, and, in the best case, work without any written context.
But you shouldn’t think of it as a photo novel without speech bubbles, as visual storytelling is much more subtle than that. Good visual storytelling works with one single image.
Modern Platforms Bank on Visual Storytelling
This leads us to the old wisdom “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Modern forms and platforms for visual storytellers, like Instagram, Pinterest, or Snapchat, have not actually invented storytelling with the use of images, but merely provide a contemporary tool for this ancient way of storytelling.
Pinterest, it Doesn’t Get Much More Visual Than That. (Screenshot: Noupe)
Because of that, the success of these services is not surprising. This is something you should make use of. Use visual storytelling wherever it makes sense. This may not work on a package insert for medicine, but especially in product marketing, there’s no better more promising way.
If social media is a part of your marketing mix, there’s no question about using images or not. Depending on the channel, think Instagram, you can’t even post without images. So, when using Instagram for the marketing of your business, you already know about the power of images. But are you using the “right” ones?
The Right Visuals for Storytelling
A good visual for modern storytelling usually needs at least one, or even better a combination of these elements:
Context
Authentic display of people/personality
Tension
Background information
Clear imagery
Let’s take a closer look at the single elements.
Context
Context is what I call the image elements that are not the focus of the picture at a glance. Context can be the display of an individual cultural background or the usage of a particular color palette. Context can be considered everything that supports the visuals without words, automatically leading the viewer into a particular direction.
Authentic Presentation of People and Personality
When looking at modern ads, you’ll notice that the overly perfect display of people these days only happens in perfume ads. And, let’s be honest, doesn’t it seem ridiculous?
Today, images that display authentic humans are more successful. The more the viewer can identify with the displayed person or situation, the more successful the image will be.
Edited, But Not Over-Style. (Photo: Pixabay.com)
Related to brand communication, this also means that you shouldn’t put your brand into the focus, but rather the people behind the brand, or customers that profit from your brand. The stories you tell can even be just moments, displaying things like a worker that checks the coffee bean delivery, or a customer enjoying a cup of coffee at the lakefront.
If you are the brand, you’ll present yourself as a humble, average guy. This makes you likable. People only like superheroes in movies.
The more personal your approach, meaning the closer you let the viewer get to you, the more likable you will come over. People like you and me are more effective than supermen that don’t even exist in reality.
Tension
Tension is always effective. Of course, you can’t always provide it. The level of tension you can create heavily depends on your product or service.
Not Everyone is a Volvo:
Background Information
Whenever possible, you should give people a look behind the scenes. Let your potential customers look behind the store, behind the stage, into the work or production process. This satisfies the strong urge of curiosity while building trust, as more of the value creation process becomes visible.
For example, you could accompany a worker on his way to his working space with a camera, and show what tasks his job consists of. This covers the authentic display of people as well.
Clear Imagery
Artistic photos may be pretty and may emit very special aesthetics. In a gallery, people would chat about the different interpretation approaches, acknowledging each other’s intellectual skills while drinking Prosecco. This is not the way to go with visual storytelling.
Don’t leave any room for interpretation when there’s more than one way to interpret it. Your visuals have to be clear, and unambiguous in delivering your message as fast as possible.
Of course, you could consider photography techniques that increase attention, or move the focus of the eye to certain elements of the image. Don’t play around, though, and rely on established techniques like the rule of thirds, instead.
Statistical Data Evaluation: Elements That Are Sure to Work
The stock photo provider Getty Images published an article titled “The Power of Visual Storytelling” in their online magazine Curve. Author Sarah Lawrence displays trends and developments in image usage based on an evaluation of purchasing behavior of the Getty customers.
Lawrence presents four factors that define a good visual. According to that, the following elements always work. “Authenticity” was already covered above. Getty noticed that the stock customers of today prefer images of people that are not perfect, but authentic, instead of buying the ones with perfectly lighted and styled models.
“Cultural References” also seem to be a growing trend, according to Getty. I’d still sum that up in authenticity. Wherever there are many multicultural families, this should also be represented in visual storytelling, just to be realistic.
Images of people doing artisanal work, especially precision work, also enjoy an increase in demand. Getty traces this back to people wanting the past back when many products were made manually, and the connection between creator and customer was closer.
The demand for stock material that shows classic archetypes, like the caring father or mother, remained high.
As the year closes, it’s good to reflect on all of the things we as a community have built, contemplated, and contributed to. Here are some of the things we read or watched that we enjoyed and think were important in 2016.
Sarah’s Picks
How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds?—?from a Magician and Google’s Design Ethicist
A really interesting read that asks the question: Where does technology exploit our minds’ weaknesses?
So You Want to Build A Generator
The creator of Tracery, an approachable story grammar for authoring Twitter bots and the like, talks frankly and hilariously about creating generative code.
Cheng-Lou, the creator of React-Motion, muses on one of the core principles of programming: degrees of abstraction.
We Need to Talk About Technical Debt
Harry Roberts describes the differences between technical debt and bad code. This post is helpful because sometimes it can be a struggle to prioritize which parts of the codebase requires our immediate attention.
Robin’s Picks
Variable Fonts
Variable fonts are a relatively new technology which is effectively a new font format: it lets us use one web font and then stretch it into a bunch of different widths and sizes based on parameters within the font. So if you need a bold weight you don’t need to add a new typeface, it all comes bundled together. Roel Nieskens wrote about the future of web type for Typographica and he details the who/what/why succinctly.
This is a feature which is going to make a series of nifty improvements to typography, web performance and design in the very near future.
It’s certainly wordier to avoid dogma when you’re trying to make a point. But it’s more honest. It’s more clear. It’s showing empathy for people out there doing things different. It makes it easier for others to empathize with you.
Sometimes a snarky, know-it-all tone just isn’t helpful or constructive and in that post Chris perfectly describes the general culture that can be found in the tech industry at large.
GT America
The GT America type family is one of our favorite releases of the year but the website that shows off all of the neat features and styles is a delightful piece of design.
Figma
This year Figma started to roll out of public beta and although it’s missing some crucial features it has a certain hyperlinkability — the way in which you can copy a simple URL and direct other folks to what you’re working on — and that’s far more important for working on large teams of engineers and designers.
Chris’ Picks
A Comprehensive Guide to Font Loading Strategies
I’m so so glad Zach put this together this year. Loading fonts in a performant and responsible way is (sadly, I think) quite tricky. It’s nice to have a distilled guide to reference that clearly lays out the pros and cons, and most importantly, gives you working reduced test case version of each.
Front End Center
I think Glen Maddern has a real knack for teaching through video. I’m glad he’s launched a thing that has both free and paid videos. Just like Wes Bos courses. I like to see the small-guy entrepreneur do well with tech education.
Brad Westfall’s 3-part series (starting here) did a fantastic job of going beyond the “Hello, World!” stuff and getting right into practical, real-world site creation with React and Redux. It went a long way in my understanding.
I Left My System Fonts in San Francisco
System Fonts were like a thing this year. Craig Hockenberry perhaps kicked it off in 2015, but this was the year it became a widely popular choice.
Why I believe GraphQL will come to replace REST
The list of the hottest web tech of year, as it seemed to me, was: React, Redux, Webpack, SVG, Vue, Babel, PostCSS, and GraphQL.Elm is maybe a runner up.
Seth’s Blog
I still love reading Seth Godin’s blog. Dude writes every single day and it’s usually short, sweet, and insightful. I say “still” because he’s been blogging since 2002.
Fluid Type
I think my favorite CSS innovation this year was fluid type. This was another of those things that was kinda kicked off (by Mike Riethmuller) in 2015 but blew up a lot bigger in 2016. As in, Mike winning best of show at CSS Dev Conf explaining it, “CSS locks“, etc.
The longer you work as a designer, the more opportunities you’ll have to look back and say, “What was I thinking?” It’s a natural part of your evolution. Over time, both your skills and your portfolio will grow. As a result, you’ll undoubtedly find projects you’d do differently if you could go back in time.
Personally, I’ve designed (at least) a few websites that were total clunkers. Some of it is just that design trends change over time. But there are also sites that were just plain bad in any era. A few of them are still online and I can’t wait until they go away, hopefully to be replaced with a highly-profitable redesign.
But we humans, usually, learn from our past. And for designers, so much good can come from these experiences. Let’s explore the positives you can reap from the worst designs of your life.
Failure can be good for the soul
From the time we’re born, we are taught that failure is something to avoid. Some of us have quite a desperate fear of it. But in all reality, failure is a part of everyone’s life.
Learning to accept failure will ultimately lead you to a better place.
If all you’ve tasted is sweet success then you’re missing out. While none of us set out to fail on a project, there is an opportunity here for self-improvement.
Take a look at why the project failed, and, just maybe, it’s only a failure in your eyes. Look at the factors involved and figure out what, if anything, you might do differently if you had another chance.
When looking back, you may find that a client took your great idea and “tweaked” it until there was nothing left but rubble. Or, maybe you just royally messed up. Whatever the cause, you should be able to pinpoint some areas where you can improve.
For example, if client interference is a major culprit, you might learn to have a frank discussion with future clients about the pitfalls of such behaviors. Or, you might learn to leave that bold (hideous) color scheme alone.
Learning to accept failure will ultimately lead you to a better place. From it, you can move on and do better the next time around.
Discover the benefits of focus
Often, I’ve found that my design work is at its worst when I’m having trouble focusing. It’s easy to feel the need to keep plowing through your work – even when you’re just not feeling it. That’s when you’ll learn that it’s time to take a step back.
Go do something non-work related for a bit. When you get back to the old drawing board, you’ll feel more refreshed and ready to take on the task at hand.
Obviously, you don’t want to miss any important deadlines. But above all, quality will be appreciated more than speed. A design fail that occurred during a time where you felt rushed is a clear sign to slow down and do things right. Lesson learned.
Simple is better
There have been times when I tried to make something a little too perfect. Maybe I took a client’s direction too literally. Or I attempted to impress someone by doing something I’d never done before, and probably wasn’t too comfortable with.
You’ll often find that a more simple approach works best. Starting out simply doesn’t mean that you aren’t going to provide a detailed design in the end. On the contrary, starting with a simple concept can stir up the creative process and lead you to add in the finer points as you progress through a project.
Most of the time, a design is not going to be immediately perfect. There’s a method and process to creating something beautiful.
There are some projects you should just avoid
We all like to think that there’s nothing we can’t do. But over time you may find that there are certain projects that just aren’t a great fit. Looking back at my own mishaps, I see a common thread of people and projects that weren’t at all in my best interest.
…trying to fit a square peg into a round hole doesn’t work.
Especially when starting out in the design field, you might be tempted to take pretty much any work that comes along. You’re poor and a bit hungry. You’re trying to build a reputation.
The reality is that trying to fit a square peg into a round hole doesn’t work. Worse, it can actually do more harm than good to your confidence and reputation.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t challenge yourself by trying something new and different. It’s more a matter of giving yourself the best chance to do your very best work. If you have serious doubts about a person or project, you might be better off going in another direction.
It’s all part of the experience
Even the most talented designers will have a few projects that just didn’t work out as well as they’d hoped. Some may be categorized as failures. What separates the best from the rest is the ability to get back up (and learn from) past mistakes.
As the old saying goes, “There’s no substitute for experience”. Experience is what allows us to expand our horizons and improve. It adds to our creativity and helps us become who we are.
Failure can serve as both an important teacher and reminder of what makes for great design. So, the next time you aren’t quite happy with how something turned out, don’t get too discouraged–although it is fine to have a brief period of mourning.
Instead, see it as an opportunity to become even better. Take what you’ve learned and chalk it all up to just another life experience. It will make the success of your next killer creation taste even sweeter.
Can you imagine the morning without a tasty cup of coffee? No coffee, no workee – nothing wakes you up better than a cup of coffee. In this showcase you’ll see how coffee companies do their best to attract customer to their brands, as I have put together the best coffee branding examples for your inspiration.
Brown and white color dominate in this sphere as they are associated with coffee beans. Attractive cups and vivid paper packages make all the difference – Let me know in the comments bellow which one is your favorite coffee branding example.
Unsplash.com is a photo provider that offers completely free images under CC0. This way, you’re on the safe side. The WordPress plugin Instant Images grants you direct access to the entire Unsplash image catalog, while being free as well.
One of the Great Photos on Unsplash.com. (Source: Unsplash)
Always the Same: Image Material is Desperately Needed!
Let’s not fool ourselves. The blog post needs to be published, and we’re short on time. Do you really want to run out and take photos? Even using one of the many free image services that we’ve already presented here means effort. Wouldn’t it be better to have the option to search and integrate images from within your own WordPress installation?
This is possible. All you need is the plugin “Instant Images” by Connekt Media. Instant Images provides access to the entire image portfolio of Unsplash.com. Unsplash can also be found in our above-mentioned post covering hand-picked image services. The service is definitely one of the offers with the highest image quality. There, you’ll find a wide range of different shots. You won’t find any boring stock images, however.
So, as you can see, Unsplash is just the right image supplier for you and your blog posts. When Unsplash was new and unknown, we have featured it here at Noupe several times. Since then, the service has evolved significantly. The Tumblr-esque photo project without search options has turned into a professional photo provider.
Instant Images Uploads Any Unsplash Image to Your Media Library
The free plugin Instant Images connects your WordPress installation and Unsplash, allowing you to access the provider from within your blog.
First, install the plugin from the backend. After installation and activation, you’ll find another menu item named “Instant Images” in the media library on the left of the backend. After you click it, you’ll find yourself facing a search input field, where you get to enter what type of photo you’re looking for. Combinations of keywords are linked with a + symbol.
If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, you can also follow the plugin’s suggestions, and click on one of the buttons labeled “Newest,” “Oldest,” or “Most Popular.” It will directly show you the respective images.
On the right side of the plugin window, you have the option to enter a maximum pixel width or height for the picture. The available image sizes are still set via your theme. This is only about the image size that Instant Images grabs from Unsplash before it comes to the processing following your theme’s settings. By default, the width is set to 1,600 pixels. I’ve kept it this way.
Right at the search field, you’ll find a gear pictogram. It offers different sorting options for the displayed images, which match the button options described above, but only affect your search result.
Once you’ve found an image, a simple click on it is enough to download it to your blog and place it into your media library in the defined maximum size. Now, you can use it like any other element from your media library.
When writing a new post, integrating the images loaded via Instant Images works just like before; via the button “add file.” If, while writing, you notice that you really need fresh images, you don’t need to go back to the media library first, as you can simply click the new button “Instant Images” to open the Unsplash search interface in an overlay. Searching and downloading works just like I described earlier.
However, you cannot directly integrate the images into your post from there. To do so, after a successful search and download, you need to click on “add files,” and pick the new image from the library. Here’s where more user comfort would definitely be appreciated.
Overall, you should give Instant Images an honest try. It expands your image options without being too possessive. The plugin works fully independently. Its only function is to extend your media library with images from Unsplash. It does not come with any management functions and thus won’t cause problems when using it in conjunction with other solutions or in stopping to use it altogether.
When you’re using Instant Images a lot, I recommend getting your own API key from Unsplash. The plugin’s creators give a very detailed description of how to do that here.
By the way: If you’re using Chrome, and you generally appreciate the images from Unsplash, the expansion Unsplash Instant could be very interesting for you. It makes sure that a full-screen Unsplash photo is placed in the background of each new tab. You can immediately download it from there.
I’ve been following the idea of algorithm-driven design for several years now and have collected some practical examples. The tools of the approach can help us to construct a UI, prepare assets and content, and personalize the user experience. The information, though, has always been scarce and hasn’t been systematic.
However, in 2016, the technological foundations of these tools became easily accessible, and the design community got interested in algorithms, neural networks and artificial intelligence (AI). Now is the time to rethink the modern role of the designer.
Manton Reece has a Kickstarter for a new kind of social network and a book, both of which aim to encourage folks to write independently again:
In the earlier days of the web, we always published to our own web site. If you weren’t happy with your web host, or they went out of business, you could move your files and your domain name, and nothing would break.
Today, most writing instead goes into a small number of centralized social networking sites, where you can’t move your content, advertisements and fake news are everywhere, and if one of these sites fails, your content disappears from the internet. Too many sites have gone away and taken our posts and photos with them.
