Knowledge is power, lets turn it on.
Being a print designer by trade and education, I have traditionally been more concerned about visual balance and kerning than actual usability. Also, now with my graduate study being rooted in social media branding and marketing, web design is not really on my radar. Initially signing up for this class, I was a little over whelmed but after stilling in class, I know this content will be extremely beneficial to my future. With web skills enough to be dangerous and break things, the idea of major website planning always seemed a bit daunting. And honestly, still does. But after last night’s class, I left feeling excited and ready to put in all the hard work.
Then, I slept on it.
It still is a lot to take in but the time invested in blogging and community learning will definitely make it easier to learn and retain concepts. And, I got that all in before my morning coffee and banana. Anyways, then I headed to work and usually when I am there, I try to block school out to fully concentrate on work. But today, User Interface Design fell right into my lap, er, well on my screen.
When I research projects for examples, I check out Behance.net. If you are in graphics and have no idea what Behance.net is, bookmark it. It’s essentially a portfolio site where designers can display their work. You can search top rated portfolios/projects by other designers, Illustrators, and other artists digital or not (someone totally had chalkboard signs they made while working at Starbucks!) It’s great for inspiration. Currently, I am working on a project dealing with digital information/menu boards for a location in PMU and I wanted to see if I could find anything.
And then I found this gem.
It’s a design concept for a McDonald’s menu (get the blog title now? And it was during a break. Oh the irony!) It seems to be created by a group of students for a group project; exactly what Dr. V was getting at for our projects. It is very nice and easy to understand example. I just wish the graphics were a bit bigger when it came to the information structure and wire frames. None the less, this is a great example to go by and to a designer, a fantastic portfolio piece. The portfolios assembled at the end of class will definitely benefit anyone in the long run.
Just wanted to share a little user interface design I found by accident. Ready for an exciting class and a busy semester.
Name your α 
As a print designer, you are interested in information design – making information clear and easy to understand. Menus, time tables, posters, announcements, etc. all need to communicate clearly. A lot of the processes and principles covered in this class will come in handy.
Behance.net. is a very interesting website. Thank you for sharing.