Good typography makes a design more appealing, leading a reader across the whole web page according to the importance of different text, but it is not just about the style, size and family of the font. It’s about realizing the high level of visual hierarchy that can be reached with the use of typography.

Since a screenshot worth thousand words, in this post we are willing to deliver you tips on improving typography in your web design and eventually 16 website screenshots with great typography applied, and the resources that will guide your typography skill to a higher level. It’s not just about what you say, but how you say it, right? Depending on your purpose, we could try to experiment more and get creative with our typography. We can be bold and daring with strong, large letters, or get quirky and unique with handwritten type. We should keep in mind that type should always be legible, because there’s no point in showing off type that no one can read. Type can do so much for a design if it sets rhythm and creates an atmosphere.notep

It’s easy to resort to working more to resolve these new challenges. What comes naturally? Do a desktop and mobile-sized wireframe, then turn around and design a desktop and mobile-sized layout. This sort of solves the problem. You and your developer have more to work with, at least. However, what about all the device widths in-between—you’ll have to cover those as well, right?

At this point, you wake up and realize you’re stuck in a familiar loop of ever-increasing deliverables and ever-shrinking profits. Using this old process to tackle new problems doesn’t really solve any of them, and it’s going to kill you from lack of sleep, make you poor from lack of profit, or both.
There are some good ideas floating around dealing with new processes. Some smart folks are of the very sensible opinion that the only answer is to design in the browser. However, other smart folks have admitted for the quiet rest of us that it’s really, really hard to design freely in the browser—at least with current tools.
Of the emerging new process ideas, those that involve responsive HTML/CSS prototypes look very promising. I’m planning to investigate these further. However, there are some definite challenges with this approach, not the least of which is the time it takes to create them when the site content is complex. Most of the examples I’ve seen are fairly generic, which doesn’t translate well to real projects.
Currently, we are successfully using a different approach. It attempts to optimize content, design, and development time, finding a budget-friendly balance of appropriate direction from all disciplines—something that is effective, lean and uses quick, widely-accessible tools.

[From smashingmagazine.com]

The landscape surrounding Reine is simply stunning – the winding streets and brightly colored houses of the village cluster around the calm blue waters of the sea, with lush, sloping green hills forming an idyllic background. Meanwhile, all around the village for miles to see, enormous, snow-capped mountains rise like islands from the ocean, creating a formidable, awe-inspiring view.

In Reine, you’ll likely stay in rorbuer, old fishermen’s cottages that have been converted to accommodations for visitors. Activities include fishing, of course — either with yourself or with others on a local boat — as well as kayaking, whale watching, biking and bird spotting.

You can camp under the stars on nearby beaches, catch a ferry to a neighboring village or conquer some of Norway’s best hikes. One, which takes hikers up the mountain called Reinebringen, leads adventurers to breathtaking views of the island chain from above.

You’ll also catch aurora borealis from about September through April on chilly, clear nights.
In Reine, everything is utterly quiet, quaint and more than beautiful. This is the way nature intended it to be one of the most beautiful villages in the world.

However, some steps can be repeated for every project. These are steps we know and should make as quick as possible in order to have more freedom to experiment with new solutions. Following tips will help you to improve your workflow.

#Tips 1: Applying Changes All Around

Wildcard CSS rules are recommended by the web designers all time. You have to use a global indicator (*) – which empowers you to apply any progressions all-inclusive to the entire page. This can truly help you save your time, particularly in the introductory phases of configuration.

#Tips 2: Using CodeKit With Browser Reloading

CodeKit will help you to see any progressions made to the program without reloading the website page. It is particularly suggested for Mac users. It makes the ease of rolling out browser changes worth the little cost brought about to get it.

#Tips 3: Using FitVids To Embed Videos

Even with the easiest video embedding that comes with HTML5, web designers still face problems – empowering responsive resizing for videos and guaranteeing degradation on Flash where the HTML5 video embedding is not upheld. FitVids is a jQuery plugin which takes care of both issues.

#Tips 4: Using Grid Frameworks

Another effective tips is to use grid framework where the quantity of segments is totally separable by 4, 3 and 2. This gives the 12-segment matrix which is exceptionally famous in light of the fact that it is very flexible.

#Tips 5: Use 8 Bit PNG Format

Where you are attempting to fare to PNG from Photoshop, this old-school trick may help: in the event that you need not bother with it to be straightforward, send out as 8-bit PNG, which at times influences nature of the picture, however drastically cuts down file size.

John Long at The Ship’s Log has 3 simple questions (and sub-questions) to ask when considering your product.

Is it Usable?

And now for the sub-questions!

Is the heart of the application easy to use?
Are the entry points (landing pages, signup, etc.) straightforward?
Will the average customer understand how to get started?
Is the copy used in your application helpful, instructive, and intuitive?
What are the common pitfalls? How can you design the application so that those are never experienced?

Is it Credible?

Credibility isn’t necessarily the VeriSign certificate—think polish. Does your product have the credibility that makes someone want to use your application because of the way it looks and feels?

“Credibility is about dressing to impress. If the custom fitted suit and gold watch don’t impress your clients and help you become a real, viable business then you’ll have spent valuable time and money creating something with no value.”

Is it Easy to Change?

No product design is perfect; expect to get some customer feedback and need to make spur-of-the-moment changes. Look out for:

Cramming too many functions into one screen.
Using technology in key places that is not well supported by the majority of browsers.
Trying to achieve desktop-caliber controls.
Making features Javascript-heavy that could be pure HTML.
Using an excessive number of images (pure HTML is much easier to maintain).

[From labs.openviewpartners.com]

Max Marmer, founder of Startup Genome, presents six. It seems essential to know how to face each of them so the startup survives:

Discovery

Your first task as an entrepreneur is to consider how you would like to change the world. Identify a problem, come up with a solution and see if anyone – especially potential users and clients – might be interested in your idea.

Beyond the possibility of getting accepted in a startup accelerator and gathering funds from family and friends, this first phase requires developing the minimum viable product (MVP) that will enable surveying the market and getting a sense of the project’s acceptance.

This is what Dropbox did at the beginning. The cloud storage website published a video explaining its service using an MVP and, furthermore, the appearance it would have. This video was one of the strategies that enabled the company to reach 75,000 users whilst in beta form.

Validation

A startup’s service or products go from being hypothetical solutions to a problem to hitting the street and looking for the first clients ready to pay for it. At this stage, money will be the only way to effectively measure whether the public validates your project.

This is precisely what growing numbers of technological companies do when starting crowdfunding campaigns.

Pebble, the record-breaking smartwatch, managed to raise $10million in Kickstarter. This is an impressive example of crowdfunding validation. People wanted a smartwatch, and they were willing to pay for it in advance.

Efficiency

In order to successfully overcome this third phase, the best allies will be market studies and, more than ever, the advice of a good investor. Listen to the voice of experience.

At this point, the entrepreneur has to analyse characteristics and variables of everything that surrounds the startup (market, clients, etc.) in order to find the business model that adjusts best to the environment.The aim is to increase the customer base in the most effective way possible, preventing growth from stifling the project.

Scale

It is time to prove the business’s scalability – its capacity to grow in a sustainable manner (keeping costs down). The startup has to be ready to fight in international markets and offer great margins of benefit. It is time to step on the gas and push the growth aggressively – it is time for the larger fundraising rounds.

That is how Airbnb and the controversial Uber have managed to grow to the point of being present in countless corners globally. A couple of fundraising rounds of over $1billion in the first case, and around $0.5billion in the second, show how these are good examples of internationalisation..

Maintenance

Once the step has been taken to reach other markets with support of large fundraising rounds, it is time to shore up the project’s bases so the structure that youhave put so much effort into building does not collapse.

Maximising benefits and facing problems derived from the global dimension that the startup has acquired are key in this phase. The greatest risk is taking for granted that, having reached certain success, everything is done. Don’t stand by to admire your product; there are problems that can put the longevity of your business project at risk.

Sale or renewal

Your business model works, or is at least credible. You have the funding needed to internationalise the company, and you have carried it out successfully. Now what? Experience tells us that there are two ways: to sell the startup to a giant (Google, Facebook, Apple…) or to go public and try becoming one of the ‘unicorns’.

Only in this way you can acquire the huge resources that the brand will need to continue growing, renewing its products, and reinventing itself constantly in order to confront a dynamic market.

[From unconvention.eu]