4 ms·

Don't use photoshop to design interfaces, use css, html, illustrator and photoshop to design interfaces. Interfaces are not two dimensional and static, they ar

Don't use photoshop to design interfaces, use css, html, illustrator and photoshop to design interfaces. Interfaces are not two dimensional and static, they are three dimensional (time) in the sense that hey have to be interactive. Flat graphics are not interactive. If you are going to just use photoshop, use a pencil, it's cheaper and easier.

coldcode 13y ago
Yes, the world has changed and interactivity and animation are just as important as pretty pictures.
nathanbarry 13y ago
I agree many interactions should be designed directly in the browser, but even the designers I know that champion designing in the browser (Ryan Singer, etc) take a screenshot and move into Photoshop when they have something complicated to design.
- harwoodleon 13y ago
  Yes, that's why I said use it as part of a set of tools. It is useful of course, but over reliance on it as a tool for designing is a continuing issue for development teams all over the world, right now. People waste a lot of time iterating over pretty pictures and then pass all the hard work to front end engineers to sort out the cruft. Worse still is when you then get a PM that wants the whole pixel perfect thing to jump through HTML5 hoops. With very little consideration to the time element of design, you are left with a lot of pretty images that you may as well start again with. In browser designing is not an optional path to take. If it is going to end up in the browser it will have to be designed at some point in the browser, so designers should dump pixel perfect tools like photoshop as their main iterating tool. Photoshop is still a pixel tool and getting old, Illustrator is now better for interface improvement IMO as it has pixel preview and can output svg too :).
raverbashing 13y ago
And that's why a lot of people design using Flash CSS and HTML? A Designer does not need to know that to produce a design.
- seivan 13y ago
  That's one useless designer.. if the designer does can't produce their own fucking design. That's where we get photoshop monkeys. 30 mb PSD vs someone who can code their design. Your pick.
  - nathanbarry 13y ago
    Agreed. That is one useless designer. When I hired designers I would only hire people who could write front-end code as well as they designed.
    - raverbashing 13y ago
      I understand that there may be a need of that in small projects I've did both: having a design than translation to HTML and people that could do both There's an advantage to someone that will focus only on the design and another that will focus on only translating that to HTML/CSS/JS namely, that someone that can do both very well is rare But of course, if they can do the design and a basic html/css of it usually can move the project faster. You will not have the greatest design or greatest html/css but it will usually arrive at a good solution
- harwoodleon 13y ago
  You mean a web designer? or just a designer? If you are going to design for the web and you DON'T know HTML and CSS then you are pretty fucked.
- nelmaven 13y ago
  A designer needs to know the medium he's working with and it's limitations to produce a good design.

coldcode 13y ago

Yes, the world has changed and interactivity and animation are just as important as pretty pictures.

nathanbarry 13y ago

I agree many interactions should be designed directly in the browser, but even the designers I know that champion designing in the browser (Ryan Singer, etc) take a screenshot and move into Photoshop when they have something complicated to design.

harwoodleon 13y ago
Yes, that's why I said use it as part of a set of tools. It is useful of course, but over reliance on it as a tool for designing is a continuing issue for development teams all over the world, right now. People waste a lot of time iterating over pretty pictures and then pass all the hard work to front end engineers to sort out the cruft. Worse still is when you then get a PM that wants the whole pixel perfect thing to jump through HTML5 hoops. With very little consideration to the time element of design, you are left with a lot of pretty images that you may as well start again with. In browser designing is not an optional path to take. If it is going to end up in the browser it will have to be designed at some point in the browser, so designers should dump pixel perfect tools like photoshop as their main iterating tool. Photoshop is still a pixel tool and getting old, Illustrator is now better for interface improvement IMO as it has pixel preview and can output svg too :).

raverbashing 13y ago

And that's why a lot of people design using Flash CSS and HTML? A Designer does not need to know that to produce a design.

seivan 13y ago
That's one useless designer.. if the designer does can't produce their own fucking design. That's where we get photoshop monkeys. 30 mb PSD vs someone who can code their design. Your pick.
- nathanbarry 13y ago
  Agreed. That is one useless designer. When I hired designers I would only hire people who could write front-end code as well as they designed.
  - raverbashing 13y ago
    I understand that there may be a need of that in small projects I've did both: having a design than translation to HTML and people that could do both There's an advantage to someone that will focus only on the design and another that will focus on only translating that to HTML/CSS/JS namely, that someone that can do both very well is rare But of course, if they can do the design and a basic html/css of it usually can move the project faster. You will not have the greatest design or greatest html/css but it will usually arrive at a good solution
harwoodleon 13y ago
You mean a web designer? or just a designer? If you are going to design for the web and you DON'T know HTML and CSS then you are pretty fucked.
nelmaven 13y ago
A designer needs to know the medium he's working with and it's limitations to produce a good design.