Great Design Resources for the Graphically Challenged
11.06.2008 | Web Design
For some reason, many entrepreneurs that have great vision often can’t translate that vision in the execution of the user interface. Speaking from experience, I’m sure many of you have admin pages where a blank field or drop down exists with a submit button and no descriptions or instructions on how to use the mysterious feature. After all, the admin pages are designed by you, for you and you know exactly what its supposed to do – so why bother? Sadly, many entrepreneurs also take the same approach for laying out the public facing website which of course, leads to confusion and a poor user experience.
Luckily, it’s now easier than ever to translate your thoughts using advanced tools or web based services. If you are graphically challenged, you can now get some help.
I had the pleasure of designing some mockups using Balsamiq as part of START Atlanta’s team. This software makes it SOOOOO easy to design new pages its not even funny. It’s basically as good as designing rough wireframes on paper or in Photoshop except you won’t have to scan the paper afterwards or waste hours in photoshop to get everything layered and pixeled correctly. The tool is also simple enough to use that even an non-graphical idiot CEO can piece together some elements to get the page close to what he envisions. If you need a tool to jump start you from concept to rough sketch, I’d highly recommend this tool.
99 Designs is a service I just learned about that I haven’t had the chance to use. However, from the design of the website and the sample work I’ve seen by their community, you definitely have a lot of potential to get some great work for bargin prices.
The site basically allows you to create contests where you specify your design needs and a bounty and designers get to work based on your descriptions and feedback. The best thing about this service is you get to see your work before you pay for it so ultimately, you win.
As a graphically challenged person, if you combine the wireframe tool and submitting the wireframes to designers at 99 Designs, you should be able to get a great mockup of your new website for under $500. This is a lot cheaper and faster than paying a professional designer thousands only to get the work after a few weeks. Your mileage may very…
Related posts: