With the job, that I do, I’m always on the lookout for nice design when it comes to digital interfaces – especially websites.

To get some stats up for my WordPress blog I had to get an API which meant I needed to sign up for an account at WordPress.com and then ‘checkout’ at Akismet. Sounds horrific but it actually wasn’t all that bad. Especially since the ‘you’re looking for an API’ message was carried through the whole journey, quite prominently. Akismet, at the end, tried to prompt you to donate (see below). It took me a while to work out what this sudden payment was but the presence of the slider helped. When you slide it to the end, all the payment options drop off. Nice.

And for LinkedIn. I’ve put (kind of) alongside the heading because I like this bit of the LinkedIn experience but I found it while going in to opt-out of the Social Advertising I’d been opted in for. Naughty.

Anyways, Linkedin had a button on the right labelled ‘Improve Your Profile’. It’s also in yellow … heck, who wouldn’t click it?

But then they pop up a blue box that takes you, step-by-step, to adding to your profile – what LinkedIn love the most seeing as they came up with the ‘Your Profile is only 75% complete’ bar a while ago. The steps are presented in ample space, with a nice design, and in a very effortless way. I almost filled it in … but I remembered what I was here to do!

Copy-only billboard ads have really impressed me recently. Maybe before I never really engaged with them much. and maybe the constant bombarding of the same old stock-photo led billboards have led my eye to ‘rest’ on these image-less spaces.

Anyhow, this particular one was a job ad on the Charing Cross tube station platform. Brilliant, contextual, relevant, and just well-written …

Don’t underestimate the power of words when creating an experience …

Watching the BBC’s ‘Restoration Home’ about people restoring old dilapidated stately homes to their former glories, and family homes.

One part caught my attention. When talking about great architects who designed and built these amazing buildings, these types of architects treated a building’s staircase as ‘not just something to get you upstairs, but more a statement of intent’. I believe this applies to all design, especially our work in digital, and creating truly great experiences for the user. What separates the best from the rest is how you treat the ‘staircases’ of your design. Do you just put down the standard, easy-to-build, lets-spend-our-energy-elsewhere staircase or do you treat it – and all the other bits of detail – as an opportunity to create something amazing?

… doesn’t look like a third-party banner dropped in in the middle of nowhere, designed totally out-of-context from the page where it lives. Yes, it’s probably not practical on all pages but at least make your own, key, ads and promotions complement your main pages. // End of mild-rant.

Includes all of the below:

- Intuitive IA;
- Sexy interaction design;
- Awesome photography;
- Useful Information-designed content;
- On-brand copy with personality;
- Amazingly detailed visual design;
- Useful features – expected ones;
- Bonus features;
- Platform reliability & speed;
- Mobile integration;
- White / negative space;
- New regular content updates …

And maybe, if you’re lucky enough to have ONE design-oriented decision-maker …