Useful Articles about design and programing

The following articles are provided for programmers and web developers as a way to suggest good practices on the essential task of enhancing the user experience of their projects.

Vectorial Images Vs Bitmaps (Design)
Find out here what vectorial images format have to offer us in order to edit files, compare it with bitmap format, see the advantages and disadvantages of this two file categories

Some aspects of Windows Vista Icons (Design)
Article about some descriptions of the new windows vista icons(taking a close look to the design)with some tips on how to make shadows and give deepness to graphics in photoshop.

Professional Software Icons For Your Standalone Application. (Design)
Get a deeper overview about the role of the icons on the hole process of making an application. Appeal involves a lot of underlying concepts and makes the big difference on desirability. Here you will notice the most common ways to build icons for specific needs and how trends on software and web development have drastically changed from those times of command lines for each instruction until modern beauty of crystal icons.

File Types For Icons Explained (Design)
We've got used to talk about jpg files as a standard for images everywhere, mainly because of their relevance and extensive use all over the web and its browsers, but in this article it's explained a much more less known kind (the .ico) which is the appropiate file for use as icons, as well the png, another format to work with. Additionally, information about other popular image formats and the reasons why they are not acceptable when working with interfaces.

Differences between XP icons and MAC icons (Design)
It has been quite a big change the recent progresses on visual related matters from the first releases of Windows and Mac operating systems. There has been an effort to make the Windows user interface more attractive and some of its new icons have reached a fancy style. But what are at the end the differences between Win and Mac icons, and why many people have a coincident opinion about each one of them? Read this article to know more about this subject.

Custom icons for your specific brand (Design)
Normally, developers know very well how to code in order to accomplish every task in their appliances, and users handle them depending how well they can understand what they see on screen. In the midst of these two stands the designer, who recognizes the core purpose of a program and the expectancies of users and makes the relation between users and programs an aesthetic and pleasant situation.

Why you should not waste time designing your own stock icons (Design)
Certainly it has become familiar for many people to get some stuff for free on the web and try to thinker alone with it. However serious projects will always involve professional tools as long as they offer powerful means for achieving an specific purpose. If you'd like not to spend hours of work trying to make your application icons, and always getting a discouraging result, read here the facts and time-and-money-saving hints from the experts.

Using professional icons for a better communication between user and application interface (Design)
This article explains how to get a balance between an impressive looking and clear navigation. Avoid user confusion and frustration by placing the proper icons in the navigation interface. A good design combines both graphical appeal and common sense in order to optimize navigation and usability. Also know the facts about how to improve the communication amid your project and the final user of your application.

Vector icons vs bitmap icons (Design)
Depending on their use, there are different image formats for various purposes. Navigating through the web is almost always done with bitmap images because they have a photographic orientation. Vector images in return are made for exact representations and thus are best suited for icons, while are difficult for normal display on web browsers. Read this article to learn more about this subject.

Web icons in your web oriented application (Design)
It is just a matter of a few seconds that takes for a person to decide to stay or abandon a web page. Icons hold a great importance on web pages design because they determine how well a hole hypertext can be viewed at each one of its separated pages. Icons can make a web site funny, understable, cold or confusing depending how well designed they are. Find out more details about web icons design in this reading.

Advantages of Stock Icons Against Free Icons (Design)
Learn specific reasons to prefer retail icons instead whatever you may find out there for free. Normally, one can consider that freeware is the best option to have in mind when integrating components for a final product. However, such a little saving at the beginning can drive to a big loss on effectiveness and user satisfaction. Throw away disadvantageous myths about free stuff and upgrade to real professional styled icons made for only for you.