Visual Hierarchy
Editor's Pick in Design Principles, May 2005
Hierarchy. Creating website navigation, dear friends, is all about establishing hierarchy. This tutorial will teach you how it’s done.
Containment Explained
'Containment' is the effect where one or more elements is shown as part of a group or category, through a visual mechanism. There are two variations of mechanism: strict encapsulation, where the element is totally contained within a box; and softer containment...
read moreLogical Order
There is a natural flow to many visual interactions - the flow of a visual dialogue between page your features and your user's private mental commentary. When laying out forms and other screen elements, read the layout like a conversation, working from the page origin...
read moreGrouping Elements
Grouping similar elements helps the brain quickly decode a page layout. Proximity, Alignment, Containment, Rhythm and Styling are all tools that help indicate grouping...
read moreAligning Elements
Alignment is another way of creating associations between visual elements, which help users quickly understand the relationships of objects on a page. Alignment works by visually associating a number of elements...
read moreRhythm and Repetition
Aside from alignment and grouping, elements can be linked using rhythm: a regular or irregular repetition of common stylistic features. Rhythm is the most subtle and abstract of the 'associating' tools...
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Drawing a Transparent Plastic Icon (Exclusive Tutorial)
Editor's Pick in Photoshop Tutorials, May 2005
Ever seen icons that look like transparent plastic? Want to make some of your own? With this tutorial you’ll learn how it’s done.
Discover the Pattern Stamp
Create a new layer on your open document by clicking on the new layer icon at the bottom of the layers palette as shown. Now you have a new blank layer you can work on. Grab your paint bucket tool (this is one of the methods) and click to fill that entire layer with your foreground color...
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Discover the Blur Tool
You can use the blur tool to...you guessed it...BLUR. It's a great tool to soften pixels up. As with several other tools, you can change the size of the blur brush and even choose a hardness setting...
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Discover the Sharpen Tool
The sharpen tool isn't all that effective but you should be aware of it. With it you can sharpen pixels within the area of the brush that you use (sound familiar?). Once again you'll have brush palette options so you can choose the size of the sharpen brush...
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