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Concept of Design
“Dream a little dream...”
To start with, i'd like to suggest a few tips on making the most of your 'production' time you spend thinking about designs. I myself like to sketch (with a pencil & paper) some basic shapes and then play around with creating different combinations of them. I'll draw two or three primary shapes, and try to visualize how individual combinations might look together. Then, i'll draw out a few of those combinations and see if anything catches my eye. If any do, i'll try taking them even further by experimenting with adding a few more primary shapes to them. If one shape doesn't seem to work, i'll try another one until i strike on an overall basic shape (made from combining the primary shapes together) that pleases my eye, and i feel would work well with the design of my site.
Now, while the initial combination of shapes may catch your eye when you first sketch it, it may very well change as you get further into creating your Interface.
More on that later though.
You can spend a lot of time coming up with almost unlimited combinations of these shapes. And that could drag on for a good long while. Perhaps even to the point of boring you, or dulling your creative senses. So in that case, this is what i'd suggest you do;
- Take some time to just sit down and use your imagination first before picking up a pencil and digging in. A good way to get inspiration is to have a little 'day-dream' session. I know that may sound a tad odd, but it really works well once you learn how to relax enough to the point where you can be staring out a window and not be looking at any one thing in particular, just gazing. While running over in your mind what type of Interface design you'd like to create. Try it.
- Another way to tap those creative juices is to perhaps watch some television. I find kids shows and knowledge or learning channels to be the best catalysts to spark my imagination. Especially science shows. I think that's because you get to see a lot of odd, cool, and very intreging shapes and patterns on those kinds of programs. And that can help fuel your imagination toward accomplishing your goal; creating an interesting, yet functionally designed Interface.
But while you're having your little 'day-dreaming' session, always keep the thought in your mind that you're trying to be inspired towards creating your Interface. Don't let yourself get too caught up in the things you're seeing and hearing. And, if during that time, you feel inspired from something, then grab your pencil and begin your sketches.
 Now don't get me wrong here, i do not spend the better part of my day staring out windows or into a glass box... well... not a TV box anyway :?)
I only use those methods when i don't already have any ideas in mind for a design. But that's what the key point here is;
- to make the most of the productive time you spend on your project, have something already in mind or prepared before you start physically working on it on the computer.
That will definately save you some time. And in return, you'll feel better afterwards that you've accomplished something during the time you spent working. All this is is a simple, good work ethic that can help produce big dividends (like a positive, enthusiastic attitude) when it comes time to begin the 'hands-on' part of your project.
By the way... if you already have some good visualization techniques that work for you, good, then continue to use them. If not, try the ones above.
Ok, now that we're all on the right path to priming our creative forces, let's start getting into developing our basic design.
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