There is a huge lesson I have learned while studying architecture at the university… …yes, I am an architect who really likes web development, and for all those who might ask themselves what am I doing behind the keyboard, I should explain that the architecture career in Venezuela, is design centered, not that technical as in USA or Europe.

Anyway, thing is that I learned that the less I lied to myself, the better designer I became. But how do you manage not to lie to yourself? Quite easy. Don’t lie to your professors, teachers, boss, clients, etc.

A simple case scenario would be when you get to class with a project you have been working just for two days, when you know it would take much more to entirely resolve it. Unless you had a team which you gracefully directed and managed to make everyone fit on the project, IT WILL BE INCOMPLETE.

Another case would be that you come up with a mockup of a website the same day you have the meeting with the client to check out the progress of the project. No matter how much effort you put onto explaining how things will look like, your client knows it’s poorly executed. That doesn’t reflect good working habits and will led to a shortage on the confidence given to you.

So, you might think that the two cases I’ve mentioned would be you trying to cheat on others, but actually the only one who’s being fooled is you and that, is kind of sad.

So, stop laying to yourself, but how?

As you might have read, lies in this case are a consequence of not having dedicated the right amount of time and work to something. Whatever the cause of the lack of time is, name it slacking, too much projects at the same time, incapability to perform on something you don’t handle that well, you got to go to the source of the problem and start being truthful to yourself and those you try to fool.

Stop slacking, don’t take that much projects at the same time, organize your time better, tell your client the real amount of time you need to do something instead of saying it will be ready in two weeks when you actually know is practically impossible, and when the time comes to tell someone, the work they have been waiting for is not ready, tell the truth. You would be surprised how understanding people is in front of honesty (of course, you cannot abuse on their trust, and way much more if they have paid you on advance to start the project).

I myself found me quite a lot of times on situations like these, and the outcome started to become good by the time I started being truthful to myself. Nowadays, I tell clients that the project is going to be ready in twice the amount of time that fires through my head during the conversation. They will of course beg for a shortage of the period, and there is where you have got to express these nice sentences:

“If I tell you that the wait will be shorter, I would be lying to you, but I prefer telling you the truth and so we all are aware of what to expect and we wouldn’t sour our relation as a firm and a client in case of a delay on a deadline I first knew I couldn’t meet.”

Brutal honesty, but those would be the best words you could ever tell to someone in order to gain their trust.

Start doing it and you will see how things start falling in place.

Pic Credits: Slacking Pics taken from of  The_Uptake and slworking

For as long as the greek ruled the western world, there has been th knowlodge of grids to compose structures, sculptures, paintings and designing stuff. Actually, the nature itself has got its ideal grid to build stuff.  Those who don’t have design instruction, maybe don’t know this fact, so i introduce you to a really useful rule filed under the name of  “golden ratio” or “golden section” from the latin phrase sectio aurea wich is represented by the number 1.61803399.

The golden ratio is the proportion in wich nature creates it’s stuff. It is like a magic number wich sets the basis of proportional growth. it is in flowers, snails, spirals, trees and also the human body as illustrated by Corbusier on its Modulor Studies and drawings.

So, you might be thinking on what does this relate to web design? WEll, actually a lot! cause you can implement a grid system wich will be allways proportional in a natural way using the golden section wich will lead to a better feeling of your visitors while browsing your page.

Lets make an example of a two column page on the most common wordpress configuration around.

You have to draw a sidebar that is 300px wide for ad purposes, so the other column width, whre your content will be placed, should be 485px wide, because 300 x 1.618 = 485.4 This makes a total amount of 785px, fitting your page in the 800 x 600 screen resolution.

You might think but what about the space  left to fit the 1024 x 768 resolution? well, you could make this proportion grow on both columns by resolving the following equation, taking for granted that the usable space in that resolution is 1010px:

1) First equation

1010 = A + B

2) Second Equation

1.618 = B/A

3) Use Second equation to get a value of B in terms of A

B = 1.618 x A

4) Use the previous value of B in the first equation to get the value of A

1010 = A + (A x 1.618)

Use Distributive property to match a as a standalone variable

1010 = A x (1 + 1.618)

1010 = A x 2.618

1010/2.618 = A

A = 385.7

5) Having the value of A, lets find the value of B

B = 1010 – 385.7

B = 624, 3

6) Let’s round up to have pixel numbers

A =385

B = 625

And there we got the magic numbers for a two colum sit in 1024 screen resolution width.

Of course, there is a less geeky way to do this, and it is by having the golden spiral drawing, wich gives you the exact golden proportions to handle when creating a site. Hand this over illustrator or photoshop to expand or shrink and you are set to make.

Golden Ratio Spiral (Adobe Illustrator AI zipped) 941Kb

PHOTO CREDITS: The golden ratio in the growth of a Cactus pic was taken by Benjamin Penter