Remember, that you create for humans, so  stop being a geek.

2. Web design is not design. It is interaction.

In other word - Subordination. You can be a great graphic designer and have outstanding technical skills, but if you don’t have knowledge of both then you probably newer will be able to design a successful site. It is very important to know how people interact with site and what happening in server side. If you know at least possibilities of CMS of site what you make, and how good is your team techies on AJAX, than it can bring a whole new world to you.

3. Use your friends to make your designs user friendly

First of all test your site on your friends and get their opinion. You may ask them questions what you never can ask for your creative director/boss or client (in case if question is silly or stupid). Critique hurts, so better to have some strong language conversation with someone who will forget this soon. Just remember, ask the right question. Use - what yo don’t like about this design, instead of using phrases like - how you like. Ask about details if they like how site looks overall. There is always something to improve. But don’t make them to think that they are able to change something -  you just asking for opinion.

4. Believe your own eyes

Colour psychology  sucks and it is scientifically approved. For example, death is symbolized by black in most Western cultures and by white in many Eastern cultures. Lamborgini Gilardo is best looking when coloured yellow because of cheapness?  Rule of thirds in web design.. what the heck? Yeah, bad experience with book reading, again.  But remember that there is the huge gap between breaking the rules and ignoring them. So, if you think something looks bad than this is looking bad,  and no rule can change it.

5. Be accurate not slow

Time always isn’t enough. But you can spend it more useable. Coding in notepad is not so cool anymore. Use software with tag auto-complete and function/classes inserter. And think twice before program something your self, because 99% things is already done by others and most of creators even is happy to share with it. It refers to design as well. And learn this from heart, indeed! http://morris-photographics.com/photoshop/shortcuts/

6. Change environment

If someone asks - Where you design your sites?, most common answer  is “in Photoshop”. But how about meadow or Starbuck?  Generate your ideas in different places on different medium and test design in different environments. Why? Try yourself and you will get the clue.

7. Try different software & technics

Sometimes, software also can change the way you think. In Textmate code looks dirtier than in DW, and designs made in Fireworks  looks more professional than in Photoshop and Apple sucks. Maybe. 37signs don’t make mock-ups at all. They found their own technic and, actually, their works doesn’t look so bad at all.  They make prototypes on paper instead of using some digital solution.

8. Choose right music

If you are making site for Car tuning company, you should listen to dance music. If you need to create a web site for insurance company than choose something slow and positive; if Art then Jazz, etc. Music can be extremely helpful, to get your self in to right mood.

9. Inspiration

Macintosh GUI idea author Steve Jobs got his idea from Typography. Bill Gates got his idea using Macintosh and Jimmy Hendrix simply smoked “white widow”.  You can get your design ideas everywhere. So, be prepared. Always have something to write on your ideas and camera with you (or modern phone?). You newer know where and when you will get inspiration or see some interesting pattern, typography or advertising.

“When I was a kid, my favorite color was blue. Not just any blue, but Crayola Crayon cerulean blue, shown in Figure 2.5. Yeah, I was a weird kid. On the touchy-feely level, blue symbolizes openness, intelligence, and faith. Physiologically, blue has been found to calm people down, but it can also reduce appetite “

The problem is that good designers earn with their works but average want to make money in some other way. Good designers simple dont have a time to write more than a blog post time to time and maybe even don’t want to share with knowledge they have. In marketing, copy-writing and even in advertising this is different. These professionals write books to advertise them selves, but do web designers need to advertise them selves to other designers?

Things not so bad at all. There is plenty of good books what can make you a better designer. For example this one - Designing interfaces. But again, this is like Swiss knife. Suitable to do any function but badder than single tool. The solution could be that book could be written by multiple authors or concentrate on single aspect - like forms. Every book should be written like this one - Designing Web Navigation: Optimizing the User Experience.

But maybe problem is in Publishing companies, because there is small number so called Experts and Gurus and this make hard to gain money with so small audience.

In the end of 2007 I made first wordpress based site - www.remember-this.info . Agree that domain name could be better.

In march I made another one and purchased a domain name - www.grandovskis.com. Actually this is my surname, so, this is way better. Previous release was too complicated.  Used a lot of plugins without actual reason. Made even my owns, because there was so many of them, that they conflicted by each other (WP developers know what I am talking about). But this site was more like experiment and another way to improve my PHP and HTML/CSS.

And here we are. Current version code named “London”. Best things are simple and this design is made to approve this.

Marilyn Monroe is an icon. You can use her image and say a lot, instantly. Same with the Mona Lisa.

Is it possible to be more of a blonde bombshell than Monroe? Of course you can be better looking or more blonde or more married to intellectual celebrities or dour sports stars. Is it possible to paint a better painting than the Mona Lisa? Definitely.

It doesn’t matter.

Once there’s an icon in place, it’s there because it’s working. It serves a purpose, it carries useful information and performs a valuable function. There will never (or not for a generation, anyway) be the next Marilyn Monroe because this Marilyn Monroe isn’t broken. Countless artists have seen themselves as the next Jackson Pollock, but as far as the lay public is concerned, we don’t really need one, thanks very much.

Google, of course, is the Marilyn Monroe of search. I have no doubt that someone will develop a useful tool one day that takes time and attention away from Google, but it won’t be a search engine. Google, after all, isn’t broken, not in terms of solving the iconic “how do I find something online using my web browser” question.