Lack of inspiration can be one of the most frustrating parts of being a web designer. If you have felt the depressing and deflating feeling of “designer’s block”, including a lack of true inspiration, don’t worry–you’re not alone. Every designer suffers through this from time to time, its just part of the process. Remember that true design inspiration never comes in the first few minutes or even hours of a project, but is brought forth through many “horrible” concepts, sketches and ideas. This process is what defines the actual inspiration. It’s working through those first irritating and frustrating attempts that helps you better understand what doesn’t work.

Why do most agencies show three different designs for one home page? Not only is it budget and time consuming, but more importantly, this practice typically adds to client confusion and puts the design at a high risk of being “Frankensteined”.

What is graceful degradation?

1. a euphemism for explaining the paradox of beauty and shame
2. providing full-blown super-fancy designs and functionality to newer capable browsers while serving a simpler design and basic functionality to older browsers
3. engaging in corrupt behaviors with such loveliness and charm that defilement is canceled out

In the course of our 10 years of work in this field, there are a few things that have come up again and again. We thought we’d share these things with you.