Hello, dear readers! 👋
In this issue, among other things:
The role and subtleties of using minimalism in web design
The practical value of design tokens
The true meaning of the concept of MVP and the subtleties of its design
How does a person's attention work and how to train it
Free online service for animating variable fonts
A new multimodal ChatGPT-4V(ision) model
Online collection of photos of Prokudin-Gorsky
1000+ free linear icons on various topics
Enjoy reading!
🗞 News and articles
Less is more: The power of minimalist web design
An article in the Readymag blog about the origin and history of minimalism in art, its digital rebirth and application in modern web design, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of this approach.
For an expert opinion, the authors of the article turned to Carl Barenbrug, director of Minimalissimo studio, and asked him to describe the main principles of minimalistic design, as well as give some advice to designers. At the end of the article there is a selection of books on the topic from Carl.
The main principles of minimalism:
Simplicity
Overall restraint, but elegance and refinement in detail
Clarity and focus on the main aspects. No unnecessary functions
Geometricity and good shape structure
The balance of form and functionality. Aesthetics should not compromise the benefits of design
Advantages and disadvantages:
Minimalistic websites reduce cognitive load and facilitate decision making. This can stimulate sales growth
When creating a minimalistic website, you will have to take care that it stands out among many similar
Minimalistic websites load faster, but a simplified design will not suit every brand or concept. It is important to immerse users in the context
Simplifying the site, you need to think about how it remains attractive to users. The difficulty is to do this with minimal means
Minimalistic websites are easier to adapt to multiple devices, but are less suitable for presenting voluminous and complex information
Is your product really an MVP?
Soyeon Lee wrote about the true meaning of the concept of MVP (Minimum Viable Product), and also explained why this term is often used incorrectly.
In his article, he points out that MVP is not just the first version of the product, but it requires a minimum amount of functionality and a clear hypothesis to extract lessons from its release. This feature should be taken into account when forming the team's approach to product design and launch.
Soyeon also offered five tips based on the Lean Startup methodology, which should facilitate the development process.
⚡️ Briefly
Adobe has officially released a web version of Photoshop, which has been in beta testing since 2021. The web version is available to all holders of a subscription to standard Photoshop. There will be no free version.
The real value of tokens. And why I believe we are on the way. Erez Reznikov explained the practical value of design tokens, and also prepared a detailed guide on how to create and structure them.
New technologies
OpenAI has introduced a new multimodal ChatGPT-4V(ision) model. She can understand and synthesize voice, and also understands images. This will allow you to literally communicate with the neural network by voice as easily as with any other voice assistant.
As an example, OpenAI cited two scenarios for using multimodal mode: you can take a picture of the contents of the refrigerator and ask to make a recipe for dinner or help your child with solving a mathematical problem by photographing a textbook page.
Access to the new features is promised to be opened within the next two weeks for Plus and Enterprise users. Voice functions will only be available on iOS and Android.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to bezier.design to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.