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It’s a wrap. This session has covered a mix of interface design topics. We’ve looked at quite a bit of inspirational icon and graphic user interface design articles, after reviewing theory on topics like creating user friendly interfaces. We’ve reviewed both in depth detailed tutorials and case studies. This session posted across numerous Tuts+ sites: Nettuts+, Psdtuts+, and Mobiletuts+. We’ll continue to expand each session as we cover new topics and integrate your feedback. Let us know what you think of this session’s material.

Interface Design – CS Content

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  Getting Started with Interface Design

  In this article we look at five fields that you should aim to learn more about in order to rock at interface design. These fields include Experience Design, Interaction Design, Information Architecture, User-Centered Design, and Graphic User Interface (GUI) Design.

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  Three Steps to Fostering a User-Centered Design Culture

  As responsible designers we must educate clients on the importance – both the validity as well as the viability – of the user-centered design process, one that gives due consideration to the needs of potential users. With the three steps that follow, we’ll go over techniques that you can use to get your team thinking about what’s really important with regards to the design of their websites you’ll help them create.

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  Roughly Speaking: Working within Mobile UI Design Limitations

  Today we chat with two mobile user interface designers about how they design successful mobile interfaces and intuitive navigation solutions. We’ll learn how Sacha Greif works with the limited space of the iPad by using space saving UI Elements. Eryk Pastwa discusses how to design for multiple mobile sizes, and how to properly test designs for maximum real world uses. Take a peek at their workflows, and the best practices they both put into place in their projects.

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  Showcase of Macintosh Dashboard Widget UI Designs

  This inspirational compilation post showcases a collection of 32 creative, unique and easy to use Apple Macintosh Dashboard Widgets, including a selection of default widgets that ship with your Apple Mac, and a good handful or two of third party widgets.

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  Designing Realistic Interfaces – Part 1

  You have to be great in many areas of Photoshop to be good at interface design. So along with the actual steps needed to create this particular interface, in this series I will also provide as many references to other tutorials, resources and concepts as possible. That way, you can have access to some of the tools that will allow you to create completely original interfaces utilizing the same methods I teach in collaboration with your own creativity. Let’s get started with Part 1 of this two part series.

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  Designing Realistic Interfaces – Part 2

  You have to be great in many areas of Photoshop to be good at interface design. So along with the actual steps needed to create this particular interface, in this series I will also provide as many references to other tutorials, resources and concepts as possible. That way, you can have access to some of the tools that will allow you to create completely original interfaces utilizing the same methods I teach in collaboration with your own creativity. Let’s move on with Part 2 of this two part series.

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  Know Your Icons Part 1 – A Brief History of Computer Icons

  As with great works of art, you must look into the past to appreciate the future. With roots as far back as the 1970′s, the humble icon has come a long way. Following is a collection of icons though history. Although there have been many other operating systems in the time between 1981 – 2010, I’ve hand picked the ones of the most significance to modern icon design. These designs show just a small fraction of the icons in the many and varied User Interfaces throughout the years.

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  Know Your Icons Part 2 – Modern Icon Design

  In the last installment you learned about the history of icon design and how it has evolved from black and white representations of office items into full colored, glassy, hyper-rendered, isometric representations of… office items. In this installment I will be delving further into the world of icons and exploring what icons mean to us today.

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  Exploring Graphic User Interface Styles – from Minimal to Futuristic

  A user interface (UI) can come in many styles ranging graphically from very simple, all the way to extremely complex. In this article we are going to explore a range of styles demonstrating that there isn’t just one recipe for creating a good looking, and ultimately successful user interface. Of course, not every style is represented in this article; we will be exploring several high-quality examples, representing a wide range of graphical styles from simple to complex. Enjoy!

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  iPad Magazine Interface Design

  A great magazine is more than just a collection of articles around a theme or idea, it’s a curated editorial experience. Through layout design and copy it can take you to different places and teach you new things. The release of the iPad has kicked off the latest chapter in the history of magazine design. I’ve been working with a startup, Sideways.com, to create our own magazine publishing platform and here is what we’ve done.

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Your Thoughts on this Digital Illustration Session

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Today, we have another Psd Premium tutorial exclusively available to Premium members. If you want to take your design skills to the next level, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn more after the jump!

This Premium Tutorial is Filled with Creative Tips

Urban art has fast become the de-facto graphic style for practically all things associated with youth culture. Extreme sports, clothing, and music have all been heavily influenced by its gritty, low-brow appeal. Today’s premium tutorial by author Mark Mayers will show you how to re-create a popular style of stencil graffiti art without getting your hands messy or winding up in jail!

Mark is a talented designer and illustrator from the UK. He has worked as a designer and creative director for several design/advertising agencies and specializes in print, branding, packaging, and exhibition graphics. Mark began his career when the tools of the trade were markers, layout pads, and most importantly, the ability to draw, but he embraced the digital revolution in the early 90′s and swapped his drawing board for a Mac. Today, Mark freelances from his studio in Cornwall for such clients as American Express, BMW, Future Publishing, IDG Communications and Imagine Publishing. Log in or Join Now to get started!

Professional and Detailed Instructions Inside

Premium members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now! Below are some sample images from this tutorial.

Psd Premium Membership

As you know, we run a premium membership system here that costs $9 a month (or $22 for 3 months!) which gives members access to the Source files for tutorials as well as periodic extra tutorials, like this one! You’ll also get access to Net Premium and Vector Premium, too. If you’re a Premium member, you can log in and download the tutorial. If you’re not a member, you can of course join today!

There are few things i hate more than a snapshot of myself….my nose looks large, my eyes are non-existent, and my face is round. Snapshots don’t usually get the pro retouch…but I really like my friends and would like to keep them as friends…so I do the 5 min retouch on my snapshots.
I had my husband take this image of me right after I woke up..no make up…no coffee… I’m sorry if you get scared..but why not start with the worst….

use the spot-heal brush to remove any dots

Next comes the teeth. Most of us have some yellow tones on our teeth (darn my addiction to coffee!) so,from the bottom of the Layer palette click the black and white icon (1) and choose Color Balance

Up the blue slider a bit. Because yellow and blue are opposites on the color wheel they cancel each other out .

Add a mask, inverse it (ctrl or Cmd + I. Using white as the foreground color, paint back in the teeth so they are white ( you may end up lowering to opacity of the layer too)

I often add a brightness/contrast layer with a layer mask and erase the teeth, I do this in the same way as creating the Color balence.

Eyes are the next step. Follow the step I outlined in the article Make Them Shine right here on TipSquirrel.com a little while ago.
Here is where those drawing classes I had to take in school come in handy (don’t worry I got a ‘mercy C’ in drawing). I can make my face look thinner with the Burn tool and my under eye circles almost disappear with the Dodge tool.
If you’re happy so far, merge all the layers by choosing “Merge visible” from the flyout menu in the layers Palette. Then Ctrl or Cmd+J to make a new copy of this layer to work on as the next steps can be very distructive and take a little practice.

I burned around my face, my forehead, and the bridge of my nose. Now I use the dodge tool on a new layer to create a triangle under my eyes…this helps lighten those REALLY dark circles..and gives the illusion of a lift. The trick here is to use a very low opacity brush, less than 10%, and be patient!

here is a sample of where I burned (black) and dodged (white)

and here is the before and after.. not a HUGE difference…not bad for being awake for 5 mins, no make up and a simple snapshots. Keep your friendships, and spend a couple minutes re-touching before you post a snapshot!