[ Resources ]
Practical guides on website design, branding, app design, social media and graphic design from LAIN, a design and technology studio.
50 articles
Website11 min read
Most AI search advice is about writing. Sites more often lose earlier, at the fetch: a firewall rule, a robots.txt group, content that only exists after JavaScript. Check those first.
Graphic design10 min read
There is no standard business card size, and printers' minimum type sizes are lower than vision research supports. Here are the numbers for type, QR codes, bleed and paper.
Website12 min read
Most checklists restate the standard. This one adds how each rule is measured: the contrast arithmetic, the 24 pixel circle, sticky headers, paste in login fields, and what scanners miss.
Graphic design8 min read
Your profile is rarely read by the person you send it to, or the way you designed it. It gets forwarded, skimmed on a phone and printed by a committee. Here is how to build for that.
Social media6 min read
Content pillars answer the question of what to post. Here is how to choose three to five, match them to formats, plan around them and check which ones earn their place.
Website8 min read
Both can look identical and rank equally well. They differ in where the risk lands: WordPress in the plugin patch surface, Webflow in platform ceilings and one vendor changing the rules.
Branding11 min read
A moodboard is ambiguous on purpose, which is why it works and why it fails. How to caption every image, score agreement before design starts and turn the board into numbers.
App design12 min read
A Figma frame is a picture at one size, one density and one font scale. Here is what a device does to it, and what to write down so nobody guesses.
App design12 min read
A startup design system is two jobs. Decisions (tokens, names, modes) are cheap and yours to build. Behaviour (focus, keyboard, ARIA) is costly and worth adopting.
Website10 min read
A shopper cannot touch the product, so the page must settle three doubts: how big it is, what it will really cost and what other buyers found. Each has a measurable fix and a trap.
Graphic design9 min read
Distance decides type size, and type size decides how many words a poster can carry. Here are the angles, the sizes for A3 to A0, the resolution you need and how to size a QR code.
Graphic design10 min read
Most decks are read alone and fast. The median slide gets about three seconds, so the titles have to carry the story. Here is the word budget, the slide order and the export checks.
Social media11 min read
A Reels cover is one file shown in up to four shapes. Here is the arithmetic of each crop, how large the title must be for a grid tile, a template with numbers and a ten minute test.
App design11 min read
The five-user rule is an average over problems that hit about one user in three. Size your sessions by the rarest problem you cannot afford to miss.
App design13 min read
44 points, 48 dp, 9 mm: the touch target numbers are not the same size. Plus permissions you can ask only once, loading thresholds and store rules that become screens.
Branding11 min read
Most rebrand advice asks whether your brand feels dated. The better question is which of its cues your buyers already use to recognise you, and what a change would cost.
Branding10 min read
A logo process is a row of gates, not a row of stages. Here are the tests each stage must pass, the research behind them, and the legal checks most guides leave out.
App design11 min read
Some onboarding choices can be tested and reversed. Others, like permission prompts, are one-shot by platform design. Here is which is which, and the numbers behind each.
Social media9 min read
The usual advice is 1080 x 1350, a strong hook and up to 20 slides. Here is what it leaves out: how the 3:4 grid crops slide one, why slide two is a second cover, and the maths of text size and seams.
Website9 min read
A menu fails in two separate ways: people cannot predict the labels, or cannot operate the menu. Here is what the studies and the specs say about both, and what is only folklore.
Graphic design9 min read
CMYK numbers mean nothing until you name the ink, paper and press behind them. Here is how profiles, ink limits, black and spot colour decide what you actually get on paper.
App design12 min read
Bars beat pies is the easy rule. The harder ones: compare like with like, mark half-finished periods, keep axes honest and check that chart colours pass contrast.
Social media10 min read
A calendar fails when it promises more than the team has hours for, when approvals take longer than the lead time, or when the scheduler cannot publish what was planned. Here is how to plan around all three.
App design12 min read
A tab bar for three to five sections is the easy part. The decisions that break apps sit underneath: what each tab remembers, what Back does and what a notification builds.
Social media5 min read
People decide whether to follow you in a few seconds. Here is how to design the parts of an Instagram profile that do that work: the avatar, name, bio, highlight covers and the grid.
Branding12 min read
The best logo format depends on who opens the file. Here is what each destination accepts, what breaks, and the tests to run before a package is handed over.
Branding10 min read
A name is not available because nobody uses that exact word. Here is how conflicts are really judged, how the US, EU and Indonesia differ, and how to test a shortlist with numbers.
Website11 min read
Most form advice stops at fewer fields and clear labels. The evidence is more specific: validation helps hard fields, browsers accept typo emails, and the weakest step is delivery.
Website10 min read
Only 48% of mobile sites pass all three vitals, and the weak spots are LCP and INP, not CLS. How each is measured, the LCP time budget, the layout shift formula worked out and a fix order.
Website12 min read
Most visits do not start on the homepage, and the ones that do decide in seconds. Three pass or fail tests, a mobile first screen budget and a hero image limit.
Social media6 min read
Templates make a feed recognisable at a glance. Here is how to design them as a small system, which ones to build first, how to keep them accessible and how to avoid a feed that looks the same every day.
Graphic design12 min read
A type scale is only half a hierarchy. Here is how to pick the ratio by counting levels, make it fluid for phones without breaking zoom, and audit it with numbers.
Branding12 min read
A guide only works if a stranger can apply it alone. Derive the logo numbers, print the colour pairs, name the fallback font and say who approves exceptions.
Social media6 min read
Your LinkedIn page is often the first thing a buyer checks after meeting you. Here is how to design the logo, banner, tagline and About text so the page reads as real, clear and current.
Graphic design11 min read
Most packaging advice is about looks. Four things are fixed by others: the scanner, the regulator, the press and the board. Here are their numbers, and a worked example.
Branding10 min read
Most voice guides are lists of adjectives that two writers read two ways. Here is how to write rules a stranger can check, test them on one message and set tone by moment.
Website11 min read
Most redesign checklists are redirect checklists. A redesign also changes your content, your internal links and how pages render. Here is how to check all four, with a launch gate.
Website9 min read
Most landing page advice is repeated, not tested. Here is what the primary sources say about message match, speed and navigation, and the arithmetic of whether you can test a change at all.
Website9 min read
A planning sitemap fixes scope before design starts. Count templates as well as pages, test the structure with a tree test, and know what Google ignores in the XML file.
Branding11 min read
Contrast is decided by lightness, not hue. Fix the lightness steps first and every colour you add is readable by construction. Then choose fonts for x-height, licence and loading.
App design4 min read
UX is how a product works and feels. UI is what you see and touch. Here is the difference, what each delivers and why they work best together.
Graphic design10 min read
Three decisions matter more than style: how the numbers are encoded, where the axis starts and how much decoration you allow. Here is the research, where it disagrees, and a rubric.
Website5 min read
A typical business website takes 6 to 10 weeks. Here is what happens in each phase, what slows a project down and how to keep it moving.
Social media6 min read
Templates fix the layout. A style guide fixes everything around it: how captions open, which hashtags you use, who replies and who signs off. Here is what to write down, in two to four pages.
Branding7 min read
A brand audit shows where your brand is consistent, where it is not and what customers really think. Here is the checklist, step by step, ending in a short fix list.
Branding10 min read
Positioning advice says pick a niche. Growth research says reach everyone who buys the category. Both are right once you separate who you start with from the situations you want to own.
Branding5 min read
A logo is the mark. A brand identity is the whole system around it: colour, type, imagery, voice and the rules that keep it consistent.
Website6 min read
Most website failures are quiet: a form that stopped sending, a lapsed certificate, an expired domain. This checklist sorts the checks by how often to run them.
Graphic design6 min read
A brochure has to work as a story and as a file. Here is the layout thinking and the print setup: structure, hierarchy, bleed, safe margins, resolution, CMYK and the export a printer expects.
Website7 min read
Most visitors scan, not read. Here is how to write website copy that says what you do at once, reads in plain words and leads to one clear next step.
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