December 05, 2003
WinXP & Apple Aqua icon design guidelines
If you need to design a Flash app that matches the WindowsXP interface, you might want to have a look at this article on MSDN, "Creating Windows XP Icons."
It has GREAT guidelines for how to match the style of the XP icon set, including recommended color palettes, Photoshop settings, and even the perspective grid used to draw the 3D look.
Likewise, if you want more of the Appla Aqua look & feel, read this article on Apple's site, "Introduction to the Apple Human Interface Guidelines." Look down the left menu, in Part III you'll find the pages on icon design. There are also several cool pages on how other UI controls should look and function.
In design, you don't usually have to follow other people's rules and guidelines. When you do, however, it's helpful to know just what those rules and guidelines ARE.
Posted by andy at December 5, 2003 11:27 AM