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Great design seamlessly integrates with the user experience, making the interaction smooth and intuitive. It's not just about aesthetics; it's about functionality and usability, ensuring users can achieve their goals effortlessly.

Last updated: September 4, 2021 8:10 am

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EU, Iran agree on new payment system to skirt US sanctions

In a major snub to the United States, the European Union has decided to set up a new mechanism to enable legal trade with Iran without encountering US sanctions. The EU will create new payment channels to preserve oil and other business deals with Iran, Federica Mogherini, the bloc's foreign policy chief said late on Monday, in a bid to evade US punitive measures. US President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal in May and re-imposed sanctions on the country. Mogherini's announcement came after a meeting with foreign ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, and Iran on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. "In practical terms this will mean that EU member states will set up a legal entity to facilitate legitimate financial transactions with Iran and this will allow European companies to continue to trade with Iran in accordance with European Union law and could be open to other partners in the world," she told reporters after the closed-door meeting. The EU, along with Russia and China, said in a joint statement that the so-called "Special Purpose Vehicle" will "assist and reassure economic operators pursuing legitimate business with Iran". The statement added that the six countries signatory to the 2015 nuclear agreement "reconfirmed their commitment to its full and effective implementation in good faith and in a constructive atmosphere". Known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran nuclear deal ended a nearly 12-year standoff between Iran and Western powers in 2015. It was spearheaded by the Obama administration and saw the lifting of international sanctions. The nuclear agreement is meant to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, but Trump announced in May he was unilaterally pulling out because he felt it wasn't strong enough and didn't cover other issues of concern to the US and its allies, such as Iran's military influence in the Middle East and its ballistic missile program. The US has also accused Iran of promoting international terrorism, a charge Tehran vehemently denies. A second round of US sanctions is expected in November, aimed at putting a stranglehold on Iranian oil exports. Meanwhile, the EU has vowed to stick with the deal and updated legislation to protect European companies from future sanctions. The EU, US allies and the international nuclear watchdog IAEA maintain that Iran continues to abide by the terms of the agreement. Mogherini said on Monday the decision to set up such a vehicle had already been taken and that technical experts would meet again to flesh out the details. Al Jazeera's Shihab Rattansi, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York, said the new entity will act as a "clearing house, a middleman, so to speak, between Europeans and Iranians as they try to do business." "If the Italians want to buy some Iranian oil, they will wire the money to this entity which will then handle the financial transactions from there and vice versa," he said. "There will be no involvement of commercial banks and central banks, both of whom are terrified at the prospect of US retribution if they are seen to be going against US sanctions." Rodger Shanahan, a research fellow at the Lowry Institute for International Policy, called the EU agreement "a poke in the eye for the US". "I think it reflects the kind of the attitude that the Europeans have had about the decision by President Trump," he told Al Jazeera in an interview from Sydney, Australia. "They have been quite upset about going against international norms of pulling out of the agreement. At the same time, all external auditors have found that Iran has been complying with the agreement. "So the Europeans want to try and save the agreement and they're seeing this as really the last chance."

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More than 1,200 detained over deadly Ethiopia violence: police

Ethiopian authorities arrested more than 1,200 people after violence erupted in and around the capital this month, a senior police official said, three times more than earlier estimates. Twenty-eight people died, the head of the capital’s police commission, Degfie Bedi, said, raising the death count from 23. “The majority were beaten to death. Seven were killed by security forces,” he told journalists late on Monday. Violence that raged from Sept. 12-17 and included attacks on minorities in Ethiopia’s ethnic Oromo heartland outside Addis Ababa, was a blow to new reformist Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s efforts at reconciliation. The unrest escalated on the day of a rally marking the return to Ethiopia of leaders of the exiled Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which had waged a four-decade insurgency for self-determination for Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group. In the town of Burayu north of the capital, residents said shops were looted and people attacked by Oromo youths who stormed through streets targeting businesses and homes of ethnic minorities. Reuters could not confirm the accounts of who was responsible and the OLF did not comment. “1,204 are in custody, but they are now being rehabilitated for a short period of time,” the police commission’s Degfie Bedi said. The arrested included people suspected of holding “illegal rallies”, burglaries and other crimes, he added. Ethiopia’s Oromo, who make up about a third of the population, have long complained of being marginalized during decades of authoritarian rule by governments led by politicians from other smaller ethnic groups. In recent years the Oromo have been angered by what they see as encroachment on their land. Abiy, himself the first Oromo leader in the ethnically diverse country’s modern history, has pursued a reconciliation strategy since taking power in April. He has released hundreds of people detained over past political unrest and ended a two-decade military standoff with neighboring Eritrea.

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Good web design has visual weight, is optimized for various devices, and has content that is prioritized for the medium. The most important elements of a web page should have more visual weight to “naturally attract” a visitor’s attention.

Contents

A good website should be easy to navigate Creating visual rhythms in your layouts Elements that can help website visual composition Diving into UX and UI design Ensure that interactive elements are easy to identify Breaking down the barriers

Optimization for various types of devices and resolutions plays a fundamental role in modern website design. Web page layouts should be genuinely responsive and not rely on any fixed-size elements. Web designers using fluid grids and flexible images will guarantee that a web page will render well on a variety of devices, windows, and screen sizes.

Good design is making something intelligible and memorable. Great design is making something memorable and meaningful.
Dieter Rams

Most users search for something interesting (or useful) and clickable; as soon as promising candidates are found, users click. If the new page doesn’t meet users’ expectations, the back button is clicked and the search process is continued.

A good website should be easy to navigate

Not all websites are made equal. Some websites are simple, logical, and easy to use. Others are a messy hodgepodge of pages and links.

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Without website navigation, your visitors can’t figure out how to find your blog, your email signup page, your product listings, pricing, contact information, or help docs.

Quick and easy access to the content they’re after is more important for your website users than a… visually-stunning design.

Website navigation allows visitors to flow from one page to another without frustration. If you’ve done your job well, visitors leave your site with the intention to return and might even buy something from you or sign up for your email list.

Bad navigation is an especially common problem. We’ve all struggled to find things on disorganized websites without any logical structure. It feels hopeless.

Using “complex large pictures”. Because a carousel generally carries a lot of picture messages, complex large pictures result in low performance and “slow loading rate” of the sites, especially those whose first homepages are occupied by high-resolution carousels.

Creating visual rhythms in your layouts

In design, rhythm is created by simply repeating elements in predictable patterns. This repetition is a natural thing that occurs everywhere in our world. As people, we are driven everyday by predictable, timed events.

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One of the best ways to use repetition and rhythm in web design is in the site’s navigation menu. A consistent, easy-to-follow pattern—in color, layout, etc. Gives users an intuitive roadmap to everything you want to share on your site.

Rhythm also factors into the layout of content. For example, you “might have” blog articles, press releases, and events each follow their own certain layout pattern.

Elements that can help website visual composition

Nobody enjoys looking at an ugly web page. Garish colors, cluttered images and distracting animation can all turn customers “off” and send them shopping “somewhere else”. Basic composition rules to create more effective:

Direct the Eye With Leading Lines
Balance Out Your Elements
Use Elements That Complement Each Other
Be clear about your “focal points” and where you place them

The size and position of elements in a composition will determine its balance. An unbalanced design generates tension, which may be the goal in many design projects, but for web apps that demand repeated comfortable use, tension is not a desirable trait.

Diving into UX and UI design

UX and UI: Two terms that are often used interchangeably, but actually mean very different things. So what exactly is the difference?

Styles come and go. Good design is a language, not a style.
Massimo Vignelli

UX design refers to the term “user experience design”, while UI stands for “user interface design”. Both elements are crucial to a product and work closely together. But despite their relationship, the roles themselves are quite different.

Ensure that interactive elements are easy to identify

Good design guides the user by communicating purpose and priority. For that reason, every part of the design should be based on an “informed decision” rather than an arbitrary result of personal taste or the current trend.

Provide distinct styles for interactive elements, such as links and buttons, to make them easy to identify. For example, “change the appearance of links” on mouse hover, “keyboard focus”, and “touch-screen activation”.

Breaking down the barriers

Design is not the end-all solution to all of the worlds problems — but with the right thinking and application, it can definitely be a good beginning to start tackling them.

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