I posted yesterday’s tutorial to hacker news and I must say I’ve been overwhelmed with the response I got; so a big hello and thank you to everyone who clicked through! A few people were interested where the term CRAP came from and if I invented it. No, I didn’t invent it; all I did was take the term and then apply it for how you can make your user interfaces clearer.
As far as I know its quite an old term from the field of Graphic Design. But if I cast my mind back, I think I first heard about it in Robin William’s book: The Non-Designer’s Design Book. I really recommend getting hold of a copy of her book – I loved every page of it, it’s very easy to read, full of practical advice and good examples/case studies. Once I’d finished it I was applying what I had learned to everything from my CV to reports I was writing at work! Only trouble with my work reports was the admin team would then butcher them to apply the “corporate style”. Arial 12pt – the philistines!
Just reading that one book will change the way you look at page layout. It’s also a great starting point if you choose to read deeper into design in the future. I really can’t recommend it highly enough!
Here’s a link to the book at Amazon (aff):
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