Your turn

Zonnatura - circle of life from ljudbilden on Vimeo.

http://www.popscreen.com

A_breif_History_of_communication

A breif History of communication from ljudbilden on Vimeo.

Gary Flake: is Pivot a turning point for web exploration?

From TED: "Gary Flake demos Pivot, a new way to browse and arrange massive amounts of images and data online. Built on breakthrough Seadragon technology, it enables spectacular zooms in and out of web databases, and the discovery of patterns and links invisible in standard web browsing."

Pivot is still an experiment, not a finished product. It isn't available for Mac or Linux yet, and not even to Windows xp users.

visit http://memo.hardrock.com to view a Pivot collection inside of Silverlight. The interface is different than Pivot's, but there's nothing stopping anyone from porting the controls over to a Silverlight app.

This demo also shows how important that is to make your data computer readable , i.e. semantically tagged.

Cheap Pop Song

So fun to watch it.

Cheap Pop Song from Rhett Dashwood on Vimeo.

Josef Müller-Brockmann’s visualization

Josef Müller-Brockmann’s visualization: a personal web research project about Josef Müller-Brockmann and the international typographical style by Quentin Delobel

More resource for infographic

visual-literacy.org
A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

You’ll find many more amazing infographics on the following websites:

• Info Graphics Flickr Group
  Charts, graphs, facts, anything that is about information or visualizing information.
• InfoVis Flickr Group
  Information Visualization: The creation of something visual from something abstract. Graphs, maps, charts, numbers. The compression of data and the expansion of meaning. Scientific, creative, useful, worthless.

You may be interested in the following related posts:

• Showcase of Data Visualization and Infographics
• Data Visualization: Modern Approaches
• Award-Winning Newspaper Designs
• Creative Calendar Designs

Milestones in the History of Thematic Cartography, Statistical Graphics, and Data Visualization

{Milestones in the History of Thematic Cartography, Statistical Graphics, and Data Visualization}
An illustrated chronology of innovations by Michael Friendly and Daniel J. Denis
A good web reference for graphic designers who want to study info-graphic. It is interesting to check both their old web site and the current one to see how the idea was developed and visualized.

marian bantjes

Canadian graphic designer, illustrator Marian bantjes is a speaker at the TED conference in Long Beach today. I wish I was there. worked as a book typesetter for 10 years (1984–1994), marian bantjes had a deep understanding of typography. Her innovative hand work, patterning and highly ornamental style made her "one of the most innovative typographers working today,". Check her blog www.bantjes.com

Below is a lecture she did two years ago in Walker Art Center, Minnesota.

UI Patterns

UI Patterns: User interface design pattern Library. A great problem solving tool.

"It has long been common practice to use recurring solutions to solve common problems. Such solutions are called design patterns; standard reference points for the experienced user interface designer. This website seeks to better the situation for the UI designer, who struggles with the same problems as many other UI designers have struggled with before him. "
This site will help you in two ways: You can read insightful design pattern articles or browse through the screenshot collection.

Designing Interfaces

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw Jenifer Tidwell's comment on the cover design for her book: Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design.
"Why a duck? I have no idea. O'Reilly's people picked it, not me, but I think it has something to do with the fact that Mandarin ducks are colorful, and the book was printed in full color. Also, some of their other Web books have birds on their covers. (But he's cute, isn't he?)"

This is the case you can't judge a book by its cover. A fantastic intermediate-level book about interface and interaction design, structured as a pattern language. Check it's web site for more information.

Few Links for infographics

Erin Williams from Rethink has a nice article about data and design: Sexy data: getting over your top five hang-ups. Pay attention to the A/B test for a lowly 404 page for Mountain Equipment Co-Op and the improved landing page design to see how design enhances business.



Also, don't miss the infographic link to check the 40 useful and creative infographics. At least I will keep the Coffee Drinks illustration as a reference.

The world is moving to HTML5?

Will HTML 5 be the the death knell for rich Internet application (RIA) technologies like Adobe's Flash?

After a big public announcement of iPad CEO Steve Jobs spoke to his employee about his frustration with buggy Flash, lazy Adobe and Google’s fakery in the “don’t be evil” department.

Here’s a couple of Steve’s quotes from the meeting: “Adobe is lazy. Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5.”

Although these words have not been (and will never be) officially confirmed, multiple anonymous people from the audience confirmed their authenticity to Wired.

Yesterday The NewYork Times also had an article about this by NICK BILTON: Ipad can't play video, but it may not matter. –––"Flash is one of the world’s most ubiquitous applications, appearing on 98 percent of all computers. YouTube videos run on it. It is what animates millions of graphics and advertisements on Web sites around the world. Adobe says the technology supports nearly 75 percent of video on the Web and 70 percent of online gaming sites. But Apple’s support for Flash has been flagging. While Flash is present on nearly every Apple desktop and laptop computer, the company decided that Flash would not be used on the iPhone. Apple has argued that the Flash technology is too slow and unduly taxes laptops and netbooks. The company also has concerns over Flash’s vulnerability to viruses and other malware, as well as the way Flash-based content can voraciously consume battery life."

Also read Adobe's respond here: Adobe on "html5" –––"I think the challenge for HTML 5 will continue to be how do you get a consistent display of HTML 5 across browsers. And when you think about when the rollout plans that are currently being talked about, they feel like it might be a decade before HTML 5 sees standardization across the number of browsers that are going to be out there," Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said during a quarterly financial call.

Movie Posters

I love http://www.impawards.com/ where you can view movie posters by Designer, Director, actor/actress, or by year. Enjoy it.

What Type Are You?

Which type face represents your characters? I just completed the test from Pentagram: What type Are You?. A very interesting piece you should try!
According to Pentagram, this ‘project’ was researched over seven years with a team of 23 academics across Eastern Europe, it asks the four key character questions of our day, analyses your responses in exceptional detail and recommends one of 16 typefaces as a result.
My result is Dot Matrix. I am a little bit disappointed since this is not the one from my favorites.
Is it a sign to show that I have been teaching web based course too long?
Click to go to the 'What Type Are You' test.
The password is 'character.'

Best Web Gallery

Best Web Gallery: http://bestwebgallery.com/

Moxie Sozo

Unique, original and creative solutions: Moxie Sozo, a Colorado based design and advertising agency. Check their web site

Top 10 Sites for Designers from How Magazine

Every month HOW magazine's editors comb the web for their favorite links for creatives.
To see this month's choice below. You also can check their archive for previous lists.


http://www.binny.com.au

Binny Illustration
Binny Talib is an Australian Illustrator with a charming style and a lovely color palette.

http://daniel.schutzsmith.com
Daniel Schutzsmith - All Around Web Nerd
Daniel Schutzmith has a rare combination of talents in business, strategy, design and programming. Plus, he's a great public speaker.

http://www.designstudentresource.com
Design Student Resource
A one-stop site for all the things a graphic design student may need to know for school projects and design.

http://www.foldfactory.com/index.php
foldfactory.com
Foldfactory is a site dedicated to folding paper for print production.

http://www.fuzzco.com
Fuzzco
Fuzzco is a three person creative studio in South Carolina. See their work, read their blog and don't miss the randomator.

http://www.hexanine.com
Hexanine
New brand and identity design firm with offices in Chicago and Los Angeles.

http://www.joncontino.com
Jon Contino
Designer/Illustrator Jon Contino does some amazing hand lettering.

http://www.julishoredesign.com
juli shore design
Designer Juli Shore specializes in packaging and branding.

http://www.thinkmorris.com
MORRIS
This is the new site of the seasoned branding firm MORRIS (formerly Morris! Communication). These guys are experts at influencing young adults through cross media branding.

http://www.generaldesignco.com
The General Design Co.
The General Design Co. is located just off Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., right above Hanks Oyster Bar.

Trinity Bellwoods Farmers Market

I like the design for Trinity Bellwoods Farmers Market. Check http://www.tbfm.ca/

Redesign Craigslist (3): What’s Wrong With Craigslist?

The weaknesses of Craigslist, accounting to Smashing magazine:

1. The Design is Bland and Outdated
As mentioned earlier, and as any Craigslist visitor already knows, the design of the website lacks visual appeal.

2. Logging In, Signing Up, and Managing an Account is More Difficult than Necessary
Craigslist has achieved its success due to the huge community of users it has managed to build. According to its fact sheet, each month over 30 million new classifieds are posted to the website, and over 12 billion pages are viewed. With this kind of activity level, it’s clear that making the process of creating an account, logging in and managing the account should be as straightforward as possible. However, the current website could be improved in these areas. Unnecessary clicks are needed to do anything with an account, and options on the account page are very limited.

3. Screen Space Is Not Prioritized
One issue with the current design of the Craigslist home page, as well as sub-pages, is the use of screen space. Valuable screen space could be used more effectively in some areas to improve the usability of the website.

4. Navigation
Craigslist is really a network of smaller websites held on sub-domains of Craigslist.org. Each sub-domain, representing an actual location, has its own board of classifieds. Currently, over 550 cities in 50 different countries are represented. With any website of this size and this amount of content, challenges with the navigation will always exist. Some aspects of navigation are rather effective on Craigslist, but others leave room for improvement.

For starters, there is no navigation menu that appears consistently throughout the website. Some pages use a left sidebar, some don’t. Some pages are easily accessible from most areas of the website, but not all. On many of the secondary pages, huge amounts of screen space are left completely empty with very few navigational options. This forces users to hit the “Back” button in their browser to go to another section of the website, something that could be improved by adding more navigational choices on these pages.

To read the whole article

Redesign Craigslist (2): A solution from DesignEye 2006

In 2006, Members from DesignEye.org redesigned Craigslist site for the city of Austin. The design solution was one of the presentations for SXSW Interactive conference.

Redesign Craigslist (1)

The cover story for the September 2009 issue of Wired takes a look at the current state of Craigslist and the challenges it faces as it continues to evolve. In a sidebar, the magazine’s art director Scott Dadich invited several top web designers to re-imagine and redesign Craigslist itself.

The designers' list include:
Scott Thomas of SimpleScott, who was the former design director at BarackObama.com
Thomas' minimalist take (below) makes a pro-status quo argument, recognizing that the site functions perfectly well in its current form with only minor, mostly aesthetic tweaks.

Matt Wiley of Studio8 Design and Luke Hayman
Studio8 Design came up with a more dramatically different-looking version, prioritizing the all-important photos to make rapid-fire browsing instantly gratifying.

Lisa Strausfeld of Pentagram
While the others go to great lengths to keep the practical side at the forefront, Pentagram seems to all but dispense with the concern, playfully transforming the homepage's text links into an image of the man behind the curtain. The search function, however, moved to the bottom of the page, remains otherwise untouched. Maybe they're onto something.

Khoi Vinh Anh Dang , Paul Lau, design team at NYTimes.com
The solution is here at this link.

adding a couple layers of hierarchy to make it more organized and easier to navigate

To read the article: Extrme MAkeover: Craigslist Edition from Wired Magazine
Also read: Why Craigslist is such a mess

Goodbye Geocities, hello Facebook

Now closing: GeoCities, a relic of Web's early days

by Stephen Shankland

Today, the way people choose to express themselves on the Internet is shifting away from isolated Web pages. Instead they use social-networking sites such as Facebook, with built-in features for creating a profile, staying in touch with contacts, and maintaining at least a little privacy; WordPress, where it's easy to post updates to a blog; or Flickr, where the photographically inclined can meet, share, and comment.

What these services and others including Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, and Blogger possess is a mechanism to notify interested parties of new activity, helping to keep social links pulsing with new information in a way that just can't be replicated by depending on a person to swing by a personal Web site.

That's not to say personal home pages are extinct. Google Sites is still around, and Yola, formerly SynthaSite, bought out search ads related to GeoCities searches on Thursday. But for most folks, it's easier to rely on more sophisticated pre-built services than to roll their own sites.

read more

TIME–50 Best Websites 2009

50 Best Websites 2009

Check this out from Time

Sites to Visit

1. Flickr
2. California Coastline
3. Delicious
4. Metafilter
5. popurls
6. Twitter
7. Skype
8. Boing Boing
9. Academic Earth
10. OpenTable
11. Google
12. YouTube
13. Wolfram|Alpha
14. Hulu
15. Vimeo
16. Fora TV
17. Craiglook
18. Shop Goodwill
19. Amazon
20. Kayak
21. Netflix
22. Etsy
23. PropertyShark.com
24. Redfin
25. Wikipedia
26. Internet Archive
27. Kiva
28. ConsumerSearch
29. Metacritic
30. Pollster
31. Facebook
32. Pandora and Last.fm
33. Musicovery
34. Spotify
35. Supercook
36. Yelp
37. Visuwords
38. CouchSurfing
39. BabyNameWizard.com's NameVoyager
40. Mint
41. TripIt
42. Aardvark
43. drop.io
44. Issuu
45. Photosynth
46. OMGPOP
47. WorldWideTelescope
48. Fonolo
49. Get High Now
50. Know Your Meme

Showcasing the showcasers

Want to see more CSS based websites for inspiration? Here is a good showcase web site called "showcasing the showcasers." Like what they said on the site: "There are a lot of website showcases out there, a lot. So why not showcase those showcases? A new fun way to browse, explore and find more sites when you are super duper bored on the internet." Enjoy it:
http://cascadingstyleshit.cocoagrove.com/

The 10 Online Ad Formats People Hate Most

The Business Insider asked usability testing firm Catalyst Group to come up with a list of online ad formats people hate most.

They are:

• Banner ads below headers
  
• Ads that look like content
  
• Dancing ads
  
• Auto-expanding half-page ads
  
• Banners next to logos
  
• Billboards in the top right corner
  
• Google text links interrupting content
  
• Ads with hidden close buttons
  
• Interstitials
  
• Page Take-overs

A couple points to remember while going through the list:

• People basically hate all advertising. But they also know and accept that it's the cost of free content.
• Advertising on TV, radio and print has always been interruptive and distracting.
  
• We are guilty of perpetrating a few of these units on our readers (sorry!).
• Which is why our goal here is to help publishers 1) choose the lesser of several evils 2) at least know what they're inflicting on their users, so that it's a choice, not an accident.

Adobe Brilliant

A site from Adobe Systems Incorporated and Heavenspot. A site worth to see:
http://www.adobe.com/brilliant
Firm: Adobe Systems Incorporated/Heavenspot
Title: Adobe Creative Suite 4 Shortcut to Brilliant
Client: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Creative Directors: Chevon Hicks and Jeff Kelly (Heavenspot)
Producers: Karen LeFever and Janice Lalley (Adobe)
Lisa Connelly and Ken Acker (Heavenspot)
Designers: Lorsen Koo (Adobe), Pong Ko and Orlando Antonio (Heavenspot)
Flash Developers: Jason Guerra (Adobe), Tim Jaramillo and Greg Connell (Heavenspot)
Sound Design: Moxie Wanderlust

Wolfram Alpha v Google: Which is better?

Since Wolfram Alpha’s "soft launch" on Friday, millions of web users have been putting the computational search engine through its paces.

Wolfram Alpha is the new computational search engine that could revolutionise the way we use the web. But is it good enough to replace Google as the most popular online search engine?

Wolfram Alpha is designed to answer complex search queries by returning a single result. Unlike Google, which searches the entire web for the keywords contained within a search query and then returns thousands of relevant web pages, Wolfram Alpha aims to understand the question and return the correct answer by mining its vast database of information and statistics.

read more

CSULB Senior BFA show!

MoMA

MoMA | The Museum of Modern Art also launched it's new site recently. Check: http://www.moma.org/

Maryland Institute College of Art

MICA: A new website for Maryland Institute College of Art was launched in January 2009. Does the site more more dynamic,and user-friendly? Check the site.

Web Design Inspiration - 25 Websites With Beautiful Background Part II

Inspiring: 25 Websites With Beautiful Background Part II Thnks to Dzineblog.

What is your URL?

For 483E: What is your URL? Format as below:

Your Name: F L
http://www.yoururl.com

Lorem Ipsum

Lorem Ipsum is dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.

Web Standards

the Web Standards Curriculum, a course designed to give anyone a solid grounding in web design/development put together by Chris Mills, a developer relations manager for Opera.

Type 01