Before & After magazine Design Trends (Predictions) in 2010 As we are stepping in a new decade, I can foresee that web design in 2010 is going to be fun and filled with experimental works. With the new CSS3 and HTML5, designers and developers are trying to utilize the new features to create impressive designs. Sketchy and large background styles are fading out. Serif fonts and texturized background will be popular. Serif Fonts In the last decade, most web sites were designed in either Verdana or Arial (sans-serif fonts), but that is going to change in this new decade. Big Headings Big headings in header (as part of design interface) will gain more popularity in 2010. Custom Font Embedding As Typekit is expanding their font list and more free quality fonts are available (e.g. Texturized Background The big background trend is going to be gradually out-of-date and be replaced with subtle and texturized (particularly the light noise) background. Minimalist & Grid Minimalist and grid designs are not today's new. CSS3 New Features CSS3 Animation Text Shadow
Green Circle Shopping Center Leed Platinum Certified Building > Discover Green Circle — led by the Oʼreilly Family, Architecture by Hufft L.L.C., Engineering and civil/site design by Olsson Associates and Contractor services by Supermarket Builders. The project is designed to preserve as much green space as possible while utilizing the latest in Green Building techniques such as porous concrete pavement, below–ground retention, a roof-top garden and more. The interior is equally impressive, including geothermal heating, ventilation, HVAC, high-efficiency windows, recycled products, occupancy lighting controls and daylight harvesting. Discover the features and exceptional tenants that make Green Circle truly unique. Dynamic Earth is an outdoor equipment store specializing in the highest quality gear and service available. Whether hiking, climbing, backpacking, paddling, skiing, or just wanting a warm winter coat, Dynamic Earth will have something just for you.
Montreal tourism How Conceptual Metaphors are Stunting Web Innovation Venkatesh Rao is a researcher in the Xerox Innovation Group, and the project manager for Trailmeme, a research beta technology that allows users to blaze and follow trails through web content and the Trailmeme for WordPress plugin. He blogs at ribbonfarm.com. As much as we focus on developing new technologies, it is also essential that we break free of certain metaphors that bind and restrict our thinking about what these technologies can ultimately achieve. The familiar "document" metaphor, among others, has cast a long shadow on how we think about the web, and is standing in the way of some innovation. The Conceptual Metaphor In his classic study of media theory, Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan wrote, “We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. Consider these terms: page, scroll, file, folder, trash can, bookmark, inbox, email, desktop, library, archive and index. It is important to understand that the document metaphor is more than a UI metaphor. The solution? Conclusion
Realism in UI Design The history of the visual design of user interfaces can be described as a gradual change towards more realism. As computers have become faster, designers have added increasingly realistic details such as color, 3D effects, shadows, translucency, and even simple physics. Some of these changes have helped usability. In other areas, the improvements are questionable at best. Details and realism can distract from these concepts. The image on the left is a face of a specific person. At the same time, it’s obvious that some details are required. The circle on the left clearly shows a face. Let’s look at a symbol we actually see in user interfaces, the home button. The thing on the left is a house. The thing on the left is a home button. Let me explain this concept using an entirely unscientific graph: People are confused by symbols if they have too many or too few details. The button on the left is too realistic. The same applies to these toggles.
Trendspotting: Rich Autocomplete in Site Search | Get Elastic One trend I’ve noticed on a few enterprise software sites is the use of rich autocomplete in search results, although I haven’t seen it on other retail categories. For example, Dell.com uses a simple autocomplete feature in its search box. Autocomplete is helpful to the customer because it prevents errors from misspellings or synonyms the search engine doesn’t support (and the dreaded “0 results found”). For example, I may be thinking “USB stick” and when I type USB into the search box I see “USB flash drive” suggested as I type, so I select that (which as it turns out delivers much more relevant results than a search for “stick.”) With rich autocomplete, the retailer can include thumbnail images, prices, value propositions, special offers etc. Apple Store Because the brain recognizes and interprets images faster than text, showing thumbnails of Final Cut Pro software for quick scanning is better than a list of text links. I like how Apple has chunked out its category menus. Adobe Microsoft
Demystifying Usability : 7 Steps to Avoiding User Adoption Problems with Site Redesigns When you redesign a new site, how do you know users are going to like it? How can you ensure that you know how the redesign will sit with existing as well as new users? Earlier this year, Facebook faced this dilemma when 1.7 million of their uses started a group called Petition Against the New Facebook. "I dislike it thoroughly," writes user Cherie Hrynchyshyn in a comment posted Monday morning in the Vote section. "They took a lot of functionality, customization and filtering capability out of the home page and replaced it with Twitter-like features, which is to say, they dumbed it down for children". Facebook faced a user adoption problem that equated to throwing cold water on their users and expecting them to dry off quickly. User Adoption follows habit and familiarity What Facebook missed, like many new redesigns, is that the average user is a creature of habit. "Hard-to-use and confusing applications discourage use. 7 proven steps to improving user adoption of your new design 1. 2.
Fantastic Information Architecture Resources Jan 15 2010 Information architecture can be a daunting subject for designers who’ve never tried it before. Also, creating successful infographics and visualizations takes skill and practice, along with some advance planning. But anyone with graphic design skills can learn to create infographics that are effective and get data across in a user-friendly manner. Below are a collection of resources to get you going down the information architecture and data visualization path. Whether you just want to become more familiar with infographics and data visualizations for occasional use or are thinking of making it a career, the resources below will surely come in handy. 1. Information architecture can be so complex, it’s no wonder there are entire sites dedicated to it. Info Design Patterns Info Design Patterns offers up information architecture news (a fairly new section without a lot of content) and a searchable database of info design patterns. InfoDesign Information Design Watch JJG.net 2. 3.
15 Common Component Patterns By Theresa Neil As Bill mentioned in an earlier post, we don’t want to limit this blog to just the principles and patterns found in the book. For that you can check out our Explore the Book section. This is the third article in a three part series on patterns and principles for RIA design. Standard Screen Patterns: 12 patterns w/100 examplesEssential Controls: 30 controls for RIA design and developmentCommon Component Patterns: 15 patterns and examples Odds are good if you are designing a enterprise software or a productivity web application, you’ll need a number of these components. 01. Wufoo (button) Gmail (link) Requirement: Need to offer multiple input fields for the same thing, but unsure how many the user may needExample: Add attachments, enter phone numbers, upload photos…Description: The “add another” link or button should be in proximity to the field, and the remove option is shown an attachment is added, and only one “add another” link is shown at a time. 02. Highrise (inline edit)
Label Alignment in Long Forms | Paper Prototyping for Engineers By Janet M. Six Published: January 18, 2010 Send your questions to Ask UXmatters and get answers from some of the top professionals in UX. In this edition of Ask UXmatters, our experts discuss two topics: Ask UXmatters answers our readers’ questions about user experience matters. Label Alignment in Long Forms Q: I am producing a very long data-entry form that is at least 3000 pixels in height. The following experts have contributed answers to this question: “The sheer length of a form—both visually and in terms of the effort completing it requires—is really important.” Caroline Jarrett, who is co-author with Gerry Gaffney of Forms that Work: Designing Web Forms for Usability, answers: “I know one of the most popular articles on UXmatters is Matteo Penzo’s article ‘Label Placement in Forms,’ in which he advised placing labels above fields. Some General Guidelines for Labels in Forms “What you should always try to avoid is having very different label lengths in the same form.” Label Alignment
25 UI Inspiration and Design Pattern Resources Are your fresh design ideas no longer fresh or are you a designer who continually re-uses the same old and trusted design patterns that have followed you for many a year? Or, you might just be a UI designer that is stuck in a rut? If you are looking to change all that, then this is the post for you. This article offers inspirational UI resources as well as showcasing the best in design pattern solutions. Welie.com – Patterns in Interaction Design Welie.com is a reference or basic 'toolkit' that you can use when designing user experiences, that showcases and promotes a lot of the best practices within Interaction Design. It does not attempt to be a substitute for creative design, it simply seeks to describe what you probably already know and have learned about, by offering solutions to common design problems. GUIdebook: Graphical User Interface gallery GUIdebook has been designed to be almost an online museum of graphical interfaces. UI-patterns.com Quince UX Design Patterns Explorer Yahoo!
Useful Usability