Links of the Week 6
July 17th, 2009 — No Comments
Look outside for inspiration, site map css, animate a curtain using jQuery, better password inputs and Pixel Perfect.
Looking outside to gain inspiration
The From the Couch guys encourage a very simple idea to go outside to gain inspiration. I know it works for me because some of my best ideas come from when I go out for a walk. Wether it’s to or from work, during your lunch break or even just at the weekend, go outside and be inspired.
SlickMap CSS
Site maps tend not to get much attention when it comes to design so this is a very simple way to make a drab site map look good and interesting.
Animate Curtains Opening with jQuery
A very creative use of jQuery simulating a theatre style curtain opening and closing. Certainly a tutorial that will make you smile.
Better Password Inputs, iPhone Style
Ever since Jakob Nielsen’s controversial comments about not masking web passwords, I immediately thought of the way the iPhone handled passwords and up pops Chris Coyier, right on cue!
Pixel Perfect
This is one for all you perfectionist. Pixel Perfect is a Firefox plugin (requires Firebug) that allows you to overlay a design over the top of a site development.
Read more...Wallpapers of the Week 6: Video Game Art
July 15th, 2009 — 1 Comment
Video games are a very visual experience and here are some great examples of fantastic fan art, in-game screenshots and promotional images all in wallpaper format.
Portal
Green Hill Zone (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Mario
Shadow of the Colossus
Mirror’s Edge
Milky Sky (Mario)
Paper Mario
Shadow of the Colossus
Katamari Damacy
Half-Life 2 (intro screen)
Mario World
Zelda
Assassin’s Creed
Halo 3
Killzone 2
Burnout Paradise
Super Mario Galaxy
Mirror’s Edge
Tales of Monkey IslandWallpapers of the Week 5: More HDR Photography
July 8th, 2009 — No Comments
More stunning high dynamic range photography for this week.
The Atomic Explosion and Mushroom Fallout at Sunset
Links of the Week 4
July 3rd, 2009 — 3 Comments
Colorotate
A very fancy 3D colour picker. Need I say more? Well worth checking out.
HTMLIPSUM
Yet another great project from Chris Coyier. It’s a collection of HTML elements pre-populated with Lorem Ipsum text. Could be a time saver.
Fontex
Hand picks free fonts for you to use in projects as you see fit.
HTML Entity Character Lookup
Have you ever struggled to remember what the HTML code for ampersand or for a specific currency symbol? I know I have so I’ll be making this my first stop next time.
Why Designers Should Learn How to Code
I firmly believe that web designers should learn to code CSS if they’re not already, so anything I see out there that backs that backs up my view is a plus.
Read more...Wallpapers of the Week 4: High Dynamic Range Photography
July 1st, 2009 — 5 Comments
HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography is a technique that can bring photography to life by increasing the range of luminance in the light and dark areas of a photo. As you can see, the results can be spectacular.
Ladybug
New York City By Paulo Barcellos Jr.
Red Village
Beach Carousel
TrenitaliaLinks of the Week 3
June 26th, 2009 — No Comments
Users Place More Weight on Design
An interesting piece about how users are getting used to good visual design and how they are turning away from sites with “poor visual presentation”.
Advanced Form Styling & Functionality
A fantastic screencast by Chris Coyier about some advanced form design techniques using jQuery. A must for anyone, not just web form design geeks such as myself.
Apple vs. Microsoft – A Website Usability Study
A very interesting study by Dmitry Fadeyev of Usability Post, who goes into detail of the major design differences of two major computer companies and sees who comes out on top.
Styling your Lists: 20+ Brilliant How to’s and Best Practices
Lists are often neglected when it comes to design, at least compared to other elements yet it is important that they are designed well or you can lose the benefits that lists can bring.
12 Tips For Designing an Excellent Checkout Process
A great post by Smashing Magazine pointing out some of the key techniques when designing a checkout process. Most of these tips could also be used in general web design too.
Read more...Wallpapers of the Week 3: Beautifully Crafted Worlds
June 24th, 2009 — 2 Comments
This week’s focus is on the beauty of fictional worlds, limited only by the artists’ imaginations.
Read more...
Machinery of the Stars
Elysia
Blue Moon
Lush
The Return to Abalakin