Category: Web Design

  • Google 2.0

    Googleredux "What Google does not do well is apply design appropriately to its search engine interface. Other online application interfaces from Google are often done rather well, or at least not too badly. The search engine page, however, leaves a lot to be desired. Mind you, we’re talking about the most successful search tool on the Web. But it is no stretch to observe that the design of this page is pretty bad." – Google Redux by Andy Rutledge

    Nice, but I disagree. Google may lack the aesthetic polish of other web designs, but if design is about solving a user’s problems, then Google is the epitome of great design, simply giving the user what’s neccessary to get them to where they’re going, no more and no less and getting out of the way…it’s practically invisible.

    [ Thanks Samira πŸ™‚ ]

  • Where 2.0

    With it’s AJAX-ian user interface, remixable maps and numerous mashups and spinoffs, Google Maps kickstarted the current wave of innovation in UI design and locative media. MSN and Yahoo predicatably leapt into the fray with their own competing services, however it’s worth keeping an eye on old standards like Multimap.

    Multimap Following a link inside a Wikipedia entry, I discovered that Multimap now cleverly overlays maps onto aerial photos (kinda like Google Maps’ Hybrid view) in the area around your pointer….a nice UI touch, providing an intuitive mechanism for juxtaposing map and photo information. It’d be great to see this extended to other locative data such as property values, crime, population and photoblogs.

    See an example here…

  • DENIM

    Denim_1 Perfect. DENIM is an application that lets designers literally sketch a site structure, informally, with some conditional logic and at varying levels of abstraction.

    DENIM fills a huge gap in the web creative’s arsenal of tools – Dreamweaver does’nt need more fancy widgets…it needs integrated, iterative tools like DENIM enabling the designer to sketch, refine and detail as requirements become clearer and more focussed. Tools like DENIM can enable the designer to work iteratively and directly with the client.

    Download for Windows, Mac and Linux here…

  • SimpleBits

    SimplebitsFollowing a link from Fiona, I found that the lovely, simple and intuitive designs of Rollyo, Odeo and other recent startups were all undertaken by the same agency, SimpleBits.

    The SimpleBits site includes the founder, Dan Cederholms’, blog, his publications, four lovingly crafted sets of icons and of course a portfolio of work. Expect to see SimpleBits’icons making their way into various TR applications πŸ˜‰