Telescopic Text

Some people might say that splash screens in websites are dead (and personally I agree) but this guy here really made something good out of it.

Wireframing in Web Design

After a discussion that happened here about an inquiry for a wireframing tool I thought that it might be a good idea to post an article about Wireframing in Web Design.

You might have heard the term Wireframing and/or Prototyping in web or application design/development or you might not. For those of you who haven't heard this term so far here is the explanation for you:

Wireframing: Wireframes are a basic visual guide used in web design to suggest the layout of fundamental elements in the interface. Because of this they are often completed before any artwork is developed. When completed correctly they will provide a visual reference upon which to structure each page. Wireframes also allow for the development of variations of a layout to maintain design consistency throughout the site. This is an important part of the initial development stage because it creates user expectations and helps to develop an awareness of and familiarity with the site. Wikipedia

In some cases you'll come to a situation of creating a skeleton for a website/web application in which your developer and your designer must coordinate their work in order to reach a very premature stage of the project. That premature stage is going to be your wireframe.

Wireframes' purpose is to present the hierarchy of how things are going to work when the project is done or how the content is going to be distributed in real life. In some cases wireframes are useful to simulate common tasks of user interaction or even perform tests for certain actions such as user login or password recovery etc. Also they might be used for planning and comparing different approaches of the website's navigation. The list can go on for a lot of things but I think you got the point.

When you start an new project from scratch the risk of falling into pitfalls is really ahead of you. This might not be bothering when working as an individual but imagine that the whole team of yours falls into pitfalls over and over again not because their not doing their work well but because things don't work out well every time or because of some misconception between you and your client.

So you might start getting the idea of using wireframes. A good question might be "How do you create a wireframe?". You can create a wireframe with either a tool (check the list at the bottom of this post) or with you bare hands and your web design tools you use daily. Remember that a wireframe doesn't have to be eye candy or of great design concept but has to present the overall user interaction with the user.

Interesting stuff:

Articles:
Usability.gov
Designing interactive products with Fireworks
Quick and Easy Flash Prototypes

Web Design Wireframing Tools:
Axure
Pencil
Photoshare

Videos
Comp and Wireframing - Web Usability
Usability Testing

Ma.gnolia goes Open Source (M2 Project)!

About 6 days ago (yeap I know news sometimes take a while before they get here) the Ma.gnolia.com team announced that they decided to release their social booking platform as an open source project probably entitled "M2". I think these are good news and I'm really looking forward seeing the first release!

As stated from the team themselves the benefits from this move are going to be beneficial for everyone inveolved: Users, Developers and Magnolia Systems. Just to stay tuned about the way the project evolves, visit Ma.gnolia.org (it sounds like a wordpress.com / wordpress.org to me). If you want to take a deeper look of what is going to happen take a look to the .pdf file:

http://ma.gnolia.org/docs/M2_Charter.pdf

Vote for usability (or How Design Can Save Democracy)

Most of people that stay tuned about the US election over the years would probably are aware for the common mistakes and the wrongly cast votes for the candidate presidents and their party. In fact this has been in the eye of the tornado after the latest elections. Well this year the United States Election Assistance Commission has released some sort of guidelines for the ballots that are going to be used (to learn more about ballots click here). The New York Times have posted a very interesting article entitled "
How Design Can Save Democracy" that demonstrates the major problems in the 2004 ballot and assigns a solution for the upcoming elections.

Nokia: Music Almighty

It's been a while since I posted any flash related websites. So here it is... nominated by The FWA as website of the month Nokia: Music Almighty. Enjoy.

Firebug 1.2 Released

The well known web development tool reached the 1.2 release. Click  here for firefox add-on to update your current version.

Passing the Torch: An Evolution of Form

Well the Olymbics might be over a couple of days ago but I just stumbled upon a very interesting article of the New York Times. It's about the history of the Olympic Games represented throughout the different torches designs for the very first games to the latest conducted in Beijing. Roll over the mouse to read information and trivia about the history of each torch.

The Art of Photogravure

Well that is something that I heard today for the first time. Photogravure is the printing of a photo on a copper plate that includes at least four steps from the time the photo is taken until the photo is printed on the plate. For more information about the term photogravure pay a visit to wikipedia. Photogravure.com is website that tends to keep and spread information about this technique which is considered from many as the ancestor of photography. To get an idea about the whole thing take a look the photo below or even better pay a visit here (nice website but it has some issues with user navigation...).

CouldBe.Me Project

Since the ICANN's announcement for .me domains a while, I was sure that some interersiting domains would come along with some interesting projects. CouldBe.me is one (and currently the only I came across) that really has something to show. According to the creator:

"Could be me" is a project exploring possibility of one artist occupying another's space. It is a visual adventure and an interpretation of the same sentence by different artists worldwide.

Font Conference

2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony

And no something completely different! Here are some beautiful photos from the 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony. Enjoy!

Experimental Flash: Morisawa.co.jp and the FontPark

I just ran over this fantastic flash website! Just drag and drop font characters onto the stage and create your own figure!

The sea makes me feel...

Enjoy the sea folks!

This is a scheduled post (I'm testing Blogger's scheduler)

Del.icio.us changes to become Delicious.com

Well I'm pretty sure that all of you have already heard or using the del.icio.us service as it has become one of the largest (if not the largest) online social bookmarking service with thousands users and millions of bookmarked URLs. That Web 2.0 monster undergone a extreme makeover (not the TV Show) with many things having changes for the sake of usability and effectiveness with the primary change to be the new domain name! I think that everybody enjoyed typing the neat del.icio.us stuff, but it seams like the guys in Delicious thought to make things more formal so they got themselves a new domain name so that you can now access Delicious from here.

The next thing that really made my day was the layout change something that should have been done a long time ago IMO. The new features really boost the usability to new levels. Just take a look here to see the complete list of all the new features and happy bookmarking!