Just had to post a link to this fabulous web portfolio by Bryan Katzel. It has one of the most interesting and innovative uses of semi transparent PNGs I’ve ever seen. Simply scroll down to the bottom and keep an eye on the central area of the page with the rainbow. Gorgeous!

http://www.webleeddesign.com/

Note: Don’t even think about visiting if you use Internet Exploder 6 or lower.

Web 2.0 is not a design aesthetic. Yet that hasn’t stopped thousands of designers perpetuating a commonly understood “Web 2.0″ look: over used shiny reflections, rounded corners, subtle gradients, bold colours and the use of the word ‘Beta’ next to your logo (whether or not your service is actually in beta!)

However, I find the most annoying effect is the now ubiquitous ‘peeling sticker’. It’s everywhere, and not just on the web either. I confess I just don’t get it: what’s wrong with those stickers? Do they use cheap glue? Why are you hiding part of your logo with them?

If you need to bring attention to something on your page, there are better ways of doing so. Good information architecture should lead users to the pertinent areas of your page, without the need for replicating real world physicality in your design elements.

Still, if you really want to perpetuate this aesthetic, you don’t even need to do the work yourself. Just get an app to do it for you. *Sigh*.

How many badly PhotoShopped efforts do you see day to day? This site has some corkers:

http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/

I’ve been using the new Wordpress 2.5 on a project which I upgraded from 2.3.3. It seemed very swish, with some great new features: Media Management, multi-file uploading, Gravatars, tidier menus and — the big one — an improved Write screen. When Wordpress was in RC phase, this was said about the Write screen:

.”..only displays the information that you’ll use most often. It displays the most common fields in a way that makes posting incredibly easy. Additional options are hidden away until you need them. The new Write screen anticipates the natural flow of the way you write.”

Wordpress’ Write screen is the core of the software. If this doesn’t work well, it doesn’t matter how many nice new features have been included, you’re gonna have a bad time blogging. So it was encouraging to read about it’s improvments. But rather than improving the experience, they made it worse. Why? In short: Bad use of screen real estate. (more…)

I was looking at The Wayback Machine recently — a fantastic resource that has been archiving websites for more than ten years. I was trying to find an old site I built that I never kept a copy of, but alas it was not there.

I was disappointed but began to think about the first site I built — it was in 1997 and was version two of Maxim Training’s website, the company I was working for at the time. I punched in the URL and lo and behold, there it was in all it’s framed glory:

http://web.archive.org/…/www.maxim.co.uk/

Looking at this with hindsight, my reaction was “What was I thinking?” I then went and gave myself a good slap.

Look at that lovely textured background! Look at the frames (two levels no less!). It has keyword spamming, a table based design, graphical text, crappy icons (I was sure they looked a lot better than that when I drew them) and a whole host of other things that are now firmly at the top of the list entitled “Big Fat No-Nos of Web Design”.

So what’s the point of highlighting this, other than some self-indulgent, self-berating nostalgia? Well, I think it shows that - despite the web still being an immature medium - we have come such a long way in such a short space of time.

Most of the things that are bad about that site are no longer being perpetuated by good web designers and developers. We’ve learnt so much:

• Sites that use frames stop search engines from indexing your content
• Graphical text is not search engine friendly and is inaccessible to some browsing devices
• Table-based layouts break usability and accessibility
• Keyword-spamming can get you de-listed from search engines
• People associate good design with good content — if your design sucks, no-one will read your content, however useful it might be. I think I’ve got a bit better at design since then!

Of course, we’re still learning. The web is maturing at a staggering rate. It’s becoming easier and quicker to develop new ideas, new ways of interacting with customers and new marketing opportunities. It’s exciting and it is hopefully only going to get better.

I’m looking forward to the day I can write an article about this site and say “What on earth was I thinking?” Well, almost.

I’ve just purchased a new keyboard and mouse, the cheapest part of an overdue upgrade for my aging desktop PC. I opted for a wireless combination from Microsoft, the Wireless Optical Desktop 1000. After using them for a day, I regret my decision and I hope PC World will take them back and give me a refund. (more…)