Posts Tagged ‘Design’
BBC News refresh: air’s in
March 31st, 2008 • Design, Internet
Tags: Design, Web
Open Firefox this morning, and an old friend shows a new face. The Beeb revamp sparked a fair flurry of debate among colleagues: one camp decided that it was too conservative, while the other concluded that Aunty had shown the maturity you’d expect.
I sit in the latter camp. The design has shifted to the centre of your browser, and also widened to a 1024 width from its long-established 800. But to my eyes, those apparently major moves are invisible. The real beauty is in the care shown around the text: while the old BBC News home was a masterpiece of efficiency, the newcomer is the work of someone who respects words.
Every line has exactly the right amount of space to put the emphasis on the story instead of the design. You simply absorb the news, without fussy artifacts throwing up noise. The only flaw I could find was below the fold: the centre column’s ‘Around the World’ group of links badly needs someone to put more definition to those crossheads. Other than that, she’s a beaut.
10 cringing navigational howlers
September 29th, 2007 • Internet, Search
Tags: Design, usability
Nice summary of some of the most common usability nightmares over at Smashing Magazine. Among the 10 howlers, you’ll find drop-down navigation, blocks that overlay navigation, and Flash sites that demand a seismic leap in human evolution before they can be worked.Of course, you’d never be associated with such horrors, now would you? Confession time: the piece made me think of the times when I have been the culprit - I’ve ignored the advice of others, and happily packed the site’s Tupperware box under the navigation could take no more.10 Usability Nightmares You Should Be Aware Of | Developer’s Toolbox
Readers to design front covers
July 30th, 2007 • Media
Tags: Design, publishing
What a nice idea. Penguin Books get together with teen social site Piczo, giving its younger users the opportunity to design covers for a host of classic books. The cynical could accuse Penguin of tapping into a cheap source of creativity. Me? I’ll get my 12-year-old on the case this evening…
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