Hot Gloo

This is an Online Wireframing App, which allows user to create and share wireframes.
In their own words, HotGloo allows:

1. smooth the planning process
2. get a clearer picture of site information
3. provide a precise framework for designers & coders
4. build up a more intense project relationship with clients
5. improve the communication process

Copy Coup

Saw Indian Express website this morning! Though at the first site I liked it better than TOI and other online Indian news papers but sorry to say that it looks to me an imitation of Guardian's website. Check out the color, the lay out and the content categorization... it's sad how Indian stakeholders agree to such a decision and why do we need to copy!

Indian Express Homepage Jan 06, 2010

Guardian Homepage Jan 06 2010

Guaranteed

Do listen to Eddie Vedder's Guaranteed :)

whats in a name?

A rose by any other name smells the same ;)
~Bill Shakespeare

Balsamic

Have you tried Balsamiq? Its pretty cool for paper prototyping.
Try it now here: http://www.balsamiq.com/demos/mockups/Mockups.html

Bohemian Rhapsody

HP ScanJet 3C takes lead on Bohemian Rhapsody

This is Spectacular!! Please play the 2 links below together in 2 tabs and... hear the MAGIC!!

youtube- queen's bohemian rhapsody

HP scanjet- recreate bohemian rhaposdy

"Bohemian Rhapsody" is a song by the British rock band Queen. It was written by Freddie Mercury for the band's 1975 album A Night at the Opera. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is in the style of a stream-of-consciousness nightmare that has unusual song structure, especially for popular music. The song has no chorus, instead consisting of seemingly disjointed sections including operatic segments, an a cappella passage, and a heavy rock solo.

The song consists of six sections: introduction, ballad, guitar solo, opera, rock, and outro. This format, with abrupt changes in style, tone, and tempo, was unusual to rock music.

Death and Taxes

"Death and Taxes" is a large representational graph and poster of the federal budget.

The data is straight from the president's 2009 budget request and will be debated, amended, and approved by Congress to begin the fiscal year. All of the item circles are proportional in size to their spending totals and the percentage change from 2008 is included to spot trends and disproportion.

What's the TIME?

Nau baj gaye kya?
http://home.tiscali.nl/annejan/swf/timeline.swf

Grid system

To continue with previous post on grids,

The 960 grid system

The 960 Grid System is an effort to streamline web development workflow by providing commonly used dimensions, based on a width of 960 pixels. There are two variants: 12 and 16 columns, which can be used separately or in tandem

The complex grid

"Karl Gerstner designed this grid for his work on the CAPITAL magazine. This is actually a six-column grid with a four-column grid superimposed. Karl suggests that this grid requires considerable study, and a designer would have to spend a great deal of time working with it before he could make free use of it in a creative sense."

--- quite an insight and exciting to see how does a designer uses Mathematics to his advantage !

Design Guru Enzo Mari

Enzo Mari is perceived as 'the critical conscience of design', his work has contributed to the world-wide debate on the contemporary design profession. On the occasion of the city of turin's nomination as world design capital 2008, GAM museum dedicates an extensive retrospective show to the work of the italian master designer Enzo Mari....

Quite a revelation his words about computers and designers..

Objectified

Here is another good movie by Gary Hustwit, "Objectified". Most of us might have seen "Helvetica" by now so do wait for this release also :)

Laser Engraving on a Leaf!

Have arrows wherever u go!

new arrow rings by designer combo Kate Johnson and Kevin Dresser of DresserJohnson design

HIGHlighter x 3

So simple yet so genius!
By modifying the tip into what they call a 3-way “beetle tip” the pen allows you to make 3 distinctive marks just by tilting your hand.

Collection of Interesting Work

Interesting collection and work by
Szymon Błaszczyk.. May be most of us have had seen things and messages on this blog before somewhere or the other. Enjoy it once more. Get Inspired!

Real life vs Fashion

Is hi fashion restricted only to the classes? Indian Vogue had a fashion spread featuring 'real Indian people' which includes villagers in mud houses and city women on their mopeds. Each of them featured a fashion accessory costing several hundred dollars. But some people are offended, because around half the Indian population lives on an income of 1.25 $.
I know its may not be strictly relevant here, but thought this was a good point of debate.

Jared Spool's podcasts

http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/topics/podcasts/

Great to hear on ur mp3 players through all the long waits, walks, bus rides...

Blindingly Fast Touchscreen Text Entry System

Everyone who has owned a cellphone over the last 10 years should at some point pour one out in thanks to Cliff Kushler, one of the inventors of the T9 text entry system that knows you mean "DONKEY" when you type 366539 in an SMS. Now Cliff is smartly shifting his focus on touchscreens with Swype—a way to type blindingly fast on a touchscreen by tracing your finger or stylus over the letters you want without lifting up, connect-the-dots style. It looks frankly amazing in a demo—so amazing that we remembered we've seen it somewhere before. Thankfully, it could be heading to the iPhone and Android really, really soon.

Source: Gizmodo

Type Design Basics

typeworkshop.com

This website is an old one... but useful in sharing archives of interesting type experiments and teaching basics of Type design and details involved in it. Again, an interesting read and stories on how people love to get tripped over things and create wonders!

Interaction Design

Interaction Design and ID:
You're already doing it...don't you want to know what it's all about?
By David Malouf

IDEO's NEW Website

IDEO (http://ideo.com/) has revamped their online presence in the first overall site overhaul in 7 years. Led by core-fave Valerie Casey, the site plasters up its wares not unlike the post-it note sessions it's famous for.

Bonus: Take a peak at the firm's sweet 1996 homepage background tile below--a nice technical drawing riff on Paul Rand's logo. (In those days, you got to choose between "shocked" and "basic" versions of the site.)

Windows Vista: Speech and Touch Interfaces

Though quite technical but....

Points to know while you work in a team for a web based product

Yesterday, I got some insights on standards to follow when we design a website or a web portal. Out of my limited memory, I am putting few of those here for our reference whenever needed.

Why do we need a "div" based web development rather than the old fashioned "table" based one?
We might want to say that in the present context when websites are becoming more and more dynamic with a variety of media, the "table" based approach falls short. Dynamism with faster download time can be well achieved by using "divs" rather than "tables" due to one or other of the following:

a) The "table" being a nested approach adds a lot of code behind a web interface. A nested approach involves using few elements of code again and again. This ultimately results in web interfaces with heavy code file and eventually a large download time at the browser end.

b) Also, it has been noticed that different browsers react to "tables" in many different ways. The way a browser application like Mozilla Fire fox downloads a web code with too many of "tables" widely differs from the way it can download the same web code written using a "div". In the former case, it is more a large bunch download which might result in nothing on a user's screen in an event of internet going off for any reasons while during download. While in the later case when a code is written using "div", it is more a smaller packet download (but many in number) and would ensure that at least a portion of the website is visible on a user's screen even when internet goes off accidentally.

c)Third and the most known fact, quite contrary to "tables", a web code with "div" support "CSS based styles". It lessens the code length, ensures a better consistency through out the interface and makes the code a bit comprehensible for "designers" too :)

d) Also, to comply to different usability and accessibility norms, we should check using section 508 evaluator. Using "jaws" can also help you in testing your product for specific requirements of people with blindness.

So, enjoy and add value to your products. Add your comments and suggest corrections if I am wrong somewhere. Kothari, I am looking forward to you for further additions not as links but as written text here :) if needed and so as Damera.

Credits: Dr G Dalvi, IDC IIT Mumbai

"satisficing" Digital Photography tips for Beginners

I constantly read,forget,get confused, try later fidgeting with settings on my digital camera, then make a sad face at the silly result and switch back to auto shooting mode...

This is one thing I finally decided to change... started again... to look for a decent online guide and tried what I learn instantly by keeping my camera by my side as I read...

Of all the various guides I looked at this seemed most "satisficing"-> satisfying and sufficient =just enough...

So read on all the articles if you want a comprehensive understanding... its pretty quick to read them... Digital Photography tips for Beginners

Finding Balance: Addressing Cognitive Dissonances

October 6, 2006 lecture by Joey McKay and Greg Niemeyer for the Stanford University Human Computer Interaction Seminar (CS547). Niemeyer and McKay demonstrate how their game, Balance, helps senior citizens maintain and improve their sense of balance.

CS 547 | Human-Computer Interaction Seminar:
http://hci.stanford.edu/seminar/

Stanford HCI Group:
http://hci.stanford.edu/

Stanford Center for Professional Development:
http://scpd.stanford.edu/

Stanford University Channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/stanforduniver...

Google Saree! -Labnol

This Google Saree from Satya Paul, a fashion designer in India, costs around $300 and carries a print of the Google search results page.

They call this sari “Oogle” (replacing the “G” in the Google logo with “O”) maybe to prevent any trademark issues with the search company.

Resource: For technical writing, documentation

http://www.mhhe.com/mayfieldpub/tsw/toc.htm

Here are they...Steve and Bill

A series of interesting talks between Bill and Steve.

Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving talk, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.

"Journeys" are special University Lectures in which Carnegie Mellon faculty members share their reflections on their journeys -- the everyday actions, decisions, challenges and joys that make a life.