These images really speak for themselves, so just take a look at the majesty of a volcano meeting a lightning storm. Click either photo to be taken to a news story relating to the event.
I haven't posted any video clips for a long while, so thought it was probably about time for some easily digestible blogness!
It's always good to look at retro ideas when designing, but it's equally good to get in the mood listening to some (vaguely) retro tunes, harking back to the early/mid-nineties:
First up, here are The Longpigs, with 'She Said' - I'd forgotten how much I liked this track, normally favouring others off their album, but it's great:
And next up, a band from where i grew up - Shed Seven - with 'Where Have You Been Tonight?'
Wordle has seen a lot of press recently, with organisations increasingly using its services to generate word clouds of press releases, documentation, blogs and reports. It's not what it was directly intended for (more for tag clouds on blogs), but it can be quite a good way of summarising the main themes of a project quickly and easily.
I've blogged on wordle before, showing how it could variously summarise this blog. Since that time, I have seen a number of blog posts on its uses, including one from the BBC:
So, just for fun, I thought I'd try using it on full transcripts of the Queen's Speech from the last 3 years. I figured - much like political speeches - these would be full of buzz words and if I limited the tag cloud to around 30 words, it would be easy to see what the big issues were that year. So, here are the results - click to enlarge:
As you can see, the main themes are strikingly similar each year, bordering on the lazy! But it's still a really interesting way to summarise a document and assess roughly what it is talking about. Now, next year I'm hoping the Queen has a bit more imagination! :)
When designing a new site, I like to keep an eye on the latest designs to make sure the colour scheme I use is fresh and looks good. I have nothing against using whatever colour scheme you fancy and great sites can be made this way - but I do notice myself favouring sites that look good. Only if I find a site with an incomparable service will I accept it with really poor design.
I think it's fair to say that colour schemes have varied since the internet started up. One of the most obvious areas to see this change is the hyperlink - it started its life as a (unstylised) royal blue and with the advent of CSS, this blue was often toned down and eventually done away with completely.
So I thought it would be fun to have a look at the colour schemes of major websites throughout time and create a chart of colours, with the most up-to-date colour scheme coming at the end. In fact, my most recent project (Fringe 2008 venue Map) was based on the colours shown at the end of the colour chart below.
The colours have been gathered from a host of well-known websites using links to their old versions. This was made possible by the Internet Archive - Wayback Machine, a list of cached web pages spanning over 10 years of the web's history.
The general trend is from royal / bright colours to murky / pastel colours and now onto bright, funky colours - avoiding royals. An interesting exercise, maybe it will be of use some day! :)
I was recently inspired to make my own 24 hour app, to see what could be achieved with a bit of concentrated effort.
Before I start describing the resulting app, it's best to point out that in total this probably took closer to 48 hours to complete and test, but I was working alone so the principal holds I think!
I wanted to create a map that tested a few features I'd not used before and made a short list of what these should be:
1. A search box that references geonames.org before bringing the location back to the google map.
2. Database driven form menus allowing quick reference to any site on the map and a way to simply designate this search result using map icons.
3. An easy-to-use map editing system that allowed users to add a feature to the map without knowing the latitude and longitude: either by searching the map with an address or by pinpointing the marker on the map.
I also wanted to make sure the design was up to date and did the service justice.
So, I decided to make an interactive map for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2008, showing all the venues on one map and supplementing this data with places to eat and drink etc. Not only would this allow the criteria above to be met, but also produce something that isn't already available online (or at least not that I could find!). This map is located at:
I'll start with an overview of the finished design then move onto some specific details - feel free to click this first image to enlarge it:
Taking a closer look at the interactive elements, you can see that multiple search boxes have been provided. The main text search sends the entered string to geonames.org, adding ", Edinburgh, UK" to any search to make it fit the service. If the user enters a postcode, however, this addition is unnecessary and not used. The second set of searches use the database to fill form menus with a two list of all the venues on the map. These are ordered by both venue number and by venue name making it easy to find the venue you are interested in:
If the standard search box is used, the map re-centres on this location, keeping any criteria the user has chosen previously on the map. If the venue list is used, the map centres on this venue and changes the icon to a big blue star so it is obvious which venue they have chosen.
The following image shows the map criteria, the 'edit map' button and the standard info box for the features on the map:
The 'edit map' button detailed above brings the user into the Editor. This zooms in to the map, changes the base layer to basic mapping and removes all the markers bar one. Once this marker is moved to the desired location, a popup box appears with a form to fill in all the desired information for a new feature. The latitude and longitude are automatically calculated behind the scenes. Once the boxes are filled in, the form can be submitted and the feature will appear instantly on the map for all to see:
Alternatively, if the exact address is known, this can be submitted to the main search box first. Once the location is found, pressing 'edit map' will zoom on in this location and the marker can be added from here.
So there it is - A 48-hour app inspired by Mashed 2008, I hope it provides a useful service!
Adverts appear all over the web and often take a similar form, constrained by the size and shape advertising space is given on websties. The most common of these is the banner, normally with a width-length ratio of between 1:6 and 1:8.
I've been asked to make these for various companies before, often to send out to other companies as part of an advertising or link-sharing deal. I've had some experience with Flash before, but I was interested to see how quickly a simple banner could be made to get a simple point across quickly.
For the sake of simplicity (and cost...there's a free demo version), I like to use KoolMoves - Flash Creation Software. This is the easiest piece of Flash software I've used and I would especially recommend it for beginners.
So, I set about making a banner detailing a special offer for a fictional company - FauxCorp - to see how quickly a simple message could be put across. It took me 10 minutes to create this, but anyone new to the software would maybe need 2 hours first to explore the software.
This banner uses very simple effects:
1. A full size rectangle with gradient fill to create the background.
2. Four text boxes for the various messages
3. Two shapes to create the FauxCorp logo
4. An image of a gift
4. Fade in/out, slide and zoom effects on the various text boxes
5. Slide in and fade out effects on the FauxCorp logo
6. Spiral effect on the gift image
So, it can be quick and easy to make an animated advertising banner using the right software. The free version adds a watermark to the swf file, but older versions allowed full use (except saving to propreitary format).
