Xmarks Lives: LastPass Buys Downtrodden Bookmark Syncing Service
Just when we all thought we’d never see it again, the cross-browser bookmark syncing service Xmarks has received a life-saving injection.
The company has been acquired by LastPass, maker of a cross-browser password manager and form filler add-on. The deal was announced Thursday, and terms were not disclosed.
Xmarks will live on as a freemium service. The initial cross-browser syncing tool you’re already familiar with will be free, but users will be encouraged to upgrade to a paid subscription to unlock more advanced features. It’s the same model employed by LastPass for its own Premium version of its (otherwise free) password-syncing service.
Xmarks Premium will be offered for $1 per month ($12 per year) and it comes with some new features like apps for the iPhone and Android phones, and technical support. You will also be able to bundle the premium offerings from LastPass and Xmarks together for $20 per year.
There’s already an iPhone app for Xmarks, and the company just recently released an Android app, too. Xmarks says anyone currently using the iPhone app can continue to use it without upgrading to the premium service, but they will have to buy in to the $12 per year plan to get future upgrades.
It looked like curtains for Xmarks in September, when the company announced it would shut down its service in early 2011.
Apparently, there’s no money in a free bookmark syncing service, and the company was facing new competition from the cloud-based syncing systems being built into Firefox and Chrome. Even though Xmarks one-ups those built-in single-browser services by syncing bookmarks across all your browsers, it couldn’t stay afloat.
The service has some 4.5 million users, and there was an outcry when Xmarks announced the shutdown. Later, the company asked its fans if they would be willing to pay a subscription fee to keep Xmarks alive. Over 30,000 of them pledged to do so, and that was enough to attract the attention of LastPass.
The two companies will continue to operate under independent brands, though they may merge everything later.
So, it turns out this dark story of cloud computing had a silver lining after all.
See also:
- Xmarks to Continue Syncing Bookmarks, Thanks to Loyal Fans
- Xmarks Mulls Switch to Premium Service
- Popular Bookmark Syncing Tool XMarks to Shut Down
- Xmarks Syncs Open Tabs Across Browsers, iPhone
Read More...
Chrome Browser to Start Sandboxing Flash Player
The latest developer channel release of the Chrome browser now supports sandboxing for Adobe’s Flash Player on Windows 7, Vista and XP.
This feature should provide extra protection against malicious browser exploits through the Flash Player. The dev channel releases of Chrome on Windows already support sandboxing for HTML rendering and JavaScript execution, two of the most common paths people can use to run malicious code on an unsuspecting user’s machine. Sandboxing keeps these sensitive parts of the browser more secure while still allowing web pages and apps to access the other, less-sensitive parts of the browser.
Windows users on the dev channel should see the update arrive automatically. We should note that the sandbox does have some bugs and may break other parts of the browser — this is a developer release, after all. Once the kinks are ironed out, all of these sandboxing features will begin making their way into proper stable Chrome releases.
Google’s Chromium team has been working with Adobe to build better Flash controls into Chrome, and to utilize Chrome’s sandboxing technology for the plug-in. Google says Wednesday’s update makes Chrome the only browser on XP that sandboxes Flash. For more about sandboxing and how Chrome is implementing it, read the overview post on the Chromium blog from October. Also, Wednesday’s release comes less than a month after Chrome introduced click-to-play controls for Flash and other plug-ins.
Adobe’s Flash Player is the most widely-used browser plug-in on the web, and it’s the dominant choice for video playback and games online. Even so, the technology gets beat up for performance issues and its security shortcomings, and it’s still falling out of favor among standards enthusiasts who are pushing HTML5 as the better solution for displaying multimedia in the browser.
Adobe also released a new beta version of the Flash Player on Wednesday that improves some of its performance issues.
See also:
- New Flash Player 10.2 Goes Easy on the CPU
- Chrome Now Offers Click-to-Play Option for Flash, Other Plugins
- Chrome 7 Arrives With Bug Fixes, Better HTML5 Support
Read More...
New Flash Player 10.2 Goes Easy on the CPU
[Updated, see below] Adobe has released the first beta of Flash Player 10.2, an update that focuses primarily on speed and performance improvements. New in Flash 10.2 is something Adobe calls “Stage Video hardware acceleration,” which the company claims will “decrease processor usage and enable higher frame rates, reduced memory usage, and greater pixel fidelity and quality.” And the hardware acceleration technology does do all of these things, though your mileage will vary depending on what kind of hardware and software you’re using.
To try out the new Flash Player 10.2 beta, head over the Adobe download page. Be aware that, while 10.2 appears to be relatively stable, it is a beta release and there may be bugs.
The Stage Video hardware acceleration means that Flash Player 10.2 can leverage your graphics card for not just H.264 hardware decoding (which works in Flash Player 10.1) but also color conversion, scaling, and blitting.
Adobe’s press release makes a rather bold claim: “using Stage Video, we’ve seen laptops play smooth 1080p HD video with just over 0% CPU usage.”
Sadly, we have not seen such results. While we won’t argue with the smoothness of the playback in this new release, Flash is still going to use quite a bit of your PC’s CPU. Based on my testing (done on a Macbook Pro laptop using both Firefox 4b7 and Safari 5, and a Mac Pro tower using the same browsers — Wired is an all-Mac office), while CPU usage is down in Flash 10.2, it’s still a long way from zero.
Update: Since this article was published, we’ve been hearing from you, our awesome readers, in the comments and over e-mail. Some things to note: The new beta performs much better on Windows computers than it does under Mac OS X. Also, full hardware acceleration on Mac OS X requires Snow Leopard or later, otherwise it falls back to using software rendering in the CPU. Thanks for the comments, and keep them coming!
On our Macs, we tested several 1080p videos on YouTube in Flash Player 10.1 and found that on average the 10.1 plugin used between 44-48 percent CPU. Watching the same movie in Flash 10.2 did drop the CPU usage down to the 18-22 percent range, but definitely not zero.
Worse, running the same tests on Adobe’s Stage Video optimized demos, Flash 10.2 actually performed worse than than it did on normal 1080p movies with the cpu usage varying widely between 5 and 60 percent (the 18-20 percent range appears to be the norm).
The short story is that, while Flash 10.2 does offer decreased processor usage, it doesn’t quite live up to Adobe’s claims. While Flash Player 10.2’s performance falls short of the hype, there’s no question that it’s a huge leap forward in terms of performance. The smaller CPU footprint alone is well worth the upgrade, provided you don’t mind running beta software. So far Adobe has not set a final release data for Flash 10.2.
One other thing to keep in mind: to take advantage of the new Stage Video tools, sites like YouTube and Vimeo will need to alter their video players. So, it may be some time before the full benefit of Stage Video’s improvements makes it to your day-to-day web browsing.
As for other new features in this release, there’s Internet Explorer 9 GPU support and support for fullscreen mode with dual monitors — meaning that you can have a movie on one screen and keep working on another.
Custom cursors get some love in this release, too, with Flash Player 10.2 handing off the job to the operating system rather than using resources to manually draw custom cursors. The beta also improves text rendering, adding sub-pixel rendering enhancements that should make your typography look a bit nicer and more readable.
It’s worth noting that the Flash Player 10.2 beta does not replace the Flash Player “Square” preview release — in other words, Flash Player 10.2 still isn’t 64-bit native. If 64-bit support is important to you, stick with the Flash Player “Square” preview.
See Also:
- Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Arrives
- Adobe Revamps Flash Player for Netbooks, P2P, Private Browsing
- Adobe Fights Off HTML5 Threat With New Flash Player 10.1
Read More...
Can WAI-ARIA Build a More Accessible Web?
Accessibility in web design has come a long way since the days of table-based layouts with single-pixel .gif spacers. But even current best practices are far from perfect.
Today, we’ll tell you a bit more about these accessibility troubles as they relate to dynamic web apps — fitting, as today is Blue Beanie Day. For four years now, design guru Jeffrey Zeldman has encouraged web authors to wear a blue beanie on November 30 to show their support for web standards. Also, you’re encouraged to take a picture of yourself wearing a blue beanie and upload it to a Flickr pool. So, with standards quite literally on the brain, we’ll tackle the topic of rich web apps.
One of the coolest things about web apps is that elements refresh inside the browser without reloading the page. But most screen readers used by those with disabilities can’t parse these changes, so users who rely on them will remain unaware of any dynamically refreshed elements on the page. That’s just one of the many problems that WAI-ARIA, an emerging specification for Accessible Rich Internet Applications from the W3C, is hoping to solve.
At its core, WAI-ARIA is a means of annotating page elements with the roles, properties, and states that define exactly what those elements do. Take a navigation element as a simple example. In HTML5 we might do something like this:
<nav>
<ul>
<li>Home
<li><a href="/about/">About</a></li>
...etc...
</ul>
</nav>
While it might seem that the
tag would defining the nav element’s “role,” not every browser will understand it (just because the browser can display it, does not mean it understands the tag). Also, the purpose of a navigation element may be obvious to most users, but to a screen reader being used by somebody who can’t see, the navigation strip could be just a jumble of words. Leveraging WAI-ARIA’s syntax, we can double up to ensure screen readers will know that this chunk of code is navigation:
<nav role="navigation">
<ul>
<li>Home</li>
<li><a href="/about/">About</a></li>
...etc...
</ul>
</nav>
The
attribute is what’s known as a landmark role and is designed to let non-visual browsers know where they are.
It seems simple, and indeed when the spec is finished and fully supported by all the major screen readers, WAI-ARIA promises to make the web more accessible without overly complicating your markup. Unfortunately, there are numerous problems with WAI-ARIA at the moment, which make support uneven and can be confusing for web authors trying to do the right thing.
Our friends at A List Apart recently waded into the confusion and uneven support with two great posts on WAI-ARIA and how you can use it (and not use it) on your sites. The first article, The Accessibility of WAI-ARIA, dives into what WAI-ARIA is, what it’s trying to do, and why it’s not yet a panacea.
The second piece is more hands-on. ARIA and Progressive Enhancement looks at how ARIA fits within the progressive enhancement approach to web design. That is, when starting with valid HTML and enhancing it with CSS and JavaScript, how can you also work the WAI-ARIA attributes into your code?
The ARIA and Progressive Enhancement article also has a very informative table listing the varying levels of support in the latest versions of popular screen readers. Unfortunately, one of the main problems with WAI-ARIA today is that there’s no way to know the level of support a user agent has. Unlike CSS or JavaScript, there’s no reliable way to test which features a user agent supports (if any).
As Derek Featherstone writes in his ALA piece:
The problem that we have right now is that ARIA is an all or nothing deal. And writing scripts that respect both an ARIA supported methodology and a non-ARIA methodology is going to be incredibly difficult, because we have no reliable way of knowing the status of a user agent’s support for ARIA—it depends on something we can’t detect: the right combination of browser, assistive technology, and full ARIA implementation.
For more information on the various levels of support in screen readers and web browsers, have a look at Accessible Culture’s article, HTML5 plus ARIA “Sanity Check.” The post highlights some of the bugs, pitfalls and gotchas in current screen readers, as well as some workarounds and other non-ARIA solutions.
As Detlev Fischer writes in the first of the two ALA articles, “as long as older screen reader/browser combinations incapable of interpreting WAI-ARIA still constitute a significant part of the installed base, web designers who care for accessibility should use WAI-ARIA markup only to enrich their sites.”
In other words, use WAI-ARIA, but don’t rely on it. Make sure you have fallbacks in place until the spec is finalized and browser/reader support more widespread.
Unicorn photo from Wikimedia Commons/CC
See Also:
- Microdata: HTML5’s Best-Kept Secret
- W3C’s Unicorn Validator Checks Multiple Standards at Once
- Using Microformats in HTML5
- Add Semantic Value to Your Pages With HTML 5
Read More...
Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: November 2010
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Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use a specific wallpaper for a longer period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers for over 12 months. To make them a little more distinctive than the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you happen to be searching for a specific day of the month, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?
This post features 50 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe for November 2010. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.
Please notice:
- all images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
- you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?
So what wallpapers have we received for November 2010?
Update (02.11.2010): You can also download the Windows 7 Wallpapers Pack with all wallpapers featured in this post.
Rose Petal
"Don’t underestimate the true beauty of a single dried rose petal…." Designed by Thuy Truong.
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- without calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1600×1200
Infinite Space
"Infinite Space… Inspired by the infinite beauty of our universe" Designed by Natanael Fernandez from Santo Domingo, Rep. Dominicana.
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Flying
"I’d like to fly away to warm countries for winter." Designed by Marta Miazek from Poland.
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- without calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Pink Morning
"Some watercolor, inspiration and good mood!" Designed by Oxana Kostromina from Poland/Russia.
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- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
UX cake
Designed by WitFlow from Poland.
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- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Symbian World
"Scene from Symbian World." Designed by Anna Alfut from UK.
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- without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152
Favourite Pair
Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.
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- without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
Fall into Place
"Photos from a damp, autumn day." Designed by Laurice Solomon from Canada.
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Enjoy the creative process
"November will surely be rainy for most of us. Hopefully you’ll remember to take a glimpse through the window, at least a virtual one. This wallpaper also features great free font called Franchise." Designed by Lucijan Blagonic from Croatia.
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- without calendar: 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
Thanks For Giving
Designed by Randal Baker Jr from USA.
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Bon Voyage
"And in the morning I’ll be goneFor other towns and other livesI’ll catch the first train, bag in hand. And I won’t miss you, and you won’t cry." Designed by Yellowbook from South Korea.
Fallen Leaves
"You know Autumn has arrived when the leaves have fallen, and it rains? Have a great November everybody!" Designed by Olivia Bell from England, UK.
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- without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
Heavy Equipment
"In the vicinity of Zürich, the company hosted a field test with the new machine and presented the first diesel electrical chain dozer. The Caterpillar D7E Dozer is the November motif of the Heavy Equipment Calendar 2010.Weight: 25,7 Tons/ Performance: 175kW (238 PS) / Motor: Caterpillar with capacity 9,3 l / Location: Zürich, Swiitzerland" Designed by Bauforum24 from Germany.
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- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Reprieve
"Watching nature prepare to go to sleep for the winter. The beauty of the process deserves a closer look. The austerity of a branch without its leaves and a leaf’s exposed skeleton. All for us to marvel at in this season of change." Designed by Kim Carney from USA.
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High Treason
"After a bit of plotting and planning we decided we would use the British tradition of Bonfire Night and create something explosive for the desktops of Smashing Magazine’s followers for the month of November, so here it is, “High Treason” — inspired by the ultimate raving lunatic (Guy Fawkes) and crafted in a digital masterpiece!" Designed by Fluid Creativity from England.
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- without calendar: 480×320, 640×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
One Big Heart of Ours
"Thank you to Olivia Bell and Rosanna Bell for modelling." Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.
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- without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
November Tree
Designed by Christine Bradway from United States.
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- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
Autumn with gecko
"Graphics made in Illustrator and Photoshop, combining nature elements, like classic autumm leaves with a more exotic and unexpected little gecko. Its purpose is to create an athmosphere of mystery and stillness, before the harsh winter strikes." Designed by Diana Samoila from Romania.
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- without calendar: 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Mechanical Month
Designed by Lemonsquash from france.
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Lonely White Guardian
"It’s almost winter and there’s only one thing stopping it from coming down the mountains and into the plains. This lonely white guardian struggling to keep the freezing snow at bay. Special thanks to Mikhail Dudarev for the photo." Designed by Bogdan Lazar from Romania.
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- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
Calaca for El d’a de Muertos
"This illustration was created to celebrate the day of dead in the Hispanic countries and reflects the joy of those who celebrates the life through the death." Designed by Celsiuspictor from Spain.
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- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
Autumn Fun
"After a happy cold and colourful afternoon, with the wet smell of earth filling my senses, we were walking home, for a hot chocolate, and with all these familliar feelings that sweet image got in my mind, and then I decided… I had to draw it!" Designed by Alkminnie Nestoridou from Greece.
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Expectation
Designed by Jaro Mlkvy from Slovakia.
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- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
November Rain
"Every night I look down this street, because I’m attracted to color and shape of the newly constructed gas station. This is the most beautiful street in my town, with plenty of benches and alleys. Walking along this street You can relax a lot, and forget all the problems. By day it is very noisy, because the school is close to the street, but in the evening – becoming very quiet and lovely. When it starts raining, the street is just Yours." Designed by Edis Selimovic from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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- without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
Hendrix Fire Lyrics Micrography
"Hendrix micrography themed wallpaper, based on the “Fire” lyrics. Micrography is an ancient art of drawing shapes based on letters." Designed by Ron Gilad from Israel.
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- without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Remember, Remember
"Remember, remember the 5th of November." Designed by Ian Lunn from England.
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- without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Stereo is better!
"On November 5, 1955, the stereo radio was introduced. Stereo is really better!" Designed by Matteo Palazzani from Italy.
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Diwali Greetings
"Diwali is the celebration of the Hindu new year which is celebrated all over the world. This piece wishes everyone warm wishes for the Hindu new year and the common new year holiday coming up soon." Designed by Smita Upadhye from New Zealand.
Friendship
"Day of National Unity." Designed by cheloveche.ru from Russia.
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A Myriad of Stars
"Each separate star, Seems nothing, but a myriad scattered stars, Break up the Night, and make it beautiful.” — Bayard Taylor. This photo was taken during the Perseids Meteor Shower this year, a magical night in the pine forests of Flagstaff, Arizona." Designed by Myriad Advertising from USA.
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Speaker Bird
Designed by Emily Shirley from USA.
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November Girl
Designed by Yuskiv Taras from Ukraine.
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Autumn Afternoon
Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.
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Racing Incident
"For racing snails, a split minute decision can lead to disaster, but racing incidents are just one part of the crazy world of The Racers." Designed by Ian Pullen from Spain.
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- without calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
Ghost Friends
"Boney wanted to have friends but they are all ghosts." Designed by Constantino Co from Singapore.
Picturesque November
"Just another picturesque place from Iran!" Designed by Arash Zad from IRAN.
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- without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
Transitions
"Autumn meets winter…The vibrant red leaves meet the grey mist of winter mornings." Designed by Nishith from India.
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Life Thougths
"November is the month to think about the yearend and of the new year… where we plan about enjoyment… each one should enjoy the life during this month.. so a colorfull “11″ and some life quotes surronded." Designed by Darshan Kore from India.
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November in Africa
"One of the most striking attribute of any rural area of Africa is the calm and peace it has. This is why the number of tourists from far and wide come here to be a part of this memory-etching experience. It is in this light that I try to portray such nostalgic atmosphere. Keenako!" Designed by Aroyewun Babajide from Nigeria.
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- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
November Fire
Designed by Pietje Precies from The Netherlands.
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- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Remembering George
"Nine years ago on November 29th, the world lost its second Beatle to cancer. George was my favorite of the four, and I thought this lyric was fitting for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday." Designed by Emily Blackwell from USA.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
Lawka
"photography" Designed by Mon from Poland.
- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Rustic Flower
"Decoration on a coffe table on a sunny autumn day on a beach." Designed by Ivana Stojkovic from Serbia.
- preview
- with calendar: 480×320, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
- without calendar: 480×320, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
Tiramisu
"Who doesn’t like a good piece of Tiramisu? Just created this simple wallpaper with no special reason, just felt like putting a vector piece of cake in a corner, and have everything else breathe and leave room for all you un-organized people with tons of icon on your desktop (just like me). Enjoy, and if you wonder what kind of desert you should have today, this week or this month (if on a really strict diet) well don’t look further!" Designed by Kevin Bedard from USA.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152
November
"It is November. It is rich. It is golden." Designed by Jade Cheng from USA.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050
- without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050
Simple Sunflower
"This photo was taken in the spring, but I always think of sunflowers as an autumn flower." Designed by Allison Jirsa from United States.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
Movember
"For a weird reason, Australia and New Zealand celebrate Moustache November. And USA and Canada call it No Shave Month." Designed by Sahil Khan from India.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
Knitting Fall
"Cosy and bright knitting wallpaper will warm you on cold fall days." Designed by Maria Fisenko (marylika) from Ukraine.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Channel 11
"Have a nice November!" Designed by Marco Palma from Italy/Germany.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Expanse
"The shear magnitude of our corner of creation is inconceivably small compared to the known universe, which overshadows our solar system 1.25 quadrillion (successor to trillion) to 1 in diameter alone. Humility in this great expanse should be instinctive." Designed by Coswyn from United States.
- preview
- with calendar: 1365×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2730×768, 2880×900, 3200×900, 3360×1050, 3840×1080, 3840×1200
- without calendar: 1365×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2730×768, 2880×900, 3200×900, 3360×1050, 3840×1080, 3840×1200, 640×960
Join in next month!
Please notice that we respect the ideas and motivation behind artists’ work which is why we’ve given artists full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. And this is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but designed from scratch by the artists themselves.
Thanks to all designers for participation. Join in next month!
What’s your favorite?
What’s your favourite theme or wallpaper for this month? Please let us know in the comments! And have a smashing November, folks!
(vf)
© Vitaly Friedman for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: Wallpapers
Read More...
Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: November 2010
     |
Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use a specific wallpaper for a longer period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers for over 12 months. To make them a little more distinctive than the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you happen to be searching for a specific day of the month, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper with a nice calendar instead of launching some default time application?
This post features 50 free desktop wallpapers, created by designers across the globe for November 2010. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free.
Please notice:
- all images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper;
- you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our desktop wallpaper calendar series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them?
So what wallpapers have we received for November 2010?
Update (02.11.2010): You can also download the Windows 7 Wallpapers Pack with all wallpapers featured in this post.
Rose Petal
"Don’t underestimate the true beauty of a single dried rose petal…." Designed by Thuy Truong.
- preview
- with calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1600×1200
- without calendar: 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1600×1200
Infinite Space
"Infinite Space… Inspired by the infinite beauty of our universe" Designed by Natanael Fernandez from Santo Domingo, Rep. Dominicana.
- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
Flying
"I’d like to fly away to warm countries for winter." Designed by Marta Miazek from Poland.
- preview
- with calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Pink Morning
"Some watercolor, inspiration and good mood!" Designed by Oxana Kostromina from Poland/Russia.
- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
UX cake
Designed by WitFlow from Poland.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Symbian World
"Scene from Symbian World." Designed by Anna Alfut from UK.
- preview
- with calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152
- without calendar: 800×600, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152
Favourite Pair
Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
- without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
Fall into Place
"Photos from a damp, autumn day." Designed by Laurice Solomon from Canada.
- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
Enjoy the creative process
"November will surely be rainy for most of us. Hopefully you’ll remember to take a glimpse through the window, at least a virtual one. This wallpaper also features great free font called Franchise." Designed by Lucijan Blagonic from Croatia.
- preview
- with calendar: 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
- without calendar: 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
Thanks For Giving
Designed by Randal Baker Jr from USA.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
Bon Voyage
"And in the morning I’ll be goneFor other towns and other livesI’ll catch the first train, bag in hand. And I won’t miss you, and you won’t cry." Designed by Yellowbook from South Korea.
Fallen Leaves
"You know Autumn has arrived when the leaves have fallen, and it rains? Have a great November everybody!" Designed by Olivia Bell from England, UK.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
- without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
Heavy Equipment
"In the vicinity of Zürich, the company hosted a field test with the new machine and presented the first diesel electrical chain dozer. The Caterpillar D7E Dozer is the November motif of the Heavy Equipment Calendar 2010.Weight: 25,7 Tons/ Performance: 175kW (238 PS) / Motor: Caterpillar with capacity 9,3 l / Location: Zürich, Swiitzerland" Designed by Bauforum24 from Germany.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Reprieve
"Watching nature prepare to go to sleep for the winter. The beauty of the process deserves a closer look. The austerity of a branch without its leaves and a leaf’s exposed skeleton. All for us to marvel at in this season of change." Designed by Kim Carney from USA.
- preview
- with calendar: 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 2560×1600
- without calendar: 320×480, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 2560×1600
High Treason
"After a bit of plotting and planning we decided we would use the British tradition of Bonfire Night and create something explosive for the desktops of Smashing Magazine’s followers for the month of November, so here it is, “High Treason” — inspired by the ultimate raving lunatic (Guy Fawkes) and crafted in a digital masterpiece!" Designed by Fluid Creativity from England.
- preview
- with calendar: 480×320, 640×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
- without calendar: 480×320, 640×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
One Big Heart of Ours
"Thank you to Olivia Bell and Rosanna Bell for modelling." Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
- without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
November Tree
Designed by Christine Bradway from United States.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
Autumn with gecko
"Graphics made in Illustrator and Photoshop, combining nature elements, like classic autumm leaves with a more exotic and unexpected little gecko. Its purpose is to create an athmosphere of mystery and stillness, before the harsh winter strikes." Designed by Diana Samoila from Romania.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Mechanical Month
Designed by Lemonsquash from france.
- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 2560×1440
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 2560×1440
Lonely White Guardian
"It’s almost winter and there’s only one thing stopping it from coming down the mountains and into the plains. This lonely white guardian struggling to keep the freezing snow at bay. Special thanks to Mikhail Dudarev for the photo." Designed by Bogdan Lazar from Romania.
- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
Calaca for El d’a de Muertos
"This illustration was created to celebrate the day of dead in the Hispanic countries and reflects the joy of those who celebrates the life through the death." Designed by Celsiuspictor from Spain.
- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
Autumn Fun
"After a happy cold and colourful afternoon, with the wet smell of earth filling my senses, we were walking home, for a hot chocolate, and with all these familliar feelings that sweet image got in my mind, and then I decided… I had to draw it!" Designed by Alkminnie Nestoridou from Greece.
- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1200
Expectation
Designed by Jaro Mlkvy from Slovakia.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
November Rain
"Every night I look down this street, because I’m attracted to color and shape of the newly constructed gas station. This is the most beautiful street in my town, with plenty of benches and alleys. Walking along this street You can relax a lot, and forget all the problems. By day it is very noisy, because the school is close to the street, but in the evening – becoming very quiet and lovely. When it starts raining, the street is just Yours." Designed by Edis Selimovic from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
Hendrix Fire Lyrics Micrography
"Hendrix micrography themed wallpaper, based on the “Fire” lyrics. Micrography is an ancient art of drawing shapes based on letters." Designed by Ron Gilad from Israel.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Remember, Remember
"Remember, remember the 5th of November." Designed by Ian Lunn from England.
- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
- without calendar: 320×480, 640×480, 800×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1152×864, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1280×960, 1280×1024, 1400×1050, 1440×900, 1600×1200, 1680×1050, 1680×1200, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 1920×1440, 2560×1440
Stereo is better!
"On November 5, 1955, the stereo radio was introduced. Stereo is really better!" Designed by Matteo Palazzani from Italy.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Diwali Greetings
"Diwali is the celebration of the Hindu new year which is celebrated all over the world. This piece wishes everyone warm wishes for the Hindu new year and the common new year holiday coming up soon." Designed by Smita Upadhye from New Zealand.
Friendship
"Day of National Unity." Designed by cheloveche.ru from Russia.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
A Myriad of Stars
"Each separate star, Seems nothing, but a myriad scattered stars, Break up the Night, and make it beautiful.” — Bayard Taylor. This photo was taken during the Perseids Meteor Shower this year, a magical night in the pine forests of Flagstaff, Arizona." Designed by Myriad Advertising from USA.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
Speaker Bird
Designed by Emily Shirley from USA.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
November Girl
Designed by Yuskiv Taras from Ukraine.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Autumn Afternoon
Designed by Sasha Bell from England, UK.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
- without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600
Racing Incident
"For racing snails, a split minute decision can lead to disaster, but racing incidents are just one part of the crazy world of The Racers." Designed by Ian Pullen from Spain.
- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
Ghost Friends
"Boney wanted to have friends but they are all ghosts." Designed by Constantino Co from Singapore.
Picturesque November
"Just another picturesque place from Iran!" Designed by Arash Zad from IRAN.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
- without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×720, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080
Transitions
"Autumn meets winter…The vibrant red leaves meet the grey mist of winter mornings." Designed by Nishith from India.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Life Thougths
"November is the month to think about the yearend and of the new year… where we plan about enjoyment… each one should enjoy the life during this month.. so a colorfull “11″ and some life quotes surronded." Designed by Darshan Kore from India.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×640, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
November in Africa
"One of the most striking attribute of any rural area of Africa is the calm and peace it has. This is why the number of tourists from far and wide come here to be a part of this memory-etching experience. It is in this light that I try to portray such nostalgic atmosphere. Keenako!" Designed by Aroyewun Babajide from Nigeria.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
November Fire
Designed by Pietje Precies from The Netherlands.
- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Remembering George
"Nine years ago on November 29th, the world lost its second Beatle to cancer. George was my favorite of the four, and I thought this lyric was fitting for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday." Designed by Emily Blackwell from USA.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200
Lawka
"photography" Designed by Mon from Poland.
- preview
- with calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 320×480, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Rustic Flower
"Decoration on a coffe table on a sunny autumn day on a beach." Designed by Ivana Stojkovic from Serbia.
- preview
- with calendar: 480×320, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
- without calendar: 480×320, 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1440
Tiramisu
"Who doesn’t like a good piece of Tiramisu? Just created this simple wallpaper with no special reason, just felt like putting a vector piece of cake in a corner, and have everything else breathe and leave room for all you un-organized people with tons of icon on your desktop (just like me). Enjoy, and if you wonder what kind of desert you should have today, this week or this month (if on a really strict diet) well don’t look further!" Designed by Kevin Bedard from USA.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2048×1152
November
"It is November. It is rich. It is golden." Designed by Jade Cheng from USA.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050
- without calendar: 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050
Simple Sunflower
"This photo was taken in the spring, but I always think of sunflowers as an autumn flower." Designed by Allison Jirsa from United States.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
Movember
"For a weird reason, Australia and New Zealand celebrate Moustache November. And USA and Canada call it No Shave Month." Designed by Sahil Khan from India.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1920×1200
Knitting Fall
"Cosy and bright knitting wallpaper will warm you on cold fall days." Designed by Maria Fisenko (marylika) from Ukraine.
- preview
- with calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1024×768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Channel 11
"Have a nice November!" Designed by Marco Palma from Italy/Germany.
- preview
- with calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
- without calendar: 1280×800, 1280×1024, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200
Expanse
"The shear magnitude of our corner of creation is inconceivably small compared to the known universe, which overshadows our solar system 1.25 quadrillion (successor to trillion) to 1 in diameter alone. Humility in this great expanse should be instinctive." Designed by Coswyn from United States.
- preview
- with calendar: 1365×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2730×768, 2880×900, 3200×900, 3360×1050, 3840×1080, 3840×1200
- without calendar: 1365×768, 1440×900, 1600×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, 1920×1200, 2730×768, 2880×900, 3200×900, 3360×1050, 3840×1080, 3840×1200, 640×960
Join in next month!
Please notice that we respect the ideas and motivation behind artists’ work which is why we’ve given artists full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. And this is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but designed from scratch by the artists themselves.
Thanks to all designers for participation. Join in next month!
What’s your favorite?
What’s your favourite theme or wallpaper for this month? Please let us know in the comments! And have a smashing November, folks!
(vf)
© Vitaly Friedman for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: Wallpapers
Read More...
Billboard Web Design: How to Win Your Audience’s Attention
     |
Let’s say you’re driving down the freeway at 65mph and you see the roadside plastered with advertising posters on both sides. Some small, some large, all meant in some measure to cause you to remember a brand or identity, to keep that company name in your mind. The more saturated the roadside becomes with advertisements, the more the brand has to be distinctively creative, unique and memorable.
Generally, the eye-catching ads are mostly the ones with witty taglines that are easy and fun to remember. As much as the colors of the images and fonts being used are important to make it easy on the eyes, the idea actually has to be unique and simple enough to be separated from other commercials.
Photo credit: Randy Harris
The same principle applies to any website. Though a user won’t necessarily be passing by your site at 65 mph, there is a certain bounce rate — visitors who leave your site shortly after entering it. For many websites, these rates are much too high. This poses a very similar challenge to those who design billboards. You have a very short amount of time to capture your audience’s attention and to keep it for long. With that in mind, here are some principles for developing billboard-style Web designs.
Creative and Unique
An important piece to the billboard website puzzle is creative and unique design. This can be intertwined within the other principles, and when done effectively, can be the sole reason for viewers to dig deeper into your site.
Hey Indy
Creative and fun, heyindy.com breaks the mold of an ordinary, plain and boring website. Complete with customized illustrations, drawings and playful typography, each page engages users, making them feel comfortable on the site. Notice how well the illustration on the top fits with the tagline of the site. Hey Indy creates websites, illustrations and animations and uses the “mixtape” metaphor to attract client’s attention. The site is not obtrusive, but inviting instead. A very personal, attractive design.
Dropr
This online service uses a nice typographic poster with playful typography on the front page to explain what it does. The design is attractive and inviting, although a plain simple text message could have worked just as well to deliver the message to the visitors. The interesting part are the animated clouds on the left side with colorful water drops. Very nice use of metaphor contained in the title of the service. An original and unique design.
TVLCORPs
Interested yet? Though the tagline shown on the web design below does not really say what this company does, the layout is creative and compelling; the strong, vivid contrast is more than enough to turn some heads. Notice how “UX/UI” stands out on the site, focusing the visitor’s attention on the ‘services’ section of the page.
{ ro:newmedia }
Sometimes it’s a good idea to risk an unusual design approach — be it exaggerated typography, striking color combinations or unusual design layouts. The latter is the case in point for ro:newmedia’s website. The layout is very unusual and original, and therefore memorable. Colorful large spinning circles look like an overlay of the site layout and appear vividly against the dark background. A downside: the font size of the text on the page could be a bit larger.
Pixelmator
Much different than the standard, pasted screenshot, Pixelmator works the sleek, elegant interface of their application directly into the design of their page.
Relogik
What makes this particular site effective is its ability to draw the eye to the name of the product or service they are showcasing. In this case, it works well to give the company name an afterthought as well as making the product more prominent.
Made My Day
One more test to run is to assume how much impact a particular site has on a reader, if they were to take a quick glance and look away. Ask yourself: If you were to carry out your day from that point, what were you to still remember about that particular site? The large orange circle elegantly integrated into this composition does an excellent job of leaving a style for returning visitors to remember.
Compelling Headlines
A good design only goes as far as the content it contains. For this reason, it’s vital to go beyond average with your copy text. If you’ve seen a billboard advertisement or two, you may remember the tag lines featured on them. Short and to the point, they’re meant to get you to remember a certain brand.
Many large corporations don’t even use ad copy, but rely solely on their logo and identity to remain effective. One has even gone as far as making their billboard a working sundial in this respect. Though we should all aspire to having a brand of our own this influential, it’s recommended that you stick to clear and powerful copy text along with your design to help capture your readers. Here are some examples of compelling headlines:
Ryan & Sofia
Ryan and Sofia combine hand-drawn design elements with a compelling headline, all supported by a very informal, emotional language and choice of layout. The message is strong and clear, and therefore very appealing.
Comwerks Interactive
This design agency uses a clear and simple language to communicate the purpose of the website. Cute illustrations make a website look less formal and much more engaging. The purpose is clear and the client list immediately proves that the design agency indeed builds cool stuff. A downside: the text on the images in the slideshow would benefit from not being embedded in the images.
Camera+
Clear, contrasting colors only add to the effectiveness of the headline given on this website. In a clear and elegant manner, a reader is quickly able to glance at this website and know its purpose.
Just Dot
Sticking to the billboard clarity, Just Dot provides a clever design and tagline to attract readers. Along with a creative chalkboard theme, this site features neat and clean navigation to help guide readers through the site.
Jeroen Homan
In clear and impacting typography, this site screams out its purpose distinctly. In today’s fast-lane crowd of web-surfers, such clear and impacting titles are a must-have for a captivating and inviting website. This of course, is the case as long as the amount of content allows for this.
DBA Products
An important part of capturing your reader’s attention is in engaging in a conversation. When one reads, “Think before you write” a first reaction is to wonder about what is actually meant by that phrase. Firstly, attention is captured. Secondly, a reader eye is lead to the bottom left corner where they can view a video to learn more.
Clever and Poignant
Not every billboard is meant to be humorous, however, almost all strive in some way to get a point across in a not-so-ordinary fashion. Consider the last few advertisements you’ve seen. If they were selling toothpaste, did the ad simply state “Buy this Toothpaste” or was there something creative and direct to get you to remember that particular brand?
In Web design, the same principle can be applied. With the hundreds, if not thousands, of websites we’re exposed to overall, trends can be seen which are all too often followed. But because the Web is ever changing, simply following trends can lead to a site becoming outdated the moment it’s published.
How can this be avoided? Once again, we can look back at billboard advertisements. What makes many of them effective is their ability to deliver something creative, or other than what the average person was expecting to see.
Tea Round
Complete with high-quality images, Tea Round’s website captures attention, while incorporating a creative tagline.
Spring: Supporting Biodiversity
This particular tagline is effective because it engages you with a question. Notice how the question is not “Do you support biodiversity?” but rather “What will you do to support biodiversity?” which places the reader in a position to feel as though they need to take action!
Tapbots
Another element to creating memorable billboard-style web designs, is the product or service itself. Short and snappy names are just as, if not more important, than the tagline. “Calcbot” is much easier to say and much more memorable than something like “Calculator Application for iPhone.”
Pointy
Featuring a vibrant color scheme and typestyle, Pointy successfully merges creative typography with a compelling and challenging headline. Along with the headline is a clear next action for the reader to take: “Let’s talk”.
Powerfully Branded
Though it’s already been touched a bit thus far, branding is another important piece to powerful Web design which deserves further attention. As with the toothpaste example, a billboard’s purpose may in the end be to generate sales, but just as important is the building of the brand the company is advertising. After all, you can get dozens of different brands of toothpaste, just as there are a multitude of of websites out there, so how is one among the crowd to be remembered? Building a brand through a Web design is the very mark or entity visitors remember you by.
Nike®
Showing the importance of subtle repetition, Nike® combines a creative display of their shoes, while giving viewers multiple views of their logo.
McCafé®
With every cup featuring the McDonald’s® and McCafé® logo, a viewer can be grabbed by the quality of the product, while remembering the brand correlating to it.
Coca-Cola®
The Coca-Cola® website is a billboard in action. Complete with the clean logo and bottle, with the clear and simple tagline, the brand is very easy to remember.
What Does a Brand Have to do with a Website Anyway?
Even if the website you’re developing doesn’t have the sole purpose of making money, a brand is still very important. Brands are essential for goading visitors to come back time and time again. Consider some of the recent advertisements you’ve seen. If there is a company you know and love, would you say you’re much more apt to spend time looking at that advertisement, as oppose to the dozens of others you’ve never seen before, or the ones that don’t interest you? The same applies for websites.
Eye-catching, yet tactful
There are countless sites on the web that will undoubtedly catch your attention, but only for the worse. Poor, outdated design, or a heap of flashing animated gifs will only increase your bounce-rate. Appealing sites achieve a balance between capturing reader’s attention and providing an adequate amount of useful information. Something to keep in mind: the design is a key piece of your website, but if it distracts away from the aimed content, it no longer serves its purpose!
Megumi
With jaw-dropping elegance and simplicity, this web design effectively brands their name, gives a brief tour, all while keeping the design clean and clear.
MailChimp
MailChimp’s website design is bold and clean, and it sticks to a consistent color scheme. Bright, complimenting colors are used while making the main content readable.
Row to the Pole
Still retaining a subdued and clean typestyle and color scheme, this site is still able to feature a commanding headline. Communication, clarity, and balanced design are all utilized exceptionally on this layout.
Clean, Simple and Straight to the point
Of course, one of the options is also as simple as simplicity. Not to say we cannot be creative in our delivery, but a saturation of text and images, especially on a home page, can motivate our viewers to click that back button! Here we’ll take a look at some good billboard-style websites that have captured the essence of simplicity to attract readers:
Less
Less has a clean and well-designed interface. Complete with a clever tagline, this application shows you a screenshot of exactly what they’re offering to you. It doesn’t get much clearer than this.
Courier Mac App
Complete with a well crafted icon, Courier clearly depicts their application with cool, soft colors, yet elegantly displaying the showcased application. The catchy subtitle also assists with remembering the name. Something to take note of as well is the fact that the “download” and “purchase” buttons are clearly displayed at the top of the page.
We Are Omazing
With a simplistic approach, this site integrates the imagery and style into the tagline. Branding is in effect as a memorable name is complimented with readable design.
Clarity and Contrast
Pivotal to any design, good contrast is a must. While subtle typefaces and graphics have their place in design, strong contrast is important to quickly direct a reader’s attention or get them to remember something particular. If viewers have to hunt around for what you do or what you offer – more than likely they will not stick around for long. Make it easy for your readers to know what you’re about from the very beginning.
Charles Elena
Don’t be afraid to go big with your text. This site sports an effectively large Sans-Serif font to grab the attention of its readers and to get them to remember what they do. The design isn’t necessarily strong and vivid, but the message is communicated very clearly.
Live Books
There are many different features listed on Live Book’s website, but one thing that’s executed exceptionally well is its clarity. There’s no mystery here, you know exactly what they offer.
Conclusion
In an age where advertisements saturate our market, it becomes all the more visible of the need for creative and effective design. As we’ve explored here, good design goes beyond making things look nice, or following trends, but rather effectively capturing the audience of those whom we wish to view the site. In the end, what action viewers do, or do not take, can come down to the finest details of the decisions made by the Web developer.
Feel free to share your opinions or experiences in the comment section below!
Bonus Billboard Template Download
In addition to the concepts explored here, you can download your free billboard website/image template for displaying your billboard-style design. Place any 440px wide image into the code provided, or modify it yourself for a great way to display your images. See some samples below:
Download the template for free
- download the PSD template (20 Mb, .zip)
- download HTML with CSS (+ a Web ready version of the billboard image)
(ik) (vf)
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Post tags: advertisement, audience, billboard, commercial, showcases, tagline
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Enhance your web forms with new HTML5 features
Please note that HTML5 is an emerging technique. These examples are not intended for use on a production site. Results may vary according to browser implementation. Please use Chrome or Safari for best results.
Required fields
Whose ever tried to submit a form and gotten an error message saying that you “forgot” to enter your email address? Probably not a lot of us: In fact, 99 percent of all web forms have at least one field marked as required.
In good ol’ HTML, we had to manually display that a specific field is required, most of the time by using a red asterisk. But with HTML5, you can set up a input field to be required:
<input type="text" name="client_name" required>
And on the CSS side, something like
input:required {
border: 1px red solid;
}
will save you a lot of time.
Two similar attributes are also available:
and
. They work exactly as the
attribute explained above.
Placeholders
In a form, an input field always has a label explaining what kind of information is required. While you can currently use the
tag to display a label for a specific text field, HTML5 introduces the
attribute. As shown below, using it is pretty simple:
<input name="firstname" placeholder="Please enter your first name">
The HTML5
attribute works exactly as the
attribute, except that when the user click on the text field, the placeholder text is automatically removed so the user can easily enter his information.
The placeholder attribute currently works only in safari/webkit. Don’t worry about other browsers though, it is pretty easy to simulate placeholders using javascript:
Autofocus
A new HTML5 attribute is named
. If applied to an element, the element will automatically receive the focus once the page is loaded. This can be seen on some sites and most search engines.
Nothing complicated, just use the syntax below, and remember that in HTML5, there’s no more need for attributes to have a value like in XHTML 1.0.
<input name="search" autofocus>
Email fields
Asking someone’s email on a web form is extremely common because email is still the easiest way to contact someone over the internet. HTML5 introduces a new type for the input element, named
.
<input name="email" type="email">
Pattern attribute
When validating a web form, we have to validate the data entered by the visitor. The new
HTML5 attribute allows you to define a regular expression pattern. Only the data that matches the defined pattern will be validated. If the data doesn’t match the pattern, then the form will not be submitted.
This is, in my opinion, an extremely good thing, which will save lots of time to developers when coding forms. Though, remember that you should always validate data on the server side as well.
<input type="text" name="Phone" pattern="^0[1-689][0-9]{8}$" placeholder="Phone" required>
Url fields
Nowadays, many people have a website, blog, or at least a Twitter profile. This is why many web forms offer the possibility to enter an url.
HTML5 introduces a new type for the
element, designed specifically for entering urls:
<input name="url" type="url">
Although I didn’t test it myself, I heard that the W3C validator will raise an error if the value of a url field doesn’t match a proper url structure.
Date pickers
Many businesses are offering an appointment request through their website. In that case, the visitor has to specify the day they would like an appointment. HTML5 introduces the
type for the
element:
<input name="day" type="date">
When clicked, the
attribute will display a date picker so visitors will simply have to choose a date instead of entering it manually. Unfortunately, except in Opera, most browsers don’t have it implemented yet.
Note that a date picker can be implemented on your forms using the following types:
<input type="date"> <input type="datetime"> <input type="month"> <input type="week"> <input type="time">
Isn’t that user friendly? Personally, I can’t wait to implement this in my forms but as I said earlier this isn’t very well implemented in browsers at the time of writing this post. Of course, Javascript is always here to help. On this site I found a simple fallback implementation for the
HTML5 attribute:
var i = document.createElement("input");
i.setAttribute("type", "date");
if (i.type == "text") {
// No HTML5 native date picker support, use jQuery or your favorite framework to create one.
}
Search boxes
To enhance ease of retrieving information, many websites have implemented their own search engine. HTML5 has created a new type for search fields.
<input name="q" type="search">
For now, the only difference with regular text inputs is that, if you use Safari, the search box will have rounded corners. But maybe interesting functionalities will be implemented in the future. Let’s hope, because right now I have to admit that I don’t really see why we should use this type.
Sliders type and step attribute
HTML5 is also introducing sliders: A new type for the input element, which allows visitors to easily select a number instead of entering it manually.
<input name="number" type="range" min="0" max="10">
The example above allows the visitor to choose a number between 0 and 10. If you want the slider to be incremented/decremented 2 by 2, you’ll have to use one more new attribute: step. Here is an example:
<input name="number" type="range" min="0" max="10" step="2" >
That way, visitors will only be able to select numbers like 0, 2, 4, and so on.
Like CatsWhoCode? If yes, don’t hesitate to check my other blog CatsWhoBlog: It’s all about blogging!
Enhance your web forms with new HTML5 features
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8 CSS preprocessors to speed up development time
Less CSS
Less is probably the most well known CSS preprocessor. It allow a simplified syntax and the use of variables. Less CSS is for the Ruby programming language, however it looks like Aaron Russel created an extension for creating cached stylesheets your PHP projects can use.
Get it: http://lesscss.org
Sass
On their website, Sass claims to make CSS fun again. To be honest, I must admit that what this project is capable of is very interesting. Like Less CSS, it allow the use of variables and have a simplified syntax. Sass is definitely a great tool, unfortunely only available for Ruby, as far as I know.
Get it: http://sass-lang.com/
Turbine
If like me, you’re a PHP Lover, here is a css preprocessor made for your favorite language. I haven’t tested it yet, but Turbine looks very cool. It allow a minimal syntax, automatically gzip multiple css, fix cross-browser issues, and a lot more. A must check if you’re into PHP.
Get it: http://turbine.peterkroener.de/index.php
Switch CSS
Switch is a full featured, production ready CSS preprocessor. It runs under Apache with mod_python, or as an environment-agnostic command line tool.
Get it: http://sourceforge.net/projects/switchcss/
CSS Cacheer
CSS Cacheer is a very cool preprocessor which allows developers to create plugins. It requires PHP and Apache with mod_deflate and mod_rewrite in order to work.
Get it: http://retired.haveamint.com/archive/2008/05/30/check_out_css_cacheer
CSS Preprocessor
Another interesting preprocessor, written in PHP 5. Among other things, this tool allow you to use expressions such as margin-left: (200px * 3/2 – 10px); in your stylesheets.
Get it: http://pornel.net/css
DT CSS
DtCSS speeds up CSS coding by extending the features to CSS. Such as nested selectors, color mixing and more. DtCSS reads the CSS file with special syntax written for DtCSS, and outputs the standard CSS. It also comes with a smart caching system.
Get it: http://code.google.com/p/dtcss/
CSS PP
Unfortunely, CSS PP is still in alpha status, but the authors says the code will be released very soon. One of the good points of this projects is that it will be available in PHP, Python and Ruby. Great news for developpers who work with all of these languages.
Get it: http://csspp.org/
Like CatsWhoCode? If yes, don’t hesitate to check my other blog CatsWhoBlog: It’s all about blogging!
8 CSS preprocessors to speed up development time
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Bing goes live with Facebook social search
After fine-tuning a few features, Bing rolls out its Facebook social search integration, allowing profile info and updates from your Facebook friends to appear in your Bing searches.
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