Sorry about the non-annotated linkdump. Aaron’s always after me to post stuff here instead of emailing him links to new things I find, but I just don’t have time to describe all these sites. At least I categorized them… Read the rest of this entry »
Archive for the ‘Visual Effects’ Category
Linkdump
March 16th, 2006 by markbultYahoo!’s “patterns” for designers and UI developers
March 16th, 2006 by markbultAlong with the release of its User Interface Library, Yahoo! has compiled their Design Pattern Library for designers and UI developers. “A pattern describes an optimal solution to a common problem within a specific context,” reads the section on the Yahoo! Developer Network. The site offers best practices and examples of patterns such as breadcrumbs, drag-and-drop customization, module tabs, and auto-complete, among others.
Lightbox + Moo.fx = slickness
February 21st, 2006 by Aaron N.Check out this post on this crafty lightbox + moo.fx combination.
While Lightbox is really excellent, the sudden transition from page to image is a little bit jolting. I decided that integrating a Javascript effects library (in this case, my preferred option, the super-lightweight Moo.FX) into Lightbox would provide a more gentle transition from page to image and back again.
So what I’m wondering is if we could also use this kind of tech to prompt users for information. The standard popup window is less than beloved by developers and users. We’ve been using overlib for popups but maybe this kind of faded layover would allow us to highlight the importance of the message more effectively.
Some examples of 3rd party scripts in use on Download.com
February 9th, 2006 by Aaron N.Eric’s comments regarding the use of 3rd party libraries and my response got me thinking that I should post a few examples of what we’ve been doing at Download.com. My only caveat is that I’m probably the person most responsible for this policy as I push for functionality that necessitates their use. Read the rest of this entry »
Lightbox – in-page photo zoomer (revisited)
February 8th, 2006 by Aaron N.Lightbox showed up a month or two ago. Here’s a newer version via Ajaxian:
Brian Shih integrated Scriptaculous effects, which makes it look very Apple-ish. You can check out an example by clicking on the image in this post.
It’s pretty slick; basically it lets users load an image into the browser window without really leaving the context of that window or using a popup. If I have a complaint about it at all I would say that the experience often leaves me wanting to use my back button, which unfortunately takes me to the page in my history that is previous to the one that had the thumbnail on it; the popup image is not in your history.