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Friday Focus 07/24/09: For the Birds

July 24, 2009 By Sophia Lucero

This week’s Friday Focus features designs with pretty little birds in them. (No, this isn’t another collection of Twitter-related sites—only two of them are.)

Designs of the Week

Illustrations are inspired by origami and papercraft, animations are done purely in JavaScript. Pleasant and brilliant.

I love the mobile motif here—everything is hanging onto something until the very end of the page. Great concept for an online shop.

I like the illustration style here because it’s more cartoony instead of delicate and craft-y. And it seems dotted and dashed lines are all the rage these days.

I like it when sites go all out on a metaphorical design. This one has the content floating on ice!

Two things about this site mask how simple it looks. First, the hawk looks stunning—big, bright pink, and detailed. Second, the illustrations (aka Twitter backgrounds) listed on the site speak for themselves—if you’re designing a portfolio, do the same thing.

Some of you might have to squint to see the birds, but I appreciate the subtlety while still paying attention to detail—you can play hangman (or is it hangbird?) on the site! They’re all over the place, though, so you will enjoy their company.

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Friday Focus 03/13/09: Some Nitpicks

March 13, 2009 By Sophia Lucero

I thought I’d make Friday Focus post titles a bit more descriptive from now on. The theme for this week, however, is a tricky one. It’s not about a common design element for the featured sites. I want to talk about techniques and choices made by the designers that can make or break things. These designs are almost there, but they need that one final tweak. I’m curious to find out if you agree or disagree with me.

Designs of the Week

What a delightful site to look at! I love that the colors alternate for each datestamp, and that the black-and-white cartoony illustrations don’t look dull but absolutely cute. I have just two nits to pick.

First, I’m concerned that the header is a little heavy on animations. It’s a bit distracting after the second or third round. The upside is you can scroll down and it disappears from view.

Second, the logo looks out of place, which I’m not sure how you’re supposed to fix. Do you redesign your logo just to fit this current look of your website? Should you have chosen this look at all? Because it’s such a fun site, I’d miss it if it had to go!

I like how bright and lush this design is. And the interface effect is fresh, too. But here come the buts: I would avoid using lens flares—even if the whole “Sunday morning” concept seems approriate in this case—just because they’re overused.

Second, the vertical and horizontal scrolling does not make for a good user experience. The layout seems fit for only really big resolutions. If the designer can fit the content into the vertical height of an average screen, all will be forgiven!

I really appreciate all the little design details here. It’s a very interesting layout that makes me want to stay and explore the site. It just feels like it needs more of a little something.

Maybe warmer hues, because even if there’s bright red and gold all over, the dark grays seem to dampen my mood looking at it. Maybe a bit more imagery, even though understandably you can control everything in a blog.

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Friday Focus 07/25/08: Illustrated Designs

July 25, 2008 By Sophia Lucero

Dive into the colorful and detailed world of illustrated web design this week on Friday Focus.

Designs of the Week

I like that this is a 3-column layout that gives off more of a brochure vibe than an online shopping cart. I also like that this site could have been done fully in Flash, but the creators chose to use it moderately.

This web design company has a signature elegant look to its illustrations, showing you don’t always have to look cartoony when employing this design technique.

Now here’s a site that literally rides on the comedy of cartoony illustrations. Again, Flash is used only in the header to add even more quirk to the site. And at the bottom we see another fixed footer using translucent waves (from the French Riviera?).

I know, this site has been featured every which way you look months ago, but now Silverback has launched and aside from the parallax effect when you horizontally resize your browser window, you get to scroll down for more jungle-y goodness—love the furry border at the footer!

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Friday Focus 07/24/09: For the Birds

Designs of the Week

Social Media Weekly

Friday Focus 03/13/09: Some Nitpicks

Designs of the Week

Social Media Weekly

Friday Focus 07/25/08: Illustrated Designs

Designs of the Week

Social Media Weekly

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