Archive for the ‘Graphic Design’ Category:
Adobe responds to Apple’s attacks on Flash
Adobe responded to Apple’s attacks on flash with a new ad campaign:
A colleague of mine just forwarded this hilarious (and fake) response from Apple.
Personally I think both Apple and Adobe can suck it.
Force directed node interface 2
Here’s an example of the force directed node interface that I’ve been talking about. It’s not complete. It’s just a working prototype. You still cannot load project details, but I’m waiting to add that if I decide I want to take this any further.
Since the dimensions of the interface have been reduced to fit in this blog post, things might be a bit small (try zooming in). You can also drag nodes around. Helpful when things get pushed off the screen. Nodes can be opened and closed by clicking on them.
Force directed node interface
I’ve been working on the experimental Flash front-end I spoke about in the last post. The idea is to use a force directed or force based system for displaying categories, keywords, projects and their relationships. I was curious about what kind of user experience that would create.
Here’s a video of the force directed layout interface in action.
So, what is a force directed layout?
It is a method for positioning nodes of a graph in a way that is aesthetically pleasing as well as easy to digest. This is accomplished by creating a simulated physical system where all nodes are like electrically charged particles (Coulomb’s law) and the connections or associations are like springs (Hooke’s law). After running through thousands of iterations, the entire system begins to become stable until all the forces are in somewhat of an equilibrium.
Fig. 1 Interface with only the category and technology nodes expanded.
Fig. 1 is a screenshot of the layout. In this example there are only a few nodes expanded, but it gives you an idea of how things end up looking. There are two base nodes: “Category” and “Technology”. Clicking these returns the appropriate set of subnodes. The association of these subnodes is shown with a line connecting the child and parent node. When clicking on a specific technology keyword or category, that category/keyword subnode expands into another set of nodes which are projects.
Fig. 2 Interface with more nodes expanded
Fig. 2 shows the cross associations between categories and keywords.
So far it’s been a cool and somewhat successful little experiment. I’m not sure it would work as an interface as the node labels overlap too much and when there a lot of cross associations, things don’t look as organized and it’s much harder to read.
I still need to add node collapsing and make it so projects can be viewed. I’ll try to post a working example soon.
Free web based imaging software
Aviary has recently released another web-based application. Raven, which is still in beta (all of their applications are. that’s so web 2.0!), is a web-based vector editor. Their product suite consists of four applications at the moment:
- Peacock – a visual laboratory
- Raven – vector editor
- Phoenix – image editor
- Toucan – colors watches
Peacock is kinda cool. Image generation is done by patching together generators, effects, controllers and resources. Fun to play with, I must say. Pretty amazing use of Flash. Pretty cool to have this sort of development going out there…
The products, at the moment, are all free to play with. Go check ‘em out: http://aviary.com/
Site updates!
So I’ve finally updated my web site.
www.alien109.com
- Ported all of the javascript over to jQuery and ditched those ancient JavaScript libraries I’d written years ago
- Implemented some keyword searching on projects so you can see projects based on languages or technologies.
- Reworked the backend so that everything was a little more search engine friendly (url rewritting for prettier urls and hidden javascript calls)
- Added a bunch of new (and old) work into the mix.
Creating a search engine friendly ajax app is a pain in the butt, if it’s an after thought 
Time Lapse Painting
This one’s been around for a bit, but a fun watch nevertheless.
Double spaces, Jetpacks, and Kitchens of the Future
Just stop. Please.
It’s always been a slight pet peeve of mine. I understand that back in the days of mono-spaced fonts on typewriters it was necessary, and that some still have those old bad habits. But this, my friends, is the future. OK, we still don’t have jetpacks and kitchens of the future, but we do have variable width fonts that aren’t meant to have double spaces after periods (or full stops if you’re in other parts of the world).
I’m not one to cite style guides, but single spaces after punctuation is considered proper according to the MLA, APA, and the Chicago Manual of Style. So neener-neener.
logopond – Identity Inspiration
Great inspiration resource for logos and identity design
http://logopond.com/