Google Infinite Digital Bookcase
Google: We designed a digital bookcase that’s an infinite 3D helix; http://eicker.at/Google3DBookcase
Diaspora is on track to launch the 1st open source version of its social network on 15th September; http://j.mp/bEcrHD
Bustos: Amazon, the gold standard in eCommerce, and 10 reasons not to copy them; http://j.mp/9cAdZC (via @mseibert)
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Wittgenstein: What can be said at all, can be said with clarity. – Data visualisation for brands; http://j.mp/aGU6R5
Audette: SEO does not come first. SEO relies on content and user experience: they come first; http://j.mp/cOJMvm
Redesigning the New York City subway map: long and complicated path to the KickMap of Eddie Jabbour; http://j.mp/9qwKxC
Reminder: Your contact form should only ask for the information you absolutely need to know; http://j.mp/cQeNh7
Contact Form Examples:
– Webdesigner Depot: Beautiful Contact Forms for your Inspiration
– Smashing Magazine: Web Form Design: Modern Solutions and Creative Ideas
– Noupe: Beautiful Forms – Design, Style, and make it work with PHP and AJAX
– Inspect Element: Superb Examples of Form Design
– TutZone: 24 Stunning Contact Form-Page Designs
Contact Form Usability:
– UX Booth: Creating a Usable Contact Form
– A List Apart: Sensible Forms – A Form Usability Checklist
Mobile design is getting more and more popular, particularly for iPhones: 38 Mobile (iPhone) Sites; http://j.mp/bOcOsC
Vandelay: Horizontal websites have been increasing in popularity over the past year or two; Showcase: http://j.mp/a9Sz7X
The bottom line in Information Architecture (IA): Minisitemaps, Superfooters; http://j.mp/Website-Footers
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Gerrit Eicker 07:33 on 19. October 2011 Permalink |
Google: “As digital designers, we often think about how to translate traditional media into a virtual space. Recently, we thought about the bookcase. What would it look like if it was designed to hold digital books? – A digital interface needs to be familiar enough to be intuitive, while simultaneously taking advantage of the lack of constraints in a virtual space. In this case, we imagined something that looks like the shelves in your living room, but is also capable of showcasing the huge number of titles available online – many more than fit on a traditional shelf. With this in mind, we designed a digital bookcase that’s an infinite 3D helix. You can spin it side-to-side and up and down with your mouse. It holds 3D models of more than 10,000 titles from Google Books. – The books are organized into 28 subjects. To choose a subject, click the subject button near the top of your screen when viewing the bookcase. The camera then flies to that subject. Clicking on a book pulls it off the shelf and brings it to the front and center of the screen. Click on the high-resolution cover and the book will open to a page with title and author information as well as a short synopsis, provided by the Google Books API. All of the visuals are rendered with WebGL, a technology in Google Chrome and other modern browsers that enables fast, hardware-accelerated 3D graphics right in the browser, without the need for a plug-in.”
TC: “I wrote a while back about the eventual necessity for the internet to become beautiful. The trouble is that the things in the world we consider beautiful in an informational context – magazine and book layouts, typography, etc. – are necessarily limited in the information they have to present. It’s this limitation, the known quantity aspect, that lets designers work effectively. – How should you design something, then, that presents effectively limitless information (say, all the world’s books) through a fairly limited medium (say, a web browser)? Google has one idea. Put them on a gigantic helix. … But is this really something people will want to navigate? Probably not. People like analogs in their digital catalogs, and this one seems a little bit too off the wall. … Anyway, it’s a fun little experiment you can try out here. Note to Mac Laptop users: be careful how you swipe or you may accidentally navigate off the page or invoke some arcane gesture.”
VB: “With tablets and eReaders offering a number of new ways to experience books, the browser has been relatively ignored. However, not a lot of people consider getting into a bubble bath with their nice glass of wine and a laptop book to wind down the day, but you never know. To that end, the virtual bookcase may not be a competitor to the Kindle, but rather to the book discovery service overall. It could also simply be a way to funnel people toward purchasing Google Books, but it’s still pretty cool.“