Design, uninterrupted #170

April 5th, 2011

Today’s post highlights the design of Shihabs.com. It’s a memorable single page site that has a nice twist on showcasing the rather large portfolio, arranging it in an attractively styled accordion. Clicking on a small thumbnail shows a larger screenshot, with arrows to move back and forward. Here, i’d prefer seeing a fixed-size window that makes clicking the arrows possible without moving the mouse – perhaps at the expense of cutting some of the content and showing the screenshots at the original resolution.

The “Read all” button in the footer uses a scrolling lightbox with a nicely styled close button in the top-right corner. Note how the lightbox smoothly grows out of the button, and – when dismissed – shrinks back, guiding the eye throughout this short transition. In general, i like the overall styling of the site – from the fine graffiti textures surrounding the designer’s portrait to beveled accordion separators to the drop shadows that help separate different content sections. My favorite element would have to be the consistent use of desaturated gold and red colors throughout the site – on the icons, texts, separators and the intricate shirt in the header section.