Another year is gone, and it’s time to review what has happened on this blog over the last twelve months. I’ll start the top ten most read posts, and then list my own favorites.

Let’s start with the top ten most read posts published in 2010 as measured by Google Analytics:

  1. Meet the Green Goblin, part 1 started the four-part series on the visual redesign of Android Market client. Published in December, has around 8,200 reads.
  2. JavaFX is a train wreck talked about the failure to attract visual designers to JavaFX. Published in July, has around 5,800 reads.
  3. Live wallpapers with Android SDK 2.1 provided a step-by-step tutorial to create a live wallpaper for Android. Published in February, has around 5,700 reads.
  4. Meet the Green Goblin, part 1 delved into the pixel-level details of custom canvas drawing in Android. Published in December, has around 4,100 reads.
  5. Monkey see, monkey do, monkey remember talked about question the status-quo. Published in August, has around 3,900 reads.
  6. Meet the Green Goblin, part 2 talked about designing for landscape orientation in Android. Published in December, has around 3,100 reads.
  7. Meet the Green Goblin, part 4 covered improving the UX and visual aesthetics. Published in December, has around 2,400 reads.
  8. Animations 202 – scrolling delved into the fine mechanics of realistic scrolling. Published in January, has around 1,300 reads.
  9. Animations – the big picture reasoned about why physics-based animations can make your applications more user-friendly. Published in January, has around 1,300 reads.
  10. Swing Puzzler #1 was the first and only installment on Swing code that doesn’t do what you would expect it to. Published in February, has around 1,200 reads.

While these have been the readers’ favorites, a few entries that didn’t enjoy a wider readership are worth highlighting. These are my personal favorites that were published in 2010:

  1. Shifting gears: from desktop to mobile talked about the differences between desktop and mobile UI development, and the major role of the form factor.
  2. Your application will be with you momentarily highlighted the importance of a responsive user interface.
  3. Naming colors was a small peek into the fuzzy world of color names.
  4. The colors of “Tron: Legacy” analyzed the color palette of the movie and how it supported the story.
  5. Finally, this year has seen the birth of two new series. Design, uninterrupted started in March, aiming to analyze the best examples of modern web design. Retro:Active started in October showcasing the fusion of modern and vintage in visual and industrial design, photography, typography, illustration, animation and other related areas.

If you still have not subscribed, click on the icon below to stay tuned in 2011!

Design, uninterrupted #122

January 5th, 2011

Today’s post highlights the design of HarropDesigns.com by Jason Harrop. The eye is immediately drawn to the picture of a bright-red Ferrari with an extra contrast provided by muting all the colors of the cars behind it. The inclination to use strong colors is seen everywhere on the page – from the portfolio thumbnail grid down to the link strip in the footer. The design features translucent overlapping textured layers, fading bezel separators and very attractive rollover animations (move the mouse over the navigation menu and the portfolio thumbnails).

Given that almost the entire content fits above the fold, it would be nice to see a more consistent grid alignment of visual elements. While the navigation menu sits nicely above the main illustration (and plays off of the bright red with the slightly desaturated orange), the content is rather haphazardly aligned – from five columns in the secondary navigation to uneven subcolumns in the bottom half to the extra wide footer link strip that partially extends under the “My news” thumbnails.

Design, uninterrupted #121

January 4th, 2011

Today’s post highlights the design of Julie-Hemery.fr, an online portfolio for a makeup artist done by Jérôme Ebzant. A prominent stylized illustration strikes a perfect balance with a flamboyant oversized logo and the leading quote. Note a radial highlight centered behind the illustration and a repeating intricate damask pattern set in dark ultramarine. The four-column grid extends into the footer that uses much less contrast (and no drop shadows) for the extra links.

Note how the visual balance is preserved by putting the icons in the two middle columns. Most of the icons play well with the ultramarine / blue / cerulean color scheme, and it might be interesting to see the icons styled with this scheme, revealing the full colors on rollover only.

It is quite a shame that the design is marred by four (!!!) ugly overlays of dubious design “awards” from the CSS aggregator sites (removed in the screenshot above). They add unnecessary noise, extra palette colors and even hide the last navigation menu item on smaller screens. While these may serve to promote the designer, it’s hard to see why the site owner would want these plastered over her professional web presence.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/61/230872827_7b2a9ba949.jpg

Image by Stuck in Customs.

Every month this series is tracking the latest design trends and collecting the best examples of modern web designs. Here is the list for December 2010 with almost a 1000 links from 30 aggregator posts:

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