Business Logs – Page 35

Design Hot Or Not, Inaugural Edition

What would the start of the week be without a little design reflection? Starting today I’m creating a new category called “Design Hot Or Not” where I pit two site designs up against each other in a no-holds-barred reader opinion boxing match. In today’s crystal ball we examine two new site designs: one from new-comer Mind Petals and the other a redesign from Gawker.

Mind Petals

Mind Petals is an independent content network like 9rules, but it’s focused on young entrepreneurs. 9rules Member and design master Matt Brett rocked the pixels for this fresh and well-designed site. I’ve heard on the grapevine that the client’s design direction focused on inspiration from 9rules, and that’s pretty evident in the design. They even have their own 10 Petals For Success (link), not to be confused with our 9 Rules (link) which Paul came up with three years ago. Inspiration must be in the air, as their parent company site Cash Campus smells a bit like 37signals.com. Ahh the sweet smell of copy and paste.

Coming Soon: RIM Blackberry/WiFiBerry

Just a few days ago RIM’s Co-CEO/Chairman announced that many Blackberry features will be added to models coming out “by the end of the year” with WiFi support, image capture (camera), and MP3 playback capabilities on the short list. After settling the lawsuit earlier this year, RIMs subscriber numbers have been growing steadily, and although they recently announced the 8700 line I’m sure that at least one new product line will be coming out in Q3/Q4 2006 as per their announcement.

5 Ways To Make Me Laugh At Your Web 2.0 Company

In this fast-paced and synergistic world, buzzwords get the play. Non-technical people start companies and press ridiculous deadlines to their engineers, Web 1.0 burnouts start new companies that are just rehashes of the idea they couldn’t make work in 1999, and the technology you use is more important than the value you provide. Hell, VCs are getting sick of their clients making it big, so they’re starting half-assed “Web 2.0” companies of their own which are off the map 1 month after beta.

In all this craziness I have to wonder what some people are thinking. I can’t tell you how many ugly designs and worthless “applications” I’ve seen come across my browser pixels the past 5 months, but what I can divulge is the precise 5-step plan for making me laugh at you and your company. Here we go:

Haute Interfaces

So much is made of good web-based user interface design, that sometimes we overlook just how amazing some software interfaces are, namely high-end audio/visual development software. Many of these tools cost thousands of dollars, so you can bet that the companies have their very best talent pumping out amazing interfaces that to justice to the power these applications possess. Here’s a quick sampling of some software interfaces I think are pretty fly. Images are courtesy Apple, Cakewalk & Fruity Loops.

[Read more…] about Haute Interfaces

« Previous Page