There are many directory management tools out there, however, Relay is worth checking out. Relay is a free, downloadable AJAX powered directory manager that feels very much like a desktop application. Features include, drag-n-drop files and folders, dynamic loading file structure, upload progress bar, thumbnail view, including pdf and multiple users & accounts. Awesome open source AJAX app!
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Relay – AJAX Directory Manager
– June 30, 2006 - No comments - Posted in Design Patterns, Organizers. -
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Digg To Launch New Content Visualization Model in July 2006
– June 27, 2006 - No comments - Posted in Data, User Based, Visualizations. -
In the last year I’ve seen many amazing new content visualization models, however, Digg will be launching something truly amazing in July. After being a web application designer for more than eleven years I almost became verklempt watching the latest version of DiggNation. The new features show incoming links in real time, but unlike Digg Spy the incoming posts and comments are shown on a real time visualization map. You can use a slider to show more or less content per page, and in one view real time diggs come in an cluster around a post. This is not only impressive, but possible revolutionary. Thanks to Digg and stamen design for producing such a great new visualization model!
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ThickBox – AJAX Modal Window With Functionality
– June 21, 2006 - No comments - Posted in Design Patterns, Model Windows. -
Thickbox includes the functionality of the Greybox technique with that of Lightbox, to product a great model window solution. The script allows you show structural markup and images in the window. The html that is shown inside ThickBox is pulled from the server using AJAX. Additionally, Thickbox uses a compressed version of jquery rather than the close to 100k of Prototype & Scriptaculous to create a lightweight model window solution.
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Prototype Window Class
– June 16, 2006 - No comments - Posted in Design Patterns, Model Windows. -
Model windows or lightboxes are being used on many sites today. I’ve been using them for over a year now in a variety of ways including login boxes, bookmarkletts, and alerts. Prototype has come through again by producing a series of samples that you can use yourself. This javascript class allows you to add window in a HTML page. This class is based on Prototype. The code is inspired by the powerful script.aculo.us library. You can even use all script.aculo.us effects to show and hide windows if you include effects.js file , but it’s not mandatory. It has been tested on Safari, Camino, Firefox and IE6. Enjoy!
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gogofrog – Create Your Own 3D Website
– June 15, 2006 - No comments - Posted in 3D, Interfaces. -
Have you ever wanted to display your own web content in a 3D space? I know that I have. Several year ago I produced two different experimental websites using 3D Spaces. One was a flash site and the other was a flat html site. At the time the problem I ran into was a smooth way to show the actual content of the site. gogofrog has fixed many of the problems I had in this space and taken 3D content sites to the public. It’s very easy to create your own webspace with gogofrog in just a matter of minutes. Give it a try!
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Rendr 2 – Rapid html Prototyping
– June 13, 2006 - No comments - Posted in Applications, Prototyping. -
Rendr 2 was originally developed as a rapid html prototyping tool, however, the possibilities are endless. As an experiment I downloaded the source and tried designing a page for a marketing site I was working on. I have to say that as a coder / designer the interaction of the app was amazing. I’ve tried designing as I code several times all with fairly good results. In many ways Render 2 added the missing link to this process by getting rid of the hole drag your page to the browser process. Seeing elements change live makes all of the difference.
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Box Grid – Non-Flash Content Visualization
– June 12, 2006 - No comments - Posted in CSS, Interfaces. -
New models for content visualization are popping up all the time now. Box Grid was originally developed as an experimental blog site. The two things I find most fascinating about Box Grid are the fact that it was originally released in 2002, and that does not use flash. The interface is all CSS and javascript based. While this type of content visualization will not work for every project it is place where we can start to imagine new ways to surf a website. The source code is also downloadable! Big hats off to the designer.
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Musicovery – Content Visualization
– June 11, 2006 - No comments - Posted in Music, Visualizations. -
As a web application designer I’m always looking for new ways to visualize information and content. Musicovery has showed us a different way of visualizing and browsing music. While the menu is a standard set of music categories, the browse interface itself is like a map with your genre of music displayed in a map-like drag enabled environment. You can drag the music map around your genre until you find an interesting artist. Then when you click on their name the artist is repositioned to the center of the map and the music start playing, along with some nice visual effects.