Strickn 2.0

17 Biggest Buddhas on Earth

Wed, Nov 4, 2009

Image: David Schroeter

Bigger, better, heavier – that seems to be the motto of Asia’s amazing Buddha statues. Our list features actual statues as well as destroyed and planned ones but all have to be taller than 50 m (165 ft). Where does that leave the most famous and sadly destroyed ones, the Buddhas of Bamyan? At 180 ft, they are some of the shortest! Read on to discover which one tops the list. A hint: it’s a good 500 ft!

Have you ever wondered why some Buddhas are depicted standing, some seated and some even lying down? And why they all pose their hands in unique gestures? Not to forget the sheer number of gigantic statues. Well, according to tradition, Buddha images must be high enough so that their feet are above people’s eye level to avoid any accidental soiling.

The elevation is also meant as a reminder for devotees to refrain from pride and ego. While attaining enlightenment, Buddha was in a seated position, therefore this is a favourite position. The hand postures are called mudras and have different meanings, for example fearlessness, instruction, meditation, wish granting and others. Regardless of which giant Buddha you may visit, they are all great tourist attractions that easily take a whole day to explore. Here’s the countdown:

17. Buddha Dordenma, Thimphu, Bhutan 51.5 m (169 ft) – under construction

The Buddha Dordenma project is dedicated to erecting a 169-ft Shakyamuni Buddha statue on a hill slope 100 m above the Wangchu River, overlooking Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital. According to the Dordenma website, the Buddha statue is supposed to “radiate auspicious energy over the country and to all parts of the world, fulfilling the prophecy of bestowing blessings, universal peace and happiness to the whole world.”

The 12 m clay model of the Buddha statue:

Image via dordenma

The statue will be made of bronze and then gilded and house 100,000 similar, yet much smaller Buddha statues. Planning started in 2004 and a 12-m-tall clay model was finished the same year. In 2008, the first parts of the actual statue reached Bhutan where they are waiting to be assembled. Once completed, the site is expected to draw pilgrims from all over the world.

An eye of the Buddha, already resting in Bhutan:

Image via dordenma

16. Buddhas of Bamyan, Afghanistan – 55 m (180 ft) and 37 m (121 ft) – destroyed

The Buddhas of Bamyan demonstrate how the absence or loss of a piece of art can be almost greater than its presence. Standing tall for almost 1,500 years, the destruction of the Buddhas as a deliberate act of intolerance by the Taliban in 2001 shook the whole world.

An absence that has clearly marked the landscape:

Image: Tracy Hunter

All were Standing Buddhas carved into a cliff in central Afghanistan’s Bamyan valley, about 230 km (143 miles) northwest of Kabul. The two tallest statues were 55 m (180 ft) and 37 m (121 ft), respectively, and built during the sixth century at an altitude of 2,500 m (8,202 ft).

One of the Buddhas of Bamyan in 1976:

Image: Marco Bonavoglia

The statues were originally painted and their details modeled and pasted on with a mixture of mud and water coated with stucco that was lost over the centuries. Their destruction took several weeks and lots of dynamite. Unexpectedly, it uncovered about 50 caves, some of them with wall paintings probably stemming from the sixth to eighth century.

… now a gaping hole:

Image: Carl Montgomery

The destruction of the Buddha statues inspired the construction of smaller ones or parks elsewhere as a tribute, and even numerous films and other artworks. Plans to rebuild at least the two tallest statues are underway, with Japan, Switzerland and a host of other countries having pledged support.

15. Tokyo Wan Kannon of Futtsu, Chiba, Japan – 56 m (184 ft)

Futtsu in Japan’s south western Chiba Prefecture houses the Tokyo Wan Kannon, a 56-m-tall Buddha statue. Kannon in Japanese or Guan Yin in Chinese is the term for a bodhisattva associated with compassion as worshipped by East Asian Buddhists, usually as a female form. We’ll see other representations below. The one in Futtsu was built in 1961.

The top of the standing Tokyo Wan Kannon:

Image: Mayuno

14. Jibo Dai Kannon of Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima, Japan – 57 m (187 ft)

Jibo literally means “loving mother” and therefore the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy is depicted with a child in her arms. In Japan, the Kannon’s three female forms are meant to depict child giving, mothering in general and being a loving mother. She is the patron saint of motherhood, easy delivery and child-rearing.

Visitors can go inside the 57 m-tall statue or enjoy the enormous Japanese garden with a 14-m Reclining Buddha.

Image via losu.org

13. Guan Yin at Mount Xiqiao, Guangdong, China – 62 m (203 ft)

The 62-m statue is located in the city of Foshan, in China’s south eastern Nanhai district. It stands on a 15 m pedestal, bringing the total height up to 77 m (252 ft).

It is generally believed that the concept of Guan Yin, known in the west as the Goddess of Mercy, originated as the Sanskrit Avalokitesvara, her male form.

The statue of Guan Yin is a popular tourist attraction:

Image: Whw

12. Jibo Kannon at Naritasan Temple, Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan – 62 m (203 ft)

Another Jibo Kannon with child in her arms that bears a striking resemblance to the Virgin Mary. These Japanese images of the Kannon nursing a baby are not considered of Buddhist origin but influenced by Christianity, most likely during the Edo Era, when Christianity was banned and converts were persecuted.

Not Mother Mary and the infant Jesus:

Image: Tim Vickerman

11. Leshan Giant Buddha, Leshan, China – 71 m (233 ft)

The Leshan Giant Buddha was carved out of the cliff face overlooking the confluence of the Minjiang, Dadu and Qingyi rivers in China’s Sichuan province. The statue depicts a sitting Matreyia Buddha, hands resting on his knees, who is so tall that a person can sit comfortably even on his smallest toenail. The statue took 90 years to finish – a testament to ancient building techniques and skill.

Taking it all in stride for centuries – the Leshan Buddha with tourists:

Image: David Schroeter

Construction was started by a Chinese monk named Haithong in 713 CE who hoped that the Buddha would guide shipping vessels along the rivers’ currents. After Haithong’s death, the project came to a halt for almost 70 years due to a lack of funds, then was restarted and finally completed in 803 CE. The area today is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

10. Great Standing Maitreya Buddha, Taiwan – 72 m (236 ft)

The Maitreya or Buddha of the Future is also called the Laughing Buddha because of the large smile that seems to shake even his protruding belly. Maitreya worship is not particularly widespread in China or Taiwan and was even forbidden during the Qing period from 1644-1911.

Long earlobes and the world in his right hand – the Laughing Buddha:

Image: Wm Jas

Only four Maitreya Buddhas can be found in Taiwan of which the Great Standing Maitreya Buddha near Beipu at Emei Lake in Xinzhu County is the tallest at 72 m.

9. Awaji Kannon, Awaji Island, Hyago, Japan – 80 m (262 ft)

The Awaji statue might not win a prize for being the most beautiful one portrayed here but it is located on Awaji Island, one of Japan’s oldest settlements. The statue stands on a 20 m (66 ft) pedestal, bringing the total height up to 100 m (328 ft).

Stern-looking in front of a grey sky:

Image: Takaaki Nishioka

8. Ling Shan Great Buddha, Mashan, China – 88 m (289 ft)

Exactly 99 steps lead to the Grand Buddha, an impressive, 88 m bronze statue in Ling Shan, south of China’s Longshan Mountains. The statue weighs over 700 tons and was completed in 1996. Since 2008, visitors can also wander around the new Five Signet or Brahma Palace that were built close by.

Visitors need to do a bit of climbing:

Image: Synyan

Here’s a frontal view of the Buddha:

Image: Holger Naether

7. Dai Kannon at Kita no Miyako Park, Hokkaido, Japan – 88 m (289 ft)

This particular Kannon is another depiction of Avalokitesvara, literally “the Lord who looks down”. Like a Goddess of Mercy, the female form means to embody the compassion of all Buddhas. This Kannon in Ashibetsu, located in the Kita no Miyako Park in Hokkaido, was completed in 1989. Visitors can climb up the statue to enjoy the panoramic views or use one of the eight places dedicated to prayers between the 6th and 20th floor.

Gracefully looking down upon the world:

Image: 100yen

6. Great Reclining Buddha and Standing Buddha near Monywa, Myanmar – 90 m & 116 m

In Monywa, close to the Po Khaung Taung mountain range, visitors are in for a treat as not one but two gigantic Buddha statues wait to be explored. The Monywa Buddha is the largest Reclining Buddha statue in the world. Don’t be fooled by the length – the statue is also 60 ft tall! It was constructed in 1991 and is like a building inside that visitors enter through the Buddha’s, er, rear. They can then walk from the Buddha’s head to his toes, guided by 9,000 metal images of the Buddha, events in his life and his disciples.

The Reclining Buddha with another huge one behind, under construction in 2006:

Image: Colegota

Dimension check – the Buddha is a building!

Image: Colegota

But there’s more; the complex also boasts of one of the tallest standing Buddha statues, called Laykyun Setkyar. Though it is often billed at 132 m (433 ft), the height of the statue is 116 m (380 ft). Since its opening in February 2008, the statue has become one of Myanmar’s main tourist attractions.

Monywa’s Giant Standing Buddha in early 2008:

Image: Wagaung

5. Guanyin Buddha, Sanya, Hainan province, China – 108 m (354 ft)

As mentioned earlier, guanyin statues depict the bodhisattva Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. The one in Sanya is located on the tropical island of Hainan, a popular seaside resort. Not unlike the Statue of Liberty, it rests on a specially designed island platform, this one surrounded by the South China Sea. Also noteworthy are the statue’s three sides – one facing inland and two facing the sea so that blessings and protection can be directed everywhere.

Three-faced:

Image: Fanghong

Another remarkable fact is that more than a hundred Buddhist monks from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and Mainland China and tens of thousands of pilgrims participated in the construction that took six years. The statue was inaugurated in April 2005.

A close-up does justice to its details but not size:

Image: C. Ling Fan

4. Dai Kannon of Sendai, Japan – 100 m (328 ft)

Here’s another depiction of Avalokitesvara in Sendai, the capital of the Miyagi prefecture. It was built by a once flush and now defunct company in the 1980s to avoid taxes rather than show devotion, a reason why it is loathed by many locals. Visitors enjoy the elevator ride to the top though and admire the spectacular views of the city.

Is that a smile?

Image: Peter

3. Ushiku Daibutsu, Japan – 120 m (394 ft)

At 120 m, the huge Buddha statue in Ushiku, Japan is one of the world’s tallest. But that’s not all; the gently smiling Buddha with the upward facing right palm and downward facing left palm has a secret – a four-level museum related to Buddhism inside and an observation platform at 85 m.

Three times taller than the Statue of Liberty:

Image: aerogat

The statue was completed in 1993 and stands on a 10 m high base and another 10 m high lotus platform. Just to get a vague idea of the dimensions: the Buddha’s hands are each 18 m long, each ear 10 m and the mouth 4 m.

A landmark greeting visitors from afar:

Image: hagsfam

2. Spring Temple Buddha, Henan, China – 128 m (420 ft)

The Spring Temple Buddha, named after the nearby Tianrui hot spring, was built in response to the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan, an act the Chinese government condemned. The project was completed in 2002 and tops the Ushiku Daibutsu by 8 m, making it the tallest completed statue in the world.

Serene – the Henan Buddha:

Image: whipsandchains

Part of the statue is a 20 m high lotus throne but it also stands on a 25 m high building, raising its height to 153 m if taken into account. Since 2008, the hill the Buddha is placed upon is also being reshaped into two pedestals, really letting the statue reach for the sky with an expected height of 208 m. Bigger is better? We don’t know yet.

1. Maitreya Buddha, Uttar Pradesh, India – 152 m (500 ft) – planned

Finally, speaking of ambitious projects, the Maitreya Project is an international organisation that aims to build the world’s tallest Buddha statue in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India. Planned is a steel-truss construction covered by around 6,000 aluminium-bronze panels.

Part of the project will be education and healthcare facilities for the local population. One aim is also to develop the area for tourism, which is why an accompanying park, cathedral, monastery, convent, guesthouse, library and food facilities are also planned.

A computer-generated image of the proposed statue:

Image: Maitreya Project

If all those tall Buddha statues remind you of the Tower of Babel or you think that the astronomical building costs could better be used for housing for a nation’s poor, here what His Eminence Trizin Tsering Rinpoche, chairman of the Buddha Dordenma project, has to say:

“By building Buddha statues limitless people can pray and offer for thousands of years, thus by receiving blessings, clearing negativities and building virtues, this life will be happy, next life will be better at a higher level then finally everybody will be enlightened. The well being of future generations is dependent on the kindness and compassion of the present sponsors, Buddha makers and those who participate in this activity. This project brings benefit to self and all beings.”

Especially in view of the latest Buddha building craze, this list claims by no means to be complete, so if you know of any tall Buddha statues we have missed, let us know!

Sources: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

I think I said it before, but I’ll say it once more: I totally love illustration series. There are some really cool series themes out there, and I guess is a little bit of my duty to find them and share its awesomeness with you guys! Today, is the Super Heroes and Villains Alphabet!

This guy, Ankles, had the really simple, yet awesome idea to illustrate the alphabet of cool characters, and it turn out to be an awesome series. Here is the complete alphabet, but for more of his amazing work, you should all check his portfolio at DeviantART! You guys will enjoy it! I hope you all like it! Cheers. ;)

A - is for Ares

B - is for Black Widow

C - is for Captain America

D - is for Daredevil

E - is for Emma Frost

F - is for Fury

G - is for Green Goblin

H - is for Hawkeye

I - is for Iron Fist

J - is for Jean Grey

K - is for Kraven

L - is for Lady Mastermind

M - is for Mystique

N - is for Namor

O - is for Odin

P - is for Punisher

Q - is for Quake

R - is for Rogue

S - is for Shadowcat

T - is for Thor

U - is for Union Jack

V - is for Vision

W - is for Wolverine

X - is for X-23

Y - is for Yellowjacket

Z - is for Zzzax

About the author

Hello, everyone! I’m Paulo Gabriel, a 25 years old designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil. I work as a webdesigner since 2006, but websites and blogs have been a hobbie for me since 1999. Here in Abduzeedo, I try to bring only the hot stuff for you… and hope that all of you enjoy my posts! For more cool stuff, you may also follow me on Twitter.

Sponsored Links:

As I read the article I started to think that there might be another culprit. Perhaps the conventional RCU design is finally paying off? Maybe all of those legacy buttons that no one ever uses (the various ‘Picture in Picture’ controls and the colorful A,B,C interactive TV buttons) are part of a deliberate design strategy? Maybe they are there precisely to add to the cognitive load – the accumulated effect being that valuable functions, like fast forwarding, are much harder to learn. Maybe Time Warner’s Remote Control design strategy is finally paying off?

This is a very interesting theory.

A story last week about the Obama administration committing more than $3 billion to smart grid initiatives caught my eye. It wasn’t really an unusual story. It seems like every day features a slew of stories where leaders commit billions to new geographies, technologies, or acquisitions to demonstrate how serious they are about innovation and growth.

Here’s the thing — these kinds of commitments paradoxically can make it harder for organizations to achieve their aim. In other words, the very act of making a serious financial commitment to solve a problem can make it harder to solve the problem.

Why can large commitments hamstring innovation?

First, they lead people to chase the known rather than the unknown. After all, if you are going to spend a large chunk of change, you better be sure it is going to be going after a large market. Otherwise it is next to impossible to justify the investment. But most growth comes from creating what doesn’t exist, not getting a piece of what already does. It’s no better to rely on projections for tomorrow’s growth markets, because they are notoriously flawed.

Big commitments also lead people to frame problems in technological terms. Innovators spend resources on path-breaking technologies that hold the tantalizing promise of transformation. But as my colleagues Mark Johnson and Josh Suskewicz have shown, the true path to transformation almost always comes from developing a distinct business model.

Finally, large investments lead innovators to shut off “emergent signals.” When you spend a lot, you lock in fixed assets that make it hard to dramatically shift strategy. What, for example, could Motorola do after it invested billions to launch dozens of satellites to support its Iridium service only to learn there just wasn’t a market for it? Painfully little. Early commitments predetermined the venture’s path, and when it turned out the first strategy was wrong — as it almost always is — the big commitment acted as an anchor that inhibited iteration.

These ingredients are a recipe for sustaining thinking — trying to leap-frog over existing incumbents with cutting-edge technologies. Research shows that market leaders tend to beat back these kinds of attacks, resulting in a lot of squandered resources.

So what should leaders do?

Be frugal with financial resources but generous with human resources. What holds disruptive innovation back in most organizations isn’t a lack of money. It is a lack of committed people, a surplus of inappropriate mindsets, and a whole series of standard operating procedures that run counter to the fast-cycle decision making, in-market learning, and iterative approach to strategy required for disruption.

Freeing people to fully engage in this problem, and having leadership focus their energy on helping to ward off what I call the “sucking sound of the core” can be critical to success.

In an interview with Innosight, Intuit Chairman Scott Cook said that in his experience, the most successful disruptive teams have “an executive that is rooting for them, cheering them, mentoring them, actively spending time with them every week and protecting them from the antibodies of the rest of the companies that are trying to love them to death, or, exterminate them.”

Signing checks is easier than spending time. If you are truly committed to innovation, though, spend less money and more time. You’ll end up making substantially more progress.

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Nov 3

The Future Of The Web: Where Will We Be In Five Years?

• Posted in Trends
• 29 Comments »

By Cameron Chapman

We’re approaching the end of 2009, and many people are wondering what the future will bring. While no one can predict for sure what the Internet holds in its future, there are indicators and trends that can point us in the right direction.

A ton of technologies are ripe for further development in the coming few years. Social media and related apps are definitely going to be at the forefront of the Web for a long time. But plenty of other technologies are on the verge of becoming mainstream, either because of more social acceptance or because of advancements in hardware and applications. Read on for 15 predictions about the future of the Web.

1. Micro-Payments For Quality Content

Submitted on Twitter by @mikaelgramont and @simplybastow.

Some companies are already making strides in the micro-payment arena. Many current systems accumulate a big number of micro-payments before paying out a single larger payment. But that may change in the future; you’ll be able to spend micro-payments as soon as you get them, rather than having to wait for them to add up.

Micro-payments will likely be popular among online magazines and news services, as well as other providers of in-depth content. Micro-payments might also be adopted by artists and content creators to defer costs and make a profit.

The most prevalent current micro-payment systems are within MMORPGs (massively multi-player online role-playing games). These systems use credits that are usually a fraction of a dollar to buy and sell things in the game. There are numerous cases of people actually earning a living through these systems.

PayPal is already offering support for micro-payments at a rate of 5% plus $0.05 per transaction. Amazon is also experimenting with micro-payments through its Flexible Payments Service (FPS). Dedicated micro-payment systems are also starting to crop up.

Micro-payments of the future may be closely-related to mobile payment systems. Payment via cell phone opens up whole new area of economic opportunity, particularly in areas where cell phones are more prevalent than computers. Being able to make and receive very small payments, the equivalent of a dollar or less in many cases, via a mobile device paves the way for many in developing nations to participate in the Internet economy in a way that only a few years ago might not have been deemed possible.

Further Resources

iPhone, MySpace, Facebook Race to Micropayments in 2009
An article from TechCrunch about micro-payment options being worked on by some leaders in social media.

What Would Micropayments Do for Journalism? A Freakonomics Quorum
An article from the New York Times about the potential effects of micro-payments on journalism and news websites.

Can Micropayments Save Newspapers?
An article in the New York Times from The Opinionator about the potential of micro-payments to save newspapers.

The Case Against Micropayments
An article from O’Reilly Media on why micro-payments might not be the best idea.

2. Wider Monitors For More Horizontal-Scrolling Content

Submitted on Twitter by @wakeupstar.

Monitors keep getting bigger. Only a few years ago, the iMac came with a 15-inch monitor. Now the smallest one you can get is 21.5 inches (and the largest is 27). Most new PCs, even at the low-end, come with at least a 17-inch monitor, and in many cases 19 or 20 is standard.

Size aside, virtually every new monitor on the market is widescreen. This means that even average computer users have a lot more screen real estate available. It only makes sense that websites will adapt and make more use of horizontal scrolling in future than vertical, especially websites that have multiple small blocks of content, rather than long stretches of text.

Horizontally-scrolling websites are already becoming popular. Some use JavaScript or Flash to simulate a wide layout, while others use plain old HTML and CSS. In any case, a horizontal layout makes a lot more sense for certain kinds of sites, especially portfolios, media galleries and websites that rely more heavily on multimedia than text.

Further Resources

The Horizontal Way
A showcase of horizontal-scrolling website designs.

Fifteen Web Sites Using Horizontal Scrolling
A round-up of great horizontal designs from Sitepoint.

27 Inspirational Horizontal Scrolling Websites
Another great roundup of horizontal designs from Dzine Blog.

How to Create a Horizontally Scrolling Site
A brief tutorial from CSS-Tricks on creating a website with horizontal scrolling.

3. Magazines In A More Interactive Format (Wiki, Digital Video, Etc.)

Submitted on Twitter by @tomforeman.

There’s some question as to whether the majority of print magazines will even be around in five years. Another magazine seems to close every week, often with little or no notice. And how can we be surprised? With mobile devices now fully capable of delivering great content while we’re on the go, what niches do magazines serve? A magazine used to be a good cheap read that we could pick up to check out the latest trends in one field or another, or quick portable entertainment while we’re on the go. But the mobile Web does all that and more.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we won’t have magazines in five years, just that the majority of them will be online, and they’ll have a lot more than just text content. Magazines will be infinitely more interactive, incorporating wikis, video and audio content, and in many cases their own social networks. Some print magazines are already preparing for the change and have websites that could very easily stand on their own. And a whole new breed of online magazines is appearing in a variety of formats. Some hold on to the page-flipping print format (except digitally rendered), while others have broken free and are more blog-like. Whatever the format, they are providing faster, cheaper and more user-friendly content than their print counterparts. The trend is likely to continue as costs for everything but Web space go up.

Further Resources

Switch from Print to Web: Where to Start?
A guide to making the transition from print format to the Internet.

No Magazines Have to Die
An article that includes strategies for print magazines that are transitioning to digital.

Print and Digital – The Future of Magazine Advertising
A great article that covers the future of magazines from an advertising standpoint.

4. More Collaborative And Real-Time Content

Submitted on Twitter by @wakeupstar.

The Web has long been used by people to collaborate on projects with colleagues or clients who are not geographically close enough for a face-to-face meeting. But recently social media has made a whole new level of collaboration possible. Writing projects are particularly popular and seem to do well across a variety of platforms. Twitter novels and stories have been co-written (Neil Gaiman was recently involved in a collaborative story project with BBC Audio Books and hundreds of Twitter users). Novels have been written entirely on Facebook, with input from readers on the work in progress (e.g. The Man Who Painted Agnieszka’s Shoes by Dan Holloway). Even textbooks have been written by collaboration (see Wikibooks).

As broadband Internet becomes more widely available worldwide, collaborative projects will only get bigger and more frequent. Real-time updates and interaction make it possible to work on practically anything in a collaborative environment. Some projects will consist of small groups of people who already know each other, while other projects will bring together hundreds or even thousands of participants who were till then strangers. There’s really no limit to how many people could participate.

Technology that allows collaboration has been around for years. File sharing has almost always been a part of the Web, though new tools make it easier and more efficient. Services such as Zoho and Google Docs allow writers to collaborate on a single document, tracking changes by each participant and allowing others to revert to earlier versions if necessary. Other services let users communicated in real time through video or audio chats in a collaborative workspace. Improvements to these technologies are likely to continue, and new technologies developed.

Collaborative Apps

The following are some collaborative apps that might indicate where online collaboration is headed.

Wridea is an “idea management” service that includes collaborative brainstorming tools.

Writeboard, from 37Signals, is a collaborative writing app.

Twiddla is a Web-based collaboration tool that lets users mark up pretty much anything online as well as work on a group whiteboard-like space.

Spicebird is a collaboration platform that includes instant messaging, a group calendar and email functionality.

Stixy is a collaboration space that lets you share photos, notes, documents, to-dos and more.

Edmodo is a collaboration tool for teachers and students.

5. More Semantic Content And Apps That Exploit Them

Theories and suggestions have been made for ages on how to make the Web more semantic: everything from creating artificial-intelligence apps that interpret data much like humans do, to more semantic tagging conventions that make it possible for current online apps and services to make sense of what code means to humans. So far, though, no one has even come up with an authoritative definition of what the semantic Web actually is. But even with the semantic waters as murky as they are, people are developing programs and services that work more intuitively and make it easier for average Internet users to find what they’re looking for.

Microsoft’s Bing search engine is one of the first truly mainstream apps that aims to help people find what they’re looking for, even going so far as to help them make decisions. While there’s still plenty of room for additional features and improvement of functionality, Bing has helped to bring semantic search options to the mainstream Internet user.

Semantic tagging and coding conventions are probably the most likely to gain serious traction in the next few years. Many Web designers are already using semantic labels in their code. This makes sense on several levels: it makes it easier for current and future Web apps to figure out what is being displayed on a page, and it makes it easier for designers and programmers to make changes to code without having to leave copious comments explaining what the different parts of the code do.

Further Resources

Semantic Code: What? Why? How?
An excellent article from Boagworld on the importance of semantic coding.

Semantic Web
Wikipedia’s entry on the semantic Web.

The Semantic Web
An older article from Scientific American on the future of the semantic Web.

Semantic Web Road Map
The official road map from the W3C.

6. Augmented Reality In Mobile Web Applications

Given that most mobile devices now have built-in digital cameras (some with video capability), people would naturally now want functionality beyond simple photography. Augmented reality applications can have a range of potential benefits, from making it easier to find your way if you get lost to letting you identify the person sitting across from you at a party.

That last example has many security and privacy experts worried. Facial recognition software is improving all the time, and pretty soon using an augmented reality program on your mobile phone to find out who a person is might be possible. You’d just snap a picture of them, and the app would cross-reference it with social networking profiles and photos across the Web, eventually coming across a match. From there, you could see whatever information the person had chosen to make public about him or herself.

While many people still see augmented reality as the stuff of science fiction, the truth is that at least rudimentary apps are already available. Layar, a free augmented reality app, is available for both the iPhone and Android-based phones. It uses layers provided by a variety of content providers such as Flickr, Wikipedia and Twitter to display an overlay of information on your mobile screen. Other apps will likely follow.

Further Resources

Augmented Reality
Wikipedia’s entry on augmented reality.

How Augmented Reality Will Work
An overview from HowStuffWorks.

Layar Brings Augmented Reality to the iPhone
Coverage from TechCrunch on Layar’s move to the iPhone.

Augmented Reality: A New Way of Seeing
An older article from Scientific American about augmented reality.

7. Better Adoption Of Web Standards

With more and more users accessing the Web from mobile browsers and browsers other than Internet Explorer, Web standards are only going to become more important. Standards-compliant design has already become much more mainstream and been adopted by many (if not most) designers. Great strides are being made across most browser platforms in complying with the standards set by the W3C. Standards-based design will have to be adopted in coming years.

8. Better Web Security Against Phishing, Scams and Spam

Image source

Web security is a constant concern for website providers. From scammers posing as legitimate buyers, to con artists sending out emails posing as legitimate businesses to capture customer information, to spammers sending out unsolicited commercial email, Internet users are bombarded daily by people who want to use their personal information against them.

Individual websites, Web hosts, payment processors and others involved in online transactions are constantly making security improvements. With greater consumer awareness of how to identify phishing schemes and other scams, the majority of these issues will no longer be a concern in the next few years. Of course, that isn’t to say that other tactics won’t replace them.

Further Resources

The Web Standards Project
A grassroots group that promotes the adoption and development of Web standards.

Confronting the Future of Web Standards
An article covering both the history and future of Web standards.

W3C Standards
The official Web standards section of w3.org.

Web Standards
Wikipedia’s Web standards entry.

Web Standards Group
The W3C’s Web Standards Group.

9. Even More Social Apps

Social media isn’t going anywhere. While some people believe social media has gone about as far as it can go, others believe it’s still in its infancy. I think there’s still plenty of room for new apps, new platforms and new ideas in the world of social media. One area ripe for improvement and wider adoption is virtual worlds. Today’s kids have been using virtual worlds since they were toddlers (think Webkinz and Club Penguin), so they’ll likely want to continue using them as teenagers and adults. Plus, with advances in virtual reality on the verge of major breakthroughs, virtual worlds could come to the forefront of social media.

Another area ripe for expansion and improvement is content aggregation. While some services out there will aggregate a user’s activity across multiple social networks and websites, most still have a lot of room for improvement. Eventually, services not only will aggregate a user’s activity across all of the websites they participate in, but will also present that information usefully to their followers.

Niche social networks will also continue to grow. Social networks exist for practically every niche, and this will not go away. Services such as Ning and platforms like Elgg make it easy for non-programmers to set up their own social networks quickly and easily. Many corporations, organizations and groups are setting up social networks for their customers and members. While some have been great successes, attracting thousands of users, others have quickly died and been replaced either by other niche networks or by groups on mainstream general-purpose websites.

Further Resources

Elgg
An open-source social networking engine.

BuddyPress
A set of plug-ins that turns WordPress MU into a social network.

Lovd By Less
An open-source social networking platform.

Ning
Offers free hosted social networks.

OpenSocial
Google’s OpenSocial social network applications platform.

The Social Future for Web 2.0/Web 3.0
A series of predictions on social technologies.

10. More High-Quality Online “TV” Programs

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog can be credited with bringing quality online programming to the mainstream. While plenty of great Internet programs existed prior to that, Dr. Horrible quickly gained a cult following and made the transition to mainstream media. The fact that Joss Whedon, Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion were involved played no small part in the show’s success, but it paved the way for lesser-known directors, actors, writers and producers to gain large online viewerships.

Since Dr. Horrible, a number of other online series and programs have gained wide viewership. Webisodes (which are usually mini-episodes of popular TV shows that are aired exclusively online) have also grown in popularity. While online fictional video is still in its infancy, several informative video blogs have been in production for a while, like TreeHugger TV and CNET TV. One of the more popular amateur fictional programs is Star Trek New Voyages, based on the original Star Trek series.

With video technology becoming increasingly cheaper and easier to use, and broadband Internet access becoming more widespread, high-quality Internet-only programs will become only more prevalent in the future.

Further Resources

Jeff’s Guide to “TV Shows Online Available on the Internet”
This website gives an alphabetical listing of online programming.

Hulu
Offers regular and online-only programming. Hulu is where Dr. Horrible was first aired.

13 Places to Watch TV Online for Free
A list of websites that offer free TV shows.

How to Create a Webisode
A tutorial from eHow.

Webisodes – The Future of Entertainment
A great overview of webisodes and how they got started.

11. Web Apps Play A Bigger Role In Daily Life

Submitted on Twitter by @dougoftheabaci.

Web applications already play a big role in the daily lives of many people. But as more apps become available online and traditional software moves to online-enhanced or online-only models (as some programs are already starting to do), more users will turn to Web applications almost exclusively.

One major factor driving this trend is broad mobile Web access. Being able to access important documents or perform tasks on business applications from anywhere is a huge advantage to many users. A lot of opportunities are opening up for mobile workers, who will no longer be tied to a single location, or even a single computer.

Of course, there are potential drawbacks to using Web apps exclusively. There have already been cases of Web apps or services crashing and losing customer data. Website downtime is another critical factor that can have a huge impact on productivity if offline backups aren’t available. Until these hurdles are overcome, Web-based applications will continue to face resistance for critical functions.

Further Resources

Envisioning the Future of Web Apps
A video from CNET on the future of Web applications built on HTML 5 and micro-payments.

The Future of Web Apps: 7 Things Companies Must Do to Succeed
A post from Mashable on the steps that companies need to take to create useful Web applications.

Future Of Web Apps
The official page of the Future Of Web Apps (FOWA) conference from Carsonified.

12. Search Engine Optimization Will Be Less Important

Submitted on Twitter by @seokai.

Search engine optimization may become less important in the future as Internet users rely more on recommendations and social media to find information. Already, people are asking questions on Twitter and Facebook instead of Google. This means that high-quality content and usability will become ever more important, because users are more likely to recommend a website if they have found it easy to use and useful. Also, search engines themselves will be smarter, meaning they’ll be able to better discern a Web page’s usefulness to a particular user.

13. Your OS Will Be Online

Submitted on Twitter by @dahquium.

While your computer will still store some files, the future of the operating system will increasingly rely on Web-based files. In other words, without an Internet connection, your computer’s functionality will be severely limited.

Google’s Chrome OS seems to be the first serious contender in this arena. Jolicloud is another Web-based OS, developed specifically for netbooks. Both operating systems seem to be aiming specifically at netbooks, where their benefits would be most obvious. For regular laptops and desktop computers, expect the Web-based OS to take a bit longer, mainly because users tend to run more robust apps on them, like Photoshop and Dreamweaver, which will take a bit longer to make fully Web-based.

Further Resources

Web operating system
Wikipedia’s page covering Web-based operating systems.

7 Interesting Web Operating System Applications
An overview of seven Web OS options.

eyeos
A “cloud computing operating system.”

Cloudo
Another Web-based operating system.

14. Customized User Interfaces

Submitted on Twitter by @verseijden.

As Web apps become more integrated in our daily lives, customized user interfaces will surely follow. Being able to tailor the user experience to one’s preferences is a huge plus for many Internet users. And some websites already let you make customizations to the information you see, how you see it and even how you interact with it.

Plug-ins are already being used by programmers to customize the interface of many websites they use regularly. Greasemonkey for Firefox (and some other browsers) is one such plug-in that lets you customize the functionality and appearance of many Web apps and sites.

15. The Web Will Be The Center Of Information And Content Distribution

Submitted on Twitter by @cmachanic.

This, to a large extent, is already coming true. The Web has almost always been a major distribution point for information. But this will only grow in future. Publishers, media producers and other content creators are already turning to the Web to get their products out to a bigger audience. Within the next few years, the Web may fully replace more established methods of content delivery.

Newspapers and magazines will likely be the first media replaced by the Web. Not far behind will be TV and movies. The movie theater probably won’t be entirely replaced by the Web for a very long time, but more people will certainly be renting and buying movies online rather than on DVDs and other physical media.

Books are a different story; they have sentimental value. From a practical standpoint, e-paper (like that used in the Kindle and other e-readers) is not really much different than real paper. But from a psychological standpoint, the difference is too much for many book-lovers to overcome. Of course, that won’t prevent the Internet from playing an ever-larger role in book distribution. The e-book market will continue to grow for the next few years, as younger readers opt for them over paper books. Paper versions of favorite titles might be purchased as collector’s editions, with e-books purchased for daily reading material.

This migration to the Internet will profoundly affect how media is produced and consumed. Media will become more interactive and collaborative, and because of the lower barrier to entry, new players will participate in virtually every method of content production and distribution. The shake-up will affect much more than just the way information is disseminated.

Further Resources

Who Killed the Newspaper?
A slightly older article from The Economist on the decline of the newspaper industry.

Do Newspapers Have a Future?
Another older article on the decline of the newspaper industry, this one from Time magazine.

Are Magazines Doomed, Too?
A post from BuzzMachine about the future of magazine publishing.

The Future of Magazines, Possibly
Gawker’s look at the future of the magazine industry.

The Future of Television
An article from Forbes on the future of TV.

Is the Future of TV on the Web?
An article from CNN about the future of television.

How Netflix is Changing the Future of Movies
A great post about how Netflix and similar Internet-based on-demand movie services are changing the way movies are being distributed.

Movies Online: The Future is (Almost) Here
A Salon.com article about the future of the movie industry in relation to online distribution.

Google & the Future of Books
An article about Google’s foray into book publishing, from The New York Review of Books.

Crystal Kindles: What Does 2010 Hold in Store for the Literary World?
A more near-sighted look at what the future holds for the publishing world.

(al)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 4:50 am and is filed under Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The new business meeting was going swimmingly—that is, until the client started asking questions about our design process. Then we unleashed our lexicon of specialized user experience (UX) research terminology.

Why should we do that thing you called…what was it, task analysis? We’d like some of those personas. They’re important, right? What the heck is contextual inquiry?!

As mental models flew about the room, I realized how hard it is for clients to understand the true value of UX research. As much as I’d like to tell my clients to go read The Elements of User Experience and call me back when they’re done, that won’t cut it in a professional services environment. The whole team needs a common language and a philosophy that’s easy to grok.

I created a cheat sheet to help you pitch UX research using plain, client-friendly language that focuses on the business value of each exercise. But, before we get to the cheat sheet, let’s talk about how we can communicate the value of UX research at a much higher level.

Try a little tenderness

Strong UX thinking is founded on observed user behavior. You can’t just call in a UX expert and expect to make headway with unsophisticated clients. As independent UX designer Whitney Hess puts it, “User experience designers are liaisons, not subject matter experts, doctors, or any type of magical beings. We don’t have a set of best practices that we can robotically implement, nor do we have all of the answers. Our greatest skill is that we know how to listen.”

As UX researchers, we’re hired to be the glue between business stakeholders and users. In a sense, we’re informed facilitators. And before a contract is signed, our role is to influence our clients with kindness, grace, and wit, on the true value of our engagement.

What results can clients expect from research?

Naturally, clients want every activity they pay for to lead to a tangible result—a website that fulfills their business goals and satisfies their customers.

However, it’s our job to help clients understand that their proposed website’s overall success depends on the quality of input throughout the site design and development process, not the quantity of input. So when you’re talking with clients about creating long-term business value through UX research activities, you should describe the following critical results:

High-Level Results of UX Research

What the client wants	What you should say	Why you should say it
Insight into how site visitors will think, act, and react when using the site.	We’ll use UX research techniques to validate our strategic design decisions by soliciting feedback from people who will use your website.	Clients need to know your point of view, but must also understand that it’s only an opinion until you observe and talk to their customers.
Confidence that their website will function as a cohesive whole.	We’ll take your business requirements and, with audience input, create a cohesive experience for your users.	Clients need to know that you understand how customers will react to both the big picture and the details.
Stakeholder consensus on what will be built and why it will be built.	Our research results, with your approval, form a critical part of the documentation we’ll need to build your site.	Clients need to feel like they’re in control of the result—even though well-considered audience input should directly influence stakeholder opinion on the features that need to be documented.

Good UX research = smart business

Beyond these short- to mid-term results, what can we offer clients as part of the long-term value of our UX engagement? Can we promise them real long-term return on investment? That depends on how metric-savvy your client wants to become. Five years ago, Adaptive Path showed how ROI can be related to UX considerations with a little time and effort. A key takeaway was that the development of associations between user behavior and business value can act as a gateway drug: if you can show them how to relate behavioral change to value-based assessments of that change, you can have a major influence on your clients’ business strategy. In short, clients become addicted to improvement.

The UX research cheat sheet

After I describe the high-level results clients can expect from UX research, I try to help them understand the specific methods I may use, depending on their needs. I cut and paste the following plain-English method descriptions into the proposal as necessary.

I created the cheat sheet that follows so that you don’t have to scramble for words every time a client request comes in. I mapped each activity to the critical IA deliverables Keith LaFerriere outlined in “Flexible Fuel: Educating the Client on IA,” as well as some additional visual design deliverables. The real-world examples I’ve included are meant to be boilerplates, and I encourage you to revise this material to include examples related to your projects.

Questionnaires

What it is in plain English: What people say about who they are, what they do, and where they go.

Real-world example: You’re creating a site for a company that sells professional-grade cameras. You survey 25 photographers on the websites they frequent, which cameras they prefer, how often they do client work, and so on. You collect this information and analyze it to find trends, inform your competitive research, and begin to shape the kind of site experience your audience might want.

Business value: By surveying target users, you’ll learn who your site visitors really are, and what types of content they expect from your site at a very high level.

Questionnaires provide input into: Personas, wireframes, navigation schema, the content map, the site map, and the content strategy.

Contextual inquiry

What it is in plain English: Observing what people do as they go about their day—not what they say they do.

Real-world example: You’re designing a website for woodworkers. You call up some woodworkers and ask if you can watch them for a few hours as they practice their craft. While they work, you observe what they do and ask questions about behavior that you don’t understand. The material you collect can shape every level of the website’s user experience.

Business value: Observing user behavior often helps to create a website that directly supports their day-to-day activities.

Contextual inquiry provides input into: Personas, user flows, wireframes, navigation schema, the content map, the site map, the content strategy, and UI design.

Diary study

What it is in plain English: Learning how people use a product over time, as they write about their experiences with it in their own words.

Real-world example: You’ve been asked to improve a web application that lawyers use to track their case research. You give five lawyers tape recorders and/or journals and ask them to document anything strange or difficult that they notice while using the application. Then, you analyze that data to make specific recommendations on product improvement.

Business value: If your customers are far-flung or hard to pin down in person, a diary study is one of the best ways to uncover a wealth of insight into how your audience currently uses a website or application.

A diary study provides input into: Personas, user flows, wireframes, navigation schema, the content map, the site map, the content strategy, and the use case / requirements document.

Task analysis

What it is in plain English: Observing how people take part in an activity, and then examining what they are thinking and what they are doing as they complete each task, step by step.

Real-world example: A health-care company wants you to improve their claims-processing system. You observe their employees as they use the software to process claims. Then, you go through the process yourself, documenting each step required to fulfill every task. From that analysis, you make recommendations to streamline or improve the process.

Business value: By conducting a task analysis to break down how customers use the website or application, and then using that information for process improvement, you can increase the number of site transactions and create operational efficiencies that save money.

Task analysis provides input into: Personas, user flows, wireframes, navigation schema, the use case / requirements document, the content map, and the site map.

Card sorting

What it is in plain English: Discovering how you can help people find information more quickly and easily on your website.

Real-world example: IBM asks you to rethink how they organize a portion of their website designed for librarians. You examine the site’s information architecture and distill it into 60 to 80 index cards. These cards contain the proposed names of various sections of the site, as well as content that you might find within each section. You meet with librarians and have them organize the cards. Then, you analyze the data from all of the sorts to discover patterns in how people organized the information. The results of the sort inform your IA recommendations for the site.

Business value: Card sorting helps to create websites that are easy to navigate. If you have a highly complex product or service, or a website with a lot of content, it’s crucial that your customers can easily find information they’re interested in.

Card sorting provides input into: navigation schema, the content map, the site map, and the content strategy.

Paper prototyping

What it is in plain English: Simple paper versions of your site pages that customers can use to give feedback on your proposed designs.

Real-world example: Bank of America’s site visitors aren’t signing up for the new AmEx card as they’d expected. Reviewing site metrics, it becomes clear that visitors are bailing on the sign-up form. After analysis, you draw up sketches that represent different form design options. You put the sketches in front of users and ask them how they would sign up for a credit card, moving papers around as necessary to “load” new screens. Based on this user input, you make an informed recommendation on the AmEx card sign-up form design.

Business value: Seeing customer reactions to simple paper prototypes will validate critical interaction points, helping you to protect your website investment without having to write a single line of code. This is especially important when you want to create seamless transactions for your customers.

Paper prototyping provides input into: Navigation schema, wireframes, user flows, interaction storyboards, the UI design, the content map, the content strategy, and the site map.

Functional prototyping

What it is in plain English: observing people as they use a very simple website or application prototype that has copy in place.

Real-world example: Have users actually use the form to sign up for a credit card on the computer. Write down what users experienced during the process, and improve the design with your key learnings.

Business value: Having customers use areas of your website in a rudimentary, low-fi manner will help you validate that you’re fulfilling their expectations. And this can happen before you’ve completely finalized the user interface design of your website or application.

Functional prototyping provides input into: wireframes, user flows, the use case / requirements document, the UI design, and the content.

Usability Testing

What it is in plain English: Observing people as they use a website or product, and recording any difficulties they have during the process.

Real-world example: Your client is very excited about their new site for people who love smoothies—but site statistics show that users aren’t clicking past the homepage. You do a quick heuristic analysis with five smoothie-lovers. You ask them to sign up for the Smoothie Lover’s Club and find out how many calories are in a 16 oz. Berry Blast. By observing them as they perform these actions, and noting key trouble spots, you can make recommendations to the client on updates to their site’s IA and UX design to improve its overall usability.

Business value: Conducting a usability test and soliciting feedback on a fully functioning website gives the greatest insight into what is and isn’t working for your customers—and usability test participants will often give you solutions for perceived problems right on the spot.

Usability testing provides input into: Personas, user flows, wireframes, the site map, the use case / requirements document, the UI design, and the content.

Keep the training wheels on

Congratulations! Your new client has agreed to include user research as part of your next website project. Over the lifetime of the client work, be prepared to continue describing your proscribed research activities in plain language. Through a slow process of education and mutual trust, your clients will grow to understand your UX terminology—making it easier for them to request and participate in critical research activities in the future.

• Illustration by Kevin Cornell

San Francisco based interior design firm Studio O+A have designed the new offices for Facebook
in Palo Alto, California.

Full description after the photos….

Facebook Headquarters by Studio O+A

Employees of Facebook recently moved to a new headquarters that facilitates interaction and connection, reflecting the company’s mission as a social networking website provider. Formerly a laboratory facility for high-tech manufacturer Agilent Technologies, the 150,000-square-foot structure at Palo Alto’s Stanford Research Park brings together more than 700 employees originally scattered throughout 10 locations in and around downtown Palo Alto.

The design of the space relied heavily on input from the users, appropriate for a flatly structured company that weights every employee’s opinion equally. O+A designers interviewed employees about what they wanted from their new headquarters. The Facebook platform was used to conduct company-wide polls about design decisions, post construction photos and updates, and keep everyone informed of the thought process behind the project. An advisory board of employees from every department collaborated with the design team on the design process, from space planning to finishes to final move coordination.

Because the new facility houses employees coming from various locations, the company wanted to maintain each division’s distinct identity. The design takes its inspiration from the patchwork nature of Facebook users and employees, bringing together seemingly disparate elements to form a cohesive pattern and using color and interior spacing to create neighborhoods within the open plan space. The company’s executives sit in central areas, accessible to all employees. Large lounges and open spaces provide venues for the community to come together. A kitchen and café continue Facebook’s tradition of providing gourmet meals to staff at all hours, while drinks and snacks are available at micro-kitchens throughout the headquarters.

Reflecting employees’ desire for a green headquarters, the facility is the first commercial project completed under Palo Alto’s 2008 Green Building Ordinance, making extensive use of existing architectural features, recycling millwork from the original lab, and repurposing industrial components for post-industrial use. Other sustainable features include high recycled-content carpet and energyefficient lighting.

The design goal for the new facility was to maintain the history and raw aesthetic of the building and create a fun dynamic appropriate for the company’s youthful staff. Many walls and spaces are left unfinished: employees are encouraged to write on the walls, add artwork, and move furniture as needed, allowing the building to evolve continuously.

A bright orange industrial crane, left over from the building’s previous user, was repurposed by San Francisco sculptor Oliver DiCicco to support a table surface from its heavyweight hoist, offering maximum maneuverability. Referencing the industrial aesthetic of the building, a felt canopy spreads up one wall and onto the ceiling, defining a central meeting area that can double as an impromptu auditorium. Mounted on threaded rods of varying length to achieve an undulating effect, the canopy absorbs sound and is penetrated at intervals by overhead lighting. An outdoor basketball court and indoor ping-pong table offer opportunities for recreation. And it is not unusual to see employees zipping along the concrete floors on two-wheeled skateboards.

Visit the Studio O+A website – here.

—>

In Articles, Tips Oct 30, 200912

Using Wireframes to Bring Your Site Together

Wireframes are the blue prints that define and allocate a Web sites content and behavior. They are not bound by colors, fonts, and anything that may surface on the site as part of any content. Wireframing compliments good web development and offers a visual of where the content will be laid out within the sites design. A simple wireframe displays the location of a header, main content, footer, sidebars, ad placement, and navigation.

Coming to Terms with Wireframes

Wireframes are usually created using a variety of software applications geared towards design. Most developers find good use of Photoshop and Visio stencils because they allow you to save layers and libraries of commonly used shapes and elements. Once you’re able to develop your wireframe prototype, this will allow you to interact with your client in a variety of ways such as getting an up-front view of their sites design or redesign. This also means that the developer has a clear understanding of what technologies (i.e. JQuery, Ajax, etc..) need to be used for specific elements on the site.

A large portion of these common elements are absolute needs, and if not included then this can cause your visitors to experience, leave, and express a great deal of frustration towards your site. No one wants to visit a site that offers an unclear purpose, seems way to crowded, and neglects the need for vital elements such as navigation to be labeled and easy to find.

Vital Steps to Effective Wireframing

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a designer on a development project is failing to plan. When you wireframe this is one of the very few vital steps you need to take v.s. the other 100 or so. This is where the conceptualization of an idea starts to take shape and form to allow interaction between the sites design and back end development. Below you will find a few tips that will enable you to make not only effective but better wireframes.

Functionality Contra Superficial

Many times the way you design your wireframe depends on the tools readily available. However, it should always be more about function rather than form at some point. Once you focus on function, form will start to take place. In other words, this means that you not need to create the best looking wireframe, just one that has promising function and form. A good wireframe would include the most important of elements such as boxes, buttons, dropdowns and more.

Spending Too Much Time on Wireframes

Your wireframe has nothing to do with design. Therefore try to avoid spending large amounts of time on making your wireframe “pretty”. If you add too much design then you will end up shifting your client’s focus onto un-important aspects.Wireframe is part of the development process, just remember that design should be left to designers.

Organizing Your Wireframe

As obvious as it is, sometimes it’s easy to forget how important it is to have a well organized wireframe. You can start organizing by splitting the sections that need to be separated such as news, products and user account/registration. Once you’re able to break up your wireframe correctly, then this will bring you one step closer to a more attractive and usable design.

Choosing the Right Tools

For most designers, the pen and paper is utilized as the canvas unto which creativity is transferred on. It is much easier and faster than using a computer and lets you get thoughts and ideas down as the concept becomes much more then that. As successful designers it’s important that you use tools that you’re most comfortable with. This would increase the chances of raising the quality of work. A few tools used besides Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Visio would be PM PowerPoint, and Designers Adobe Fireworks.

Color a Plus or Negative?

There are a few things one should avoid when designing a wireframe, one of those things would be to use too much color in your design. Our human eyes are captivated by components that posses any sort of color. We naturally begin to analyze the color scheme behind most of the things we see on a daily basis. Simply put, a wireframe with an exaggerated amount of color will more than likely distract you (or the client) from chief elements.

Although, greyscale is the standard for wireframing, it’s not always a horrid idea to use a VERY light touch of darker colors (black, navy blue, etc..) to separate your sections. However, if you utilize any form of color, it’s possible that your client could have a mal-reaction, i.e. questioning the actual colors of the site. This could easily become a set-back, or it can all together end the clients interest in using you for their sites design. Most designers limit the use of colors to links or elements that may not be included on every page. If you feel the “need” to use color, this wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Clean Examples of Wireframes

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Esoteric Creativity: Michael Paulkner’s Visualizations

By Maria Popova

What 100 monkeys have to do with Atlantis, Indian yoga and Stonehenge.

One of the reasons we love data visualization and the infographic arts so much is that at their best, they can bring a level of intuitive understanding to overwhelmingly esoteric subjects. Which is why we’re head-over-heels with Austrian visualization artist Michael Paulkner, who tackles the obscure and the enigmatic with creative quirk and a unique graphic style.

The Hundredth Monkey Effect: Theory, which posits that a learned behavior or idea spreads instantaneously within a group, in an almost paranormal fashion, once a critical number is reached. Click image for details.

His work is a kind of modern artistic alchemy, exploring both real phenomena and the eeriest corners of quasi-science, those fringe worldviews that have always coexisted with and challenged the dominant scientific dogmas of the time.

The Celtic Zodiac: 13-month lunar calendar dating back to around 1000 B.C., devised by Celtic priests known as Druids and constituting the ancient origins of Halloween. Click image for details.

Kundalini: Sanskrit word meaning either ‘coiled up’ or ‘coiling like a snake.’ The Kundalini movement in Indian yoga deals with ‘corporeal energy’ that circulates in and around the human body in an artificial electromagnetic flow. Click image for details.

Stonehenge Rebuilt: Click image for details.

Metatron’s Cube: Pattern believed to have sacred geometry with religious value depicting the fundamental principles of space and time. Click image for details.

Capital City of Atlantis: Reconstruction of the mythical city based on a German plan Michael found on an obscure website. Click image for details.

See more of Michael’s work in his relentlessly fantastic Flickr stream.

via Coudal

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 7:26 am in art, culture, design, science and was tagged art, cool, data visualization, design, history, science.