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Ubuntu Gets A Visual MakeOver

By Michele Neylon on March 4, 2010 1:27 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

Ubuntu, which is one of the more popular Linux distributions these days, has unveiled a completely new look.

It's got a new logo:

And a whole new range of styles for just about every other visual asset associated with the brand, both online and on the users' desktops.

The new look is very slick compared to the "old" image of Linux distributions as being ugly, yet functional

Full details here

Thanks to Laura for mentioning it earlier this evening

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Salt and Pepper For Geeks

By Michele Neylon on February 28, 2010 7:59 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks

I've no idea why anyone would buy these unless it was a joke, but they're still fun:

You'd have to be a real geek to want salt and pepper from these oversized computer keys!

More info here

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Carlow Business Directory Now Live

By Michele Neylon on January 30, 2010 9:11 PM | 2 Comments | No TrackBacks

I'd have to be the first one to admit it. I have an annoying habit of registering domains then forgetting about them or simply not having the time / energy to do anything meaningful with them.

So I love it when I'm actually able to get something up and running on a domain that is functional and hopefully of some use. Emphasis on hopefully!

A few months ago I picked up carlow.biz. It was available, though it was registered a few times in the past to other people.

So with the aid of Forbairt Media's graphic skills, the new Carlow business directory is now live.

Yes - it's still a work in progress (the design is still being tweaked), but if you're based in Carlow and have a site that should be included please submit it! It won't cost you anything.

For the SEO types ...

All the links are clean, direct links.

And of course it's hosted by Blacknight.

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Irish Political Party Plagiarise BBC But Think They're Cool

By Michele Neylon on April 17, 2009 7:40 PM | 16 Comments

The BBC have a serious online presence which probably costs them a fortune to maintain every year.

None of the Irish political parties have an online presence that comes anywhere near it (and you wouldn't really expect them to either... )

But when an Irish political party blatantly rips off the BBC's design and thinks they can get away with it, what kind of message does that send?

They then try to cover their tracks, but obviously don't do a particularly convincing job of it.

Now the thing that leaves me practically speechless is the attitude of the politicos that emanates from their comments on both of Steph's posts:

Get over it Steph. The site is brilliant. Its really is superb. Its online, it works, and its not going anywhere.

As a matter of fact, the site online now, was ready to go last week, the .org site up yesterday was a bit of a teaser based on some very early work.

I think its great. Don't think anybody else other than yourself and Dave Cochrane of p.ie are even the slightest bit bothered. My two cents, appreciate a brilliant website when you see it!

So the message is what exactly?

(Irish) Political parties don't have to abide by copyright rules?

As I already learnt, they seem to think that they can abuse email without any censure, so why would design or any other intellectual property matter?

Of course the funny thing is that they don't do a particulary good job of protecting their own IP.

Both finegael.tel and fiannafail.tel are registered to the same person.. I somehow doubt if that person has any links to either party and most certainly not both ...

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Silly User Interface Things

By Michele Neylon on February 5, 2009 1:10 PM | 2 Comments

American Express offer an online service to their card holders that allows them to check their balance, charges and payments.

The problem is that if you go to the American Express website to login you will end up getting a bit frustrated and confused.

Why?

Well it's really simple.

While there is a nice little button on the main page inviting you to register for the service, there is no login link.

Well, actually, that's not true.

There is a login, it's just labelled as "register":

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Stamps.ie Reloaded

By Michele Neylon on February 4, 2009 1:05 PM

Stamps.ie, which I mentioned recently, has been given a facelift by the very talented James Larkin in Forbairt Media

It's looking a lot better than the previous incarnation!

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Cross Browser Testing Makes Sense

By Michele Neylon on December 16, 2008 10:15 PM | 38 Comments

Trying to get sites to display identically across multiple browsers and multiple operating systems is awkward. This site probably doesn't display particularly well on all browsers, but I'm not a professional web designer / developer, so you'll have to excuse me. It's also not a corporate / business website trying to sell products or services to the public.

Screenclick, however, is a business website.

Earlier this evening I decided to visit it on my Mac using Firefox. Apart from the really annoying splash page, which doesn't do anything useful, the main page does not load correctly in Firefox 3 on the Mac:

Now if you open the same page in Safari you seem something totally different:

Why?

Seemingly somebody decided to use Microsoft's Silverlight, but didn't bother to do a simple plugin check that would either prompt the user to install the plugin or gracefully degrade.

I won't be able to view their site on my Linux desktop either, as Silverlight isn't available for Linux (there is a port, but last time I checked there wasn't a native Debian / Ubuntu version available)

UPDATE: I've now moved to my Ubuntu Linux desktop and this is what I get:

The wonderfully helpful splash page (do they honestly expect me to continue browsing after seeing that?)

and the inner page (for some odd reason it's actually telling me that I need Silverlight now, whereas it wasn't on my Mac!)

PS: For a slightly different view on the Screenclick site check out Hugh's post

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Innovation Isn't Always A Good Idea

By Michele Neylon on December 15, 2008 1:20 PM | 3 Comments

The guys in Despair.com keep on coming up with fantastic concepts.

This one is simple, yet brilliant:

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Crazy Audiovisual Clock

By Michele Neylon on November 11, 2008 2:21 AM | 4 Comments

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Godin Gets To The Point

By Michele Neylon on November 6, 2008 8:36 PM | 6 Comments

I've been a fan of Seth Godin's writings for quite some time, so I was delighted when my copy of The Big Red Fez arrived a couple of days ago.

In common with some of Godin's other books, The Big Red Fez is not a hefty volume with tiny print. It's just over 100 pages long, but every second page is a screenshot of a website or email, so it's actually a mere 50 pages in total. But a book shouldn't be valued based on its length, especially not in the case of Godin.

While some authors suffer from something akin to verbal diarrhoea, Godin excels in getting his point across clearly and succintly (the screenshots help illustrate what he's talking about).

So what is it all about?

It's about taking your website to the next level. Making it more useful and thus more profitable. No matter how good you may think your website is you can probably tweak it and improve it (I know this to be very true of any I operate!)
Most of what Godin talks about is simple and easy to put into operation - making the call to action more obvious for example, or rejigging error messages etc.,

Word of advice - if you run a website get a copy of this book!

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Recently in design Category

Ubuntu Gets A Visual MakeOver

Salt and Pepper For Geeks

Carlow Business Directory Now Live

Irish Political Party Plagiarise BBC But Think They're Cool

Silly User Interface Things

Stamps.ie Reloaded

Cross Browser Testing Makes Sense

Innovation Isn't Always A Good Idea

Crazy Audiovisual Clock

Godin Gets To The Point

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