There seems to be a trend of late using the idea of a scientific lab or test tubes to the design of a site. A lot of these ideas probably do stem from name generation but its an interesting one to see emerging and is quite the opposite to the shiny apple trend of other web design styles. Here are some good examples of this pretty cool illustrative effect put into practice.
Animated Navigation
Back in the day (the late 90’s to be precise) it was quite easy for a web designer to get his audience salivating with a few simple mouseover effects on his menu items. A bit of JavaScript did the trick nicely!
Those hey days of early web sorcery are over since Flash stepped into the ring. Nowadays a wide variety of visual effects can be achieved by the means of the “timeline” and programmed transitions that can even include audio and video. Smart mathematics allow us to create complex navigational systems. There are hardly any technical boundaries. The only limitation is the web designer’s own imagination.
Horizontal Naigation
Navigation can singularly make or break a site. It is responsible for the success of the user’s interaction; if they enjoy using it they will keep coming back. If they don’t, you will never see them again. It should form the backbone to any content-rich site and the starting point for the organisation and architecture of your build.
Vertical Naigation
Being one of the most common and oldest navigation types on the Web, you might overlook the potential, effectiveness and impact of vertical navigation.
Redefined in the modern web vertical navigation is now accessible and super-sexy at the same time. If designed with the right shape, behaviour dynamics and filled with the right content, vertical navigation may result in a enhanced user interaction and user experience.
Another year brings another set of trends in the world of design and all things cool. Often, the web and the offline fashion trends show a lot of similarity, so we’ve put together our top ten design trends (on and offline) for 2008 - come back and check how accurate our predictions are at the end of the year!
