sugarenia.com

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the last post of 2007.

It was a creative, learning, stressful, fun year. It was the year I worked most in my life, but I loved it. I made money. I got a driving license and a car, one of my childhood dreams. I had fun, I read books, I met new people and forged interesting relationships.

I travelled by airplane for the first time in my life, I attended some nice events and concerts, I went to Netherlands and Belgium.

I had fun with my friends, played WoW, lost weight, discovered new music, got serious about blogging, received presents, offered presents.

Now that I write it all down, I see it. 2007 was a full year.

Let’s drink to a fuller 2008! Happy new year, friends.

I happen to stumble upon mr. McCoy’s website just recently, but I already like his work and his attention to detail. These pencil drawings look awesome and really add to an air of closeness, while the whole colour theme looks pretty and easy on the eyes.

I can see many flaws in the way information flows in McCoy.co.uk (and I’m sure you can see the same in my blog design anyway) but I absolutely love the way he treated headers:

McCoy.co.uk headers

The italics and color works well, while the dotted borders add much to the whole “textbook” sentiment that this website tries to create. The little icons before the text may have no usability value, but they’re cute and don’t distract as much as big, glossy icons.

I love the way he treated the menu in the same way, making it look like a textbook index:

McCoy.co.uk menu

Well played typography, mr. McCoy.

typography, mccoy.co.uk

What better thing to do than reading during your days off work, when the snow is slowly falling outside (ok, I exaggerate here, it’s 20 celsius in Crete at the moment).

Three books are in my reading list during these days:

Homepage Usability - 50 Websites Deconstructed

Most authors leave a significant gap between the theory and practice–a gap that it is left up to the reader to fill. Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed boldly steps into that gap with specific observations and suggestions backed with solid quantitative analysis.

Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity

Creating Web sites is easy. Creating sites that truly meet the needs and expectations of the wide range of online users is quite another story. In Designing Web Usability, renowned Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen shares his insightful thoughts on the subject.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry is waiting in Privet Drive. The Order of the Phoenix is coming to escort him safely away without Voldemort and his supporters knowing if they can. But what will Harry do then? How can he fulfil the momentous and seemingly impossible task that Professor Dumbledore has left him with.

The descriptions above are copied from Amazon.co.uk.

So far I love the Harry Potter latest book, it’s very exciting. Both of the design books seem a bit outdated, but they’re full of usability gems that I’ve gotten in the habit of copying and categorizing in my personal notes.

Where are you dipping your nose into during this Christmas season?

harry potter, usability, design, books

(God I hate too-much-dotted URLs…)

By browsing today I’ve stumbled upon this site - it’s an one-page site for monsieur Philippe Plaideux I guess, that has something to do with music, again I guess.

Eventhough I disagree with the choice of the colour scheme (it’s lovely, but not that reminiscent of music and dubs) I absolutely loved the innovative header.

The combination of faded paper and something organic like a tree with the trendy swirly thingies is intriguing, eventhough monochromatic and badly done as background. Kudos to the designer for putting the logo in the middle, it’s a kinda unusual approach these days but in this case, it fits lovely.

header, logo, background, philippe plaideux

I recently discovered iCal - and rocking it ever since. I find it very useful both for events and to-dos, it’s fun to use and easy and integrates nicely with most Mac apps and online productivity applications.

I’ve noticed though a thing the other day, when I was inserting some friend’s birthday in it:

Adding repeatable events in iCal

Anyone else feeling goosebumps at the fatality of having an “end” date for it?

It’s like asking, when will your friend will cease being your friend?

Or worse, when will your friend will cease being altogether?

Ouch!

ical, events, todos