nemetral.net | Insightful posts on design and code
Note: this post is a "trend alert" i.e. a quick roundup of something new emerging in webdesign. Isometric banners is the best way I have found so far to describe this new trend I've observed in web design for the past months. More and more websites seem to wear these modern bass relief decorations, usually to make important points stand out from the rest of the design by climbing "above". Here is a collection of 8 examples of such isometric banners in action. Canonical example: yoast.com On this example we can clearly see how two levels of isometric banners stand out from the rest of the design. 1. Design Mag The effect can be seen in the header of Design Mag. 2. ZinePress (Wordpress theme) On ZinePress, isometric banners are embedded along the sidebar. 3. Imprezz (Wordpress theme) Imprezz also embeds isometric banners in the sidebar (actually the middle bar given the design). 4. Vintage (Wordpress theme) Vintage uses a shadowed version of the stand-out banner. 5. Blues (Wordpress theme) Blues proposes a rounded variant of the classic square isometric banner. 6. Webdesign News Webdesign News displays two such banners: one in the header and one in the footer. 7. Kupferwerk Kupferwerk illustrates a slick version of the shadowed isometric banner. 8. Cats Who Code Last but not least, Cats Who Code designed an unicoler isometric banner on the sidebar. Please do let me know other examples you know by referring to them in the comments. Updates: 9. From The Couch From The Couch has original irregular isometric banners. 10. Sarah Longnecker Sarah Longnecker has two isometric banners. 11. Build Conference Header and footer are isometric on Build Conference (very clean design too).
A few weeks ago, my post 10 inspiring admin interfaces met a real success in the design community and I was particularly glad that people acknowledged and agreed on the importance of backend design on top of frontend design: UX goes beyond frontend. Following this first post, here are 10 more inspiring admin interfaces that will surely inspire your next design! Please feel free to suggest in the comments every other beautiful admin design you have recently stumbled upon. I believe there are tons of jowels hidden out there behind secured login panels..
Last week we saw how modern design blogs usually manage to gather a wide audience using Presentation techniques and special Features (see part 1 and part 2). Today, part 3 of this series will examine which types of Content modern design blog usually publish and why this content makes them reach fame and success.
In part 1 we saw how modern design blogs usually manage to gather a wide audience using Presentation techniques and special Features. In part 2, we will finish the roundup of features every design blog must have. Next post, part 3, will dive into the different types of content modern design blogs usually fancy publishing.
Design blogs are popping up all around the web these times, the newest ones trying to reach a wide audience through long compilation-style posts on all possible subjects related to web design, while already established names hire guest writers to renew their content at a breathtaking pace. Most of these blogs, though, tend to converge towards a similar model featuring (at least) 15 must-have features. Here is an exclusive roundup of what makes a design blog reach the fame.
It is always a pleasure to detect new trends in web design along the random walk of your daily browsing or, if you're busier, with the help of "institutional" trend finders (or creators) such as SmashingMagazine or DesignMeltdown. One of the classic trend (and debate) is about "dark background designs" as opposed to "white background designs"; although "dark background designs" usually refers to black-based designs, it seems we should seriously consider another color: brown. For a few months I've seen a few major blogs being redesigned, all based on some kind of brown backgrounds (see redesigned screenshots first, as compared to previous designs).
Clients pay big bucks for sexy frontend designs but don't want to be lost in ugly and unusable backends. Historically, many an administration interface had awful table-based layouts with complicated menus and unreadable data. It is time to reverse the trend: UX goes beyond frontend, and if we can code beautiful frontends, we should build beautiful backends too, all the more as backend designs are reusable. After Wordpress, Basecamp and the likes, here is an inspiring list of 10 sexy, though probably less-known, backend designs.
Nemetral is a freelance webdeveloper with 8+ years experience in the industry. On nemetral.net you will find insightful posts on design and code, tackling various topics related to webdevelopment from a highly educational perspective.
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