Written on June 26, 2008 – 8:25 am
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,
A few weeks ago I saw a presentation by Dutch internet strategy adviser Freek Bijl. In his presentation he used a few simple but charming analogies to explain what Web3.0 is and what technologies it uses. The presentation was clear and easy to understand which is rare when it comes to technical stuff like this.
I complimented him on it and asked if he could make an English version available online so I could link to it but he replied that he didn’t have an English version. Today Freek emailed me that he took the effort of translating the whole presentation so we could post it here.
There are two parts to the presentation and I’m including the second, more indepth, version here. If you like the presentation do also check out Part 1.
Before I could post it here Slideshare discovered his presentation too and put it on their ‘featured‘ pages so it is becoming quite popular now.
I hope you like that post!
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Written on February 15, 2008 – 12:01 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,
Just found this nice collection of Web2.0 offices. There are a few nice stories in between the photos so be sure to read those too.
As you may have noticed we often use these sort of photos as illustrations for our articles here at the Next Web Blog. We find them more interesting than a logo or screenshot. We all like to take a peek into the offices and are pleased to find out that there are real people (with messy desks) behind those shiny, polished and perfect websites. A few examples:
Twitter:
Netvibes:
Facebook:
Digg:
Want to peek into other offices too? Simply search for “Google office” at Flickr and you will surely find some snapshots. A few examples: Microsoft , Apple, Ask.com, Del.icio.us, TheNextWeb office or simply go to officesnapshots.com for more.
Written on January 19, 2008 – 8:04 pm
Sjors Timmer, Front-end web developer
Not long after the phrase Web 2.0 emerged, also Web 2.0 design appeared. An unwritten set of guidelines that demanded that a decent webpage should have gradients, round corners, some mirror effects, a badge, and the important stuff should be in a font size of at least 48px came to existence.
I’m still not sure what they were thinking back then. Did the designers really think users where that stupid that they needed big letters screaming at them? Was it all about showing off Photoshop skills, or had it something to do with the idea that Web2.0 should be clearly recognizable as something different, something totally not Web 1.0.
Well let’s no longer talk about the past, and bad examples, let’s search for good ones that are available to us now. Because I have the feeling that we’re slowly moving to a new set of design guide lines. I’ll present you three websites, that - although they are different - have a lot in common too.
First:
Flickr.com probably one of the oldest Web 2.0 companies that didn’t go along with the bling hype. The interface is clear and simple, but still looks shiny cool.
Second:
Cnn.com, got a new fresh design last year, and is one of the finest examples of how to make a site without gradients and without drop-shadows behind each box.
Third:
Hulu.com, only around for a few months now, and a living proof about designing a good site that mainly exist out of white space. (It It is still in beta, but you can get a login within a day, check for some more screenshots here)
three ways to go beyond Web 2.0 design
So what is it that all these site have in common?
1. Grids and white space
Order your site with mathematical precision, create a grid where each column has a certain width, and stick to that format. Another thing is making things stand out not by making them really big, but by adding a lot of white space around it, some things on Hulu just needs to be clicked because there is noting else that catches the eye. Mark Boulton wrote a good tutorial about it, Khoi Vinh wrote a blog post accompanied with a pdf for it.
2. Typography.
There is a lot more into typography than only choosing which font you are going to use. Without even changing the font you can already differ two text blocks from each other in different line-height, different grey scales, and different sizes. Once again Mark Boulton wrote a wonderful series. Another good point to start with is Oliver Reichensteins article about typography.
3. Colors, and shades of grey
I already mentioned the use of different shades of grey to differ texts in importance, and especially sticking to one or two colors and grey can be easy tools to create an attractive yet clean site. Flickr especially manages the grey tones pallet very well. Veerle wrote a good article and ColorLovers and Adobe’s Kuler are worth visiting too
To sum it up: master your grey skills, keep your distance, and get some mathematical madness for order running through your blood. And you will be on your way to go beyond the drop-shadows and big starry things with text in it.
Written on January 16, 2008 – 3:24 pm
Steven Carrol, Next Web WebTipr France
Every once in a while something good springs up, and anything that can help save people from the ravages of ill health would get my vote. So I’m imagining the CEO of Mamaherb Elad Daniel standing in front of the vultures that make up the panel on Dragons Den, making his pitch for their investment (luckly Mamaherb is not looking for finance so Elad Daniel is safe for now). But what would they make of this venture?
Mamaherb is a very well built web2.0 style application that intends to gather feedback from users regarding alternative natural treatments for ailments. So if you have used cats claw (a herb) to cure your chronic infection, they want to know about it so they can spread the word.
See the problem they are trying to address is that the conventional health system only promotes allopathic remedies, and as such the hundreds of thousands of natural health advisers work outside this system which also goes to great lengths to diminish the value of their natural un-patentable products.
There are hardly any clinical trials involving such treatments because the costs cannot be recouped by pharmaceutical companies who have a close relationship with the FDA, and the FDA is the bogie man according to your natural heath adviser. I think it’s safe to say there is no love lost between these two competing groups. (more…)
Written on December 20, 2007 – 11:26 pm
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten,
FreeRice is an interesting initiative by the founders of Poverty.com. Both websites aim to end world hunger. My guess is that the owners of the website read the excellent ‘Made to Stick‘ and decided to present their message in a new format. And this new format sticks!
It is very simple: you are presented with one word and a list of definitions. You have to pick the right definition for each word. If you get it right, you get a harder word. If you get it wrong, you get an easier word. For every good guess FreeRice donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. They can do this because they display an ad under each list of definitions.
A brilliantly simple solution. I only hope the service will scale and advertisers will keep advertising here. I can imagine people doing this instead of Sudoku or Solitaire. This way you make the world a better place while you get smarter and enjoy yourself at the same time. In fact, they should bundle this with Windows instead of Solitaire!
The site launched in Oktober 2007 and has donated 10,238,535,870 grains of rice since then. How much will you contribute?
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