I am not a big fan of Facebook: its interaction design is way too shallow for my tastes. Still, it is the most popular social network around. Yesterday, Facebook revealed their plans to take over the internet with a set of developer tools and plugins that makes it even easier to interact with your Facebook contacts around the web. This time around, integrating Facebook with your site can be done in less than 5 minutes, regardless of your coding skills. Heck, even a coding noob like me can manage to do it.
The Facebook Like Button behaves exactly the same as its cousin on the Facebook website. Every time you like something on the web, it appears on your profile as an activity update. It is to note that you need to be logged in Facebook to be able to use it.
Despite its appearance, Furfox hasn’t been resting on its laurels (globe??) for the last couple months. The furry fox cub has been touring the internets looking for new friends, getting thousands of weekly views and a slot in almost every popular icon and customization website. According to trustful eyewitnesses, Furfox has been spotted in the following websites:
It is to note that Curio Alt was also following the trails of the fox cub, appearing in the very same websites cited above. Props to Remworks for letting me know about these public sightings!
After watching the Adobe CS5 launch broadcast, I was quite disappointed with the new creative suite branding. As a matter of fact, I am not a big fan of the previous CS icons, and I have never kept them on my dock for more than few days before swapping them with more original sets made by awesome designers all over the place. This time around, it seems like they won’t even last 24 hours.
I understand that it is unfair to subjectively criticize design work without looking into the initial objectives set by the designers as well as the constraints they had to deal with. So I went ahead and read Shawn Cheris -lead designer for Adobe’s Desktop Brand team- piece over at Inspire, the official publication of Adobe Experience Design team. I was not convinced to say the least.
Our goal was to move beyond the monolithic expression of of the CS3 and CS4 systems and create a more dynamic language. [...] Additionally, we were told by the Brand Strategy team that the CS5 branding should represent “a shift”—this version needed to feel distinct, new, and “not to be missed”. We had a challenge on our hands.
As words, that all sounds good. As graphics, it’s another story:
If the guys over at Adobe were thinking that a book-style 3D effect and some tinted mnemonics were enough to represent “a shift”, then they completely missed the point. To me, it is a step backward compared to the previous versions, where the high contrast between letters and backgrounds gave the set a refined look. This iteration of CS icons won’t be missed for sure, but not for the initially intended reasons.
So what do you think about the new icons? voice your opinion in the comments!
Disgusted for not being able to get the iPad on day one? I’ve got you covered: a free vector iPad for your design needs!
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