Fantastic Forest

Designed by one of the web's best, this National Geographic module cleanly integrates navigation, 3-D art, and content into a fun user playground. Part of the challenge of these modules is working under NatGee's high standards - and the Fantastic Forest went the extra mile. Fantastic was of the first sites to effectively create an immersive navigational experience through an intricate use of frames. The choice of colors, tones, and use of beveled edges to cover screen space greatly enhances the usability by providing a novel browser experience. This was one of the first sites to seamlessly hide frames into the design - something which radically and positively changed the way people approached web design - while creating a rich media experience. see also: Nat Gee Interactive Features Index... More

Fantastic Forest

forest for the trees

An impressive interactive design concept supported by excellent functionality: this is one of the first 4.0 generation sites that really delivers - concept, visuals, sound, interactivity + variety. The website design plays on the phrase "you can't see the forest for the trees." Individual artists were each commissioned to do an interactive interpretation of a particular track for the Dreamworks album without knowing what the other participants were doing, or how it would all come together. The result is a forest of trees testifying to the inspiration of the visionary soundscapes in Forest for the Trees.... More

Also posted under music sites, promotional design.

fusionOne

A crisp and clean tonal site for an online application that syncs together your personal, business and executive information, calendars and memos into one common ground online regardless of platform or device. The design is utilitarian, with lots of clean space highlighted by software quality icons. The green tonals create a pleasant atmosphere for the site's presence - a pleasant break from mostly blue and grey branded application interfaces.... More

fusionOne

javascript tip of the week

Clean HTML layout complimented by pleasantly simple design for this weekly Javascript tip resource - ease of use is the key. The beauty of the site is the designer's choice not to overly design it. J.S.T.O.W. is an indispensible resource for any web designer interested in adding small interactive elements to their web design repetoire. An excellent place to start learning some JavaScript. Adfter you've examined this site, move onto Nick's second site, webcoder for in-depth tutorials on applying JavaScripts to DHTML. This site has since fallen under neglect, but could still be a good place for a scripting beginner to learn some cool JavaScript effects, as well as 100 other places in WWW. This was just one of the first clean originals.... More

javascript tip of the week

M!nd

Using the tagline, "Cultural ammunition for better business", M!nd is an experimental news filtering tool and idea refueling station created by a branding company called Modernista!. M!nd provides the ammunition they need to help draw out emerging patterns from events occuring around the world. It acts as a type of news filter coupled with cultural introspection that helps digest the overflow of information individuals are bombarded with on a daily basis. Literally M!nd is what Modernista! uses along with their clients to help them "mind" their business by making sense of the world around them. It's a fascinating application, and since anyone can use it, you may find yourself returning to it on more than one occasion (even though it seems like updates have mostly stopped since 2003). The M!nd has no limits. Since this posting, we discovered M!nd was actually the very first incarnation of the Modernista! website. And... More

Also posted under editorial design.

M!nd