piksels

Subscribers to .mac will be pleased to try out Apple’s new web gallery. It looks great, and is a sure example of how well offline applications can be translated into online web apps. Instant image resizing, different viewing modes, and lots of reflections make you quickly forget you are viewing the photos online.

Great features like live image resizing make Apple Web Gallery really give Flickr and other foto services something to catch up to.

Although Apple did a great job thinning the line between offline and online photo viewing, it still needs some major work. All of the web2.0 goodness make just the home page clock in at more than 1.4MB, which even on my 6Mbit connection feels sluggish and irritating.

A table of download times from Websiteoptimization.com

Sure waiting a minute on a T1 doesn’t seem too bad, but showing these images to your mom on her ISDN line will take her more than 2 minutes just to download the index page! Pure blasphemy
Curious, try out Apple’s Live Web Gallery for yourself.

In digital interface design we usually try to take elements from the analog world and translate them into recognizable elements on a computer screen. Here is a clever video of someone doing the exact opposite:

I’ve been interested in interaction design for quite a while, and when I came across DontClickIt, I was impressed. I’ve seen all types of interactive applications, but I’ve never seen a clickless design feel so seamless. Check it out yourself:

What I like most about this, is that instead of just showing us a new method of interaction, it tries to challenge our current default method of ‘click interaction’ and have us question whether it is necessary.

Although it is debatable to which extent a ‘clickless interaction’ is functional and ideal, it is nice to see people challenging our default methods of interaction, and showing us something new.

Anyone who is interested in Interaction Design, Information Architecture, or Visual hierarchy should visit Information Aesthetics a great blog updated daily.