Some years ago it would be hard to find dark designed websites, almost all known websites were designed in bright colors. You would need to go to the beggings of the Internet to find dark web pages with that 90′s crappy look. But when the web started shifting from the frontpage designed webpages to actually thought and pro designed ones, the era of the dark websites ended to pave the road to the bright colors.

Dark vs Light

There are today a lot more dark colors webpages, mine included. A lot of discussion arises from time to time on the web about white designs vs dark, normally stating that dark designs are harder on the eyes because of the contrast. Well… I have to disagree with that. I’m all pro dark designs and I’ll explain why.

If you are reading this you are using a monitor, be it CRT, LCD, doesn’t matter, it’s a monitor and the principle is the same. It’s a self illuminated source that displays information. Because it’s self illuminated and it doesn’t use the natural light source, the Sun, it’s bright (duh!) and in its ‘natural’ mode it’s dark, black. A paper is normally white because it’s not self illuminated it uses the Sun as a light source. So bare in mind that a screen is NOT a paper and therefore it doesn’t need a white design to be better seen. White designs hurt my eyes, they turn any screen into a giant bulb irradiating light into my pupils.

Do white designs look good? Well depends on the design, but generally yes and in my opinion is easier to achieve a better white page design than a dark one. But in the end readability for me at least is way better on a dark webpage. It’s softer on the eyes, you can use a slightly more grayish font color to soften the contrast between font and background. On a white design if you use a more grey font you are hurting readability while making everything looking even more light and IT HURTS MY EYES!

Conclusion

So in the end it comes down to taste and the target of your webpage. Some might argue that white webpages are more upbeat than dark ones. I would say that is consequence of what can be called the norm. For me, dark designs beats light designs for 90% of the cases.

EDIT – Just to clarify and after RedSign posted, I’m not stating that dark designs are easier on the eyes, I’m giving my opinion on what I perceive and what I feel. I do know a lot of people think like me, but yes it’s generally accepted as white backgrounds with black font are softer on the eyes. I do feel whoever that is not the case, at least for my head.

They are. And specifically this new video is even more full of awesomeness.

Faster than potatoes… and other stuff.

If you pay attention to mobile and tech news, you’ve probably ear about the new Windows Phone 7 Series, a pompous name for the successor of the old Windows Mobile 6 (also known as WinMo).

Windows Mobile OS

Windows Mobile 6 interface hasn’t age graciously, specially after the iPhone arrived and suddenly it became clear how unfriendly WinMo was to use in a Phone. The Iphone interface is not to brag about to be honest, but it works and it has that Apple touch where every item is carefully crafted giving it an expensive look, both in term of UI and hardware. The problems with Windows Mobile is that isn’t user friendly at all. It feels like Windows XP in your pocket but that shouldn’t be the goal of a mobile operating system interface. If you were used to Windows operating systems you would probably get the hang of Windows mobile in a snap but you would certainly became a bit frustrated right away when you realized how hard is to press any interface element without the use of a stylus.

Windows Mobile 6 UI

Using a styles was something very common in the “old days” of Smartphones, but today with the advancement of touch screens, specially capacitive ones using a styles is something more inconvenient than useful. The thing is the WinMo interface was design around the use of a Styles and for example HTC knows that, providing you with a Styles in almost every WinMo device they released, the same can’t be said for their Android devices. HTC tried to surpass Windows Mobile 6 limitations by forking Windows UI with something they’ve called SenseUI, giving a similar user experience to Windows or Android devices.

Microsoft understood that it was being left behind in this exponential growing market and quickly “answered” Google and Apple releasing a preview of its new Windows mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series.

The new Windows Mobile

Understanding how limited Windows Mobile 6 interface was in term of user navigation experience, Microsoft redesigned Windows Mobile from the ground up coming with something in the line of what they did in Zune, clean, minimalist design with a strong typography oriented design. The main screen information is displayed in a mosaic with big click-able thumbnails to access other UI areas. Personally I really don’t like how it looks. There are other ways to present information in a clean way without making it look cheaply done. But undeniable it should be a lot more finger navigation friendly than its precedent.

The new Windows Phone 7 Series UI

Windows 7 Series design has been codenamed Metro. Some earlier concepts of Metro have been recently published by Microsoft at MIX10 showcasing the design evolution of the Metro UI. It’s clear that Microsoft wished Metro to be a clean interface since the very begging with Typography elements being a central part of the UI. Strangely I think the earlier concepts of Metro do look a lot more pleasant looking than the final version. In this concepts it’s clear transparencies were use extensively something that you hardly find on the retail version of the User Interface. Maybe Microsoft wanted to set their design apart from what it’s commonly used today (see Aero in Vista or Windows 7 or even the Android platform).

Metro earlier concepts

It’s possible to built an UI around typography, if you search for typography works you will be amazed how further you can go only playing with type sizes, types, color and position. The thing is Microsoft decided to make a really minimalist design, contrary to what you see in Windows Vista or 7, I would understand if the goal was to make a lightweight platform, but it isn’t the case since Windows 7 Series will have some pretty demanding specs, so why not opt for something with a more cutting edge look? It’s possible to have Looks without sacrificing functionality.

Metro earlier concepts

Conlusion

In the end and BEFORE trying out the new Windows 7 Series Operating System, I do think that comparing it to Android or iPhone OS it’s already losing. I do love customization in any Interface and apparently it isn’t one of Metro’s strong points. It remains to be seen how easy it will be for companies like HTC to customize W7 Series in their own way. Considering it will be released without Copy and Paste… at least I want to be able to change more than the wallpaper! The thing with Windows 7 Series is that it tries too hard to be different from iPhone or Android. Microsoft doesn’t have to prove anything or reinvent the wheel every time they release an OS. Time will tell how the OS will mature and if my claims are right or wrong.

I don’t recall seeing much Google video ads. But I do know that this one is fantastic. Somehow gives you a warm feeling, a feeling from when things were simpler…

Link: Google Chrome

WoWmagz issue 7 was recently released and I’ve been reading it in the last couple of days. To be honest I hadn’t read more than one issue of this magazine (from when I posted a compilation of some great Digital Art eZines), but this issue is quite great. WoW Magazine features Indonesian artists, artwork showcase, interviews, special guests and lot more stuff. The presentation is not the best I’ve been so far (Bak for example is sublime on that), but it comes in a simple but well designed pagination.

Anyway, I think it’s a really worthwhile magazine to spend some of your time, specially if you are searching for new inspiration.

More eZine releases

If you’re looking for some more eZines, these magazines recently updated their issue number or check more eZines publications here.

Bak

Revolution Art

Moloko+

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PS – I’m on vacations, so expect less posts (I have some scheduled for the time I’ll be away). Sun here I come…

I decided to release it before completely finished because I’m so tired of this temporary theme. I like dark themes but this one is a bit too black for my taste. :)

The Theme

Basically what you see is what you get (and I will get into more detail when I finish it, though I don’t think it will ever be finished, I’m one of those persons that keep tweaking stuff), but I can give a few more details on the work done so far (and I promise a more extensive post on sources and useful link to develop a theme from scratch).

I’ve tried to use as few images and icons as I could, I wanted a clean, fast and uncluttered theme, I think I kinda achieved that. Being a dark theme that felt like an upgrade from the last one was another goal, again I think that was also accomplished.

Some Details…

There is still a lot of stuff to do (you’ll find a lot of broken pages, like the showcase, tutorials, etc…), archives don’t quite work yet, search isn’t implemented, footer is empty yet, sidebar widgets still an ongoing process, but there are some functionalities we can see already.

For instance, the header features a nice breadcrumb menu. I always thought I missed it and I think it makes an essential navigation element for a streamline browsing experience. The main navigation menu features a nice lavalamp effect. Other interesting aspects of the theme can be seen for example on the automatic generation of a Related Posts list without the use of any plugin (same for the Popular Posts, the “widget” in the sidebar, so far the only one).

I can tell you that the part that gave me the most trouble was the comment section. I tought in doing the comments a la WordPress 2.7 style (that is, threaded, paged…) but I find threaded comments a bit combersume, so I decided to implement a system of Reply – Quote. This system isn’t working yet because I’m trying to program it instead of using an overkill plugin like WP-Comment Remix.

Overall, I’m liking the theme. I know I’m not trustworthy saying this, as I was the one doing it, but I do like the yet not final but close to it result.

Final thoughts

Remember, there is still a LOT of things broken. Pages not working, features not implemented so no need to report them since mosf ot them I am aware of. If you are into WordPress and blogging (most possible you are if you’re reading this) I really recommend if you have some time to read about wordpress theming, about CSS and XHTML (and a bit of PHP as a plus), its well worth it in the end.

Any advices or comments on the theme so far?

This is why I was quite surprised by the professional look and slickness of most of the computers showedcase on Million Dollar PC website.

From the ones I saw, Murderbox was one of my favorites. Very robust output, slick design, solid colors, nothing overdone (in my opinion), basically what a computer system should be like (as everything else in life to be honest).

But there are less conventional designs on Million Dollar PC, like he Edelweiss one.

or strange ones like Bill Owen Phenom‘s:

And by the way, when I was talking about bad taste and overly done… this is a bit of what I was referring to:

It’s really worth checking the rest of the systems in the website, just follow the link bellow.

Link: Million Dollar PC

Smashing Magazine published yesterday a great list of Icon Sets for projects use. Some time ago on one of the first posts I’ve written on my blog, I’ve publish a list of Icons for Web use, but this post from Smashing Magazine hits the nail, it’s very complete and full of packs I didn’t know before. It even includes some Icons I’ve done… that’s nice.

Link: 50 Fresh Useful Icon Sets For Your Next Design

I think a logo should be something that quickly identifies your product, I don’t think my logo does that, it’s not a visual representation of my product, but because my blog is a miscellaneous of information I don’t think I could ever come up with something logic, at least for me.

For now this one will do, now I will have to remake my header image… someday, someday…