Detangling ...

I continue to press on in my relentless Dreamweaver-y pursuits!

I did a lot of reading and trolling about re: what's hip nowadays, and the overwhelming trends are:

- Large, full-page images
- Photorealism & sense of perspective
- Textures (again, largely photo-real)
- Graphic navigation
- Animated navigation

I've seen some really inspiring sites out there along the way, here are some notable screenshots:

AgencyNet.com

It's extremely engaging; I might even deign to say overly busy.  But full of simultaneous animations, and definitely a fun treasure hunt for links to the rest of the pages!

Pastorant:

Cleaner, and very very simple, but this restaurant's page showcases many of the themes I mentioned above.  It's calm and inviting.

Rolf Reichardt:

Again, clean and simple, dare I say architectural, but maintains the same principles of large image, high-quality photo, and engaging perspective.


To that end, I've edited my little page a bit, (again, and again, and again ...):

Miles to go before I sleep, of course.  It might be getting prettier, but the links still all lead nowhere!

We Feel Fine

Recently I discovered this astonishing online animated data project called We Feel Fine.


We Feel Fine is a research project by Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar. They automated a system that searches blogs globally for the phrase "I feel ..." and then categorizes the emotions or moods represented in that sentence. You can refine the search by gender, age, geography, date, mood -- even by the weather at the time the post was written. Many include images.

It's a jaw-dropping emotional thermometer on a global scale. I find it moving, and often quite funny.

On the We Feel Fine website, you can actually click on the phrases, and it will lead you directly to the poster's blog. It's a wonderful concept in terms of connecting across the world, but it kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies ...



Some of my favorite finds:














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