|
|
|
A great site is a usable one
With web design, when we think of flow we mostly mean "task flows" and "flow charts" but there's a different type of flow that we should keep in mind. It's that feeling of complete absorption when you're doing something you love to do and are not disturbed by anxiety or boredom caused by tasks that are confusing, too long or overly taxing.
Flow, as a mind condition, was primarily proposed by psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and is characterized by a incorrect sense of time, a lack of self-consciousness, and full participation in the task at hand. Program engineers might feel it when they're writing code, gamers do feel it when running Quake III, Christopher Cross felt it when he went sailing. For designers, it's just the feeling we hope to achieve in the people who use our sites.
How do we create sites that promote that experience? First, it starts with a site that sorts out a serious problem and is complex enough to require a certain amount of learning by the user. The goal should not necessarily be to develop a simple site. The goal should be to design a site that feels intuitive to use no matter how complicated it actually is. But wait, you might be thinking, hasn't there been a simplicity movement in web design in the last couple of years? Yes, but there's a learning curve for all the sites that seeks to sort out a complex problem. You shouldn't confuse simplicity with a desire to avoid excessive complexity.
The trick to make the complicated appear painless is to consider flow in your design. By creating a page that is smooth and intuitive and engages flow, you help new users get up-to-speed more quickly, reduce the chance that current users get bored your page and change to a different one and create users that recommend your page to their friends. That results in more users, increased activity, and bigger awareness of your site.
The primary step in creating for flow is to set certain goals for your users. It's important to create both an overarching goal as well as smaller, phased goals. Goals help users understand where they're going and each step they'll take to arrive there.
 Standard Toolbar Icons
Science Toolbar Icons
|
ArtIcons Pro can find, extract, edit and create Windows icons in color depths up to 16 million colors. Import and export icon images, create and handle icon libraries. It supports the new icon format introduced in Windows XP (8-bit transparency). Download it
|
|
IconXP can edit and create Windows icons in color depths up to 32-bit True Color. It supports the new icon format introduced in Windows XP (8-bit transparency). You can customize desktop and folder icons. Download it
|
|
Any to Icon allows you to convert multiple BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, WBMP and WMF images to Windows icons in one action. It also breaks down entire icon libraries into individual icons. You can change color resolution and size to create customized icons. Download it
|
|
IconUtils is a complete icon and cursor solution. IconUtils package can edit icons and cursors, manage icon and cursor libraries, convert icons into images (in various graphic formats) and vice versa, customize Windows desktop and folder icons. Download it
|
|
Icon to Any allows you to convert Windows icons and cursors into BMP, JPG, PNG, GIF, ICO, CUR, WBMP and RC formats. It has a wizard interface. It's simple to process multiple files at once. You can find icons and make images for use on Web pages. Download it
|
|
ArtCursors allows you to edit Windows cursors in color depths up to 16 million colors. You also can search files and folders for cursors, import and export cursor images and create cursor libraries for better and more efficient storage. Download it
|
|
AhaView supports all popular graphic formats, including JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, ICO, CUR, ANI, WBMP. You can browse images in thumbnail mode, view pictures full screen with zooming features, convert images to JPEG, PNG, BMP formats and manage files. Download it
|
|
CustomIcons is an ultimate tool for customizing the icons on you desktop, in Windows Start menu and many other locations. Using CustomIcons you can easily replace default Windows icons with the ones to your choice. Download it
|
..............................................................................
|
|
Copyright © 2000-2022 Aha-Soft. All rights reserved.
|
|
|
|
