But this wasn’t the one that got me hooked. If you go in deeper and look at the other ways they present information, you’ll find 2 other views: using your camera or using your mic. With the camera view, you can flash colors into your camera and the website reacts by showing you the same color on screen with the news inside it. Or with the audio input, you speak into the mic and it blasts out the boxes as your audio gets louder. Excellent! “I gots to hav them killa flash skillz.”

Big news on the internets is Yahoo’s brave new look. It is on the rollout globally, but from what I’ve been hearing only some countries can accesses it today. In the Philippines, we can actually click on their “try out our new look” banner which will lead you to the new design, as seen in the screenshot above.

So finally Yahoo! is shedding any more traces of its red logo and going completely purple. I feel the renewed energy of yahoo, specially here in the philippines with its Purple Hunt that is currently ongoing. Although I rarely visit the homepage, I do use some of their products often like flickr, YM, yahoogroups, etc. It’s funny to see that they opened up their homepage to add links to other social networking sites like facebook and myspace.

Below are the “before” screenshots of yahoo.com and yahoo philippines, and while looking at it I notice that structurally it is the same. Same information hierarchy and grid but opting for a “flatter” feel removing the beveled glossy buttons and the quick access to your YM, mail accounts. It is also good that they moved their logo to the left instead of center, although this maybe a big departure from all of their previous designs, the logo was taking up too much valuable screen real estate anyway. It’s not a long shot to say that this may be influenced by their biggest rival. Are they playing catch-up?

When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. Data in your favor? Ok, launch it. Data shows negative effects? Back to the drawing board. And that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions.

I have heard similar stories of designers, some of whom I know personally, that work inside big corporations having similar gloomy outlooks. I cannot clam to know how that might feel like… but I guess it would suck. But personally I think Doug has to see his contributions, no matter how minuscule, as world changing. He helped designed Google Calendar… now, can you imagine how the world would be without the great work he put into it?

They answer the question: “Do I need a designer..?” And I love how they answer it:

“… start thinking of them [web designers] as someone who decides what goes where, which form elements to use, how to split features between screens, what words to use, and how everything fits together in a coherent experience. “

Yes, I couldn’t have put it more perfectly: designers (like me) create coherent experiences. I remember reading a post a while back from one of the interaction-ivrea students (if you’re reading this please tell me where that link went), she said that designers synthesize. They [designers] process multiple inputs of information and translate it to an understandable (and pleasant) product/service/experience. I deal with new technologies or multitude product features in some of my projects, my goal is always to hide the complexity from the users and show only the necessary ones… Or making them simpler.

We actually made the website over a month ago,  I only noticed today that it was uploaded to their own domain: bigbyscafe.com.  This was not our first project with Bigby’s.  We also collaborated with them in the creation of their logo and menu. The menu had a redesign late last year.  I’m glad the client always keeps us in mind for design work, we have been with them from the start… but we have yet to step into one of their branches and eat some of their delicious looking food.

Today Novare Technologies puts version 2 of its website online.  This goes alongside the new brochure released a couple of weeks ago.  The design revolves around what I would call “swooshy swirly thingy”.

But there is some logic behind that, the idea actually came from the previous photo materials that Novare used.  These were light waves the models were holding.  I guess I got fixated when them around the same time I looked at these smoke photos. But the concept extended into dna strands and fiber optics, which stands for what Novare does: outsourcing for the telecom industry.

More about Novare: NOVARE Technologies is a trusted outsourcing partner, providing personnel and services augmentation with particular expertise in telecommunications and information technology. In the areas of carrier connectivity, enterprise mobility, software, systems, project management, or support, NOVARE can help you make it work. Myla Crespo Villanueva, Craig Ehrlich and Mohan Gyani are the principals that lead NOVARE.

Although still a work in progress, the Isdanco Foundation website is now up and running. This is Perlas Design Studio’s latest addition to our portfolio. Isdanco Foundation is a non-profit organization with a purpose of “teaching people how to help themselves.” Their initial program is the Center for Aesthetic Studies, a school dedicated to the art and science of Cosmetology. Please visit the site and spread the word. They were great to work with and we believe in their programs.

If you’ll notice, the home page has falling lotus leaves.  This was done using a transparent Flash animation put on top of a layer with a z-index.  This was the first time I had done something like this… who knew that those blasted banner ad annoying technique would come in handy.

That banner says it all. The survey is pretty painless and I thought the questions were relevant enough to get a good gauge on the web design industry and the professionals that work within it.

Great web designers need great email hosting on our Microsoft exchange server.  Exchange outsourcing with our exchange server hosting package will get your business email account setup fast.

Here is a list of the winners. I didn’t get to bring home the “Best Blog Design” title, that went to well deserved Far From Neutral, but I didn’t come home empty handed. Adobe Users Group Philippines (AUGPhil) raffled off a license to Adobe Studio 8 and I was the lucky ticket holder! Whoowee. That’s why I have that picture there on stage with Regnard, president of AUGPhil. After the awards, there was a small gathering of AUGPhil members. I was there quickly but didn’t stay long enough to win the package I really wanted which was a spanking new Adobe Creative Suite 3! Scoot on over to Regnard’s blog because he has a good list of flickr photos of the event.

One of the high-profile blogger, to my mind at least, was there: Bryanboy. He projected the fun personality of his blog. My wife, Via, wanted a photo with him but we were rushing to dinner. I heard though that he was very accommodating to people who wanted to take pictures with him.Overall I thought it was a good and successful event specially that this was the first time it was held like this. The videos from the organizers in the beginning were a bit cheesy.. they could’ve dressed better, shot in a better venue and better sound. But then again that’s beside the point. Congratulations to the organizers, volunteer, sponsors, winners and finalists.

Due to rapid growth in information technology, demand for professionals is increasing every day. Even small firms are looking for 220-601 certified professionals to solve their hardware problems, while on the other hand demand for highly skilled networking professionals having certification like 642-845 is very high. In order to fulfill the demand of professionals different institutes are offering trainings for 350-018. Cisco is also establishing more testing centers at locations for 646-171, which are providing special trainings of 70-282 in order to fulfill the demand for network design professionals. A lot of information about PMI-001 is available on different sites, while for more information of 70-293, you can visit any training center as well.