Gradient 2.0 and Picnik.com photo editing
DIGG IT!
Published
Saturday, February 03, 2007
at
4:18 PM
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The world is full of gradients. Literally everything we look at has a gradient given lighting conditions. I was in Jeremy Chone's office yesterday and we were discussing Picnik.com photo editing application from an aesthetic point of view. The site is brilliant and the designers and developers should be commended for creating a great user experience with Flex 2.0. Bravo!Picnik.com
So Jeremy Chone and I were discussion trends in Flex applications and I mentioned Picnik.com. He hadn't seen the site (if you haven't go now) so we dialed it in. The application is very subtle and they hide the use of Flex 2.0 very well. It is the experience that matters here, not the technology in use yet I fail to see how this could be done using anything but Flex ( I am very biased :) ). Seeing the application is full of gradients I asked Jeremy his perspective on the Web 2.0 gradient design trend. In a deep French accent he quickly pointed out that the world is full of gradients. We then looked at the office walls around us and I was taken aback by the fact that even in a well lit office, gradients and shadows are everywhere.
Over the weekend I have been looking at gradients as I walk around and observing just how many of them are in our natural view of the world. The key with Picnik is that gradients make the application seem more natural and organic. There are no harsh corners and the colors flow together to enhance navigation and editing of photos. The Picnik UI treatment in Flex is the best I have seen. The controls are easier to use, the thick progress bar and gear animation provide excellent user feedback and altogether the elements are a perfect match for the site. The use of gradients and rounded corners gives this application visual balance. This is an award winning use of Flex and provides a great experience for end users.
I guess from a design perspective it never hit me that gradients were so present in my every day life. I thought it was just Web 2.0 design but in reality I think it is design emulating nature.
Take a look around you now, there are gradients everywhere.
Cheers,
ted :)