This is a minimalist visual approach where the design is smooth.

Some examples of flat designs

What about Skeuomorphism?

Skeuowhat? What a horrible word!

Skeuomorphism is basically the way designs often borrow a particular feature from the past, even when the functional need for it is gone. Its a physical ornament or design on an object copied from a form of the object when made from another material or by other techniques.

People are slowly moving away from the skeuomorphism design, which has been very popular over the past few years. Apple introduced it in iOS and since then many designers have adopted it. Apple iBook app is a very good example, once opened you are in front of a real bookshelf.

Some examples of skeuomorphic designs

Flat design vs Skeuomorphism

There has been precious little research conducted on the differential effectiveness of flat design versus skeuomorphic design. As a divide grows between the two schools of thought, let me point something interesting …

Just think about this : When you design a button in flat web design what are you doing? Basically you design a “flat” button that looks like a real life button, isn’t it a copy of something real? Guess what?

You’ve just figured out the inconvenient truth : Flat design is skeuomorphic.

Final thoughts

Over the coming years we will surely unearth some new schemas and mindsets related to web design. Flat UI is just another aspect of the many ways to treat information. The community has grown into a global community with designers to be found all over the planet. This means we all have access to share and research off each other’s information, regardless of skill level. There has truly never been a better era to work in the field of web design.

And you? What do you think about flat design?
Are you a flat design or skeuomorphism advocate?
Let us know your views in the comments.

Source: Posted by Claude Meri on May 1, 2013

Sure, Wacom’s Cintiq 24HD is an excellent piece of kit for design pros, but the unit is quite the behemoth and the 22-inch offering still requires a lot of desk space. There’s no need to worry about that anymore, though, as the graphics peripheral outfit has outed the Cintiq 13HD: a 13-inch HD pen display with an adjustable stand and a retooled Pro Pen. Much like its larger siblings, the 13HD offers customizable ExpressKeys and Rocker Ring to keep that workflow as efficient as possible. The aforementioned stand can be situated flat or positioned at angles of 22, 35, and 50 degrees for that next Illustrator session. Details are scarce on the full list of improvements for the Pro Pen, but we do know that it sports 2,048 levels of sensitivity and tilt recognition to boot. If all of that sounds too good to resist, these bad boys will start shipping in early April with a price tag of $1,000 or £749.99 (incl. VAT). The full press release and a couple more snapshots await just past the break.

Visit Wacom Cintiq 13HD site

Now that flat design seems to be the biggest trend nothing better than some really cool cultural icons illustrated in a very minimal style. We are talking about the Re-Vision Postcards by Forma & Co.
I don’t remember posting about this, but they are simply awesome and definitely deserve a post.

About the author

Abduzeedo is a blog about design. There are all sorts of articles for those who want to look for inspiration. Also you will find very useful tutorials for the most used applications out there, with a special selection of Photoshop Tutorials and Illustrator Tutorials. Of course there are other softwares conteplated like Pixelmator, Fireworks, and web design tutorials.

Rumors of a Canon mirrorless camera have circled the web since long before Nikon’s foray into thecompact ILC space. And while that manufacturer’s model fell far short of some expectations, it appears that Canon’s iteration may in fact have been worth the not-so-insignificant wait. Unlike the Nikon 1 Series, Canon’s new EOS M isn’t a drastic departure from the company’s existing mid-range DSLR lineup. In fact, under the hood it’s quite similar to the Rebel T4i, with an 18-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor, DIGIC 5 processor, 3-inch 1.04MP smudge-resistant touchscreen and the T4i’s new hybrid autofocus system, which pairs both contrast and phase-difference AF for speedier, more accurate performance. Externally, however, the EOS M looks more like a cross between the PowerShot G1 X and S100, tipping the scale at 14.2 ounces with the included EF-M 22mm f/2 STM kit lens, compared to 27.4 ounces for the T4i, and 19 for the G1 X. It’s physically smaller than the G1 X as well, and only slightly larger than the pocketable S100. The camera offers a sensitivity range in line with the competition, ranging from 100 to 25,600 (extended) in still mode and 12,800 (extended) when shooting video — captured in 1920 x 1080 format at 24, 25 or 30 progressive frames per second. There’s also a continuous shooting mode at 4.3 frames per second with fixed focus and exposure.

The EOS M’s control layout should be more familiar to Canon point-and-shoot owners than DSLR users — as one component of the size compromise, dedicated buttons are replaced with touchscreen options and a bit of menu diving. There’s also no electronic viewfinder, though a full-size hot shoe is included with full support for Canon’s lineup of Speedlite flashes, including the new $150 90EX strobe and ST-E3-RT Transmitter, and the GP-E2 GPS Receiver. Though the camera lacks certain direct controls, it still supports full manual shooting, even in video mode. There’s also a built-in stereo mic with manual level adjustment. In addition to that 22mm kit optic, Canon is offering an EF-M 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM lens for $300, or you can add the $200 EF-EOS M mount adapter to enable use with existing lenses. The $800 EOS M kit is set to ship in October, and will be available in retail stores in black, though Canon’s online store will also stock a white model (which will be paired with the same black lens). You can peek at both configurations, along with the new lenses and accessories in the gallery below. Then shoot past the break for the full PR from Canon.

By Zach Honig via Engadget

Your Browser Is Too Old

Everyone that accesses Web pages on a desktop computer uses a Web browser. Without a Web browser you cannot view or interact with websites. How do you personally access websites like Facebook and YouTube? You might commonly use the program that opens when you click the big blue “e” icon on your desktop. Here’s what it looks like:

This is the logo for Internet Explorer, a Web browser.
This “e” icon is not a shortcut to a generic “internet” or “Web” program. It is a shortcut to a Web browser made by Microsoft, called “Internet Explorer” (also referred to as “IE”). Over the past 17 years, this browser has been the most popular Web browser. At one time, it was arguably the best browser you could use. But that is not true anymore.
Internet Explorer is currently at version 9, and version 10 is supposed to be officially released some time this year. But most people are not using IE9—most Web users that use Microsoft’s browser are still using a less stable, insecure, slow version of IE (either IE8 or something older).
The truth is, even IE9 (which is a huge improvement over previous versions of Internet Explorer) is not as up-to-date as other browsers. So if you’re still using some version of Internet Explorer, we strongly recommend that you upgrade to a different browser. To help you upgrade, we have some options for you to consider.
But before we introduce those other browsers to you, let’s quickly cover some reasons why older browsers like IE7 and IE8 aren’t as good.
What’s Wrong With Old Browsers?
Old browsers (especially Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, and 8) are less stable, and much more vulnerable to viruses, spyware, malware, and other security issues. Those are obviously big problems to be concerned about—especially for people who shop online. So security alone is a very good reason to upgrade. But there’s more to it than that.
OLD BROWSERS ARE SLOW AND MORE LIKELY TO CRASH
Firstly, old browsers are very slow. Every Web page that loads in a browser has to perform a number of different tasks. One of those tasks is the process of loading different files. These files include images, programming scripts, and other resources that help improve the look and functionality of the website you’re visiting. Old browsers do not perform these tasks with the same speed as new browsers. This makes your experience on the Web considerably slow, and can sometimes cause your browser to crash or freeze.

Browsers like IE8 will freeze and crash more often than newer browsers.
OLD BROWSERS CAN’T DISPLAY MANY NEW WEBSITES
The other problem that old browsers have is that their display capabilities are very limited. For example, in an older browser, in order to show a simple animation, the person creating the website would have to use either an embedded video or Flash file (like those found on YouTube) or else a lot of extra programming code (called JavaScript). In either case, this means that the page will take much longer to load, thus harming your experience on that website.
New browsers support new Web technologies (like HTML5 and CSS3). These languages serve as a foundation for many websites today, and for virtually all new websites and Web apps. But unfortunately, many of these new websites will neither look nor function in the same way in old browsers like IE8.
To demonstrate this problem, take a look at the two images below. These images are screenshots taken from an infographic Web page that covers Rainforest Deforestation. The first image shows the page as it appears in IE8:

A Web page displayed in IE8.
Now look at the same page in a new browser like Chrome, or Firefox:

The same Web page displayed in Google Chrome.
IE8 has many problems on this page: Many of the graphical elements are not appearing, all the animations are missing, and even some of the text looks misaligned. This is caused by the fact that the page is built with new Web design technologies that old browsers like IE8 don’t support.

New Browser Options
Now that you understand why it’s highly recommended to upgrade an old browser, let’s take a look at what options you have for a new browser, and what strengths these browsers have. Please notice that switching to one of these browsers is free and won’t take more than a couple of minutes.

Google Chrome
In May 2012, according to at least one statistics website, Google Chrome (all versions combined) became the most popular browser in the world (compared to IE, all versions combined). Chrome was first released in 2008, and has a number of advantages over old browsers like IE8.

Mozilla Firefox
Firefox has been the main competitor to Internet Explorer since the mid-2000?s. Although Google’s Chrome has become more popular in recent years, Firefox is a great browser with many advantages over old browsers.

Opera
Compared to other browsers, Opera isn’t used as much, but it has been around since the mid-90?s. Opera has always been at the forefront of browser innovation and supports many of the latest technologies and features that make websites faster and more feature-rich.

Apple’s Safari
This is the same browser that’s commonly used on iPhones and iPads. Safari’s features are very similar to Google’s Chrome, and has been around since 2003.

Why Are New Browsers Better?
The browsers listed above have a number of advantages over older browsers, including:
Far fewer instances of crashing or freezing.
Much more secure from virus, malware, and browser hijacking attacks.
Much faster page-loading.
Larger page-viewing area.
A large variety of useful optional plugins and add-ons that add extra features to improve Web browsing.
Unlike IE9 and the upcoming IE10, they can be installed on Windows XP.
New browsers will automatically update to the latest version, or will notify you to download an update.

ABOUT AUTOMATIC UPDATING
The last point in the list above mentions the fact that new browsers will automatically notify you of an update—this is a good thing. When you have a browser that’s kept up-to-date automatically, you get a number of important benefits in addition to those already mentioned. These include:
You’ll rarely, if ever, come across a website that says “your browser cannot view this website”.
If any known security vulnerabilities are present, they will be fixed automatically.
Every time your browser is upgraded, your browser becomes faster, meaning that the time you spend waiting for pages to load will be minimal.
Old browsers like IE7 and IE8 will not automatically notify you to update, so if you continue to use an old browser, your experience on the Web will become less secure (and less enjoyable as the months go by).

EXTENSIONS AND ADD-ONS
As mentioned in the bullet list above, one of the features of new browsers is the ability to add extensions, plugins, and add-ons. The Chrome Web Store features hundreds of useful extensions, including:
Facebook Notifications, which lets you keep up with friends’ activities even when you’re not on Facebook.
Add to Amazon Wish List, which lets you add virtually any product from any website to your Amazon wish list.
Google Dictionary, which lets you see the definition of any word by simply double-clicking on it.

Extensions in the Chrome Web Store
What about add-ons for Firefox? Well, in addition to extensions similar to those mentioned above for Chrome, some popular and useful choices include:
Video DownloadHelper, which lets you easily download and convert video, audio, and photos from YouTube and similar websites.
WOT—Safe Surfing, which shows you which websites you can trust, based on millions of users’ experiences.
FastestFox, which helps you save time and increase productivity by speeding up repetitive tasks inside the browser.
However, Chrome and Firefox are not the only new browsers that offer these types of extensions and add-ons. You can browse the extensions for Safari and for Opera, if you choose one of those browsers instead.

“All My Bookmarks Are In Internet Explorer!”
Everyone has bookmarks (or “Favorites”, as they’re called in IE) in the browser they use regularly, and it’s a valid concern if you don’t want to switch because all of your bookmarks are in your old browser. But moving your bookmarks from the old browser to the new one is not difficult at all.
For instructions on how to transfer your bookmarks to your new browser, check out the Browsing Better website. When you visit the page, click on the icon for the browser you’re currently using, and follow the instructions from the images that appear.

You can easily move your bookmarks from IE to your new browser.

“I Won’t Upgrade—I’m Happy With Internet Explorer!”
Even after everything you’ve read above, you might still have reservations about upgrading to a different browser. Well, there’s one final option you may consider. You can keep using Internet Explorer while getting a similar speed and viewing experience as found in Google Chrome by installing an add-on to Internet Explorer called Chrome Frame.

Chrome Frame makes Internet Explorer act like a modern browser.
Chrome Frame is an add-on that enables new Web technologies like HTML5 and CSS3 in Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, 8, and 9. As long as the Web page you’re viewing has a specific piece of code in it, you’ll get an experience very similar to Google Chrome—even when using an older version of Internet Explorer.
Installing Chrome Frame is fast, easy, and free. Chrome Frame is completely invisible and will not change anything about the way you access Web pages in Internet Explorer. But it will provide the same speed and viewing experience that Google’s Chrome browser has, without needing to switch browsers. (However, if you’re in a business environment, you might want to contact your system administrator before installing it because some legacy sites might not be displayed properly. — thanks for the note, Jochem Bokkers!)

WHAT ABOUT LOCKED-DOWN SYSTEMS?
If you’re on a system at your place of employment where you’re not able to upgrade or download a new browser, Chrome Frame is a viable option. You don’t need any special administrator privileges to install Chrome Frame, so you can keep using the same version of Internet Explorer, and almost instantly have a far superior browsing experience that’s identical to using the latest version of Google Chrome.

Conclusion
There are countless reasons to upgrade your old browser and start using something new and up-to-date. So trust us when we say that your experience on the Web will be infinitely better if you choose to do this.
Whatever you’re doing on the Web—reading email, shopping, banking, or anything else—a new browser will allow your experience to be safer, faster, and much more beautiful.

By Louis Lazaris
(jvb)

Update: The process of creating art with small dots is called stippling. Had no idea. (Thanks @signalnoise.)

/via @jontangerine

The Making of “Hero” from Miguel Endara on Vimeo.