Simplified

Here’s the new Visualgui for 2013. The design is not a huge departure, but quite a bit of refinement. The layout, in particular, is much more simplified. My goal is to create a consistent experience across all devices rather than relying on media queries to shift elements around. One of the recent criticisms of responsive web design is that layout changes drastically when viewing on different devices, which caused not-so-savvy users confuse. My approach is letting the mobile experience drives the design and making as less changes as possible when browsing in larger screens.

For the first time, I am including GUI elements in my navigation. This has been one of my pain points. While the name suggests GUI, I have never included any GUI elements. I have been doing quite the opposite of visual and graphical. Simplicity has always been my thing.

One of the big changes in this version is the restructuring. The naming and labeling needed to be changed to reflect my current direction. The site section is now renamed to web. This is the most important section of the site because designing web site is my area of service. The motion section is now renamed to special. I gave this one quite a bit of thought. Since I am no longer doing Flash slideshow, this section gets quite stale, but I don’t want to get rid of it entirely. Most of the Flash pieces I had done are personal and they are very special to me. I want to be able to make this section active and as the same time keeping an archive. As a result, I named it special so that I can continue to add more special projects in the future, but they don’t have to be motion slideshow. For instance, I’ll add my Jazzapp, which is a school project, once it is ready. The info section is now renamed to about. I have debated about this for a while and came to conclusion that about is more personal than info.

I also made a handful of subtle changes. I am now using the Monotype’s Noto families, which support full Vietnamese characters, for the texts. The pairing of Noto’s sans and serif created a nice harmony. I am glad to see Google is adding Vietnamese typefaces to its collection. It’s still limited, but better than nothing.

I chucked out all the rounded corners as well as infinite scroll. Although I don’t have an issue with infinite scroll, it’s not one of the most loved features of usability. In addition, getting ride of infinite scroll takes off quite a bit of JavaScript codes. Even though JavaScript is getting quite popular, I still want my site to depend less on js as possible. That’s about it.