Flatified

Visualgui gets a few minor updates. The FancyBox, which was used primary to pop up slideshows, is now gone. Showshows are now just opened in fullscreen window. Without FancyBox, jQuery library is no longer needed. With the exception of Google Analytics, the site is now JavaScript free.

Links in portfolio sections are no longer opening in new windows. In the previous design, I used blank target because of infinite scroll. One of infinite scroll drawbacks was breaking the back button. Even though I am no longer using infinite scroll, I totally forgot to get rid of blank target. Coincidentally, my wife just complained to me that she hates it when web sites open up new windows. Although she was not referring to my site, my motto has always been that if your wife hates something you better change it.

On the visual side, the header and footer are switched from black to white. Somehow the back strip at top and bottom makes the layout look trapped. After changing it to white and I asked my wife for feedback and she said that the white makes the layout less divisive. I totally agreed. The new sticky navigation at the bottom has a very subtle transparency, which is inspired by Apple’s flat direction in the new iOS 7. Even though the flat design in iOS 7 has received tremendous negative criticisms from the design community, I predict it is going to be fantastic. Can’t go wrong with minimalism. Let’s wait and find out.