Check out the video created by Transparent House for Apple above, which act as a tribute to a company they greatly admire on the occasion of the iPad release. The idea was to show a glimpse into the history of this product giant by modeling some of the innovative products they’ve developed in their 3+ decade history. I thought that the animation is very well done up, quite inspiring to look at. However, I’m surprised that they didn’t include iMac into the video.

Are you aware that when you “Save for Web & Devices” in Photoshop, the software might strip out the colour profile? Unless you check the “Embed Color Profile” box when saving out a jpeg to preserve ICC profiles in the Save for Web & Devices dialog. In versions prior to Photoshop 7 you do not have this option which means that, when using the option “Save for the web” there will not be any ICC-profile embedded.

I’m not sure why this “Embed Color Profile” was implemented in Photoshop at a later versions, since there are still not much browsers will read in this embedded ICC profile, even if the colour profile is embedded in the image, most browsers will just simply ignore the embedded color space information and render them as sRGB images. sRGB is pretty much the default color space everywhere you look. This means that most browsers, applications, and devices are designed to work with sRGB, and assume that images are in the sRGB color space.

However, notable exceptions are Safari, starting with version 2.0, and Firefox starting with version 3.0. Although disabled by default in Firefox 3.0, users can enable color management by using an add-on or setting the value “gfx.color_management.enabled” to “true” in Firefox 3’s “about:config” file. Starting from Firefox 3.5 it has color management enabled by default only for tagged images.

So, the first question is should we still embed ICC profile in images, regardless of the little support for colour profile in web browsers? Please bear in mind that the extra ICC profile will probably increase the image size by a few more bytes (sounds pretty ok, but imagine you have tons of images or very large images required to be downloaded). For myself, since the first day I started using “Save for Web & Devices” option, I do not embed the ICC profile for all web images. Hopefully, in the near future more browsers could consider implementing this ICC profile function, to make colour accuracy better on screen.

Another question I have is, when should we convert images to sRGB? I guess that should depend where will you be using the images for, is it for web or print? If you want your images to look the same regardless of where it’s being displayed, you should always publish them as sRGB. This makes it so what you see when you save is what you get when it’s displayed. It helps to simplifies the workflow, and you do not need to worry about color spaces at all if you’re only going to publish your images to your Flickr or personal photoblog.

However, for myself, I do not convert it to sRGB, I would still prefer to work under the Adobe RGB colour space, as it can offer a wider range of colours, and who knows in the near future, I would require those wider range of colours. Please note that, once you have converted the images to sRGB, you cannot convert it back to Adobe RGB.

For now, the choices is really up to oneself, but I do hope that one day the web browsers can really reach up to a more consistent colour standards, thus lessening the burden on designers, as well as providing the best experience for any web surfers who really deserve it.

What is ICC Profile and sRGB?
ICC Profile – Wikipedia
sGRB – Wikipedia

As today’s Internet connection is getting faster and better, many designers will tend to make use of web effects, such as Ajax scripts or Flash, trying to wow the visitors, but we have to think that its still all about the content in the end, we are trying to sell off the products and services to the audience, and not the effect (Unless its some kind of experimental work or portfolio sites, then I think its ok). I’m not sure for you, but when I am surfing the web for information, I would usually prefer sites that have the minimum number of effects or clicks, and yet providing the maximum number of info. Maximum number of info does not mean to the extend whereby it feels overloaded or cluttered, but its adequate enough for me to know what the page is trying to tell me.

There are just too many side effects for using Web effects, I shall name a few, firstly its when the network connection is slow, the site will take an even longer time trying to generate the effects out for the users. The users will become impatient and eventually leave the site. secondly, its the complexity of effects some sites will have fantastic effects, too fantastic that the users not sure how to use. Thirdly, users might get annoyed by the effects, one good example is the mouse-over effects to pop-up additional info, sometimes can be good to replace the clicks, however too much of it will again cause a headache while using the site, as users will tend to accidentally mouse-over something which they are not interested, and intend to move the mouse cursor away (it can be distracting at times).

A good design should really come from the customers point of view, and not from the company perspective. In the end, if the customers don’t find anything useful from the sites, the lose end will still be the company. Therefore building a site which focus on the site content with less clicks, while adding adequate effects to facilitate the browsing process, will certainly make a great experience for the users and company.

If I have not remembered wrongly, the last website re-design that I found inspiring and functional is probably from Apple.com in 2007. And since then, I have not really find any site design that I really admire so much, that I would want to start a blog post about it. However, few days back I was surprised to see that Engadget has got a new look and layout. Things are certainly looking even bigger, bolder and happening for Engadget. Really like the new layout design, at one glance users can very quickly know what’s the hottest IT/gadget news online, interested to read more? Just click on the big thumbnail, and there you are.

The portion of the site that I like best, is the ‘Top Stories’ section, its quite interesting to see how the 5 different top stories thumbnails are being laid out in a grid manner, with their respective headings pinned below each thumbnail. The ‘Top Stories’ layout is pretty effective in gaining the maximum attention from the visitors. Not only that, the new sidebar looks and feel more functional than before, information like Latest Quote, Most Commented, and even Twitter posts, will help to provide visitors an overview about the hottest things posted in the site, kinda bringing the blog closer to the community.

Interested to learn more about the concept behind the re-designed Engadget?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/19/welcome-to-the-next-engadget/

Located at the start of Orchard Road (at 4 Nassim Road), a 450m2, single-storey building known as ‘Japan Creative Centre’ is now officially open to the public. The main purpose of this centre is all about “Innovation and tradition”.

The Centre will showcase Japan’s “soft power,” such as pop-culture and traditional arts, such as their art, design, movie, fashion, architecture, tradition, food and etc.. The content of the Centre can be enjoyed not only by the Singaporeans but also by the people of other Southeast Asian countries.

In addition, you might be interested to know that, Mr. Toshiyuki Kita, a world-renown industrial designer and design producer, is in charge of the concept and design of the Centre as the Overall Project Producer of the JCC project.

For more details about the centre:
http://www.sg.emb-japan.go.jp/JCC/index.htm

Frankly speaking, since Apple debuted the iPod in 2001 and iPhone in 2007, I have not really seen any other portable device designed with a UI, with a look and feel of its kind, and most importantly it must be easy to navigate. And I used to think that Microsoft cannot come out with any nice UI (because of its plain boring Windows), and this time round, after looking at the brand new Zune HD’s UI, I’m pretty impressed by its simplicity, with a artistic touch to it. The UI, together with the industrial, luxurious, angular and slim design look of Zune HD, really makes the device unique to its kind. Just watch the video demo below, and you will know what I mean. (Note: Zune HD is available in US market only)