Using Icons as Bullets

In 1996, a good friend of mine helped clarify the way I thought about websites.

"A website is just an answering machine". He Said

The more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right. At that point in time websites were till somewhat anti-climactic in there visual delivery and every bit as stoic in their capabilities and yet, - many of those old jalopies still exist on the www.

Having the entire internet as a source of design inspiration is very cool. I often find myself visiting random websites/pages just to see how they were layed out and which editor/environment was used in their creation. The vintage is also indicated by the design elements used.

I find Google and Gmail to be perfect examples of highly effecient web design. Everything is streamlined, the most important information is broken into concise sectors - ultra-utilitarian and with rudimentary complement of graphics (which help speed things up). Everything you need however, is right there and easily found.

I was starring at my gmail page and realized that I have been taking all of this for granted! I also decided to point out a major feature of Google design: simple icon usage!

(above) icons are used as bullets.Point titles are bolded.

As usual, a very good example of design got me thinking. It opened the floodgates and all those thoughts from the inspiration came raging into the space of my mind like a crack-addicted chimpanzee hell bent on destruction...

...I can use this. (more often)

There are so many useful tips right in front of us! Most Page layout programs and website builders offer us templates where we just plug in or add whatever graphics we want. Customizable stylesheets and formatting is better than it ever has been before - there are at least 2000 ways to skin a cat now digitally (not that we have a need to at this moment - it might prove crucial later though).



...and it's only getting better!