Wicked PR» Design News on The Wicked Blog

Wicked Quick In Design – 09.03.09

Colin Cooley — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:47:54 +0000

Some quick hits below from the world of web design and ad creative:

We’re not always fans of Flash-heavy sites but the Cheese & Burger Society website is tempting us with its smooth Flash “Rolodex” featuring mouthwatering photos of 30 burger varieties along with great use of deep-linked URLs, share tools and copy and is that Puddy from Seinfeld doing the VO? [CheeseandBurger.com]
The gang over at Smashing Magazine takes a look at trends in TV show website designs. [SmashingMagazine.com]
Here’s 20 best practices and techniques for effective web design. [Noupe.com]
Clever landing page but please give us something to click while the stray cats wreak havoc. [SpaysNotStrays.org]
Who needs airbags when you’re chewing Big Big Gum? [Toxel.com]
Adweek sums up “the embarrassing and tortured apologies and backpedalling by agency and client” surrounding the egregiously bad and illogical DDB Brazil 9/11 WWF ad. [AdWeek]

Zappos Map Features Geo-Tagged Purchases In Real Time

Colin Cooley — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:51:36 +0000

The Zappos map is your new favorite timekiller.

Ever wonder what kinds of shoes people are ordering online right now around the U.S.? Yeh, probably not, but thanks to Zappos you now can. And it’s surprisingly cool to watch.

As the Zappos Map page explains:

You’re watching orders placed on the Zappos website, from all over the United States, coming in and being mapped to the location the order is being shipped to, in real time.

The best feature is that you can click on the image of an item someone just purchased, and it takes you to its order page, complete with product shots and info. It will be interesting to see if other brands (Amazon, Apple, Overstock) do something similar. Seems rather simple in execution and based on a Twitter search for “zappos map,” it definitely has people talking, and more importantly, watching and interacting. Our favorite tweet by the way is from @mystickitten who said: “There has to be a drinking game for the Zappos Map.”

Of note, three things I noticed when watching the Zappos Map: (1) About 80-90% of the purchases seemed to be women’s shoes, which is not really surprising I suppose, (2) People have awful taste in shoes (and I’m looking at you sir in Richmond, Va. who just bought the Fitzwell Louies) and (3) Zappos offers a lot more than shoes, which is probably one of the main takeaways they’re hoping to achieve with this interactive tool.

Wicked Quick In Design – 4.3.09

Colin Cooley — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:51:01 +0000

Who would have thought the bus stop was a good hide-and-seek spot?

For our first Wicked Quick in Design link dump, we check out some of the latest in web design, graphic arts, packaging and things that are just cool to look at, including some killer beer packaging, tips on simple design techniques and the latest on Google’s YouTube redesign.

Urban camouflage is all the rage, or at the least, it’s fun to look at. [Toxel]
It’s Friday, so these 20 great examples of beer packaging seems fitting. [NikiBrown]
Back to basics: a list of 10 simple design techniques. [Smashing Magazine]
Google‘s redesign for YouTube to look a lot like Hulu? [BusinessInsider]
Satre Stuelke, an artist-turned-medical-student, uses CAT Scans to create cool images of everyday items like Chicken McNuggets. [NYTimes]
40 web developers you should stalk on Twitter. [ThinkVitamin]
Stadium designs of the future: a place to watch games and call home. [Fast Company]