Archive for March, 2008

Adobe has recently launched an online version of their photoshop tool. Initially when I heard this I was quite surprised. My experience of photoshop is that it is a tool used to mock up web pages costing hundreds of pounds. It turns out it is not really a version of the massive feature heavy programme used by web designers, but rather a photo manipulation tool combined with online photo storage and sharing functionality. As such, it provides much the same functionality as flickr but puts the emphasis on image manipulation rather than community. It is interesting how different this makes it and even though Flickr provides much the same image manipulation functionality I would use it in preference to these. However, its main competitors must be desktop applications which often come free with digital cameras and don’t rely an internet connection.

Photoshop express

Earlier this week I read an article about issues with a couple of common page layouts by Andy Rutledge. In the article he looks at one of the most common layouts, three columns with large central area for content and navigation in the two side columns, and highlights a number of short comings.

Although I don’t agree with all he says, as the layout is often used when a persistent left navigation is used and the role of each column is much better define, he makes some good points. Coincidently, I was asked to review a site using a similar structure, without persistent left navigation, the next day.

The full article is here: Killing Some Bad Layout Conventions