Making interfaces attractive is a priority when creating web applications. When it came to uploading a file, it got pretty ugly. There were no simple or standard ways to modify the Browse button for user. Things have changed quite a bit from a design and development standpoint. FancyUpload is the proof of that change.
Displaying data is a problem. You have to show results of hundreds of values and be interpreted not just on the fly, but have a lasting impression. Displaying the data within a chart or graph is the most effective way to approach the problem. Throw in a simple installation mixed with a beautiful interface and you’ve got yourself a great charting library named pChart.
Lightbox can be confusing. Like one commenter said, it makes the user think it’s a new page and thus go “back” on their browser. What was needed was an intuitive way to display images and text neatly. With a little inspiration from Cabel Sasser and Apple, and the power of Prototype and jQuery, OrderedList just gave the web a spoonful of Fancy.
Tooltips have become more and more prevalent. They’re used to explain fields in a form, explaining certain features, and more. Many tooltips come bloated, hard to install, and even harder to customize. Cast all your fears aside and say hello to Prototip.
The Lightbox effect hit the web by storm a few years ago, but its use and functionality is growing each day. From creating photo galleries, to displaying data, viewing video or just opening an external page, Lightbox has changed the way your visitors view your website. ModalBox is in a whole new “box” of its own.
Designers would create attractive themes and interfaces, but when content overflowed and scrolling was necessary, those pesky gray scrollbars would appear and clash with the design. With the failure of scrollbar CSS properties, designers were forced to design scroll-less themes. Not anymore.
Web forms have become something of an art to designers, with literally thousands of them creating their own style and improving the forms user interface that much more. However, if creating web forms has been seeming dull lately, it’s time to take a look at this. This is one of those simple tools that in the blink of an eye empowers you to do so much more.
Let’s be honest, you don’t need a massive, overly-complicated, feature-drunk WYSIWYG editor to write a blog post or update your “About Me” section. What you do need is a WYSIWYG that won’t add massive amounts of code simply hitting the space bar. NicEdit was created to fix all that… and maybe a bit more.
Contact forms are a great way to hide your email address from those pesky crawlers while giving your visitor an easy way to contact you. And since Ajax is becoming more prevalent than beautiful women in Sweden (maybe not that prevalent), Eric Renkai created a great Ajax-powered contact form using the all powerful jQuery framework.
