designbivouac

Great Revelations: Checking out Apple's Checkout Accordian Fold Interface

From Luke Wroblewski on A List Apart and thanks to Arjun for passing this one along. Wanted to get this on the Bivouac in the Interface Hall of Fame as an outstanding example of reducing percieved complexity and how, through great design, we can help pull users through transactions that can otherwise seem overwhelming.

By stripping away the form elements as each section of the form is completed, Apple helps reinforce a sense that users are making progress through the check out process. Along the way, should users leave a required field of information blank, a yellow prompting box appears right next to the field letting them know it is needed to continue. Stratification of information in clear zones serve as landscape "mile markers", letting users intuitively sense where they are in terms of completing their task.

Pure Visual Searching Goodness

Keen to add a visual element or some serendipity to your web searching? Try oskope.

Automobile Website Designers Get Flashy

The bivouac has spotted two vehicle websites which pushing the limits of web-based communications. Sites like these are undoubtedly keeping writers, musicians, photographers, digital video compositors, videographers, flash developers and three-dimensional rendering experts busy and working together. Supplemented with informational video clips and theatrical quality soundtracks, content is conveyed in a rich, albeit broadband requisite fashion. One similarity between the two sites is the use of three-dimensional renderings of the featured vehicles. Let's hope the new Audi R8 and BMW X5 are as impressive in the real world as they appear to be online.

View the 2007 BMW X5 website.

View Audi R8 microsite.

Now That Takes Me Back

Ever find yourself feeling nostalgic about something you saw long ago on the web? Well, thanks to the folks at the Internet Archive you may be travel back in time with "The Way Back" tool. You can visit many cached versions of sites dating back more than a decade in some cases. With millions of new pages coming on line every day, thankfully, someone is writing all this internet stuff down...or at least backing it up on servers somewhere.

Special thanks to the "Way Back Machine" for the trip down memory lane. While you are there, why not take a peek at what Yahoo! was up to back in 1996? Greatgooglymoogly!