News from Apr 20, 2008

First round of visual design.

No video this week guys (sorry). But I do have some juicy eye-candy.

From a visual design perspective, my goals were as follows:

1. Create a modern (web 2.0) look and feel.
2. Create a skin that's fairly easy to dissect and modify. In other words, the visual elements should be simple, but not so simple as to lose all personality.
3. Create a concept that takes a step forward in branding Sakai. As of today, Sakai lacks any visual ownership beyond its logo. What I tried to do is expand on the playful elements (strokes of the type and symbol, colors, etc.) while still retaining an enterprise application UI.

The initial stages of the visual design were actually formed during the interaction design work I had presented earlier. I added color, refined various elements, and introduced some conceptual messaging (meet the Sakai Owl).

Important: Please do not focus too much on the content in the widgets. While the content suggests a social network environment, it is only a concept and used purely to foster the visual design exercise.

Also, it's worth mentioning that this visual design is prepared primarily for default Sakai. Your campus will have the option to customize the style to meet your branding requirements.

Enjoy!