One of them is Smashing Magazine. Another site has popped-up on my always visit list, and which I subscribed to is Mashable. Excerpted (and edited) below is from an article in Mashable – Web Design Toolbox: 130+ New Tools to Make You a Better and Faster Designer.

Edited because I went through all of the 130+ sites listed (yes it was tiring) and in this article, have kept only the ones that matters or should matter to breed of web designers who on a daily basis strive to achieve the balance of creative design and front end engineering.

2 strong criterias behind what gets removed and what don’t from the original list is that first, the sites must be free and no registration required. And second, that it must be an engine that is useful to the creative designer as the end user. Most importantly in the end, even if these sites don’t make you a better designer, they most definitely will make you a faster web builder.

[Addendum] Besides removing items that don’t matter from the list, I have now added in more collections from my delicious bookmarks.

CSS and Code Design Tools

YAML Builder
Easy to use YAML (Yet Another Multicolumn Layout) XHTML/CSS site layout builder.

960 Grid System
Streamline web design production workflow by using commonly used dimensions in grid layout format.

Sky CSS Tool
JavaScript CSS authoring app.

The Box Office
CSS formatting tool for wrapping text around images.

CSSTXT
Online CSS text style generator.

CSS Speech Bubbles
CSS based speech bubbles from Will Mayo.

izzyMenu.com
Free CSS menu builder.

templatr
Online tool for creating website templates.

dotemplate
Template site that allows you to customize templates before downloading them.

Typechart
Browse different typefaces and styles and grab the CSS of the ones you want.

CSS Superdouche
Strip unneeded content and redundant calls from your CSS, reducing its size and complexity.

Code Beautifier
Format and optimize your CSS code.

CSSFly
In-browser editing of (X)HTML and CSS.

CSS Drive CSS Compressor
Decrease your CSS file size and loading speed with this tool.

Clean CSS
Another CSS optimization tool for reducing your CSS file size.

CSS Redundancy Checker
Eliminate unused CSS selectors automatically as well as check for redundancy in your CSS files.

CSSround
Another tool to create rounded corners on your website.

TabCreatr
Create CSS tabbed navigation for your site.

List-u-Like CSS Generator
A tool to create list-based navigation bars.

Form Designs

StyleIgnite
Design snippets (CSS, HTML, and more) for contact forms, layouts, and more that you can use on your sites.

DevSnippets
Gallery of code snippets and examples shared by designers.

pForm
HTML form builder.

Form Style Generator
Create your own CSS-styled Web forms.

Graphics, Patterns, Buttons, Icons and FavIcons Generators

BgPatterns
Background pattern creation tool with live preview.

The Effect Generator
Create animated slideshows, buttons, and more with this tool.

ColorJack
A color scheme gallery that also explores color theory.

Cornershop
Get the CSS and images to put rounded corners on your website.

Artypapers Buttons
Customize buttons and collect them on your website.

Favicon Generator
Another free favicon generator.

favicon maker v1
A free, basic favicon creator that lets you create a favicon from scratch or an existing image.

favicon.cc
Another free favicon creator.

Stripe Designer
Create background stripes for your website.

Loader Generator
A tool to create loading spinners.

IconsPedia
Free, huge collection of icons.

Colours and Style Palette

ColourLovers
A colour resource that monitors and influences color trends.

The Color Wizard
Submit a color and this tool will bring back matching colors.

[ws] Color Scheme Generator 2
An easy to use color scheme creator.

Color Hunter
A color palette creation tool that lets you pull color palettes from images.

4096 Color Wheel
A color scheme generator that shows you Web-safe, Web-smart and unsafe colors.

colordb
Another color palette generator, though this one is much more in depth than most.

colorcombos.com
A huge library of color combinations.

ColorToy 2.0
A Flash-based color palette generator.

Accessibility Color Wheel
Check the readability of your background and text color combinations. This tool will tell you if there is enough contrast between the two.

Cymbolism
A color tool that includes information on what emotions and words are associated with different colors.

Instant Eyedropper
Grab the color code of any color on the Web with a single mouse click.

Design Galleries and Creative Inspiration

CSS Import
Gallery of beautiful, full CSS websites.

CSS Mania
Another gallery of almost 12,000 CSS website designs.

FullSingle
A gallery of really awesome single-page websites.

We Love WP
A showcase of WordPress powered websites (not just blogs).

One Page Love
Another showcase of great one-page websites.

Screenalicio.us
A Web design gallery with more than 10,000 screenshots.

The Best Designs
A huge showcase of Web designs and designers.

Pattern Tap
Design gallery of different website elements (headers, 404 pages, and the like).

eduStyle
A Web design gallery specifically featuring academic websites.

Designflavr
Design galleries for all sorts of artwork, including Flash and CSS websites.

View
Showcase of website that can be sorted by color or other criteria.

InspirationKing
A searchable gallery of websites for inspiration.

DesignerSource
A website design gallery that is browsable by topic or color.

BestWebGallery
Tagged website design showcase.

StyleVault
Another Web design gallery that lets you rate designs.

Sometimes, in rare times, I’d then come across website design that can make me cry. Not because that they are nice, But because they are f******g nice.

Recently, a post Smashing Magazine made me do just that. It posted an article by Torley Wong’s on great user interface ideas. (Link to original – “Creative User Interfaces in Modern Web Design” here).

I decided to check all of the websites out. And most of them really truly inspired me that I had to share with the team here. I’ve replaced the author; Torley Wong’s article with mine below. Feel free to visit the original article and read up on his thoughts. Some sites have also been omitted from my updated version as I believe, after checking the works, they did not really fit into the context of user interface design from the perspective that I am writing on.

Hope you enjoy it. And to the design team working with me, hope you are all truly inspired to go create stuff as good as these.

OkayDave

Dave Werner’s website is not new. It’s been around since 2006. And I first saw it was back then. Yet even till now (now being 2008) it is still innovative and ahead of the curve. What is more surprising was that he had created this site as part of his portfolio piece for his graduation. Yes. His student work kicks more ass than most industry veteran designers combined.

Dave Werver

Vimeoland

Vimeo is cool. Vimeo with HD is cooler. Vimeo with VimeoLand is coolest. Vimeoland is like watching a cartoon show with characters going around speaking in videos. This is probably experimental and a fun side project by the staff. But heck, it’s a way to show videos to the short-attention-span, visually oriented group.

vimeoland

Grooveshark

I used to like Pandora. Then I used to like Last.FM. Then after that I like Imeem. Now I like Grooveshark. Apart from the large artist repository and rare music (I tried Sinnerman* by Nina Simone).

*Side note: Nina Simone’s Sinnerman = Nokia = Tipping Point. Ask me what I mean by this.

And the user interface design. Oh My GAWD! It’s a UI designer wet dream. Beautiful, large buttons. Reminds me of the iPhone user interface. Really simple, no nonsense.

It takes a strong, very confident designer to design a user interface devoid of the usual ‘creative’ stuff like imageries and such; and only focus on the functionality of content driving the design.

Perhaps we should look at this as an example for one of our music initiatives for the company.

Grooveshark.com

SpaceCollective.org

Into spacey, trans-human stuff? Then go to SpaceCollective.Org. But seriously, subject matter aside, this site takes grid or tab-like interface to a new level. It’s nice to know that even people who thinks really out of this world thinks of other humans first when it comes to designing really usable, functional interfaces.

(Or were they thinking of animals and other non-humans when designing this site? Perhaps simple enough that even a monkey can use.)

spacecollective.org

Viewzi

Two months back, I commented that there would be a new war of the search engines. And that I just do not know in what form that they’ll be in.

Now the answer has come – Visual search.

And with visual searches comes visual interface designs designed to present these search results in a deeply considered, user-centered creative approach.

Again, this will take a very confident designer to create interfaces that’s simple and puts content as the hero over the usual visual fluff.

viewzi

Like.com

Another dice thrown into the visual search table game. This time by Like.com. And this time I’m not too sure how this type of visual search will pan out though.

Unlike Viewzi, where you type in your search keywords and it returns you the results in a visual display, Like.com searches by the images you send it and it searches for like-wise items. Preferably, one or more of them being what you’re looking for.

I’m just not too sure how simple or smart it will be for the really novice users though. It is a smart engine. But perhaps a little too smart for now. Too ahead of its time. Like Boo.com was a decade ago. Not usable now. Maybe later.

What I do like about Like.com though is in its visual array presentation format. This one I like a lot. If you’re looking at a smart, clean visual presentation format of many (tens to hundreds) of items in a e-store site, Like.com is the perfect fit.

like.com

Navigaya

Oh another Visual Search have we? Yes we have. This time by Navigaya. This time better than (although in similar presentation format) Viewzi. And definitely way better than Like.com. In my humble opinion.

Like Viewzi, it starts with a simple search bar. And the results are presented bang on, large on center screen. What makes Navigaya better is how subtle things are or becomes. After a certain time of inaction, everything fades off. And comes back on again when the mouse is moved. This keeps focus only on the item at play and keep non-essential item in the background, appearing again when called for. Again for the strong designer who knows that the strength of a site is in its content.

It does have its drawback. In that it’s not as clean and sleek as Viewzi. But I think it’s catering to a visually oriented target market. The kind who likes to see eye candies and bursting bubbles move about.

navigaya

GoDesignate

I would not label GoDesignate as design. But if user interface design is all about user interfaces that is functional, then GoDesignate is it.

Basically I’d say that there are two forms of user interface design. First is visual-related. Most creative designers (including most of you in my team) are visual designers. Second is functional-related. Not many designers are functional designers.

I would relate functional designers as being those designers that have elevated themselves to a state where, integral to their designs are the visual cues that emerge in the user’s minds. Functional designers design for a symbiosis of the user and the product to become one. Usually the design would be simple, with a focus on getting the user to using the product better.

Ok. Enough of the mumbo-jumbos. Here you go… GoDesignate’s functional simplicity.

godesignate

Hypnoteis

While on the topic of Visual vs Functional designers. This next one marries both. Teis Albers designs are visual intensive montages that represent the trend now. Something I personally love.

Yet his showcase website goes beyond visual fluff and focuses on simplicity of use. Again the focus is on content being the hero of the design. Going with the principle that while the content itself is loud, the container is simple. And vice versa.

hypnoteis

Serge Seidlitz

But then, sometimes as a designer, you might want to make visual fluff. You REALLY want visual fluff as the hero. To you, your work should be the focus. That’s what Serge is doing.

Unlike Hynoteis where the work is separated from the interface, Serge’s site is a montage of his work. And it does so intentionally. Yet even so, amidst the visual complexity, comes the simplicity of use. You get what you click. No mouseovers. No fancy overlays. Proof that design complexity can also be simple to use. While the design is complex, the function is simple. Vice versa to the above site.

It’s like order in chaos. I LIKE!

serge seidlitz

Six Pixels of Separation

If I were to design a blog; this would be it. If I were to write insights and article; this would be it. If I were to architect information; this would be it.

Basically, Mitch Joel is doing what I would have exactly done. Except that he’s been doing it way more than me and is probably doing it more often than I get to do. What would otherwise have been a content heavy website, with too many links to too many places is very well organized.

Graphics are used sparsely to maximum effect. Using them to provide information and drive users to deeper content. Even if one were to not read much and scan only for headlines and keywords, one would be relatively successful at it.

six pixels of separation

Fontpark 2.0

It’s like typography. Only, with Japanese Kanji characters. Only with Kanji turning into actual characters. Like an actual character. Like a face. A Font Face. Yes really. A Font, that’s like a Face.

I would not have classified this site as good user interface design. It’s more creative than good. But the fact that it got me mesmerized for a good 10 minutes after the site load really speaks much for itself. Just sitting here watching the artwork and stories unfold was just amazing.

One can’t help but feel a sense of zen-ness by visiting the site here.

fontpark

Bestiario

If in case you don’t know, there is one field that many open-sourced sites are really getting into and experimenting much lately – Data Visualisation. Basically is a fairly new field in the online space where more and more efforts are being put into in the area of developing online applications to crunch and present massive complex data visually.

It’s like answering the pertinent questions of “Great, but how do these numbers connect? And what do they represent?” that most of us ask when given stacks over stacks of excel spreadsheets.

bestiario

The above are examples of great, creative interpretations in user interfaces design. While the designs and executions may vary from one designer to another, the concepts and principles remain the same – that great web design must be usable and a joy to use.

Noticed taht in the top 10 websites, the design is focused on bringing the beauty of the content forward. Style is minimal, yet when doing so, it made the site so much more visually striking.

1. guardian.co.uk

2. BBC – Homepage

3. Wired News

4. UX Magazine – The User Experience Magazine

5. Vanity Fair: vanityfair.com

6. The New York Times

7. Frieze Magazine

8. New York City News Service

9. The New Yorker

10. CNN.com

11. National Gazette

12. TIME.com

13. The Morning News

14. Grand Sierra Magazine

15. Economist.com

16. JPG Magazine: Your World in Pictures

17. La Repubblica.it

18. Salient.org

19. FILE Magazine – Unexpected Photography.

20. Azure Magazine

21. art and design magazine

22. CREATIVEurope

23. washingtonpost.com

24. Archfarm: Non-periodical fascicles on architecture

…also worth a look…

25. Schematic.com

26. Creative And Live

27. Reform and Revolution

28. Slate Magazine

29. Peshku pa uje

30. Computerworld

Here’s a quick feature list of what current web design style consists of:

• Simple layout
• Centered orientation
• Design the content, not the page
• 3D effects, used sparingly
• Soft, neutral background colours
• Strong colour, used sparingly
• Cute icons, used sparingly
• Plenty of whitespace
• Nice big text

For definitions of what all these are about, visit HERE as they have already elaborate each and every thing you need to know about current web design style

It’s been a while since I last visited Razorfish, and now it has a brand new spanking name, and an amazing portfolio to boot.

Check it out, I believe you won’t regret it. Oh yeah, the background are live camera feeds from different countries.

Catch the fish here

If anything, these are our benchmarks that any web form design must meet.

Extracted and condensed are the survey results below.  Actual links (with nice graphical charts) to both parts of the survey follows right after.

Here it goes. Web Form Design Pattern Best Practices Part 1…

- “Sign Up” is most popular link title to form (40%)
- The header is the most popular place to put the link (59%)
- Placed at top right hand corner (76%)
- Simplified design when compared to page layouts (61%)
- Benefits of registration are presented next to form (41%)
- One-page forms (91%)
- Using bold to highlight title of input fields (62%)
- Right aligned labels closer to input fields (41%)
- Only 3 to 5 mandatory fields (50%)
- 6 to 8 mandatory fields (30%)
- Zero optional fields, only collected after sign-up is complete (62%)
- Less than 5 optional fields (98%)
- Vertically arranged forms (86%)
- Do not have asterisks* to indicate mandatory fields (78%)
- Progress indicator (9%)
- Simple web form with as little fields as possible (86%)
- Grouped and divided by white space (69%)
- Divided by borders (22%)

Web Form Design Pattern Best Practices Part 2…

- No hover, active, focus effects in use (84%)
- Static help support placed obviously next to input field (57%)
- No hints (33%)
- Error messages at the top – no fields highlighted (30%)
- Error messages highlighted at form fields – no top message (29%)
- Both top error message and error fields highlighted (25%)
- Real-time AJAX validation warning or error (22%)
- Colour Green used to indicate success, and Red to show failure (97%)
- Not necessary to ‘confirm email address’ by second input field (82%)
- Necessary to confirm password (72%)
- Captcha not in use (59%)
- Cancel button not used (92%)
- Left-aligned submit button (56%)
- After successful sign-up, load non-mandatory fields or tell friends (45%)
- After successful sign-up, recommend places to go or link to click (33%)
- After successful sign-up, basic thank you page with no extra links (4%)
- After successful sign-up, redirect to homepage (2%)
- Using tab indexes (99%)
- ‘System Talk’ tone and manner – Login, Password, Location (38%)
- ‘Business Talk’ tone and manner – Your name, Confirm Password (38%)
- ‘Conversational talk’ tone and manner – Tell us who you are, etc (22%)

Too much text! IToo much to read. Don’t understand. I know.

So here’s the link to both parts – Part 1, Part 2.

Ejen Sinar is basically Sinar fm on-ground team. It’s similar to hitz.fm cruisers, Skuad ERA Avanza, mixfm Roadrunners, etc. We have came out with a fresh new look for their special page in sinar.fm where we have decided to use a comic look-and-feel for the whole section.

HERE IS THE NEW PAGE!

Like all retro comics, Ejen Sinar members have their secret identity or what they used to call, “alter-ego” and that’s when they become AMP Sinar X as a team of superheroes. Well, they are actually Sinar fm very own paintball team ;)

We haven’t officially introduced AMP Sinar X, but here’s a sneak peak of their page.

Stay tuned.

You can still view the previous Ejen page here, it’s not available to public anymore as of yesterday.

So, what do you guys think? :)

UI Design Pattern is a strong marriage of Information Architecture (IA) and User Interface (UI) turning a set of User Experience (UX) goal into simple intuitive interfaces.

Here is a collection of design pattern library from UI-Patterns.com. Great help for when designing intuitive next gen user interfaces.

“UI-Patterns.com are not the first to create a UI design library.
While other pattern collections are useful, they are far from coherent
and complete. The purpose of this site is over time to fill some of the
gaps – especially by providing code examples as to how how the
different patterns can be implemented: to join theory with practice.”

Input Feedback
The user have entered input into the system expects to receive feedback on the result of the submission.

Account Registration
You wish to know who the active user is in order to provide personalized content or opportunities to conduct a purchase.

Vote To Promote
The user wants to promote a specific piece of content in order to democratically help decide what content is more popular.

Lazy Registration
The user wants to immediately use you and try your website without conducting a formal registration beforehand.

Password Strength Meter
You want to make sure your user’s passwords a sufficiently strong in order to prevent malicious attacks.

Inline Help Box
The user needs an assistive introduction aside the interaction he is about to perform.

Tag Cloud
The user wants to browse content by popularity or most elaborate topic.

Tag
The user wants to find more data in the same category and/or contribute data in the same category.

Live Preview
The user wants to check how changes in form fields effect and end result as quickly as possible.

WYSIWYG
The user wants to add formatted text content, but does not have the know-how to write HTML.

Wiki
You want to provide the user the option of adding to- or editing information on a website.

Live Filter
The user wishes to specify a search by different categories to narrow down results.

Archive
The user wants to search for an article of interest by chronological order.

Pagination
The user needs to view a subset of sorted data that is not easily displayed on one page.

Continuous Scrolling
The user needs to view a subset of data that is not easily displayed on a single page.

Blank Slate
The user needs to get started and get a feel of how the application will feel when fully in function and filled with data.

Tip A Friend
The user wants to share something of interest with a peer.

Steps Left
The user is about to go through the process of filling in data over several steps and is in need of guidance.

Coupon
You want to attract your users to conduct a purchase of one of your products.

Subscription
The user wants to start a subscription of a service.

Here are links to icons sets that help you shorten design and development timelines. Starting with…

Stock web icons
Fineicons – Nice general sets of icons. Not much design to it but most definitely worth a visit and a download. For icons that serves it’s purpose, fineicons is it.

eCommerce icons
Free Credit Card Logos & Images – About 70+ credit card logos to choose from. Say yes to no more ugly bitmapped logos.

VirtuaLNK Credit Card Icons – Set of 3D icons. Makes it a little nicer. But will make more people buy from your site? Who cares. It’s nice.

Credit Cards Pixel Iconset by Seusbox Studio – Buttons. In PSD for custom appearances if need arise.

Free eCommerce icons from Web Design Belfast – eCommerce related page icons and buttons.

Web design and development icons
Light Icons Set by Kryztof Kolartorski – Light, clean and stylish

Rss icons campaign by Design Freak – Fancy RSS icons anyone? Yummy.

Smashing RSS/Feed Icons – Available for both MAc and Windows from sizes 16×16px to 512×512px. That’s big.

Mini web icon sets
Vaga by Ed Merrit – Set of 60 icons ready to be inserted into your web work.

Monofactor Icon Set by Onur Oztaskiran – In Illustrator format which makes them scalable. Free to edit and tweak.

Web Development Icons – Ajaxible icons for web development. Free and reusable for any project.

Circular Icons by Ben Billbanks – 100+ web and ajax ready.

Flags of the world
I’m not a Patriot – Much nicer than those flat ones I’ve been seeing a lot of.

Mobile device and phones
Mobile Device Icons – Need mobile device icons or imagery? Here you go. 60 of them. Blackberry phones here.

So there you go. The first round of free, reusable icon sets for web design and development work. Enjoy!

This time, into Smashing Magazine. Read full article here. Dive straight into point 5 – Hand Drawing Used Extensively and you’ll find his work among other greats.

Is it time for a Joshua-Rames collab on Brainiacs at Work skin design?

Go visit – Six Revisions

hitz.fm is the official station for Coldplay Live in London on June 16, 2008. Win an all expense paid trip for 2 to go watch Coldplay perform in London! This promo is to promote Coldplay concert in London and Coldplay ringtones from Hotlink.

Each room is an individual piece of art. From wacky comical styles to strict graphic design. From fantastic street art and Japanese Manga to simply spaced out fantasies. You will find flowers, fairytales, friendly monsters, dreaming creatures, secrets vaults and…

61 rooms, 21 artist, 1,000 ideas

More info http://www.hotelfox.dk/

Sorry for the long pictures. I like the graphic so much :)

I started work on the project. He agreed over the phone to pay, so because I charged low at the time, I had about 1 day of work ahead of me. After presenting the designs by email, and a few rounds of revisions, he was just lost from my sight. After some months passed by and several emails were sent, I finally heard back from him. His email read as “Your designs are not acceptable and I am not paying you anything”.

After some days I was shocked to see their Product Catalogue. They used one my designs.

From this incident I actually learned the following things:

Get a contract

Many have a negative view of contracts, thinking they are meant to fool people with fine print, or that its a reflection of the trust you have in them.

Even if I’m working for a family member or friend, I make them sign a contract. It’s just the thing to do. No one ever balks at signing a contract when setting up a bank account or buying cell phone service – why should they when contracting a designer to produce marketing materials? In fact, a contract is protection for both you and your clients, plus it adds respect to the work you’re doing.

There is a great   free contract template for designers from AIGA. You can customize it to your liking, and be sure to change the American information to suit whatever country you live in.

Charge enough to be competitive

Along the lines of adding perceived respect to the work, charge enough money. Even if its a small client that doesn’t have a lot of money, or a non-profit client, remember that they don’t realize the level of effort that goes into this stuff. If you’re charging low just so that you’ll get the project, the client usually won’t appreciate it, and therefore won’t think twice about making unnecessary revisions, or requesting additional items.

If the work is a gift from you to them, in the case of non-profits or friends, make it clear that you are doing them a favor and charging less than the work is worth – this way they’ll appreciate it and be happy to pay you promptly with a minimum number of revisions. If you don’t appear to value your work, your client surely wont.

Require an initial deposit

A great way to sift through the people who are looking for free work, charge 30-50% up front. If they weren’t planning on paying, or wanted to wait and see if they liked the work before paying, they’ll drop out quickly. At least this way, they drop out before you’ve spent the hours designing.

I’ve never had any reputable clients express concern about up-front payment. They assume that the work will be done well, and on time.

Communicate in writing

This I didn’t do from the beginning – communicating by email can be a life saver. Make sure the client fully understands what they’re getting, how much it costs, and that they are paying for a service, not a product. Your getting paid is not determined upon whether they like what you design – they need to be sure you’re right for them (by looking at your work and checking your references) before they commission you to do the work.

Emails keep track of these types of interactions so that, in the event you get screwed out, there is a record for legal purposes.

Make sure the client is the right fit for you

Everyone can learn from this lesson, because it’s something that even many large design companies struggle with, not just freelancers:

If the work isn’t interesting, the client isn’t reputable or the person you are talking to gives you a bad feeling, don’t work for them.

There is enough work out there that we don’t need to say yes to everybody that asks for a quote. There are many low-lives who own companies, and who you can tell from an initial meeting or phone call that they are going to be trouble. Trust me, no matter how tempting the money may be, you actually save more money by turning these prospects down!

Accept work only from a client who is the right fit for you, and who you feel will be pleasant to work for.

Bottom line

I had a request for a logo from a person who was starting an IT company. He said he already tried 2 designers earlier and they were not up to his mark. He asked me to start the work immediately.

Instead, I sent a formal email stating that the work would be started upon sign-off on the budget and 30% payment up front. I quoted the price for the project. My email was short and concise, and more importantly, didn’t waste too much of my time – I never got a reply back from him.

Design, while fun, is still a business—and as such, safety nets need to be in place so that you’re protected and can make a fair profit from your skills.

http://www.astro.com.my/euro2008

After weeks of hard labor and sleepless nights (really!), we have finally launched the site for EUFA EURO 2008 on Stadium Astro. With our amazing google mashup for the team profiles and a couple of widgets to boot.

Dive head first into EURO 2008 with exclusive news, photos, videos and show your support by downloading games and other freebies on the site! Don’t forget our schedule widget and message board widget (coming soon), put it up on your blogs and spaces so you won’t miss a thing!

And if you’re stuck in the office with no television, don’t fret, we have live SIMULCAST of matches on the site including 10 exclusive matches only on STADIUM ASTRO.

Today, I came across this site from FWA. I kinda like the simplicity of the site – the navigation and the design. And it invloves interactions from the user and but interesting presentation. To develop a good web site, UI and UX are really important (quoted by N), I totally agree! But not forgetting, good concept! :)

Want to experince the site? Just click HERE!

This is the latest Xfresh.com theme. With a background themed by a local Malaysia comics illustrator. This follows through the site concept of enabling it to grow around different themes and styles.

This theme comes hot after the original launch theme. Just about a month ago.

Built on CSS, the site was a labour of love of resident design expert Jason Goh and content editor Raja Faradiana. Well done!

Those not in the know, a short history of Xfresh.com below.

Xfresh.com has been around since late 2000 and the community has been changing names and it has been refining it’s ‘community’ essence since then.

Xfresh.com year 2003

From “Xfresh Teen Community” to “Hitzfm Teen Community” to “Hitz.fm Teen Community” and finally it got its original name back in 2003.

Xfresh.com year 2004

It started off as a web community for teens and the whole website was in English. Now it has evolved into a full blown local music radio station whereby the language used in both the radio programming and the website is in Bahasa Malaysia.

Xfresh.com year 2005

From 2005 till late 2007. The site stayed with that look until this fresh update.

Stay tuned for more exciting stuff.

His website – rames.blogspot.com contain links to some lots of beautiful, well-done photoshoped image collections. Most of which were created himself from scratch combining his love for photography, image compositing and photoshop. Personally I’m proud and would like to see more of this kind of surprises coming out from the team.

Well done Rames!