The beauty of simplicity
February 2, 2006
Ok, a strange example perhaps but I’ve was looking at this brand new deodorant I bought and noticed something cool. On the back, is a little sticker like this:
You lift it up and find out all sorts of information which is compulsory (ingredients, contact details of manufacturer etc) but not necessary to have showing all the time. It makes more room for the barcode on a small product and enables the information under the flap to be bigger (more readable) than it would have been otherwise.
Plus, it’s fun to lift the flap and see what’s underneath.
I’m sure there’s a blog design lesson in there somewhere…
Definitely a design lesson…
Think this is where AJAX comes in. I have seen more and more sites that go for the simple and clean 2.0 look, but add in AJAX and Java to give its readers the opportunity to choose for more information. (some slick design even let you save those display options…)
So bring forward what is most important and leave the extra’s as a behind the curtains option…
(term “lift here” is very mouse-pointer-attactive) =)
— Jan, February 2, 2006
Not sure why AJAX would be used but I guess it depends on what we’re lifting to see, but definitely some cool javascript would do nicely to create such an effect.
— Aaron, February 3, 2006
I love those little stickers (except when I peel the whole label off - d’oh! - great to translate it online (and easier). Screen real estate has to be well and innovatively used.
— Andy Merrett, February 3, 2006
Suggestion: “Enriched tooltips”? Text + Images
— hullabaloo, February 4, 2006