Browser Tricks: The Web Designer's Smoke and Mirrors
December 5th, 2007 in Web Design Culture
by: Matthew Griffin
I love that there is an air of mystery around the web designer. I imagine it feels a lot like being a magician pulling rabbits out of hats—only out of computers. I never know what will and won't impress, though, and my friends and clients are rarely impressed with the things that impress me. Changing the font across an entire website with a simple CSS modification often gets me little more than a nod. In my mind that's a pretty big rabbit.
But there is one little trick that has never failed to conjure up the wows I like to hear. It's a Firefox extension called Tab Effect. Tab Effect, is the ultimate superfluous extension. All it does is add a little animation when you click back and forth between your browser tabs. But I consistently get Oos and Ahs from anyone who looks over my shoulder while I am buzzing around the internet.
It's really crazy when you think about it. I can talk about RSS, and CSS all day long but my tab animation is what really pushed them over the edge. Anyway, based on the reaction I've gotten, I think I'm going to try using the new 3D tabbed browser Space Time 3D just when I have clients in my office. If they thought tab effect was cool, Space Time 3D is going to make them think I'm from another planet.
Here's a short video of tab effect in action:
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Comments
Posted By: Danny Outlaw on 12/05/07
thats cool. I love stupid stuff like this. I think we as designers are just easily amused.
Posted By: Steven Snell on 12/06/07
I have never seen that before, and I guess it is kind of cool. But I'm more impressed with the same things that impress you.