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Paper Strips Menus

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The beauty of an excellent design lies in designer’s attention to smallest details. Conventions are our friends; however, to stand out, a design needs a creative spin, an elegant play of colors, some unique flavour — a small detail that would make a big difference.

Where the boundaries between traditional solutions and unusual approaches become fuzzy, designers tend to get creative. However, to come up with unusual ideas isn’t that easy, particularly if you are dealing with some daily routine-tasks.

Still, nothing is impossible. Even if you’re designing a navigation menu there are a number of possibilites you can explore. For instance, have you ever thought of… navigation in form of paper strips?

Creamen-1 in Paper Strips Menus
Deb Sofield sticks posts on a paper pile.

Creamen-2 in Paper Strips Menus
A menu in the shape of coloured loops.

Creamen-3 in Paper Strips Menus
These ties will never hang on the neck of a web-developer.

Imlou in Paper Strips Menus
The navigation menu is simple, nice and fits perfectly to the overall design; navigation options appear to stick out of the content area.

The Co-Founder of Smashing Magazine. Former writer, web designer, freelancer and webworker. Author of several books. Runs the business.

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  1. 1
    Andrew E
    December 17th, 2007 6:02 pm

    very nice!

  2. 2
    Andrew E
    December 17th, 2007 10:15 pm

    Very Boring!

  3. 3
    Aakadasch
    December 17th, 2007 11:07 pm

    A bit short, hmm?

  4. 4
    Anthony
    December 17th, 2007 11:33 pm

    hmm.. holidays got smashing down? posts have been thin lately… thanks for the monday post

  5. 5
    Nick
    December 17th, 2007 11:51 pm

    Interesting, but not very inspiring. :-)

  6. 6
    Tim
    December 18th, 2007 12:04 am

    One post per week and this short?

    I still love this site though ;-)

  7. 7
    Ufucuk
    December 18th, 2007 12:28 am

    I think subjects have finished for your blog.

  8. 8
    dagobert renouf
    December 18th, 2007 1:38 am

    i love you guys but this post is just not what i can expect from this wonderful magazine.

    1 post a week and still that short ? we got a problem here ..

  9. 9
    matt
    December 18th, 2007 2:12 am

    uhh…smashing rules, think maybe they have lives? or family? calm down guys!

  10. 10
    Jestep
    December 18th, 2007 2:32 am

    I would suggest staying away from the mystery nav like example 3. Most people will have no idea what those are supposed to mean.

  11. 11
    imaginepaolo
    December 18th, 2007 2:34 am

    Nice gallery and idea. Smashing magazine is the best webDesign Gallery.

  12. 12
    tom2strobl
    December 18th, 2007 2:34 am

    somehow i hope SM will find better topics, but i’m yet thankful for those great resources of the past.

  13. 13
    Jeff
    December 18th, 2007 3:09 am

    And you guys are paying … how much? … for this content?

    Zero.

    Thanks for the creative finds, SM. The world does NOT need another stupid web resource with unimaginative posts every day. Take your time to find neat stuff like this!

  14. 14
    Miks
    December 18th, 2007 3:31 am

    Interesting, thanks!

  15. 15
    Cutting_Crew
    December 18th, 2007 3:46 am

    Next week on smashing magazine : How to build a 3 column, 2 row table using only .html

  16. 16
    Ash
    December 18th, 2007 3:54 am

    looks really effective, love the tie idea.

    Good stuff!!

  17. 17
    Rob Hawkes
    December 18th, 2007 4:03 am

    Please tell me the spelling of “Tonight” on the first website is a deliberate mistake! If not, that voice coach needs to change jobs.

  18. 18
    Carlos Eduardo
    December 18th, 2007 4:07 am

    I dont like the third example… These icons doesn’t show clearly what they mean…. =/

  19. 19
    juanclaudio
    December 18th, 2007 4:33 am

    not inspiring, sory

  20. 20
    Jummy
    December 18th, 2007 4:48 am

    From the “About us” section of this site (emphasis is my own):

    We don’t try to convince you with the quantity, but with the quality of the information we present. That’s what makes us different. In fact, we smash you with the information which will make your life easier. Really.

  21. 21
    Katie
    December 18th, 2007 4:55 am

    Hey look this http://www.valentinaolini.com

  22. 22
    Katie
    December 18th, 2007 4:58 am

    hello!!! look this!!! the menu is very similar!!! http://www.valentinaolini.com

  23. 23
    Roweena
    December 18th, 2007 5:00 am

    I’m at college having to design a cool site with cool navigation (and over the xmas holidays) so this is a GREAT help, thanks!

  24. 24
    Mrs. Micah
    December 18th, 2007 5:19 am

    Beautiful. If only I could do cool site design…I’m learning, at least. :)

  25. 25
    Andy Gongea
    December 18th, 2007 5:21 am

    Nice but useless

  26. 26
    A3brasil
    December 18th, 2007 5:38 am

    Thx! Very intresting links!

  27. 27
    Grant
    December 18th, 2007 5:52 am

    Something we didn’t all know would have been nice!

  28. 28
    Prasanth
    December 18th, 2007 6:13 am

    These menus are nice to look at. Difficult to use.

  29. 29
    Kiki
    December 18th, 2007 10:12 am

    Been there… done that. Shall wait for next Monday’s Inspiration.

  30. 30
    PixlNinja
    December 18th, 2007 10:25 am

    quite different menus, I like it !

  31. 31
    Sean Hodge
    December 18th, 2007 10:37 am

    I was wondering if you had some samples not requiring the use of flash or javascript, but just straight html/css. Thx for the post.

  32. 32
    IT Certification Training Videos
    December 18th, 2007 12:07 pm

    Great magazine, a little light in the post yes…. but great overall. I think the amount of great information you guys have been posting up until now more than cover a few light posts.

    I’d really like a good article on html/css menus without flash/javascript, etc. Perhaps showing some great horizontal and vertical menus, and it’s effectiveness for SEO. Seems everything I’ve read about java menus, etc., have had some type of negative impact on overall SEO effectiveness.

    Anyone else care to comment, I’d love to hear it.

  33. 33
    c.crack
    December 18th, 2007 12:45 pm

    .ah,
    this was ok.
    i dont know anything about design, or poofs for that matter.
    no.
    anyway,
    I subscribed to your feed, but its doesnt come through enough.
    I usually like it when it does.
    keep on trying!

  34. 34
    Yalcin
    December 18th, 2007 2:38 pm

    cmon guys.. it’s almost end of year… I don’t mind a short post. got a bit on anyway.

  35. 35
    outwindow
    December 18th, 2007 3:10 pm

    good jobs !
    but they are difficult to use in commercial websites

  36. 36
    Rhonda
    December 18th, 2007 5:32 pm

    Or you could use fridge stickers for your navigation as a friend of mine has done – see: http://impress-cc.com.au/

  37. 37
    tux86
    December 18th, 2007 6:53 pm

    I thought about designing a paperstrip navigation months before, but this does not help me to create something brand new. It’s not as inspiring as the last weeks post was.
    Merry Christmas (i guess this is the reason for the few posts in the last time)

  38. 38
    Michael Skirde
    December 18th, 2007 7:00 pm

    Great idea! This will make the web more beautiful.

  39. 39
    Barry McGee
    December 18th, 2007 7:37 pm

    Smashing Magazine is awesome, keep up the good work…

    Those who criticize, you would almost think you were paying for the service!

  40. 40
    tom
    December 18th, 2007 7:43 pm

    Similar navigation at http://www.abedi.de

  41. 41
    deathhead
    December 18th, 2007 8:11 pm

    i don’t think these is greatest article you do. the paper strips is ugly. but smashing magazine is the best. i love you. will you marry me?

  42. 42
    Evangelist
    December 18th, 2007 8:37 pm

    A good introduction to this style and some nice examples. It’s about time we had a short post ;) – it is Christmas after all and, a very Merry time to one and all..

  43. 43
    3G
    December 18th, 2007 11:21 pm

    decent post, not sure why everyone feels the need to be 133t, but what i cant get over is when a site is very nice looking and its get butchered by a developer. Im a developer myself and i would never goof up like the first navigation did. Text is running into an image….eh whatever now i sound l33t, haha.

  44. 44
    Yogi
    December 18th, 2007 11:47 pm

    Very very nice indeed.
    Great post dude.

  45. 45
    Nytryk
    December 19th, 2007 12:48 am

    WoW :-O

  46. 46
    Robert
    December 19th, 2007 6:38 am

    They look nice but for my taste too playful to use on a serious website.

  47. 47
    Hope
    December 19th, 2007 9:31 am

    There’s a similar paper strip or bookmark look here: http://www.rosefu.net

  48. 48
    hurben
    December 19th, 2007 2:27 pm

    err.. outline:none;

  49. 49
    Chris
    December 19th, 2007 7:33 pm

    Happy Christmas Smashing Magazine + F**k the begrudgers and moaners!

  50. 50
    Steve Ranford
    December 21st, 2007 6:30 pm

    Hmmm… not sure about that. Interesting, but not very inspiring to be honest… still worth bringing to our attention though.

    Keep up the good work.

    Merry Christmas everyone!

  51. 51
    arman
    December 26th, 2007 12:57 am

    wow!!

    that is very nice

    (a lot of a lot)
    thanks

  52. 52
    Robert Marbun
    December 27th, 2007 12:33 pm

    very nice!

  53. 53
    kamal
    January 1st, 2008 3:36 am

    Great Resource

  54. 54
    Jylan Wynne
    January 3rd, 2008 2:36 am

    I agree with the people saying that menu #3 is no good. It isn’t. There is no way that anybody could easily tell where the links go to.

  55. 55
    sri
    January 8th, 2008 7:02 am

    Keep up the good work.

  56. 56
    Ivan
    January 23rd, 2008 1:13 pm

    To the critics with menu#3: Are you going blind? Didn’t you see the hover effect on those big-big-reallyBIG letters on the top of the frame?
    OMG…

  57. 57
    ivan
    April 23rd, 2008 9:10 am

    no inspiring

  1. 00

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