Smashing Magazine - we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.
Paper Strips Menus
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?
Deb Sofield sticks posts on a paper pile.
A menu in the shape of coloured loops.
These ties will never hang on the neck of a web-developer.
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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December 17th, 2007 10:15 pmVery Boring!
- 3December 17th, 2007 11:07 pm
A bit short, hmm?
- 4December 17th, 2007 11:33 pm
hmm.. holidays got smashing down? posts have been thin lately… thanks for the monday post
- 5December 17th, 2007 11:51 pm
Interesting, but not very inspiring. :-)
- 6December 18th, 2007 12:04 am
One post per week and this short?
I still love this site though ;-)
- 7December 18th, 2007 12:28 am
I think subjects have finished for your blog.
- 8December 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 ..
- 9December 18th, 2007 2:12 am
uhh…smashing rules, think maybe they have lives? or family? calm down guys!
- 10December 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.
- 11December 18th, 2007 2:34 am
Nice gallery and idea. Smashing magazine is the best webDesign Gallery.
- 12December 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.
- 13December 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!
- 14December 18th, 2007 3:31 am
Interesting, thanks!
- 15December 18th, 2007 3:46 am
Next week on smashing magazine : How to build a 3 column, 2 row table using only .html
- 16December 18th, 2007 3:54 am
looks really effective, love the tie idea.
Good stuff!!
- 17December 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.
- 18December 18th, 2007 4:07 am
I dont like the third example… These icons doesn’t show clearly what they mean…. =/
- 19December 18th, 2007 4:33 am
not inspiring, sory
- 20December 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.
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- 22December 18th, 2007 4:58 am
hello!!! look this!!! the menu is very similar!!! http://www.valentinaolini.com
- 23December 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!
- 24December 18th, 2007 5:19 am
Beautiful. If only I could do cool site design…I’m learning, at least. :)
- 25December 18th, 2007 5:21 am
Nice but useless
- 26December 18th, 2007 5:38 am
Thx! Very intresting links!
- 27December 18th, 2007 5:52 am
Something we didn’t all know would have been nice!
- 28December 18th, 2007 6:13 am
These menus are nice to look at. Difficult to use.
- 29December 18th, 2007 10:12 am
Been there… done that. Shall wait for next Monday’s Inspiration.
- 30December 18th, 2007 10:25 am
quite different menus, I like it !
- 31December 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.
- 32December 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.
- 33December 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! - 34December 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.
- 35December 18th, 2007 3:10 pm
good jobs !
but they are difficult to use in commercial websites - 36December 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/
- 37December 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) - 38December 18th, 2007 7:00 pm
Great idea! This will make the web more beautiful.
- 39December 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!
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- 41December 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?
- 42December 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..
- 43December 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.
- 44December 18th, 2007 11:47 pm
Very very nice indeed.
Great post dude. - 45December 19th, 2007 12:48 am
WoW :-O
- 46December 19th, 2007 6:38 am
They look nice but for my taste too playful to use on a serious website.
- 47December 19th, 2007 9:31 am
There’s a similar paper strip or bookmark look here: http://www.rosefu.net
- 48December 19th, 2007 2:27 pm
err.. outline:none;
- 49December 19th, 2007 7:33 pm
Happy Christmas Smashing Magazine + F**k the begrudgers and moaners!
- 50December 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!
- 51December 26th, 2007 12:57 am
wow!!
that is very nice
(a lot of a lot)
thanks - 52December 27th, 2007 12:33 pm
very nice!
- 53January 1st, 2008 3:36 am
Great Resource
- 54January 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.
- 55January 8th, 2008 7:02 am
Keep up the good work.
- 56January 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… - 57April 23rd, 2008 9:10 am
no inspiring
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very nice!