BrainFuel

I know there’s a place for sites like this. I just don’t often think the execution is that perfect. What I don’t like is when the navigation and content are frustrating to use.

Either way, I know some of our audience loves to see sites like these so here we go.

Craft Grafix – is seriously lacking in navigation usability however has some really nice effects going

417north – of this group of sites, 417north is my favorite. Clean navigation and plenty of white space

Blitz Digital Studios – cool intro and clean navigation system (fun, too)… well done

EVB – Very simple navigation system and colors. I liked how it wasn’t in my face… I can see modeling the next Tornado site, especially our navigation system, after this site

Thanks to the AZ Flash Users Group for these links.

Tom Beddard, the guy that designed the interface for PHPBB has a new flash blog, and although the date nav mechanism isn’t the most intuitive, the morph/grow effect is cool when you go to the portfolio. I think I’ve seen it somewhere else but I can’t remember…

We’ve been running Google AdSense ads on the right side of this site for exactly one month now. I promised that we would let you know if we made any money. I’m pleased to report we earned $33.99 in 30 days. Some people might say that’s not very much, and I say… it’s $33.99 more than BrainFuel made the month before.

It’s a pizza or two every month.

It’s one tank of gas.

It’s ten $3 coffees.

At the end of the year, it’s an iPod.

Thanks to everybody for clicking on the ads.

Here at Tornado we’re passionate about good interface design. Especially when it comes to web applications. We’re building a web application called Windstorm which probably accounts for most of our interest in the medium and I think that’s fair.

One of the sites we’ve found that has some great inspiration if you’re into this sort of thing is Luke W Interface Designs.

He also runs a web site called Functioning Form

Googol: 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000

That’s one hundred zeros. Apparently, the guy that “invented” that number says it’s more than the number of raindrops that fall on a city in a hundred years. I find that a bit hard to believe… More like a thousand years in Phoenix!

Quite a number of Phoenix car dealerships are making a switch. No, not to Apple computers, they’re switching to Scion cars (away from Oldsmobile – because they stopped producing new models).

So I checked out the Scion web site. Quite cool if I do say so myself. Lots of flashy graphics and small type – maybe they’re trying to appeal to a younger market? Do you think so?? (I also liked the gallery page)

Today some friends and I were making lunch plans and we decided on Chipotle. So just for kicks I checked out their site (are they based out of Colorado???). Anyways, I wandered into the “Work” page to see where they were located and there is a page titled “Pen Tapping.” You’ll have to check it out.

The agency that built the site is Xylem.

Yesterday at the office Don made reference to how much he liked the polls at Slashdot. So this morning I decided to check it out.

Wow. That’s all I can say. They’re funny. So I added it to my daily lineup and you should, too.