Planning: Tron-Inspired Desktop UI
Ever since 'AdvancedUI: Status Screen', I've been wanting to design more futuristic concept UIs that would apply more towards real-world software applications with the possibility of being developed into functionality... things like hardware monitoring(cpu core temp/usage, ram temp/usage, harddrive, etc. etc.), OS GUIs, car dashboards, and more.

To start off, I'm currently thinking about designing a Tron-Inspired Desktop UI because I've been eager to design more interfaces. I was amazed by the VFX in the movie, and I think many would get a kick out of a well-executed Tron-style desktop interface. Initially, this would be a concept UI, designed with no limits in mind. Someone I work with says he can skin just about anything in linux, so I'll be putting that to the test.

I'm also dying to learn After Effects so I can create animated concepts, but with the limited time I have and the many things I have going on at once, that will be difficult.


Portfolio
Those of you who have been following me for a while know that I'm passionate about developing a working portfolio, but also that I've failed to do so despite the numerous designs I've conceptualized for it.

The problem with those designs is that they are way too image-heavy. Sure, the backgrounds fit together nicely, but there are too many of them. Loading times would be sluggish, and bandwidth usage would be outrageous. Another problem is that they don't allow much flexibility in terms of adding content and pages.

Wouldn't you agree with me?

So what I'm going to do is design (yet another...) portfolio design... one that is just as sleek and futuristic, but now taking into consideration efficiency and flexibility. The challenge is to make it just as(if not, more) stunning as the past two designs turned out.

Over the past year, I've been improving my front-end development skills(CSS/HTML/Javascript)... something which I once lacked, hindering the development of the portfolio.


So what was 'Swift' anyway?
I haven't mentioned this in a while, but I basically scrapped the project.

It was supposed to be a completely new and innovative Operating System UI concept that would challenge Windows as well as Mac OSX. The bulk(like 80%) of the project was making the whole thing functional in flash as a mockup(to see how everything would open, move, and function). The flash was going to be made to feel like an actual OS complete with sound effects and mock-data, but not really an OS.

I decided to scrap the flash portion of the project. I thought the idea of developing the whole thing into an extremely in-depth flash-based mockup was way too overkill, when a simple image of the design would do just fine.

So the idea of conceptualizing an entirely new OS GUI is still up in the air. As far as a flash mockup goes, that's not going to happen. See, I think it might be better if it were made into an actual working UI in linux, rather than a flash mockup.