30 April 2007
Stripe Generator
The Stripe Generator is what Web 2.0 is all about. It’s a new tool for website or graphic designers and it basicly creates tiled backgrounds of diagonal lines on the go - quick and easy, in a flash!
Allowing for a whole bunch of different variables, you can create thousands of different tiled backgrounds by just changing the appropriate variables. You don’t need any kind of design skills to customize a background and this tool saves a lot of time, if you consider that this normally had to be done by hand in Photoshop. Plus, in a graphic editor such as Photoshop, it’s actually quite tricky to design tiled backgrounds that will repeat accurately, without being aligned incorrectly.
When you’re finished with your new background, the interface conveniently saves it as a local PNG for you. The PNG is already at the minimum file and pixel size, so it’s super effective and easy to implement in your new design.
The Good Stuff
Most of my praise goes to the vision for this project. I know Web 2.0 is a trend and a lot of applications are being based on (and written specifically for) this trend, but this kind of innovation in a social media-mad Web 2.0, is truly unprecedented.
The interface is slick and easy to use. The system is flexible and offers the user a bucket load of variables to play around with in order to create a truly custom background tile. And the end result is truly outstanding - it’s so easy to save the file to a local PNG and then implement the image in your design / website. Plus that image has already been optimized to its smallest size, which is indeed a bonus.
Critiq’ed
I guess there is not much wrong with the service, that’s still in Beta phase, as is, but if you look long and hard enough, you’re bound to find a few minor things that needs a bit of critique. The one thing that is evident, is that it’s not too friendly for people that don’t know CSS. There are three steps at the bottom of the homepage that details how one can implement the image as a repeated background, but it’s not very extensive at all. So one recommendation is definitely to include a better, expanded tutorial section for CSS / web designer beginners. Another recommendation I’d like to make, is for users to include their designs, with backgrounds from the Stripe Generator, in an online gallery.
Other than that, the only other thing that bothers me is the font they use in some areas. It might just be my browser, but the font looks a bit distorted and almost looks like it doesn’t render properly. I don’t experience this on other sites though, so it must be their choice of typeface…
Judgement
This is a truly awesome tool and one I continue to use on a daily basis - in fact, since discovering this tool about three weeks ago, I haven’t manually created a tiled background again. This tool emphasises what Web 2.0 is about and it’s ease of use will make it a very popular tool for designers.
I can only see it grow from here on in and I anticipate a great tool (one of the best around) once it exits its Beta phase. Add those recommendations I listed to the top and you’ve got a world-class project indeed!
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