CB Widget Pageant 2005

Submitted by afterglow (571 points) on Tue, 2005-07-12 11:59

With the advent of OS X 10.4, people have been introduced to the concept of widgets as an extra layer of GUI goodness on top of the normal OS. Freed from the Aqua design constraints, these widgets are allowing people to alter the interface to fit the purpose and style of the widget. From the ridiculous (we're looking at you Dancing Homer) to the utterly useful (WidgetMail) there seems to be a growing momentum to build new funsize applications which do increasingly cool things in new ways.

So to salute this new sexiness we've decided to hold a beauty pageant of sorts here on creativebits for the widgets. Leaving the borrowed hairdryers and bitchy comments to one side, we want to find out what widget the CB community thinks is the finest example of design currently in circulation. Unlike those normal beauty contests, we're not remotely interested if the widget wants world peace or a career feeding orphans; we're just after looks. So brains are out and superficial, surface sexiness is in.....

The Process
1. Find a widget that gets you hot under the collar, graphics wise. You can shamelessly plug your own widget or submit something that makes your hand clammy everytime you reach for the F12 key. Whatever widget you think has been planned and executed to perfection, with little finishing touches that Apple would be proud of.
2. Post a link to it in the comments section of this post. Just a link will suffice at the moment.
3. After a week, we'll do a poll on the nominated widgets and put up a page featuring the graphic goddesses.
4. The winners get a gold, silver and bronze award for display on their site. And the warm feeling from knowing that theirs is the hottest widget in Dashboard Land.

Update: Here are the nominations and please vote here.

afterglow.ie - Icons, interfaces, illustration

afterglow's blog

I'd like to nominate:

Submitted by Ivan on Tue, 2005-07-12 12:27.

Gmail Widget
I like that it's so simple, sharp and gives you a visual feedback if new mail is waiting. Besides it's a unique opportunity that Queen Elizabeth could participate in a beauty pageant.

I Nominate..

Submitted by buckleypeter (4 points) on Tue, 2005-07-12 12:30.

Hi, ,
For me the most beautifull is the Weather Widget, She looks good in all kinds of weather!
IF you like to play with her try this ,
http://daringfireball.net/2005/06/weather_widget_hacking
And to see her in her beauty,
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/dashboard/

EMAIL:BUCKLEYPETER@GMAIL.COM

flip a coin

Submitted by dhayn (179 points) on Tue, 2005-07-12 13:25.

flip a coin
http://members.chello.nl/j.magis1/Flip_a_Coin/

what too simple? less is more people.
(ps, the coin told me not to post it here, but who listens to coins)

FTP Drop

Submitted by Josh (154 points) on Tue, 2005-07-12 13:47.

I don't use or have this widget, but find it to be a very good visual design.

Very metaphorical. See it here: http://www.mathgamehouse.com/wm/widget_imgs/ftpdrop.big.png

More about it here: http://www.widgetmachine.com

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Josh Stevens | Nautilus7 Design
My CB Blog

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Josh Stevens | My Site
My CB Blog

ShortStat Widget

Submitted by webdav@creative... (4 points) on Tue, 2005-07-12 13:53.

http://www.keeganjones.com/widgets/shortstat/

The Neubix fellas did a great job with this. I love it, and use at least two instances of it every day a few times a day.

Creatures in my head

Submitted by Jammo (0 points) on Tue, 2005-07-12 13:53.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/games/creaturesinmyheadwidget.html

not a useful widget, but makes my boring days a lot happier :)
also i love the look of the widget, makes a nice change from the aqua appearance.

__
Goo

I would say ANY of WidgetMachine.com widgets

Submitted by JimD (2459 points) on Tue, 2005-07-12 14:37.

They're all beautiful, if not overpriced and marginally useful.

Get your fix of design software tips, tricks & commentary.

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Visit The Graphic Mac for graphics and Mac OS tips, reviews, tutorials and discussion.

The iTunes one especially!

Submitted by JimD (2459 points) on Tue, 2005-07-12 14:38.

Get your fix of design software tips, tricks & commentary.

-----------
Visit The Graphic Mac for graphics and Mac OS tips, reviews, tutorials and discussion.

a bit off topic but ...

Submitted by Jammo (0 points) on Tue, 2005-07-12 15:02.

Cian - Great work with the artwork there! I wish I had your talents ^_^

__
Goo

It wouldn't win a beauty pageant but...

Submitted by jasongraphix (26 points) on Tue, 2005-07-12 20:32.

The SysStat Widget is extremely handy. Before I switched jobs, I spent most of my time on a PC, and had a customizable widget program called Samurize to monitor system info. Although, it could be a lot prettier, SysStat is now a permanent member of my dashboard.

I vote for Wimic. Wimic is a

Submitted by ozskry (60 points) on Wed, 2005-07-13 08:33.

I vote for Wimic. Wimic is a Dashboard widget that streams comics. You have a bunch of comics to choose in. I like the way the main interface is built. It has a calendar and a drop-down list in comics balloons and the interface adapts itself to the lenght of the comic. Very clean and cool.

http://www.dashboardwidgets.com/showcase/data/43/Wimic-2p01f.png