Sweet New UI

So I was looking at some of the new web based products from Demo '08, and there is some cool new stuff out there in beta.

The product I liked the best (and I haven't even gotten to use it yet) is blist. I may change my mind once I use it, but right now I love it. They are in beta right now and I signed up to be part of their beta, why haven't they let me in yet?? Hurry up! LOL

I like it for a few reasons:

First, the product looks so much like a design I did for another web based product I designed the UI for. They (other product) utimately used the overall design of my ui, but changed from a black color scheme to gray. But I love the edginess of the black, and I'm so glad to see a product out there that isn't afraid to use it! WTG! And since it looks so similar to something I designed of course I'm partial to it.

Second, as a user interface designer we need to figure out how to make using things fun, easy, intuitive, and also look nice. But if it only looks nice and isn't easy or fun - well who wants to use it? And really who wants to use something ugly either? Sometimes it takes several interations to get it right, but I like to see web apps pushing the limits. And blist is a web database application (snooze right?), but wait there's more: it's so cool looking I actually want to use it. It appears (from the screenshot) that it makes using databases easy. DBs are difficult to use, and if these guys have figured out how to make it easy (and fun?!) - well then kudos to them.

Oh and love the logo - it's really cute and friendly. It makes databases seem less scary as well. So hurry up blist - send me an invite to beta!