This is the video for last Sunday and yes I’ll post today’s later on tonight!

Kuroshio Sea – 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world – (song is Please don’t go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

We Own The Sky from dannorton on Vimeo.

MUTATION … (HD) 3D animation from Daniel Zagórski on Vimeo.

Nightfall from Valentin Schwind on Vimeo.

Hoedown from Rodeo from Eleanor Stewart on Vimeo.

MASNAVI from Murat Pak on Vimeo.

Jesse Lampkin Reel 2009 from Statrick on Vimeo.

Lifetime Spring/Summer 2010 from Trevor Fleming on Vimeo.

From my window – November 2007 from colorline on Vimeo.

With Rain from takcom™ on Vimeo.

Now you should be eager to open Photoshop, After Effects and get right stuck in!

1 – Pagination

Image from smashingmagazine.com

Pagination is a good usability aid to let users see visually how many “pages” of content your  site has and provides away of users to easily browse from new content to very old content. A bonus as well is you also get more page views when users browser the other “pages” advertising score!

2 – Previous Post & Next Post

Image from sindustries.co.uk

A great feature that I think you should use even you already have a “most recent/popular” post’s at the end of your post its the same idea as pagination in which you can view older content or newer content inside of a post but displays the the next newest as well as the older post to that .

3 – Footer with Links

Links in the footer are awesome for users deep linked into your site, helping robots crawl your site and providing a way for your users to find  out where they are and where they want to go.

4 – Banner or Company Logo Linked to Homepage

Image from PSD tuts+

I know this one is a no brainier but for those of you that don’t know always make your website header logo or banner link back to your websites homepage this provides a user a “fail safe” in which they can go back to the homepage and start again.

5 – Navigation Menu

Image from aiburn.com

I cant stress enough how much how much a good GUI on a website is so important.

Design your menu and ensure that your menu looks like a menu make sure your buttons are designed to be clicked on so your buttons/menu doesn’t suffer from”menu blindness” make sure you have a hover and an active state I personally think visited isn’t a requirement for Navigation menus but design your hover and active states with a “change” like a highlight or text becomes bold anything that stands out.

6 – Search Box on Every Page

Image from netmag.co.uk

With your Wordpress site include your search in the header file this way users can search your website from anywhere in your website and from any page.

It is also possible to design a search results page that can also add extra usability

7 – Use Headings Properly in Articles

Image from alistapart.com

The proper use of headlines in articles make sure you use your H1 tag’s and maybe give your H2,3,4,5 a different look however on Sindustries I keep my article “Subs” all the same style.

8 – End of post “Stubs”

image from smashingmagazine.com

Post stubs are great for giving users a visual cue to say “stop and go somewhere else” and getting users to go much deeper into your own website or onto another website owned by you like twitter for example.

9 – Categories & Archives

Image from sindustries.co.uk

This might seem very very trivial but considering even the BBC didn’t have categories or archives the result was it made users finding similar style of stories difficult and you couldn’t even look at the past weeks content because they had no archive !

Now wordpress gathers categories and automatically produces an archives, simple help your website visitor out and use them on your site.

10 – Contact Details

Image from abuzeedo.com

What does contact details have to do with usability I hear you say but its simple.

Its to allow users to contact you! If your site doesnt have a contact page or email address then how are you ment to know about any problems or clients trying to contact you ?

Over the years there has been some fantastic metal album cover designs  that really represent the music on the album.

Sindustries takes you through 10 metal album cover designs from recent bands and provides links to the artists who designed the album cover and the artists who feature on the album.

Go and check out the designer’s websites and the music artist’s website.

Metal Album Cover Designs

Album Cover 10 – Nightrage – A New Disease is Born

I really like all the grungey vector elements they come together really nicely and look really tight.

Nightrage with there new singer Antony Hämäläinen the band is better than ever I can’t wait for “Wearing a Martyr’s Crown” to be released!

Gustavo Sazes abstrata.net | Nightrage – A New Disease is Born

Album Cover 9 – In flames – A Sense of Purpose

The latest offering from In flames this time In Flames have decided not to go for a cover by  Niklas Sundin (Dark Tranquillity Guitarist) and went with a design by Alex Pardee.

I must admit I was really surprised they done that but the design is totally worth it the “Owl Man” is super detailed and the T-shirt designs and other renders of the “owl man” also look amazing!

Yes I know that this again isn’t a “Jester Race” album but In Flames tracks are really tight and very well put together.

Alex Pardee eyesuckink.com | In Flames – A Sense of Purpose

Album Cover 8 – The Berzerker – The Reawakening

Now The Berzerker’s latest offing is simple amazing after leaving earache and starting up “Berzerker Industries” a kind reawakening sounds about right.

One thing about the Berzerker is there logo the dragon featured on a number of there album covers the fact that the dragon featured on this album cover design simple explodes kind of emerging and this also adds to the “The Reawakening” that Luke Kenny had in mind.

Designer Unknown | The Berzerker – The Reawakening

Album Cover 7 – Arsis – A Celebration of Guilt

Arsis debut album blasting straight out of hell and packing some punch!

The hand drawn / grunge album cover style is really popular these days and in this case so very well executed.

Riddick Brothers| Arsis – A Celebration of Guilt

Album Cover 6 – Jesu – Conqueror

Justin Broadrick took the picture featured on the album cover and with a little post-editing, One awesome album cover.

I think that the simple design adds to the actual music on the album, Jesu are currently my favorite Metal band at the moment I strongly suggest you check them out.

Justin Broadrick | Jesu – Conqueror

Album Cover 5 – Swallow the Sun – Hope

Swallow the Sun has one impressive band logo, The moth design is very tasteful and elegant really adding to the design.

Album cover designer unknown | Swallow the Sun – Hope

Album Cover 4 – Novembers Doom – The Novella Resevoir

Paul Kuhr is the main man behind this cover and he is in fact the lead singer of November Doom.

I love the floating umbrella I think it adds to the whole doom vibe that your drifting away…

Paul Kuhr | Novembers Doom – The Novella Reservoir

Album Cover 3 – Amorphis – Eclipse

A little change in singing style and Amorphis album “Eclipse” features tales of a epic finnish tale (Kalevala).

The burning orb / sun is a real eye catcher and the vector shapes transform the design to something very flattering and elegant.

Album cover designer unknown | Amorphis – Eclipse

Album Cover 2 – Nevermore – This Godless Endeavour

Nevermore are a metal power house and with this photo manipulation album cover by Hugh Syme helps Nevermore visually represent this godless endeavour.

Hugh Syme | Nevermore – This Godless Endeavour

Album Cover 1 – Darkest Hour – Deliver Us

I love how detailed the hands and bones are such a tight design by John Baizle.

The origial design seems to have featured with different colours however I do prefer this one.

John Baizle | Darkest Hour – Deliver Us

Bonus Album Cover Design!

Last but certainly not least is a album cover for a fictional band to flex my design muscles.

This is my album cover design for Ashbringer (Ashbringer is a weapon in world of warcraft).

I hope you enjoyed this article and If you wish to contact me about designing an album cover design for your own band feel free to contact me and please feel free to comment.