20 Fresh jQuery Plugins to Enhance your User Interface

The great thing about jQuery is that talented jQuery developers often release new and useful plugins on a regular basis. jQuery plugins are not only easy to implement, but easy to maintain even when used throughout large sites.

In this article, we share with you a list of 20 useful jQuery plugins that were released recently that could help you for your next web project. There are various types of plugins here such as modal windows, image galleries, auto complete for form input, bookmarking functions, preloaders, and more.

Enjoy!

1. SimpleModal

This jQuery plugin is a flexible and straightforward way of providing modal window functionality on your site.

SimpleModal Demo

2. Panel Gallery

Panel Gallery is an image slideshow with a unique transitional effect. It transitions to another image in a sequential panel manner.

Panel Gallery Demo

3. Easy Image Gallery

Creating image thumbnail galleries is a snap when you implement the Easy Image Gallery jQuery plugin into your site’s template.

Easy Image Gallery Demo

4. nyromModal

nyromModal is a useful jQuery plugin that has a robust set of features and options for you to truly create a customized modal window for your web pages.

nyromModal Demo

5. PikaChoose

PikaChoose is a super lightweight image gallery that’s a cinch to integrate into your website. You can see it in action on the Belvedere Inc website.

PikaChoose Demo

6. Image Overlay Plugin

The Image Overlay Plugin lets you present more information about your images. Hovering over an image reveals associated text on top of it.

Image Overlay Plugin Demo

7. imgAreaSelect

If you’re creating a web app that supports image cropping, this can be the client-side function that lets your users select rectangular areas of an image.

ImgAreaSelect Demo

8. SimpleMenu

If you need a simple, lightweight, and barebones JavaScript-based navigation menu, SimpleMenu is the jQuery plugin of your dreams.

SimpleMenu Demo

9. SlideBox

Do you need a sliding div panel at the top (or bottom) of web pages that can contain more links or your login/sign-in feature? Check out SlideBox.

SlideBox Demo

10. Single Drop Down Menu

Single Drop Down Menu (also known as Single-ddm) is a quick and hassle-free way of implementing multi-level navigation menus that leverage JavaScript.

Single Drop Down Menu Demo

11. Auto Complete

Are you trying to build a custom search feature for a site? The Auto Complete jQuery plugin can supercharge your form inputs with additional user feature.

Auto Complete Demo

12. jQuery Iconize

jQuery Iconize allows you to reduce or expand page elements into an “icon state”, providing your web app a user-friendly way of minimizing page objects.

jQuery Iconize Demo

13. Inline Text Edit

Web developers looking to provide users with a basic in-page text editor should take a look at the Inline Text Edit jQuery plugin.

Inline Text Edit Demo

14. PfeLoader

This jQuery plugin allows you to display a progress bar for page components that are being downloaded – useful for image galleries that share large-scale photos.

PfeLoader Demo

15. Growl

Growl allows you to present DOM-inserted elements (divs by default) that are perfect for user warnings, messages, and status update notifications.

Growl Demo

16. jQuery Bookmark

Sharing your content in social news and networking sites requires little else than implementing the jQuery Bookmark plugin.

jQuery Bookmark Demo

17. Mouse Over Animation for Text

MOAText is a spiffy jQuery plugin for giving you the ability to animate HTML text triggered when the mouse cursor hovers over them.

MOAText Demo

18. OverScroll

OverScroll lets you move around by holding down a mouse button and moving it, similar to how the iPhone allows you to move around a screen by finger gestures.

OverScroll Demo

19. jQDialog

jQDialog is a jQuery plugin for exhibiting unobtrusive modal windows for in-page notifications that can replace the alert(), prompt(), and confirm() JavaScript functions.

jQDialog Demo

20. Uploadify

Uploadify is a package written on top of jQuery that gives you both the client-side and server-side functionality you’ll need to handle single-file and multi-file uploads.

Uploadify Demo

Can you suggest more plugins that we’ve overlooked? Have you used any of the plugins above? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments!

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About the Author

Kawsar Ali is a web designer, graphic designer, and wannabe photographer based in NY, U.S. He’s also the founder of Desizntech, a site on tips about web design, Mac, PC and more. If you’d like to connect with him, you can follow him on Twitter or at his Personal Website.