Design, Web

ToodleDo is Great But Looks Terrible. Make It Look Better with Stylish.

No Comments 01 February 2011

In the world of online task management, ToodleDo offers most of what Remember the Milk does but also includes, among many other features, the ability to have sub-tasks. RTM, regrettably, does not.

As many of you are already aware, sub-tasks can be a lifesaver when it comes to project management.

Unfortunately, ToodleDo – in this author’s humble opinion – has a terrible interface. The colors just plain don’t work together well and navigation is the complete opposite of intuitive – especially for a site that’s supposed to help you with GTD.

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MachForm – Like Wufoo for Your domain

Design

MachForm – Like Wufoo for Your domain

No Comments 22 January 2009

image

Up until a few years ago, pretty much the only way to have a user-input form on your site was to either code one yourself or download a PHP- or ASP-based form from a site like HotScripts. The whole process was all very code-oriented and entirely unintuitive.

Then, out of the ashes, arose a slew of sites including Wufoo, JotForm, FormAssembly and many others; all designed to make the process of creating forms of all kinds a brilliantly simple, drag-and-drop one.

Of the three aforementioned sites, Wufoo is, by far, my favorite and has proven itself to be both reliable and cutting-edge.

There are two things, however, that might prevent the average individual or freelancer from using a site like Wufoo on a regular basis. First off, the monthly fee can be a bit hefty if you want a decent amount of control over how your form looks and how you retrieve your data. Second, even if you do want to wholly take over the forms you create on the site (in terms of data-retrieval or aesthetics), the process can be a bit daunting even for premium subscribers.

Enter MachForm from Appnitro. For all intents and purposes, MachForm is pretty much a Wufoo clone that sits on your own Web site giving you complete control over where your data resides and how well it integrates into your existing design. In addition, there’s no monthly fee with MachForm. You pay $39 for a site license and with that fee comes free minor upgrades for a year and full support via email.

Like I said, it’s pretty much a Wufoo clone and, therefore, makes creating forms to embed on your site a beautifully simplistic process. Check out some of the screenshots and a demo on the official site: http://www.appnitro.com/machform.

CSS Sticky Footer – It’s Pretty Self-Explanatory

Design

CSS Sticky Footer – It’s Pretty Self-Explanatory

No Comments 22 January 2009

2009-01-22_CSS-Sticky-Footer

The purpose behind CSS Sticky Footer is simple: to provide you with the CSS & HTML code necessary to ensure that your site’s footer always sticks to the bottom of a browser window – even if you happen to have a page or two with a negligible amount of content.

I, for one, notice when a site’s footer information is sticking halfway up a page with just a paragraph or two on it. It’s quite unattractive, in my opinion. Sure, it’s not that big of a deal but if I can improve the aesthetic appeal of my site with just a few lines of code, it’s worth it to me.

And that’s exactly what CSS Sticky Footer does… read on at the official site: http://www.cssstickyfooter.com/.

Pixlr – One of the Best Photoshop Competitors Out There… and It’s All Web-Based

Design, Feature, Web 2.0

Pixlr – One of the Best Photoshop Competitors Out There… and It’s All Web-Based

No Comments 22 December 2008

I’ve had Pixlr bookmarked for almost two months now. I’d been wanting to take a look at it ever since I stumbled across a few articles detailing its release in early November and I sincerely wish I had done so then.

There are a number of image editors out there (seriously, I’m not even going to begin to try and review them all… it’s a bit ridiculous) and of the Web-based variety, I’ve been a big fan of Picnik. Picnik, which began offering premium account-specific features for free back in February, features an extravagant number of tools to help you edit an image you’ve uploaded or even an image you’re storing in a separate account like Syncplicity or Flickr. You can resize an image, add text, tweak the image using an expected array of filters (blur, mosaic, etc.) and there’s plenty more where that came from. (In fact, before we did the redesign this month, the banner image for Fans of Tech was originally created using features within Picnik.)

So, with the arrival of Web 2.0, the concept of editing an image online became a reality and companies like Picnik made the experience a fluid one.

Well, with the arrival of Pixlr, you’ve got pretty much everything you might love about online applications like Picnik but with the added bonus of having an interface remarkably similar to that of Photoshop to help you make the transition to editing an image online if, say, you’re on the road and don’t have access to the full-blown Adobe design app.

Be it the menu options, the available features, the interface, or the keyboard shortcuts, Pixlr definitely makes you feel at home.

As an example, you can open a new file using Ctrl+O, create a new layer and add layer styles like drop-shadow, inner-shadow, etc. (yep, Pixlr supports layers… wonderfully, I might add) using the respective options in the “Layer” drop-down menu, transform the image using Ctrl+T, copy a portion of the image using Ctrl+C, paste the portion to a new layer using Ctrl+V and ultimately save the image using Ctrl+S. It’s flow is a thing of beauty, really. (Note: you’ll be saving to either JPG or PNG so your layers won’t be retained but we can’t ask for everything, right?)

Overall, I’m just impressed how well this entirely Web-based app can easily replace an image-editing desktop app for your basic needs.

Via Download Squad

The Email Standards Project: Ensuring That Your Message Looks the Same on Every Computer

Apple, Design, Google, Microsoft, Open Source, Software, Web

The Email Standards Project: Ensuring That Your Message Looks the Same on Every Computer

No Comments 12 November 2008

2008-11-12_EmailStandardsProject-LogoIf you’re one of those people that reads their email in multiple locations (say, on the Web with Gmail then on your desktop with Outlook) then I’m sure you’ve noticed that some, nay, alot of messages get butchered in one client but look perfectly fine in another.

This is typically a result of two separate problems. First, the developers of the email message that you received perhaps didn’t use Web standards when composing it. Alternatively, the email authors may have done everything right and composed the message using the most modern standards possible but the developers of your email client don’t know what they’re doing. It’s 50/50 for me… I’ve experienced both the former and the latter equally, I do believe.
Regardless of where the problem originated, there is a solution: agreeing to a set of standards and sticking to them.

That’s where the "Email Standards Project" comes in.

The goal of the Email Standards Project is to work with both the design community (to help them "understand why standards are so important for email") and email client developers (to "ensure that emails render consistently.")

More information is available at email-standards.org including info on how you can help with the project. You can even find up-to-date ratings of current email clients like Google’s Gmail (FAIL), Windows Live Mail (WIN) and, of course, everybody’s favorite email client: Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 (you guessed it: FAIL – most likely because it uses Microsoft Word as a rendering engine).

The tests are based on the ever-infamous acid test and go into detail as to what displays properly in the client and what doesn’t.

It’s a noble cause in my personal opinion and I sincerely hope that both Google and Microsoft invest a little more time and money into ensuring that some of their most popular products follow a set of reasonable standards… something that even Mozilla’s Thunderbird can offer.

Pattern Cooler May Just Be the Easiest Way to Get a Great-Looking Custom Background for Your Site

Design, Web 2.0

Pattern Cooler May Just Be the Easiest Way to Get a Great-Looking Custom Background for Your Site

No Comments 26 October 2008

2008-10-25_PatternCooler_Logo

PatternCooler.com, being the ingenious web app that it is, might just be the answer you’re looking for… if the question being posed is: “how can I quickly and easily create a custom background for my site (or my client’s site) without having to scour the Web for Photoshop tutorials or pattern sets?”

How does it work?

First, browse through the 80 different designs (and growing) currently available to find a pattern that you like. Next, adjust the colors within the pattern using the available color-picker as shown below.

2008-10-26_PatternCooler_Color-Options

The next step is to adjust the sizing of the pattern. Your options range from 25% to 200% of the original design size  – which can result in a dramatic change in appearance. Check out the image below and click for a larger view.

2008-10-26_PatternCooler_Sizing-Options

Once you’ve made your adjustments, you can add the completed version to your account for future reference and then download the final bg pattern, free-of-charge, to use on your site/project.

2008-10-26_PatternCooler_Final-Options[7]

Like I said, the site is free to use but I highly recommend making the $1.00 donation that’s mentioned on the final download page. Just think about the time you’ll save by avoiding numerous Google searches or an hour or two inside Photoshop/Gimp/etc… and then fork over the buck to ensure that this site can continue to provide a quality service. (Which is more than I can say for about 86.3% of all the other web apps out there on the InterWebs.)

2008-10-26_PatternCooler_Download-Give

Microsoft’s Web Presence, Much Like the Company Itself, is in Complete Disarray

Design, Microsoft

Microsoft’s Web Presence, Much Like the Company Itself, is in Complete Disarray

No Comments 20 September 2008

Let’s take a moment and pretend you’re on Microsoft’s home page over at microsoft.com.  The design is a good mixture of light and dark (in my opinion) and is relatively easy way to find your way around.  The primary navigation menu is over to the right-hand side of the screen and provides a comprehensive overview of Microsoft’s immense site in a relatively small area.  Kudos to ‘em for that particular element.

Microsoft.com

Now, let’s say you click on the Windows option from the main menu and select the page dedicated to Windows Vista.  Whoa…you’re not in Kansas anymore.  The area of the site dedicated to the Windows series of products is in an entirely different template, the main menu is in an entirely different location and you’ve just gone from a primarily dark theme to a light one.

Windows Products @ Microsoft.com

Hey, at least the search bar is in the same place.

Now, let’s say you want to check out the latest security bulletins for your Windows-based product.  Wait for it…

Old-School Microsoft Site Design

Yep, yet another design and the main menu has moved to the left.  And that’s not all…

Microsoft Office Online:

Microsoft Office Options @ Microsoft.com

Unlimited Potential Partner Program:

Microsoft Unlimited Potential Partner Program @ Microsoft.com

Windows Marketplace:

Windows Marketplace @ Microsoft.com

Microsoft Gaming:

Microsoft Gaming @ Microsoft.com

Windows Server 2008:

Microsoft TechNet @ Microsoft.com

Alright, so far we have at least eight different designs currently being used at Microsoft.com. Compare that with the different areas of Apple’s site at apple.com where you have one consistent theme throughout the entire site.

So, are we missing any designs that you’re aware of?  Do you think the amount of different designs at Microsoft’s site have lead to as much confusion throughout the years as we do?  Let us know in the comments.


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