MySpace, Facebook, Gmail, Twitter and the list goes on; trying to keep up and maintain all my junk accounts friends status got to be a little overwhelming. At any given time I’d have tabs to an array of communication tools and personal blogs just to stay in touch with friends and family, so I decided it was time to consolidate.

What really drove me to make the move was the daily use of IM in the work environment combined with Twitter for the social environment, lets just say lots of open windows. I took a look at Digsby, just as a trial, and it’s one of the best virtual workspace decisions I’ve made because I no longer have to login to each individual account to get messages and alerts. Once you’ve download the application simply input your username and passwords to the various communication tools you’d like to use and bam…one app to rule them all. Plus with some easy Twitter Apps, I can now send all my updates right to my Facebook profile, no need to continually post to several systems (not a big MySpace user). Do what I did, get rid of all those needless windows and consolidate to one clean system, your computers performance will thank you.

As mentioned in my last post, creating a strategy and project plan before beginning the design and build of a website or web application is perhaps the most important step in launching a successful website. Most successful businesses start with a business plan, it is our job as web strategists to translate that plan into the ever evolving web. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes I look down at the time and think to myself, “It’s already 2:00 … where did the day go?” I came across this cool application called RescueTime on makeuseof.com. It’s a time tracking application that “gives you a birds eye view of how you spend your time”. Intrigued of how I actually spend my time during the eight-hour work day, I downloaded the application to see the capabilities and functionality, and really to see the productivity of my day. Since most users have many applications open at one time, RescueTime only pays attention to the “application or site currently “in focus” … measuring what you are paying attention to”. Over the last month, I have been tagging applications I frequently use (Quickbooks, Excel, Word, Yahoo! Messenger, Outlook) and websites I frequent most often (Google, LevelTen Design, DiningIn, Paypal, EFTPS, RescueTime, Twitter). I get the “birds eye” view of how I have been spending my time, either today, this week, this month, or forever, on the RescueTime Dashboard.

I also put a widget on my iGoogle showing my “Top Activities for Today”, with tabs on the widget so that I can easily switch from today, to this week, to this month, without having to move to the actual site. I feel more productive already.

I love it!

An introspective article over at A List Apart by Luke Wroblewski delves into the reasons why…

we can do better. In fact, I believe we can get people engaged with digital services in a way that tells them how such services work and why they should care enough to use them. I also believe we can do this without explicitly making them fill out a sign-up form as a first step.

The blog is an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks (Rosenfeld Media, 2008), and you can read it here!

The article is super informative, and expounds upon the practice of gradual engagement, whereby a user is drawn into the website due to useful or practical information that pertains to their specific needs. Avoid gradual engagement solutions that simply distribute the various input fields in a sign-up form across multiple pages. It’s a good possibility that this will reduce efficiency and not delight anyone.

TOP 5 CLIENT REQUESTS

1. My Unqualified Friends have different Ideas…
   - Judge the idea on its merits, reasonably explain why it may not work, due to your research, experience, etc.
2. Purple is my favorite color, Why don’t we use that?
   - Backup with documentation, color board, creative specs, etc
3. We need more stuff about the FOLD!!
   - A significant amount of research is available to show that users understand they can scroll for more content
4. There’s so much EMPTY SPACE, can’t you fill it?
   - White space contributes to the general hierarchy of the content. NO.
5. MAKE MY LOGO BIGGER
   –>NO. the content on the page is not the logo.

Establishing the Purpose:
Aesthetics and Function. The two cannot be removed from one another in web design. They exist as your highest priority and business principle.
Read the rest of this entry »

Every morning when you wake up there is a routine that you have become accustomed too. Alarm goes off, you hit the snooze, alarm goes off again, you hit the snooze a little harder this time, then again and harder the alarm clock gets hit till finally you grunt, groan and finally get out of bed and in to the shower..off to work, stop for coffee, wake up some more and then maybe muster up enough energy to start working on your emails or phone calls. ugggggghhhh…. well this may not be your personal routine but its what a lot of people do in one way or another to get their day started. The problem with this is, they don’t really want to get up, and when you arent really happy about doing something, often times it reflects on the rest of our day. So what are some ways that we can change this?

I’s easy to recognize when you’re physically tired. You haven’t slept normally in days or even weeks. You can’t remember the last time you saw the inside of a gym. And enough caffeine is racing through your bloodstream to keep a small elephant alert. Read the rest of this entry »

I thought I would share my new organization process, as it seems to be working really well for me lately. I have it set up loosely based on the “Getting Things Done” method. I skimmed through the book, so it figures that it is lacking in some parts. Overall, it works well for me.

Process 1: Action Item Dump
I found a task management program called Fusion Desk that I LOVE. It allows me to set up different projects with folders and tasks for each project. In the screenshot below you can see my 6 current projects - “Internal,” “NBCF Website,” “NBCF Marketing,” and so on. In each of those projects I have “Action Items,” “Waiting For,” “Reference,” and “Someday.” At any point in time, when I think of something that needs to be done, I immediately go to this list to add it under the designated folder. Fusion Desk allow me to insert notes and even add attachments for each task.

Read the rest of this entry »