Posted on February 14, 2007
Filed Under Design, Web Development | 27 Comments
A few weeks ago, my company took a project to redesign a major charity’s website. After the initial documentation and planning stages was completed, we were ready to move into the visual design phase of the project. We decided to try a new approach, at least for website design, and show the client a series of mood boards to establish the overall atmosphere and emotional impact of the site before we plunged into the actual layout phase of the design.
More of Website Mood Boards: A Successful Precursor to Visual Prototyping
Posted on January 21, 2007
Filed Under Soapbox, Web Development | 1 Comment
As a professional web developer and graphic designer, I’ve always found one of the biggest challenges of a website project has been obtaining content from a client. I think many clients go into the web project with some type of field of dreams mentality, that if they just build a site, people will come irregardless of the content. I find that more than a few clients don’t seriously consider what type of content they’re going to put on their site ahead of time and those clients that are on the ball enough to actually write some content for their website usually find the the most annoying ways to deliver it.
More of Microsoft Office, Website Content and A Rusty Nail In My Eye
Posted on January 4, 2007
Filed Under Freeware, Misc. Stuff | Comments Off

I found a nice site today with a refreshingly simple interface to upload and securely store up to 1GB of files online. At dropboks.com, there are no long forms to fill out. No applications to download and install. You just navigate to the page, login, upload and download files as needed.
More of Simple, Free Online File Storage
Posted on January 4, 2007
Filed Under Misc. Stuff | Comments Off
I was cruising dealcatcher.com on new years day and found this great deal on a Verbatim Store’n'Go 4GB USB Drive for just $17.98 from OfficeMax.com. I didn’t really need the thing, but knowing what the normal price is for even a 2GB drive, I jumped at the deal and ordered one right up. I figured this must be some kind of super after Christmas clearance price or something along those lines. I promptly paid the total $28.07 with the tax and shipping and set about waiting for my new toy to arrive. More of The Little Flash Drive That Couldn’t
Posted on January 3, 2007
Filed Under Design, Web Development | 1 Comment
The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Beta Preview Learning Center is your one stop for all things CS3 with no less than 12 online video tutorials, an interview with Adobe Product Manger John Nack, an overview of CS3’s top new features and enhancements, a special episode of Adobe Photoshop TV: Photoshop CS3 Secrets Revealed, and a lot more.”
More of NAPP Launches Adobe Photoshop CS3 Learning Center
Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?
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Another good read by Mindy Wagner over at Web Designer Depot on mood boards for web projects..
- #As the ubiquitous (and crappy) IE browser begins to wane in popularity, it's increasingly more important for developers to focus on cross-browser development. "Works on my machine" just isn't a suitable answer anymore folks.
- #Wow. I'm amazed at the "process" the SDSU logo designers had to endure and just how little they were paid to deal with it. A designer's nightmare for sure.
- #I always wondered, but now I have confirmation that baking is gay.
- #Who knew the history of the "Honka Hoota" bike horn was so compelling? Those Australian synthetic material trees must have been a godsend...
- #I don't know what the point is or why I even found it noteworthy... maybe it's all the hoopla around the cheese carving or maybe it's just the dork that's carving it up. Is it art? I guess. Either way, it was an interesting way to kill a couple of minutes. Watch the video.
- #Sadly, Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch passed away this week. If you haven't already watched his "Last Lecture" you're missing out. I would definitely recommend taking the time out to watch the video or maybe buy the book. It's great stuff.
- #Who would have thought you could have so much mindless fun playing with a spider? I'm so easily entertained some days...
- #I've always been annoying, but a chance to make an easy $350 to be someones nemesis is just too hard to resist. Sign me up please..
- #Okay kiddies, turn on the way-back machine and lets go back to 1989 for a look at the original Photo-Shop version 0.87 icon.
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