Posts Tagged
Website
Many tools and packages exist online to help people create websites with minimal effort and involvement. Of course, each one has their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are more aimed at creating blogs, while others are better for single-page info sites.
Moonfruit is another competitor in this market. It looks stylish, promises to be simple, and … you do want to create a new site, right? So what does it have to offer, and what are it’s pros and cons? Lets take a look…
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You know that sinking feeling you get, when you realize something has just disappeared from your grasp forever? That stomach twisting pain at something that cost so much money, or so much time, something that’s practically irreplaceable just disappearing into thin air. I hate that feeling.
The proliferation of digital goods in our lives is a double edged sword. While on the one hand, their simplicity, portability, and in many cases increased fidelity are all benefits to digital items, the ease with which they can also disappear can be frightening. While it may be difficult to misplace a wall shelf full of vinyl records, an MP3 library can vanish with a couple of key strokes. And while I’m not prepared to debate the pros and cons of building an analog library versus a digital one, I am here to show that this apparent fragility of digital things can be overcome.
Backing up your digital life is actually a pretty large discussion. It can encompass virtually everything you do and use with regards to computers. We’re talking everything from digital assets like photos and videos, to potentially sensitive material like work-related documents or databases, to your online assets like social media postings and email documents. That’s a lot of important data. Today I’ll be highlighting a solution to backing up one niche out of all of those things: your website, all thanks to a service called Backup Machine.
In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Moably Mobile Website Builder. The developer describes Moably Mobile Website Builder as Moably’s first product, a mobile website builder, lets anyone create a mobile version of their website and blog with no coding required. For free. Five easy steps using Moably’s Mobile Web App Builder will produce a quality mobile website and blog.
Read on for more information and screenshots!
For years, experts have been telling us to customize our resumes and cover letters so that each one is unique to the employer, but that usually means we just rejigger our bullet points and change our opening paragraphs.
But in an economy mired with double-digit unemployment, candidates need to do more than revise their career objectives if they want to stand apart from the competition. Job seekers need to present themselves in a way that demonstrates creativity while also exhibiting a sense of professionalism.
Those with the technological skills to do so have long argued in favor of creating a personal webpage for each employer you’re looking to impress, something that would combine your LinkedIn profile page with the specific messaging and branding to catch the employer’s attention. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to build a website, nor do they have enough design sense to ensure that the website they do build presents them in a good light.
HelloThere aims to solve that problem.
Designing websites is an art. A lot of tools and techniques are used to create a design before the programmers can start working on it to create the backend. Even for the experienced designer, it might not be ideal for remembering the organization of the pages and content in his head throughout the process. Pen and paper can only go so long.
Jumpchart helps you plan websites before getting the design and coding done. Care to know how useful the app actually is?
In this Quick Look, we’re highlighting Backup Machine. The developer describes Backup Machine as the world’s easiest web-based website backup service. There’s nothing to install and it’s completely automatic. With Backup Machine, your website and MySQL databases are backed up every day, without fail.
Read on for more information and screenshots!
If you haven’t noticed (or don’t visit the sites), Gawker launched an all new design across their sites (Gizmodo, Lifehacker, etc) that’s quite different. Many people think it’s terrible and a poor decision. I can’t help but see various similarities between the new design and designs you’ll see on tablets such as the iPad.
Gizmodo
Performance issues aside (which are being worked out by their staff), the new design’s usability makes more sense for tablet-type devices than the prior blog style design. Personally, I like the new design more than the prior one, even on my desktop. It makes more sense from a usability standpoint; no new page loads or tabs when navigating to a post, a quick overview of recent or popular posts, etc.
The question, though, is whether or not people really want mobile web UX when they’re on their desktop computer? I think the web and computer technology is slowly evolving into more dynamic, interactive and “go anywhere” hardware and software, so I see designs such as Gawker’s as an expected step across all platforms.
As you can tell, I clearly prefer the newer design and the idea of mobile web UX making its way onto the desktop, replacing our older viewing methods. What do you think? Do you prefer iPad-type web designs over their desktop counterparts while on the desktop? Or do you think desktop web UX will, and should, always be different than other platforms?
If you’re like the vast majority of web developers, you’ve used Google Analytics to stay on top of your site’s traffic info and never gave it a second thought. Google Analytics is free, pain-free to setup, and gives you more detailed data about your traffic than you could know what to do with. What more could you ask?
Actually, there’s a lot more you could ask for. For starters, Google Analytics may be free, but all of your data is on Google’s servers. Some may prefer to keep their traffic data private, while others would just like more control over the data and reporting. Then, Google Analytics can be slow at times, and doesn’t display up-to-the-minute stats. Additionally, the charts are Flash-powered, so if you’re using an iOS device or have simply banished flash from your browser, you’ll only have the raw data.
Mint is a refreshing alternative that wins at every point Google Analytics comes short. It’s a self-hosted webapp so you can own and manage all of your own site’s data. It’s lightweight and expendable so you can make it work just like you want, uses native web charts so you won’t have to use flash, and shows visits as soon as they happen. Let’s see how to setup Mint on your site and take a tour of the features so you can see if it’s finally time for you to switch to a fresher analytics solution.
Design is more of a collaborative process than we often realize. In the process of designing a new site, logo, promotional flyer, and more, you’ll often end up emailing dozens of files back and forth with your coworkers and clients to see what they think about the changes. Adding to that, you’ll usually end up emailing copies of PSD or AI files, links to similar designs that inspired you, or reminders for when parts of the project are due. Before you know it, you’re struggling to find the right file among dozens of similar emails.
Your team needs a better way to collaborate on the design process. Today we’re going to look at Draftboard, a new webapp that lets you compare and annotate design drafts, send ideas and inspirational links to your team, and store your important project files together. It’s a light project management app that’s solely focused on design drafts and your team’s feedback. Let’s see if this is the app that can make your creative process flow smoother.
Google Analytics is one of the most well known website analytics around, not to mention being one of the best. Although Google Analytics is a fantastic app to tackle your site’s analytics needs, there are actually several other options available that many would argue are better choices. We’ve pulled together eight of the best alternatives to Google Analytics and some information about each; price, plugins, mobile apps, real-time tracking and requirements.
Which analytics app do you use and why? Read on to see if there’s anything more fitting for your needs or if you have something you’d recommend.
