Blog #11

Web Apps

There are a ton of applications out there and more hit the internet everyday. I found a site that lists the top ten apps for 2009 and I thought I would share them with you.

1. Dropbox is a tool that lets you drag and drop files into your Dropbox and then archives them online. This is useful if you don't have a file or image with you while you are on the go. You can just tap into your Dropbox and access your files. Fantastic for showing someone updated designs or roughs.



2. Crazy Egg is an analytic tool that can track what people do when on your site. It will show the info on different graphs and charts for your review. Always good to know what's clickin' chicken!



3. Twitter is one that I listed last week. It is expanding super fast and is a quick way to network. You can get a lot of visitors to your site from Twitter. It will help you give your business exposure.



4. Mail Chimp is an email marketing application that helps you create and control email lists. It can also help you create email campaigns in html and review marketing.



5. Kuler I have mentioned before but it is a great color app that helps you find colors that mesh together well.



6. Carbon Made gives freelancers an opportunity to display their graphic designs. They have over 165,000 portfolios on the site. That is a lot in case you were wondering!



7. Freckle helps you track the progress of a project. It will show you when you were working, for how long and on what project.



8. Icon Finder is an icon search engine that can assist you in locating specific icons. It will also show license and usage information before downloading.



9. Type Tester is another one that I mentioned last week. It will let you try out different fonts side by side. You can can adjust different styles and see the results.



10. PX to EM helps you understand text size and how it works in CSS. You type in your font size and it will convert it for you.

Research other great info like this at WEBDES.

Tid Bits

• Reminder about the z-index rule. It is like dealing cards. The first one you deal out in your html is going to be on the bottom and they stack from there. However the z-index rule will help you to shuffle the order of your cards and stack them differently. I found a site that displays box elements and lets you change the z-index and position and then shows the results of your choices. Don't forget you have to use the position rule with the z-index for it to work.


• Do not take anything for granted. It may not be there tomorrow.


• Quote to live by"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it." Pablo Picasso

Useful Web Sites

• Throughout my posting process I am constantly researching and coming across many links that are helpful and even some that are not. In addition to your own research it is also a great idea to ask fellow designers about what sites they like to visit as well. This week I've included a couple sites that Aaron suggested.
  
  
  



• The first one he mentioned while I was searching for apps was Appstorm. This site is Mac based and gives general news and updates on applications as well as reviews, best of the best and even has how to's. Definitely check it out when you have a chance.
  



• Another site he mentioned was Smoking Apples. This is a site that you can use to keep up to date on apps. It provides news and interviews. It has info for the Mac and iPhone and includes a Magazine page and Podcast.

In Other Graphic Design News

This first site I found while looking for the latest and greatest in Graphic Design News. It is just a simple and straight forward article that describes a work-day in the life of a freelance designer.

If you want to test your skills and knowledge of graphic design you can visit this site. There are three different games: The Font Game, the Logo Game and the Munsell Hue Test.

A lil side note: You may already know this but if you are on facebook you can become a fan of PSDtuts if you want. New tuts will then post to your wall when they come out on the web.