Entries Tagged 'Design' ↓

If you are looking for a new website for your business or group, I encourage you to check out the offerings from Element Fusion. Tim Wall and the fine folks there have turned out a top-notch service with their Water CMS system. It features all of the elements you would expect - calendar, blogs, forms, photos, etc, but this isn’t a cookie-cutter service. It’s built for custom design so you can get exactly the look and feel you want without sacrificing usability.

With price plans to fit any need, including a free trial, give it a shot and see how a Water click-and-publish site can get you and up running with a professional look and feel.

If you’re a designer or agency - check out their LightCMS product which allows you to incorporate their professional tools into your custom design. Provide top-notch service to your clients with a site they can manage themselves.

Ready to launch a new site design but want to make sure it is cross browser compatible? Browsershots is a great free open-source online service that makes screenshots of your design in several different browsers.

Using the power of distributed computing, when your job is up in queue a number of computers will open your site in their browser and upload your screenshots to the central server.

The choices are staggering really - choose screen sizes, colors, java, flash and more. Really very helpful and highly recommended.

Wufoo is an easy to use application that makes the process of form building and online data collection a breeze. Using a simple drag and drop interface, it’s a snap to create a good looking online form to drop into your website or blog.

With powerful integrated statistics, excellent data export features and full reporting and notification capabilities, Wufoo’s offerings are impressive indeed. I especially like the flexibility they offer in theming - whether you are a novice or you need full CSS / XHTML mark up, the options for integration into your site are outstanding.

Check out the Top 10 Reasons you should be using Wufoo, look through the sample gallery, and then check out their plan offerings - a free account is available to let you experience their service without risk..

We all know how important it is to document your business processes, your projects, and your code - but how often do we really do it. No more excuses for us here since I found DokuWiki, a remarkably simple but very powerful Wiki solution.

I have toyed with a ton of information managers for my business, from Backpack to OneNote and I have never really been happy with one, until now. We know how great the Wiki format is for collecting and storing information - and DokuWiki is performing admirably so far. It’s easy to install with no database required, and the syntax is simple once you get used to it. I’ve just begun to scratch the surface with what is possible and I’m already sold. I’ve already got pages for projects, clients, products, and more. It’s also themeable and there are a large number of plug-ins available.

There is no shortage of Wiki solutions out there, but DokuWiki is full featured, has an active development community, and there is even a version that runs off a USB stick. Check out the Feature List, go to the Playground to give it a test run and then give it a Download.

SB

Sometimes the best technology solutions don’t require a computer. Web Design in a Nutshell is a Quick Reference Guide covering all things related to web design, web standards, CSS and more. Extremely well written and organized, there is a ton of information here. The appendices also contain really useful lists of HTML elements and CSS Properties for quick lookups on usage and syntax.

This book is the first I reach for when faced with a new design challenge or a problem I can’t resolve (as evidenced by it’s dog-eared, sticky-noted, heavily marked-up condition). I would say it is required, but at the least it is very highly recommended.