December 9th, 2009
I recently joined the iPhone generation, and once I got over the novelty factor of “apps for everything”, I’ve been hungry for really useful applications to make my life easier. There’s many I’ve found, but I a few that I find myself using on a daily basis.
They’re all mobile versions of desktop applications or webapps I use often and that’s probably why I’m so taken by them. Rather than attempting to be standalone applications they add value to a bigger experience, focussing on the interactions you need when on the go, and not toiling with the more complicated interactions which would typically be a struggle on a handheld, touchscreen device.
There are other apps that I use regularly, but in terms of productivity and usefulness, here’s my top five…
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Tags: apps, collaboration, GTD, iPhone
Posted in Freelancing, Productivity | No Comments »
November 30th, 2009
Today is 30th November, the third annual Blue Beanie Day! On this day Web designers and Standardistas don blue beanie hats to show their support for accessible, semantic Web content.
The blue beanie theme is a reference to the cover of Jeffrey Zeldman’s industry-changing guidebook from 2003, ‘Designing With Web Standards‘ (Third edition cover shown left).
The Web standards movement has the goal of making Web sites easier to access (for people and machines), easier to manage and update, more stable and ‘futureproof’. It is commonly misinterpreted as trying to standardise Web sites and make them all the same, which really isn’t the case.
I’ve had Web standards at the core of my work for the past four or five years. From a selfish standpoint I can really say it has made my job as a Web designer easier, faster, reliable, efficient and more valuable. Aside from how I benefit, I like to think that my clients get that value in the work I do for them. I also like to think their customers or users, in turn, enjoy the fact that sites do what they expect them to do, and just work properly.
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Tags: coding, HTML & CSS, web design
Posted in Events, Web standards | No Comments »
November 6th, 2009
Well we’re live! It’s my great pleasure to kick off this blog with a “Hello World” type post giving you an introduction on what to expect from me in the coming months.
As you might have seen on my homepage, I’m a freelance designer who specialises in user-experience and online business strategy. Leaving the jargon aside, I help businesses research their customers and build Web sites that will help, satisfy or entertain them.
This blog is the place where I share my thoughts about the work I do. That could be useful links, product and book reviews, tips and tutorials or any other nuggets of useful, and I hope thought-provoking, information.
My articles will be aimed at anyone involved in managing a web site or marketing a business. Whether you are a business owner, content author, marketer or sales manager I hope there will be something in here for you.
Posted in Blogging | 2 Comments »
