Web Design in Buffalo NY | Staple Web Design » Web Design http://www.staplewebdesign.com We create websites that focus on both aesthetics and usability for your business Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:51:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Android Applications for Web Designers http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/android-applications-for-web-designers/ http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/android-applications-for-web-designers/#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:37:17 +0000 Andy http://www.staplewebdesign.com/?p=678 If you’re like me and one of the select few web designers and/or developers who doesn’t carry around an iPhone all day long I’d first off like to welcome you to our exclusive club. Secondly I’d like to point you to the Motorola Droid or other Android Phones (preferably the 2.0 android phones coming out soon). Its rare that a Web Designer isn’t an iPhone owner, but I have my reasonings, one large one is the network carrying the iPhone and its horrible service around Buffalo.

Anyways, No worries, because I’m in love with my Motorola Droid anyways. I’ve owned both, and personally recommend the Droid over the iPhone. One place where it does need some work is to get some more Web Design & Development Apps in the Marketplace. This is what I’ve found to be useful to me as a designer, I’ll keep this updated as new apps come out for the android platform.

  • Google Voice

    (free)
    If you’re a designer and don’t have Google Voice, this one might not help you too much, but I love this application. This is one of the “iDon’t” apps that the iPhone can’t use because of Apple’s App Store Restrictions. Anyways, It’ll let you sync your Google Voice account to your phone and even allow you to choose to make calls from your Google Voice Number all the time, internationally, or let you choose before each call. I find this great as my Business Phone Number is a Google Voice Number and being able to use my physical phone to call from that number is a great feature and one of the big selling points of this phone to me. If you don’t yet have a Google Voice account, let me know and If I’ve got any invites I’ll send one your way.

  • CSS Cheat Sheet

    (free)
    This is a simple, yet handy cheat sheet that has CSS Elements that are in a dropdown category system for quick and easy navigation and searching.

  • Remember The Milk

    (free – requires RTM Pro Account)
    Remember The Milk is one of the fastest and easiest to use task lists on mobile devices. The Pro Account for Remember the Milk is only $25.00 and if it saves you even a few hours in time you’d otherwise not have organized it has already done its job.

  • Google Analytics for Android

    (free or paid)
    There are literally a ton of Google Analytics Apps in the Marketplace for you to choose from, but I do suggest grabbing one that you enjoy. I’ve yet to test them all, so if you’ve got suggestions as to what GA apps are the best don’t hesitate to let everyone know in the comments.

  • wpToGo

    (free)
    This is another App that is for a specific piece of software, but this is one of the most popular CMS/Blogging Platforms in the world. wpToGo is a fast and easy way to connect to your WordPress Blog via mobile and add posts. There are some features I’d like to see added in either a paid version, or updated free version but this is still a very good app so far.

  • Mind Map Memo

    (free)
    Mind Map Memo is a free app that lets you easily create mind maps while on your android device. It works quite well with my Droid and makes what would seem to be a tedious process on a mobile device quite simple and powerful. I love to use mind-mapping software to organize my thoughts and ideas so this is a must have for me.

One thing that I do really enjoy is the Google Calendar that comes installed on the Motorola Droid. I won’t list that since its a common thing for most Android phones.

I’ll be updating this as more apps become available or I discover some that I have yet to run across. If you’ve got any apps that help you out with your design or management add a comment and I’ll check them out and possibly add them to the list.

]]> http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/android-applications-for-web-designers/feed/ 0 IPB 3.0 and vBulletin 4.0 Theme Design http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/ipb-3-0-and-vbulletin-4-0-theme-design/ http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/ipb-3-0-and-vbulletin-4-0-theme-design/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:29:53 +0000 Andy http://www.andystaple.com/?p=443 I’m happy to announce that I will begin designing for IPB 3.0+ and vBulletin 4.0+. vBulletin 4.0 is planned to release sometime in August, and IPB has just been released. If you’re looking for a custom IPB or vB skin don’t hesitate to contact me and I can help you out. 15% discount to the first 5 clients on the new forum designs!

I’m also thinking about releasing some downloadable themes (haven’t decided for sure, or whether they’ll be paid or free), but I will keep everyone updated of releases of themes if and when I do.

]]> http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/ipb-3-0-and-vbulletin-4-0-theme-design/feed/ 1 Using a Pen and Paper as a Web Designer http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/wireframe-web-design/ http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/wireframe-web-design/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 09:39:31 +0000 Andy http://www.andystaple.com/?p=369 Since starting as a Freelance Designer over 3 years ago I’ve matured quite a bit in my designs, and how I manage to create the designs. From thoughts in my head to html/css code displayed in a browser as a finished product, each step along the way is crucial to a good design, and one of the areas that I often undervalued when designing before was wire framing phase.

Wire frames are gaining popularity very fast with designers and after trying it out, theres no question why. Wire frames help to organize all the information and sections of a site that you’re working on. With sites becoming more complex and looking to be better organized wire frames are used to make sure that the layout of the site, and the communication between pages works well. Every person will have their own method to wireframing, however the concept is usually the same.

Photo By Aleksandar Urošević

Photo By Aleksandar Urošević

Personally, I have a Moleskin Notebook that I begin quick wireframes in to get my thoughts from my head to the paper. From there I use larger graph paper to make a larger and more detailed frame of the site. Its important not to get caught up in design elements, colors, images, backgrounds, etc… at the stage because that isn’t what we want to use our wireframe for. I like to think of the wireframe as a puzzle, and to find the easiest and most useful way to organize the sections on a page into their own locations on the paper. Like I’ve mentioned before, there are no real rules to wire framing, just do what works for you and try new ways to do it. It’s the only way to tell if it helps you and your creative process.

Great Wireframe Resource:
http://wireframes.tumblr.com/ – I found this via twitter a few weeks ago and its regularly updated with new wire frames. Its a great way to see how many different ways you can work on your wire frames.

]]> http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/wireframe-web-design/feed/ 0 Website Design and New Techniques http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/website-design/ http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/website-design/#comments Sun, 19 Apr 2009 01:40:03 +0000 Andy http://localhost.local/Bluelight-Wordpress/?p=96 Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Proin sed odio et ante adipiscing lobortis. Quisque eleifend, arcu a dictum varius, risus neque venenatis arcu. Quisque eleifend, arcu a dictum varius, risus neque venenatis arcu, a semper massa mi eget ipsum. Proin sed odio et ante adipiscing lobortis.

Proin sed odio et ante adipiscing lobortis. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Proin sed odio et ante adipiscing lobortis. Quisque eleifend, arcu a dictum varius, risus neque venenatis arcu, a semper massa mi eget ipsum. Proin sed odio et ante adipiscing lobortis.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Proin sed odio et ante adipiscing lobortis. Quisque eleifend, arcu a dictum varius, risus neque venenatis arcu, a semper massa mi eget ipsum. Proin sed odio et ante adipiscing lobortis. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Proin sed odio et ante adipiscing lobortis. Quisque eleifend, arcu a dictum varius, risus neque venenatis arcu, a semper massa mi eget ipsum. Proin sed odio et ante adipiscing lobortis.

]]> http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/website-design/feed/ 0 Web Design For Beginners http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/new-blog-post/ http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/new-blog-post/#comments Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:36:10 +0000 Andy http://localhost.local/Bluelight-Wordpress/?p=279 Quisque eleifend, arcu a dictum v1arius, risus neque venenatis arcu, a semper massa. Quisque eleifend, arcu a dictum v1arius, risus neque venenatis arcu, a semper massa. Quisque eleifend, arcu a dictum v1arius, risus neque venenatis arcu, a semper massa. Quisque eleifend, arcu a dictum v1arius, risus neque venenatis arcu.

  • This would be point 1
  • And maybe point two here
  • Most importantly, point three

Aliquam id lorem a orci consequat sodales. Nunc magna ante, suscipit eget, lobortis ut, sollicitudin sed, eros. Nam eget augue.

]]> http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/new-blog-post/feed/ 0 CSS 3 – The Waiting Game http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/css-3-the-waiting-game/ http://www.staplewebdesign.com/2009/css-3-the-waiting-game/#comments Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:25:58 +0000 Andy http://www.andystaple.com/?p=268 For many designers and developers, CSS 3 support cannot come soon enough. The new features announced sound and look great in general. Many of the functions will make designers lives much easier.

With new features like

  • Border Radius
  • Border Image
  • Ability to add fonts via the web (user doesn’t have to have font installed on their system)
  • Text Shadows
  • Multiple Backgrounds
  • and many more…

The question with all of this however, is when will it be safe to really use the CSS3 exclusive functions on a webpage without a fallback for older browsers. With Browsers just beginning to support CSS3 (Firefox 3.1, Safari 4 are known to handle CSS3) how long will it take IE8 (or 9 if Internet Explorer really wants to tick off designers) to be out of beta and released. After that it’ll have to be another few years for all windows users to upgrade to IE8. To make a long story short, while CSS3 is here and teasing us, the reality is we can’t design exclusively for it until at least 3 years, probably longer. I still have 6% of users on my sites on IE 6.0 or older.

This doesn’t mean we can’t use these cool new functions, it just means that sites shouldn’t be built for only CSS3 browsers. Sites that can degrade well will make everyone happy. It’s not wrong to design with new features for people using new browsers, the problem is if you rely only on them, and not understand that there are many people on older machines that do not update their browsers as regularly as many of us.

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