Blog | Eric Paul Snowden » productivity

Free Web UI Sources

Eric Snowden — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 18:55:31 +0000

Mashable has collected 10 sets of great UI templates for Photoshop, Illustrator and Omnigraffle. These sets include everything from icons, to skin-able vector buttons, to browser specific form elements that can really speed up the prototyping process. The posts get a little redundant if you go through the entire list, but there are definitely some gems if you dig a little.

Click here to read the full article.

Click here for free vector icons. Great for getting your idea across without going through the process of creating your own illustrations.

Click here for a vector wireframe kit.

Click here for a robust browser kit with editable form fields and browser bar elements for all major browsers.

Seen a font and want to know what it is? Check out What The Font.

Eric Snowden — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:20:11 +0000

Over the course of my career I’ve been asked (or have asked) “do you know what this font is?” hundreds of times. MyFonts.com has solved this problem by creating What The Font, a simple online tool that can identify fonts. You upload an image of a font, double check to make sure it recognizes the letters in the image properly, and click a continue. The font has been identified you are presented with buy links, the ability to rate the font, or the option to submit the font to the site to have it matched manually. The app works best when the font is isolated from other images or background texture, but in my experience it has proven very reliable.

Check out What The Font.

TestSize.com – Test Your Site at Multiple Sizes

Eric Snowden — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:00:21 +0000

Designers have a distorted view of the web. We all have huge monitors and speedy computers and it’s easy to forget that your average web user isn’t always so lucky. Testsize.com is a simple web app that allows you to easily check out how your site will display on monitors of varying size.

To use the site you only have to enter a url, a size, and hit enter. There are shortcuts that allow you to cycle through different sizes, and zoom, but the developers of the app have done a good job of keeping the options minimal and the application simple.

Check out TestSize.com here.

Notable – The Easiest Way for Teams to Provide Feedback on Websites

Eric Snowden — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:02:06 +0000

Notable

Notable is a web and iPhone based service that allows team members to easily share feedback on all aspects of a website. To start a discussion you create a new project called a capture, or a set to hold multiple captures. Captures can be created from a url, by uploading an image, from an iPhone screenshot or from a Firefox Plugin. After creating a capture your team can comment on the page’s design, code, copy or seo. Users can also output the results to a PDF, email, public or private urls.

Design

When uploading a jpg, or a capture from a url, Notable creates and stores a full page screenshot of your webpage. Multiple users can create transparent boxes with comments on top of the page giving the designer consolidated visual feedback.

Code

Code view is organized by html, css and javascript. You can isolate each source file and highlight lines of code by clicking and filling out a pop-up comment box.

Copy

The copy tab removes all graphics and markup from your page and reproduces the page as plain text. Unlike code view, you can highlight individual characters or words for comment.

SEO

The SEO tab analyzes how search engines see your page and only displays relevant content. The left column contains a list of keywords and keyword phrases appearing on your page. The right column breaks down the page by metadata, headers, first 100 words used on the page, bold/strong elements, alt tags and outbound links giving you a thorough view of how a search engine sees your site.

Pricing plans for Notable range from free to $119 a month based on the number of users and the total amount of storage needed. Notable is one of the most thorough site markup tools on the market allowing you to give feedback on site design, code, copy and seo. Pair that with the companion iPhone application and you have a tool that no production team should be without.

Check out Notable here.

Online iPhone Mock-up Tool

Eric Snowden — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:24:08 +0000

Lukas Mathis has created a really nice iPhone mockup tool in Flash. This web based tool lets you create wireframes for iPhone apps by dragging and dropping simple components onto a phone and sharing the url. You can create final pieces that look like either illustrations or sketches. A nice tool for simple mocks when a napkin just won’t do. Check it out here.

Rules of Productivity

Eric Snowden — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:54:16 +0000

An interesting article showing a correlation between prolonged overtime work and a sharp decline in productivity. It’s amazing to see studies done by Ford at the turn of the century, and those done in startups showing almost exactly same loss in productivity with sustained overwork. Good for short bursts of productivity, but a loosing strategy if it becomes the norm. A great read.

http://lostgarden.com/2008/09/rules-of-productivity-presentation.html