Ready Designs

4 8-bit dragons in a line

MIX11: Crafty UX – UX Lightening Series

Conferences

April 13th, 2011

Liveblog of “Crafty UX – UX Lightening Series”, an hour long session with four speakers presenting at “lightening” speed. Sarah Summers, Nathan Moody, Robert Tuttle, and Guido Rosso will each present a 10 minute talk about UX.

Session video now posted on Microsoft’s Channel 9:

 

As this is a liveblog, please remember to read from the bottom, up. Keep Reading

Odd Coupon Design Placement?

Good Design Bad Design

March 2nd, 2011

Challenge Butter Coupons

Does the coupon ribbon strike anyone else as odd advertising placement?

What do coupons have to do with growth hormones? In this case, nothing, and it actually made me bark a little laugh when I saw them linked so closely together. It was as if the coupons were somehow to get me hormone-free butter (or cows) as opposed to what was actually in the box — like a mail-in cereal box prize. Keep Reading

Philanthroper Deal-a-Day Charity [Badges]

Other Stuff

February 24th, 2011

Philanthroper.com

I’d like to take a moment to mention a lovely new charity startup called Philanthroper. They’ve taken the “daily deal” idea popularized by Groupon and turned it on its head, so that instead of paying for a coupon, visitors are presented with the option of donating to a different charity every day. To make it even better, they’re only asked to donate one dollar. The idea is, if enough people donate $1 it will add up quickly and allow thousands of ordinary folks to make a difference with very little personal expense. Keep Reading

GDBD: The AllRecipes Cross-Platform Ecosystem

Good Design Bad Design, Web Design

February 22nd, 2011

First, let me just say that I hate cooking. There’s work on either end, usually while hungry on the one side and lazy on the other. To me, the only thing worse than cooking is all the dishes you have to do afterwards. Anyway, I’ve found the AllRecipes apps are so well designed, the geek in me is soothed enough to make the cooking experience much more pleasant; almost, dare I say it, enjoyable.

AllRecipes iPad Splash Screen

The Verdict: Good Design!

The Takeaways:

  1. Designing for the total user experience is more relevant than ever with cross-platform applications, and doing a good job at this makes both Web and smartphone applications stand out above the competition.
  2. Excellent cross-platform functionality makes other design flaws easier to forgive.
  3. Leveraging communities brings additional value to information which could otherwise be found elsewhere.

The Details

AllRecipes has done a fantastic job of integrating their website, which clearly came first, with their iPad and iPhone apps. Keep Reading

Facebook Pages Update, Lose Width… Again

Communication Concepts

February 10th, 2011

Facebook Pages New Layout, Feb. 2011

New Facebook layout will be forced on March 1, 2011

Facebook is rolling out yet another change to the Pages feature, which is optional for now but will be pushed on March 1, 2011. Keep Reading

Ready Designs Redesign Sneak Peek

Ready Designs News

January 25th, 2011

I’ve been threatening a redesign for weeks now, so I thought I’d toss up a little “mood snippet” (as opposed to a full mood board) as a sneak peek of what’s coming. Enjoy!

8-Bit Blue Dragon on Colorful Blocks

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Happy Folks

    • Roxanne shows her skills in social media everyday by managing numerous accounts and keeping them updated to attract traffic. She's capable of creating an online presence and keeping it within the tone and attitude the company desires.

      William Kammer, BDI

    • [Roxanne] brings along creativity, pro-activeness, enthousiasm, a high level of skill and she will think outside of boxes. She's also a quick learner and a very pleasant person to work with.

      Annelies Draaijer, Raglan Shire

    • Roxanne will grasp the bigger picture of any job and is one of those rare species that combines technical skill, creativity and functionality.

      Annelies Draaijer, Raglan Shire

    • I would hire Roxanne for another project anytime I have one and feel confident she would do a tremendous job.

      Rachael Masek, UWF Webspinners

    • When a concern comes up that she knows about, she's usually suggesting solutions before I even come to her to discuss the problem.

      William Kammer, BDI

    • Roxanne Rocks! Super quick turnaround, amazing communication and a pleasure to work with. She's the best and I highly recommend her for your website/design needs

      Andrea Morelli, Impetuous Style

    • Roxanne is an extremely talented programmer. She is able to take an extremely complex storyboard and turn it into a beautiful website. There is no project too big or too small that she can't handle.

      Rachael Masek, UWF Webspinners

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