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Personally, I never liked Quicksilver… and to be honest, the nonsensical fans of Quicksilver seem to be stuck in the stone age. The bottom line is that Quicksilver did not assist me, slowed down both of my Macs, and didn’t provide a compelling reason to use it- let alone a competitive edge. If there are any Quicksilver fans reading this, let me know why you use(d) the program- especially if you still do.  The single-minded message I’d leave in regards to Quicksilver is: features aren’t worth a flip if they don’t work right (or at all).

Meet Alfred.

Alfred is your new personal butler… your new best friend… your find-everything-anytime-application. Okay, maybe I am acting like it’s more than it is. The fact of the matter is that Alfred works well. Although it was just released on March 1st, 2010, the beta is quite solid. What I really like about this application is that it has a nice Facebox feel to it, it’s lightweight (never using more than 10MBs of RAM), it’s fast, and it’s new. Why did I mention “new?” Because with an app this solid, and only one week old, it’s on track to easily replace Quicksilver or Launchy for Mac.

So what exactly can you do with this little jewel of an application? Let’s hear it from the developers themselves:

Alfred is a quicklaunch application for Mac OS X, which aims to save you time in searching your local computer and the web. Whether it’s maps, Amazon, eBay, Wikipedia, you can feed your web addiction quicker than ever before.

• Increase your productivity by launching apps with shortcuts
• Quicker access to web searches, bookmarks & more
• Be the first to identify “that guy” in a movie with speedy IMDB search
• Ward off RSI – skip using the mouse with easy shortcuts
• Best of all, it’s FREE!

So, let’s recap. Alfred is fast, sexy, lightweight, useful, and has a sexy icon. As a web designer who uses all sorts of cool applications, launching new programs quick and fast is very useful.

But Jeremy, why not just use Apple’s built-in Spotlight feature?

Good question, astute one. Spotlight is good for finding files and such. However, Alfred offers a better UI, it pops up in the middle of the screen when you toggle it. In addition, you can easily search Google, Gmail, Yahoo, Amazon, Wikipedia, etc., by just typing it before your search string. Quick, fast, easy… how many times can I say it? You should try it

Really, learn more or try it now.

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I am proud to announce my second free theme. This template, unlike my first, is a HTML theme that does not run on Wordpress. I have built in a custom backend which allows you to easily administer the website. I suggest you take a look at the images below for a better idea of the settings, etc.

This theme utilizes HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL database technologies, as well as beautiful javascript effects. The only way you’ll be able to truly understand this theme is by viewing the demo:

→ VIEW A DEMO

→ Download ProFolio - Downloaded 0 times

[View with PicLens]

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My previous theme, The Conservative American, has been downloaded several thousand times. I am hoping that CleanFolio will also be downloaded many times. Please let me know your thoughts on this theme- it’s the only way I can receive any sort of feedback.

Features

• Elegant design with a crisp, modern touch.
• Simple, spacious navigation bar.
• AJAX sidebar with built-in recent posts, popular posts, and comments.
• Simple and elegant commenting system.
• Customized Theme Options page, extending functionality beyond traditional Wordpress capabilities.
• Centralized search feature.
• Extremely fast loading time; all images and code compressed.
• Comprehensive readme file and screencast movie included.
• Slick, cutting-edge CSS3.
• Clean and valid code; easy to edit.
• Automatic image resizer for pretty homepage photos.

View Demo & Download for Free

The only thing that I ask of you is to PLEASE leave a comment before downloading with your thoughts about this theme.
→ VIEW DEMO

→ Download CleanFolio Wordpress - Downloaded 3 times

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Mark Zuckerberg

It is my firm believe that with a site as critical to modern culture as Facebook is, the company should display better morals, an understanding of basic privacy rights, and provide users with an abundance of options to control exactly what they share, when they share it, and with whom they share it. It’s true that Facebook has many more privacy controls than Twitter, MySpace, or other competing networks. Still, they fail to go the extra mile.

Now, a new scandal is coming out that involves the stuck up Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and the unlawful hacking into emails of rivals and journalists. The respected Business Insider online magazine has ran a report alleging Zuckerberg’s involvement in the theft of intellectual data. It has been proposed that he stole the idea of Facebook from three former Harvard classmates, all who claim the idea to be developed by themselves jointly.

It appears that Mark used private data from Facebook’s servers to access their personal email accounts. Think about it- do you use one password for multiple accounts? Bingo! That’s how Mark’s thought process worked, and how it allowed him access to various Facebook users.

To make a long story short, Mark and the three men settled in court. The case would have gone longer, but the judge was a total prick and didn’t allow the contests of Mark’s hard drive to be searched. However, as both The Dailymail and The Business Insider point out, the plot thickens.

I’ll let you read it from the source itself, instead of recapping their content. Click here to read more as the plot thickens.

The last thing that I want to add is that your information is never, never secure on the Internet. In addition, be very weary of Facebook. It’s been well documented that Facebook is very liberal and has deleted many, many conservative users from Facebook. No matter what your political leanings are, deleting users who have worked hard to build their friends list up with associates and friends because their politics differ from Facebook’s agenda is dead wrong.

Your information is not safe on Facebook, and if you are someone who either covers the industry, has the attention of Mark, or believe that Mark will ever come across your name- for whatever reason- then ensure your Facebook password is unique, and assume that all of your messages, photographs, notes, and any other data on Facebook is completely open and unsecure.

Update- Video Interview with the Business Insider Senior Editor:

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Phase 1: Homepage Wireframe

This is the first phase. Determining proper layout according to the information architecture is important so that the website is more than just pretty: so that it’s effective.

Phase 2: The Background

Here, I played around with colors, all the while thinking about a few buzz words: “industry,” “paint,” “sloppy,” and “fun.” The simi-transparent container in the middle is referred to as the center stage; the main area of the website where the most important information is.

Phase 3: The Navigation

This phase is where I designed the navigation bar. I felt that the navigation must play a significant part in this layout due to the fact that each page will be kept to a minimum. In other words, each page will house “just enough” information for that page, no more. In addition, the design does not accomodate endless vertical scrolling due to the intricate background. This is just another factor making the navigation that much more important.

Phase 4: The Professional Spotlight

Next, I created the Professional Spotlight. This area will highlight the professional paintballer of the week. The descriptive text is to the right. Changes which I will be making include: Adding the pro’s name under the spotlight (helping to develop hierarchy via typography),  thumbnails of the pro player to the left (lightbox effect when clicked on), and tweaking the look of the descriptive text for readability. In addition, I will be working with the ticker (for scores) below the pro spotlight to give it more of a “web 2.0″ feel.

Phase 5: The Final Comp

Alright, so it’s probably very clear that I skipped posting everything in between phase 4 and 5. To be honest, I simply ran out of time. However, simply examining the difference between the image in phase 4 and the one below should give you some strong indications on how my thought process worked. You’ll notice a few changes, namely the deletion of the best deals section. I attempted to integrate Hick’s Law and Ockham’s Razor into the design, as well as clear typographical hierarchy (assisted by the use of color), the balance of opposing points, movement, unity, patterns, emphasis, and contrast. All in all, I believe that the below composition came out nicely. I finished this piece of work 8 hours before it was due: 9am March 9th, 2010. Criticisms from the professor and my retrospective thoughts will be posted later in the day.

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The class is geared toward proper design theory and techniques, taking an in-depth look at design… and specifically why a designer makes the decisions they do in relation to each aspect of a user interface.

So far, the class has been very informative, yet fun. Certainly not grueling. The instructor, Gus Hernandez knows exactly what he’s talking about.

Note: Due to the large size of the image below, and the fact that the lightbox resizes it in a way which prevents zooming, you may want to open the image in a new window.

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In this article, I’ll share with you some tips for launching a website based my experience as a web designer.

1. Have scalable web server resources

With today’s high-availability and cost-effective content distribution solutions such as Amazon S3, and on-demand instant scalability offerings of hosting providers such as VPS.NET, you can affordably have web servers that can take a beating from high-burst traffic.

Not only will having scalable solutions prepare you for the high-traffic that a website launch can generate, but it also future-proof’s your set-up as your website grows. High-availability, metered set-ups give you the ability to pay for just the resources you need right now.

Regardless of how big or small you think the traffic you’ll get is, it’s never a bad idea to get a web hosting solution that will scale—they’re tremendously affordable and you pay only for what you intend to use.

Don’t risk having your website crash and your launch day ruined because of a shoddy web server.

2. Get all of your social media accounts beforehand

Nowadays, social networking is integral to a website. Don’t wait the last minute to sign up and set up your social network accounts on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and any other site that you’re planning to engage in.

This guarantees that your preferred account name will be available before you become known and gives your visitors additional ways to communicate with you as soon as they arrive at your website.

3. Have content ready to publish for at least a month

The early stages of a website is filled with many tasks. One timesaving deed you can do is to have content ready to publish so that you can follow up your launch with great content. This also frees you up for the many other activities involved in this stage of your website’s growth.

4. Drop hints about the upcoming launch to build anticipation

Let people know that there’s an event that’s going to occur to help create some hype. If you want to keep the details undisclosed to the public—that’s fine—you can still let people know that something on some date is going to happen.

This type of subtle hinting can pique the interests of your long-time supporters and fans. And those are the people that count the most when your website launches.

5. Plan your tasks for at least a month after the site launch

The worst question to have after a site launch is, “Now what?” You need a clear goal and direction on how you intend to follow through your site’s launch. If you’ve planned for a big site launch, don’t let the initial interest fizzle out by not having a plan. Before you launch, you should know exactly how you want to proceed right after.

6. Triple-check the technical details before going live

Measure twice, cut once. Better yet, measure thrice. Making certain that your early visitors will have the best experience possible when first arriving at your site means that everything needs to be working correctly.

Check to make sure that all hyperlinks work. Make ultra-sure that contact forms, email accounts, commenting systems, and all the other things that your users will interface with, is working properly.

On my first website, users visiting a category page from the sidebar links that didn’t have an associated content under it simply said that the page could not be found. It gave the impression that there was something wrong. I had to revise the message to say, “There aren’t any posts in this category yet. I’m working on it though, so please check back soon!” to let users know that the pages do work, just that there aren’t anything in them yet.

7. Launch on schedule

Whether you’ve announced your launch date or not, you should release your website to the public when you say you’re going to. This forces you to stay on point and work towards a goal. What can cripple and delay a website launch is the attitude of “It’ll be ready when it’s ready.”

When you’re nearing launch day and you think you won’t have the site fully completed, launch anyway (as long as it’s presentable and usable). If you’ve designed well, then you’ve already incorporated the most important aspects of your webiste.

Websites aren’t like conventional consumer products—you can update and upgrade them any time you want.

8. Contact your friends and family about the site launch

The first thing to do after a site has launched is to contact your friends and family. Let them know that you’ve launched the site so that they can be the first to see it.It doesn’t matter how big your list of friends and family is, they should be the first to know about your site’s launch.

9. Provide easy ways of contacting you

When you first launch a site, you have to give visitors ways to communicate with you easily. Your initial visitors are early adopters, and as such, they’ll be critical and will help you find things that might be wrong with the site, as well as suggest ways you can improve the site for future users.

10. Show site visitors a roadmap of what’s to come

Perhaps the most important thing you can do when you launch a site is to show your initial users that there’s more to come.

No one gets a site right on the first day. Unless you release your website, anything you think your users will want and need is just a guess. The people who will best help you figure out what works for your users are your users. Set up an upcoming features page, periodically poll visitors, and even keep a public changelog.

There’s no doubt that launching a website is a lot of work. However, if you’re going to do it at all, you might as well take the time for an effective launch. A weak launch can stifle growth and kill any preexisting excitement in an instant. Are you looking for a web design studio? Well, I’ve got something for you.

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