Posts Tagged google
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My Top Web Tools of 2011
Dec 24
I enjoyed reading ReadWriteWeb’s top web products and top web developer tools of 2011, so I thought I’d put together my own list of top web tools of 2011, based on which ones I liked and used the most.
Here they are, in no particular order:
Basecamp
I use Basecamp every day as the project management tool for my web team. Many people I work with still use spreadsheets and emails to manage their work, and I just feel so organized compared to them. It has just the right amount of features for me, and has been easy for other team members to pick up and use. Given the amount of tasks we have to manage, including multiple websites and email campaigns, it would be impossible to keep everything on track without a solid, user friendly project management tool like this.
JotForm
If you’re still coding forms by hand then you’re crazy. With JotForm I can create any kind of form I need — including branching logic, validation, tooltips, custom thank you pages — in minutes. Embedding the forms into a web page is easy thanks to the range of options, and maintaining them is simple as I can do it all from within Jotform without ever having to touch the code on the page.
HootSuite
I manage a team that looks after multiple social media accounts and HootSuite has been invaluable in enabling us to keep up with posting to all of them and managing interactions with others. The user interface is very intuitive, with all the functionality I need, such as easily posting to multiple social media networks and scheduling posts in advance.
Google Analytics
Not a big surprise to see Google Analytics on this list. It’s a fantastic tool and I use it multiple times a day. New functionality is continually being added, such as the integration with Webmaster Tools, real-time reporting, and multi-channel funnels, which is turning into a real one-stop analytics shop. Plus, there is so much being written on how to use Google Analytics that I’m continually improving my reporting and analysis through the tool.
Keyword Tracker
There are many online services for tracking keyword rankings and backlinks, but I’ve found that Digital Point’s keyword position tracker works fine for my needs. The free service is easy to use, can track a ton of keywords, and provides charts to show your rankings over time in Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. They also track backlinks to your site.
Convert Hub
I often need to email design mockups to stakeholders (some people just love to live in their email), and so I use Convert Hub to do this. It’s quick and easy to use, and supports a wide range of image formats (although my need is mainly PNG to JPG). More recently, I’ve started using QwikVu to share mockups, but it’s too early to tell if it will become an essential tool for me.
LightShot
I’m always taking screenshots and sharing them, and for this I use the Firefox add-on LightShot. It’s lightweight, quick and easy to use, and is perfect for snapping portions of a screen for copying into an email in order to share or send feedback.
LastPass
I use LastPass for password management. I’ve found it to be a well designed password management tool that doesn’t get in the way as I’m logging in and out of websites. It’s pretty intelligent, so it knows when you make a change to some login information, and it manages multiple profiles well, so I can use it with my wife.
Firebug
I don’t have much to say about Firebug, except for how I don’t know how I would do any web development without it. It’s also immensely useful for providing feedback — instead of trying to describe how I want something to look, I can just show them. This also saves cycles, as I can see what works and what doesn’t myself without going through numerous iterations with a developer.
MockFlow
I’ve tried out a number of wireframing tools in the past, but settled on MockFlow for my UI design needs. It is a very full-featured tool, while still remaining easy to use. They also have quite an active community creating wireframe templates, which you can use to jump-start your designs. For the longest time, my main complaint was the lack of a snap-to-grid function, but that has since been fixed and new features are being regularly added. A desktop version is available for no extra charge, but for some reason I still find myself using the web version instead.
Thanks to all of these tools for making my working life a lot easier than it would have been without them.
Honorable Mentions
I use a number of other apps on a regular basis that I didn’t quite make my list. These include:
- iContact for email marketing (we send 500k to 1M emails a month through this service)
- Ta-da List for keeping tracking of sites I want to add to an Elements of Design showcase
- Fileswap for sharing large or multiple files with other people without emailing them
- Litmus for checking emails for compatibility with a range of email clients
- Notable for reviewing web designs
- SurveyMonkey for creating online surveys
On CSS Galleries
Apr 24
The Transients API
Read the rest of this entry »
Design is Choice
Nov 2
Recently Google has removed the “http://” portion of the URL in Chrome’s address bar. This change generated mixed reactions from users. Some like the change, others point out problems; for example, when you copy the address, “http://” is magically attached to the front, but what if you actually don’t want it? There’s no way to copy the URL without it now.
But see, this is one of those things that just doesn’t matter
No Title Bar?
Oct 24
Apple just gave us a sneak peak at their next operating system update, called OS X Lion, and there’s one interesting design element I’ve noticed in the user interface. The title bar, that little area at the top of each app window that holds the title of the application and the close, zoom and minimize buttons, is missing on their App Store application.
Here’s what that it looks like:
Well…the “title” is what’s missing, the controls are still there, but technically this is no longer a “title bar”. We’ve actually seen the same thing already with the recent iTunes update, where not only the title bar is missing, but the close, zoom and minimize buttons are arranged vertically, presumably because placing them horizontally will look awkward with all that space around them. Here’s a snapshot:
This may be a design direction that Apple will take for more of their apps. For example, I think it makes sense to drop the title bar in Safari (as Google have done with Chrome, although they’ve still left a little space to grab onto) because the title of the page is already displayed in the tab (though long titles do get cut off when you have many tabs).
The title bar functions not only to inform the user about what the application is—or the name of a document if you’re editing something—but also as a little handle you can use to move the window around. But if there’s other controls besides the title in that area then there will still be that space for dragging left if you remove the title.
If the title remains the same all the time, does it make sense to show it? For example, if an app doesn’t show the names of documents, or any other assets that it opens, and there is plenty of space at the top around other controls to grab onto if you want to move the window around, does the title serve much purpose?
I’m guessing you already know what each application is by the looks of its interface rather than by checking the title every time. When starting the app you already know what you’re going to load, so you don’t need that reminder either.
I think it’s an interesting design direction. When I
I liked this combination of offer email and landing page for Google Adwords. Although the design for both is straightforward (as you’d expect from Google), both are well structured with clear layouts, good copywriting and clear calls-to-action.
Google Adwords offer email
I’d probably add a button to the email so that the call-to-action is a little stronger and emphasize the limited time element of the offer.
I like that the landing page, below, carries over the design of the email and does not have any unnecessary links or other page elements.
Google Adwords offer landing page
I would probably change how the email appears in my inbox. Although the sender was clearly identified as ‘Google Analytics’ the subject line unnecessarily repeated it by saying ‘Google Analytics: $100 Advertising Offer on Google Adwords’.
In addition the email does not use a preheader, and so in Gmail the subject line is followed by the first available line of text which doesn’t read too clearly.
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Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to <!–
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Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to <!–
MakeUseOf Directory.
