AGI ( American Graphics Institute) is a top sponsor of the Boston WebsiteSpark Group, an we are lucky to have them aboard, so Who are they? and What do they do?
Boston WebsiteSpark Group Turns 1
2010 was a long year, but for the Boston WebsiteSpark Group is was a fast one with a couple of bumps. But we had some amazing sessions and grew from one to over 400 members.
The 411 on Windows 7 Phone
Back again Jim O’Neil gave a great presentation on Windows 7 phone with an overview and the dove into design for and developing for the exciting new mobile phone platform.
Sponsor Spotlight: AGI
AGI ( American Graphics Institute) is a top sponsor of the Boston WebsiteSpark Group, an we are lucky to have them aboard, so Who are they? and What do they do?
Real World SEO (Jun 24 )
We are so happy to get this meeting reschedule an back into the line up.
"Designing Search Engine Friendly Websites"
by Greg Hill from Excellira
Brief: A detailed look at SEO from a designer/developer-oriented perspective.
June 24 : SEO Book Giveaway
Thanks to our great sponsors at O’Reilly, I am happy to announce the prefect book giveaway at our June, rescheduled, SEO meeting: “ SEO Warrior” by John Jerkovic.
There is an online blog that matches up with the book:
http://www.seowarrior.net/
And A very details good review of the book online:
http://blogcritics.org/books/article/book-review-seo-warrior-by-john1/
And as always Amazon's list of the book:
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596157081
Adobe Creative Suite 5 global online launch event
With the right tools, your creative horizon changes. A tree is still timber, but suddenly in a whole new way. Old ideas germinate again, and new ideas branch into unexpected opportunities.
Welcome to Adobe® Creative Suite® 5—software that will allow you to confidently reach more people, more effectively, in more places, with whatever masterpiece you can imagine.
Win With WebsiteSpark Training Event
REGISTER NOW ( it’s an free event ) >>
Microsoft & NaviSite Present:
Win With WebsiteSpark Training Event
Get leads, free marketing, free software and tools to build websites, and discounted hosting. WebsiteSpark™ provides you software, tools, support and training that helps enable you to provide your customers with competitively priced hosting solutions on the Windows Web platform.
Are you a Web Professional...
* Interested in free software and support to grow your web development business?
* Who needs help getting your customers’ websites to the top of the search rankings?
* Looking for tips and tricks to design and develop next generation web experiences?
* Looking to make your web development business more profitable?
* Looking to streamline the way you design, build and deploy websites?
* Looking to mix the best of Open Source with the best of Microsoft in your customer’s websites?
Training Sessions includes:
* Web Development and Design Tools
* Search Engine Optimization
* Benefits of utilizing Hosting services
Come spend a day with us to explore the Microsoft Windows Web Platform and the many hosting services provided by NaviSite!
During this event, we’ll review what’s new in the Microsoft Web Platform and tools, the interoperability improvements in the Microsoft Web platform and the value that NaviSite can add to your project/business.
All attendees will be entered into a drawing to win one of the following:
• HP Netbook with Windows 7
• Xbox 360 Elite
• ZuneHD
• 8GB Zune
Twitter @NaviSiteHosts (Event Tag: #NAVISITEWEB)
We get some press
In the March 2010 Microsoft WebsiteSpark program newsletter our group not only gets listed in the Local Events section, but we have also caused them to change the title of this section to : Local Events & WebsiteSpark Meetups.
Boston WebsiteSpark Meetup
In the Boston area? Network with other WebsiteSpark members at the monthly Boston WebsiteSpark Meetup. Visit the Meetup.com site at http://www.meetup.com/Boston-WebsiteSpark-Group/ for details on future meetings and topics.
If you’re interested in setting up a local WebsiteSpark Meetup, you can do so through meetup.com. If you have any questions or you need any help with that you can send a note to brianjo@microsoft.com.
The Next Open Web Platform
This is a full day event, with presentations in the morning, and a hands-on session in the afternoon.
Goal
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is going to present some of the Core technologies that will be part of the future Web technologies.
The morning is intended for a general audience, when we'll have relatively high-level overview of the technologies. The afternoon is intended for folks who are not afraid to get their hands dirty with HTML, CSS, Javascript, or SVG.
If you don't intend to stay in the afternoon, that's fine, but it's highly recommended that you follow the morning session if you're interested to attend the hands-on session in the afternoon.
Pizza and drinks will be available at no cost.
Morning: The Next Open Web Platform
Each presentation will be around 30 minutes with 15 minutes for questions.
9:00-9:45
Introduction to Next Open Web Platform
Speaker: Philippe Le Hegaret, W3C
9:45-10:30
Introduction to HTML 5
Speaker: Mike Smith, W3C
10:30-11:15
Introduction to SVG and Canvas
Speaker: Douglas Schepers, W3C
11:15-12:00
Introduction to CSS 3
Speaker: Bert Bos, W3C
Afternoon: Hands-on session
13:00-18:00
Requirement: Bring your own computer so you can run one or more Web browsers. You may need to download and install software on it.
Windows 7 phone info & development links
Windows announces the release of all the new an exciting tools for doing windows 7 phone development is now available for downloading.
To support an end-to-end development experience, Microsoft announced the availability of comprehensive tools support for Silverlight on Windows Phone 7 Series. . The easy-to-install package is available for download today at http://developer.windowsphone.com/ and includes previews of: -
· Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
· Windows Phone 7 Series add-in to use with Visual Studio 2010 RC1
· XNA Game Studio 4.0
· Windows Phone 7 Series Emulator for application testing
· Expression Blend for Windows Phone CTP (available as a separate download).
The most comprehensive collection of information and videos, including presentation demo’s from MIX 2010
Gizmodo Article: Windows Phone 7 Apps: Everything you needed to Know http://gizmodo.com/5493569/windows-phone-7-apps-everything-you-need-to-know
more good stuff
---------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Phone Development http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402535(VS.92).aspx
Visual Studio 2010 Expression for Windows Phone http://www.microsoft.com/express/phone/
Channel 9 : First Look: Windows Phone 7 Series Hands on Demo http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/LauraFoy/First-Look-Windows-Phone-7-Series-Hands-on-Demo/
Channel 9: Windows Phone 7 Series Developer Training http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/WP7TrainingKit/
Channel 9: GDC 2010: Windows Phone 7 and Xbox live functionality http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/InsideXbox/GDC-2010-Windows-Phone-7-and-Xbox-Live-functionality/
MIX 2010 Live Coverage..lets get started
Live coverage of MIX 2010 has started with the ever amazing Yo-Yo boy warming up before the keynote
What's MIX2010:
Join us at MIX10 as we continue exploring the art and science of creating great user experiences. Designers and developers will learn about Microsoft’s broad web platform and tools that help bring together the clients, servers and cloud services needed for creating great rich web applications.
Live Links: http://live.visitmix.com/
.toolbox Silverlight & Expression training online
Thanks to Jim for sending me this link, its an great way to learn real world skills and at your own pace. http://www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox/default.aspx
Welcome to .toolbox, a fun online learning environment, where you will learn basic design concepts and how to apply them, as well as the fundamentals of creating Silverlight applications using the Expression Studio tools.
.toolbox features two core learning paths: Design Scenarios and Design Principles. Both begin with teaching basic techniques and build skills and knowledge incrementally. In Design Scenarios, designers and developers learn to create dynamically-rich Silverlight applications using Expression Studio. You will learn to add code-free functionality to designs by following step-by-step tutorials that illustrate how to create interactive user experiences. In Design Principles, you will learn fundamental design concepts (e.g., choosing the right colors and the right fonts) along with tips and techniques in how to apply them to your creations.
Wire Frame / UI Tools
Note: This is a re-publication of an article I wrote in June of 2009, I was asked to repost the article here by a member. There is also some updated info added.
Since New Years, I have found and employed some new tools to speed-up the design phase of our firms design-build process.
GRIDS
Grid Designer 2 :
In an effort to speed up and play with the gird layout an elements, I found a joy of a tool online. Grid Designer 2 (http://grid.mindplay.dk/) is nothing short of an amazing tool, rather tool set. You can quickly play and adjust you grid to need, toss in some typography needs, and the pack it all out in html and css that get you off an running.
Boks: This is a new find ( about a week ago) this is an Adobe Air application ( so far only the second one I found useful to me) That seems to operate much like Grid Designer 2, so so far I am not as impressed, but I have only had a few interaction with it an seems it has some potential as well. (http://toki-woki.net/p/Boks/)
NEW:
960 Grid System:
I have almost entirely switched to using the 960 grid system. It’s extremely power and easy to use an quickly create bullet proof CSS grid design pages. It also comes with pre-set up templates for Fireworks, Photoshop, InDesign…and more. Its an easy system to learn and use with speed. ( http://960.gs/ )
WIRE FRAME / UI SKETCHING
IPlotz:
This is a supper nice high-end, simple and easy to use, wire-frame online tool. A tad pricey but the free account will let you mock up five pages for small task or sites. (http://iplotz.com/)
Creately:
Still in beta but it’s got more potential than Iplotz and has alot more to it from charting to layouts and UI wire frames ( with data behind it for building working wire frame models). I am still just getting time to play with it and the more i do the more I love it. It has powerful simple to use collaboration tool that make team coordination a snap. We are seriously loving this new online tool. This is a tool that can speed-up a lotof stuff while making our team much more colabratve with more than task than we currently are. (http://creately.com/)
NEW:
Expression Blend 3 & Silverlight:
Expression Blend 3 revolutionizes the speed and efficiency with which you can take your ideas from concept to completion on the Silverlight and .NET platforms. However, it is Blend’s Sketchflow thats stunning.
SketchFlow revolutionizes how quickly and efficiently you can demonstrate your vision for an application. It provides an informal and quick way to explore, iterate and prototype user interface scenarios, allowing you to evolve your concepts from a series of rough ideas into a living and breathing prototype that can be made as real as a particular client or project demands.
I have had amazing experiences using Blend to create simple and complex wireframes, even though they are not for silverlight but for client websites. ( http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Blend_Overview.aspx )
Library collection:
I have be honest in unless the wireframe needs to be complex or interactive, I stick to using Fireworks and an image library of fire framing images. Starting back early last year I started putting together and creating graphic elements for wireframe use for the web and mobile design. This collection has now become a very mature tool with images gathered on layer: web, forms, Jquerry, flash, Samsung, Android, iPhone, and yes even the iPad, and having been a recent Zune HD owner I have even started building one for the later this year release of the win 7 phone interface elements.
I have is set up were i can copy off a copy from the master set, with all the collection layer i typical use for web design, a 960 grid layer, and an blank layer to start working in right away. every time i find or use a new JQuery or script element I will copy it off to the master collection.
I hope this expanded little bit is of some use. If you use a Wireframe of Grid system or tool that I did not list please share it with the group via comments.
