Learn About suggested tools for web design?

Hey All,

I have a background in web development but not much experience in design. I am trying to learn a bit more about it and would love to have your opinion.

I know this may have been asked before but I would love to know your current tools in your design work flow.

Particularly:

• What is the cost of the tools you use?
• Do you pay for wire framing software?
  • If so, what would you recommend?
• What do you use for stock photos?
  • Are there any issues with licencing I should be aware of with your suggestions?
• Do you create your own icons or take them for sources?
  • If you create your own what do you use?
• Would you recommend adobe?
  • If so, what adobe tools do you pay for?
• Do many of you do your own illustrations?

Best Answer:

So my work flow for a website goes, hand drawing wireframes, 2-3 designs and then the complete design.  Wireframing is done by hand as it’s supposed to be rough. Designing I use Sketch, which is €99 (one off) and specific to Mac only. A Windows alternative is Adobe Experience Design which I believe is still in early access.  For photos I use https://unsplash.com/ some really nice free images. You can also use a site like https://www.shutterstock.com/ if the client likes the image then they can pay for it.  Personally I use icons from http://ionicons.com/ as they are nice, free & open source.  I only really use Photoshop and Illustrator. Photoshop for editing images, you can also use Photoshop for designing websites. Kinda old school that. Illustrator is mainly used if content is supplied to me as a .ai which it often is. Hope this helped!

Minneapolis: City approves bringing car sharing to the streets

The City Council on Friday signed off on a two-year pilot program that will allow several car sharing companies to leave vehicles at on-street parking spots.

Minneapolis share car

City leaders hope that boosting the number of vehicles and bringing them out in the open — shared cars now live in private ramps — will convince city residents to ditch their own rides.

Transportation committee chair Sandy Colvin Roy said the expanded car sharing could begin this summer.

The original plan granted the on-street spots exclusively to German company Car2Go, which specializes in two-seat Smart Cars. Customers of local car sharing company HourCar, which has been seeking the same privilege for years, hammered city leaders on social media for shutting out the company from the on-street parking.

The grassroots campaign paid off. On Friday, Council Members Robert Lilligren and Betsy Hodges amended the pilot program to include multiple vendors. The other companies that had expressed interest were Hertz on Demand and Zipcar.

The companies have different models. Customers of Car2Go, for example, will likely be able to leave the cars in whichever on-street spot they wish — allowing for more one-way usage. HourCar, on the other hand, will likely have specific spots designated around the city.

Colvin Roy said the companies will reimburse the city for use of the right of way, which will offset lost parking revenue. The details of that must be determined in the final contracts.

HourCar, which uses primarily Priuses, may expand to 70 cars. Car2Go, which does not currently have a Minneapolis operation, is proposing a fleet of 250 cars.

“This is a really huge innovation,” said Mayor R.T. Rybak, who noted several cities that are outpacing Minneapolis on car sharing. “They’re doing it at a scale that will work for this city. They’re doing it at a scale that you know with a relative amount of certainly that another car will be there.”

Car2Go charges a one-time sign up fee of $35 and $.38 per minute for the car rental. HourCar has several plans. Their “Freedom plan” costs $5 a month and $8 an hour for the car rental.

Source: startribune.com

For Minneapolis web design firm, please call: 612-590-8080

Twin Cities commute will be all-day struggle

Monday’s commute could be a little messy, both coming and going.

With more than half of the state under a winter storm warning, the Twin Cities metro area was expected to see an inch or two of snow this morning, with roughly 3 to 6 inches on the ground when workers are heading home in the evening, according to the National Weather Service.

And while the metro area could get 6-10 inches by the time it all ends on Tuesday, according to the NWS, up to a foot could fall in far southeast ­Minnesota.

The storm, coming in from eastern North Dakota, will likely ­produce heavy snowfall from northwest Minnesota to the southeast corner of the state, said meteorologist Shawn DeVinny, at the NWS in Chanhassen.

It won’t happen too fast, though. In the metro area, flakes were expected to fall steadily Monday morning, with a lull in intensity in the afternoon, before a second wave of higher intensity builds Monday night into Tuesday, DeVinny said.

It may not be over until midafternoon on Tuesday.

The duration and temperatures — lows in the 20s and highs near 30 — should make it easier for road crews to keep up with the storm.

MnDOT spokesman Kevin ­Gutknecht said crews will be ready.

“We’re going to have trucks out as we always do. We’re going to have people out ahead of the storm,” Gutknecht said. “With snow storms, it has a lot to do with timing.”

Plows can only clear the roads as fast as the traffic is moving, he said. He advised motorists to be patient and plan ahead.

“Most importantly of all, take your time. Drive according to the conditions. Use your seat belts. Put your lights on. Turn off your cruise control,” he said. “All of those things we know we should do but sometimes forget.”

A cold, dry air mass over western Ontario should keep the storm from spreading into northeast Minnesota and the western Great Lakes.

The storm comes on the heels of a weather service prediction for major flooding in Fargo-Moorhead, where residents in the two-state metro area of about 200,000 people have battled high water in recent years. But Greg Gust, NWS meteorologist in Grand Forks, N.D., said precipitation from this storm would be considered normal and is already figured into the equation.

While many Minnesotans are desperately hoping the storm will be winter’s last snow hurrah, DeVinny said forecasters can’t make promises on that.

“We don’t know,” he said. “There’s plenty of time left in March.”

He expects slightly more moderate temperatures, in the mid-30s, to arrive in the metro on Thursday and last through the weekend, he said.

Source: startribune.com

For Minneapolis web design, Please call (612) 590-8080

Important Steps to process Email-Marketing

As you know, marketing via email is a tricky matter. Whether you sell products or services, email is a fast, efficient and inexpensive way to keep in contact with your clients and prospects, make sales, get traffic to your website and boost your profitability. However, deciding how to approach and manage the process of email marketing can still be a challenge for most of online marketers. Therefore, I would like to share quick review of the most important points to keep in mind while building up an email marketing campaign.

Firstly, we must have good plan for all tasks. A direct e-mail campaign, like any other promotional effort, should have a detailed plan and come from your business’s overall marketing plan. You should ask yourself some questions and then answer them before setting up the plan.

– What is your service for? (What does it do and who is it for?)

– Who are your potential clients?

– What is your competitive position?

– What target do you want to achieve with this campaign?

Besides, keep in mind that an e-mail campaign affects things such as fulfillment, delivery, customer service, etc. You also must let your customer know what you tend to offer. Basically, any offer should have a peculiarity, something that makes it unique, interesting or promising.  As a rule the offer is a straight sale: you give your clients the product with its associated benefits, and they give you money. It is useful for a business to structure more compelling offers or offers that sound like an exceptional value. Perhaps you could offer a discount price for those who order during a certain predefined timeframe during a special campaign. Or maybe you can offer a free pre­mium, something like: buy one and get one free. Whatever the offer, you should emphasize that in your ad template.

Secondly, after you getting a good plan, you have to pick up mailing list. If you don’t have your own mailing list (collected from your visitors) then you will have to use a mailing service. The list or lists you mail to will be determined mostly by your budget and marketing plans. Some list providers offer many e-mail lists with varying demographics or interest areas. Some providers own only one list, but they should be able to tell you what the characteristics or interests of their recipients are.

After you’ve selected your lists, created the mes­sage, and arranged all back-end processes, it’s time to test. Now you have several lists that match your purposes. Each list may have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of email addresses. Test a future e-mail campaign on smaller samples, a few hundred per list would be alright. Then examine the response to see which lists have the best “pull.” Code your tests to determine where responses are coming from. Also test various offers and creative approaches to find out what generates the highest response rate.

Finally, you have to keep track the result. Tracking the results is a very important activity because you can adjust landing pages as well. Landing pages take an active part in the visitors to customers’ conversion process. Landing pages are critical to organic search engine marketing, press releases and just about all internet marketing efforts. Online marketers can have numerous purposes and several calls to action here. You can get the most mileage out of e-mail marketing efforts by tracking everything you can and then improving those results. To achieve the best working process and greater success each campaign and marketing technique you use should be checked for results and improved.

All in all, email marketing is a fantastic way to keep constant contact with various prospects or past clients as a way of staying top of mind when it comes time for your subscribers to act. One of the biggest advantages in measuring online direct marketing response is that replies to transmitting a message to an e-mail list are almost instant. Be sure to track the campaign and measure response. Contact our Minneapolis internet marketing today. For web design quotes or web design price, please call 612.590.8080

Rubio, DWilliams to start, Wolves to sign Gelabale

(wiki.osgeo.org)Ricky Rubio gets his start of the season tonight against the Clippers along Luke Ridnour in the backcourt.

Derrick Williams moves back into the starting lineup as well as the Wolves look to find answers to solve the problems exhibited on their recent four-game losing streak.

Chris Paul will not play for the Clippers because of a bruised knee, but Caron Butler will.

And…the Wolves, as expected, will sign European swingman Mickael Gelabale on Friday after Lazar Hayward’s 10-day contract expires following tonight’s game.

Gelabale probably already is town and very well could be at practice tomorrow. A member of the French Olympic team last summer, he will help address their needs for a defender and three-point shooter.

Acting coach Terry Porter played coy again during his pregame media availabilty about who would start, but it’s clear Rick Adelman, who’s calling the shots from outside Target Center, felt the Wolves needed to change things up.

“The last two games he has made good strides,” Porter said of Rubio. “His confidence, his body language is better. He’s done a much better job with his aggressivness, turning the corner, getting into gaps and looking for opportunities for his shot. That has been good. Hopefully this will be a continuation of that.”

Rubio’s playing time also has been bumped up, from 22-24 minutesa game to 26-28.

Source: startribune.com

The Pros And Cons Of Website Redesign

(articlesbase.com) – In today’s fast paced world everything seems to be changing and evolving to bring about a better version of its self. The same goes for websites as well. Newer and better equipped websites are fast replacing the more archaic versions. It has become necessary to keep your website up to date and in sync with the advancement in technology. A website redesign is a good option, check out these benefits :

Improved website traffic :
Once you redo your website, it would definitely deliver a better user experience and better usability for the user. Fresh content would also be appreciated by the user and from an SEO perspective as well. This would get you better visibility and so significantly improve the traffic to your website.

Better Brand Identity:
Redesigning would help you cut down on your advertisement campaign as a redesigned website would get you better marketing mileage and improve your brand recognition which would in turn fetch you more customers and improve the outlook for your brand. A redesigned website is sure to increase your sales in a considerable way.

Improved Visibility:
Search engine optimization can be applied right from the design stage and hence when you redesign you get an opportunity to revamp your SEO to get you better visibility. Visibility plays a major role in the performance of your website and the only way to gain visibility is through search engines. Search engines would increase the awareness of your website. If you want to get noticed you have to ensure that your website gets higher Search engine Ranking.

Least Loading Time:
The average internet user is quite impatient, they are not going to wait endlessly for your website to load onto the browser. If yours takes too long they would hit the back button and go to the next website on the results page of a search engine.

Stronger customer Base:
Frequent updates and efforts to incorporate the latest of technology to your website would be appreciated by your users. Keep them informed of all the updates and changes you are implementing and it will help you earn a good customer base.

Besides these improvements a redesigned website would enable you to work on your navigation and improve new techniques like responsiveness to better the accessibility.
Now lets take a look at the aspects that retard performance while redesigning.

Customer Base and Familiarity:
A lot of your regular customers might not respond as well on your new website as they are more familiar to your old site. Here they would have to go through the learning curve all over again and you might end up losing some of them. This is applicable when you suddenly change the entire website. (Big Bang)

Also this would affect the bounce rate of your website and you would find a lot off you previous clients hitting the back button as they would be taken aback by the sudden change.

Usability might get affected:
As I mentioned above it is not a good idea to change the website entirely as it would increase your bounce rates. So often designers are restricted to using similar aspects of the old design like color, functionalities and navigation. This might affect the usability of the website. Hence a gradual change should be induced that would mean the entire process would take a considerable amount of time.

Sometimes the existing SEO techniques that have been implemented get lost as the new design would have overlooked those aspects.

Again re design should be well thought of and properly implemented otherwise it would not be able to cater to both the old as well as new and potential clients.

I would conclude that redesigning is essential but a gradual process that considers all the aspects of your business and website design would give you better results.

Get Right Web Development Firm in Minneapolis, MN

It’s clearly that websites is one of the most useful channels in the internet and people can use it for different purposes today. People may use website to public information, to advertise, to play games; however, the most importantly, it is used in ecommerce. Therefore, web development services have become a common requirement of online business providers because it has become a prominent need of everybody to set up an online business to catch the potential. It is good idea to launch an online portal in Minneapolis, MN but, it turns to be tough if you don’t know how to get right website development company in this city. Let me give you some suggestions that may help you to have good decision.

In my experience, not every web development company in Minneapolis will be efficient enough to provide web development services to launch your business online. So, before you choose a web development company in Minneapolis, you should actually know what web development service is pro vided by Web Design Companies does include. It is not just development of website template; it includes website design in accordance with the web application development. The web development service should be integrated with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) services and SMM (Social Media Marketing) services. It is very important to make your website content easily get indexed in major search engines and rank well in search result.

There are some factors should be considered while choosing a development company. Keeping these factors in mind will help you to get right web development provider.

Read more at: http://www.articlesbase.com/get-right-web-development-firm-in-minneapolis-mn-6361285.html

PSD to Drupal Conversion Helps to Create Cross-Browser Compatible Websites

PSD to Drupal conversion is one of the most preferred ways to develop powerful and robust websites. The conversion lends several attractive and useful features to your website, while making it cross-browser compatible and highly functional. This means that your users can access your website from any part of the world on their chosen internet browsers such as IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera and others. So how does PSD to Drupal conversion help websites to achieve cross-browser compatibility? Let us find out.

If you choose to convert PSD to Drupal to develop your website and take it online, you must get your code validated as per the guidelines of W3C. Coding is a long drawn and complicated process that requires a high degree of technical expertise. Needless to say, it is vulnerable to errors. Such errors can prevent a website from becoming cross browser compatible. Acquiring W3C validation, while seeking PSD to Drupal services, ensures that such errors are eliminated from your website’s architecture.

There is yet another way to make your website cross-browser compatible during PSD to Drupal conversion. This conversion allows you to reset your CSS during the process. There are a host of CSS themes available these days and you can choose the one that best suits your business requirements. Conditional statements can also be used to enable browser compatibility for your website. In this, your can easily detect the browser being used by your user and render a webpage that is suitably compatible to it.

With PSD to Drupal conversion you can actually have a website that will render uniformly across all major web browsers. This way you can reach to your clients, no matter which browser they prefer or use. Plus, when you convert PSD to Drupal, your website is rendered with an auto adjustment feature that helps it to adapt to the specific attributes of various browsers. In this way, your users can enjoy all the features and functionalities of your website on their respective browsers in a hassle-free manner.

It is due to these advantages that PSD to Drupal services are highly sought by e-commerce websites that want to roll in more clients and drive increased sales. PSD to Drupal conversion eliminates the chances of abandoned shopping carts, payment gateway errors and other unpleasant fallouts that buyers may face while transacting with an online store through their respective browsers. By offering your e-commerce store with cross-browser compatibility, PSD to Drupal conversion not only helps you to bag more clients but also service them efficiently.

ProWeb365 is twin cities web design, MN. We can transform your business vision into an effective online marketing website. Contact our Minneapolis SEO Company today. For web design quotes, please call 612.590.8080

The Grains Review For the week of October 29, 2012

The situation coming back from the weekend is rather muted. The “Frankenstorm” off the East Coast has all markets grinding to a halt with only commodities actually expected to trade a full session. Domestic equities are closed, bonds are closing early and all floors in the east are closed today and likely tomorrow. Transit systems in NY are shutdown so even electronic participation should be rather low with many on the East Coast, my friends included, hunkering down with bottled water and wine waiting out the storm.

Looking at the overnight traders saw pressure in beans as demand worries are sneaking into the trade but this is a minor issue in the big picture. Talking to many South American producers over the past week I get a general picture that Brazil may reach, stressing may, 80 MMT with Argentina likely missing their lofty expectations by 2-4 MMT in beans and 1-2 MMT in corn. This makes the current prices far more warranted in my opinion. Stressing a simple point. Remember how lofty our expectations were in March and April and the actual results. South America is likely to trend in only one direction and that is lower so the downside from current levels should be limited as we move into the production cycle.

Another note from the overnight occurred between 4-5 AM CST. A big volume spike in corn and wheat helped these markets recover into positive territory but this did not occur in beans or meal for that matter. – Kenny Blog Pro

Looking at the day session, it’s going to be interesting to see who’s all involved. Prices are moving wildly into the later hours of the morning with fresh information limited. Governmental reports are all delayed until tomorrow at the earliest so export inspections and harvest progress will not come out. There was a report out from the Chinese AG Minister stating bean imports will reach 57.5 MMT this year showing a 9.2% increase year on year. This is actually less than many are expecting with a number closer to 59 floating around the industry. Looking to wheat, Russian and Ukrainian exports are slowing but India is looking to fill the void. This is unlikely due to a lack of infrastructure and antiquated transit system there but they will continue to push the export situation which will most likely impact demand from SE Asian countries.

Outside of these small factors, look for a rather muted session as the focus of the nation remains on the storm off the East Coast. Good luck to all out there during the storm with the thoughts of Midwesterners with you.

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Soft Market Review for Sept 24, 2012

SOFTS: 24Sep Most of the Softs were caught in the risk-off trading today.

 

COCOA:

First Notice: Dec: 16Nov

Options Last Trade: Nov: 05Oct; Dec: 02Nov; Jan13: 07Dec

 24Sep

Dec Support/Resistance:

2833 Oct 2011 high.

2727: +2 STD above the 21-day moving average

2705: 07Sep high.

2600: Late Jan12 peaking action

2590: Inflection level dating to 8/28.

2576: 21-day moving average

2501: 13Aug high

2366: 24Aug low.

2426: -2STD below the 21-day moving average.

2357: Rising trend line from 04June lows.

2327: 200-day moving average.

2035 area: Major support. Horizontal trend line. 12/12/11 low and 6/1 and 6/4 low.

Comment: Caught in the general risk-off selling, today’s trading extended recent negative action. Trend, Momentum, ROC and RSI are all clearly pointed lower. The question is how Oversold it will become.

Another modestly weak day, that featured a lower low. The Dec contract remains below the rising 21-day moving average. A spike in Volume validates the action today, but we’re unsure of its sustainability

Seasonal Snapshot:  An uptick in all three patterns until 29Sep, then a brief spike lower until another rise commences on 07Oct.

COFFEE:

First Notice: Dec: 16Nov

Options Last Trade: Nov: 12Oct; Dec: 09Nov; Jan13: 14Dec

24Sep Early risk-off losses were pared as bargain-hunting demand appeared below 170.00.

Dec Support/Resistance:

194.85: 11July high.

192.25: 200-day moving average.

191.95: 19July settlement (recent settlement high)

183.10: +2STD above the 21-day moving average.

170.00: 21-day moving average

156.55: 06Sep low.

156.95: -2STD below 21-day moving average

Comment: An early new lows push was rejected handily in later session buying action.

However, Volume was anemic. Directionals point to a market rolling to a clearly more negative bias. Momentum and Trend are close to going negative. ROC is decelerating rapidly and RSI is now falling. Given this dynamic, look for a likely rejection of the recent mini-rally.

Hedging for delivery is likely to be a cash intensive business unless some sort of long option strategy is implemented. Call or email us for information on how to implement.

Seasonal Snapshot: All 3 patterns head generally higher until month end.

 

COTTON:

First Notice: Dec: 26Nov

Bamboo Case

Options Last Trade: Dec: 06Dec

24Sep

Dec Support/Resistance (Dec):

83.04: Dec 2011 low: old support/new resistance?

81.82: 200-day moving average.

77.86: +2STD above 21-day moving average.

78.90: Rising trend line from the 19June high through 09Aug & 21Aug highs.   Forms the upper boundary of a rising wedge.

77.00-77.25: Resistance range that has held since 8/9.

75.39: 21-day moving average.

75.66: Rising Trend line drawn from the 6/4 low through the 6/28 low. Forms the lower boundary of a rising wedge. We’re having doubts as to the this patterns validity.

73.00-73.25: Inflection level since late May.

72.92: -2STD below the 21-day moving average.

64.61: 04June low.

Comment: Whatever positive shift was evident late last week has vanished. Trend and Momentum have resumed their biases with some acceleration. ROC is also pointing lower. RSI, while modestly Oversold, is showing more weakness as well. Volume’s rise was supportive of the negative action. Today’s action takes the Dec Cotton below the 73.00-73.25-inflection level. This is potentially quite bearish.

Seasonal Snapshot:  All three patterns are in generally higher biases going into topping action in late September.

 

SUGAR: 

First Notice: Oct: 01Oct; Mar: 01Mar

Options Last Trade: Nov: 15Oct; Dec: 15Nov; Jan13: 17Dec

24Sep Switching to March as the roll is under way.

Sugar strengthened modestly today despite the general risk-off tone to most markets. The likely culprit is seen as a delay in the Brazilian cane-crush due to rains. When the crush resumes apace, weak Northern hemisphere demand coupled with the robust supply is seen as a dynamic that will become ever more negative. Any additionally Energy weakness will add to the negative dynamic.

Tripe review

Mar Support/Resistance:

24.10: 20July high, near 23July high (24.07)

22.66: 200-day moving average.

21.50: Old resistance & where Sugar fell to & bounced for a short time in early May

21.32: 20Aug high.

20.89: +2STD above 21-day moving average

20.25: 13June low

20.22: 21-day moving average.

19.65: 19Sep low

19.54: -2 STD below 21-day moving average.

18.48: 06Sep low.

16.50: Nov 2010 low.

Comment: The market seems to be in the midst of a bounce rally. Today’s Volume spike is suspect due to the roll. The action is bullish but suspect as well, as it failed to make a new high over Friday’s. This is an important near-term level as the market is testing the bottoming lows in late August. Directionals are pointing to a modestly higher bias. Watch the action around the 20.25 level. This may set up as an inflection level.

If this is breached, look to the 20.90-21.00 level as the next area the market must get through to confirm a bullish move.

Seasonal Snapshot: All three patterns are in a modest downward bias until mid Sep, then pop higher until 01Oct.