Cynergise - Social Media Consultancy by Chandesh Parekh » Must-haves

Create mockups using Pencil and Firefox

Chandesh Parekh — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:33:39 +0000

A screen mockup in under a minute with Pencil

Prototyping is the method by which a designer/developer mocks up pages/screens for a web site or some piece of software, to help the design and development team visualize the product. Sketching out on a piece of paper is generally best as at this stage of development there are likely to be many changes and sketching on paper is quick and cheap.

However, if you need to create sketches that are a little more professional, e.g. for a presentation to the Board, then it helps to use a tool like Pencil, a plugin for Firefox, which allows you to build a prototype using actual screen elements e.g. buttons, text fields etc. Using it is dead simple and very quick – just drag and drop elements onto a canvas and edit the properties to suit. I made the one on the right in under a minute.

Get Pencil for Firefox here

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6 Wordpress Comment Plugins To Build Stronger Relationships With Site Visitors

currentcodes.com Helps Save Money When Shopping Online

Chandesh Parekh — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:32:26 +0000

When shopping online, you’ll have noticed most if not all shopping carts have a “enter coupon code here” section before you checkout.

Many online retailers give out, for promotional reasons or otherwise, discount coupon codes to be used in just that spot.

currentcodes.com is a service that researches and maintains a database of discount coupon codes for 1,824 online stores!

To find a code for a particular store just search their database here and see what savings you can make when you’re shopping online!

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Run an online survey quick and fast with SurveyMonkey

Chandesh Parekh — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:24:15 +0000

A great tool that I’m getting more and more use out of is the online survey-manager web site SurveyMonkey.com

As any business person will tell you, “you need to know your market!” Common sense, no doubt, but how exactly does one go about gathering market information without paying oodles of cash to a research company?

Enter SurveyMonkey!

It says on the home page:

Intelligent survey software for primates of all species. SurveyMonkey has a single purpose: to enable anyone to create professional online surveys quickly and easily.

And this totally true – their easy-to-use system makes it possible to get your survey together in just a few minutes! The hard part is who to target and what to ask them!

Their pricing plan is 3 tiered starting at ‘free’ to $19.95 per month and lastly $200 for a year. Although the ‘free’ plan only allows up to 100 responses, it’s suitable for small surveys and a good way to get acquainted with the online software.

Try it out now at www.surveymonkey.com

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The Photoshop Anthology book – Get it completely FREE from Sitepoint

Chandesh Parekh — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:43:49 +0000

It’s not often a great book like The Photoshop Anthology is given away free but Sitepoint have teamed up with 99Designs to do just that!

The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks and Techniques is being given away free as a downloadable PDF from the Sitepoint web site, but only until Thursday 12th June so get clicking here to download it now!

Taken from the offer page on the Sitepoint site:

It’s brimming with tried and tested real-world Photoshop solutions that will add impact to your next web design project. If you’ve ever been stuck for inspiration, have puzzled over just how to create a shiny aqua-style button, or wanted to create that seamlessly tiling background image you saw on a site recently, you need download this book.

99Designs is sponsoring this giveaway to promote their service which “…connects passionate designers from around the globe with savvy clients who need design projects completed in a timely fashion without the usual risk or cost associated with professional design.”

Also on the 99Designs site is the opportunity to win a MacBook and a money prize of $55,147. Go there now to check out how to win…

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20 Usability Tips For The New And Experienced Blogger

Sol Shah — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 03:00:18 +0000

On Tom Johnson’s blog titled “I’d Rather Be Writing”, he has pulled together a very valuable selection of usability tips for when you are setting up and adding content to your blog.

At Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences, Tom expands on each of the following tips:

1. Pick a topic for your blog.
2. Encourage comments.
3. Make it easy to subscribe.
4. Include an About page.
5. Present your ideas visually.
6. Keep posts short and to the point.
7. Use subheadings for long posts.
8. Link abundantly.
9. Make headlines descriptive.
10. Archive by topic.
11. Include a list of related posts beneath each post.
12. Allow users to contact you offline.
13. Present your real viewpoint.
14. Write for your future employer.
15. Include a Top Posts section.
16. Provide an index.
17. Get your own URL and match it to your blog’s title.
18. Include a Recent Posts section in your sidebar.
19. Reward commenters for commenting.
20. Post often.

Incredibly useful for new bloggers, and naturally a gentle reminder for the more experienced!

Highly recommend you check out Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences and then get in touch with us for any technical amendments you want for your blog.

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Is Google Phone On The Way?

Chandesh Parekh — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:40:45 +0000

I’m a big fan of Google and especially its attitude toward making its services accessible to all so I’m getting pretty excited about the rumour going around the Internet that the Google Phone is due out in the first quarter of 2008. Google has already made the web largely accessible to computer users and is now extending their ethos to mobile phones.

But, what is the Google Phone all about? From what I gather, Google will first release software that will be compatible with the hardware from phone vendors before actually releasing it’s own range of phones. This last bit is still a bit foggy but it seems the software release is imminent.

The software will bundle Google Mail, Google Maps, Search and YouTube for video-sharing. However, the best part of this software is that it will be ‘open’ so that developers can actually build additional phone features.

What does this mean for you and me? Just that we’ll get access to some of the best free web applications on our mobile phones.

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6 Wordpress Comment Plugins To Build Stronger Relationships With Site Visitors

Sol Shah — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 04:00:48 +0000

When we set up your website using Wordpress technology, you’ll soon realise that comments on your site play a very powerful part in encouraging people to continue visiting your site, and when they do arrive, comments are great at getting visitors to stick around. People love to be part of a community, and comments allow visitors to interact with others who are visiting the site.

The longer that site visitors spend on your site, the more time you have to build a stronger relationship with them. Stronger relationships result in greater awareness, and certainly better sales conversions.

Here are a selection of Wordpress plugins that will encourage more comments to be placed on your site.

The Subscribe To Comments plugin allows a commentator to check a box, which then notifies them by email any time someone else comments on the same post. This encourages them to return to the site and stay immersed in the conversation.
The Show Top Commentators plugin displays a list of top commentators (their names and number of comments) in the site sidebar, and it encourages discussion by the site readers. This is a terrific simple way to show recognition to those who are contributing to your website community.
The Comment Relish plugin makes you appear polite! It sends a thank you email to those who comment on your site for the first time, making them feel good about coming back to comment regularly. This is a more private form of recognition, but equally as effective as the Show Top Commentators plugin.
The Brian’s Threaded Comments plugin places a ‘Reply to this comment’ link to every comment on the page. What happens is that whenever this reply link is used, the new comment is placed directly below the comment being replied to, rather than at the end of the page. This makes it easier for people to reply to comments rather than having to quote or refer to another comment, and prevents readers having to search all the way down the page when looking for answers to their question.
The Get Recent Comments plugin displays the most recent comments in the sidebar. This plugin can be set up to link the recent commenter’s site as well as an excerpt of their comment – the link to their site obviously encourages them to leave more comments!
The Live Comment Preview plugin displays a live preview of the visitor’s comments as they type.

Get in touch and have us install any of these six plugins to have you build stronger relationships with your site visitors and truly tap into the magic of comments!

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How To Set Up Your Home Office

Sol Shah — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 04:00:50 +0000

The ideal home office is both functional and a joy to work in. Here’s how to set up your home office so that it meets your specific needs, tastes, work style and physical limitations.

Step 1: Have Your Own Room:

Arrange it so that your family members know when it’s ok to interrupt you and when it’s not. A simple way to do this is by keeping your door closed when you don’t want to be interrupted at all, and keeping the door ajar when you are cool to handle minor domestic issues that pop up.

Step 2: Get The Kit:

- Desk: have your desk positioned where there is enough natural light for reading without having glare created on the screen.

- Desk Chair: a chair where you can adjust it’s height, the tilt of the seat and where there is lumbar support. You’ll want to be able to sit comfortably in it if you’re spending most of your day there.

- Computer: a laptop which connects wirelessly to peripherals up to 30 feet away, with enough hard disk space and RAM to handle your business needs.

- Wireless Router: have the freedom of working wirelessly from any room in your home by having a wireless router set up, giving you the change of scenery you may sometimes want. We recommend ordering one from Misco.

- All-In-One Printer: a laser printer and photocopier that operates at high speed, which has a fax machine and colour scanner built in.

- VoIP Phone / Headset: get hold of a USB headset which combines headphones with a microphone, to make long-distance phone calls for free using powerful Voice over IP applications such as Skype.

- External Hard Drive: back up all your important files regularly with an external hard drive.

- Security Set-up: keep your information secure by investing in internet security software.

- Lighting Control System: at the press of a button, recall a lighting preset to match your desired mood or activity.

Step 3: Start Working:

Once you’ve invested in and installed all your kit, you’re ready to get working! What else would YOU add to your ideal home office?

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Apple slashes the price of the iPhone

Chandesh Parekh — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 14:16:06 +0000

Apple Corp. announced it’s slashing the price of the iPhone, their uber-cool Internet phone.

Apple has dropped the 4GB version altogether and reduced the price of the 8GB model to $399, approx. GBP197, $200 less than when the phone first launched in July.

Although the 4GB version has been dropped, the remaining stock is still on sale at $200 less than the launch price, at $299!

Check out the iPhone at http://www.apple.com/iphone/

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