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Tim Ferris 4 Hour Lifestyle

Born Magazine - Adobe InDesign Gives Birth to Interactivity

I was really blown away by what can be done with the new interactivity tools in InDesign. I thought this magazine project is a great example because it uses all the Belles And Wissells (misspelled deliberately because it is the name of the Seattle based creative agency that produces Born Magazine) in a way that facilitates communication, as opposed to having objects flying around the page just for the fad of it. If you want to read about the project you can download the PDF here. Below are a couple of screenshots but that really doesn't do the project justice because you miss out on all the interactivity so I suggest you click here on the link to go to the project and see for yourself.

Thinking of Opening an Online Store?

I wanted to share a resource I can upon when setting up my shopify store: www.lindseybaker.com. It's my new baby and I felt pretty lost, luckily I stuck at it and was able to come up with something I consider a pretty cool work in progress.

I found some great online mentors such as Tim Ferriss (The 4-hour Workweek) and Seth Godin (Linchpin), whose books I bought and will comment on after I read them. I also found some tutorial sites that I tried out for myself and love.

Therefore, I wanted to start by recommending this one. The site is eshopwiz.com authored by a young man named Vinay. First I want to say that is is not a paid endorsement, there is nothing to buy (unless you d ecide to open you our Shopify store or other ecommerce enterprise) and the information can be applied to any online store. I am blogging this to build my audience and to thank him for his generosity.

The reason I like it is because it takes you through all the steps of setting up an online ecommerce presence starting with how to research how popular what you want to sell will be; finding and using the right keywords to be SEO friendly and building an audience to make those sales! So check it out and let me know what you think by posting a comment below.

 

Pattick Chappatte - Political Cartoonist Proves Print is Not Dead

Patrick Chappatte makes a very funny and eloquent (and sometimes sobering) case for how technology has changed the world.

One Week Free Training Offer On Lynda.com

I wanted to posted about an offer that lynda.com started today. You can view all of the video tutorials absolutely free for one full week. This is a great opportunity to learn Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, web design, Dreamweaver, html, CSS, Javascript, film editing, After Effects, Flash and much more.

Note: It does require that you submit a credit card but you can cancel after 1 week and will not be charged.

Click on the link at the left side bar to take advantage of this free offer.

What Makes a Website Successful?

As I mentioned in a previous post, my Project Study class is assigned a web project. One of our concerns will be: what makes for a website successful? I have compiled a list of web sites for my students to team up and analyze. Below are the questions I posed to them and the list of sites they are to visit. What do you think about any or all of them?

Method: Each team will be given one site to review for the class. They will post a comment and also present their views to the class. They may not all agree but that's okay, it makes for better dialogue.

Questions: Answer these questions when you comment on the site that you are assigned. Be prepared to talk about these points when your team presents:

• What is the purpose of the site?
• Is it well branded?
• Does it evoke an emotional response?
• Can you guess who their target audience is?
• When you are on the site, is the "brand story" immediately clear?
• Does the site do one or more of these things? Entertain, Inform, Sell.
• Is it easy to navigate?
• Is here a reason to return to the site?

 
image sole propery of The Jag Studio

Here are the list of websites:

Team 1 please address: http://www.jag-jeans.com

Team 2 please address: http://www.andrew-maxwell.co.uk

Team 3 please address: http://www.hoodlamb.com

Team 4 please address: http://www.book-by-its-cover.com

Team 5 please address: http://www.loisjeans.com

Team 6 please address: http://mnatwork.com

Team 7 please address: http://www.hel-looks.com

Team 8 please address: http://www.lebauchoir.com

IF YOUR NOT IN THE CLASS FEEL FREE TO PARTICIPATE! Post a comment addressing the questions listed above or add your own points. Or post a link to a website you think is great and tell us why. Let's discuss what makes a web design great.