The Lowdown

This ebook is exactly what it’s title suggests, a guide to online self promotion for creative professionals of all kinds.

The book breaks down many of today’s popular online social media tools and explains everything from how to sign up to how to utilize the tool for maximum impact and exposure.

Hey Rookie Online Creative read this book!

I think this book is most fitting for online creatives that are just getting into the field and are starting to establish their online footprint. It does a great job of breaking down many of the most popular social media and online networking tools (right down to how to sign up) and then touches on ways to maximize the tools.
Now that being said, this book would also be valuable to already established online creatives. It does dive deeper into some social media/networking tools, and may show you better ways to use the tools you are already using, as well as show you a few more that could be beneficial to you. I found myself marking pages on things that I wasn’t aware that some of these tools could do.
In addition to just explaining what these tools do Alex does a great job of providing details and tips on how to actually connect and engage with your online audience. This is something that is extremely vital to the success of an online creative professional.

Gentle Slams

Throughout reading this book I did find myself going over some repetitive content. I understand it is important to touch back on points made earlier in the book / chapter to give context to the point, however I found it a little repetitive.

It would have been interesting to have a bit more interaction with some other freelance designers to get their take on certain social media tools and self promotion techniques.

Overall

Overall, this book acts as a great introduction for innovative professionals that are interested in gaining knowledge about today’s exciting social media and networking tools It is also great for already established creatives who will want to use it as a reference guide to see how they can better utilize the tools they’re already using, as well as get some insight into the tools they are not.

So if you’re new to the game, this quick read can bring you from online promotion zero to hero.

Buy it NOW!

Available for $27 USD for a limited three days until March 13th.
Price will go up to its usual $39 from then on, so act now!
[Buy it Now]

Other Hype

Head over to InspiredMag for a free chapter of the book!

Check out the interview with book author Alex Mathers at Just Creative Design.
eBook: 10 Steps to Powerful Online Self Promotion for Creatives

More Reviews

If you have a new book launch, and it fits within our target market, we would love to do a review. So please send us an email at dertmobile[at]gmaildotcom.

1. Be Intentional

When we design pages we deal with the users’ intentions. It doesn’t matter who they are in terms of demographics, rest assured they have a goal in mind, and therefore an intention. To ignore this intention in exchange for your goals is “website suicide.” Users must feel that their needs are being addressed even if your intent is to introduce them to new (more lucrative) goals. As a designer, you must balance clear messaging that identifies the user’s intentions with direct access to work flows that take a user to their goals.  Naturally, the presentation of the site’s key business goals also needs to be present. Sites like Mint.com make sure to address the user’s needs and provide him/her with the services they are looking for; if you look more closely, it’s clear that Mint’s business objectives are being presented to the user in a “helpful” way as well.

2. Let Them Simplify

When inventory display is the goal and you are allowing users to search through your data, the last thing that you want to do is oversimplify the process. Searches that yield too few results (or even worse, none) will make users think that you have a lack of inventory or inability to meet their needs. DO help them focus in on a manageable result set, DON’T try to wow them with instant access to the right results.  Sites like Kayak and REI allow users to narrow down their results in a way that is easy to understand and flexible. The user is in control. If they “tweak” the search to a point that they are presented with no results, they can understand why that has happened, and simply broaden their search until an acceptable result is returned.

3. Let Them Customize

No user interface that we create is ever going to be perfect for everyone (try as we might).  The more complex a site is or rather, the more potential intentions that we deal with in our user types, the more important it might be to offer some form of customization.  The extreme examples of this, like iGoogle and Netvibes are very customizable and let a user basically create their own UI, but in many cases, this level of customization can lead to confusion and a poor user experience.  Sites like USAA offer excellent and sometime unexpected amounts of control that allow the user to make more sense of the information being presented to them. They also make commonly used functionalities more prominent and group information in a way that is more meaningful to the user, all without compromising the goals of the website.

4. Make it Visual

As designers, we have our own internal struggle to deal with. Design is everything, but should everything be designed? The answer is no…and yes! Everything within a user interface should be laid out with purpose, meaning and detail, but not everything needs to be done graphically. Too much visual stimulation or too much design can leave the user feeling that the graphical “layer” of a site is getting in their way and making them work harder to access information. If this is the case, then we as designers have lost the balance and have probably lost the user. On the other hand, graphics and visual layout can be used very effectively to make mundane tasks easier to understand or to simplify a page that may otherwise feel overwhelming. Wufoo is a perfect example of a site that has used design and visual balance to make the creation and use of forms into a pleasing (and almost fun) experience. Alternatively, Burton uses graphical feedback to convert a traditional form-based experience into a visual one.

Which brings us to the last point…

5. Make it Fun

How dare we lose sight of this one. It is one of the core elements of user interface design. Of course, fun may be a lofty goal. Some sites demand a level of professionalism or seriousness, but we can always make sure that using the interface of a site is enjoyable, pleasing and at the very least, easy to use.  This balance that is very important, as it allows us to keep a user’s interest long enough to connect them to the information that they need, as well present the information that we want them to see. Sites like Burton and Spectra/MSNBC use design and graphical user interfaces to make accessing information intriguing and engaging (and yes, even fun) without losing usefulness.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, it’s is up to the user interface designer to balance the goals that he/she has in mind for creating a great user experience and the goals that the client company has in creating a great customer experience.  So ask yourself  ”Am I sacrificing one or the other in the design I am creating?” If the answer is “yes,” then you need to push your creativity even further, because for every instance where you feel that you are sacrificing, you have identified an opportunity to innovate and use interface design to create a solution that addresses both goals at once.

In my browsing, I found that most of these sites use this effect as a background. This effect rarely was ever the main graphic, even though it might be a very obvious element on any page. I also enjoyed finding out the different types of Bokeh, there is the very subtle blurred version, there is also the sharper and more transparent effect. Throughout all of these sites, the Bokeh effect is a very colourful, and beautiful texture, it adds very interesting subtle details to these examples.

Download 7 Hi-Res Bokeh Textures (22mb zip)

What band or artist gets your creative juices flowing? Comment it!

So please don’t adjust your monitor colour settings, these ARE supposed to be in black and white.

With a lot of new framework’s being introduced (I use 960 Grid). Most designers and studios are using these grid’s to help structure their websites, WooThemes using the 960 Grid for their framework. The 960 Grid isn’t the only way of making websites look clean and structured. These sites showcase grid systems, with some extra resources at the bottom.

Extra Resources

The Grid System

A List Apart – Outside the Grid

Grid Based Design Resources

Follow on Twitter

@geminijess

@jQTouch

@RockablePress

@BoxedInDesign

@cssIllustrated

@CreativityGeek

@StandUP4Design

Design Contest – Win $500

@ your library is seeking an original, creative design for its first ever Design a Tote Bag contest. The winning design will illustrate the fundamental spirit and importance of American libraries.

The Grand Prize Winner will receive $500 and a People’s Choice Award Winner will receive $100!
More details can be found here http://www.atyourlibrary.org/design-contest

Web Finds

The CSS Awards – The best of the best in CSS

MeeCSS – A really cool cheap solution to add your new design to CSS galleries.

The Little Friends of Print Making – A really quirky fun website, and illustrations too.

http://strongstuff.net/ – Tom Whalen amazing artists

100 Artworks From The Top 20 Designers in The Middle East and Africa

29 Exquisite New Photoshop Examples

Photography Inspiration Amazing Pictures by Li Wei

77 Inspiring Blog Comment Form Designs

14 Best Online Typography Tools for Web Designers

10 Cutting Edge Folded Paper Artists

Tutorials

20 More Useful Adobe Illustrator Menu Tips – Some really cool tips here for you Illustrator lovers

Super Easy Neon Text in Photoshop

Illustrator Quick Tips #1 – Complex Symbols with Pathfinder

Illustrator ring shape via overlapping crescents effect

Submission

Victoria Blount sent me this really fun music video about SEO.

Interview

Interviewed on BoxedInDesign – I was recently interviewed on BoxedInDesign, it was a great interview so thanks to BoxedIn. If anyone would like to interview me, please just email met at muellerchad[at]gmail.com.

My Grand Canyon Adventure

So as some of you know – I recently hiked the Grand Canyon – I have been working on getting some pictures ready for you guys. I will be posting some Grand Canyon Textures in the upcoming week. As well, I love panoramic images and with the new house – we are printing some of the panoramic shots we have taken from our travels. I just finished two from the Grand Canyon. Let me know what you think – you can also view my Grand Canyon album here too.

Twitter Reply Submission

@DavidKaneda | Blog | jQTouch App

David Kaneda is the creator of jQTouch app – A jQuery plugin for mobile web development on the iPhone, Android, Palm Pre, and other forward-thinking devices. He also runs a blog called 9-bits where he writes about design, technology and business.

Each week either @dertmobile or @chadmueller will be tweeting:
“First Designer / Studio to reply with this #Inspiredology Friday Fix gets a feature in the Friday Fix post on Inspiredology.com”
So be sure to follow us to see when we are calling for entries.

Enjoy these examples of retro design, and as the saying goes “you can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been”, although as this trend continues to be popular, it seems where we are going IS where we have been.

If you liked these retro designs make sure you check out PT1: Radical Retro Designs !

Follow on Twitter

@SignalnoiseArt

@oneforty

@FHOKE

@Designsoft

@Designfeedr

@Jarheadesign

Web Finds

iPhone + Starbucks App | http://www.genoco.com
You can now order and pay at Starbucks using your iPhone!

OneForty – The Twitter Online App Store | http://www.oneforty.com
OneForty was featured in an in-depth article on Tech Crunch

SlipCover: Cases Made Easy – Mac.AppStorm
A very simple drag and drop application to make your music library sexy again.

2009 MTV VMA Tweet Tracker – I know this is a few weeks old, but I had to post it. For anyone that missed the VMA’s… They tracked tweets and then stuck them on your tube with the help from iJustine. It’s a really cool technology, the artists image gets bigger as the more people tweet about them.

Radium Labs

Web Articles

You Look Where The Look – UsableWorld.com.au

Showcase of Case Studies in Design Portfolios – Smashing Magazine

Portfolio Design Study: Design Patterns and Current Practices – Smashing Magazine

Principals of Effective Web Navigation – buildInternet

Tutorials

Illustrator Quick Tips #1: Complex Symbols with Pathfinder – Abduzeedo

Illustrator Ring Shape via overlapping crescents effect – Veerle’s Blog

Submission

How’s Poster Design Awards

There are no categories, and it doesn’t matter if your poster was created for yourself, for work or just for fun…we want to see what you can do! So take this wide-open media and run with it—then make sure you submit your work to us by December 1!

Twitter Reply Submission

Each week either @dertmobile or @chadmueller will be tweeting:
“First Designer / Studio to reply gets a feature in tomorrows Friday Fix post on Inspiredology.com”
Be the first to reply and you get a little feature in the Friday Fix.
This week @StefanGrambart was the first to reply!

Stefan Grambart – Graphic Designer and Illustrator | http://stefangrambart.ca

Daily Booth

I started using Daily Booth the other day – it’s kinda cool, the Snap A Picture element doesn’t work on 2 of my computers, but you got to love the apple cam. Sign up, follow me and try it out.