5 Things Your Clients Should Know
Do you ever feel like you are endlessly repeating the same day? I do, every time I attend a kickoff meeting with a new client. Each time I find myself covering the same old issues from explaining the client’s role, to encouraging investment in content. I find it incredibly frustrating and this is what ultimately led me to write the Website Owners Manual.
This is not a criticism of clients, however. There is so little information that clearly defines their role. Sure, there is no shortage of material on usability, accessibility, online marketing and copywriting, but who has the time to read all of it?
The problem is that the client does need to have a very broad understanding (certainly more than can be communicated in a single article), however I have found that understanding certain key issues can make an enormous difference to the efficiency of a client.
What follows is a list of the 5 things that I believe will have the biggest impact on a client’s site. At least they should, if the client understands them and chooses to implement them.
Create color harmony
Easily generate color schemes for use in all of your design projects. Match colors automatically or pick them out of your favorite images. http://aviary.com/home?worth1000
QVectors.com is a Showcase site for free quality vector images from around the net. its also a sister site of Qbrushes.com which showcases quality photoshop brushes .
50 really nice text effect Photoshop tutorials
via 50+ Great Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials, Part II | Photoshop Tutorials.
Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers. It is a free open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl.
The Color Wizard – Ver. 3.0
The Color Wizard is a color matching application for anyone who wants to create designs with great looking colors.
via Color Wizard – Color Scheme Generator – Color Theory for web designers.
A place to keep post production materials for use of reference, an inactive job file. This morgue file contains free high resolution digital stock photography for either corporate or public use.
The term “morgue file” is popular in the newspaper business to describe the file that holds past issues flats. Although the term has been used by illustrators, comic book artist, designers and teachers as well. The purpose of this site is to provide free image reference material for use in all creative pursuits. This is the world wide web’s morguefile.
12 CSS Tools and Tutorials for Beautiful Web Typography
Achieving beautiful typography with CSS on the web is no easy feat, and there are many limitations to what can done with type on the web. However, there are generous people out there that have taken the time to build tools and write tutorials to help you overcome these limitations and create websites with beautiful typography.
Here are some that I find most useful:
via 12 CSS Tools and Tutorials for Beautiful Web Typography | Web Design Ledger.
Photoshop > Keyboard Shortcuts
Photo Keyboard Shortcuts are keystrokes used to
quickly
invoke a command. As well, shortcuts usually (but not always) involve a modifier key such as Ctrl/Cmd, Alt/Opt, or Shift. For example, instead of choosing Select » Deselect from the menus, you could simply press Ctrl/Cmd+D.
Keyboard shortcuts can improve your efficiency, and in some cases, they can even invoke commands that might not otherwise be available (e.g., zooming while a dialog box is open, or inserting a Select forward layer command into an action).
One of Photoshop’s strengths is that it makes extensive use of keyboard shortcuts; but, there are so many that it’s difficult to remember them all. So, I’ve created a “cheat sheet” that’s organized by menu, as well as alphabetically by key. These “cheat sheets” are available in the following flavours:
* Adobe Photoshop CS4
* Adobe Photoshop CS3
* Adobe Photoshop CS2
* Adobe Photoshop CS
* Adobe Photoshop 7
* Adobe Photoshop 6
* Adobe Photoshop 5
* Adobe Bridge & Adobe Camera Raw
via Adobe Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts | Trevor Morris Photographics.