Business Insider released this incredibly valuable Slide Deck on mobile statistics. This is changing everything. The way we design, the way we think about mobile first. The list goes on and on. If your a business owner, designer, developer, market strategist, this should be a priority in your growth initiatives. Check out the Deck and really absorb these staggering statistics.
Best,
Your Friends at Bridewell Design
I Read this article on reinegger.net and thought it was worth sharing. We have been using Fireworks at Bridewell Design since cs3 and are extremely happy with its outcome. Hopefully in the new cs6 release of fireworks it will support Auto Save and fix a lot of the issues cs4 and cs5 have had with Forcing Quit (not Responding).
If you have a few minutes leave a comment and let me know if you prefer Fireworks or Photoshop and why.
Here is some of the article. The Top 5 – READ FULL ARTICLE
In the Property-inspector, both the X and Y position, as well as the width and height of an object are shown. This allows easy editing of any object on the page with pixel precision. First, changes can be made quickly and accurately down to the pixel. These values can be read easily for transfer into the stylesheet file for HTML & CSS.
Values of the Info panel can only be viewed, not edited directly. Changes may be highly inaccurate with the mouse on the object itself.
A tooltip with cursor informations displayed when moving objects. When working with guides, hold down the shift key to show distances between guides. -
Aside from the fact that the rectangles are real vectors that can be precisely modified about the properties, there is the possibility later on, to easily change the rounding of the edges at any time. There is a rounded rectangle tool where the value of the radius has to be defined up front . You only see the result after drawing the rectangle. Once drawn, the curves can only be modified in a very time-consuming and imprecise way with the Direct-Selection-Tool.
The color for fill, stroke, and line width of the contour can be adjusted quickly on the properties panel. The same applies to textures / patterns. All the changes for the fill color, outline color, line weight, texture, etc. must be added and changed in extra dialogue boxes. These dialog boxes are confusing, not as efficient, require more mouse clicks, and each selection further complicates the layers palette.
Gradients creation is simple and precise, and easily edited in a comfortable and intuitive way. There are also more than twice as many gradient types available. The Gradient tool is not really intuitive and takes a long trial and error process to produce the desired gradient. The Gradient Overlay layer style can be used, but again, it is not that particularly intuitive to control using a dialogue box.Foxy Press is an amazing WordPress service that can get online ordering implemented in a very short amount of time. It has fully customizable css, Secure Checkout, Lightbox effects, and the list goes on and on. Its a practical, simple, solution to get your store up and running.
A colleague sent this to me today and I thought it was worth sharing.
Graphic Design Group Exhibition 2010 hosted by University of South Dakota at the Department of Fine Art. The Hello exhibition invites 15 designers all around the United States. It is to stimulate thinking about design, demonstrate the value of design and power of success of design
Features
The Magellan Network – Medium/Web“Web application that allows an internet user to make an online reservation on a restaurant’s website. This reservation will show up at host/hostess stand or in the manager’s office.”
JOB: Redesign current online reservation application to create a better user experience, more visually attractice, up–to–date with current web technologies.
GOAL: Allow user to easily make a reservation without reading the instructions on each page. Usability testing for a target range of 15-65 years. Allow a user to complete a reservation successfully without getting confused.
SOLUTION: Simplify the user interface, eliminate functionality to show the following reservations message, “Reservations searched are not available”, and to add the functionality to always give the user an option if the time they searched for is not available. The only requirement is for the user to enter their party size and reservation date. This allows forward progress. Design the application with a large element concept; creating a fun design that can also pull from the restaurant’s css to match the color scheme. The reservation component also opens up in a lightbox (modal popup) vs opening up a single smaller window.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
“Web templates are apart of TMN’s product suite. The templates must contain all the TMN applications. The applications include SEO, Custom Color Schemes, Photo Galleries and Slideshows, Google Maps API for directions, Online Reservations, and Special Offers component. All templates are built in a CMS, which makes the content editable. Clients can choose from a standard or a custom template.”
JOB: Develop and Design the restaurant templates for multiple restaurants. A requirement for the project was to include the ambiance, website copy, and design the site to increase online reservations. The Standard Site requirement is to be 1 page and a custom site can be 5-6 pages.
GOAL: To design for scalability and create a site that will increase revenue for the restaurant but will also be low maintenance for the restaurant and TMN. Keep restaurants ambiance and keep their color style.
SOLUTION: Eliminate waste and invaluable information. Create a simple user interface that can allow the restaurant to promote everything in their previous site, but in a more efficient way. Integrate web applications to their new website.
Live Samples
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
“BuzzTown.com is an online directory and local business resource for Directory Plus, the Southwest regions most popular phonebook.”
JOB: Redesign the homepage and the interior page types as well as the interaction design steps to create an account.
GOAL: Bring a more fluid look and feel, as well as a more hip look to Buzztown. The problems they found, from usability studies, was that there was too much information on any given page; too many advertisements and no consistency with the design elements.
SOLUTION: Bring in an updated web look by using soft shadows and custom icons. Organize the layout where navigation became natural for a typical user. Use appropriate verbiage to consistently flow with related topics. Create depth with colors and images.
“BridewellDesign.com is my companies Portfolio Website. In the site we display all types of work including Print, Web, and Wedding Design.”
JOB: Redesign website. Display all solutions Bridewell Design offers to clients. Bring the website to life.
GOAL: Redesign website for web 2.0 style. Explore CSS possibilities and newer technologies. Display all solutions Bridewell Design offers to clients with clear descriptions. Bring the website to life through color, depth, and layout.
SOLUTION: Develop a bright, exciting, and interesting color scheme. Bring in dynamic social networking apps into the website, including LinkedIN, Twitter, FLICKR, and RSS feeds. Implement CSS3 for advanced web users appreciation. Bring out the 4 main items that Bridewell Design offers on the homepage. Develop and add a WordPress Custom Designed Blog.
“Mountaintopmedicine.com is an alternative medicine practice focusing on acupuncture and herbal treatments, located in the beautiful San Juan Mountains in Durango, Colorado.”
JOB: Create a Brand Identity/Website. Design, develop, and advertise for Mountain Top Medicine. Support vision and goals for MTM.
GOAL: To separate Mountain Top Medicine from any of their high volume competition in Durango by having a brand that represents who they are as a medical practice as well as having a place where patients can feel comfortable,not scared of Oriental Medicine practices. Give clients valuable information while giving them a perfect example of what oriental medicine can provide.
SOLUTION: Organize MTM information and distribute throughout the 5 pages on the site. Bring natural textures to represent the history behind acupuncture. Promote Facebook and Twitter pages throughout entire site.
Thank you for visiting Drew’s Hello Exhibition 2010.
Drew
Green Analytical located in Durango, Colorado has completely re-invented the concept of what a 2010 laboratory website should stand for. With a tight design and a cleaned up architecture this site allows therir clients to get what they need and get it quick.
Green Analytical has come a long way since its last website, and I can only expect great things from the owner Nick Fullerton.
What you can expect in the future from Green Analytical is a upgraded CMS platform which will create the sustainability and constant updates every business owner wishes for.
What you can expect from Bridewell Design is an updated homepage slider that demonstrates a better experience of what GA is all about.
Take some time and visit www.greenanalytical.com!
I would like to share with you Bridewell Design’s latest web site, Mountaintopmedicine.com. Mountain Top Medicine was designed for a Durango, CO Acupuncturist, Tyler VanGemert. The goal of this site was to redesign Tyler’s existing site which was previously a Yahoo Template. After speaking with Tyler we had a great sense of what he was hoping the site would convey.
The simplicty of the layout consists of a 2 column grid, large navigation, and the slick thing about the Ying Yang symbol is that the N, S, E, W cardinal points slightly change as you navigate through each page. Also, each page has a large banner that has a quick note about acupunture that can help the unknowing client learn more about the practice of Acupunture.
This design stemmed from Tyler’s hope of bringing a softer, more feminine feel to his site. We also wanted to create a warm, inviting space that had an earthy feel. Acupuncture is an amazing healing art that I would recommend to all of my close friends and family.
The experience of creating a new business website is always an amazing one. Things are talked about that were never thought about before in the business owner’s eyes, new ideas pop up daily on how the owner could run her/his business, and where they see themselves in the future.
Thank you Mountaintopmedicine for the opportunity!
Best,
Design Team
Bridewell Design
Axxis Furniture Homepage
Today’s post is about Axxis Furniture. A new High End Av Furniture Online Store that provides all sorts of amazing furniture brands including BDI, Bello, Salamander Designs, Techcraft and many many more. Bridewell Design landed the opportunity to do a redesign with the restricted Volusion CMS but after coming out with a solid design concept, Volusion did not set us back too far. The goal of AF was to redesign Axxisfurniture.com using Volusion, which is an ASP.net CMS for E-commerce web sites. Although Volusion has many restrictions the admin section of their product is outstanding.
Bridewell Design is proud to set this site free and would love to inform everyone that this new E-commerce store for High Quality AV Furniture is the best on the planet. AF has all the best AV furniture in one location! Check it out and leave us comments.
Best,
Andrew Bridewell
Lead Designer
