On Hiatus

As you may have noticed, things have stalled out here recently. I’ve been traveling almost constantly the last few months, and the blog has fallen by the wayside.

I plan to revamp things here in the next month, with a greater focus on cutting costs in IT and marketing without sacrificing quality. There are so many ways to get your name out there or to enhance your IT capabilities with little investment other than your time. Here’s one example:

Check out Balsamiq, my new favorite desktop application for creating rapid mockups of websites and applications. Here are a few screenshots from their website:

I started using this in my company, and can’t imagine doing business without it. Communicating design concepts to a client has never been easier - I can simply mock up a layout in 10 minutes to illustrate what I’m talking about. Simply drag and drop from a library of existing interface items like icons, buttons, windows, lists, and arrange them on screen. Add arrows and virtual post-it notes to explain parts of your design, and you’re good to go. Designs can be exported as images or sent in a format that allows other Balsamiq users to modify them. You can even download pre-designed interface mockups from their partner site, MockupsToGo.net. Check out this mockup of an Outlook message:

There are still a few minor interface issues. Layer control isn’t great just yet - if you want to move a layer but have placed another layer in front of it, you can’t get to it. You’ll end up moving the layer in front of it first. For complex, multi-layer designs, this can get aggravating. Otherwise, the tool is awesome. Check it out.

Full Disclosure: I received a licensed copy of the Balsamiq application in return for an honest review of their software. This in no way influenced my review of this awesome tool.

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