Apt Design » The Internet

Gravatars – What They Are and How to Use Them

Apt Design — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:30:09 +0000

Avatars on the internet are pretty cool. They let you provide a small picture to tell more about yourself on a certain blog, forum, or community website. But it can be a hassle to have to upload a new photo for each site that you want an image to appear. That’s where Gravatars come in. Gravatars are Globally Recognized Avatars and the idea is that you link your picture to your email address in one place and that avatar can be pulled into a variety of other websites.

You can get your own Gravatar really easily at www.Gravatar.com. Just enter your email address, confirm it when you get the welcome email, and upload your photo! It will then begin appearing when you enter your email address (usually required anyways) on a Gravatar-enabled website.

Here’s a video that does a good job explaining Gravatars:

Gravatars are easy to implement in WordPress. Many new WordPress themes have them included, and you can definitely ask for them if you get a custom designed WordPress theme created for you. Gravatars can be used to show the author of a blog post (especially helpful in you have multiple authors), display who left comments, show regular community members and more.

Designers and developers using WordPress can drop Gravatar functionality anywhere in their code with this line:

but there are also plenty of WordPress Plugins for implementing Gravatars in WordPress. Don’t use WordPress? Don’t worry – you can get Gravatar code and plugins for a range of other CMS platforms.

I implemented Gravatars in a variety of ways on the Wenatchee Valley Fitness Blog:

And here are some other examples of Gravatars being used nicely:

Most people just use profile pictures for their avatars, but here are some examples of a few really cool Gravatar images:

Need a WordPress blog to connect with your current and potential customers? I can help! See examples here or get in contact with me to get started!

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Spoiled: 6 Apps that make Your Life Great

Apt Design — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:00:56 +0000

When I first got a Wacom tablet for working on design, I was in love. After just a few hours of getting used to using it I was working so much faster and easier. When I started Apt Design I knew I didn’t want one for my new office, I needed it. The price tag is up around $400, but the tablet helps me work almost twice as fast sometimes, so it was definitely worth it. I couldn’t work without it – I was spoiled.

Recently I’ve been spoiled again by an online application called Mint. Mint allows you to track and analyze your personal finances, and it does almost everything for you. After inputing some data about your bank accounts Mint automatically pulls in updated information about those accounts everytime you log in. It instantly gives you a snapshot of your current worth, how you are doing on your monthly budget, and alerts you to any strange or big movements in your accounts. When you are ready you can drill down for reports on all your transactions, including comparing your spending in certain categories to others in your area. The interface is remarkably easy to use and every part of the Mint website is beautifully designed.

I’ve been spoiled, and now going back to QuickBooks, which I use for my business finances, is like using an old DOS machine. Now that I know how simple, intuitive and beautiful finance software can be (even when its totally free!) it makes it harder to accept anything less. (Has anyone tried LessAccounting?)

As more and more applications move to the cloud and User Interface becomes increasingly important I expect I’m about to get spoiled more and more. Here’s what comedian Louis C.K. has to say about it:

Here are the 6 applications or websites which have spoiled me:

Mint

Super easy personal finance software. All-online, all-free. Intuitive and beautiful it takes the workload off of keeping track of your expenses and makes personal accounting fun!

Gmail

The best thing to happen to email since…anything. Threaded conversations, chatting inside Gmail, integration with Google’s Tasks and Calendar, 7+ GBs of free storage, and hundreds of more features. Once you make the switch to Gmail you’ll never go back. Plus now you can set it up via Google Apps or MailFetcher to be your full-time email client no matter who you have email with!

BaseCamp

The online Project Management System that keeps my business flowing. BaseCamp set new standards in ease-of-use and simplyfing online interfaces. I run everything through BaseCamp to set deadlines, track time, communicate with clients and more.

Awaken

An alarm clock for Macs, Awaken lets me wake up to any song or playlist on my computer. Much better than an annoying beeper. Awaken can also launch apps for you, be a countdown timer during the day, and put you to sleep to music.

Spaces

Mac’s brilliant innovation lets you have multiple workspaces on your computer. Keep all of your music applications on one Space, your work files on another, and 60 open web pages on another. Sure beats minimizing things to try and find what you’re looking for. Check out the demo here.

Pandora

How about an online application that creates personalized radio stations based on the music you like? Free (with ads), you should try out Pandora to hear old favorites and let Pandora introduce you to new artists based on your ratings. Its on all day in the Apt Design office.

Ok. How about you? What website or application has spoiled you – made your life incredibly easier and that you couldn’t imagine not having?

Or, read one of these:

Make Your Premium Services Wow

Wenatchee on Google Map Street View

Apt Design — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:05:39 +0000

You know your town is hitting it big when Google finally sends one of its street view vans through. Wenatchee was previously just a blink along Highway 2 on Google Maps, now we have a few streets photographed. Try a drive around Wenatchee on a brilliantly sunny day.

Unfortunately it was before my new sign went up here.

Have you found anything interesting on Street View where you live? There’s lots of craziness on StreetViewFun.

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New Google Browser

Apt Design — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:01:54 +0000

I’ve been on vacation for a few days and seem to have missed the announcement that Google is releasing their own web browser. Its called Google Chrome and they’d like you to think its going to tip the browser world on its head.

Google hired the fantabulous comic book artist Scott McCloud to illustrate an online booklet describing the new browser. In typical the McCloud fashion the artwork is clean and simple, but with wonderful subtle elements. The booklet gets pretty technical, but is a great way to let people learn about this new product.

Kudos to Google, such a huge company, for using great design and illustration to promote themselves.

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Wenatchee on Google Map Street View

Web 2.0 Video

Apt Design — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 09:55:57 +0000

this is a great video introducing web 2.0. some people don’t believe in the idea of web 2.0, but we do and maybe you should to. but what is web 2.0? well, you can always wiki it , but this video is a fast (dizzingly fast) introduction to the idea. great graphics and music make it fun to watch.

(via cre8d design )

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What is RSS?

Apt Design — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:42:03 +0000

the apt design blog will now begin shifting its focus to its real purpose – offering graphic and web design tips, tools, ideas and suggestions; as well as connecting you to other interesting websites.

our first topic – rss. Have you heard the term RSS but really have no idea what it is or how it may make your life easier? read on for a brief introduction.

RSS in its current incarnation stands for Real Simple Syndication. As the internet continues to evolve more and more emphasis is being placed on website’s content being updated often. this is especially true in the realm of blogs which may be updated multiple times daily. other examples of constantly updated content include news stories, sports scores, photo albums, and forums.

now, if you are interested in getting multiple streams of current content often you could quickly find yourself spending all day going from site to site to check for anything new. this is where rss comes into play and can save you enormous amounts of time. instead of going to find all of this information, you can make it all come to you!

the first step is to download an rss aggregator. one of the most popular is google reader, though there are a variety of free aggregators. some customized homepages like igoogle and myyahoo can also be aggregators.

after you have an aggregator you need to subscribe to a site’s rss feeds. you will often see the rss logo or a ‘subscribe’ link to click on. this will automatically notify your aggregator when the content you have subscribed to has been updated.

now instead of visiting multiple sites, you can just open your aggregator and it will let you see which of your subscriptions have been updated, as well as show you the new content. don’t worry, if you need to go directly to the page that was updated you can do so easily from your aggregator.

finally the best news – real simple syndication is all free! so go ahead and subscribe to this blog for updated tips, ideas, and links – just click the ‘subscribe’ button at the top of the blog page!

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A New Site for Apt