I was recently contacted by a local business, My Docs Online,  about doing a few small tweaks to their website home page for better optimization. Fortunately for me, they had already done their homework and employed the very useful Google Browser Size Labs and Google Website Optimizer.

Google Browser Size Labs is a nice little tool you can use to visualize how much of your website is seen by your users within the browser window. As many web designers may know,  it is very important to keep critical content and call to actions “above the fold” or viewable in the browser window without having to scroll. This tool will transparently display a colored grid with percentages over the web page of the url you enter in the field. From the tool, you’ll be able to tell what percentage of users can see a particular area of your site.

Google Browser Size results for the original My Docs Online home page

In the case of My Docs Online’s home page, they found that their call to action, a “Free Trial” button, was only viewable by 45% of their visitors (see above). This means that 55% of visitors had to scroll down in order to see the call to action! This is something that we easily corrected, but using this tool help them to diagnose the problem. By simply reducing the height of the photo banner area and moving the “Free Trial” button up and in the same area, so it was more prominent and “above the fold” they made their call to action more prominent to their users (98% of them).

The My Docs Online home page after a few tweaks.

Another tool that my client used was Google’s Website Optimizer. This free tool allows you to test and optimize site content and design. My Docs Online had set up different landing pages using different main images to test whether they had a different effect on their audience. They also did a comparison between the old home page and the newly optimized one created by Blue Turtle Graphics. The result (below) was that the new page had a 97.5% chance of outperforming the original.

Google Website Optimizer result from comparison of old page versus new page.

Sometimes just a few minor tweaks is all it takes to make your website better for your users. Both of Googles tools explained above are free to use, so why not try a couple of tests on your site to see if there’s any room for improvement?

So, I haven’t blogged in a while and I was thinking of what to write about—then it came to me: I can share a few tools and apps that I’ve recently discovered. Sure, they’ve probably been around for a while, but I’ve only recently began using these little gems and I can only say that they’ve greatly helped my productivity. If you are a graphic designer, web designer, Mac user or even a small business owner, you may find these little tools very useful in your daily work routine.

Freshbooks (online invoicing)

I was previously using an app called MacFreelance to produce professional-looking invoices and estimates. While it was nice and easy to use, I still felt I needed more reporting capability. Now, I know Quickbooks does this probably the best, but I am not a numbers person and wanted something a bit easier to learn. I researched a number of online invoicing companies and settled with Freshbooks. Not only can you invoice, estimate, track time and projects, but you can also set it up to send auto notification emails to clients who are 30, 60 and (god forbid!) 90 days late on payments. There are numerous reports you can run and they even have an iPhone app so you can access your account on the go. Freshbooks offers a free account (for managing 3 clients) and 4 additional plans ranging from $19-$149 per month depending on the number of clients you want to manage.

Evernote

I came across Evernote through a Twitter message. I checked it out and realized that it’s a very useful tool for capturing to-do lists, web pages, whiteboards, snapshots, and handwritten notes. I use it mostly to capture great web sites that I want to be able to come back to later. You can tag your items for easier reference and search. Another great way I use Evernote is to keep a running to-do list to help keep on track with projects. Evernote is available for both Mac and PC and they have an iPhone app so that you can capture notes and items on the go. It even synchronizes your notes between multiple computers and your mobile phone. Evernote offer 2 types of accounts: Free and Premium (500MB monthly upload allowance).

Password1 (Mac password manager)

If you are like me, you probably have hundreds of user profiles and passwords for different web sites, forums and social media platforms. It’s impossible to remember all of this login information but you don’t want to keep it written down either. Enter Password1. Password1 is a Mac-based application that will store your user name and password information of any web site you visit and restore that info in 1-click within your browser window. It uses strong encryption methods to keep your information safe and it can also create strong, unique passwords for you. Password1 offers a free trial download for 30 days or you can purchase a license for $39.95. This little app is definitely worth the $40 bucks just in the time it saves me automatically log me into the sites I access most.

Campaign Monitor (email marketing)

This one should be filed under “why haven’t I used this sooner!” Campaign Monitor is a designers dream: you can create html email templates for your clients, upload them and then give your clients access to edit their template themselves. You can even upload your logo to create your own branded login interface. The signup is free and they charge a flat $5 fee for each campaign and 1 cent per email subscriber you send to. For example, if you wanted to send a new campaign to 100 subscribers, the cost would be $6 ($5 setup + 1 cent per email). This works great if you or your clients are sending to a small list since you are only paying for what you send (vs. a monthly fee of $20-25 for up to 500 emails). I really love the easy-to-use interface and ability to create my own templates where my clients can still edit themselves.

Well, that’s it. I’m sure there are still a lot of great productivity tools out there that I don’t know about, but I at least wanted to share the ones I’ve recently started using. Please leave a comment and let me know if there any great design, productivity or business tools you use.

Just got my new camera today and was so excited I had to test it out on few subjects. I was undecided between the Canon Rebel T1i and the Nikon D5000. Most reviews and information I read about both cameras said they were pretty much on the same level. When it came down to it, I found a slightly better deal on the Canon, that, and I’ve had a few Canon point-and-shoot cameras so I familiar with the brand. It’s also nice that it boasts slightly higher megapixels (15 vs. 12) and it captures HD video at 1920 x 1080. I doubt that I would use the video feature that much (but, who knows…) but the extra megapixels actually does help a little being a graphic designer and shooting for larger print pieces. So far, photo quality is marvelous, and I’m very excited about shooting images with depth-of-field and lower light situations without the use of flash (things I couldn’t do with my point-and-shoot). Although they won’t win any awards soon, I thought I post a few test shots.

Pudgy, my pug, having a pensive moment.

Sea shells (playing with depth-of-field).

Yes, Pudy again...she was a readily available subject!

Pink flower in my yard.

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