If you want to focus on mobile app and mobile web design in 2012, here are a few sketching assistants I’ve created to help as you head into the new year. With your iPad or other tablet device, you can choose from an assortment of 10 Mobile UI design and sketching templates to assist you in your design process. These work well with many drawing apps and I’ve included a set that is created specifically for Penultimate. You’ll find both portrait and landscape layouts with and without grids. There are also two and three-up configurations with optional lines for notes (single & two-up). This first round of templates was based off of the iPhone, but I am working on other visual styles as well.
What styles are included?
Large phone (portrait)
Large phone with grid overlay (portrait)
Small phone (portrait)
Small phone with grid overlay (portrait)
Small phone two-up (portrait)
Small phone with notes (portrait)
Small phone two-up with notes (landscape)
Small phone two-up with grid (landscape)
Small phone three-up (landscape)
Small phone three-up with grid (landscape)
Special New Year 2012 pricing: all template packs reduced to $.99 (ends 1/31/12)!
Nothing like launching into a “New Year’s Resolution” over half a year into the new year, but better late than never, right? Back in July I started a new diet & exercise routine and, as opposed to previous attempts, I wanted results this time around. I quickly found a few great tools for assistance and inspiration.
LoseIt.com - A great site and mobile app combo that give you tools to monitor your weight, set loss goals, and track your calorie intake. While you need to measure your food out (in some cases) in order to track it through the LoseIt tools, I’ve found this isn’t that challenging.
DailyMile.com - If you’re looking to get into an excersise routine, DailyMile is a great site that can help you do this. Find friends and cheer each other on as you track your workouts. This is a terrific site for generating help and getting motivational assistance from others who are looking to accomplish the same goal.
Calorific - A unique take on calorie monitoring, Calorific breaks the foods that you eat into three categories; Great, Ok, and Bad. From there, they employ a measuring system of tiny, small, medium, and large. This system allows you to re-imagine what you’re taking in, not in cups or quarts, but as handfuls. This basic breakdown of calorie counting is a refreshing change from measuring and eagle-eyed monitoring of each food item you eat.
2011 has been the breakout year for QR codes in the U.S. I’ve seen their use increase greatly over the past three months and articles like this one make me think they’re here to stay for a while. After experimenting with the various shapes and size that QR codes can take, I never thought I’d see anything as interesting as this.
Chris Sherman, owner of AmeriSign & Graphics in Pewaukee, WI has taken QR code application to the next level with his newly-wrapped “@AmerScion”. To put it lightly, he’s made a rolling QR code that can be scanned at almost any angle. It’s as eye-catching as it is innovative, which should surprise no one that knows Chris or his business. Eye-catching and innovative are staples in every bit of work they do, and this vehicle wrap is no different.
Impromptu interview
After seeing the new @AmeriScion around town, I went to the source to get some additional details on this mobile marketing machine. Here’s a quick Q&A with Chris:
Q. Why create a rolling QR code? Chris Sherman - I love to network and market my company. With the ability to actually change what the code points to, I thought this was the best way to combine the use of Facebook & Twitter by offering contests and give-a-ways for people who find the car, scan it and see what they get.
Q. What was the motivation behind it? CS - I did some research and didn’t find anything like this out there, anywhere. I know there are vehicles with QR Codes on them, but none that are fully wrapped. This made me excited to be able to get out there first since I know this is so new and so many people are talking about it. Plus, it is so cool to be able to change the specials and content that the code points to depending on time of year, events we are attending etc…
Q. Where do you see QR code use going, both from the consumer and implementation side? CS - I see limitless potential with the QR Code. When I am at the store and I see these on products that I am interested in, I scan it and it shows me videos, other products by the same manufacturer, more details on a specific product, the list goes on. Plus, being in the printing industry, I see even more opportunity for printing these on marketing materials.
This might be a topic for another post, but people are saying that social media may be the death of printing, but I see it differently. We have seen such an increase of clients wanting QR Codes printed on their marketing materials (along with Twitter & Facebook handles etc…), so it has actually increased sales.
Q. How has the updated @AmeriScion been received and how much use has the QR code gotten so far? CS - Well, to say it simply, worldwide coverage. This has been out for less than a week, and there are blogs and articles in multiple countries about this car. Just amazing.
I read a great editorial piece last week written by Nilay Patel for thisismynext.com about how three of the bigger(est) tech giants are aiming to change the way we think about our phones, specifically the phone number. During my latest round of #MowerMeditation, I had some thoughts of my own on a few of these players and the gathering of cloud computing.
One a quick side-note, if you haven’t checked out thisismynext.com, do so now! They have great insight into the world of tech and gadgetry and not only write content that’s entertaining to read, but they also produce a great podcast that’s very in-depth. Now that’s out of the way, on to the regularly-scheduled post.
I see a battle brewing on the cloud-storage and computing front and the lines are becoming more visible with Apple’s announcement of iCloud. The armies are Amazon with their Cloud Drive and Cloud Player services (not to mention their earlier foray into the cloud with the S3 service, plus others), Google with Google Music, and Apple with iCloud. The lines have been drawn and they’re all vying for your hard-earned money. The ultimate question is, which service fits you the best?
There are differences in each offering that appeal to almost any digital content consumer. Amazon’s Cloud Drive and Google Music both offer storage locker-style services that allow you to upload your music for streaming and downloading onto your various devices. iCloud’s iTunes in the Cloud feature gives you the ability to download music you’ve purchase to your computers and iDevices and other elements of iCloud offer some helpful backup and file-sharing options for text and iWork documents. In this battle, the sky’s the limit.
