Pixel Zoo

Sitemaps & Mind Mapping Tools

2012-01-10T13:49:00.000+02:00

As a creative or developer it is essential to map your project or website in a way that is easily understandable, represents the elements involved and the relationships between pages, concepts or thoughts.

In The Pixel Zoo's development process - a communication protocol specification (CPS) in the form of a site map is be drawn up and is essential to ascertain the best way in which to structure the information on your website and the way in which the site can be transformed. This communication protocol specification details the information architecture, the information flow, functionality and data structure to be included on a website from the user’s perspective and can be divided into specific phases for an effective rollout.
This CPS serves a dual purpose:

Visually illustrates the structure of the website to the client
Specifies from a user perspective what the system will do, for use by the design and technical team

Here are a couple online tools that can assist in your mapping your mind / thought architecture.

bubbl.us - Brainstorming made simple A simple quick to use mindmapping bubbles. Create an account and you are good to go. Create a brainstorm map, Save your sheet, or Organize them into folders. Exportable as an image or html document.
lucidchart.com and creately.com Process flow, mindmaps, DB diagrams, swot diagram, organograms and more. Both need the paid version if you want to do team based collaboration, but both offer free trails (5 diagrams). Creately has many templates to choose from but restricted to template formats, it usesFlash 10 however the interface is a bit unweilding. Lucid Chart is more user friendly with many graphic toolboxes to manipulate. Exportable to pdf image or html / importable from Visio (sign up here today and get 1 month free premium features).
slickplan.com is a free lightweight charting solution focused at very simple flowcharting for website navigation. flowchart.com is free currently while its in beta, but you have to request an invite. freemind.sourceforge.net Mindmapping tools are auto layout and auto theming as features, and those are things you dont want if you are trying to design a process flow. For mindmapping, freemind is open source has lots of features, best price and it seems to be as close to an "industry standard" file format as there currently is.	More Options: go2web20.net an aggregator of mindmapping tools. dropmind.com cacoo.com mindomo.com

And also these Ipad apps are available: I tried these two Free ones out:

Idea Sketch

Mindjet

Do you have a favourite mindmapping tool? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Thanks to Alia and Sias for the research help. other interesting reading

P.S dont forget that you can follow us or like our fan page.

Tweets per second - we have a voice through technology

2011-11-10T10:53:00.000+02:00

#numbers

Five years ago this week, a small team of people started working on a prototype of the service that we now know as Twitter. On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey (@jack) sent the first Tweet.

Today, on every measure of growth and engagement, Twitter is growing at a record pace. Here are some numbers:

#tweets

3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.
1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.
50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.
140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month.
177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.
456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).
6,939. Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day.

#accounts

572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.
460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.
182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

#employees

8. 29. 130. 350. 400. Number of Twitter employees in Jan 2008, Jan 2009, Jan 2010, Jan 2011 and today.

Source: http://blog.twitter.com/2011/03/numbers.html

#nextisnow

Next is Now depicts the human connections empowered by rapid changes in communications technology in Canada and around the world. Next is Now was produced by Rogers with support from 76design (www.76design.com) and Thornley Fallis (www.thornleyfallis.com)

http://www.youtube.com/embed/sM-kGGURWCE

What is Drupal?

2011-09-16T13:09:00.000+02:00

Source:

What are websites made of

2011-08-10T13:58:00.003+02:00

Aug 9 2011 by Oli Archibald (http://sixrevisions.com/infographics/what-are-websites-made-of-infographic/)

The Internet is such an integral part of our lives nowadays, yet how much do we know about what’s occurring under the hood?

From the proliferation of web programming languages such as PHP, to the matter of data expansion, storage size, rate of growth of the Internet, and the amount of bandwidth required to serve the world’s Internet users, this infographic looks at what websites are made of.

Click here to enlarge.

Infographic by Broadband Choices, offering comprehensive and impartial advice on broadband.

40+ Essential Drupal Modules | Nick Lewis: The Blog

2011-06-03T14:18:00.000+02:00

Nick Lewis: The Blog

Drupal, jQuery & Noobish Studies

If you are new to drupal, then this list is for you. These are some of the best of the best drupal modules. Everything from standard framework modules, to location and mapping is covered. Note that if you've been emersed in drupal for some time, than this will be "old news".

The Big Three

"The big three" are important enough that they deserve a category of their own. Most drupal modules worth using have integrated with one of these three. Their importance simply can't be stressed enough.

Content Construction Kit (CCK)
Views
Panels

Autumn Equinox trailer

2011-03-14T22:12:00.000+02:00

Reactions to Sheep

2010-10-07T21:39:00.001+02:00

Introduction to Drupal

2010-09-29T13:43:00.000+02:00

This is the recording of Doug Vann guiding the online session for the free P2PU course: Introduction to Drupal. See more details:

http://p2pu.org/webcraft/introduction-drupal

Roll it up Laptop

2010-04-08T10:58:00.000+02:00

Intern Special

2009-11-06T15:45:00.000+02:00

Designed by Jerome Wepener
Designed by Wynand Kok

*Click on the thumbnail to download the wallpaper. Right Click on the image and Click "Set as desktop background"

New and Exciting work being done

2009-09-22T10:29:00.000+02:00

The Brightwater Commons has been a long standing client of The Pixel Zoo. Recently they have asked us to do a whole new section for them regarding a community talk website (which is still in progress as well as linking them to Facebook creating for them thier own page on Facebook and then creating a profile for them on Twitter. You can now follow everything that they get up to and even more...

Get your ZooMail account now

2009-04-01T12:11:00.002+02:00

The Pixel Zoo has just launched ZOOMAIL an easy-to-use, cost effective system to manage your online communications...

- Easily create professional email newsletters
- Communicate effectively through personalised email.
- Evaluate the results of every campaign
- Save time by automating your email list management

More information
Contact us

Join Zoology

What kind of website is right for me?

2009-03-17T21:43:00.005+02:00

Websites can take a variety of forms depending on what they are required to do. There are two general categories:

Static - It needs to be manually updated by a web designer and doesn't pull information dynamically from a database.

Dynamic - This kind of website can display information dynamically and can also store and display information added by users, for example you could display comments from users, or store their preferences, their shopping cart etc etc

Often the best type of website for you to launch for your business depends on the on the nature of your business, your corporate goals, the stage of development of your business and the resources you have at your disposal. Here are some types of websites to give you an idea of what you might consider looking for.

Static Websites – Brochureware

Most small businesses start out with a small, “static” website.

In order for the business to update their static website, they will have to contact their website development company and request that the changes be made. It is for this reason that they are not updated very often and remain “static” for a long period of time.

A static website can, however, feed off dynamic content from other websites by syndicating content. Such content often includes the latest weather, news headlines, exchange rates, etc.

A static website mainly serves to provide a business with basic online presence.

Dynamic, Database-Driven Websites

Today, most successful websites are dynamic, meaning the content changes regularly without necessarily feeding content from other bigger websites (as in the case of many static websites). Dynamic websites are usually maintained by members of the business using a Content Management System – a web-based software application that allows them to update their content without having to learn anything about web programming.

Corporate Style Websites

This is the next step up from a static website, where the business can update the website content themselves without having to get hold of the web design company.

It is not necessarily more expensive to launch a dynamic website than a static website. In the long-run it will in fact be cheaper if you intend to update regularly (which in itself is a good Internet Marketing habit)

Many businesses publish press releases, photo galleries, project portfolios and other things more relevant to the nature of their business. Online enquiries can also be stored in their back-end as a post to being sent to their email address.
Many mainstream dynamic websites are a mixed hybrid of the following types of websites:

E-Tailers or E-Commerce Websites

E-Retailers or E-Tailers are websites that allow visitors to purchase products online.

The website owner uses a back-end to add or remove products and their properties, process orders, analyse sales and more.

These kinds of websites have become more popular in recent years as the online shopping industry has grown quite considerably (Internationally, at least).

In South Africa, however, many businesses are hesitant to implement online transactions into their website strategy as it can be expensive to implement the necessary security measures. This often discourages businesses as they are uncertain on whether or not they will see significant returns.

An alternative to a Shopping Cart System is to implement a Quotation System. This means the visitor adds all the items they are interested in to a “quotation basket” and once done, they submit it to the company and are contacted by a sales
representative to complete the transaction.

Information Driven Websites

Eg. Website directories, article directories, a Short-Story/Poetry submission website, etc.

These websites mainly derive revenue from selling advertising space on their website.
The information is generated by people that visit the website and submit content – the website is self-generating and the content follows current trends and interests.

Although the owners of the website do not have to produce the focus-content, they do need to be able to control the type of content that is submitted – they need to implement measure that will prevent spammers from flooding their website with unwanted content. They also need people to moderate the content that is generated on the website.

Community Websites

Eg. Job Search Websites, Online Dating websites, Discussion Boards, Special-Interest Portals

These websites usually cater for certain types of Internet users. Their main source of revenue may be advertising or offering different levels of memberships with different benefits (e.g “Gold Membership”)

The website almost becomes type of social being in itself by interacting with the member on a very personal level. For example, after submitting a post to a discussion board, the website will email the member to inform them when they have received a reply. The website and the member, in a sense, form a virtual relationship.

The membership registration process is usually automated allowing the website owner to concentrate on selling advertising space and monitoring performance.

They do however need to moderate what members do on the website in the case of chat rooms and forums (eg. To stop users from swearing, advertising for free, promoting hate speech, etc)

Remember that the best type of website for you to launch for your business depends on the on the nature of your business, your corporate goals, the stage of development of your business and the resources you have at your disposal.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Simms

Happy year of the Ox

2009-01-16T09:54:00.006+02:00

The Pixel Zoo wishes you a fantastic 2009 with many new opportunities and great adventures.

Pixelzoo 3D wallpaper

2009-01-15T09:10:00.002+02:00

*Click on the thumbnail to download the wallpaper. Right Click on the image and Click "Set as desktop background"

Designed by Sipho

New Wallpapers

2008-12-10T15:01:00.009+02:00

Pixel Butterflies	Star Monkey	Elephant	Pixel Tree
Bunnies and Giraffe
Click on the thumbnail to download the wallpaper. Right Click on the image and Click "Set as desktop background" Designed by Jerome Wepener*

Pixel Zoology News - September

2008-09-03T15:00:00.000+02:00

September 2008

Welcome to the Spring edition of The Pixel Zoo-ology! This e-zine has been specially designed for you as a source of entertainment, play, innovation, creativity, information and resources. This is the space where we share the wonder that the world instills in us, where we contemplate the possibilities & probabilities, the vast & the miniscule, the relationships & disparities...

If you have any bright ideas, suggestions, thoughts, queries, or would like to contribute drop us a mail!

COULD THE WORLD END TOMORROW?

Well, the short answer is 'no', but as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) warms up for it's big moment on the 10th September when it is due to be switched on as the world's largest ever particle accelerator (and in fact the world's largest machine, with a circumference of 27km's) the internet doomsday enthusiasts seem to be getting quite excited at the prospect of mini black holes and other exotic theoritical vehicles of the apocalypse.

Being the slightly nerdy people we are, the LHC has been a hot office topic and we have found some great images to give you an idea of its scale and complexity, as well as the reasuring responses from the scientific community.

But wait, there's more...the VLHC (Very Large Hadron Collider) is being built with a circumference of 240km's circumference...so don't worry doomsday cults, there still might not be any hope...

CAPE TOWN to get its very own Pixel Zoo!

Yep, it's true, we will be opening a Cape Town branch at the beginning of October, allowing us to better serve our clients nationwide.

Hannah will be escaping the Parktown Prawns and heading up the new branch to be based in Newlands, but don't worry if you're a Johannesburg-based Pixel Zoo fan, Laura will still be holding the fort in Jozi!

If you have any questions about Cape Town and what we will be doing there feel free to contact us.

NEW OFFICE NUMBER:

(011) 020 0263 After giving up on Telkom as well as iCall, we are now giving Neotel a try and so far so good...

WEB NEWS:

Flash websites can now be indexed by Google! Yay!
read more

Some rebellious Google developers break away and launch new search engine, Cuil.
read more

Google launches it's own free browser to compete with Internet Explorer. They say they have made it far more intuitive, but try it out, it might revolutionise your browsing.
read more

Did you know that the human brain has roughly 100 billion neurons?

That means that there are more possible conections between neurons in your brain than there are atoms in the known universe...

"Innovate or stagnate, there is no other choice!"
Terry Williams, Discovery Training

Innovation is an essential part of any business, no matter what the scale.
Discovery Training is a fully accredited training provider in Innovation as well as Value Management and have helped their clients, from small developmental business initiatives to large corporates like SASOL and Eskom to solve seemingly insurmountable problems, meet budgets, develop new products and change the way they do business.

Look out for their featured article on innovation and creativity in next month's Zoology!

Visit the Discovery Training website

10 Pts: THE PIXEL REVIEW

And this month 10 points are awarded to:

Miss Yucki - A crazy art and design project inspired by downtown Johannesburg with a highly entertaining and twisted mythology. Oh, and also a great online store for truly original gifts!
Crudely Chiseled Features - A blog by Johannesburg-based illustrator Richard Becker where he shares his fabulously irreverent sketches and thoughts. Great entertainment if you've been banned from Facebook at the office!

Is your garden foliage getting out of control?

With the rain we've seen in Cape Town lately, your garden should be flourishing and growth spurts can be seen in all of the plants types. These growth spurts often change the shape of particular plants, shrubs or trees and can affect the overall visual effect of your garden.

To effectively trim and shape your plants:

1. Zoom in on each plant in your garden and look at its overall shape.
2. Identify specific branches that are distorting the shape.
3. Follow these branches one at a time from its tip until where they start to fit in with the desired shape. Tie a bright coloured ribbon at this point.
4. Take a step back and look to see if the overall desired shape will be achieved if the rest of the branch above the ribbon is removed. If not, move the ribbon accordingly.
5. Continue tying the ribbons on all the branches affecting the overall shape. Also consider the effect of any sub branches that might be lost as well.
6. Once completed, take a step back and visualise the entire plant again. If happy, cut the marked branches at the ribbons.

Note: don't cut off more than a third of the branch's length when shaping.

Cheral, Living Matter - Garden styling and design

Visit the Living Matter website

PIXEL ROUNDED

Download Pixel Rounded - a free Pixel Zoo font created by Laura for your typing pleasure.

Small website vs Blog?
Not sure if you need a website, a blog or both? We've made it easier for you by putting together a basic guide in simple language on our blog..
Read More

SUBSCRIBE

To subscribe to the PixelZoo-ology newsletter please fill in your email address here. We are happy to see you join us.

Oxford Road Collapse

2008-07-09T11:57:00.002+02:00

News 24
Shock at Gautrain road collapse
08/07/2008 15:55

Johannesburg - Part of Oxford Road in Johannesburg collapsed on Tuesday during drilling for the Gautrain.

A safety representative from Gautrain said they had "no idea" what caused the collapse, which happened during routine drilling around 13:30.

"It was a shock," the representative said.

The road will be closed for up to two weeks, Johannesburg metro police told News24.

"It will have to be closed for as long as two weeks," said Superintendent Wayne Minnaar.

The collapse created an approximately 12-metre wide hole in the road between 8th and North avenues.

It appeared a water mains was hit during the drilling because water was gushing out of the hole, into which part of a wall and a lamp post had fallen. Because of the water it was impossible to see how deep it was.

Safety officials were trying to determine if there were any other cracks along the road which could be dangerous.

The area was cordoned off and motorists were being diverted off Oxford Road into Riviera Road and 11th Avenue. No injuries were reported.

Dozens of Gautrain workers, metro police and paramedics were on site.

The hole in the road is only a few blocks away from our offices, so when visiting The Pixel Zoo, take the Riviera road turn off unless you have a submarine or a 4x4.

Magnetic Ink

2008-06-25T21:14:00.000+02:00

Magnetic Ink, Process video from flight404 on Vimeo.

Featured Extract: "Fleas"

2008-04-24T18:06:00.000+02:00

Featured Newsletter Extract: "Fleas" - Discovery Training, Innovation Newsletter

Flea trainers (what a strange job) have observed a predictable and strange habit of fleas while training them.

Fleas are put in a box with a top on it and they jump up and hit the top over and over again. After a while they continue to jump but they do not bang their heads. When the lid of the box is removed the fleas keep jumping but never go beyond the point where the lid used to be. They have conditioned themselves to jump just so high and no higher.

What can we learn from the fleas?
Firstly, if the lid is on be careful not to bang your head. Safety is always the most important thing! Also if the lid is on we should know that it could be removed.

With no lid you can jump as high as you like. Many times people restrict themselves to well below their true potential, believing that they are doing all they can do.

In terms of Innovation you may have come up with a few small ideas and you think you are being innovative. Yes, of course you are. But why not "jump" higher and use your talents to come up with ideas and innovations that make a big difference.

Be an eagle not a flea!

Discovery Training provides specialist training in Innovation and Value Management. If you would like to read more of their Innovation Newsletter please visit their website and subscribe.
www.discoverytraining.co.za

Closed from 29 - 30 April

2008-04-23T18:51:00.000+02:00

The Pixel Zoo is taking a little time off to recharge our batteries. We will not be in the office on the 29th and 30th April 2008 but we will be back in action on the 5th May.

Please be assured (if you are a client) that any work due on these two days will be completed by the 25th April so as not to inconvenience you.

Also note that our new office number is now active! Please bear with us as we are using "experimental technology" (iCall) due to the unavailability of service from Telkom - if you are an MTN user you will be unable to call this number. We have been assured that MTN and iBurst are working on this problem and that it should be resolved soon. The good news is that if you are an iCall subscriber you will be able to chat to us for free :)

PIXEL ZOO OFFICE: 087 7200 401

The Pixel Zoo is on the move

2008-03-12T19:10:00.000+02:00

The Pixel Zoo has moved to exciting new offices! We can now be found at at 51 Oxford rd, Saxonwold. Please contact us on our cellphones until we get our office number.

Share the Love

2008-02-14T19:12:00.000+02:00

The Pixel Zoo would like to wish you a loving Valentine's day.

We hope you got spoilt and shared the love.

Honda Ad

2008-02-12T11:45:00.000+02:00

New Desktop Backgrounds

2007-07-25T07:17:00.003+02:00


Can't stop thinking	Shooter	Hypnotic Sheep

African Landscape	Calm Chaos

*Click on the thumbnail to download the wallpaper.
Right Click on the image and Click "Set as desktop background"