Kuler has been around for a while in the form of a website that allowed people to create and share color schemes with each other. It was cool, but creating each color scheme manually took some effort. It does function as a wonderful backend to this app, however.

Here’s the beauty of it. Have you ever looked at a real-world object and thought about using a color from it in your work? I certainly have, but the process involved in doing something like this was not simple. I could snap a photo with my phone, transfer it over to my computer, open it in Photoshop and use the color picker tool to grab the hex color code. No fun.

Kuler condenses these steps down to one. I just point my phone at the object and it automatically starts picking colors, creating beautiful color schemes right before my eyes. Once a scheme is created, I am easily able to view the hex or rgb values. When I’m using this app, I might as well slap a big K on my chest, because I have become the lesser-known superhero… Kulerman.

1) Swipe Controls. This is email built for your phone. To archive, delete, snooze an email, or send it to a list, you simply swipe it left or right. I expect to see this type of control system implemented into many more apps down the road–it just works. Check out Clear for another app you can interact with by swiping.

2) Snooze. This is my favorite feature. By swiping an email to the left slightly, you can tell Mailbox to archive it until a future specified time. This is perfect for emails that aren’t relevant until tomorrow or next week.

3) Unified Inbox. This isn’t a new concept, but it definitely simplifies working with my otherwise fragmented inbox. All your email can be found in one central location, and is the first thing you see when you open the app.

4) Reordering Emails. I found this feature to be rather unusual for an email service, but I believe it comes from the the fact that you are supposed to think of your email as a to-do list. Just drag and drop your emails in the order you’d like!

5) Lists. These are pretty versatile. You’re able to create your own, such as a Pocket-like read later list. You could even use them to organize emails for certain projects.

6) Inbox Zero. This is what Mailbox is all about. The goal of all of these features is to have an empty inbox as frequently as possible so that when there is an email in it, you know it’s new, or important, or relevant to what you’re doing right NOW. If you can accomplish Inbox Zero, you are rewarded with a beautiful new Instagram photo each day. You can see an example of this below. Pressing on the icon reveals the full image.

Mailbox isn’t for everybody–especially people who already have a fully functional system in place for staying in control of their email. If you are not one of those people, however, I highly recommend giving this app a shot. One final disclaimer: Mailbox currently only works with Gmail. Hopefully they will be adding more options in the future, but nothing has been announced yet as far as I’ve seen. And if you already use Mailbox, let me know how your experience has been below!

I first looked through a few options for frameworks to build on, and ended up choosing QuickStep. It offered everything we were looking for, including huge images, a sleek interface, a built-in gallery, and the ability to create a single-page layout. I pushed for the single-page layout. Looking at the analytics for almost any website taught me that most visitors are lost as soon as they have to click a link to visit a different page on a website. They could be missing out on important information, including how to contact the business! I believe that putting all relevant information on one long scrollable page is one step towards solving that issue.

The design process was jumpstarted by the fact that Smith Lawn and Landscape already had a great logo. The only thing I changed was the font in order to give it more of an organic and modern feel. From there I went on to pick a color palette and a selection of fonts to work from. You can see them above. Going through these few steps of preparation made the rest of the design and building process so much easier.

Designing this website was only half of the story, however. There were a few requested features that were not built into QuickStep, and I had to spend a great deal of time finding plug-ins and tweaking the code to make them possible. The most difficult one was a slideshow that spans the full width of the page. I was happy to see it all come together flawlessly, while still preserving the responsiveness of the website. For the full affect, drag your browser smaller or view it on your phone.

Once the fortress was done, it was time to start building the outposts. It disappoints me when brands don’t take the graphics they put on their social media pages as seriously as their website. If you’re using Facebook to connect and market with new customers, then it better look as clean and professional as your website, if not more so. I used the dimensions I listed out in a previous blog post and created graphics designed specifically for each platform.

The main goal during all of this was to push Smith Lawn and Landscape to the top of Google Search and get more exposure for this great company. I’m happy to say that this re-design alone pushed the company to #4 in search, and I’m confident that it will only be moving up from there. I recommended that they update their blog at least once a week. This will teach Google’s algorithm that this is a website contains newer, more relevant and more valuable information.

In conclusion, I am very excited to announce the release of the new website design for Smith Lawn and Landscape!

Sunrise reimagined the calendar from the ground up by converting all calendar events into a timeline. It uses Google Calendar as it’s backbone, but adds functionality on top of Google’s very basic features. You’re also able to connect Facebook and LinkedIn to import birthdays, events, and meetings.

Here are just a few:

• Add contacts to events with ease. Type in their name (or email, if they aren’t in your contacts yet), and their pictures will show up under the events, making it easy to see who you’re meeting with and when. Sunrise will automatically add their LinkedIn account to the event for a quick background check.
• Content aware icons. Notice the knife & fork icon in the screenshot above. Sunrise will automatically assign icons to your events based on their content. “Lunch” or “dinner” will have the previously mentioned icon, birthdays will be assigned a birthday present icon, and meetings will have an icon containing a couple speech bubbles. You don’t even have to read your schedule to get a general idea of what will be filling your time each day. Added Bonus: When clicking on someone’s birthday, it gives you the option to text or Facebook message them a happy birthday directly from the app. Convenient!
• Weather integration. Sunrise automatically inserts the predicted weather into your calendar throughout the day. This allows you to see whether it’s appropriate to schedule activity outside or not.
• It’s nice to use. This is the most important feature. It’s not difficult to use or hard to navigate. Everything is logical and fluid, and you will actually want to keep your calendar updated.

In summary, give this app a test run if you are able, and let me know what you think!

First, let’s take a look at a sample of Apple app icons.

Do you see it? Look closer. Closer. That’s right. Every single one of them has that hokey highlight stretching across the top/middle. All of these icons look dated and cheesy, and a big reason for that is this awful highlight. But wait. It gets worse.

It’s spreading like a virus! Let this be a lesson to you, app developers. Highlights are okay, just don’t use this one anymore.

Nice work, Pandora!

Leap Motion is basically a Kinect with pinpoint precision that hooks up to your computer. What’s so amazing about this?

1. You can “physically” interact with objects on your computer screen. The best example I’ve found of this can be seen in the video below.

2. You can create artwork in 2D or 3D with no extra peripherals. In some of the demo videos, they actually use a pencil as a stylus and the Leap Motion was able to recognize it as a writing tool.

3. It’s backwards compatible with touch screen applications, so it already works with a ton of different programs. One example is the ability to scroll down a web page simply by swiping it up with a finger.

I’m very excited about having a new way to interact with my iMac and finally free myself from the mouse!

1) Songza. The concierge feature is killer! It’s really easy to find an enjoyable playlist for any activity you might be doing, whether it be driving, working, relaxing, or saving the world.

2) Waze. It’s a fully-functional GPS with turn-by-turn navigation on your phone. There’s a big social element as well – you can notify others about traffic, police, and road obstructions. One of my favorite, but simple, features is the fact that you can listen to music while using it. When directions are being given, the music drops to the background.

3) Duolingo. You may remember me talking about Duolingo in the past, but now they have an app! It’s only a couple weeks old, but let’s you learn a language on the go. Awesome.

4) Highlight. This app tells you when there are others near you with similar interests. I really like the concept, but it’s not all that useful until a bunch of people are on it. So get it! It’s available for iOS and Android.

5) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. This entire game has just been released for iOS, and will be coming out for Android soon. Explore the entire city and do missions on your phone. Mind-blowing. Your also able to create a playlist in iTunes and listen to it as a radio station in the game.

One idea I particularly liked was applying this concept to driving. Here’s how it would work:

1. I’m Heading Out. A button stating “I’m Heading Out” or “I’m Driving” is placed so that it’s as easily accessible as the “Go to Sleep” button. Press it.
2. The Driving Page. A splash page appears with a graphic depicting a steering wheel and the open road. There will also be a timer on this page.
3. Arrived. A button stating simply “Arrived” is located at the bottom of the splash page. Pressing this stops the timer and posts a message on your timeline.
4. Rewards. What’s the incentive here? Maybe a reward system should be put in place à la Waze (another app I’m greatly enjoying). If nothing else, you’ll have the comfort of knowing that you’re driving safely, and your family and friends are aware of that fact.

Seeing as how Path is meant for connecting with your closest friends and family, the default sharing options should be that your drive time, route, and destination are posted openly on your Path timeline for them to see and respond to.

Facebook.

Cover Photo: 851x315px
Profile Picture: 160x160px
Application Icon: 111x74px
Timeline Photo: 403x403px
Timeline Photo (Highlighted): 843x403px
Restrictions: Cover photos can’t include price information, contact information, references to Facebook features, or calls to action. This means you can’t make it say “Like Us!” and have an arrow pointing to the like button.

Twitter.

Cover Photo: 1252x626px*
Profile Picture: 73x73px
Background: 1680x1050px**

Google+.

Cover Photo: 940x180px
Profile Picture: 250x250px

Pinterest.

Profile Picture: 160x165px
Pinned Image Width: 192px
Board Cover: 222x150px
Board Thumbnails: 55x55px

YouTube.

Profile Picture: 60x60px
Background: 1680x1050px**
Channel Banner: 970x150px

*Twitter’s new Cover Photo requires that you upload a large image, but it gets scaled down to different sizes depending on which device you are using. On the web, it is scaled down to 520x260px.
**There are no requirements for the background, but making it too small will result in an ugly cut off line. Common displays can run from 1024x768px up to 2000x1920px. Keep your background on the large side, or create a transition point into a solid color.

Artists create films about film, paintings about painting, sculptures about sculpture, and so on. I believe that this is caused by a lack of diversity in education and interest. Think about it. If I train and spend all of my time becoming the most incredible painter in history, what will my paintings be about? Well, what subject am I now the most knowledgable of? Painting. See the problem?

Keep in mind, there has been long and interesting history of art that has brought us to this point. But now we’ve reached it. Time to move on. (Those of you that are creating incredible work that just so happen to be meta, keep it up. This is for everyone else.)