My blog is now moved at blog.designjunction.in with my portfolio at designjunction.in do, have a look.

Many thanks to all who has taken time visiting here, commenting, feedback and linking in past.Will look forward for more interaction now… see you there at blog

Wordquotient is a professional content writing firm with a mission to transform individuals and organizations by providing quality English writing to a global audience.

While Bangalore is home to Word Quotient, they prefer a virtual existence and each team member works from the comfort of their homes and computers.
They have a dedicated team that is spread across the world from Bangalore to Paris, Vancouver, London and North East India.

Few months back I got this opportunity to work on their website redesign project.
Initially I went with paper textures and various experimental designs, but finally ended up with a minimalistic approach using grids, white space, typographic details and semi-realistic illustrations to maintain the visual interest.

click on the image above to view a full size screen-shot or just follow this link to watch the site live.

DesignCommisson has designed this website/app stencil with all the basic elements required to draft wireframes for interface designs.

The whole thing comes as a ” Web Stencil Kit ” comprising the stencil, browser sketchpads with grid and a mechanical pencil for ” hard to reach” places.
All this will sure help while working on paper prototypes for complex projects.

In my personal perception…
Good thing : Quick drawings, consistency in wireframes by repetative usage of a set of shapes.
Not so Good thing : As its a physical set of standards, so no scalibilty.  Someone might feel restrictive when he wants to scale his elements for different screens.
But whatever it is …i want one

At present, its not available for sale as such ( so no idea about price ) but if you are intrested you can contact them here and they will get back to you once they start selling it online.

Image & Info : DesignCommison

Last night i was suppose to prepare my portfolio and CV for some “placements” happening in my institute and i was  wasting my time in this….

Started with a little doodle then moved to PS for manipulating it to a  wallpaper and finally ended up with a test shot for an animation i am planning to work on.

click on image to download as wallpaper

This is the final test shot, any suggestions and feedback are welcome.

9^th December, Microsoft released their open-source blogging platform/CMS  with a name OXITE. 

After going through their weblog and screenshots, it seems like Microsoft has finally provided something with simplicity. The source code for the software is available under the Microsoft Public License.

 The primary features include pingbacks, trackbacks, anonymous or authenticated commenting (with optional moderation), gravatar support, RSS feeds at any page level, support for MetaWebLog API , web admin panel, support for Open Search format allowing users to search your site using their browser’s search box.

At present, Oxite currently powers Microsoft’s own Mix Online and Channel 9.

Fow now, it’s a little early to predict how competitive it will be to WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and others. But the two things which I loved  - first, the beautiful Oxite webpage on Mix Online and second,  the source code is free !  :) 

We all are pretty conversant with the typical smile emoticons we use on web, but from years and years we are watching them only in the restricted web fonts like Verdana, Georgia and so on. 

So i just did a small experiment to find out how other type “faces” smile, and some of them are really interesting !!

Have a look…

And ya…notice Arial, is he trying to pretend like Mr. Helvetica…

So, which one has the perfect smile ?

FileRide let you see who all on the network have the same file ( for e.g a song ) on their machines, and then allows you to comment and even live chat about those files. Accordingly to creators, their goal is to help like-minded people connect and promote democracy through universal access to media related forums. 

All this without exposing any of your document contents or private information outside the realm of your own computer. 

And ya ! its not a file-share agent, so cant transfer your files. Its just to share the interests based on common files. 

FileRide’s client software currently only works on XP and Vista, but OS X and mobile versions are already in development.

visit their official web for more information

e-DONOR (e-do-ner, – nor) n.
One that donate , contributes their electronic waste to a higher good.
One that curbs needless electronic energy consumption.
One that beliefs and serves the afterlife of their technology.

E-Donor is an initiative by HP and MTV to create awareness about electronic waste and its consequences. The site has a lot of interesting videos, facts to convey the message of e-CYCLING.

Once you are done with grabbing the info and if you think it makes sense, go ahead and take an e-DONOR pledge.
Here are some of the statements.

For now HP as a goal of e-cycling to reach two billion pound of e-waste by 2010. The site also has a little brand promotion part too, but it’s OK as it’s done to support to a right cause.

Further Links
http://www.edonor.mtv.com/
http://www.ecycleenvironmental.com/
http://www.ecyclegroup.com/
http://www.sens.ch/

Hover.in is an in-text “customized content” and “customized ad” delivery platform for web sites and blogs. It enables web publishers to link and monetize keywords/ phrases with-in their existing content.

Few weeks back i came in touch with the C.E.O – Arun Prabhudesai, and got the responsibility for hover.in website redesign, admin panel ( dashboard design ) and the look and feel of linking window ( Hoverlet ).

I am uploading some of the project pictures here..have a look.

Here is a preview how the hoverlet will look on you webpage.

The site is still in development, testing and refinement stage, will be live soon.

Because of all this festive mood in my head, posts will be off for a week or two. For now i have just uploaded a diwali wallpaper, click here to download-you might like it.