Tagged: tech

  1. glennette:

    Critiquing Critique by Jared Spool.

    We had a great time at UXCampDC in January and some videos of the presentations and discussions have surfaced! We will post a few over the next several weeks. Enjoy.

  2. blanksandpostage: mobelux: No theme. No contests. 24 hours to make cool stuff with smart people. We’re super-excited to announce RVA Hackathon, a free event for developers and designers on April 20-21 at Corrugated Box. We’ve been toying with the idea of throwing a hackathon for a while now, but we didn’t want to create something with prizes, judges, themes and agendas getting in the way of making cool stuff. This event is free-form, meaning that you can show up with a team or go it alone. Make something that you’ve been talking about but haven’t dedicated time to or go crazy and prototype out a new idea. Present your progress at the end or just enjoy the party. We, along with our sponsors will keep you fed and caffeinated along the way. We think that by relaxing restrictions you’ll have more fun and make cooler stuff. We’d love for you to show up and prove the theory. Visit rvahackathon.com to learn more and sign up! Check it out Central Virginia! Brought to you by our good friends at Mobelux!

    blanksandpostage:

    mobelux:

    No theme. No contests. 24 hours to make cool stuff with smart people.

    We’re super-excited to announce RVA Hackathon, a free event for developers and designers on April 20-21 at Corrugated Box. We’ve been toying with the idea of throwing a hackathon for a while now, but we didn’t want to create something with prizes, judges, themes and agendas getting in the way of making cool stuff. This event is free-form, meaning that you can show up with a team or go it alone. Make something that you’ve been talking about but haven’t dedicated time to or go crazy and prototype out a new idea. Present your progress at the end or just enjoy the party. We, along with our sponsors will keep you fed and caffeinated along the way.

    We think that by relaxing restrictions you’ll have more fun and make cooler stuff. We’d love for you to show up and prove the theory. Visit rvahackathon.com to learn more and sign up!

    Check it out Central Virginia!

    Brought to you by our good friends at Mobelux!

  3. Tumblr is magic internet play-doh.

    -Danielle Strle at the Reblog Culture panel at SXSW
  4. The WordPress Happiness Bar at SXSW The WordPress Happiness Bar at SXSW

    The WordPress Happiness Bar at SXSW

  5. Announcing the Candor Tumblr Theme We are humbled by the overwhelming response from the Tumblr community to our first Tumblr theme, Single A. Thanks to you, we decided to develop and can now announce our first premium Tumblr theme, Candor. The Candor tumblr theme is a perfect fit for any type of blog. It is great for high res images and videos, includes an exfm player for music bloggers, incorporates TypeKit and Google fonts for bloggers who write long-form posts, and provides a highly visible about area and featured posts section that every blogger can use. Like Single A, we will be providing email support and looking to you for suggestions on how to improve Candor. Thank you for your continued support! Announcing the Candor Tumblr Theme We are humbled by the overwhelming response from the Tumblr community to our first Tumblr theme, Single A. Thanks to you, we decided to develop and can now announce our first premium Tumblr theme, Candor. The Candor tumblr theme is a perfect fit for any type of blog. It is great for high res images and videos, includes an exfm player for music bloggers, incorporates TypeKit and Google fonts for bloggers who write long-form posts, and provides a highly visible about area and featured posts section that every blogger can use. Like Single A, we will be providing email support and looking to you for suggestions on how to improve Candor. Thank you for your continued support!

    Announcing the Candor Tumblr Theme

    We are humbled by the overwhelming response from the Tumblr community to our first Tumblr theme, Single A. Thanks to you, we decided to develop and can now announce our first premium Tumblr theme, Candor.

    The Candor tumblr theme is a perfect fit for any type of blog. It is great for high res images and videos, includes an exfm player for music bloggers, incorporates TypeKit and Google fonts for bloggers who write long-form posts, and provides a highly visible about area and featured posts section that every blogger can use.

    Like Single A, we will be providing email support and looking to you for suggestions on how to improve Candor. Thank you for your continued support!

  6. Introducing Bubuti.com: Where Music Has A Mission We are proud to announce the launch of Bubuti.com, a website that enables charities to partner with musicians to build a collaborative campaign, a co-promotion of song(s) and cause. Like a virtual benefit concert on the world’s largest stage, the Internet, these charitable campaigns give music artists exposure, give charities much-needed support, and give supporters the gift of music. We are excited to have Bubuti up and running before our trip to SXSW music this coming week.  Business Bullpen performed the following services on the Bubuti.com project: Website Design Website and eCommerce Development Content Strategy Copywriting Social Media Consulting & Management Introducing Bubuti.com: Where Music Has A Mission We are proud to announce the launch of Bubuti.com, a website that enables charities to partner with musicians to build a collaborative campaign, a co-promotion of song(s) and cause. Like a virtual benefit concert on the world’s largest stage, the Internet, these charitable campaigns give music artists exposure, give charities much-needed support, and give supporters the gift of music. We are excited to have Bubuti up and running before our trip to SXSW music this coming week.  Business Bullpen performed the following services on the Bubuti.com project: Website Design Website and eCommerce Development Content Strategy Copywriting Social Media Consulting & Management

    Introducing Bubuti.com: Where Music Has A Mission

    We are proud to announce the launch of Bubuti.com, a website that enables charities to partner with musicians to build a collaborative campaign, a co-promotion of song(s) and cause. Like a virtual benefit concert on the world’s largest stage, the Internet, these charitable campaigns give music artists exposure, give charities much-needed support, and give supporters the gift of music.

    We are excited to have Bubuti up and running before our trip to SXSW music this coming week. 

    Business Bullpen performed the following services on the Bubuti.com project:

    • Website Design
    • Website and eCommerce Development
    • Content Strategy
    • Copywriting
    • Social Media Consulting & Management

  7. How To Tuesdays: Different Ways to Post to Your Tumblr Blog

    There are a few other ways to post to Tumblr other than the dashboard or the mobile app. Some of these are well-known and others are hidden gems.

    1. The bookmarklet: For some, the bookmarklet is essential to the Tumblr experience. It truly makes it super simple to post to your blog while you browse on the web all day long at work instead of getting done what you needed to complete yesterday.
    2. By email: Did you know that you can post to Tumblr via email? Each blog in Tumblr has its own unique email address. To find out that magic address, log in to the dashboard, click on the blog you want to post to, click on the blog settings link. Scroll down about halfway and you should see a Post by Email Address. Tumblr also provides a guide on how to post via email.
    3. By phone: I haven’t used this often, but you have the ability to publish an audio post by phone. To configure this feature, head over to Tumblr’s goodies page and scroll about halfway down the page. You should see a “Call in audio” section. It takes a minute to set this option up for your blog. All you have to do is click the “Configure” button to start. 

    There are other ways you can post or share content to your Tumblr blog through third-party services, such as via Flickr and Soundcloud. Do you have any other examples?

    Posted by Todd Wickersty, founder of Business Bullpen. You can follow Todd on his blog, Tumblr or Twitter.

  8. How To Tuesdays: Tumblr Replies, Ask, and Submissions We are starting a new weekly blog feature with a not-very-creative name: How To Tuesdays. It’s not exactly glamorous, but we hope it will be valuable. Our how-tos will be about anything our team works on or with. I’m kicking off our new tradition this week with Tumblr. We receive a lot of questions about how to enable questions and submissions on your blog. It’s rather easy, actually, but it’s a bit hard to find because users tend to assume it is in the Customize Appearance section of your blog. It’s actually in Settings. To get there, within the Tumblr dashboard click on the blog that you would like to enable questions. Next, click on the Settings link/button in the right column below the Customize Appearance link. Now you should be looking at your blog’s settings. If you scroll down a bit, you should see an area for Replies, Ask, and Submissions (screenshot above). These are three Tumblr features that enable others to interact with you via your blog. Replies You can allow other Tumblr users to reply to your blog posts from the Tumblr dashboard by enabling this feature. You have two options: to allow replies from people you follow and from people who have been following you for more than two weeks (the two-week timeframe is to protect you from spammers). A reply can contain up to 250 characters and will appear in your dashboard and on your blog in the notes section. Ask We get this question a lot with our themes: “How do I add the Ask link to my blog?” As shown in the screenshot above, make sure you check that little box next to “Let people ask questions.” If you want anyone (that is, both users with and without Tumblr accounts) to ask you a question, then check the box next to “Allow anonymous questions.” Typically, the Ask page title is the text that will display in the navigation of your theme. Submissions If you want others to submit potential posts to your blog, then check the box next to “Let people submit posts.” Submitted posts won’t happen automatically. You will be able to review all of the submitted posts within your dashboard and publish only the ones you want. Posted by Todd Wickersty, founder of Business Bullpen. You can follow Todd on his blog, tumblr, or twitter. How To Tuesdays: Tumblr Replies, Ask, and Submissions We are starting a new weekly blog feature with a not-very-creative name: How To Tuesdays. It’s not exactly glamorous, but we hope it will be valuable. Our how-tos will be about anything our team works on or with. I’m kicking off our new tradition this week with Tumblr. We receive a lot of questions about how to enable questions and submissions on your blog. It’s rather easy, actually, but it’s a bit hard to find because users tend to assume it is in the Customize Appearance section of your blog. It’s actually in Settings. To get there, within the Tumblr dashboard click on the blog that you would like to enable questions. Next, click on the Settings link/button in the right column below the Customize Appearance link. Now you should be looking at your blog’s settings. If you scroll down a bit, you should see an area for Replies, Ask, and Submissions (screenshot above). These are three Tumblr features that enable others to interact with you via your blog. Replies You can allow other Tumblr users to reply to your blog posts from the Tumblr dashboard by enabling this feature. You have two options: to allow replies from people you follow and from people who have been following you for more than two weeks (the two-week timeframe is to protect you from spammers). A reply can contain up to 250 characters and will appear in your dashboard and on your blog in the notes section. Ask We get this question a lot with our themes: “How do I add the Ask link to my blog?” As shown in the screenshot above, make sure you check that little box next to “Let people ask questions.” If you want anyone (that is, both users with and without Tumblr accounts) to ask you a question, then check the box next to “Allow anonymous questions.” Typically, the Ask page title is the text that will display in the navigation of your theme. Submissions If you want others to submit potential posts to your blog, then check the box next to “Let people submit posts.” Submitted posts won’t happen automatically. You will be able to review all of the submitted posts within your dashboard and publish only the ones you want. Posted by Todd Wickersty, founder of Business Bullpen. You can follow Todd on his blog, tumblr, or twitter.

    How To Tuesdays: Tumblr Replies, Ask, and Submissions


    We are starting a new weekly blog feature with a not-very-creative name: How To Tuesdays. It’s not exactly glamorous, but we hope it will be valuable. Our how-tos will be about anything our team works on or with. I’m kicking off our new tradition this week with Tumblr.

    We receive a lot of questions about how to enable questions and submissions on your blog. It’s rather easy, actually, but it’s a bit hard to find because users tend to assume it is in the Customize Appearance section of your blog. It’s actually in Settings. To get there, within the Tumblr dashboard click on the blog that you would like to enable questions. Next, click on the Settings link/button in the right column below the Customize Appearance link.

    Now you should be looking at your blog’s settings. If you scroll down a bit, you should see an area for Replies, Ask, and Submissions (screenshot above). These are three Tumblr features that enable others to interact with you via your blog.

    Replies
    You can allow other Tumblr users to reply to your blog posts from the Tumblr dashboard by enabling this feature. You have two options: to allow replies from people you follow and from people who have been following you for more than two weeks (the two-week timeframe is to protect you from spammers). A reply can contain up to 250 characters and will appear in your dashboard and on your blog in the notes section.

    Ask
    We get this question a lot with our themes: “How do I add the Ask link to my blog?” As shown in the screenshot above, make sure you check that little box next to “Let people ask questions.” If you want anyone (that is, both users with and without Tumblr accounts) to ask you a question, then check the box next to “Allow anonymous questions.” Typically, the Ask page title is the text that will display in the navigation of your theme.

    Submissions
    If you want others to submit potential posts to your blog, then check the box next to “Let people submit posts.” Submitted posts won’t happen automatically. You will be able to review all of the submitted posts within your dashboard and publish only the ones you want.

    Posted by Todd Wickersty, founder of Business Bullpen. You can follow Todd on his blog, tumblr, or twitter.

  9. Apps That Rock: Instapaper

    We’ve decided to bring an old blog feature back named “Apps That Rock”. Instead of highlighting something brand new, I decided to focus on my favorite iPhone app of all time, Instapaper.

    I’ve had an iPhone shortly after the first generation came out, before third-party iPhone apps existed. I have also been an Instapaper user for a few years now. So the point here is that this endorsement is not after a few weeks or months of using Instapaper.

    Chances are you have heard of Instapaper or use it yourself. It currently sits in the top ten of paid apps within the iTunes news category. If you haven’t used it, this post might just change your life. It’s that awesome. :)

    For those of us with desk jobs, we are always finding new articles and blog posts to read. But we don’t want these articles to get in the way of what we are supposed to be doing. Enter Instapaper. It enables you to save articles to your Instapaper account so that you can read them later, when you have time. Through the use of a bookmarklet and a host of integrations with other iPhone and iPad apps, such as Twitter, Flipboard, Reeder, and Hootsuite, it is extremely simple to save an article to your Instapaper account with one click or touch. Let’s say you receive a lot of links to articles via email. Instapaper provides you with an email address that you can forward these links to, so you can read them later. It literally takes a second to save an article to Instapaper whether you are surfing the web, using email, or a mobile device.

    Once you are ready to sit down and read all those articles that you saved, you can do so on the web, with the iPhone app, iPad app, or Kindle. I haven’t tried Instapaper on the Kindle, but all of the other options are pleasing experiences. Each one is slightly different too. Regardless of the device, your saved articles are stripped of all ads and other distractions or you can visit the article again on the website that hosts it.

    Instapaper offers other features as well, but it’s worth it alone (and more) for the base functionality. It’s the one third-party app on my iPhone that has stayed on my first screen since day one.

    Posted by Todd Wickersty. Todd is the founder of Business Bullpen. You can follow Todd on Tumblr, Twitter, and exfm.

  10. UXCamp DC 2012

    This last Saturday, Graham, Todd, Amanda, Emily (our new intern), and I trekked to Washington, D.C. to attend the 2012 DC UXCamp. Graham and Todd are veterans of the Bar Camp style of conference, but the rest of us had never attended one before Saturday, and I, for one, was not entirely sure what to expect. I am as fearful of speaking in public as anyone - would I have to present something on-the-fly? Would I be required to be actively involved in every discussion? Egads, I’m just the developer over in the corner with my head down, coding!

    As it turns out, the entire concept behind a Bar Camp is that it is very informal, and how involved you choose to be is entirely up to you. The sessions ranged from full-on presentations with slideshows to very loose group discussions. I honestly expected there to be a lot more in-depth, fine-grained discussions about UX - including maybe some HTML5, or jQuery, specific talks with some nitty-gritty details. Instead, the sessions I attended were much more high level.

    The first two sessions I attended revolved around wireframing and prototyping. The first was a presentation of a tool that the presenter’s company had built to facilitate quick creation of wireframes and the second was an open discussion about various tools that attendees use or have used and what we liked or didn’t like about each.

    One thing I love about the Bar Camp format, is the informality. We attended WordCamp in Richmond in the fall, and while I do feel that I learned more there than I did at UXCamp, I found that it got to be a drag being in the same room the entire time. UXCamp allots a 2-hour break for lunch, which allowed us to venture out, get some fresh air, and get some quality team-time in together.

    After lunch, I attended what was by far my favorite session. When I walked in the room, the presenter was showing a slideshow of pictures from a recent concert by the band Rush. I knew then that I was in for a different session than the previous. As people wandered in, he discussed Rush’s show aesthetic and how it relates to UX. Then the session transitioned into a presentation/discussion about Frank Lloyd Wright and how his architecture and designs relate to UX. Very cool concept, and my interest in FLW was renewed after this session.

    I was very excited about the final session of the day that the entire team attended. I don’t recall the title, but it was about iPad/iPhone design, and I was hoping to learn quite a bit as Business Bullpen is growing our mobile development experience. Instead, the session ended up being about the new features in iOS5, and admittedly I found myself nodding off a couple of times. To be fair, we left Charlottesville at 6 am and had a hefty lunch so I’m not blaming this entirely on the topic or the presenter, but I found it to be a little too much of an Apple advertisement.

    Having said that, I am already looking forward to UXCamp 2013! And who knows, maybe I’ll even find it in me to lead a session …

    Posted by Brian Chenault, developer for Business Bullpen. You can follow Brian on Tumblr or Twitter.