Cat-Morley Archives - Page 2 of 2

Cat’s in Great Form

Cat Morley isn’t only a supreme designer. She is one curious Cat, for sure. Each week at Tuesday Open Comments Night, she leaves a link that leads to a uselful site or article for us — one she’s found while she’s been surfing. Often during the week she’ll return to shoot me something else she’s discovered. This one, Cat sent for two friends of Successful Blog, Kean and Joe in hopes that they might find it the answer to their quest for a contact form on their blogs.

Great Find: Wufoo

Permalink: http://wufoo.com/

Audience/Topic: Bloggers, small-business owners

Content: Wufoo was released to the public in July 2006. It’s a friendly form-building program that allows users to quickly create a mailing list, a contact form, a marketing survey or even a complete customer management system. Here’s a list of what you can build on their server.

Contact Form
Mailing List
Survey
Job Application
Workshop Registration
Event Calendar
Account Management
Customer Management
Bug Tracker
Invitations / RSVP
Online Orders
Wedding Planner
Address Book
Home Finances
Classifieds
Personal Journal
Quizzes / Tests
Media Collection

Adding class to the picture, Wufoo also provides the power to build a theme for all of your forms and reports. I signed up and made this lovely contact form.

Wufoo provides the code I need to send the answers to the Wufoo server. It was free to make this form and get the code. I would need a $9 subscription to use their server to collect the data. It might tricky figuring out how to use it without a Wufoo subscription on a different server. However, other forms don’t require such a relationship.

You can make three forms for free or buy in a variety of subscription levels — $9/month, $24/month, $69/month, and $199/month. Take the time to check this out. It could be just what you need to add that last dash of professionalism to your business and your brand. To find out more, click the Wufoo logo.

Thanks, Cat Morley, for another Great Find.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

This link comes from Cat Morley, of Designers who Blog. It was waiting when I got to my computer this morning. If you know Cat Morley and Mike Rundle, you’ll want to read this article as much as I did.

Great Find: How C.R.A.P. Is Your Design by MIke Rundle
Permalink: http://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/design/how-crap-is-your-site-design

Audience/Topic: Blog and Webiste Design Review
Content: I’ve had the pleasure of working with Mike Rundle. I worked with him when Succesful Blog was with 9rules. Mike designed the SOB badge. He’s considered one of the best designers in the blogworld. So when Mike writes about blog design. It’s worth checking, especially when the person who points out the article is Cat Morely, who is also highly recognized for her design skills.

Mike’s article explains a popular design approach and acronym, called C.R.A.P. coined by designer/author Robin Williams. C.R.A.P. stands for

Contrast + Repitition + Alignment + Proximity

In his article, Mike goes beyond explaining each concept. He provides screenshots and reviews the conceptual points in action — when they’re working and when they’re not. Think of this as a multi-page primer of design basics that you want beside you, when you start tweaking at your template. To read the article click on the title shot below.

Design can make reading your blog inviting, welcoming, and easy on the reader. It’s one more form of branding and blog promotion. Great design lets readers see that you have an interest in them and a stake in what you’re doing. The finest content means hardly anything, if no one can get past the design to read it.

Thanks Cat, for pointing us to this article, and thanks Mike, for taking the time to write it.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Great Find: Wufoo — Form-making Tool

Cat’s in Great Form

Great Find: Is Your Design C.R.A.P.?