These come with high resolution images and may include custom coloring to match your website or color scheme. Need more customizing? Ask for a quote!

More to come as I finish digging cleaning out my archive of files! Spring cleaning, the digital version!

Check out all the pre-mades here.

Miss my rant? Check out last year’s Autism Awareness post on the WSM blog.
I talked about the book by John Robinson called Look Me in the Eye and posted the top misconceptions about Neurodiversity.

I tried many cases and found most of them bulky. I then decided I really wanted to be able to type with a keyboard instead of the on screen touch pad. For awhile I hauled around my extra wireless Apple keyboard but soon found it just impractical. The wireless is bulky and I was afraid I was going to pluck keys off when I stuck it in my purse or backpack. Since I use this item every day I wanted to find a great solution.

I found the Zagg Mate keyboard case online and read reviews and figured it was worth a shot. I picked it up from my local Target store and immediately loved the design. While the keyboard is small, you quickly get used to it and its much better than the on-screen keyboard. I haven’t had an issue with it going dead or running too low on me yet, and I’ve had the keyboard for about 4 months now. It offers me another level of protection to the iPad itself, which I like. It makes typing easier and gives some physical feedback when I type.

The cons? The aluminum isn’t as substantial as I’d like. I accidentally knocked it off my nightstand and the corner dented on the carpet. I was able to bend it back but it disappointed me a bit and its permanently marred now. The rubber sticky grippies on the bottom fell off after a couple months, albeit this is minor and I could probably pick up replacements at my local hardware store. I couldn’t find anywhere to order these on the web site either. The keyboard keys can fall off if you hit them with your iPad while putting it away. I panicked when this happened to me the first time until I realized I could put them back on. Oops! My biggest concern is the lack of charge light. There is no indicator to display when the keyboard’s battery has gotten low, thus you just have to periodically guess when to charge it and hope it doesn’t go dead on you. I haven’t had an issue yet but I could see this being a major problem for others.

Overall the cons aren’t a deal breaker for me but may be for others. I still love it and use it a lot. I’d love it more if the above issues were fixed. The $99.99 pricetag is a bit steep considering it lacks in a few areas though.

Lastly, my Zagg Custom Skin for my iPad. The Zagg mate keyboard doesn’t work with a standard case so I wanted a way to protect the back of my iPad while in use when I set it down. The Zagg Skins looked promising. I opted for a custom skin and loaded my own design so that I could match my home screen with the skin. (see top picture) The loading of the image was easy enough once I decided what I wanted to adorn my iPad. The price is comparable to other cases as well. While it doesn’t protect the edges, my Zagg Mate does in transport. It was a sacrifice I was willing to make in exchange for the benefits of having the keyboard case.

The skin took about 10 days to arrive, a bit longer than I expected but it was custom so I guess I can’t complaint. It came well protected and looked amazing! Unfortunately it didn’t come with any installation instructions and the ones I found online were lacking. Why is this an issue? I didn’t know that it wouldn’t line up to the edges perfectly, its a fraction smaller than the back of the iPad itself. When I put it on I assumed you would simply line up the edges, this didn’t work and its not on perfectly. One edge is more exposed than the others. Sigh. That would be my only real complaint though. Zagg, please insert some instructions or a warning about this issue. Thank you! Overall it livens up my iPad and gives it another skin of protection.

When creating a web site its ideal to have the same look and navigation throughout the site. Changing the look or navigation on each page can confuse your customer and make them more likely to leave your site to shop somewhere else. The only exceptions are catalog pages that may utilize categories to help make browsing easier, as long as the customer can still access the rest of your site too! Preferably you want to be able to get to anywhere on your site in 2 clicks or less and direct access is even better. The more accessible your products are, the more likely the customer will spend time browsing your site and finding an item they want to purchase. If your customer has to click “catalog” and select the “category” they want each time they want to look for another item, they will quickly become frustrated and shop elsewhere.

Web designs, especially those on cart systems, are built and coded in a template system. This means one or two files run the entire site. The content is the area within the template that changes depending on the page that the visitor is looking at. Generally I wont design for content because that will change on every page, instead I design for the over all look of the site. If you do have pages that need alternative navigation or design that requires another template to be made and not included in my design packages. Please ensure to specify that you require more than one look, or template before your project begins so that you are not surprised with the additional design fees associated with them.

Below are a couple web site examples that may help you understand the parts of the web layout and template.

Its important to note that web sites may include all or only a few of these. Each business is unique and the design should be unique to the needs and goals of the site. Another example screen grab is shown below.

1. The Logo. Your logo might be a square, simple text or cover the entire header. Logos vary greatly depending on your needs.
2. Header/Horizontal Navigation. Usually includes your global navigation. These are the links you want your visitors to have access to no matter where they are on the web site.
3. Sub Navigation. This may include important links, sub categories or other links that fit near the top.
4. Side Bar/ Side Navigation. This is a common place for links that help with navigating categories, sub pages and other handy links. May also include important information that you would like displayed on every page.
5. The Content. This is the meat of your site. The dynamic area that changes on every page. This is not part of the template and not part of the mockup. The content may have examples shown on the mockup as placeholder information.
6. The Footer. The bottom of the page that may include another set of horizontal links and also any copyright information. Anything could be included here from simple links to social networking icons to messages and updates.
7. The Background. Computer monitors now vary in size from very large to tiny mobile phone screens. The background is the color or image used to fill the space behind the web site in the browser window. It could compliment the site but not distract the visitors.