Devlounge

Design, Develop, and Grow

Do more with Twitter

By

So you’ve embraced Twitter. You’ve synced it to your mobile phone, maybe installed a desktop client, and are happily tweeting your days as the number of your followers grows. What next? Here are some things you might not already be doing with Twitter:

Post photos and videos.
Because most mobile phones have cameras these days, sharing photos of what you’re tweeting about is easy. A photo does speak a thousand words- which is much, much more than 140 characters. The most popular service of all is Twitpic, although I’ve recently discovered the lovely Twitcli. If you’d like to share video, try out Twitvidio, which lets you record directly from your webcam and post to twitter- or 12seconds, where your video is limited to- yes, 12 seconds.

Share music.
It’s always fun to share music with your friends- kind of like posting “listening to:” on your blog. To share music on Twitter, try the adorably named Song.ly, which won me over with their simple-to-use interface and clean design. Other ones to look at are Twt.fm and the fairly new SongTwit.

Be creative.
History Professor Monica Rankin found a way to use Twitter in the classroom, getting more students to participate in classroom discussions:

…and proving that while Twitter is a simple, fun application- it can also be a very powerful tool.

How are you using Twitter?

Designers to Follow on Twitter

By

I knew Twitter was truly everywhere when my mother called me up a few days ago and asked “What’s Twitter? Should I get an account?” With celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Seth Rogen, and- most, recently- Oprah embracing the service, it’s no surprise.

With all the hype, it’s easy to forget what Twitter ultimately is: a powerful tool. A friend recently likened Twitter to “Facebook, without all the b.s.”- and he’s partly right. It connects people instantly- which is why it works so well for celebrities, putting them directly in contact with their fans.

As designers, of course, we have our own “celebrities”- they’re other designers, those whose work we are inspired by, and who can help us solve the type of design problems we’re faced with every day. Here are some of my favorite designers to follow on Twitter:

If you tweet about design, please leave your twitter address in the comments (mine is ilorraine)- or suggest your own favorite designers on Twitter.

Putting Twitter on your website

By

Twitter, the genius of a micro-blogging service, added five million members last month. With that sort of growth, it’s not surprising that people are predicting the death of “old-fashioned” blogging.

But Twitter can be a wonderful tool for those of us who already run blogs and websites. Embedding your own Twitter feed on your blog is one of the quickest ways to post updates- especially if you tweet from your mobile phone. Here are some of the best ways to put Twitter on your website:

Twitter Badges. Perhaps the easiest method is provided by Twitter themselves. These “badges” are actually widgets- they provide you with a bit of code, and tell you where to put it. Short and simple, this works on nearly every type of site, from Blogger to Typepad to static HTML pages. Visit Twitter Badges (you’ll need to login to get your badges).

Twitter Widgets. If Twitter’s own badges don’t do it for you, you can try out Widgetbox’s Twitter Widget, incorporate the photo of your choice by using SayTweet… or even have some fun with the animated widgets over at WishaFriend!

Tweets in WordPress. If you run a WordPress (.org) blog, you’ll want to use either of two plugins: Twitter for WordPress or Twitter Tools. I have used them both, both are excellent, but the former (Twitter for WP) is a little simpler. Also worth a look is Twitt-Twoo, a WordPress plugin that allows you to update your Twitter status right from your blog’s sidebar.

Get Linked to More. When posting links on Twitter, all long urls have to be shortened first. Use a service like TwitThis, which automatically shortens the urls of your posts for your visitors, to make it that much easier to link to you on their tweets.

Do you use Twitter? How have you integrated it into your existing site or blog?

Friday Focus 03/27/09: Twitter Mania

By

Twitter has just turned three but it it’s still the most talked about webapp in ages. That’s because people are constantly coming up with ways to extract, arrange, and present its data. Let’s take a look at some nicely designed 3rd-party websites that harness its power.

Designs of the Week

Qapture

Elegant, clean, and easy to use, despite a relatively large amount of information you’ll find on this site. It’s great that there’s a summary of the most popular items on the page right at the top. Scrolling downwards you can switch between grid and list views—again, to control information overload. Third, I like that the actual titles of the webpages being linked to are displayed instead of the tweets themselves, which show up only when you hover over the links.

TWEEEEET Design

The site’s modern touches match its theme (“design”) but I have several concerns. One, I’m not fond of the marquee scrolling: it’s very choppy and whether it’s a JavaScript effect or an HTML <marquee> tag, it has fallen out of favor a long time ago. Two, the tiny pixel fonts: it would’ve been better if it were used in more elements other than the header and footer. Three, the left-aligned layout: I really don’t see a reason why it can’t be centered.

WeFollow

Despite very muted hues, the logo, avatars, and call to action button on the right are colorful and break the monotony. And even though the design elements are clearly Mac-inspired, they’re very subtle and not overpowering. This is a Twitter-related site after all, and not an Apple one.

Which leads me wonder: why are there no bird graphics, gratuitous use of light blue, and cutesy rounded typefaces in the above websites? Have people gotten tired of carrying over Twitter’s branding to their projects?

Social Media Weekly

Design – Designing from the inside out: Part 1 – Content Before Design

Programming – Discover the “Cool” of CSS: 25 Advanced CSS Techniques

Friday Focus 03/20/09: Fun, Illustrated Personalities

By

This week’s featured designs have great personalities and stand to remain etched in your brain thanks to generous use of illustrations. You’ll definitely want to meet them!

Designs of the Week

Springs & Struts Engineering and Design

Taking cues from the company’s name and branding, this design is a joy to look at. I can only wish it had more pages so I can see how they can take the construction theme further. I love how the text moves around the design, and not the other way around. Sometimes it’s good for function to follow form, isn’t it?

The Amazing Idea Machine

A snarky website deserves an over the top concept, so here you go. Is that Obama on the left and Einstein on the right?

The Great Bearded Reef

We’ve seen so many one-page websites with AJAXy scrolling effects with cute illustrations with an ocean theme, and yet seeing a new one like this doesn’t bore me. This design brings several new things to the table, like some texture and grunge to match his scruffy beard and future island job. Take a few things from a concept that works, then add a few touches that make it your own.

Social Media Weekly

Design – 25 of the Best Designed Twitter Homepages
Because the current king of illustrated branding can give you lots of design inspiration too.

Programming – Chrome Experiments
Google’s site for demonstrating the power of its browser. Lots of ideas for harnessing JavaScript for neat tricks.

About Devlounge

Want to read more about Devlounge, or maybe you want to contact us, or even advertise? Oh, and don't forget to subscribe to updates!

The Best of Devlounge