The Colordrop Blog

Designs, News, Reviews, and More!

Colordrop is now a Hootsuite Pro Solution Partner

Posted 10 months ago Ronald Blog / News

Colordrop is proud to announce that we are now a HootSuite Pro Solution Partner.

HootSuite is a social media management system for businesses and organizations to collaboratively execute campaigns across multiple social networks from one secure, web-based dashboard. Key social network integrations include Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, plus a suite of social content apps for YouTube, Flickr, Tumblr and more.

Earlier this year HootSuite hit 3 million users with over 700 million messages sent through over 6 million unique social profiles. Along with HootSuite’s web platform, 20% of users access the dashboard through their mobiles including iPhone, Android, Blackberry and iPad. HootSuite also offers localized versions of their dashboard in six languages – English, French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese.

There are many benefits to HootSuite Pro
Engage: Optimize your audience engagement by creating search streams, scheduling messages and monitoring all of your social network profiles from one customizable web and mobile dashboard.

Collaborate: Invite clients and colleagues to participate in your social media management. Assign messages for follow up and share streams, helping you increase efficiency.

Analyze: Measure your efforts using over 40 social analytics modules to build and share custom reports. Or select from one of our pre-made templates for quick and easy reporting.

Secure: Share access with team members without compromising security. The team permission levels and advanced sharing options ensure you remain in control of your valuable social profiles and accounts.

Sign up for a 30-day free trial of HootSuite Pro now and let us consult you on how to easily manage your social networks.

HootSuite - Social Media Management

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Featured: PlayBuilders Updated Design

Posted 1 year ago Ronald Design

Last month, Colordrop and PlayBuilders worked together to implement design improvements to their site. As their company grew, PlayBuilders needed more navigational options for the different types of visitors who go to their website. Therefore, we added an additional navigational bar to the top of their page along with an improved homepage slider. These design refreshes were minimal, but influential in both ease of use and overall design. Check out PlayBuilders.org to see their newly launched redesign!

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Site Review: Dropmark Online Collaboration App

Posted 1 year ago Ronald App Reviews

Theresa and I are often asked about the applications we use on our computers, tablets, and mobile devices, so we decided to write a monthly blog post about hot (and cold) new apps we discovered. Found a golden app yourself? Drop us a line at info@colordrop.com and we’ll review it!

Colordrop Rating:

This space is typically reserved for app reviews on iOS and Android systems, but there are also many web apps worth mentioning to our clients and followers. This month we decided to review a web app Colordrop recently added to our personal client workflow and one we think has much potential for aiding in productive cloud-based collaboration.

Application Description (from dropmark.com)

Dropmark is dead simple collaboration in the cloud. The site has a drag and drop interface that allows users to drop files from their desktop into any browser. The files will be automatically viewable in the cloud. Colleagues can be invited to view and collaborate privately, work can be shared with clients, and there is no required signup for invited guests. The site works with popular software such as iPhoto, iTunes, Courier (mac), RSS, and every major web browser.

Key Features (from dropmark.com)

  • Drag and Drop Interface
  • Collaborate with a Team
  • Full Screen Presentations
  • Organize public and private collections
  • Instant Photo Slideshow
  • Collaborative playlists and podcasts
  • Useable with personal domain

Colordrop Review:

Dropmark is a web application written by Oak Studios project that attempts to make cloud-based collaboration simple, fast, and easy to use. With a free dropmark account, users can drop almost any file into their browser and have it automatically upload to their personal username.dropmark.com domain. This content can be anything from images, to videos, to content housed on other sites such as Youtube, Instagram, and Vimeo. Users can organize their dropmark content into collections based on how they wish to use the service and each collection can either be private or public.

The Dropmark blog notes an easy way to create a simple microsite where one can have a simple ad-free space to add their artwork, demo reels, or photography. If one upgrades to their paid pro plan (currently $4/month paid annually) users can link their dropmark account to their own domain. This is something colordrop has done, so our current dropmark account links to http://droplets.colordrop.com.

So, how are we using this software to streamline our client interaction? Before we were introduced to Dropmark, clients would be sent design mockups via email as an image file. In order to ensure our clients could open the files we sent, we often had to downgrade the resolution or send multiple emails. With Dropmark we simply drag and drop the images into the client’s “collection” and send them a URL link. We know exactly how the image will appear in their browser and there is no need to decrease the resolution/image size.

This web software has more possibilities we might explore in the future, but for now we are impressed with how this simple program improves our client workflow while allowing our clients an easy way to view design mockups. However, there are a few things we’d like to see in the future and hopefully some will be implemented. Dropmark has a very clean interface without ads or social networking links, yet their pro plans do not offer personal branding. I am sure we are not the only design company who would like to see our logo on our dropmark page. In addition, clients are not able to currently comment on each mockup we upload to our Dropmark page. This little addition would save time on the clients side because they could note what they do and do not like about each mockup.

Despite these two small areas of improvement, we still highly recommend Dropmark to both our designer friends and for those clients who just wish to have a space to collaborate with online content.


Pros

  • Simple, uncluttered design
  • Easy drag and drop interface
  • Ability to redirect to personal domain

Cons

  • No personal branding
  • No way to comment on content

Dropmark Signup

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Featured Project: MSAP Website

Theresa Leave a comment Design
Screen Shot 2012-03-29 at 10.24.07 PM

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After an extensive redesign process, Colordrop is proud to announce the freshly relaunched website for the Muslim Societies in Asia and the Pacific program, a …

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App Review: Cardmunch from Linkedin

Posted 1 year ago Ronald App Reviews

Theresa and I are often asked about the applications we use on our computers, tablets, and mobile devices, so we decided to write a monthly blog post about hot (and cold) new apps we discovered. Found a golden app yourself? Drop us a line at info@colordrop.com and we’ll review it!

Colordrop Rating:

Application Description (from cardmunch.com)

Cardmunch is a free iPhone app that turns business cards into contacts. It’s easy and smart. Take a picture with the app and a business card is converted to a contact automatically.  We’ll also show you LinkedIn profile information and connections you have in common.

 

Key Features (from cardmunch on the app store)

  • Convert business cards to address book contacts, and then add them as connections on LinkedIn.
  • View relevant LinkedIn profile info, connections in common, work history, and more, for the cards you scan.
  • Improved card capture experience for faster and easier card scanning.
  • Manual transcription ensures high accuracy for scanned cards.
  • Newly revamped user interface and visual experience.

Colordrop Review:

Linkedin is becoming quite the social hangout for professionals! I’ve personally been a member since 2004 (the service launched in 2002) and clearly remember the long days where I only had 5-10 contacts. Recently, I’ve received an influx of invites from previous classmates, co-workers, and friends that lead me to believe Linkedin is becoming even more popular. Data from the Linkedin folks state the same with their 2011 data of increasing site visitors by 67%. For this month we will review Linkedin’s newest purchase, Cardmunch, which turns out to be a solid app for professionals wether or not you are a frequent Linkedin user.

Cardmunch was purchased by Linkedin in 2011 and quickly rebranded as their own app. However, the functionality has remained pretty much the same. The premise of the app is pretty much straight forward… users scan a business card using the iPhone camera and shortly after that data is transformed into a digital file within the app. After the information is added, the user can then add the digital information to their contacts while keeping the scanned card and data on the app.

What I like the most about Cardmunch is the ability to batch scan multiple cards after a conference. For those who attend conferences or other networking events on a regular basis this app is a must have. I also enjoy the ability to keep all my professional contacts on a separate app from my phone contacts. I often meet numerous new faces at conferences, but just because we shared a quick chat doesn’t mean I want to add yet another contact to my main address book. Others might see this as an advantage—when it works (see improvements below). Another positive aspect is that Cardmunch will grab the Linkedin data of cards scanned if they are already members. This is an excellent tool for Linkedin power users. However, I’ve found that 90% of the cards I scanned are not on Linkedin yet, but maybe they are just slow to adopt a new social networking platform.

This leads me to what can be improved in future releases. After a recent update in December, 2011, many reviewers have noted their ability to transfer information to their address book has failed. I’ve personally had no problem as I imported new contacts after a recent conference in January, 2012. While this isn’t my largest gripe I can see how not having this functionality would easily lead one to quickly delete it. Another issue is with non-latin based scripts. I often network with Chinese and Japanese colleagues and having their character-based name is important (mostly because the Romanization is not always phonetically correct). After each non-latin card is scanned I find myself having to edit it afterward.

Overall, I find I use this app more than the official Linkedin app on iOS. In the future Linkedin notes it will better integrate the app with their services and like many others I am excited to see where they take Cardmunch.


Pros

  • Easy to Use
  • Integration with Linkedin
  • Fast way to add new contacts

Cons

  • No iPad Support
  • Some users report new scans can not import to address book
  • No support for non-latin based languages

Download Cardmunch

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New Year, New Look… New Site!

Posted 1 year ago Theresa Blog / Design / News

Greetings from your friends at Colordrop! After an inspired month of reflection and redesign, we are excited to reveal our fresh new look for the new year. We appreciate your patience during this process and invite you to check out the enhanced feel, including:

- Colordrop branding redesign – say “Hi” to the new Colordrop on our homepage!
- Design and development discussions through our blog and newsletter
- Updated portfolio with more improved search and viewing functions

Now that we’re fully launched, we’re excited for you to explore our site and send us your feedback. Also, in honor of our recent redesign, we’d love to offer you an opportunity to refresh your own site design with a limited time discount on web design services. Whether you want a touch-up or complete overhaul, there’s no better time than now. Here’s to a bright and colorful 2012!

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App Review: Orchestra for iPhone

Posted 1 year ago Ronald App Reviews

Theresa and I are often asked about the applications we use on our computers, tablets, and mobile devices, so we decided to write a monthly blog post about hot (and cold) new apps we discovered. Found a golden app yourself? Drop us a line at info@colordrop.com and we’ll review it!

Colordrop Rating:

Application Description (from orchestra.com):
Orchestra is your to-do list, connected to everyone. It helps you organize what needs doing and communicate with others to get it done. Orchestra blends organization with communication to make working with others a piece of cake. Every conversation is focused around a specific task, and you can collaborate with anyone in the world with only an email or phone number. Orchestra also uses advanced voice recognition technology, allowing users to take handless notes with their voice. The application also syncs with other devices and also with an online version at orchestra.com.

Key Features (from orchestra.com):

  • Collaborate on tasks with an integrated chat
  • Voice recognition for entering to-do items
  • Device and online syncing of to-do list
  • Forward emails to orchestra to automatic adding
  • Receive email notifications of collaborator activity
  • Receive email notifications of upcoming to-do items

Colordrop Review:

This month we decided to review an application both Theresa and I use for day-to-day workflow organization at Colordrop. Orchestra is a beautifully designed application useful for organization management. Like an orchestra, the application allows users to collaborate on to-do items in order to create beautiful things together. Of course, despite how much we love this application, I do see room for improvement and expansion. Read further for my full review and the pros and cons listed below.

The most important aspect of this application is that Orchestra is incredibly easy to use. The user interface is similar to other to-do lists in that one adds to-do items and then checks them off once they are completed. However, this isn’t just any to-do list as Orchestra is built around collaboration. It is equally easy to add team members and to assign them to-do items. In addition, team members can also view your items as well in case they can assist during their down time.

A key feature we use daily at Colordrop is the chat option, which is active on every to-do item. This allows users to comment in more detail about the item and to have a conversation if needed. The chat option isn’t found in many other to-do list managers and I find it tremendously aids in our workflow because we are able to communicate more about the tasks. For example, if Theresa is too busy to complete an item I can add a note saying I will complete it if she doesn’t have time. Theresa can then add a message that she is too overwhelmed to complete the item in time and also re-assign the task to me. Two major features I am sure others will enjoy are the abilities to email to-do items and voice recognition for recording new tasks. These are not aspects of my daily usage, but I am sure others will find them useful.

One major fall back is that the app is only available on iOS with no iPad native support. Therefore, one can use the app on an iPad, but the application will remain at the resolution of an iPhone. Android, WebOS, and Blackberry users will have to cross their fingers that versions for their platform will arrive in the future, but so far the Orchestra blog does not state interest in developing for other platforms. For Colordrop this is no problem, but better options exist for an office or organization where employees use a variety of platforms. Also, Orchestra does not play well with other applications (such as iCal) and thus is not able to incorporate cross application functionality like scheduling a to-do item and having it appear on one’s iCal. This isn’t a deal breaker for Colordrop, but I can see where others might need that capability.

Overall, Orchestra is a powerful, well-designed to-do management app for the iPhone. Theresa and I tried other options and found this task app works the best for our business. If the few cons mentioned above are not necessary for your own personal workflow I would highly recommend giving Orchestra a try!


Pros

  • Free!
  • Beautiful, user-friendly interface
  • Helps reduce email clutter
  • iOS and online versions auto-sync

Cons

  • Only on iOS w/o iPad support
  • Does not integrate with iCal or other applications
  • No repeat task option

Download Orchestra

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Happy Holidays from Colordrop

Posted 1 year ago Ronald News

Click play to watch A Colordrop Carol, starring some friendly faces we’re sure you’ll recognize – because we believe there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour. You can also view our holiday Colordroplet newsletter by clicking here.

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Featured Project: CSEAS Kiosk

Posted 1 year ago Theresa Design

Over the last two years, Colordrop has worked closely with the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) to help bring the national resource center into a new paper-less age of sophistication. This fall, Colordrop and the Center proudly announce the completion of an exciting new project – the interactive CSEAS kiosk. Along with an award-winning e-newsletter, revamped website, and dynamic social media marketing, the CSEAS kiosk serves to further promote the Center’s mission in an engaging and sustainable way.

Colordrop collaborated with the Center to implemented a user-friendly navigation system to showcase relevant information for visitors, including information about various countries throughout the region as well as local events/programs sponsored by CSEAS. Replacing an aging bulletin board system on the university campus, the new and improved kiosk is operated by a touchpad that controls a 42” flat screen television. Colordrop incorporated the Center’s mobilization of various educational media by inviting users to listen to featured Southeast Asian music and watch Southeast Asian film trailers using an audio jack located near the trackpad, which allows visitors to use their own headphones for optimal sound and convenience!

The CSEAS kiosk is currently accessible on the fourth floor of Moore Hall at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. For more information on the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, please visit cseashawaii.com.

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Creative Director in National Spotlight

Posted 1 year ago Theresa News

In celebration of 15 years of progressive activism and sisterhood, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) has partnered with popular culture media outlets Angry Asian Man and Hyphen Magazine to recognize 15 individuals whose work represent the organization’s mission and core values. I’m honored to be featured as part of the APA Women Leader Spotlight for my work in the media arts and non-profit development with organizations like the Center for Asian American Media. It’s definitely so humbling to be acknowledged alongside incredible community leaders like Urooj Arshad, the first openly queer participant accepted to the prestigious American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute, and Zenei Cortez, the first Filipino president of the California Nurses union.

To check out the 15 featured profiles, or read my full interview, I invite you to click on the links below and find out more about this wonderful NAPAWF endeavor. As we give thanks with our friends and family this coming holiday season, we look forward to taking our passion and professionalism to another level with our clients new and old. Thank you again for your patronage – and here’s to a bright and colorful 2012!

APA Women Leader Spotlight Theresa’s Full Interview

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