Linkswitch #23

100 Years Of Propaganda: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Propaganda is most well known in the form of war posters. But at its core, it is a mode of communication aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position, and that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Although propaganda is often used to manipulate human emotions by displaying facts selectively, it can also be very effective at conveying messages and hence can be used in web design, too.

Notice that propaganda uses loaded messages to change the attitude toward the subject in the target audience. When applied to web design, you may experiment with techniques used in propaganda posters and use them creatively to achieve a unique and memorable design.

Information Architecture: Enhancing the User Experience

Defined as ‘the structural design of shared information environments’, information architecture focuses on bringing the principles of architectural design to the online world.

Just like the blueprints of a dream home or the outline of a well-written article, good website structure organizes information in a way that enhances the user experience and delivers pertinent information as quickly as possible.

30 of the Best Web Typography Resources Online

It seems there are two camps among web designers: those who embrace web typography, experiment with it, and try new things in virtually all of their designs; and those who avoid it like the plague, opting to use standard, web-safe font stacks with little variation.

It also seems like a lot of the designers who fall into the second group wish they were more like the first.

Some Great Dropbox Tips and Tricks

We recently touched on how Dropbox could be (and, for yours truly, is) an effiicient and effective means to share files across multiple platforms. Seems as if we’re not alone in this.

Sister site AppStorm expands upon how the service can be used to share files by offering 15 tips and tricks…plus there’s a chance to win a $100 credit giveaway if you leave your very own tip in the comments at AppStorm!

3 Ways To Get Unstuck

Sometimes you just get stuck.

Whether you’re a writer and you…just…can’t…find…the next thought or you catch a glimpse of the sunny skies outside your office window and you start to daydream, it happens. The biggest step to moving ahead is to get “unstuck.” Here are a few quick tips on how to get your mind on track and get back to the task at hand:

4 Ways to Measure Social Media and Its Impact on Your Brand

Do you know how social media is helping your business? Want to find out how Twitter, Facebook and other sites are impacting your brand awareness?

The good news is social media has finally made it to the grand stage of “accountability.” A place where there are lots of people who want to measure it. The bad news is there isn’t a single clear-cut answer.

The Freelancer’s Bucket List

In the 2007 film, The Bucket List, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman star as two terminally ill men who escape from a cancer ward and head off on a road trip with a wish list of to-dos before they die. In the process, both of them heal each other, become unlikely friends, and ultimately find the joy in life. Their list of things to do before they “kick the bucket” helps them approach their final days with a new lease on life, and they grow together as friends as well as individuals.

Freelancers from Hell — The Flip Side of Clients from Hell

Clients from hell. We’ve all had them, right?

There’s the client who doesn’t get it, the client who’s cheap, the client who’s nasty, the client who asks too much, the client who doesn’t give us enough, the client who wants it all yesterday, the client who pays in two years, the client who doesn’t understand value, the client who treats you badly, the client who lacks two bits of brain to rub together…

Yeah. The list goes on. Clients from hell are the people we all hope we never do business with. Ever, ever, ever.

15 Amazing Apps for File Storage in the Cloud

In a new age of online solutions, it didn’t take long for a diverse range of internet entrepreneurs to target one of the most common problems for almost every computer user; hard drive failure. Suddenly, someone had the idea of allowing people to backup their files in the cloud and the rest is history.

I’ve brought together the best revolutionary new apps that allow you to store your precious files in the cloud and (in some cases) even share them with others! You can find them after the fold.