Resources

Welcome everybody.

We are going to use this page as a place where to share useful free online resources for our projects.
You don't have to use all of them but just the most suitable for your project, if there is any. All the softwares and platforms are free. You will need to create an account.

Remember: you are a team and you need to work together. We suggest to talk with your teammate before use any tool. You'll need to evaluate together what are the best tool to use and who will use them.

---------->> Research << ----------
If you need to expand a concept or to get some inspiration the two following websites are a good place to start from. You can browse content by topics and/or use them to store your online findings.

FLICKR [ http://www.flickr.com/ ]
Flickr is a tool that allows you to upload and share photos. You can also create private or public groups.

DELICIOUS [ http://delicious.com/ ]
Delicious is the place to save stuff you find across the web (videos, pictures, tweets, blog posts, articles). You can build your collection of bookmarks and browse others' collections.

You may already have some idea in mind so you need to check existent competitor on the market and similar services/products. You can start with a Google research, of course. If your final product will be a application, you should make a search into the online market:

Apple Store [ https://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/ios/id36?mt=8 ]
The link leads to the categories. If you want to make a proper search you must download iTunes.

Google Play (Android Market) [ https://play.google.com/store?hl=en ]


---------->> Brainstorm <<----------
Brainstorming is a group of problem-solving techniques that involves the spontaneous contribution of ideas from all members of a group. There are lots of techniques you can use. The most common is the Osborn's method: after having set a starting point (a idea, a concept, a problem), participants are invited to say everything that passes in their mind without filters in a short amount of times (it can be 20-30 minutes). The rules are simple: every idea/ concept is welcome; no judgement and no criticism are allowed, everything has to be noted down in a board or a big paper. The ideas are normally produced by association. In a second time, there is what is called selection. Ideas are combined and selected. Something new hopefully stands out.
You can use brainstorming to generate ideas or to problem solve. Brainstorming is useful in any moment of the design cycle.

The following resources can help you to associate ideas and concept and to find a later relation between them.

WORDLE [ http://www.wordle.net/ ]
Wordle is a 'word cloud' generator from text that you provide.The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.

DICTIONARY.COM [ http://dictionary.reference.com/ ]
to look up definitions.

XMIND [ http://www.xmind.net/ ]
Xmind is a mind mapping software. It helps to expand and explore ideas.


---------->> Storyboarding <<----------
Once you figure out the user need you will cover, you need to understand how your users behave in the named situation and how you could improve their lives. One of the best technique to do that is to tell a story about your users' context of use. You can write a story or draw it.
The story has to be based on real data and it has to be a credible situation. It will help you to figure out all the product's requirements.

MAKE BELIEFS COMIX [ http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/ ]
You can use this tool to create your storyboard. Although the simplest solution is always to draw on a paper

PIXTON [ http://www.pixton.com/for-fun ]
Another tool for storyboarding


---------->> Collaborate and Organize the Work <<----------

GANTT Project [ http://www.ganttproject.biz/ ]
The Gantt chart is a useful tool that allows you to breakdown structures. A Gantt chart illustrates a project schedule. You can use this tool to visualise the start and the finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Get more information here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantt_chart

TRELLO [ trello.com ]
Trello is a project management tool. You can set the tasks and visualise them in a single glance.


---------->> Visualisation Tools <<----------
You may need to visualise your ideas or to produce graphical assets for your prototype and final product. There are few available free software on the web. You need to understand which one is the best for your case. At this point you need to have clear the difference between raster images and vector images.

A raster image is a collection of dots called pixels. Each pixel is a tiny coloured square. When a image is scanned, the image is converted to a collection of pixels called a raster image. Scanned graphics and web graphics (JPEG and GIF files) are the most common forms of raster images.
A vector image is a collection of connected lines and curves that produce objects.When creating a vector image in a vector illustration program, node or drawing points are inserted and lines and curves connect notes together. This is the same principle as "connect the dots". Each node, line and curve is defined in the drawing by the graphics software by a mathematical description. Every aspect of a vector object is defined by math included node position, node location, line length and on down the line. (source SignIndustry.com)

What's the difference then?
Vector images are object-oriented while raster images are pixel-oriented. If you will zoom in a vector image and a raster one, you'll immediately understand the difference. In the second case you'll see the pixels (as little squares) and you will perceive the image as a non-desirable resolution. With a vector image, this doesn't happen. Although, the raster picture have a better photographic effect. Go here to see the difference between a raster graphic and a vector one.

INKSCAPE [ http://inkscape.org/ ]
Inkscape is a vector graphic editor. It is like Adobe Illustrator.

THE GIMP [ http://www.gimp.org/ ]
The Gimp is a image manipulation program. It is like Adobe Photoshop.

BLENDER [ http://www.blender.org/ ]
Blender is a 3D content creation suite

GLIFFY [ http://www.gliffy.com/ ]
With Gliffy you can create flowcharts and diagrams

---------->>Prototyping tools<<----------
A prototype is a model of a new product. It will help you to understand all the steps you will have to go through in the development step. Prototyping doesn't mean only design a interface. The final interface normally emerges from the requirements gathering and the interactions you want to improve. Ask yourself: what do you want the user to do? what interactions do you want to create/improve?
Before designing any interface you may prepare a list of requirements (example: having a search functionality; having navigation labels and so on) and organise the information architecture of the system.
The information architecture is the art of organising the information in a system. As you can see in the following example, the designer knows where every interface is leading to. You know with a glance how many steps the user needs to go through in order to achieve a task.

Office Power Point, Keynote, Open Office Impress 
You probably already have Power Point or Keynote. If don't, you can download Open Office Impress for free [ http://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.html ]. Presentation softwares are quite used to realise quick mockups and visualise how your prototype will look like.

The Pencil Project [ http://pencil.evolus.vn/Downloads.html ]
The Pencil Project provides a free software for mocking up.

If you prefer to draw your mockups and get off the computer, here you'll find ready templates to print:
ipad sheets [ http://lab.3fl.jp/ipad-idea-sheet-v01/ ]
iphone and ipad sketch templates [ http://speckyboy.com/2010/11/18/ultimate-collection-of-printable-mobile-sketching-templates/ ]



---------->>Store and Share<<----------

DROPBOX [ https://www.dropbox.com/ ]
With Dropbox you'll have a internet space you can use to store document. You can share folders with your mates.