Visual Design

This past year, CivicActions has undergone a transformation in the way that we organize project teams.  We've moved from a "matrix" model (people contributing to several projects) to what we call "Pods" (dedicated teams focused on one or two projects at a time). This transformation has yielded incredible results for clients and project team members. This model also means that we can more easily scale, which we are preparing to do in 2010.

If you are a developer, blogger or a client who manages or participated on a technical project, screenshot-taking tools are a very useful way conveying your thoughts and ideas to others on your team. Screenshots save you from lengthy explanation emails and keep your team on same page while discussing an idea. This blog post is about different screen capturing tools available out there and which to use and why.

1. Skitch(mac only):

Skitch is more than just an image capturing tool. It is very quick, simple and efficient. You can edit your images - crop them, draw figures on them, write notes on them and share directly via uploading to skitch, flickr, ftp with many other options. This all is mere drag and drop with nothing complex to learn. Download Skitch. Images in this blog are captured using skitch only.

Shortcut keys with skitch:

• Command-Shift-5 – Crosshairs Snap
• Command-Shift-6 – Fullscreen Snap
• Command-Shift-7 – Frame Snap

There is also a great short video on the Skitch website that gives you a quick overview of how it works and what it can do.

As part of any major web redesign effort, CivicActions recommends a brand re-assessment. Cone Inc., a communications company specializing in "cause branding," recently stated that because of undeveloped branding efforts, "some organizations may be leaving millions of dollars in potential unearned revenue on the table." The company recently released a report of the 100 top Non-profit brands.

Each year, Amnesty International releases a comprehensive report on the state of the world's human rights. Amnesty International decided on Drupal as their website platform for the 2009 report based on the successful redesign of their main site with Drupal in 2007.

Cross-browser theme development for multilingual websites, like Amnesty International, is a lengthy process. Not only must the site look great in 7 or more browsers (IE 6/7/8,Firefox , Safari, Opera, Chrome) but all that work is multiplied by each language. Translated text changes length, forms get messy, and you would not believe the bizarre voodoo invoked by right-to-left layouts, like Hebrew or Arabic, in IE6.

Smashing Magazine posted a really great "best practices" piece about web design for non profits. They then provided 20 examples of great non profit websites, among them, two CivicActions clients, Amnesty International, of which they said:

The Amnesty International site makes great use of color, including a bright yellow header and accents mixed with shades of gray and black. A slideshow on the home page shows current news and research. Links to join, donate, or take other action are featured prominently in the sidebar and a link to media information is included in the header. The home page also includes plenty of current news and resources below the main content up top.

And Witness.org, for whom we built the Video Hub. We are very proud of our work for these two worldchanging clients, and happy that they are being recognized not only for their great work, but for their websites as exemplars for the non profit sector.