Two websites that I think are worthy of checking out this week…

• Open Source Web Design
• Design By Humans

Open Source Web Design - URL: www.oswd.org

This is great site to get inspired, browse and download free web design templates.Perhaps, more importantly, it allows you to share your designs with others. Currently, they boast 2080 web designs to browse and download at no cost. I often browse around the site when I need to get inspired and feeling creatively challenged - good source for design ideas. Francis Skettino founded the site in September 2000 with a goal “to provide the Open Source community with quality web designs to help get people’s projects on the web in a way that is both organized and good looking.” You will find all types of sites from personal blogs, to content management systems to full fledged businesses.

The site is definitely worth a look go check them out at www.oswd.org

Design By Humans - URL: www.designbyhumans.com

I found this site posted on Open Source Web Designs site - I thought it was worth a mention and a good example of the ideas that can be found at the Open Source Web Design site. I think Design By Humans is a neat concept - “a community centered around t-shirt designs” - with a twist. Created to provide “a place for people to submit, discover and buy amazing custom t-shirt designs created by artists from around the world.” The cool part of the concept is that the site is based around an “ongoing t-shirt design contest”. Headquartered in Irvine California the site was officially launched in July 2007. This is another site that should provide some inspiration when you find yourself at a loss for creativity.

Worthy of a look see at: www.designbyhumans.com

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Do you use an Annual Website Maintenance Checklist for your clients and your own sites?

Each year we spend a fair amount of time preferably prior to the end of December and review both our client sites as well as our own.

Over the years we have evolved the checklist from ten items to many more…

The checklist is designed to help website us and other website marketing managers review potentially costly issues and reduce any errors that might have cropped up over the year.

Maintaining a website properly can be difficult and time consuming and easy to put off until you “have more time”. We suggest that you make it a priority - it is that important to you and your clients websites. Even the smallest of errors have the capacity to undermine the credibility and effectiveness of your websites.

Here is our End of the Year Web Site Checklist:

• Check Your Domain Name Record
• Update Your Copyright Notice
• Review Your Website Email Addresses
• Update Your Confirmation and Automated Messages
• Test and Re-Test Your Opt In-Forms
• Check Your Automated Messages and Look for Error Messages
• Check Your Password Protected Areas
• Check for Broken or Missing Images
• Test Order Forms and Order Pages
• Review the Content in Your Disclaimers - Are They Up To Date?
• Check Your Website’s Search Functionality and Feature’s
• Check Your File Sizes and Download Times
• Is Your Server Speed Up to Snuff - Test Monthly
• Review Your Style-sheets, Standards, Accessibility and Compatibility
• Validate Your Links
• Update Your Time References
• Review Your Privacy Policy
• Check Your Search Engine Visibility

Perhaps we missed something? Send us your thoughts and feedback…

Wow! I can’t believe October is winding down and soon we will be into November and the end of year holidays. For me, this time of year is the busiest and I can sometime have the tendency to lose focus on my initial goals for the year (have you reached all the goals you set for yorself this year?). Anyway, one of my goals for Designer’s Mind is to build the most complete list of design resouces. 

I was recently inspired by Steven from VandelayDesign who has put together an excellent list of resources for web deigners. He includes image pickers, fonts, CSS layouts, dead link checkers, color pickers and many more - 77 resources to be exact. I hope to build on Steven’s list over the next 30 - 60 days. I am hoping that you will help and contribute to our list.

Also, you may want to peak at Jason Bartholme’s blog - a great blog for resources, including a list of 70+ JavaScript Resources for Every Web Developer

I look forward to your comments…

Everywhere you look on the web there are tons of free design template directories - I think this is one of the best resources that sorts through all of the offerings.
Check out the post on Design Vitality at: Open Source Web Design Templates