Steven Kovar - Interactive Designer

My Favorite New Things From 2009

December 29, 2009

Every year brings new workflows, or at least minor adjustments and improvements to my workflow. There were a lot of things that marginally improved my workflow - Adobe CS 4, Snow Leopard, VMware Fusion and others, but only a few things have radically altered the way I do or use something. I’ve picked some of my favorite things that are not all necessarily “new”, but that are at least new to me, or recently integrated into my workflow. In no particular order:

Panic Coda

This has been around since 2007 and facilitates one window web development. I’ve been hand-coding since I picked up XHTML and CSS several years ago, but I’ve always used Text Wrangler or BBEdit, a browser and an FTP app to develop sites. On a whim i tried out the Coda demo, and was quickly convinced it was worth the $99.00. There are too many features to list, but the features that I find most useful are a built-in Webkit browser for previewing files, Code Snippets that allow you to save often-used bits of code for fast retrieval, direct one-click publishing from your site’s folder, real-time XHTML compliance validation, code highlighting (of course), and a very powerful search and replace function. I use code now for just about everything, including my ExpressionEngine Templates, Actionscript, and XML files. Coda has been a great time saver for me. I can’t believe I wasn’t using it sooner.
http://www.panic.com/coda/

ExpressionEngine

I really can’t say enough good things about this CMS. I’m very excited to run more sites on it. I’ve recently upgraded to 2.0, and will soon be purchasing the Multiple Site Manager to run all of my personal sites. My first CMS experience entailed painful attempts at fashioning Wordpress into a functional CMS, which worked, but seemed very inefficient. The constant upgrades released to patch new vulnerabilities in Wordpress were very annoying.  ExpressionEngine by contrast is simply a very robust, secure and easy to upgrade system. Templating is intuitive, as is custom field creation, and the system allows you to put whatever information where ever you want it. I see it as a very designer friendly blank canvas. Now that I started flat-file templating in Coda, I enjoy working with it even more.
http://expressionengine.com/

Backblaze

I’m not sure how I slept at night without an offsite backup solution. It seems ridiculous to back-up gigs and gigs of data online, and honestly the initial backup will take DAYS. But then it’s incremental, and you have the ability to retrieve any lost data should you have a catastrophic system failure, fire or other tragedy that affects your on-location physical backups. At 5 bucks a month for unlimited storage, it’s a steal for the piece of mind it brings.
http://www.backblaze.com/

Modul8 2.6

Just released, the new version of Modul8 has lots of new features which have radically improved this live video mixing app. Although not a “radical” upgrade (the system looks and works pretty much the same), 2.6 is a significant enhancement. The most important additions for me: More precise and controllable sound reactivity, add/subtract layer modes (to me, this alone was worth the upgrade price.), and a new feature that treats a folder of stills as video.
http://www.modul8.ch/

iPhone

Five words: Freed me from my desk. I’m a freelancer working in multiple time zones and I worry a lot about customer service. Having an iPhone allows me to stay on top of communication with email and Skype, and also to enjoy an occasional sunny afternoon in the park. Having an endless supply of reading material for long rides on public transportation is nice too. Oh, and I don’t get lost anymore. Thanks Google Maps.

What are some of your favorite new additions to your workflow from 2009?

 

---

Reader Comments