The quality of users’ experience with your website is the deciding factor of its success. If visitors are able to use your site quickly and without problems, they are likely to return. On the other hand, if your site is confusing and frustrating to use, they’ll be happy to find a better one. Your user interface can make or break your website, so here are some tips to ensure that yours is the best it can be. 1. Keep Navigation Clear A clear navigation system is one of the main ingredients for a positive user experience. To achieve this, focus on these aspects: Create a hierarchical structure The natural way to view a webpage is to scan its contents, so use design elements with intention to help guide viewers’ eyes. This includes displaying conventional navigational elements, like category organization and a search bar at the top. Internet users are accustomed to finding these functions in similar places on every website, so to change that can create unnecessary confusion. Use strategic spacing and placement Spacing can play a huge role in guiding your user’s eye and bringing attention to certain elements. For example, a product page should have equal spacing throughout so that each product is emphasized equally, and calls-to-action can be separated from other design elements with more space so they stand out more prominently. Personalize Though it’s not a good idea to go too crazy with an unconventional navigation system, you can still design its elements to reflect your brand. Feel free to get creative with the way you visually present your navigation; just remember to keep it clear so that visitors know what to do. My Own Bike uses a conventional menu bar at the top of the page, but the options are supplemented with icons that are consistent with the brand’s image. They add uniqueness to the menu, as well as a universal communication aspect. The white space then draws attention to the product on the page, and the call-to-action is set aside. All of these characteristics make for a cohesive design that tells the viewer exactly where to look and what to do. 2. Simplify Everything Navigation isn’t the only part of your website that should be simple. A good experience depends on a site that enables users to quickly find what they’re looking for without having to cross barriers to get there. Simplifying your site includes cutting out any clutter in the design that could distract visitors from the main goal of your site. Color scheme A growing trend is to employ a neutral color scheme, with an accent color to highlight important elements. This is effective in creating a clean and professional image of your brand, and makes it easy for users to take in everything on the page. Layout and text The layout of your pages can be simplified by using white space and type variations to create a visual hierarchy. Space can emphasize design elements, and text can be accentuated by using different fonts, weights, sizes and colors. Tinkering Monkey is a good example of a neutral color scheme with a highlighting pop of color. The cream-colored background puts the products in a place of high visual importance, and the red draws attention to the menu items and shopping cart, which all make for an attractive and minimal design. 3. Find A Balance of Text and Imagery Website imagery can be presented in many forms, including photography, illustration and iconography. Strong imagery often speaks for itself, but to make sure users understand its message, it’s a good idea to supplement them with text to provide further information. If you use photography, photos should be of high quality; if you’re not a photographer yourself, a great option is to use stock photography. Iconography is another way to communicate a message through imagery. Icons are classically minimal illustrations that ideally show a universal image to help guide users through your site. Here are some icon design tips to help you communicate clearly with icons. Xero incorporates a lot of simple, minimal icons that are really effective in aiding their written copy - allowing for an easier, more engaging read. When testing and tweaking your website, keep these tips in mind to improve the interaction your visitors have with your site.

***ANOTHER UPDATE!! WINNERS ANNOUNCED!!*** One new winner has been chosen! Congrats!! grafguerilla and jennmdp71 Congrats, you two! Stay tuned for the next giveaway - it's coming very soon!!! If you missed out on the first amazing giveaway package from Sticker Mule over on Brusheezy, stop your fretting! They're back with yet another super stickery giveaway. They've recently totally revamped their already stellar site and want to celebrate that relaunch with all of you! Who is this awesome company, you ask? Sticker Mule prints custom stickers and has a whole lot of love for graphic designers. They'll print your designs in full color on high quality vinyl, and die cut them to any shape. They'll even help make your artwork press ready for free and send an online proof with every order. This time they're back giving away $100 worth of custom printed stickers to TWO lucky winners, plus there are three ways to win, so enter now! The Loot: Two randomly chosen winners will receive $100 each towards their own custom sticker printing job - check out Sticker Mule's products page to see what kind of stickers you could win and print! The Ways to Enter: 1. Comment on this blog post! Simple as pie. 2. Retweet this blog post to enter a second time. Get the word out! 3. Add us to your RSS feed so you can keep an eye out for our next awesome giveaway. Welp, that's it! Enter all three ways if you'd like to boost your chances. We'll announce the winner on Friday, December 16th. Good luck to all!

*UPDATED June 2014*: These are the most up to date iStock photo promo codes directly from iStockphoto.com. Save 10% OFF in the month of April! Just in time for all your Easter and Spring projects, these promo codes have been verified and are guaranteed to work. *Also, please note that these promo codes will only work with the purchase of credit packs. These will not work with the subscription service that iStock will be launching later this month. So please keep that in mind when making your purchase. If you have any additional questions about this discount please contact us via our contact form.* Finding a decent iStock promo code can often be challenging. Thanks to our friends at iStock they have been able to provide us with access to their massive library of affordable images and provided us with some incredible coupons that offer even more savings at checkout. Using an iStock promo code can help to save on costs while getting more graphics and photos for the money you have available to invest in your project. Use this promo code when you create a new account and save 15% off your first purchase: What is iStock? iStock is a leading provider of royalty free stock photos, vector art illustrations, stock footage and audio for print and web use. With these iStock promo codes, it is possible to save on the overall investment you need to make in order to begin downloading and using the photos or graphics you desire. They provide royalty-free photos and graphics that can be purchased with credits or real money without having to pay for further usage rights depending on your plans. You are also able to purchase extended licenses on images depending on how you plan to use the images and the level of distribution you have in mind. iStock also provides photos and images that can be used in editorial publications including newspapers, magazines and online communities that covers real-life events, celebrities and even political figures. Who Can Use iStock? Whether you are currently working as a freelance blogger or designer or if you are in charge of designing a project for a corporation you work for, iStock has a plan or a solution for you regardless of the number of images and graphics you need to download for yourself. Using iStock can be done occasionally or intermittently, as it is possible to purchase graphics and photos on a project to project basis rather than being required to pay a monthly subscription fee just to gain access to browsing the site. Using iStock can help with completing a school project, a website design or even a news article you are publishing online that requires photos of real people and events that may have recently taken place. How To Use This iStock Promo Code You will need to purchase credits to take advantage of their coupon codes. Purchasing credits allows you to buy in bulk and lower the overall cost per download. Once you have selected your desired credit package, the promo code box is at the bottom of the checkout page. Enter your coupon code into the field and click "Next" to be taken to review your savings. Share the Savings! We hope you find this page useful and we will do our best to keep it updated with the most recent codes we find. Please share this page with your friends so they can get their savings too! Leave a comment below to let us know how much you saved. Tweet

***Update on winners!! Some people didn't get back with us (too bad!!!), so here are the updated winners! A big congrats to our three new winners! 1) Drexel 2) ndevin26 3) amlilui The three of you each win a $30 Threadless coupon and a 10th anniversary book! Thanks everyone for playing and stay tuned for our next contest coming soon :) The Prize: We've teamed up with the awesome clothing company, Threadless, to bring you a huge $30 coupon you can use to buy your favorite Threadless shirt or hoodie! Threadless just had their 10th anniversary, and to celebrate, they printed this awesome 10th Anniversary Book that we're also giving away!! Double prizes! Each of the three winners will get the coupon code and the book! You'll be able to use these $30 coupon codes on the site any way you like. That's right, if you want to buy this awesome Owl Tshirt, or this Dream Tshirt, or the Anniversary Book for a friend (since you'll have one yourself), you got it! Also, check out the Special Edition Anniversary Book - it even comes with a sketchbook! So, we've got 3 (yes, three!!) coupon codes to Threadless.com AND 3 (yes, three!!) 10th Anniversary Books, ripe for the winning, and just in time for the holidays, I might add. Three Ways to Win: 1. Leave a comment on this blog post and tell us why you love Threadless! Is is their awesome community? The crazy unique designs from all kinds of artists? Or is it that you have the ability to submit your own designs? Shout it out! 2. Retweet this post to all your Twitter followers! Let's get the word out about Vecteezy and about Threadless! 3. Subscribe to our RSS feed to make sure you don't miss out on other great giveaways and announcements! The Details: We will select the three winners randomly and notify you of your prize on Thursday, December 30 2010, so be sure to check out all the great submissions on Threadless to find the perfect design for you! Remember, you need to be a member to participate in our giveaways, so if you aren't, you can become one in a quick minute over here! Don't worry, if you're a member on either site, you are good to go!

When I first launched Brusheezy back in 2006 it was just a simple gallery of photoshop brushes. Nothing more, nothing less. A few months later I teamed up with Kennon and redesigned the site and launched Vecteezy as we expanded into vector graphics. As the sites slowly continued to evolve and grow, we realized we needed to do a complete overhaul and launched the redesign you're looking at right now. We added user accounts, cleaned up the interface and made it much easier to share and promote your freebies. It's always been a work in progress as we've continued to refine the system making it as simple as possible. Today we're excited to announce our newest launch. We're calling it Eezy Premium and I'm very excited about it. Many of you have asked about the direction we are heading so I just wanted to outline a few details. First off, the Eezy sites will always be, first and foremost, a platform to share free design resources. We're well aware that there are plenty of freebie sites out there, and if you're reading this, we're glad you stopped by. We have no plans to merge the sites into one big corporate stock graphics site and start charging users. We're proud to be a "little guy" and have no intentions to charge money for content we don't own. The Premium content is a result of things we've found people searching for on our site that wasn't readily available. We teamed up with some extremely talented professional designers to create an ongoing collection of resources to fill the gaps where content was needed. Our goal is to provide the best overall user experience possible by providing exactly what our users are searching for. We hope this will help. In the coming weeks we hope to double and triple the size of our collections on both sites by adding more High Res Photoshop Brushes, Premium Textures, Patterns & Vectors. We also have a large collection of exclusive coupon codes that we plan on releasing soon too. Unfortunately the more content we create, the more our costs increase, so those prices may go up real soon. Current subscribers will lock in their pricing until they choose to cancel so if you're looking to get some premium quality graphics at a redonkulously low price, now is the time to join. Thanks again to those of you who have already subscribed and we can't wait to bring your more free and premium resources in the months to come!

In this tutorial, I will show you how to create your own custom vector halftone gradients. These are great for use in backgrounds and pattern fills. They can even be made into vector brushes and will conform to the shape of curves that you draw. This is the same method used to create the Gradients 001 Vector Set on TheVectorLab. Start by creating two simple vector shapes; one larger and one smaller. These shapes can be anything: circles, triangles, rectangles, etc. The two shapes can even be different geometry; one could be a star and the other could be a circle. For this example I made a larger and a smaller square. Click on each square with the blend tool to create the ‘in-between’ shapes. If you then double click on the blend tool in the toolbar, it will give you the option to specify the number of ‘in-between’ shapes. Copy and paste your newly created shape. Move it over to be horizontally adjacent to the original. Select and ‘expand’ your shapes. Click on both groups of squares using the blend tool once again. Here is what your gradient pattern looks like. You can stop here, or you can go further and make it into a pattern that seamlessly repeats. Select the halftone pattern and ‘expand’ it once again. Above, note the center points of the squares on the left and right sides. You will want to crop down the halftone shape to these center points in order to have it repeat horizontally. Draw a rectangle (yellow object shown below) that lines up exactly with the center points of the squares on the left and right side of the halftone pattern. Select your rectangle and the halftone pattern. Go to ‘Object >> Clipping Path >> Make’ to mask the shape so it will repeat horizontally. With the object still selected, hit the ‘merge’ button (highlighted magenta) in your pathfinder window. This will crop down the actual vector lines to the size of what is visible in the masked shape. Now that it truly is in horizontal repeat, you can even drag the halftone shape into the brushes palette to make it into a vector brush. (as described in the previous blog post, "Vector Brush Tricks") Now that your halftone pattern is also a brush, you can apply the shape to any path. So here, I have drawn a simple curve shape. With the curve selected, click on the brush you just created in the brush palette. This will apply the halftone pattern to the shape of your curve. You can then adjust the stroke weight and the shape of the curve until you achieve a result that you like. Experiment and have fun!

In this tutorial, I will show you a few vector brush tricks that will allow you to create some quick, easy, and super-cool effects in Adobe Illustrator. I use this technique all the time to create custom ornamental borders, frames, and background patterns. Here is the final product I'll be showing you how to create: Start with some ornamental horizontal pieces, like the ones shown below. You can draw your own, or you can use pre-made border elements, like the ones available in Borders 001, 002, and 003 vector sets. The main thing is to make sure that your border element repeats seamlessly left to right. One easy way to accomplish this is to make a copy of your element, flip it horizontally and then butt the two pieces back together. Open your brushes palette and then drag your border element right into the palette window. A New Brush window pops up. Select the New Pattern Brush option. Next, select the Approximate Path option and click OK. Now you have a brush that will show up in the brush palette window. When I am creating a new brush, I like to test it out to check and see if it looks and behaves the way I want it to. Here, I made 4 circles then clicked on my new brush in the brush palette window to apply it. The cool thing about brushes is that you can change the stroke weight to alter the thickness of your brush. Just a side note here... If you get to a point where you are happy with your creation, you may expand the brush into vector points by going to Object >> Expand Appearance. This way you can go in and edit and color the vector points if you so desire. I went ahead and created a brush with the more ornamental border element shown previously. Here I applied the brush to a curve to show you how the brush can follow the lines of any curve you draw. If your brush is complex, make sure your curves are smooth. Otherwise you may have problems with the lines getting kinked. Here I made a path with the Rounded Rectangle Tool. I then went to Object >> Path >> Offset path in order to make the outer path, which follows the radius of the inner path. Here, I applied the first brush to the outer path. And then I applied the more ornamental brush to the inner path. The result is a cool ornamental frame which you see below. Experiment with various settings (such as Flip Across in your brushes palette) and also stroke widths until you achieve a result that you like.

**Update! Update! Read all about it! T-shirt Contest Winners have been selected!** Winners have been selected, so watch out for your prize! Thanks everyone for participating in this giveaway, thanks to BlueCotton, and we hope all the winners enjoy their shirts and wear them proudly! And the winners are... drumroll, please... From the comments section of the blog: anabelunga from USA cuddle_bunny from Australia Howard from USA southpawgrafix from Barbados gidea from Romania From Twitter: @con_TODA from Colombia @Tennsoccerdr from USA @ 2boysblue from USA @ silvercutie from USA @ filmeo from USA And from the RSS feed: sammographer from Russia n8i from USA, and last but not least... BrentOlivier from USA Congrats to all the winners! Be on the lookout for your prize! To everyone else, definitely stay tuned, because Vecteezy has more great giveaways and freebies right around the corner. Happy Monday everyone! Today we're announcing our first ever ("official") T-Shirt giveaway! In the past we've given away a few free T-Shirts on our Facebook Fanpage, but nothing this big. With the help of our friends from BlueCotton we're giving away these Vecteezy T-Shirts to 15 lucky winners. The Prize: The T-shirts are 2001 American Apparel Fine Jersey T-Shirt (4.3oz) and you can choose which color you want (Orange or Black) as well as which size you want. Three Ways to Win: 1. Leave a comment below telling us what size and color you want (Orange or Black) 2. Tweet this contest by clicking the retweet button above in the header or copying and pasting this line into twitter. RT @vecteezy Free T-Shirt Giveaway! http://bit.ly/cbH3IW 3. Subscribe to our RSS Feed via email. The Details: 5 winners will be randomly selected from the comments below. Also, 5 winners will be randomly selected from twitter and 5 winners will be randomly selected from our RSS Feed. The winners will be announced here on our blog on Thursday July 1st, 2010 and will be contacted directly by our community manager Erin. If you have anymore questions please leave a comment below and we'll get back to you asap. Good luck everyone! Bonus Update: We're also running this same contest over on Brusheezy too! Feel free to enter over there too and increase your chances even more. Remember: if you already have an Eezy ID you don't need to create another account. You can login with your Vecteezy username and password. Good luck!

In this tutorial I will walk you through some easy steps for creating 3D text in Adobe Illustrator. These steps are pretty simple, but once you learn them, the possibilities for 3D text are pretty much limitless. Ok, let's get started! Creating the Document and Setting Up the Text To begin, you will need to create a new document. Go to File > New... and pick your dimensions and resolution. For the purpose of this tutorial I used the the Web default settings. Next, you will want to create the text you would like to apply the 3d effect to. Using the Type tool located on the toolbar, create a text box, and type your desired text. While using the type tool you will be able to choose your font family, weight and size. I recommend picking a heavy or bold font. Then, using the Appearance pick your color (Figure 4), preferably a color that is mid-value, meaning neither dark nor light. Converting Text to Editable Shape An important step often used with fonts, is creating outlines of the font. This turns a the selected text into an editable shape, handy for doing tricky text manipulations or sharing the document with another person who may not have the same font you chose on their computer. Right-click and select Create Outlines or on the top toolbar go to Type > Create Outlines. Using Illustrator's Extrude & Bevel Beginning with CS4, Illustrator has had the the effect Extrude & Bevel that applies a 3D effect to any vector shape. Once the text has been created into outlines, you can apply the effect onto text. Simply go to Effects > 3D > Extrude & Bevel to apply the effect. I would also click on More Options which allows you to adjust the lighting of the shape. A new window will open up allowing you to customize the effect. I would recommend checking the box Preview that allows you to see your changes as you adjust the values of the different options. For this tutorial, I left them primarilly on default settings. Although I did alter the rotation a bit as wel as the extrude depth. Rotation: The rotation allows you adjust the angle of the shape based on the x, y and z axis. You can either change the numerical value in the boxes or use your cursor to rotate the cube to get the angle you want. Perspective: Perspective distorts the shape to create distortion usually visible when you are at looking at an object at extreme angles. For example, if looking at the top of a tall building you've probably noticed that the sides of the building do not seem like they are going straight up but rather at a slight diagnol towards the center of the building. By adjusting this value, it will add a certain degree of perspective. Extrude Depth: This value is the amount of debth or thickness of the shape that you would like to have. Cap: This option allows you to change from a flat surface for the front of the shape or more of an outline. Bevel: Beveling is the rounding of edges. Changing to different beveling options will provide different edging and countours to your shape. If you pick a bevel you will be able to adjust the height of it below the beveling options. Surface: Surface adjusts the texture of 3D shape you will be producing. Plastic Shading gives it a smooth surface and the others have different effects. Try using Wireframe to see outlines of 3D shapes, or No Shading to see what it would look without any lighting. Lighting Adjustments: After you select a type of surface, and as long as it isn't wireframe or no shading you will be able to adjust the lighting of your object. You can adjust the intensity or brightness of the light as well as the extent of area that the lighting will hit. You can even add additional lights. Adjust the position of the light by clicking on the white dot on the sphere to the position you would like the light to hit. And You're Done! Once you press OK you will have created your own 3D text which you can manipulate further in Illustrator or then take it into Photoshop. Play around with all the settings of the Extrude & Bevel tool to get a good idea of all the capabilites of the effect.

In this tutorial I will walk you through a process which is great for turning some static type into a more interesting art piece. For this tutorial, you will need: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Phtotoshop, an ink jet printer, printer paper, a scanner, and a cup of water. A hair dryer will also help speed things up. I initially created this typographic piece to help promote my new TheVectorLab fan page on Facebook. So please feel free to check that out if you get a chance. Here is the final product I'll be showing you how to create: Note: The second part of this tutorial will be posted over on the Brusheezy Photoshop Blog since Part Two deals with only photoshop techniques. Make sure you subscribe by email or RSS so you don't miss it! Part One System fonts are lame! If you can find some interesting reference on which to base your typography, then your final result will more likely be interesting. Just make sure not to knock off your inspiration too closely. Here, I found a photo of some beautiful typography on Ale Paul’s Flickr page. I really like the shape of the upper-case N and also the top portion of the L. Sketch out and re-work your typography using tracing paper until you get something that you like. Scan this in and trace your letters with the vector pen tool in Illustrator. Here is the font traced in outline. Here is the basic completed script. Change the color to white. Copy & paste the type in back of the lettering and give it a black stroke. Make another copy of the black stroke lettering and move it to create the 3-D shadow behind your lettering. Now ‘bridge’ the black outlined letters together. You can draw a rectangle at the appropriate angle and copy and paste that around to fill in all the areas you need to bridge. Toggle on smart guides in Illustrator to help you line things up. For this example, it doesn’t need to be exact because we are going to be thrashing up the type in a little while. Expand all your black paths from strokes into outlines. Select only the black parts of the lettering. Use your pathfinder to merge all the black paths into one object. I pretty much exclusively use the ‘merge’ tool (highlighted in green) in the pathfinder menu to merge paths. Go in with your direct selection tool and selectively delete out the ‘holes’ that you do not want. I nudged the white part of the type up and over a few clicks so the outline around the type has more thick and thin areas instead of a consistent outline. This is the final vector type I have before getting to the fun part... Part Two is posted over on the RSS so you don't miss the next awesome post!

A long time ago, in a studio far, far away... Adobe Illustrator 1 was born. Fourteen new versions and a quick twenty four years later, Adobe Illustrator is the most popular vector graphic editor on the market. To all those out there who spend more time working in Illustrator than any other software program, then sit back and relax. Go grab a cup of coffee and put your feet up as we take a stroll down memory lane to reminisce the evolution of Adobe Illustrator. The Birth of Venus Adobe Illustrator began back in 1986, as a graphic design, font, and logo development application. The original platform and purpose for Adobe Illustrator was to integrate the use of mathematical equations for smooth and curved lines and shapes by a system known as Bezier curves. To emphasize this notion of being able to produce and edit and save curved and flowing lines, Adobe chose Botticelli's Venus from "The Birth of Venus" to become their marketing image. Over the years and versions, she changed to highlight the new features and improvements Adobe had made, and we were able to gaze on her beauty until the creation of the Creative Suite in 2003. If you want to see an awkward Adobe President in 1987 showcase his company's new creation, check out this awesome video below: Time To Start Upgrading With the praise of Adobe Illustrator 1, and the ever-growing interest in computers and computer generated images, came a slew of upgrades as well as support for other platforms, beginning in 1988 with Illustrator 88 (not 2... 88, because of the year). The first version designed for Windows was Illustrator 2.0, which was released a year later and did not fare too well, but Windows would not be outdone by its arch-nemesis. Illustrator came out with a couple alright versions for NeXT, Sun Solaris, and a couple of other platforms, but time would show that versions for Macintosh and Windows would begin to dominate the market. Check out this awesome 80's video from 1988 presenting Illustrator 88: Versions 3.0 and 4.0 came out in succeeding years, with improvements made upon each, and the ever wonderful development of possible editing in a preview mode, popped its head up first in the 4.0 version for Windows but did not appear on the Macintosh until 5.0. The Playing Field is Equaled The Adobe team made some major changes to Illustrator's user interface with the release of Illustrator 6 in 1996. This is when Illustrator started supporting TrueType fonts, making the "font wars" between PostScript Type 1 and TrueType pretty much obsolete. This is also when Illustrator also began supporting plug-ins, quickly extending its abilities to make it that much more awesome. It wasn't until the mid 90s with version 7.0 when users started to finally see some standardization between the Macintosh and Windows versions, and really kind of ended the competition to beat each other out. Because of this designers were really finally given the opportunity to firmly choose Illustrator as the creative application of choice, instead of going back and forth between Illustrator and CorelDRAW and FreeHand. This of course was also the age of the 'world wide web', which even further pushed Illustrator into the spotlight, because developers quickly sought out a way to support publishing for web purposes and internet plug-ins, which really was one of the biggest avenues for change and improvement in Illustrator's life so far. Some crazy things started happening as time and versions went by, some things that we now take for granted and kind of use them like they have always been there - things that have now become ol' reliables. For example, the paint bucket tool - how many times have you used that? It's only been around since 1996 with version 6.0. Or, the smart guides? Can't imagine working without them, but they weren't around until 1998 - version 8.0. This was a great time for changes and improvements in tools for Adobe. Year after year they came out with more awesome tools that were for sure groundbreaking then, and have become as common and used as a pencil and eraser now. Ahem... Introducing the Creative Suite!! By the time Y2K was over (remember that? weird...), Adobe Illustrator had firmly placed itself as the choice vector graphics editor. By 2003, Adobe decided to bundle all it's successful products together into one super package called the Adobe Creative Suite. With this, for the first time user were able to create simple 3D effects and objects, a huge milestone in the designer world, and more milestones just kept coming - Live Paint and Live Trace were created a few years after that. With the integration of so many Adobe programs into this 'Suite', we finally said goodbye to Venus.. she lived long and served well, but with the redesigning of the product and its brand, came a new theme revolving around nature. We now see stylized Vector Flowers and leaves on the product boxes and opening windows. With the release of CS3 the team at Adobe decided to rework the branding yet again to simplify the packaging and unify the entire suite. Each program within the creative suit was associated with a color and our beloved Illustrator was given the color orange. Today Fourteen generations and twenty four years later, Adobe has released its Illustrator CS5, with all of its beauty and grandeur. But, whatever version you use and which ever you have decided is your favorite, be it Illustrator 6 or CS5, it surely has been an interesting and exciting ride for one of the most beloved of the graphic designer's tools. Resources: guidebookgallery.org Wikipedia Rufus Deuchler | Travelogue What do you think? What version did you start learning on? Were there any particular versions or changes made that you didn't like? Feel free to add your two cents to the comments section below.

Welcome to an interview with Ann Boland, owner of OHE Associates, a Hot Lava Partner, provider of mobile learning platforms. You may sign up on the site for a demo of Hot Lava delivered to your web-enabled mobile device (PDA, cell phone, iPhone, iTouch).What is Hot Lava? What does it do? How does it work? Why do you believe in it?Hot Lava is a mobile learning platform that enables authoring and

Today we're excited to announce the redesign of the new Vecteezy! The old site was well overdue for a redesign and that black and yellow was looking quite nasty. The new Vecteezy features a cleaner, easier to use interface with enhanced search and browsing functionality which makes for a much more pleasant experience. One of the cool things we've added to the sites that we're pretty excited about is the Eezy ID feature.. If you choose to create an account, this is what we're calling your Eezy ID. It will work on both Vecteezy and Brusheezy. That means you can use the same username and password for both sites which makes for a much better experience. If you choose to sign up and create an Eezy ID you can also take advantage of: • Faster Downloads • Saving Favorites • Community Features • Personal Profile and that's just the start! We've got a whole slew of new features in the development cue that we hope to roll out in the next few months so stay tuned! We know the sites are far from perfect and they're always a work in progress. By all means please feel free to leave a comment below and let us know what you like or dislike about the new sites. This community was built for users like you, so please speak up and make your voice heard!

Welcome to an interview with Sue Polyson Evans, co-founder and CEO of SoftChalk LLC. Softchalk is well-known among online instructors for its product, LessonBuilder. Online instructors and course developers from the mid-1990s will already have an acquaintance with Sue through Web Course in a Box, which she helped develop. Readers may wish to weigh in on the current state of learning

Last week, I presented a 40-minute webinar for my "Learn with Michelle" series titled VoiceThread for Multisensory Learning.  This is intended for new VoiceThread users.  I hope you find it resourceful.The video archive is embedded below and may also be viewed on YouTube.  Enjoy!

Welcome to an interview with Grace Oh of Musicshake, an easy-to-use music making program that incorporates social networking and bookmarking.What is your name and what is your involvement in e-learning?Grace Oh with Musicshake, and I head our Musicshake for Education program.What is Musicshake, and what is its mission and vision?www.musicshake.comMusicshake is a free to download, super

Welcome to an interview with Dr. Michael K. Clifford, SignificantFederation, whose company invests in post-secondary education companies. E-Learning Queen is committed to providing insights into the world of education - public, private, and not-for-profit. Insights into how education is supported are more important than ever, given the multiple shocks sustained by the global economy.

To see more examples of wikis in higher education register for my free webinar:Wikis in EducationFriday, 7/26 at 9am PST/ 11am CST/ 12pm ESTRegister at: http://www.anymeeting.com/PIID=E956D786884930Recently, as part of my "Learn with Michelle" series, I had the opportunity to Hangout with Wendy Gorton of Wikispaces and Robin Bartoletti of Academic Partnerships to take a deeper look at new, emerging developments in educational wikis. Robin shared how she has used a free Wikispace wiki to design and deliver a Micro MOOC and Wendy provided a helpful overview of some of the new features of the new "Wikispaces Classroom." The video archive of our conversation is below.  This video can also be viewed on YouTube.

The next new thing in web-browsing will be a 3D immersive experience. That is, at least, what many people believe. The implications for e-learning are interesting -- the kinds of research and resources that will be available with 3D visualizations via one's browser could revolutionize the way we conceive of and display statistics, the earth, and earth processes -- just to name a few. Welcome

Recently, as part of my "Learn with Michelle" series, I had the pleasure to interview +sabita persaud, Assistant Professor in the Notre Dame of Maryland School of Nursing, about her intriguing application of Facebook in her accelerated online graduate nursing course.  In this video, you will learn how Dr. Persaud transformed a medical case study (with permission from the individual's family) into a fictitious Facebook profile that her students "friended."  As Persaud played the role of the patient, she revealed mysterious symptoms and reached out to her "friends" for help.  The students responded by applying and synthesizing ideas from their learning units, offering opportunities for deeper learning and formative assessments to prepare for their exams.What were the results of this experiment? How did the quality of the student interactions compare with previous activities, constructed in an LMS discussion board?  Watch the video and find out!This video may also be viewed on YouTube.

Would your school like to participate in a "Sister School" program with a school in another country? One way is by setting up a "Virtual Good Deeds Society," which can help kids overcome feelings of loneliness and isolation, and to develop a spirit of kindness and cooperation, that encourages freedom of expression. The Good Deeds Societies recognize that bullying, fearfulness, self-harming,

Stimulus Bill opportunities and strategic implications will be the focus of the AAPG's inaugural hour-long interactive web symposium, "What the Stimulus Bill Contains for Energy, Environment, Education, Infrastructure Funding" to be held March 19, 2009. The web symposium will cover the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.Slated to begin at 2 pm CDT, and to contain an hour of

Last week, +Brad Belbas of Macalaster College joined me in a "Learn with Michelle" Hangout to share his creative application of Google+ Hangouts on Air and VoiceThread to transform the traditional small group student presentation activity into an active, meaningful exchange for all learners (hence the "flip" reference!). Brad's excellence instructional design and pedagogical strategies are archived in the video below, which I hope you will enjoy!  He will explain how he has designed a carefully scaffolded research project that has students work in Zotero to collaboratively construct a bibliography for their project, share preliminary research project ideas with their classmates and get feedback in a Google+ Community, and then make their small group presentation in Google+ Hangout on Air.  The Hangout is archived to YouTube and that video is downloaded, then uploaded into a VoiceThread.  The VoiceThread transforms the video of the presentation into an asynchronous conversation in which the entire class engages.  This final dialogue is facilitated by the presenters in line with Brad's groundrules to foster "exploratory talk."You will take many great ideas away from this conversation! I know I did! This video may also be viewed on YouTube at http://youtu.be/RLnRDBOthnA.

Innovations in digital tablets to encourage collaborative e-learning have helped students of diverse learning styles and preferences engage more fully and effectively. Welcome to an interview with Sean McKeever, eInstruction, who develops new learning strategies to ways to adopt new technologies. Students can concurrently interact with and contribute to the same digital content from team