Comments on: Do you have one or more idea files?

By: Dr Livingston

Dr Livingston — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 15:15:35 +0000

aye… i have a box where i put my ideas down, but my ideas and thoughts are more in regards to the development side of things only, rather than design :)

when i have an idea of how something could be done, or even if it might be possible, ill find some time to do some research on it; ie has it been done before in one form or another? no point repeating yourself.

next step is to put that idea into practice, when i have written enough notes, and clarified my thoughts more.

the end result is that with this, and some time you can put together some half decent script, off the bat so to speak that has some tests to back it up and requires little refactoring.

so yes, an ideas box/folder/whatever does help…

By: GreenBoy2000

GreenBoy2000 — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 12:23:07 +0000

I find using mybase freeform database is a good tool for this. it allows the user to arrange data how they like with screenshots, web addresses and any other info they like..

Grabbing ideas is the only way of building a resource to help spark your own imagination, but you need to be a bit methodical so you can track them down again later.. lol

By: shref

shref — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 11:20:08 +0000

i have a word file where i was comparing between me and the other big developers and my ideas.

By: Eater

Eater — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 06:27:55 +0000

I eat chicken and drink beer. mmm.

By: analytik

analytik — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 23:06:29 +0000

Gator99 – LOL!

Since I’m more of a programmer than designer, I have bunch of bookmarks stashed in my “_to_read” folder. And I store my ideas in dokuwiki – that is, those that I have time to formulate – and the rest of them is on paper. Putting down design ideas since I’m 8 or something :)

By: Gator99

Gator99 — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 22:42:39 +0000

They’re called bookmarks.

By: peach

peach — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 20:16:09 +0000

I have over 1000 sites in my favorites, all organised of course.

By: designoweb

designoweb — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 18:38:38 +0000

I have bookmarked thousands of websites urls and evertime i found new site, i saved it. Now here are list of folders, which i have never counted. We are making new designs everytime and do not get time to see what stored lasttime. Clients have specific requirements. How do you decided that the site your are looking is the only site for insipiration. Every website i see, has somthing differnt and have insipiration. How many sites are we can store for future. As future is changing.

By: chris ward

chris ward — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 17:51:00 +0000

I do this all the time… view hundreds of sites and choose the best bits and maybe draw inspiration on them further down the line.

A good practice is also checking out them template sites.
Take a quick glance at the thumbnail, but don’t open the full preview.
This way you can try to recreate the original aforementioned layout, without copying most of the styles … it’s a good way to come up with original results!

The ’screengrab confab’ (http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/000043.html) is also an awesome resource for inspiration, as it never gives away the whole game/product

By: worchyld

worchyld — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 17:46:17 +0000

Any chance of covering basic lead generation? For example, do introduction letters followed up by telephone calls to get appointments work? Is there any other good low-cost lead generation ideas that generate appointments, leads? I’ve tried cold calls but its not generating any appointments and I think I should be introducing myself first.