BlogmyQuery – BMQ

In this post we release yet another freebie: the Balita WordPress theme, a theme dedicated to shops that sell products for children. The theme was designed by Tokokoo and released exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. As usual, the theme is absolutely free to use for both private and commerical projects.

Not many theme providers have produced e-commerce themes for baby and toddler products. For you who have been working in this particular market niche for some time or are about to start, this Balita e-commerce theme is a great opportunity for you. Using such bright and cheerful pantone colors that suit this clothes department (baby/toddler products), this Balita e-commerce theme will surely attract more and more customers to your online store.

Download the Theme for Free!

The theme is released under GPL. You can use it for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. Please link to this article if you want to spread the word. You may modify the theme as you wish.

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• Live Demo
• Large Preview (.jpg, 0,17 Mb)
• Download the .zip-package (zip, 16 Mb, including instructions)

Balita Theme: Features

• WordPress E-Commerce Plugin:
  It will help you generate your e-commerce store on a WordPress platform. The Balita WordPress theme uses a powerful plugin to encourage the functionality of WordPress used.
• jQuery Slider:
  It helps potential customers to generate general information about your online store and its products at a quick glance.
• Custom Shopping Cart:
  The custom shopping cart notifies customers about the total amount of items and pricing within their shopping carts.
• Product List With Grid View:
  Customers can easily compare the general overview and price of the products.
• HTML5 + CSS3 Optimized:
  Latest tech weapons for the prime look of your online store.
• Ads Banner:
  Show off, promote, sell ads… anything! Each inch on your website is worth the attention.
• Product Slider:
  Our aim is to make e-Commerce as interesting and as profitable for you as possible. If you wish to have a vivid description for your product showcases, product slider will be a good match.
• Zoomable Product Images:
  Allow your customers to get a closer look at your product. Your customers want to see high-detailed pictures of your product when making purchase decisions.
• Search Products:
  It helps shoppers to find and buy products on your site without having to browse each and every page. You can place an input text form on the sidebar that allows shoppers to quickly and easily find your site.
• Blog Integration:
  This is a powerful tool on the Web to help build trust and provide updates for people who could be your potential clients. The theme already provides you with this feature — all you have to so is prepare the contents.
• Related Products:
  The idea of cross-selling basically means offering alternatives and additions to the current product which are considered. The most common way of doing this is by presenting within the site’s product details page, which is usually manually assigned. This may be known as the “Related Products” or “Similar Products” page, but might also be a manually assigned “Accessories” page or even more generic recommendations using the titles “May We Suggest” or “You May Also Like”.
• Multiple Product Images:
  Do you happen to have a lot images for particular products which you sell on your online store? No problem. This theme and its functions will help and let you upload multiple images at once for the products you sell.
• Multiple Widget Areas:
  You can place widgets on any suggested area. Otherwise, all of our themes support widget allocation almost anywhere, but not limited to the sidebar.
• Facebook Page Integration:
  This feature enables you to market your products through one of the biggest social networks around the world. Reach the highest sales potential with this Facebook integration feature.

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Capture Left Side (Large Preview)

Footer Left (Large Preview)

Footer Widget (Large Preview)

Logo Nav (Large Preview)

Right Nav Cart (Large Preview)

Single Add to Cart (Large Preview)

Single Full (Large Preview)

Single Preview (Large Preview)

Single Sidebar (Large Preview)

Slider Nav (Large Preview)

Visible Area (Large Preview)

Behind the Design

As always, here are some insights from the designers:

“We designed the brand logo section as well as the navigation below to be very clear so that this theme looks neat and attractive. We made the single product page to look clean so users would concentrate more on products and thus is free of distractions. Contents are on the left side, while the add-to-cart button are on the right side, beside the contents.

Don’t miss the opportunity to get this free Balita Theme because there are not many ways you can get a free premium theme everyday. Last but not least, once again, thank you Smashing Magazine for the opportunity.”

Thank you, Tokokoo. We appreciate your work and your good intentions!

© Smashing Editorial for Smashing Magazine, 2011.

In almost any problem solving situation, one tends to be told to think outside the box to find a solution. Basically asking us to look beyond the ordinary to find the extraordinary. One creative field that seems to shine as a beacon for taking this approach, and seeing the world in a very different way than most of us is photography. For example, today’s showcase which takes a look at some stunning infrared photography that exemplifies the principle of looking beyond the ordinary to find the extraordinary.

Take a tour of the world in a way that most never see it. Through this surrealistic lens the world is transformed into a vibrant and often breathtaking landscape. Such an inspirational collection awaits. Enjoy!

The Works

Lost and Found by dingodave

Horses Dreams infrared by MichiLauke

Straightforward Path Infrared by ilimel

Castle Avenue infrared by MichiLauke

The Park Infrared by dingodave

Infrared Bridge by WrappedUpInBooks

Pink Tree infrared by MichiLauke

Infrared XXXI by ilimel

Infrared Trees by michiLauke

Untilted by Paula Cobleigh

Tropical Garden infrared by MichiLauke

Magical Tree – Infrared by Chaton75

Infrared Path in Montreal by Barbroute

Graveyard Infrared by rare-twinkie

Franklin Falls by Paula Cobleigh

Infrared I by Crossie

Willow Tree Infrared by MichiLauke

Dresden Zwinger in infrared by Torsten-Hufsky

Infrared Tree and Pond by YuriPanda

Infrared LI by lilimel

Spring Wolni infrared by MichiLauke

Infrared Train by fatihkilic

Infrared Tower by ilimel

Magic Tree II infrared by MichiLauke

Infrared Snowdrops by okavanga

Infrared Pond II by La-Vita-A-Bella

Indian Summer by dingodave

Laguna de Plata Infrared by otas32

Snowing In The Summer by DSent

The White Field by dingodave

Birch Infrared by MichiLauke

infrared something-scape by foodshelf

Infrared by finklenator

the beach by ComprehensiveOne

Infrared Trees by DCooper20

Clouds infrared by MichiLauke

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This is the first in a three-part series on how to build and grow successful user experience teams in agile environments. It covers challenges related to organization, hiring and integration that plague UX teams in these situations. The perspective is that of a team leader, but the tactics described can be applied to multiple levels in an organization.

Building any kind of agile team is a lengthy and challenging process. Building a user experience team within an agile organization challenges not only traditional design practices but typical design team dynamics. In this first part, we’ll look at the type of culture that would support a strong UX component in the agile process and how to structure the organization so that designers are most effective and are able to thrive.

Organizations Become Supportive Through Dialogue

Teams work together to celebrate their wins at weekly team-wide demos.

Critical to the success of any user experience team is an organization that values its contribution. This is not unique to agile shops, but it becomes even more critical given agile’s rapid cycle and participatory rituals. In a typical resource-allocation scenario, no more than one UX designer is assigned to a cross-functional (i.e. scrum) team. In fact, this scenario is usually optimistic. In some cases, a UX designer will be straddling more than one team. “Team� is the core concept of the agile philosophy, and as such it must include the designer as a core member.

Development managers need to set the expectation with their staff that design is critical to the team’s success. As you begin to build your UX practice in this environment, ensure that you have frequent conversations with these managers to review how their staffs are reacting to the addition of designers to their teams. These conversations will help anticipate issues that may hinder the cohesion of the scrum team. In addition, lessons from fixing one of these issues can be applied pre-emptively on other teams.

By the same token, it is incumbent on the UX designer, their corporate champion and team leader or builder to promote the values of the craft in the organization. Again, this is not unique to agile environments, but it is critical to keeping the team focused on core UX and design issues. Key to this promotion is transparency. Let the team into the designer’s world. Let them see what they do and how they do it, and let them experience the benefits that come from doing UX and design work. When all members of a cross-functional team can articulate the benefits of design activities such as,

• speaking with customers,
• understanding the business and competitive landscapes,
• constructing the information hierarchy,
• assessing visual communication,

then they will be far more inclined to carve out time for those activities in each iteration. Include the team in the actual design exercises. By practicing participatory design, the designer’s contribution will become evident, building their credibility and crystallizing team cohesion.

How To Structure The UX Team

Organizationally, there are essentially two ways to structure the UX team: as an internal agency of shared resources or by using a hub and spoke approach, with designers dedicated to specific teams.

Internal Agency Approach

Using the internal agency approach, incoming work is routed through a central point of contact (typically the UX manager) and then assigned to the designer who is best suited to the work and who has the bandwidth to take it on. The challenge with this approach is two-fold.

First, it promotes a culture of specialization in which designers limit their contribution to particular segments of the craft (for example, mobile, e-commerce, social experience design, etc.). Secondly, with no loyalty to the scrum team, priorities become driven by which product owner can yell the loudest, typically leaving the designer in the middle, awaiting the outcome to know where to focus. Additionally, this approach taxes the UX manager heavily by forcing them to constantly assess bandwidth, availability and applicability of skills to the required tasks, all while helping the product owners manage competing needs among the design staff.

Hub and Spoke Model

The hub and spoke model, on the other hand, is the better practice. Dedicate each designer exclusively to one particular scrum team. They should feel like they are a part of their scrum team and feel connected to that team’s focus. In doing so, the designer’s priorities become clear. Their priorities are synonymous with the team’s, thus enabling them to clearly understand where to expend their energy.

Asking for a designer’s input or effort on a “quick� project or “internal need� is a fairly common occurrence in many companies. It is incumbent on your organization’s leadership to protect the one designer or team structure, so that each team’s designer isn’t peppered with these ad hoc requests. Such requests distract the designer from their team’s mission and inevitably consume already limited capacity. In the eyes of the designer’s teammates, these efforts erode any progress that has been made in confirming the designer’s permanence on the team.

Working With The New Teams

New ways of working for designers will, at first, be uncomfortable. For many design managers, assigning their staff to particular teams brings a new challenge. No longer does the design manager dole out specific work to each person on the team. Instead, the designer’s daily agenda is driven by the prioritized backlog of the scrum team. This is a duty that managers were likely used to doing in the past, and its removal may feel like a reduction in responsibility and authority. To fill this potential void, design managers should work with their staff to understand their team’s priorities and suggest methods of structuring the work in a way that allows the best user experience to get built.

Weekly one-on-one meetings with each designer should reveal any challenges unique to their situation. In addition, regular touch points with each team’s product owner will provide insight into any design challenges on the horizon. And monthly high-level retrospective meetings become a forum for managers to share successful and failed tactics across the organization. With all of these tactics in place, the driving goal should be to solidify the designer’s place on each team.

Dedicating your staff to other teams does not portend the doom of the centralized user experience team. The centralized team is still very much needed for mentorship, professional development and general design support (such as critiques). In addition, a centralized UX practice can bring learning from the individual scrum teams back to the broader group, disseminating lessons that improve the process elsewhere.

The centralized UX team also serves as a “safe haven� for designers to vent their frustrations with the agile process, commiserate a bit with their colleagues and reassure themselves that they’re not alone in their agile UX challenges. Weekly UX team meetings are the building blocks of this community. Outings to design events, talks and recreational events help solidify the bond between distributed designers. A UX-only email distribution list or other forum could also provide this safe haven on an as-needed basis and supplement discussion outside of the regular meetings.

Conclusion

Company culture and staff organization are the two fundamental building blocks of agile and UX integration. By creating an environment that values design, promotes its benefits and spreads this gospel through the allocation of UX resources across individual teams, companies will lay the foundation for successful team-building and adoption of the agile process down the road.

In part 2 of the series, we’ll discuss why hiring is such a critical part of the agile UX team’s success and how to maximize your chances of hiring the most appropriate staff.

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© Jeff Gothelf for Smashing Magazine, 2011.

A sweet and short video made from a compilation of video clips taken around the Washington, DC metro area.

Got Inspired by this video http://vimeo.com/​30578363 and decided to shoot some short clips around the studio and on the streets of DC/Metro using my shinny new iPhone 4S.

Spent an hour or so editing the clips on iMovie. The result is not as smooth as I’d like it to be, but it’s my first time shooting with a 4S and I must say I’m impressed with the quality.

I will definitely be trying this again! Next time I’ll have a plan.

In today’s session, we are bringing a collection of some amazing and useful Photoshop resources that will help you in creating your own dulcet patterns in your designs. With Photoshop, designers can save themselves plenty of time and wind up with improved results by taking advantage of readily available freebies. Which is what brings us here today.

This is a round up of dozens of fresh and free Photoshop patterns. The resources featured here are all offered in downloadable PAT format that can be used in Photoshop. Here is the complete list. Enjoy!

Important: All patterns are free. Please read the license agreements carefully before using the patterns for commercial use, they can change from time to time.

The Patterns

Decorative Patterns
This is a set of 8 decorative patterns, included both the PAT file and the seamless JPG files.

Colour Pattern Pack
A pack of 8 jpegs and a PAT file for Photoshop containing beautiful colourful patterns.

Coffee Patterns
This set contains coffee patterns (vector .PSD and .PAT). A great addition to your collection of free vector patterns!

Animal Patterns
This set contains some awesome animal skin, fur and feathers patterns.

Clocks Pattern
This set contains clocks pattern (vector) made in Photoshop. This stylish clock photoshop pattern is available in PSD (vector shapes) and PAT file formats.

Besida’s Patterns 01
This set contains 24 beautiful patterns by Besida.

10 Seamless Plaid Patterns
The patterns are available in both Illustrator and Photoshop format and can be imported as a .PAT file in Photoshop or as an .AI file in Illustrator.

Colorful Rainbow Marble Patterns
It contains four colorful seamless patterns. Made in Photoshop CS5.

A Free Google Plus Photoshop And Illustrator Pattern
This is a simple great striped Photoshop and Illustrator pattern based on the Google Plus colours.

Hand Drawn Summer Petal Photoshop And Illustrator Pattern
A great hand drawn petal pattern available to be used within commercial and non commercial design projects. The pattern is free and available in two different colours which are black and white.

Colourful Abstract Geometric Photoshop And Illustrator Pattern
This colourful geometric pattern includes 6 different colour variations to be used in commercial and non commercial design projects.

3D Cube Patterns
A set of 8 high resolution Photoshop 3D cube based patterns. Feel free to use these as you want in personal and commercial projects.

Geometry Seamless Patterns
This set contains some seamless patterns absolutely for free. They can be a great addition to your beautiful designs and because they are all vector-shape layers, you can scale them as you’d like, and easily change their color.

100 Photoshop Zigzag Patterns
The download includes a PAT file with 100 zigzag pixel patterns with transparent background, vertical and horizontal.

Colorful Wooden Patterns
24 colorful wooden patterns, free for personal or commercial use.

WE LIKE STRIPED: 30 striped patterns
This set contains 30 free striped patterns. PAT file + gif images.

Photoshop Pattern for Packaging Designs: Abstract Circles
This set contains Photoshop patterns with abstract circles (.PAT file and photoshop vector pattern – circles shape layer in Photoshop). This free photoshop pattern is perfect for packaging designs – gift box & wrapping paper designs, book covers, tablecloth designs and much more.

Batik Overlay
This set contains 10 beautiful Batik Overlay patterns.

Photoshop Fabric Patterns: “My Favourite Socks� ))
This Photoshop fabric patterns set contains 7 knit fabric patterns in PAT file format. Download and use in your projects.

A Free Sunshine Cloud Photoshop And Illustrator Pattern
This is a great summer pattern. The set includes hand drawn sun and cloud vector elements combined together to create a great pattern.

Wooden Patterns
2 wooden patterns, free for personal or commercial use.

16 Abstract Pattern
This set contains 16 abstract patterns.

Black & White & Tiled All Over Patterns
This set contains simple black and white seamless tiles.

Deluxive Snow Flakes Tile Patterns
Set of 10 + bonus tile patterns for Photoshop and other applications. Image files included.

Photoshop: 14 High Resolution Geometric Pattern
Here is a set of 14 geometric patterns for Photoshop in high resolution. Modules with geometric shapes such as circles, triangles, squares, hexagons and the like.

Sea and Ocean Fish Vector Pattern
This set contains sea & ocean fish vector pattern (photoshop psd and pat files). This pattern will be a great addition to your collection of free Photoshop vector patterns.

Water Colour Pattern
The pattern is available in 2 different colours.

Starry Sky Photoshop Vector Pattern (PAT, PSD)
This set contains sky vector pattern for Photoshop with white stars and a transparent background, a valuable resource in your design tool box.

Free Dotted Photoshop Patterns
Nice pack of 29 dotted Photoshop patterns free to use.

22 Hexagon Photoshop Patterns (PAT)
Seamless hexagon photoshop patterns (or honeycomb patterns) with transparent background. There are 22 patterns in all in this PAT set, 11 white and 11 black ones. Enjoy!

15 Seamless Pixel Patterns
This set includes 15 seamless pixel patterns for creating visually subtle effects for your design backgrounds.

10 Tileable Photoshop Patterns
This set includes 10 tileable patterns for Photoshop. These patterns can help you enhance your design visuals. And of course they are quick and handy!

Summer Sunflower
This is a great sunflower pattern to be used in commercial and non commercial design projects.

A Great Simple Abstract Pattern
A great simple abstract Photoshop and Illustrator pattern. The pattern comes in two different colours to give you a few more options.

Simple Decorative Photoshop And Illustrator Pattern
A simple but decorative pattern. The pattern is available for Photoshop and Illustrator and in two different colours.

14 Abstract Patterns
This set contains 14 basic abstract patterns.

Abstract Squared Curved Photoshop And Vector Pattern
A cool abstract squared curved pattern which reminds one of a mosaic effect. This pattern is available in five different colours and alongside a Photoshop pattern file which can imported directly into Photoshop.

Beige Grunge Free Patterns
A set of 10 Photoshop seamless beige grunge patterns that you can be use for adding texture to your projects.

32 Photoshop Patterns: Subtle Pixels
This set contains 32 super subtle, Photoshop pixel patterns.

A Glossy Diamond
A glossy diamond Photoshop and Illustrator pattern. The pattern is also available in 2 different colours.

Tileable and Repeatable Pixel Perfect Patterns
A set of seamless and repeatable PSD pixel patterns. More than 60 patterns ready to use with a simple .PAT file. Just change the background color and you will have unlimited possibilities.

15 Abstract Patterns
A beautiful pack of 15 amazing abstract patterns.

Blue Stripes 1 Pattern Set
30 various stripe patterns with bluish gradients for Adobe Photoshop. Some stripes are horizontal, some are vertical, and some are at angles.

Gold Free Pattern
A wonderful set of six Photoshop patterns for your golden artworks, cards or websites. There is one Photoshop .pat file and six individual and seamless .jpg files. The patterns are made on PS CS5.

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