Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Featured Project: Bandanas Bar-B-Q Website.

Click on Image for larger resolution.
live link: www.bandanasbbq.com

Client: Bandanas Bar-B-Q, Missouri USA.
Agency: MME Technology Solutions, USA.
Project Category: Design, XHTML
Tools: Adobe Creative Suite.
Project URL: www.bandanasbbq.com

Case Study:
The client came to us to re-design their old non-performing site that had an outdated design and wasn't making sense with the latest trends or helping users to access information with ease. In our opinion, the website of a business should help the business perform better, faster and make more profit.

We designed the site to give it a new fresh look, make it XHTML compliant and giving users faster access to information and resources on the website. At last we were able to make a website that made the users happy, increased business specially the Catering section & increased the social circle on Facebook with rapid increase in Facebook Likes.

Please provide your thoughts in comments, specially web development professionals.

Thanks
Iqtidar Ali
www.souldesigns.net

Thursday, August 25, 2011

FREE E-Commerce Design Template. X-Cart.


I had designed this template for X-Cart Shopping Cart. I have normally gotten used to design my templates in Adobe Fireworks, so the source file is in PNG. I am making the template available for download for FREE for web designers. X-Cart uses the Smarty PHP Framework, so implementing this template is not as straight-forward as for a normal website, but for designers experienced with X-Cart and Smarty will find most of the things in place.

The icons and watermarked images are iStockphoto property, please purchase before use.

Source File: http://rapidshare.com/files/321893657/home_layout.zip ( At least Fireworks 8 required )

Skill Tests on oDesk !

Hi. I have taken a couple of skill tests on oDesk and have gone through. You can click on the badges below to get detailed results for the tests. The one thing I like about these tests is that they provide information about how you have performed in different areas of a skill. e.g. I gave the XHTML 1.0 test and got an overall score of 3.0 but at the same time it gives you insight in which area you performed best and where you're lacking.

oDesk Certified XHTML 1.0 Designer
Topic Correct Answers
1. Fundamentals: 45%
2. Images and Links: 86%
3. Tables and Forms: 88%
4. Tags: 43%

oDesk Certified Flash Designer
Topic Correct Answers
1. Action Script: 60%
2. Editing Artwork and 3d graphics: 17%
3. Imported Artwork and Text: 67%
4. Managing Documents,Workspace and Screens: 20%
5. Publishing,Exporting and Filters: 100%
6. Sound and Video: 86%
7. Symbols and Assets: 50%
8. Timelines and Animation: 62%

So I like oDesk better than other freelancing sites, specifically for the ease of transfer of money to your bank account to Pakistan. You can do a direct wire transfer to your bank account from oDesk and even the first transfer is FREE, however Elance gives you one wire transfer FREE per month, that's attractive but they have other limitations like subscription fees and also a big comission fee as well, which in-turn puts a lot of burden on the service provider. However, here's my oDesk Profile link where you can go to hire me for developing your websites, designing logos and PHP Programming etc. My latest project is for Bandanas Bar-B-Q, MO, USA http://www.bandanasbbq.com