All Hail Framebench!

By on May 1, 2013

 

Taking-aim-at-your-dream-job1

 

It was one of those “self-realization” days when I thought I need to do something great with my life, something constructive.

And what better start than Google!

One of the most attractivehighestpayingresumebuildingstarcompany to start with. (I can speak cutesy stuff about it even when I am asleep). But then it brings you back the memories of schooling days when you struggled to write ten marks essay writing impressive humongous overly-sophisticated mugged up words that made no sense. And as expected, I too had to write one.

“Write about a non-Google product that you simply love. It could be an app you downloaded or a gum. And how can a Google employee use it for good. Be innovative.”

And if you are thinking I had to do tad too much of brainstorming and scratching and rattling my brains and Google-ing, you are absolutely wrong. The first and the last thing that strike me was Framebench.

And I feel I have really gone bizarre promoting Framebench but I am just a loyal intern in way too much love with my Framebench and the employers.So here’s the super answer and I cross my heart, I wasn’t paid to write this. (Just in case)

Have a Happy Reading!

“An adept melange of exploring the unexplored and Out-of-The-Box thinking, Framebench is surely an asset for the demiurgic designers. Started by the brilliant young lads, they have undeniably come a long way. With the cloud computing so much in vogue, it’s a cloud based platform for ingenious designers. All the budding creative designers can store, share and track.

But isn’t this something that the conventional cloud platforms indulged in too?

Luring “we-want-free-space” freaks with abundant space to store and share. To my surprise, Framebench is a much needed respite from the prosaic ones. It gives the power to hold online meetings so you could go berserk enjoying all that free space and holding chat sessions too. It’s soon coming up with an online call feature, How cool is that!! So now you store, share, track and talk. (A boon for talkative ones like me)

Before the plethora of cloud based platforms, files were shared in a mundane e-mail way. Then came the conventional ones and finally the Daddy of them all, Framebench. Apart from the store, share, track and talk there comes another edgy feature- Edit. All the creative feedback discussions and editing in real time.

To all the crafty & prolific Google designers, here’s a product that’s credited to cut your delivery times and visual communication without any fuss. So now you could stop sulking and being the “Too-Busy-To-Live” guy. Framebench would do it all for you effortlessly in a flash.

p.s – Would have been way too clichéd if I told you right at the start that I interned at Framebench. “

 

 

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How to manage client feedback – Our Perspective

By on April 18, 2013

David Sherwin just posted a brilliant, precise and ‘hit-the-nail’ blog on Fast Company design about how to get constructive about client feedback which is great from any creative person’s perspective. Moreover it doesn’t just apply to client feedback but also within teams. Reporting to your peers/managers/directors can be the same really.

(By the way I’m sure his publication ‘Success by design’ would be a must read if its as fresh as this snippet)

I really wish you all have great clients and you have a successful relation managing their feedback, but there are times you’d need some help with the negative and unorganized. Again, do read the original article.

Back? Lets get it an actionable spin.

We’ve been trying to make people’s lives drastically easier by using the same techniques David’s mentioned and I felt it would be great to pen down some more practical stuff you could use to convert his advice into action.

 

1.PUT THE FEEDBACK IN WRITING FOR ALL PARTIES TO APPROVE

David discusses documenting everything discussed and send it across to all relevant people. You could use a tool which automatically documents everything for you. In Framebench, you invite the people who’re relevant to that discussion in that workspace (think of it as a meeting room) and they get access to all this contextual feedback automatically.

They could also retrieve it within their emails if they don’t want to login to another system. No need to waste time writing it down, as you already did it as the meeting progressed..

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2. CLARIFY AMBIGUOUS FEEDBACK BEFORE MAKING CHANGES.

How about the simple idea of leaving feedback directly on top of the media (image/video/PDF)? Users see a sudden drop in ambiguity as now the comments are given on the design rather than on the bottom as you would in an email or any other system.

David also advises – ‘Ask them (your clients) to agree to your interpretation before starting on the changes.‘ If the client themselves posted feedback on Framebench, you’re covered already. Else they can just hit reply on your annotation and all’s set.

 

3. DESCRIBE WHAT FEEDBACK MAY IMPACT PROJECT SCOPE.

Nobody likes surprises. Neither you nor your client, so set everything straight upfront. Have a contextual discussion on the feedback and get everybody on the same page regarding the implications.

Or just have a real time meeting on the design and present your case smoothly.

 

David also goes on to write about some common problems with client feedback. We’ve all laughed at the posters from clients from hell, but this was a refreshing perspective on how to convert that positively.

ACTIONABLE BUT NEGATIVE FEEDBACK

When you break down exactly what the other person is trying to convey, it makes it easier to get closer to what is expected. Getting fixated on the tone usually does not help. Since you can manage snippets of comments on the design with an annotation tool, map the feedback there and again have the client agree on the changes he’s suggesting.

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Case Study: Framebench vs Email

By on March 20, 2013

So I walked in to the office today and ritualistically, opened my Gmail account. The first message up there was from my friend who had sent his start up video and asked me to review it for him before he puts it up on the website. Since I am not a fan of writing long emails and am working in a company that made a web app for getting through design iterations faster, it was a little pissing off that he’d mailed it to me instead of using the software solely meant for sharing and discussing creative feedback. But then, was he actually saving time this way, I thought to myself. This was a good enough reason for me to start a comparative analysis to check it through.

Since a lot of it depends on internet speeds, I first check mine on another popular website. Download Speed: 4.45 Mbps; Uploads Speed: 0.25 Mbps. So more or less, the following study was done with an internet connection of aforementioned speeds

 

Head-breaking begins: Communicating over Emails

I quickly called up one of my friends at a video production house to work with me on a short animated clip. We first communicated over Email. All was good until his 4th email that I received. He’d asked me to change the colour tone of a particular object to something he liked.

Confusion…Confusion…CONFUSION!

Maintaining my calm we moved on. The next maddening incident occurred when KS (NJ’s colleague) entered the picture. She had to be copied all the emails all over again just so that all of us were on the same page. Now, I had not one, but two people guiding me and suggesting modifications. After a good 3 hour long discussion, we split up and I started the editing work immediately. Going through the thread again and again (…and again), looking up for particular messages was, to say the least, infuriating.

After about 11 hours (inclusive of a lunch break and a couple of mini breaks) and an exchange of about 46 emails (before they were satisfied with my work), I left for home and just crashed.

 

THE FRAMEBENCH WAY

Next day, we set out to work on another video clip, but this time on Framebench. NJ, my friend, had never worked on Framebench before but it only took him a couple of minutes to adapt the UI.

This was fairly simple. All I had to do was upload the video clip…and guess what? No download required. The advanced video playback capabilities made the buffering really smooth. With the real time sync, I could see exactly what NJ was seeing on his screen. The suggested colour tones could be seen right on the screen and the discussion was much less fussy than the previous day.

 

Apparently NJ is too fond of KS (yes, we went on to invite her as well).  But today, she educated herself from the discussion list on the left before she started contributing to it.…

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Why do you need a design review tool?

By on March 2, 2013

No bs, no story building. I’ll just cut to the chase here.

This is your current process (almost):

 

Design, Iterate, Deliver

 

And while we spend so much effort on optimizing the designing and delivery process, iteration which is a BIG part of our project gets neglected. And very much so, we need to focus our energies on creating. (And sure, some of it on getting paid)

The ITERATION process covers

 

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Its the communication we’re getting to now. Can we streamline the process and reduce as much time wasted as possible? And thats where we should think about having a process which simplifies the the cycle of design presentation and design feedback. These are the two essential things you do and this function is actually the most important and also the most ignored.

Mike Monteiro in his brilliant talk points out that its pertinent of our job to communicate our designs convincingly to our clients, team members, managers and also investors. Do go watch this one, its 45 minutes and totally worth it.

This is where we need software which can quickly get to work for us and manage our communications in one place. It needn’t be some complex workflow automation management solution but just a simple tool which adapts to your work style and handles the background noise only speaking out to you when you need it to.

So three simple steps for us right now:

  1. Figure out a simple work style we’re comfortable with.
  2. Choose a review tool which fits our style and doesn’t become work in itself.
  3. Create!

Btw, no bragging but Framebench could help!…

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Email vs. Framebench

By on February 9, 2013

 

Why would you still follow the mundane E-mail trend, we have something much more ingenious to offer?

At Framebench, we strive to make file sharing an innovative process by providing you with a phenomenal amalgamation of technology & design. Framebench yearns to provide you with the best of both, for you to deliver like a super hero. Whenever we say emails are so passé, we mean it!

Emails

Going by the umpteen numbers of times when we have tried to attach a file only to find out it’s too large to send, it is evident that sending an email was a thing of bygone era. Since organizing and reading through emails can take up way too much time and space, there needs be something just a click away. From spam and junk mails to the emails overload, emails have been credited for non-interactive sharing. The files attached are vulnerable to hacking and phishing attacks posing a threat to the security. In January 2012, Volkswagen chose to deactivate emails on its staff members’ BlackBerrys during non-working hours so they do not spend their time struggling with the emails. Since safe and timely communication is the need of the hour, emails have got obsolete.

Email does have plenty many uses & undeniable that e-mail has had a huge impact on communication but it isn’t the only way to go. Here is to why we feel that file sharing isn’t the best through emails.

  • Unreliable security
  • Attaching files too much of a hassle
  • Discussions not interactive
  • Emails overloading
  • File’s size up to 25 Mb only
  • Unreliable spam mails
  • No real time feedback
  • Edited files need to be attached all over again to be sent.
  • Limited functionality

 

Framebench

Here’s to why we feel it’s worth a switch from emails to Framebench. With Framebench, have everything in one place and savour the power of flexible online meetings. Sharing a file couldn’t get so creative yet so simple. Easy to access and compatible with a range of platforms, it is indeed a one stop online collaboration. It’s just the perfect medium to share your images and videos. Framebench just illustrates the dynamism of cloud computing without boasting much about it. Design teams using Framebench decreased delivery time and stress in their projects by up to 60 per cent! So, now have more time for the things you love! All you have to do is create a workspace & share a file with people you want to. Also, because you’re sending a file stored in the cloud, all your recipients will have access to the same, most-up-to-date version. You know what that means? That means you don’t have to go berserk re-attaching the edited versions of your files.

If you consider juggling between your emails a part of your job, if you do like your mails flooded with spam and junk & if you are still happy when it takes almost a day to attach bulky files, Framebench isn’t for you. However with Framebench, here’s how you could too become a design superhero.…

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7 Superb Chrome extensions designers can’t miss

By on February 6, 2013

Chrome is the highest rated web browser, owing to its ease of use and minimal CPU usage. No matter how many extensions you add, the speed never gets affected. For the smart designer, Chrome has a huge collection of extremely handy extensions, that make work a lot more fun. While Chrome is known for its simplicity, our geeky friends have boosted its productivity by introducing loads of useful apps catering a novice to a professional.

So what is it that a designer needs, while using a web browser? We went through all available plugins and churned out a list of the best 7. These will help you manage your images, colors, fonts, web pages and more. You might ask why just 7. Well, with excessive information, comes clutter and confusion. Framebench believes in keeping things simple, so here’s our pick of the simple yet utile plugins.

 Chrome Web Store

Eye Dropper

So that you don’t keep guessing that shade of blue you liked. (221,939 users)

Eye Dropper is open source extension for Google Chrome which allows you to pick colors from various sources. You have the option of picking colors from the web page, color picker or history. You can just mouse over your selected colors to view the hex.

 

HTML Instant

To help you design web pages, without having to rerun the code. After all, we’re not all pros at coding! (9,427 users)

This app lets you edit HTML code in real-time. Just enter HTML, CSS, or Javascript in the left pane and you will get instant results as you type in the right pane. Great for editing on the fly and for learning HTML. Also, you can easily grab and embed photos from your Photobucket or Imageshack account. It boasts of a built-in dictionary for word lookup.

 

Images are central to an appealing design. The next 3 addons will help you find the best ones.

Image Properties Context Menu

Get to your images quicker! (89,886 users)

This one’s a simple context menu extension to show the properties of an image like Location, Source, Dimensions, Alt text, Data URI, File Size, MIME Type, EXIF Data etc.

 

Microstock Photo Power Search Tool

Its powerful. (3,071 users)

The Microstock Photo Power Search Extension makes it easy to find awesome microstock photographs for your website or blog, for your design or print projects, or for any other reason you need great photographs or illustrations.

 

Palette for Chrome

A simple way to choose colors for your next design. (45,337 users)

If you want to create a color palette that matches an image from your website, or maybe just check some colors for inspiration, Then this is the extension for you!

 

 WhatFont

Coz the right font brings out the best in your designs. (112,130 users)

This is a simple and elegant app to identify fonts on web pages, just by hovering on them. It also detects the services used for serving the web fonts.

Plain Clothes

Sometimes you wonder how awesome a website is.…

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We’ve Launched!

By on January 28, 2013


Time to shout out *woo hoo*. Yes, we are out of beta now and the one stop solution to all your creative design iteration problems is here. As you are reading this, our team is doing a little victory lap to celebrate.

<photos retracted> *wink*

It would’ve been impossible without the valuable inputs from our beta users. A special thanks to all our beta users for feedback that was instrumental in the app development.

What’s different? Well, to begin with there is free one month trial but all good things come for a price. The nice part is that Framebench lets you to pay as per usage; subscription starts at $19, going up to $99, depending on the number of files in the workspace, although there are no limitations on the number of users, projects or even storage space. We’ve always believed in giving something extra so yes, there will free plan for users with smaller projects. This is how the pricing looks.

And what’s new? In addition to the new improved UI (which I’m sure you all noticed), we added a Discussion list. Now, you can view all active discussions in your workspace at one place. Neatly formatted on the top left, it allows search for comments based on username or filename.


What more? Yeah, it doesn’t end here. Our dev team works day and night to ensure best user experience. So you can expect voice chat and Dropbox integration very soon in the next release. Keep checking this space for more info.

Cheers.…

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5 Steps to enhance Perceptual Selectivity

By on January 22, 2013

Burnt a hole in your pocket to make an astonishing ad but failed to garner the attention!

Sounds like your own story?

Since there are plenty many things that lure a customer, it is important that advertisements are ascertained. More the advertisements, higher the distraction. A customer cannot pay equal attention to all the things at one go so he selects few things that interest him the most. To make your advertisements a success, you need to make them stand out. For many business firms, advertising proves a tool that catapults them to success. For an audience to select one from quite a few, ads have to be persuasive and attention grabbing.

Here’s how you too could too enhance the perceptual selectivity of your advertisements.

Watch till you Drop!

No matter how absurd the advertisements are, the companies still won’t stop making them. But if they help make money,no matter how amateur it is, it would still be a great ad. Homeshop has escalated into a billion dollar business by their stereotype ones. Companies have been shelling out a lot of money for their Ads to be shown time and again. Just when your soap opera gets meaner and interesting, the suspense is killed by a commercial but then there are few ads that never fail to make an impact. You could watch them till you drop. The whole concept of Happy Meal where kids simply yearn to get a teeny toy is crazy but since that  has made McDonald’s most demanded place for meals by kids across the globe, they indeed deserve a pat.

Size Does Matter!

How often have you paid heed to a massive banner? Quite often we believe.
And that’s exactly how the size establishes dominance. Be it size of the ad or the size of an image or a text that has to be sent across to the customer, Bigger the size more will be the intentness. We all are drawn towards full page ads on the newspaper than few liners as it’s highly targeted. The humongous size does capture the attention of the viewers, solving every purpose of its existence. Your ads have to grab the reader’s attention and make them stop long enough to notice and start reading them.

Go Intense!

Facile and intense designs are bound to grab eyeballs. The typeface, background and image must be credited to  captivate the interest of the customer. Simpler the design clearer the notion. Yes we do not want be puzzled with the choices of fonts so keep it simple. If the the ad still doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative. Fervent creative marketing has always been Nike’s USP and has grabbed attention of quite a few. Nike targets the consumers who are likely to develop product intimacy; those who care more about the utility and quality of the product than the price. The brand has kept a strong association with the slogan “Just Do It” which has been used in advertisement for quite some time. Also Nike doesn’t simply rely on celebs caked with makeup but sports icons keeping the ads subtle yet influential.…

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How to choose the perfect color?

By on January 18, 2013

 

Good design strategy encapsulates planning of color as colors greatly influence the human psychic. Every color has a different significance .Color plays a major role in how the design is perceived by the audience. That’s why it’s important to get the color right and to know what it symbolizes since every color has its story.
Here’s how to choose the perfect color

Contrast
To have a good design it is important to maintain a contrast. The color of Background and the text must be carefully chosen to garner the interest of the reader. The basic motive is to maintain the readability so that the reader need not strain his eyes in order to read. Standard contrast could be a very light color for the background and a darker one for the text. Combination of color for the background and the text must be carefully chosen so as to make it appear pleasing and to attract the readers.

Relevance
A good designer would be incomplete without the sound knowledge of colors. Since every color has a different implication, it must be chosen wisely. Since the choice of color palette is of prime concern, a brief study must be done to ensure that the choice made is relevant. Traditionally there are warm, cool and neutral colors. Warm ones are bright colors like red, yellow and orange generally representing energy, brightness and warmth. Use brighter colors to draw attention to sale items. In a negative connotation they represent war, danger and illness too. Cool ones are generally blue, green and purple symbolizing growth, intelligence and trust. Neutral colors comprise of black, white and grey symbolizing elegance, sophistication and maturity.

Sync 
If more than a color is being chosen, every color chosen must be in sync with the others. It is important for a designer to understand the relationship between colors so that the colors complement each other. For a design to be effective the color combinations must be chosen wisely and one color is often used as a dominant color while others are used as accents. The basic idea is to provide a balance to the viewer rather than straining to accommodate for a particular area of the color spectrum. The brighter the colors, the more mental energy they will consume. Also, it is conventional to have one color stand out rather than every color being used. The dominant color will grab the attention of the viewer easily.

Quantitative analysis
A designer must stick to “Less is more” when choosing a color palette. Too many colors lead to a cluttered design and the view ability too depletes. Use of simple color palettes is an effective way to convey a sense of luxury and elegance. The basic idea is to have less number of colors to keep the design simple and elegant instead of having a riot of colors. With less number of colors the message is spell out to the viewer. A simple elegant design garners the interest of the viewer.

Viewer Analysis
A designer must try to analyse the viewers to have a successful design.…

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Resolutions For The Geeky You!

By on January 7, 2013

 

It’s a new year, so it’s time for resolutions. Now we already know the hum drum mundane ones. Resolutions to lose weight, to be organized, to quit smoking and drinking and a lot more drab ones.

But what about resolutions that geeks in particular should consider?
Now since every Geek has an eccentric devotion to a particular interest. Hopefully these resolutions will start you down the path of fun and geeky euphoria in 2013.

  • Two Factor Authentication- With hacking and phishing attacks worldwide, your account might be vulnerable to threats. And just keeping a password is obsolete. Two-factor authentication requires a user to have two methods of authenticating themselves instead of just a password. The second method is usually a text message to the user’s phone number
  • Use Technology to lose weight- No, we are not referring to your mp3 here.There are some high end Tech stuff  like shoes that track your movement or the smartness of your phone apps where there will be a trainer pestering you to go for a walk and cautioning you on what not to eat.
  • Commit to Computers-Spend some time each week reading up on computer hardware and software. Going through humongous stack of books boasting of words that sound alien to you.
  • Contribute to Construction-Following up on the previous resolution, you may want to do something more advanced if you are already familiar with the inputs and outputs of computers — why not build one? Over the course of the year, do some research and gather the parts you need to construct your dream computer.
  • Go Green- While you don’t have to  go berserk recycling paper on your own, build your own compost bin or make compost tea  but you could always indulge in devices that save energy. Maybe a cooling program device to help the PC to cool down on its own or maybe an energy hub.
  • Lend Your Comic to someone else-Look at your shelves. Find your most adored comic, the one you love with all of your heart… and then let it go. Because if you love something, set it free. Pay it forward to a new reader, someone who is just now showing an interest in comics or someone who has NEVER shown an interest in comics. Even better lend it to someone who competes with you over marks.
  • Defy the Hype. Every time something new and super cool sounding is announced, the geek community goes super nuts. The best thing you can do to fight the hype is to read as much tech and geek news as you can, learning about the hyped item before it becomes hype. Therefore, you can still be excited about the item, but you don’t have to fall into the hype hysteria that everyone expects.

If you feel you are indeed a geek by heart, here is a crossword puzzle for you. The puzzle has 20 words and abbreviations all you technological geeks might be familiar with.

 Bonne chance (:

 

16-20 words: we eulogize your spirit, you are a true geek.…

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