Top Five Web Design AIR Apps
Adobe AIR (for “Adobe Integrated Runtime”) is a runtime environment on which some of the newest, niftiest desktop apps are built. The very first AIR application I ever ran was the now defunct Pownce. These days, I’ve got around ten AIR-powered apps installed on my computer- with at least one running all the time. For web design purposes, these are my top five:
Mockups for Desktop
From Balsamiq comes this nifty little app that enables you to digitally “draw” mockups for collaboration work with your team. Fast and easy to use, this is what you need if you constantly find yourself trying to describe something to a client via email, but can’t find the right words.
ImageSizer
This one, made by Psyked, will resize, optimize, and rename a batch of jpeg images of your choice- and output them in a zip file. It’s as simple as dragging and dropping the images into ImageSizer and pressing a button. Good for when you don’t necessarily need (or want) to use Photoshop.
Pixus
If you haven’t found an on-screen ruler to use yet (and, believe me, once you start using one, you won’t go back), may I suggest Pixus? It’s quick and aesthetically pleasing, and supports multiple screens.
Icon Generator
I thought I’d throw something “fun” into the mix- and that’s just what this is, although many designers will find it useful as well. Icon Designer enables you to generate a shiny “Web 2.0-style” icon in three steps.
COLOURLovers Desktop Color Finder
This by far is my favorite little web design AIR app- but I have been known to spend hours going through color palettes like a madwoman. Just like it says, this helps you find colors for your design projects by searching through the COLOURLovers database of “nearly 1 million named colors and more than 300,00 user created color palettes”. That’s a lot of color combinations.
What are your favorite AIR Applications?
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I think modern organziers are way to overloaded and slow, so I use a small addon instead. Try checking out http://minitask.betriebsraum.de/ it’s a really lightweight to-do-list organziers and so comfortable to use. I just love it!
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Mockups would definitely have to be one of my favorites for any kind of interface development. Even ignoring how beneficial it is for freelance clients, it awesome to use within a team for designing workflows and UX.
I’m a little biased, but I think Konductor is definitely worth checking out if your interested in setting up CMS for your clients. You have to sign up to use it, which you can do here, http://www.konductor.net/.
Plus, there is also a YouTube channel set up which can give you the gist of how it works, http://www.youtube.com/konductorsoftware.
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Qortex, MiniTask is awesome! Thank you for the link.
Andrew, I love the look of Konductor- and will definitely be trying it out. Thanks very much.
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I was looking through these last night, and the Mockups app looks outstanding. Too bad I don’t see a need to pay $79 for it.
Love the type is the text boxes. Nice touch!
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The new web design looks much more professional and corporate if any one use these helpful point.
Thanks for sharing……
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Great article, I found I had another 5 tabs opened up by the time I finished reading. Looks like I’ve got some more reading to do…