ScrnShots: Share your inspiration.

We’re starting a new column on the ScrnShots Blog that chronicles interesting stats on ScrnShots.com. To start things off, here’s two lists of the most active users over the past week:

1. Top 10 Screenshot Uploaders for this Week

1. (41) willbolton
2. (40) tonycurzonprice
3. (39) computerwhisperer
4. (35) creativecomponent
5. (29) stones
6. (22) chriscoyier
7. (20) bwoodsdesign
8. (19) Santana
9. (19) spoongraphics
10. (15) luizavoll

2. Top 10 Most Active Users for this Week

This list is based on overall activity on the site including: uploading, commenting, favoriting, and adding contacts.

1. esquareda
2. willbolton
3. tonycurzonprice
4. computerwhisperer
5. creativecomponent
6. chriscoyier
7. stones
8. ckaroli
9. fmontes
10. spoongraphics

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments » | July 4th, 2008 by Greg Bell

This week’s featured ScrnShots’ user is Ross Howard-Jones, ScrnShots alias: rosshj. Ross lives here in Vancouver, and we had the pleasure of meeting him at Launch Party Vancouver a few weeks back.

Greg and I (we’re the people who run ScrnShots) have an extremely involved game of foosball every lunch hour, and I found out that Ross is also an avid foosball player. This really got me thinking, it would be a lot of fun to slaughter Ross in a game of foosball! Just kidding, Ross… I’m sure you’d score at least one goal

I got the chance to ask Ross a few work-related questions, and here’s what he had to say:

Derek: What is your job title?

Ross: I am a User Interface Designer for Donat Group Enterprises. My day to day role however, encompasses everything from information architecture, usability studies and prototyping to art direction and front end development. That’s actually one of the great things about my job. I wear multiple hats, which keeps me connected to every aspect of our projects and our team. I have been working in the web industry for about 10 years now, and have enjoyed the evolution that has taken place online in terms of what people are doing from a design and functionality standpoint.

Derek: What does a day at work look like for you?

Ross: I usually start my day by making myself a monster americano. We have a great espresso machine at work, so I usually wind up as the morning barista for my fellow comrades in the office who are also in need of a serious morning wake-me-up. My job is great because in addition to UI Design, I get to be the hub to everyone in the office. I check in with our junior team, brainstorm with the development team, and jump into project management with the other senior management staff. I also work directly with our clients to make sure their vision is being translated in the work we are doing. I’m lucky in the sense that I get to work with some pretty amazing people. I think sharing ideas and collaborating with different people throughout the process is what ultimately leads to a better end product. It also helps keep things interesting and enjoyable along the way. Another thing I appreciate is the fact that we work really hard, but we also remember to keep it in perspective. We deliver some pretty big projects, but we also have regular intervals throughout the day where we kick back, mix it up with a foosball session or a time out to play some Wii.

Derek: What are some things that you are working on right now?

Ross: At Donat Group we are doing a fair bit of work for MTV Networks and other entertainment companies at the moment. We specialize in social networks, so it’s been a total blast taking what we do to an entirely new level with companies that come to us creatively inspired and looking to push the envelope. It’s been a great relationship, which at the end of the day is what really matters. The same can be said of working with companies like Virtue and Electric Sheep in the areas of brand development, art direction and information architecture. The great thing about feeling inspired at work is that it ripples over to so many other areas. There’s work, and then there’s life and being able to carry that feeling from one to the other and vice versa is a very cool thing. I have been really inspired over the last few months and have started working on more of my own projects as well. My friends and I have a small company where we get together and collaborate on things we are passionate about. We developed a social network that revolves around fitness a little while back, which was a great experience.

Derek: How does ScrnShots fit into your workflow?

Ross: I’m all for things that make life easier, and ScrnShots definitely makes having everything I collect for reference in one spot a lot smoother. I have always tracked and bookmarked the things I find interesting on the web, but using ScrnShots allows me an easy way to build and manage my library from a single spot, which is a far more efficient way of doing things. I don’t have to try and remember where I saw this certain UI or design, or where I might have filed it, I can just go to ScrnShots and click on one of my tags and bring up a whole bunch of examples. I like capturing different ways of presenting data, interesting user interface elements and anything that I find creatively inspiring. ScrnShots is a perfect site to use when trying to explain these types of things to someone such as a team member or client. It helps me reinforce what I’m trying to explain by having pointed visual examples of what others have done or what I have done in the past. Demonstrating what I am talking about in this way helps me not only further explain what I am referring to, it also helps manage expectations on both sides of a project.

Derek: What do you use ScrnShots for?

Ross: Since I discovered ScrnShots I’ve used it primarily as a tool to capture the things I’m working on and what’s going on around the web. I used to bookmark a site because I found a certain part of it interesting, only for them to change their design and have that piece disappear. Now I can keep them in one central area where I can trust it will be there without changing. I also use it to capture my own work. It has been great tool to save the state of one my sites. It captures a moment in time on a dynamic site and I like the idea around that. I also like the fact that with little effort I can stay connected to what fellow designers are doing and find inspiring. It’s really interesting finding things in common and having that act as an introduction to something totally different that you might not have otherwise encountered. Sometimes when you’ve got a block happening it’s great to jump on ScrnShots and go through your library or someone else’s to help you get it in gear again.

Derek: This is your time to shine, what else would you like to say?

Ross: I want to say thanks. I appreciate what you guys are doing and the opportunity to be involved this way. I am always looking for new places in which to draw inspiration from, and this is one that really works for me. So, keep up the good work, and thanks!

Tags: featured, foosball, Ross, Ross Howard-Jones, ScrnShots
Posted in Featured ScrnShots User, In Person, Uncategorized | 1 Comment » | June 17th, 2008 by Derek Kehler

We have another Featured User on ScrnShots: Imran Ali.

Imran is a founding partner of Carbon Imagineering, a UK-based emerging technologies think-tank,  incubating a number of startup projects and providing strategies on emerging technology issues for clients.

Imran has also written two very flattering reviews of ScrnShots, which have appeared on Web Worker Daily. I had the opportunity to talk to Imran last week about what he does, and how ScrnShots is CHANGING HIS LIFE!

Derek: What does a day at work look like for you?

Imran: Um, generally a lotta reading (papers, journals & around 200 RSS posts every day!), some writing, doodling with design concepts for new ideas and invariably board meetings with clients and our partners. Sometimes I work from home, sometimes from my office in Leeds, UK.

Derek: What are some things that you are working on right now?

Imran: We helped to launch a coworking space - the Old Broadcasting House last year and are working on some mechanisms to help grow a technology ecosphere across the five major cities of the North of England…the area that was the Silicon Valley of the Victorian era! We have a couple pet startup projects of our own involving social TV and Islamic web services. I’m also a board director of two startups - ensembli and bmedi@ as well as the advisory board of a number of startups and conferences - including Emerging Communications and Going Solo. I’m also a regular contributor to Mobile Messaging 2.0, O’Reilly Media and Web Worker Daily.

Derek: How does ScrnShots fit into your workflow?

Imran: As I spot designs that I like, online and the in real world, I keep a folder of these inspirations on my MacBook’s desktop. I dip into this resource when I need to kickstart a new idea or design concept. Scrnshots is gradually replacing that folder largely by helping me to organise those resources for longevity and discoverability, but also helping me to discover designs that’re inspiring others. It’s also satisfying to get a thumbs up for the designs I’ve shared, from other users!

Derek: What do you use ScrnShots for?

Imran: A large part of my job is to synthesise the hundreds of technologies and innovations I read about each day into design concepts that make sense for clients. For example, what’s the user experience of data portability? As a designer at heart, producing these concepts is also a chance to experiement with new styles and metaphors...to do that I need tools for inspiration and Scrnshots is helping me to mechanise my inspiration much better!

Derek: This is your time to shine, what else would you like to say?

Imran: I Heart Vancouver! It’s given me Flickr, Snrnshots and Battlestar Galactica

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments » | June 9th, 2008 by Derek Kehler

Greg and I have decided to interview a ScrnShots user once a week or so. We will be selecting featured users according to number of uploads, comments and celebrity status. If you are interested in being featured, upload tons of screenshots and comment on others screenshots… trust me, we will notice you.

Some other ways you might go about being featured, is by blogging about ScrnShots, telling us how awesome we are or hassling us on twitter.

Our first featured ScrnShots user is Ryan Townsend. Ryan has been uploading, commenting, and giving great feedback since launch. I had the pleasure of talking to Ryan last week about what he does, and how ScrnShots is changing the way he works.

Derek: What is your profession?

Ryan: I am a part-time Lead Web Designer / Developer at a small ICT company in the Midlands, UK, and a full-time student studying Internet Computing at Manchester University, UK - as you can imagine time management is rather complicated! I have been developing websites professionally for 5 years now and in the past year I have moved on to web applications.

Derek: What does a day at work look like for you?

Ryan: Well as everyone knows, students cannot physically wake up until at least 11am, however I only have this luxury during term when I work remotely, work at the office starts at 9. Either way, first port of call is my RSS feeds, podcasts and emails, to see what is happening in the world. Next I set about my usual routine of working on layouts for website projects we have, and switching to coding web applications when I am less inspired. I believe the balance between artist design and technical development keeps me enthusiastic and driven. I make sure I have at least five minutes away from the computer an hour, so during that time I often plan things on my whiteboard, which I reckon is one of the most important tools for any developer (and you can pick one up for around £20 these days - bargain).

Derek: What are some things that you are working on right now?

Ryan: I have numerous web applications in the works at the moment, most of which I cannot release details for, but keep an eye on my Scrnshots feed (scrnshots.com/users/ryan) for sneak-peaks. For those of you interested in Ruby On Rails development I am also running a screencast tutorial site over at ThinkRefresh.com.

Derek: How does ScrnShots fit into your workflow?

Ryan: Well as I mentioned earlier, the first thing I do in the morning is check my RSS feeds, which used to be full of web design galleries, I’d look through all the new entries screenshot-ing the sites I like and sort them into folders based on the site’s style. This process has now been totally replaced by getting my inspiration from select user’s RSS feeds on Scrnshots, and either favorite-ing their uploads, or visiting the site personally and capturing the area I like using the desktop tool (currently in beta). The tagging really helps, as OS X doesn’t let you tag your documents (to my knowledge), so Scrnshots is much more organized when it comes to revisiting the images.

Derek: What do you use ScrnShots for?

Ryan: Besides storing my own personal inspiration, many of my friends also follow my feed for aiding their own projects. I release sneak-peaks of my applications, so people can provide me with valuable feedback, I also enjoy reciprocating and providing advice to other users too.

Derek: This is your time to shine, what else would you like to say?

Ryan: To be the best you can as a designer / developer, you must constantly look at what others are doing to stay in the game, otherwise you’ll quickly be left behind. You should also be critical of your own work, so getting feedback from others can be really useful. Scrnshots is a brilliant place for both of these things, so get signed up.

Tags: , Derek Kehler, inspiration, Ryan Townsend, screenshots, ScrnShots, Web Design
Posted in Featured ScrnShots User, Uncategorized | No Comments » | May 28th, 2008 by Derek Kehler

Hey ScrnShot-ites,

Day 1 was a huge success! We are happy to welcome just under 500 new users to the ScrnShots community!

We ended off the day with just under 10,000 page views, and 720 screenshots uploaded!

We want to thank everyone who signed up and contributed yesterday. It’s really exciting for us to see people using ScrnShots!

Tags: screenshots, ScrnShots, stats
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment » | May 7th, 2008 by Derek Kehler

I would like to thank Sarah Perez and all the folks at ReadWriteWeb, for the flattering review of ScrnShots.

Here is Sarah’s take on ScrnShots:

Scrnshots, currently in private beta, is meant to serve as a community for designers to share their screenshots of interesting or beautiful designs. However, the service, which allows you to upload shots which others can use via an embed code, has the potential to be more than just a niche community for artistic types.

At first glance, ScrnShots appears to be a takeoff on sites like FFFFOUND! or We Heart It (our coverage). Those sites let you “favorite” pictures from the web as inspiring, interesting, artistic, and so on. ScrnShots takes it a step further, encouraging you to take a screenshot of the image and then upload it to their service.

She makes a few good points about ScrnShots being more than just a “niche community” for designers. She mentions the potential use for bloggers who need a place to host screenshots that are simply not important enough to take up space on your computer. These are exactly the ways in which we would love to see ScrnShots grow; users coming up with their own uses for our system.

Sarah touches on the fact that the uploading process is simply too long: “As it is right now, screenshots have to be uploaded one-by-one, a tedious process that simply takes to long for anyone to become a heavy user of the service.”

We, here at ScrnShots have two answers for this:

1. We’re working on a few uploading tools right now that should make integration with your desktop quite seemless. You can check out a video preview of the ScrnShots mac desktop application here: http://blog.scrnshots.com/2008/04/09/screencast-mac-desktop-app-preview/
2. We are also going to be releasing the API to the public a few weeks after launch, which will enable developers to build their own tools to share with the community.

Once again, thank you to Sarah and ReadWriteWeb!! We really appreciate it!

Tags: API, Community, ReadWriteWeb, review, Sarah Perez, screenshots, ScrnShots, upload
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments » | May 1st, 2008 by Derek Kehler