For example, simple to-do list app Ta-da List lacks some of the functionality of its more full-featured competitors, such as the ability to add due dates to tasks. To compensate for this, some users add the due date to the item itself. An alternative, which I use, is to create a new list for each week and add the day to each list item (see below).

As we all have different needs and habits, we’ll find different ways to work around limited functionality. In a blog post about Ta-da List’s “missing” features, a reader commented that he doesn’t add due dates because he sees it as a form of procrastination.

Another example is the “Canned Responses” feature from Gmail Labs. My first impression was that it would just be good for pre-written emails, such as vacation responses. But after seeing how other users made the most of it and by testing it myself, I quickly realized that Canned Responses has more potential uses, including setting up “smart” autoresponders and creating multiple signatures. So instead of needing to search for a complex email app that allows for that kind of functionality, creative use of a simple plug-in will do.

Why go through all this trouble rather than looking for the perfect tool with all the features we want? First, there’s rarely a tool that has everything you’re looking for. Each app has its own pros and cons. While you can make a table listing all the features you want, comparing each app side-by-side, this kind of analysis takes a lot of time and effort. Second, we can often live without many of the features that we think we need.

Finding our own workarounds may take a bit of creativity, but it’s often preferable to switching to a bloated tool that takes more time to learn, download, or get used to. In many cases, it’s more important to find a tool with an easy-to-navigate interface and a quick learning curve that you can start using right away. Instead of spending a lot of time searching for the perfect tool and trying to learn it, wouldn’t you rather start on the work that you need these tools for in the first place?

Have you found creative solutions to deal with some “missing” features in your favorite apps? Share them with us in the comments below.

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e-tipi

“We believe that sharing an espresso in a nice café creates a particular atmosphere that frees minds and promotes promising ideas to expressly appear. This is what we call Espresso Thinking.”

It’s a nice thought, but is that really something that can be captured in a web-based environment? I recently talked about the same kind of collaboration (lack of coffee products notwithstanding) in an article about my beloved sketchbook, so I was eager to find out if I could recreate the experience digitally using e-tipi.

e-tipi incorporates elements of Twitter, Digg, wikis and blogs to create a workspace in which ideas can be born and explored. Each user page is called a tipi, and it contains various ideas submitted by the tipi’s users. All of the ideas center around a central “challenge,” which the main problem or purpose of the tipi. Think of a challenge like a big picture problem that requires a multi-parted and multi-staged solution.

Along with your tipi page, you also get a unique email address that contributors can send their ideas to directly, for quickly adding to the tipi’s repository. You can also follow your tipi on Twitter, the stream for which is automatically updated with information of your choosing. I like both of these tie-ins, because they make e-tipi feel more connected with other networks, making it much more accessible, which is something I like in idea generation tools.

You can also export your data at any time as either XML or HTML, which makes it easy to plug into other tools, including database management software. It’s a nice way to help you organize the raw information you produce using e-tipi’s tools. A messy free-for-all is a good way to generate creative thought, but it may not be the best storage solution for more polished ideas.

Ideas are listed on their own separate page, and you can sort them by activity and date. Each idea listed shows votes for or against, total views, and the number of comments users have posted about each. You also get the idea’s title, its creator, any tags that may have been applied, and the status, if the idea has one. For each idea, an administrator can set the status to tell others how far along the process intis, using labels like “Accepted,” “Started,” etc. You can also filter your ideas list by keyword to narrow your search.

Each idea page looks a little like a Digg article page, complete with the text of the idea in question and comments made by other users underneath. You also get to see potentially related ideas listed at the bottom of the description page.

Other nice features of e-tipi include a tag cloud, and a member display, in which you can view a user’s profile information, and access information like how many ideas they’ve contributed to, including comments and voting, and how many documents they’ve contributed. You can also highlight certain areas in a Spotlight menu for quick access.

Overall, e-tipi is a very rough-cut tool, when measured against others I’ve tried in the past. It’s not exactly easy on the eyes, and at times it can even seem disorganized. Despite that sense of mess, or perhaps because of it, e-tipi does feel like something that could well operate as fertile ground for the generation and refinement of ideas. I like the sense of freedom inherent in the site, and the potential for unstructured, loose collaboration with a wide number of viewers.

Do you use a web app for idea generation and refinement? Which one?

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Dear Friends,

On behalf of web workers everywhere, I’d like to thank you for the wonderfully creative ideas you’ve come up with. But since it’s becoming such a crowded field, you need to do a better job telling us why we should spend the time to evaluate your product.

Let me give you some tips, illustrated with real examples from products that have recently come across my desk. I won’t name names, because I haven’t tried the applications in question.

• Explain clearly what your application does. Will it change the way we work?

Good: “Create customizable contact forms and buttons”

Not Good: “With Product X you can create and spread groups users can choose and register themselves at.”

• Compare your product (truthfully) with those of your competitors, and tell us why your application stands out.
• Don’t rely on videos to demonstrate your product. We don’t have the time to view them, and we may be in environments where playing videos is disruptive.
• Be up-front about how your application is to be paid for. Web workers don’t care much about your business plan, but we do care about the bottom line, and if we’re going to use your product, we want to know that it isn’t going away.

Good: “Free for a limited time.” It would be nice to know what the service is going to cost, but at least we know that you’re planning to charge fees in the future.

Not Good: “Is Product X for free? Yes, it is absolutely free.” OK, but we know that you aren’t creating a product for nothing. Are you planning to become advertising-supported?

• Proofread, for heaven’s sake. Can we trust a product on which one of the major buttons reads “Embedd/Widget”?
• Make your web site attractive, compatible with all major browsers, accessible for those with disabilities and usable on mobile devices.
• Don’t require that we provide any personal information, except as necessary to make your product work. Make your privacy policy clear.
• Mark your product “Beta” or “Preview” if it’s still in development. Web workers are willing to try new things, and we can be understanding when things break. Just give us a way to ask questions and send feedback.

Keep up the good work! It’s always exciting to find a new web service that helps us do our jobs.

Yours very sincerely,

Charlie

What recent applications have changed the way you work?

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I probably overindulge, in fact. Some people, however, are not using them to their full potential, or simply not using them at all. It makes sense if you just have a clean browser policy, but if you’re not aware of what’s available, then you could be missing out.

Mozilla’s new Fashion Your Firefox web application is designed to make add-ons more accessible, and easier to find and install.

The existing Firefox add-ons page can be daunting. Fashion Your Firefox takes the guesswork out of add-on browsing, grouping them thematically based on over-arching types. Yes, it may be reductionist, but it also saves you a lot of aimless wandering on the add-ons page.

The categories Mozilla puts forward are meant to apply to people in general, but web workers take note: each also represents an industry or professional field.

Finder and Seeker = Research Analyst
StumbleUpon and Interclue are great tools for finding connections and deepening your initial information gathering phase when conducting broad, open-ended search-based research.

Social Butterfly = Networker, Social Media Professional
LinkedIn Companion is valuable for any web professional, but especially for people in the business of being connected. Yoono, Facebook, and TwitterFox are likewise great tools in the socializer’s arsenal.

Shutterbug = Freelance Photographer, Media Buyer
Fotofox is a must have for the online photographer, and Cooliris makes the daunting task of sifting through thousands of photos looking for just the right image for that ad mock-up a much more pleasurable experience.

Digital Packrat = Project Manager, Managing Editor
Make sure you’re on the same page wherever you go with Foxmarks. I can’t count how many times I’ve said “I wish I had that bookmark on this computer” before installing this add-on. Likewise, Delicious.

Rock Star = Musician, Concert Promoter, Agent
Keep track of your own or your client’s music, track similar artists to organize tours, stay on top of trends and manage your audience.

Decorator = Design Professional
Mostly frivolous, but creative professionals sometimes thrive on frivolity. These themes could provide the inspiration needed to generate that layout that’ll wow your client.

Shopaholic = Professional Shopper, eBay Powerseller
eBay as a constant companion. For those of you in this field, I don’t think I need to say more.

News Junkie = Reporter, Blogger
If I didn’t have Wizz RSS reader and Morning Coffee, I wouldn’t be able to do my job. Also, on a side note, ForecastFox keeps my obsessive need for weather updates under control.

Executive Assistant = Well, this one’s kinda obvious.
ReminderFox will help anyone stay on top of things. This is another category great for the obsessive micro-manager.

Now that I’ve translated Fashion Your Firefox for web workers, go out and get downloading.

Add-ons can be overwhelming, so it’s great Mozilla has produced this list, but don’t stop there. As you test these, see what you like and don’t like, and use those “This is nice, but I wish I could…” moments to drive your searches for better, more suitable extensions.

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Nine years ago as an interactive designer in a multimedia agency, designers would post various items we liked -magazine clippings, flyers, business cards, websites – onto a physical noticeboard that we could glance up at for inspiration. Over time, this grew organically into a wonderful design resource for the studio.

These days, my equivalent is a folder on my MacBook desktop called ‘Design Bin’ – I screenshot or scan a design I think might be inspirational in future and dump it in my design bin. However simple, this resource is growing in volume but diminishing in context – and in a connected era – is strangely unsociable.

Enter Scrnshots, a web-based service that lets designers share their inspirations by posting screenshots of interesting designs to a Flickr-esque web site.

There’s nothing here that cannot be accomplished by use and adaptation of photo and image sharing services like Flickr. But the emphasis on graphic designers and the materials that inspire them ensure a focus that could become otherwise diffused in a broader-based service. For web workers, the ability to be inspired by the inspirations of others is a powerful feature.

Scrnshots is the first production of Vancouver’s Orange Peel Media. Last Saturday, after playing about with the service for a few hours, I got the chance to pose some questions to cofounders Greg Bell and Derek Kehler…

Do you see services like Flickr missing a huge niche? Can you sneak under the radar and take users/usage from such apps by producing interesting verticals.

Yes. We do see services like Flickr missing a huge niche, but it’s not their fault. It’s not what they set out to accomplish. Derek and I are both avid Flickr users and love it for sharing our photos, but, we don’t want to share our screenshots with our friends and family (our Flickr contacts). They just get annoyed with us. They’re interested in seeing photos of our dogs, not screenshots of the greatest form designs we ever saw.

On the other hand, we all have huge collections of screenshots that are collecting dust on our harddrives and could be a great source of inspiration and conversation for the web community. That’s why we built Scrnshots. It’s a personal itch that we wanted to scratch.

Current design galleries are very one way. There is a group of people who get to decide what screenshots are added to them and then users are not even given tools to discuss the work. We wanted to change the game completely and give everyone the ability to create their own design gallery and share it with the world. We’ve found it extremely refreshing to subscribe to our friends’ RSS feeds on ScrnShots and see what they are posting on a regular basis. It makes for a type of conversation that wasn’t necessarily possible before.

Other than designers, can you see other communities that might find the service useful?

The primary target audience for ScrnShots is the web design community. We do however recognize that the tools we’re building have value to other communities such as blogger, gamers, etc. Really, the community is being built to allow for easy posting and discussion of screenshots. We aren’t too concerned whether they are designers or not.

We don’t claim to have all the answers for where ScrnShots is heading, rather we want to get it out into the public, start building a community and then see where it takes us.

The desktop app looks useful – will you have the capability to grab entire pages in a browser – a la Paparazzi?

Thanks! We’ve been using the app internally for a while and it makes the service so much easier/better to interact with. It becomes second nature to add screenshots to your account. At launch, the app won’t support taking full page screenshots like in Paparazzi. But, we are releasing at the same time a public API which we hope to see some simple tools built for that we just don’t have time to do. Also, we are working on getting a Firefox plugin made which would be able to take full page grabs.

Is the tech scene in Vancouver favorable to entrepreneurs and startups?

The Vancouver tech scene is “growing.” There are quite a few new opportunities that have emerged within the last few months: Bootup Labs and Launch Party being the two that we have been in contact with.

I know for a fact that there are lots of new startups arising from the Vancouver area, however, I’m not too sure whether they’ve had a lot of help getting there. I think the entrepreneurial way of doing things is to just work as hard as you can by yourself; if someone helps out along the way, that’s just a bonus.

Are you thinking about import tools – like grab all my images tagged ‘screenshot’ from Flickr?

This is the reason we’re releasing the public API. We see so many other services on the web that ScrnShots could integrate with as well as all the different desktop screen-capture applications. While we don’t have a formal plan to build the Flickr importer yet, it really would not be that much work once our API is finished.

Can you see some deeper integration with design tools like Photoshop, maybe creating mood boards or an ‘inspire me’ tool?

We are definitely working towards getting deeper integration into the Designer’s workflow. Design shops have expressed interest in creating private areas for their teams to brainstorm and share screenshots with clients to replace traditional mood-boarding techniques. We’ve used ScrnShots to do this and found that is was extremely successful. We are releasing PRO (paid) accounts on June 6 which will include the ability to create private screenshots as well as private groups. So, a design studio could create a private group for a project, then collect screenshots of all the client’s competitors as well as design inspiration for the project. Currently, there are very few tools that let studios do this in a useful way.

Currently invitation-only, Scrnshots launches to the general public today.

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