6 Tech Tools That Can Help You Keep Your Cool This Summer

The always changing face of tech tools and increasing number of methods for virtual communication and connection with others occasionally makes my head spin. But I also can’t deny that I oooh and aaaah at certain things which come across my virtual desk through the work weeks - technology is pretty cool sometimes, you know? 

I thought with the summer heat moving in fast, it’d be a good time to pull out a few of my recent “cool” saves and share them with you:

First up is The Sheepinator, a game that lets you zap negative tweets and turn them into something a little less offensive – in this case, sheep.  With a super simple user interface and the ability to search for specific topics to blast, this game is surprisingly addictive.

Speaking of tweets – did you ever notice that ideas which come from those with influence tend to be shared more often, regardless of the quality of the idea? With Blind Twitter, which keeps tweet authors as well as like/retweet counts hidden from your view, you finally get to decide the quality of the tweet without being swayed by built-in biases and pressures.

In a ‘there’s an app for that’ world, we’ve got apps popping up every day to help ease pretty much any task we can dream up. For instance, UX Recipe for iPhone is a checklist app where you can discover, choose and estimate your next UX project tools and techniques, as well as explore curated recommendations and resources for each design tool.  As a potential bonus to those who appreciate such things, its interface is full of gentle cooking puns.

Writing email copy for announcements and communication with your patrons can be a somewhat painful task at times. But in a world where everything’s kind of already been said before, crowdsourcing and curation is a powerful tool. Take a look at Just Good Copy, a site that allows you to search and browse quality email copy from other companies based off of keywords such as subscription renewal, email confirmation, and account update. Maybe you’ll find some inspiration there next time you’re tasked with drafting up another school or firm wide email.

I always enjoy reading people’s Twitter and website bios – the more absurd conglomeration of buzzwords and hipster lingo, the better. Just for fun, create your own ‘designer bio’ using the Designer Bio Generator.  It described me as a ‘Ukulelist and Eames fan who is performing at the sweet spot between simplicity and elegance to save the world from bad design.”

And finally, how strong is your website?  Plug it in to the Website Grader, powered by HubSpot, to find out your scores in the categories of performance optimization, mobile traffic, SEO, and security. Your site report also offers links to additional resources on the HubSpot blog that can help you increase your scores or at the very least, understand more about them.

Feel free to share some of your own cool tech tools for summer below!