Just launched: House of Trucks Website

We just launched a new site for House of Trucks, the Midwest’s leading, used truck dealer. This new site features content mangement via WordPress and mobility with resposive web design. It’s a great site that showcases their trucks on any device.  We invite you to take a peek for your self via the link below. 

House of Trucks Website

Park Dental Specialists chooses Echo

Park Dental Specialists, a highly successful dental practice with offices in Orland Park and Lincoln Park has selected echo for the development of a new content mangagement website, as well as a variety of print materials.  We are thrilled to be working with such a successful and progressive organization.

App of the month: UP by Jawbone

During the past weeks, a few members of the Echo team have been involved in a fierce competition. Well, maybe not fierce. Using the Jawbone UP, we’ve been recording our sleep, movement, and food consumption to see how we measure up against each other. Though the UP app provides the interface for viewing your data, you’ll need the wrist band to monitor your movement and sleep. The UP band is a light, thin, and comfortable bracelet-style band with a rubberized coating. It’s meant to be worn 24 hours a day, and is water-resistant, so you don’t have to worry about splashes or wearing it in the shower. I’ve had mine for a few months now, and I barely notice it anymore.

For Christmas I received the Jawbone UP as a gift from my wife. Instantly I was obsessed with tracking my steps, sleep, and eating habits in terrifying detail. A couple times per day, you connect your band to your iPhone or Android phone to sync with the UP app, and the app provides you with a well designed and fun to use interface for visualizing how close you are to your goals for steps and sleep. Using the app’s powerful built in trend tools, you can assess your performance over time. Entering the food you eat is quick an easy, and the app helps you keep track of many different metrics like fat, carbs, protein, etc. Most food items can be added to the app by simply scanning the barcode label on the food package with the built in barcode reader. The app populates the nutritional information automatically from a database of food items.

In addition to simply tracking your activities, the band can also be set to vibrate when you’re inactive for a long period of time. These little nudges help to remind you to get up and move around during long days at your desk. The band also acts as an alarm clock, and will vibrate within 30 minutes of your selected alarm time during the lightest point in your sleep cycle so you wake up feeling refreshed and energetic. The UP is a great tool for tracking your daily activities and staying in shape, and one that we highly recommend.

Our Thoughts on the Pinterest Redesign

The up-and-coming and blogger loved social media hub, Pinterest, recently launched a complete redesign of their website. This is one of the biggest interface changes since the site’s start in early 2010. Since then, the increasingly popular platform has gained steam for its ease of use and unique form of user interaction. On Pinterest, users can pin photos and videos to boards, categorized in any way they please, and share these bookmarks with followers. Its aesthetic based design is what has driven the site to such popularity. While the technical changes in the new design are minimal, the aesthetic changes have given the site a whole new purpose. With larger pins, a more modern profile page, and simplified navigation, the site shines in its new skin. User interface is simplistic and understandable, interaction between pinners is easy to use, and managing your own pins has a newly defined ease. Possibly the best addition to the site is the new individual pin page. When selecting a pin by itself, you’re taken to a new page that hosts a gaggle of new feature that make further exploration on the site much more meaningful. Juxtaposed to the enlarged version of the pin sits an easily scroll-able bar with the rest of the board. Below the pin sits similar pins from various users. These changes make it not only easier to find more pins from your favorite users, but also allows you to find new pinners with similar styles to those you love. With new changes in social media, backlash and confusion often ensues. However, Pinterest’s new redesign stands out as a clear exception to the rule. The new features and navigation are not only easy on the eyes, but also better the experience incredibly. Pinterest is a must have in your social media toolbox and one to definitely keep your eye on in the future.

New Portfolio Projects!

We’ve added four new projects to our portfolio section.  They all are websites that were recently launched.  Projects added include websites for Naperville Magazine, Buy Local Naperville, FQC Construction and Apex.  Please click our portfolio link to learn more.