|
Features
On the iPad
Okay, we've spent the last several months exploring and developing things on the iPad tablet platform. While we don't want to sound like an Apple commercial, and we don't want to add needless volume to the noisy hype surrounding this new technology, and we don't want to sound like we've totally gone off our rocker, we do want to express our opinion...
|
izotz!prototype : Prototyping Large Websites
Very often the things that take the longest in any website project are creating pages, filling them with content, and organizing (then reorganizing over and over) the website architecture. Prototype is a tool designed to make that part of the process much quicker and easier, and enable non technical users to work together.
|
izotz!click - Building Online Marketing Campaigns
Online tools to help you build landing pages and marketing websites, split-test page performance, and create powerful online marketing campaigns.
|
Building Flash Websites
The Flash Website Builder module lets you create an instant flash website out of the static webpages in your izotz universe.
|
Wizard Module - Create Multi-step Pages to Display Info or Collect Data
Wizards have long been a powerful tool in guiding viewers through pages of information. If you are collecting info, a wizard can break a long form into user friendly steps. The Wizard Module lets you do all this.
|
Web Tracker Tools - Get More Out of Your Websites
Let your users tell you how you need to make your website better. The Web Tracker tool gives you real time feedback on how your visitors are using your websites. Use this information to fine tune your pages.
|
Want To Earn Commissions Selling Websites?
If you want to provide website building services from within your website, add this module and enable people to sign up with izotz, and collect a commission for every sign up.
|
Making Landing Pages
An important part of having your website work harder for you is making stand alone webpages that support your online marketing efforts. The Stand Alone Static Webpage Module can really help you do this.
|
Integrating Other Web Stuff Into Your izotz Universe
Most people have some kind of web presence. Some already have online stores, photo galleries, or other online things. It's not hard to integrate other websites into your izotz universe.
|
Why Would You Need More Than One Website?
It's hard enough to build and maintain one website, who in there right mind wants two? Or three? Or a dozen? If you really want to make the web work hard for you...
|
Are You Looking For the Competitive Edge in Your Business
The izotz tools are powered by a backend technology called the izotz!IMS Internet Management System. This powerful system can drive a lot of different business models, with the izotz web building tools being just one.
|
|
|
Are You Into Online Games?
There are lots and lots of people out there publishing online games, many of them in the Flash format. This module lets you create pages for those games, and allows you to build your own gaming website.
|
Make Your Own Online Email Forms
Email forms are a staple of nearly all websites. The Email Forms module lets you easily create custom email forms, collect information from users or send information out to people, and store that information in data files.
|
Using the Mailing List Module
Combine the Mailing List module with the Broadcast Email tool and you have a very easy way to communicate with people who sign up for one of your mailing lists.
|
The ISP Webmaster Module
This module will allow you to create multiple independent izotz websites. Whether you are a web designer, and ISP, or someone like the IT guy at a school district, if you need to make a lot of websites, all for different people, this module is for you. Make a BUSINESS doing izotz websites.
|
Using Stand Alone Webpages
All izotz modules can run as stand alone webpages. Learn how this feature can really help you use your content in ways you might not have thought about.
|
Create Your Own Social Network
Social networks are a fun and useful way for a varied group of people to connect, share, and interact. The new izotz Social Network module allows you to create your own private social network quickly and easily.
|
Getting izotz onto Facebook
The izotz app on Facebook allows you to add izotz websites and web projects to your Facebook page.
|
The Tao of iZotz
At first glance iZotz probably looks like one of the zillion website building tools that flood the internet highways. And on the surface it certainly is. Here's a little bit of the iZotz philosophy.
|
iZotz as Add-on
You can use iZotz to build a big website. But you can also use it to build add-ons to your current website. You don't need to abandon everything you already have to leverage iZotz modules into your web presence.
|
Using the Photo Gallery Module for Breaking News
One of the best things about the internet is how it can be so immediate. Say it, see it, post it, and everyone gets to share in it. And the Photo Gallery module can help you do that.
|
Building Projects Offline
When building a new project, new pages for a website, or performing a major website overhaul, use these strategies to help you make the transition from stage to live.
|
iZotz For Beginners
Putting things on the web using iZotz can be really easy. As your needs evolve, it can get more complicated. This introduction will give you a foundation which will make things easier for you.
|
The Disposable Website
Thinking about the web differently. Maybe it doesn't have to be so permanent.
|
Project Management Website Template
A disposable website that enables a team of people to collaborate on projects. Perfect for contractors, software developers, event planners, lawyers, or any other group of people who might need to communicate while working on a project.
|
iZotz Mobile iPhone
iZotz Mobile gives you complete access to your iZotz administrator through your iPhone.
|
WIKI
WIKI is that cool little thing you see at the bottom of many webpages that allows you to post comments about the content on a webpage. You can enable WIKI in many iZotz modules.
|
When to Get Another iZotz Account
You can build as many websites and pages as you want under your iZotz membership, so why would you need more than one account?
|
Messaging
The Messaging module allows you to create messaging applications that allow website members to send non-email messages to website adminstrators, a select list of people, or each other.
|
Quick Prototypes
Whether or not you are building an iZotz project, iZotz can help you shorten development time on any website project. Use iZotz to prototype your projects.
|
eStore
Designed to be easy to run, the eStore template lets you create online stores to sell either electronic products or hard goods, and includes a shopping cart, online payment processing, order manager, and a "specials" page.
|
Schedules and Calendars
The new schedule templates let you build personal and shared calendars, work schedulers, appointment managers, and all kinds of other date related projects.
|
Create an Online Newspaper
The Newspaper template makes it a snap to create and maintain online newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and when used with a little creative thought...highly adaptible standalone websites.
|
Creating a Custom Administration Page
Use custom administration pages to limit administration options, reduce training, and make administrating projects painless.
|
Using Friendly URL Names
When you create a new iZotz project, it gets assigned a randomly generated ID number. This ID number is then used in a URL to reach your project on the web. Using the Friendly URL Name tool you can create user friendly URL names and replace those random ID's, making it much easier to remember your project URL's.
|
|
Quick Prototypes
Using iZotz to Prototype Websites
 esigning a website is often a long complicated process, especially if the process involves a lot of stakeholders. There is always a lot of give and take over design decisions, time consuming revisions during the design process, and often a lot of second thoughts once the project nears completion...usually causing a lot of pain amongst the design staff because revisions are so costly to the time schedule.
Then, when the design is more or less complete, you start the content collection process. You know, the part of the project where everyone is supposed to submit their webpage content. As anyone who has done it knows, this can often be a real time consuming nightmare commonly described to be "herding cats", with many people adding the descriptive "herding cats into a dog house" nomiker.
Whether or not you are planning to end up with an iZotz website, the iZotz tools can be used to short circuit this website building process in a big way. Create your prototype website in iZotz, have stakeholders use this prototype to fill in content, pass the structural layout along to your website designers, then let them pull it all together in whatever content management system you plan on using for your final implementation.
Building a Prototype Architecture
All websites have webpages. How many pages, what they are named, what they contain, and how they are organized is a key component of website design. Coming up with this architectural structure can sometimes be done on a whiteboard or even the back of a napkin, but in larger websites with many stakeholders, the design process can become really cumbersome very quickly.
Try building out your prototype design as an iZotz project. Not only is it quick and easy to create the basic webpages, navigation architecture, and design components, but when it comes time to implement revisions, the iZotz tools make that a snap. In many cases you can simply turn sections of the website over to the appropriate stakeholders, and say "change the order of the pages to whatever you want", and let them drag pages around the navigation menus using the iZotz tools themselves. Or, during your presentation to the stakeholders, you do it yourself live while they watch. Make those meetings productive...design it live. That makes a lot of people very happy very fast.
Collecting Content
One of the most onerous jobs is collecting the content that will populate website webpages. Traditionally you'll ask people to send in Word documents, PDF files, printed matter, or whatever else they might have that contains the necessary content, and someone will sit down and enter all that into a data repository, apply some standardized formatting, and eventually import it into whatever content management system runs the website.
Instead, try using the iZotz tools to simplify content collection. For example, if you've created a website architecture as described above, you could ask people to go to your prototype website and directly enter content into the pages that have been laid out. Everyone simply locates their assigned webpages in the website, and enters content.
An even better method, one which doesn't rely on you having a finished website architecture, is to create a temporary website containing all of the required empty webpages, maybe organized by department or person responsible for providing content, then turn people loose on that website to enter their content. The website architecture can be structured with an eye towards simplifying content collection, not what the final website will look like. iZotz makes it easy to create multiple websites that share content pages, so doing something like this is really simple.
Easiest of all, simply turn content contributors loose on the content libraries in the iZotz Administrator and have them fill in their pages. They don't have to know or even see the website architecture, nor be concerned about it. They just fill in the content.
Exporting the Prototype
When building a prototype, initial attention is usually focused on website structure, content, and navigation. It's pretty hard for a graphic designer to come up with a website design if he or she doesn't know what the website will contain. The iZotz tool lets you short circuit the initial design process, and when complete, results in something functional that you can point at and tell a graphic designer "that's what it's supposed to do, now make it look good." Quite often, the graphic designer will then have plenty of new design suggestions, and sometimes you'll need to go back to the drawing board and do some reorganizing. Well, you can easily do that with your iZotz prototype.
Eventually everyone will be satisfied with the structure and content of the new website, you'll have a functional prototype showing exactly how all the pieces fit together, and your graphic designer can go to town and make it look good. If you plan on keeping your project in iZotz, that means a bit of work on an appearance skin...and it's done. If you plan on moving the project to another content management system, at least you'll have something tangible that your programmers can use as a working model.
Exporting the Content
While you can't simply export an iZotz project to another content management system, you certainly can export the content collected by your iZotz prototype. Open the Tools-->Export Data tool from the wizard popup menu in the iZotz Administrator, select the module that collected your content, and click the export button. All of the data in the content library will be assembled into an XML file, which you can then download. Turn that file over to your web developer, and they'll be able to figure out how to import the content within that file into your content management system.
Conclusion
There is a whole lot of futzing around that goes into building a website. As the size of the website grows, and the number of stakeholders increases, the process can become cumbersome and time consuming. Using the iZotz tools you can streamline that process in a lot of different ways to help you prototype website architecture, navigation menus, page layouts, and especially collect content.
Whether or not you plan on deploying your final project in iZotz, using the iZotz tools to prototype website projects can really speed up the development process.
|
|