Hi, I’m Grace Smith

Show Me Your Dock Series! Part 27

Charlie Maybury is a User Experience Professional based in Brighton, UK. His passion is good web design, and he is a great believer in the ‘Art of Simplicity’ to enhance a website’s ease of use.

Web Accessibility is close to his heart, and he specialises in creating and reworking websites to ensure they are not only accessible, but also to provide a positive ‘Accessible User Experience’. He writes regular updates about accessibility on his blog: Web Accessibility Rambles.

I asked Charlie if he would give us the lowdown on the applications he relies upon as a designer and UX specialist on a daily basis.

The Intro…

Although I like a minimalist design and uncluttered workspace, I also like to have my favourite programs just one click away. I like my dock to be quite small to allow me to make best use of my whole screen.

The Dock…

• Finder – Helps me find my things.
• Dashboard – I use Dashboard regularly for the calculator and currency converter app.
• Mail – I use Mail on occasion, but generally rely on webmail these days.
• Safari – Mainly used for testing websites I am building, Firefox is my browser of choice.
• Address Book – No explanation needed!
• iCal – I love iCal for a quick view of my appointments & social calendar!
• Preview – Mainly used as a PDF viewer.
• Xee – Image viewer of choice.
• iTunes – I love iTunes. I am rarely without music.
• iPhoto – Used for very quick and simple photo edits.
• Firefox – Firefox fulfils all of my web surfing needs. I have a large array of add-ons and couldn’t survive without Firebug anymore!
• Word – OK, I like Microsoft Word… don’t hold it against me.
• Open Office – Open Office is fine, slow to use though.
• TextEdit – I use TextEdit for quick drafts, notes or coding.
• Transmission – Super quick Bit Torrent client.
• Taco – A nice simple HTML editor. Used regularly.
• Burn – Great simple CD/DVD burning application.
• Last FM – Used to scrobble my music.
• Audacity – For easy recording of verbal interviews & user tests.
• iMovie – Used occasionally to edit demo’s / user tests.
• GarageBand – For a bit of music fun once in a while.
• GuitarRig2 – Makes my guitar playing sound good.
• VLC – Great all round media player…plays anything.
• Handbrake – Superb and simple video transcoder
• Front Row – I like to use Front Row when using my Macbook as a media center.
• Cyberduck – FTP client of choice. Nice and easy to use.
• Adobe Reader – For viewing those long PDF reports.
• Spaces – Nice for separating my work and play.
• Adium – My ‘always on’ IM application
• Skype – Skype is vital for those long distance calls, without the huge cost!
• GIMP – Open Source photo manipulation package. I prefer GIMP to Photoshop at the moment.
• Time Machine – It’s like my digital life insurance!
• DivX Player – Used occasionally if VLC is not playing ball.
• System Preferences – I like to have a quick link to my prefs in my dock.
• Excel – Unfortunately, I still use Excel to capture research results, although I hate every minute of it.
• Powerpoint – Powerpoint is still my presentation package of choice.
• Microsoft Messenger – My MSN IM application is used if Adium is struggling.
• Quicksilver – I use Quicksilver almost constantly to quickly launch apps and documents using the keyboard.
• Parallels – Allows me to test designs in Window’s XP if necessary.
• Smultron – I really like Smultron, it fulfils all my programming needs.

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A huge thanks to Charlie for taking time out to take part in the Dock Series.

If you would like to be featured in the Dock Series simply:

• Download the Dock Series Template.
• Email it along with the necessary images to: hi [at] gracesmith.co.uk.

Check out the other creatives in the series.

With more amazing creatives lined up, make sure to check back every Tuesday for the latest Dock Series installment.

Related posts:

1. Show Me Your Dock Series! Part 29
2. Show Me Your Dock Series! Part 21
3. Show Me Your Dock Series! Part 23

Grace Smith is owner of the small but perfectly formed web design studio Postscript5, in Northern Ireland. To keep up to date with the latest designalicious content, then please consider subscribing.