photo credit: jared

Icons are an effective aid in helping users quickly find and gather information. They not only communicate information but help break it up and add visual interest to grab the users’ attention.

With thousands of icons available, with endless gradients, colors and reflections, it can be overwhelming as to what will best suit your minimalist design. There are alternatives to all those over-glossed icons, should you require a more simple, elegant design style.

Here are ten noteworthy icon sets which match the minimalist design ethos.

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1. Iconic

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Iconic is a beautiful set consisting of 120 icons in raster and vector formats. The icon set packages are in both PNG, SVG, and SWC image formats with Omnigraffle stencil formats also included. The raster-format icons come in 8×8, 12×12, 16×16, 24×24 and 32×32 pixels; however, if you require a different size you can create your own with the original SVG icons. Iconic also comes in 14 separate colors to meet most designers requirements.

The beauty of Iconic is it’s flexibility, with each icon rendering from eight to 800 pixels, while maintaining a high legibility. Many of the icons in the set come in at least two variations to further increase flexibility. The strict adherence to a grid system also helps keep the look of the set consistent. While the icons are minimal in style they are highly stylized yet subtle enough to be easily incorporated into most design projects. The icons were originally designed for a WordPress theme, and it is within a blog format where they would perhaps be showcased best.

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2. Mono Icons

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Available as a free download, this pack consists of 108 icons in a 32×32 pixel PNG format. While the icons are gray you can easily customize the color in Photoshop, by using layer styles and applying Color Overlay. In Fireworks, simply apply Filters → Adjust Color → Color Fill and choose your color.

The icons are simple, bold and extremely well designed and would fit well within most applications, perhaps best though within either a software application UI or blog format. The ease with which they can be customized and colorized make them an attractive option for your next project.

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3. Pictoico

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With over 100 fully scalable icons, available free for download, Pictoico is an attractive package which bundles both vector and SVG formats. It is the start of a visual initiative to create over 1,000 symbols which will be released to the public over the course of 2010. Pictoico aims to create a contemporary, simple icon which can be used in a variety of ways.

The icons could be incorporated into your online, print, mobile and software applications. The author even suggests utilizing them for signs in the real world around your street, campus, resort or even city.

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4. Gentleface Toolbar Icons

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Available free or with a Royalty Free license, the entire set totals 244 original icons (including eight cursors) optimized for 16×16 pixel size and available in 16×16, 32×32 and 48×48 pixel sizes. The set includes vector icons in EPS and flash SWF formats, which allow complete control to resize without loss of fidelity, color, and effects.

The icons include pagination arrows, ratings and voting controls, social interaction symbols, file system icons and text editor actions. These icons are extremely versatile and would be ideally suited to wireframes and software mock-up creation; however, they would also work well within software applications, toolbars, and even within iPhone and iPod apps.

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5. PICOL

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PICOL stands for PIctorial Communication Language and is a project to find a standard and reduced sign system for electronic communication. PICOL currently offer 3 sets of icons each totaling 517 beautifully designed icons. 16×16 and 32×32 pixel formats are available along with a SVG vector package, all free to download.

The icons offer a unique take on many of the standard symbols, such as application, firewall, internet, cut, copy and paste. Each icon has been designed to be simple, yet effective in conveying the message.

The PICOL icons were heavily featured in the History of the Internet video (by the same designer), which has amassed over two million views and explains the Internet in a fun and incredibly simplistic and elegant way using the icons.

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6. Brightmix

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Featuring 104 wonderfully elegant icons within one EPS vector format, Brightmix offers a flexibile package which can be resized, edited and colorized simply and efficiently to suit most projects.

The icons were originally designed for the relaunch of a newspaper site, and as the authors created and added to the set and utilized them for other projects, they later decided to release them as a free download. Of particular interest is the WTFPL license under which they are released!

The icons are an update to a previous version and include a wider range of icons, which would be useful for various mediums, such as presentations, iPhone applications, wireframes and software applications.

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7. Token

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A beautiful, minimal set of icons which is available as a free download or with a commercial license ($50), Token includes 128 unique icon designs, available as an ICO bundling of 16×16, 32×32 and 256×256 pixels icons, or as a PNG at 128×128 pixels. Each icon has both dark and light variants, and comes along with a PSD which includes the layer styles for each resolution.

Token was created as a sequel to the designer’s earlier icon set, Mnml, and has been regularly updated and expanded. You can now download the additional Token File Type set which includes 32 icons, has a dark and light variant, and is saved as a windows ICO that displays crisply at most resolutions.

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8. BackToPixel

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Designed in a retro pixel style, BackToPixel is available as a free download of 75 icons in 9×9, 18×18 and 28×28 size pixels, in both PNG and GIF formats. The package also includes the icons in over 10 separate colors.

This unique set also includes three button styles which are optimized for lighter backgrounds. The icons could be utilized especially well within a blog design (perhaps an 80s, old-school or retro styled blog) and equally well within both presentations and website design.

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9. Eclipse2

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Available as a free download, the package includes 116 system and 165 application dock icons in 16×16, 32×32, 48×48 and 128×128 pixel sizes in PNG format.

Whilst originally created as a replacement for system and applications icons, the simplicity and clarity of each icon means they would fit perfectly within presentations, as well as web and software applications.

You can also extend the set by downloading the supplementary pack for additional system and application icons (e.g. Acrobat Reader & Microsoft Office) and the complementary Syzygy icon pack which builds upon Eclipse2.

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10. Helveticons

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No minimalist icon showcase would be complete without including the beautiful Helveticons – a selection of vector icons, glyphs and symbols based on the Helvetica Bold typeface.

The purchasing options range from the basic set ($279) to the complete set of 477 icons with extras ($439), which includes a very helpful PSD file to inspire you on how to make the best use of the icons, with examples ranging from basic web buttons to strong logotypes. The set includes seven file formats of which six are scalable vectors as well as the GS format for Omnigraffle icons and CHS for Photoshop shapes.

The icons are stunning in their clarity and overall design and would be perfect for almost any medium, including; wire-framing, presentations, web applications, buttons and promotional material.

What other minimal styled icon sets have you discovered? Be sure to share your picks in the comments below.

photo credit: marcp_dmoz

Hayden Black is the writer, producer, and star of the huge online hits “Goodnight Burbank,” “Abigail’s Teen Diary,” and “The Occulterers.” He’s racked up multiple awards and nominations, and stellar reviews in the mainstream press. Follow @HaydenBlack on Twitter.

With web video exploding and the promise of GoogleTV around the corner, it’s a wonderful time to be able to upload your own content. But just because anyone can do it doesn’t mean everyone should. For every well-produced, entertaining and informative video, there are millions that aren’t. So what are some of the bigger pitfalls to avoid if you want your video to get people talking?

Firstly, remember that at the moment, the vast majority of content created for the Internet makes zero money, so everything you do should come from a place of passion. Here are a few tips to make that passion work for you.

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1. Take the Time to Write

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Unfortunately, few people who are rushing to get their stuff up on YouTube have actually thought it through. And you don’t have to take my word for it — just click on 99% of the web shows out there and you’ll find the script was clearly lower down on the priority list than craft services.

So here’s where you’ll need to roll up your sleeves. You have to actually sit down and come up with compelling characters and interesting situations. There’s no hurry to get it right either, so take your time.

It’s probably best to outline your show before you write it. And while you’re doing that, discard any parodies you’ve been thinking about. The web is bursting with them. If you want your content to stand out, you should focus on creating something original.

The wonderful thing about the Internet is that you are your own creative force. Nothing exists to dilute your voice or imagination as it might in more established mediums like TV or film, so use both to their full extent.

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2. Know the Medium

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The target length for most web videos is five minutes or less. You should be fully aware of this as you write and prepare for production. Know that within those five minutes, there needs to be a beginning, middle and an end — even if it’s part of a greater narrative structure that takes place over 10 episodes.

Remember that you must make it as engaging as possible: You’re competing with e-mails, Tweets, and whatever else is pinging away in the background.

It’s also important to note that most people watch web videos alone. The sharing is often done not with people present, but through social media and e-mail. So think about how habits change between lone and group audiences.

Take comedies, for example. Viewers tend to have more “laugh out loud” moments when they watch with other people. Sometimes that laughter is contagious — other times, a viewer will want his company to know he’s smart enough to get the joke. Either way, a lone viewer’s laugh out loud moments are going to be fewer and shorter. So when editing your web-based comedy, it’s wise not to leave gaping holes after jokes for the laughter you’re expecting. All you’ll end up with is a vacuum that reminds the viewer that the joke they just heard was even less funny than they thought.

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3. Pay Attention to Production Values

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You don’t have to compete with Mr. Spielberg, but there are a few basics that should be noted when it comes to producing web video — simple things like getting the lighting right (can we see your actors?), making sure all the dialogue can be heard, and ensuring the room tone matches.

Don’t know what room tone is? It’s making sure that everything sounds basically the same when you’re cutting from shot to shot within one setting. To do that, the editor lays down an audio track taken from the room while shooting, which can then be used to make the ambient audio uniform between takes.

Web audiences don’t expect something that looks like The Matrix — but they’re not going to put up with dialogue that sounds like it was recorded through a tin can. Find a good middle ground. Once you’ve got good acting talent and a great script, decent production values are what will set you apart from the thousands of other videos your audience could be watching instead.

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4. Focus on Grassroots Marketing

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Some people think that the best, cheapest, and easiest way to market a web show is to start a Twitter or Facebook account, follow everyone they can, and start “shouting” about the content.

So why is nothing happening? Because you’re yelling into a chasm that’s filled with the echoes from a million other people. No one’s listening for the same reasons they never look at the flyers that come in the mail or the marketing pitches that come to their inboxes.

Take a more engaging approach. It’s a longer route, but the payout is far greater because you’ll ultimately be talking to people who care.

If you’re producing a comedy series, don’t use the related Twitter account to only broadcast when new episodes are up. Between videos, use it as an outlet for news jokes or a free source of silly gags.

And if you are trying to share your content with specific people, take care to avoid hitting them with the same message from multiple angles. The more e-mails, Facebook messages, and Twitter DMs one gets about the same thing, the less likely she’ll be to naturally discover and enjoy it.

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Conclusion

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So there you go — a handful of simple tips that should serve as a starting point for getting your big idea off the ground, and hopefully out to the masses. What sort of production or marketing values do you look for in a successful web series? Be sure to share them in the comments below.

The author of two books, 12-year-old Adora Svitak published her first, Flying Fingers, at the age of seven. In addition, she has spoken at some of the nation’s pre-eminent education conferences and taught students around the world via her video conferencing programs. Most recently, she spoke at the TED conference.

What do you think of when you hear “video conferencing?” Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) meeting with GE executives over TelePresence in 30 Rock? Big corporate boardrooms? Or maybe, just maybe … a classroom of fourth graders?

Believe it or not, there are almost 30,000 video conferencing systems in U.S. schools, service centers, district offices, and departments of education. Many are used every day to connect students around the world.

The ways that video conferencing can enhance the educational experience are numerous. Ginger Lewman, director of the Face2Face program at the Turning Point Learning Center in Emporia, Kansas said that video conferencing has been used “as an essential learning opportunity for the past four years.  We’ve been connecting with students across the U.S. and the world to bring religion, geography, history and service learning to vibrant life.”

But how exactly do you use a video conferencing system in education? Below are five ways to use video conferencing in the classroom.

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1. Connect with Experts

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Turning Point Learning Center makes frequent use of video conferencing, and Ginger Lewman remarked, ”It allows our students, ages 10-14, to begin to develop not only essential communications skills, but also an acute awareness of global issues. It is always a joy to get to talk with experts and peers face to face and in real-time!”

I use distance learning every day to talk to students about the importance of reading and writing. Schools request programs from “content experts” to hear about a certain area of study. For example, knowing that writing was a weak point for their students, New Market Elementary teachers Miss Brown, Mrs. Deck, and Mrs. Ramsey participated in my video conference, “Personal Narrative Writing: Acing your State Writing Assessment & Beyond.” New Market Elementary’s media specialist, Nancy Kochert, said that “students left the session very excited and chatting about Adora’s age and abilities.”

Such responses are typical of fun and productive video conferences with content providers or experts. Content providers could be individuals, museums, non-profits, and learning centers.

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2. Virtual Field Trips

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Any school field trip usually requires a lot of preparation — there’s the food, then the transportation, then the mischievous students, and most importantly, making sure not to lose anybody. It’s a whole lot harder to “wander off” when your field trip is on a screen in front of you.

Whether to a museum or a zoo, virtual field trips are becoming increasingly common in video conferencing schools. According to an article from Scholastic Instructor magazine, Pennsylvania’s Mt. Lebanon School District was able to offer its middle school students a chance to see a volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. Scholastic Instructor described the video conference:

“In e-Mission: Operation Montserrat, a ‘mission commander’ at the center interacts live with the students, relaying reports about lava flow and evacuee progress, showing video clips of ash clouds over the island, and sending seismic data and information about hurricane intensity to students’ laptops. They analyze the information, make predictions about risks, and suggest courses of action.”

In a quote from the magazine article, instructional technology coordinator Aileen Owens said, “Kids don’t find studying rocks exciting. That changes when you make learning come alive like this.”

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3. Working Together

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Students in a classroom in, say, Wyoming, could connect with a classroom in Wisconsin and work together on a collaborative activity. While in the past, collaborative activities might be limited to one classroom or one school, video conferencing allows students in multiple schools around the world to work together on relevant issues.

One benefit of such an exchange would be that you might receive different views and fresh ideas from a class of students who are miles away, than you would from someone you’ve known for years. The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration dedicates an entire section to collaborative activities, both for educators and students. Topics range from “Impact and Challenges of Rural Water Pollution” to “Transportation of the Future.”

Interactive Videoconferencing: K-12 Lessons That Work, by Kecia Ray and Jan Zanetis, offers another example: “Employability Skills and Distance Learning: Michigan Students Come to Ohio.” Michigan’s Galien High School connected with the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center in Ohio to grow a deeper understanding of the job application process through collaboration.

Collaborative activities typically work toward a practical goal (such as cleaning up rural waters) while helping students develop organizational, collaborative, and leadership skills.

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4. Accessing Previously Unavailable Courses

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Some schools, especially those in rural areas, aren’t able to offer advanced or detailed courses that their students might need. Even those in more populated areas often lack enough teachers in certain subject areas. Many schools could benefit from having an extra course over distance learning that they might not be able to offer otherwise. Instead of having to commute long distances between different schools, teachers would be able to instruct over video conferencing.

What’s more, “previously unavailable courses” can mean some pretty exotic content. You might have dissected squids or made model skeletons, but how many times have you seen a live knee replacement surgery in science class? At COSI (Center of Science and Industry) in Columbus, Ohio, showing live knee replacement surgeries over video conferencing is nothing new.

Video conferencing is a powerful medium for giving students unparalleled access to places (or procedures) they could have only dreamed of in the past.

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5. Teaching the Teachers

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I not only speak to students over video conferencing, but also to teachers, providing a “kid’s eye view of the classroom.”

Because learning is a continual process for teachers, and teachers must acquire a certain number of professional development hours (a percentage of which should be dedicated to technology) to maintain certification, video conferencing offers a convenient way for many school districts to meet these requirements. In addition, even students can learn from their teachers’ professional development — once, I spoke to teachers in Florida’s Broward County School District while students looked on.

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Conclusion

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Although these may all be school solutions, you can apply many of the same principles to business as well. When it comes to connecting with experts, why not set up a video conference with your consultants instead of flying them in?

If your company has far-flung offices, connect them with video conferencing instead of paying for expensive flight tickets. You could connect to previously unreachable markets (like education, or an international market), and provide professional development and training for new employees. Video conferencing breaks down boundaries — inside the classroom and out.

Rebecca Zook is an online female math tutor who has been helping students get math into their brains for seven years. She blogs about learning at Triangle Suitcase.

Over half a million votes were cast to decide Barbie’s newest career. But even though Computer Engineer Barbie was developed in consultation with the Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering, the new doll’s appearance has sparked controversy.

While some have embraced coder Barbie, others have attacked the concept, saying that her pink laptop, sparkly leggings, and trendy glasses are “too feminine” to be realistic.

The critics imply that real coders aren’t feminine, and feminine coders aren’t real. But women shouldn’t feel like they have to stop being feminine to work in technology.

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The First Computer Programmer Was a Fashionista

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That’s right. The first coder was a lady. Ada Lovelace, over a century ahead of her time, is widely considered to be the first computer programmer. She was the first person to conceptualize and articulate what computers were capable of doing, and the first to foresee that computers could create artificial intelligence, generate graphics, and create music.

So, is Barbie’s outfit really that unrealistic? If the very first person to conceptualize a computer did so while wearing a girly up-do and a frilly gown, why can’t someone write great code while wearing pink platform crocs and a t-shirt that spells “BARBIE” in binary?

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Women and Tech Today

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This false dichotomy — that you have to choose between being feminine and “looking the part” of a mathematician or scientist — might be part of what turns girls off from math and science in the first place.

Or maybe girls don’t aim for careers in math and science because they don’t see role models. Even Ada Lovelace had role models. Her mom, the “Princess of Parallelograms,” loved math and gave Lovelace a very intensive math education. And Lovelace was also mentored by legendary female science writer and polymath Mary Somerville.

Or maybe girls are afraid of being the only woman in their technology courses or workplaces. If that’s the case, their concerns are certainly warranted. Not only are fewer women entering the information technology field, but more women are leaving the field mid-career.

A recent Harvard Business Review report, The Athena Factor, notes that “52% of highly qualified females working for SET [science, engineering, and technology] companies quit their jobs, driven out by hostile work environments and extreme job pressures.” These women report that they lack mentors and feel intense isolation in the workplace.

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Coder Barbie and the Future

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In 2010, maybe Computer Engineer Barbie would feel uncomfortable writing code on a pink laptop that matched her glasses in a workplace where she was outnumbered by men 25-to-1. But perhaps we should aspire to create a world where Computer Engineer Barbie and her gloriously pink accessories could realistically exist. Allowing a vision of an ultra-feminine computer engineer might, even subconsciously, open girls — and the rest of society — up to the possibility.

As a female math tutor, I used to feel the need to “tone down” my feminine style. I’d wear black slacks when working with my students for fear of appearing “unprofessional.” But then I decided to show my true fashion colors and wear my homemade dresses and sparkly barrettes when tutoring.

Since then, some kids have been openly relieved when they met me and found I didn’t look like their stereotype of a math tutor. The “math geek” stereotype in their brains was more intimidating and less fun than the real-life tutor wearing fuzzy pink boots.

You don’t have to choose between looking feminine and being good at math, science, and engineering. We need all kinds of people, all kinds of minds, and all kinds of geeks to solve our technology problems.

Cliff Atkinson is author of The Backchannel: How Audiences are Using Twitter and Social Media and Changing Presentations Forever (New Riders, 2009).

What do you do when you’re giving a presentation, and notice that your audience is looking down, busily typing on their laptops and smartphones? And what about when you get the sense that they are turning against you?

When audiences use Twitter and other tools to communicate with one another during live presentations, they create a new “backchannel” where they share comments, questions and sometimes criticisms about the person speaking.

This new dynamic has led to high-profile blowups between presenters and audiences, which makes it more important than ever for presenters to do the right things to avoid similar disasters.

To short-circuit a possible disaster, keep in mind these five things you can do to prepare and engage the backchannel.

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1. Calibrate Your Content so You Don’t Misfire

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One of the major causes of backchannel disasters is a mismatch between what audiences expect, and what you deliver. Make sure you match your audience expectations when you are planning your material by using Twitter to reach out to the followers who will be in attendance. Ask for their feedback. Query them about challenges they are facing that you can help resolve, case studies of how they tackled situations related to your topic, or suggestions of what you should be sure to cover.

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2. Defuse the Snark Bomb Before it Blows Up on You

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Audience members who use Twitter during a live presentation will often assume the speaker is not paying attention to their comments, so they may be more prone to be snarky or say things they wouldn’t say to you face-to-face. Prevent this dynamic at the outset by publicly welcoming audience members using Twitter and let them know you’ll be monitoring what they write, and possibly reading aloud to the whole audience what they tweet.

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3. Spark the Conversation Early and Often

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The whole point of social media is that people want to get more involved in experiences, rather than be passive recipients of opinions pronounced from on high. To get people more involved, plan your material in a way that allows you to take Twitter breaks.

When you break, switch over to a browser, review the audience tweets and respond to questions both from the backchannel and from the live audience. These breaks give you the chance to take the temperature of the audience, make sure you’re on track, and to make any adjustments to your presentation based on the feedback you get.

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4. Grab the Twecklers Off of the Web and Into the Room

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When you take a Twitter break and review comments, you may find that audience members made negative remarks or even heckled you. What should you do? You’ll need to make a judgment call here –- if you can’t do anything about the issue, or if it reflects the personal view of that one person, you might just ignore it.

But if the comment is disruptive and you see it’s affecting the comments of others, you may need to address it directly. In that case, read the comment out loud to the audience, and take a poll of how many people agree with the comment. If many people agree, ask the individual to explain it further, and then address it. If only a few people concur, let the commenter know you’ll be glad to talk further after the presentation and move on.

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5. Don’t Stick Your Fingers in the Social Media Socket

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The last thing you want to do is lose control of your presentation because you’re overwhelmed. Trying to deliver your presentation while monitoring the information flowing from the Twitterstream can be difficult. If it’s too much to do both, which is the case for most people, focus on your delivery first, then engage the backchannel when you turn your attention to it during Twitter breaks. That way you accomplish what you came to do –- delivering an effective, memorable presentation as you promised in your session description, as well engaging and involving your audience during breaks.

Images courtesy of iStockphoto, Splitcast, Alina555