One of the interesting tensions in being a web developer is the degree to which visual design effects the quality and scope of your application. We talk about seperating concerns using MVC patterns, and while I’ve been a long and loud proponent of such things, the fact of the matter is that building high quality web apps is a constant act of negoiation. Google Mail has me thinking about this again, as does a friend whose apps always seem to be infinitely more finished because he takes the time to put the final polish of a simple UI, and a good name on each thing he builds. Which is all only marginally connected to the rest of this post.

I found myself repeatedly searching the LM archives for these tools, and I decided to pull then all together. All web based, all designed to help those of us that perhaps don’t have the “perfect pitch” for color that talented designers often display. (And its much harder to have Jasmine vet things for me from 3000 miles away)