Happy Holidays Everybody

At this time, I am placing the Blog on a temporary Hiatus for Seasonal Holidays, but before I do, I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has taken the time to read this blog and wish you and your families a very festive Holiday Season, no matter how you celebrate.

Have a Wonderful remainder of 2013, Be safe when welcoming in the new year and see you all in 2014

Sincerely 

David

Make a List, Check it Twice, is your Website Naughty or Nice?

One would think, with the time of year and the title of this Blog posting, that this is a tongue-in-cheek holiday posting, and if One thinks that, then someone has Another Think Coming !

Making a list, prior to seeking out a Designer for your Website, can be all the difference between having a Website that users find “Nice” or one that they avoid because it’s “Naughty”

The best way to start is to create categories for your Website, besides the Homepage or “Index” file, what other areas do you want your Website to Cover.  What information do you want it to convey to your visitors?  The usual result of asking yourself this question is you come up with something much like this (we’ll use page in place of each category after Home )

Home<—>Page 1<—>Page 2<—>Page 3<—>Page 4

So now that we have each category mapped out, the next question to ask yourself is “What Content do I want in each category?”  This is where you can make bullet points for each category and the information you want, much like this

Home<—>Page 1<—>Page 2<—>Page 3<—>Page 4

|_Intro |_point 1   |_point 1  |_point 1    |_point 1

|_point 2   |_point 2  |_point 2    |_point 2

And so forth, so now lets say you want to include specific images with each point (we’ll use Home and Page 1 for this example to save some space)

HomeHome<—>Page 1

|_Intro           |_point 1

      |_img 1

      |_img 2

  |_point 2

As you an see the process becomes fairly straight forward, as you get everything flowing how you want it to lay out.  A Site map project like this, actually helps your Designer see your vision more clearly and allows you to focus your thoughts on what you want to see listed content wise

Speed, Size and Bandwidth: the importance of image PPI in the Mobile Web World

Images, it’s said a Picture is worth a Thousand words, the problem in the Web Connected Modern world, is that a picture is also worth Megabytes of data to download when it comes to Websites.  An unoptimized image (or 10 or 50, pick a number) can make or break the success your Website has with the Client base. to slow to load on a WiFi connected machine and users will go else where, too many to download on Mobile Data and you have pretty much sunk yourself as far as getting that client to follow up when they are back at a Laptop, Desktop or Tablet connected to the internet via Wifi or cable.

The current format for almost every image online is to have it encoded at 72 PPI, or pixels Per Inch, with some sites claiming that it does not matter the PPI of an image but more the Width and Height resolution of the image.

Apples Retina Display, states that Per inch it displays 326 Pixels, contrasting that with the industry standard of 72 Pixels Per Inch, that actually creates a ratio of 1:4.5 pixels difference.  lets break this down a bit further, we will use the example of a 3 inch square image (so 9 Square inches of Screen) for our calculations here.

	Traditional	Retina
Format	Jpeg	Jpeg
File Size	137 KB	2.74 MB
Height	3 Inch	3 Inch
Width	3 Inch	3 Inch
PPI	648 Pixels	2,934 Pixels
Download Time 512kbits/s	00:00:02	00:00:44
speed	Highspeed	Highspeed

As you can see, the same picture can be quite effected, As Retina like displays and faster internet connections both improve, this is a detail that Web Designers will eventually have to learn to adjust and code for.

Answering a Major Question Asked of Web Designers

One of the questions most asked of Web Designers by potential clients, and the general public, is Why do we charge what we do for our services?  The simple, and cocky, answer would be because we’re worth it.

Fact is there is a lot more that goes into figuring out what to charge.  The going rate for a good Web Designer can be anywhere on average from $40-$65 per hour.  out of that hourly rate, a Web Designer has to cover the costs of many things, including

Computers: Your Designs have to be able to look right on everything, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Linux, you name it, if your customers use it they expect your Website to display on it, and while there are ways to do basic design testing with simulators, not every design will display correctly on those simulations as they will in the actual product.  That means that a Web Designer needs to be able to deploy Your design throughout the design process on all types of Modern and Legacy platforms.

Software: Web Designers edit images, we format video and audio files for quick access over a number of different bandwidth delivery processes.  A suite of programs, like Adobe Creative Suite, costs around $1500 to purchase a copy of. and to keep up with Technology can tend to require upgrades on a routine basis.

Internet: We’re Web Designers, the Internet is what we do, that means that most likely we tend to communicate via Email, deliver mock-ups of your projects via attachments, and need that upload pipe to get your site to your Web Server so that your site can go live on time.

Office Supplies / Office Rental: Lets face it, every business needs a place to work out of, and like other businesses, Web Designers need to be able to keep their Client Files organized and up to date.  There are invoices to go out, Business Cards to print out, and the ever important task of making sure that the information for “Frank’s Hot Dog Shop” does not get coded into “Freddy’s Dog Kennel’s” Website, which means things like File Folders and USB Drives are very important to the day to day operation of a successful Business.

Promotional: How did you first come to discover your Web Designer? Chances are it was through an Advertisement, be it Online, Print, Television or Radio, Advertising costs funds for us Web Designers, After all that's how we extend the bridge to our potential Clients

Transportation: You like the idea of meeting face to face with those you are working with, so do Designers, but that means getting to a mutually agreed upon location for said meeting, that could be Your office or the corner Coffee Shop.  No matter the location, your designer needs to be able to get from their point A to your point B.  That means We’re looking at gas if we Drive (and upkeep on our car) or Public Transportation, and those costs have to also be factored into operating budgets.

Wages / Benefits: Once everything else listed above is taken care of , We Designers kind of like to still be able to eat, and to know that if we are sick, we can go see a Doctor.  That means Wages so we can look after things like this, and so you have a Designer that can actually do the job you need.

There is many a set of reasons why Us Designers tend to take a mentality much like the one depicted in the below image, and I hope this Blog Entry explains some of them

The Joy of [Digital] Painting

Before We go to much further into this blog entry,  yes the title is indeed an homage to the long running PBS series The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross. Now with that said, just what is digital painting and how does it happen to apply to the world of Web Design anyway?

Much like its analog counterpart, digital painting is the art of applying ink to canvas in order to create an image which is pleasing to the human eye. The techniques involved actually share many of the same details as well as an artist works with layers to build up the perfect image for a given project, be it an icon, header graphics or photo touch ups.

A differing area in the two, for the longest time has been with how the artist works on the images in question.  Digital Painters for many years worked primarily with a mouse, over time switching to drawing tablets, and for the creative, like myself,  even using things like Griffin's A-Frame iPad stand to create an easel, thus replicating the painter style, however, even this technique I believe will eventually evolve as more computers ship with touch screen displays and the digital stylus becomes more precise in its on screen tracking.

What is an “Internet Spider” anyway?

The website  netlingo.com described Spider as

Synonymous with a crawler, this is a program that searches the Internet and attempts to locate new, publicly accessible resources, such as WWW documents, files available in public FTP archives, and Gopher documents. 

Also called wanderers or bots, spiders contribute their discoveries to a database that Internet users can search by using a search engine. Spider technology is necessary because the rate at which people are creating new Internet documents greatly exceeds any manual indexing capacity (although search directories prefer the manual approach).

But what does a “Spider” actually do and what part of a Website is it crawling around on anyway? The answer to the first part of this question is that a “Spider” looks over the code and content of a Webpage so that when a user goes to Google, Bing or any other Search Engine, results can be returned for the search term enquired.

The Second part, needs to go into a bit more detail of something called Meta Data (found in a tag) to partly understand.  Meta data is information that tells the Spider what the Website covers, where it’s information is aimed (after all you would not want to be sent to a service in Vancouver WA if you were looking for it in Vancouver BC) 

So you see, while this is a very basic explanation of Spiders, in the case of the World Wide Web, Spiders are your friends 

What should a Professional Promotional Website include and Look Like Anyway?

A few blogs back, we discussed the idea of creating a Website to showcase yourself to potential employers.  Well In this edition, I thought I would take and create a basic Mock up image to show just how simple a Website like this could be and still effectively get your message across.

First, lets look at the sections we will use for this example, they include the following:

Your Index Page: This is where you create a very basic introduction and thank those who are coming to your site for taking enough interest in you to visit

Education: As simple as it sounds, this is where you showcase your High School and Post Secondary Educational accomplishments. Broken into the two sections, take a bit to explain your areas of interest in your studies and at the same time any awards / honours that you received.

Work Experience: Again, fairly straight forward here. List your past jobs in reverse chronological order, so that your Newest job is posted at the top.  Much like education you can list any awards / honours (like safety awards, perfect Job Attendance ) in this section

Social Projects / Contact Page: This is a good place to show off anything that you do to give back to the community. Are you a member of a Social Club like the Shriners or Lions, Do you give back by mentoring students in your spare time, or maybe spend your weekends helping at a soup kitchen.  

All this information is great to put in here as many companies love the idea of having an employee that they can show off in the public eye as a representative of their company

With the general sections covered, lets take a look at a basic layout example for your Website.

An example of a Professional Promotional Layout

While you will notice that our example image is lacking actual content, I hope you have noticed something else.  Take a look at our subject’s image and then look at the Website itself. Notice how we have actually matched the colours from the subject’s picture to our site’s navigation and header bar. 

By doing this we extend the subject’s picture through the Website and creates a visual impression of pride being taken in the presentation.  When coupled with well written copy, and a professional domain name, a digital impression can be made even after you have left the office, extra points if you extend the same colour choices to your print resume as it will showcase a even higher level of personal pride and professionalism.

“Hey, How do I do [insert enquiry here]?” The Answer, in 6 letters LMGTFY

I’m sure this has happened to many of us out there, friends or family members come to you with a question about how to do something.  It can be something fairly straight forward, but usually is worded in a way much like this

“Hey, Buddy, I’ve looked everywhere and I can’t figure out how to do [whatever it is they can’t work out], can you Help me out?

And, if you are like Myself, these usually come in any time of the day, but a good time for them to arrive is around 2 or 3 in the morning.  So, armed with the very question they asked, especially if it’s asked by Text or Instant Message as many tend to be, you manage to look like you know everything simply by doing what they could have done themselves (unless of course their Internet is the problem they are asking about), Go to Google (or Bing, or your search engine of choice) and have them the answer in 5 minutes or less.  

Your Friends and Family, as you hand them the answer respond with “Oh Thank You, I owe you one” or, my personal favourite to hear, “Wow, how did you know where to find the answer, and so Quickly?”

Honestly, the answer is simple LMGTFY, or Let Me Google That For You!  Do any of you have your own stories of troubleshooting things for others that they could have troubleshooted for themselves with a short search online? If so leave them in the comments

Is This Ad Campaign Really a Wise Move?

Let me preface this by saying that honestly I’m not the biggest fan of some aspects of the software and hardware offered by Google, but with the latest ads being deployed by Microsoft, the question crosses my mind often

Is Microsoft setting themselves up for potential legal action?

By now, I would presume that most people who follow Technology have heard of Microsoft’s “Don’t Get Scroogled” Campaign, the latest entry being this advertisement , linked here 

In the Ad, Microsoft presents a customer bringing a Chromebook into the guys from Pawn Stars, who refuse to buy the Chromebook due to the fact that since it does not run Windows and can not use iTunes it is NOT a Laptop and she may get enough to get from Los Vegas to Reno instead of the desired funds she wants to get from Vegas to Hollywood.

This Ad, the newest part of a multi-directional campaign that includes a Website which compares Windows laptops and Google Chromebooks and even a collection of items that can be purchased which showcases the Chrome logo and sayings like “Keep Calm and Don’t Get Scroogled” and “Keep Calm while We Steal Your Data” (as Pictured below)

This actually, leads back to my originally posted question of is Microsoft setting themselves up for potential legal action? Technically Microsoft is using a logo that is Copyrighted to Google and requires clearance from Google to use it.

What’s your thoughts on Microsoft using Google’s Chrome logo on products they are making money from the sale of. Do you use, or have you considered the idea of getting a Chromebook and what do you see happening with the future of Microsoft’s “Don’t Get Scroogled” campaign?

A story of Technology doing good in the World

One of the wonderful things about the modern technology world is the ability for it to get your message to the world, even if you traditionally would have been isolated to a specific delivery method.

A wonderful example of this use of technology is The British Columbia Lions Society For Children With Disabilities,  and their annual Timmy's Christmas Telethon event.

The Telethon, was a annual event held on the first weekend of December from 1976 to 2000, broadcast on the CBC Television Network. In 2011, The Telethon was revived, moving from its old home on the CBC to SHAW Multicultural Channel.

The move, however, resulted in the Telecast not having the same broadcast range as the new station as SHAW's channel was a. Regional and b. Only carried on SHAW's cable network.

Come 2012 the Telethon, which raises money to see to the day to day operations of the Society's two Easter Seal House Medical Hospices, three Summer Camps for Disabled Children, and a fleet of wheelchair accessible vans, moved to a duel band simulcast,  on both the TV and the World Wide Web.

If you would like to view an example of how this works for the Lions Society, Their 2013 edition of the Timmy's Christmas Telethon brodcasts on Sunday December 8th at timmys.org

An Example Of Successful Deployment of Live Online Video

One of the wonderful things about the modern technology world is the ability for it to get your message to the world, even if you traditionally would have been isolated to a specific delivery method.

A wonderful example of this use of technology is The British Columbia Lions Society For Children With Disabilities,  and their annual Timmy's Christmas Telethon event.

The Telethon, was a annual event held on the first weekend of December from 1976 to 2000, broadcast on the CBC Television Network. In 2011, The Telethon was revived, moving from its old home on the CBC to SHAW Multicultural Channel. The move, however, resulted in the Telecast not having the same broadcast range as the new station as SHAW's channel was a. Regional and b. Only carried on SHAW's cable network.

Come 2012 the Telethon, which raises money to see to the day to day operations of the Society's two Easter Seal House Medical Hospices, three Summer Camps for Disabled Children, and a fleet of wheelchair accessible vans, moved to a duel band simulcast,  on both the TV and the World Wide Web.

If you would like to view an example of how this works for the Lions Society, Their 2013 edition of the Timmy's Christmas Telethon broadcasts on Sunday December 8th at timmys.org

Things NOT to put on your Personal Website / Social Media Profile

In Yesterday’s blog, We addressed the concept of having a Personal Website to help in promoting your talents to potential employers, So I figured today might be a good time to address what NOT to post on your Personal Website or Social Media Profile when it comes to searching for work.

The first wise move, is to go through those photos from Yesteryear and untag yourself from any that could present an image you don’t want an employer to associate you with, this includes things like Friday Night Stunts and Saturday Night Parties.

Secondly, if you are currently employed, or looking to get one with a specific company, never EVER leave any comments, by yourself or your friends (you can explain to them the reason why so they understand) on your Wall that would paint a negative perspective of your current or future employer. While you are at it review your Apps and privacy settings.

With your Social Media cleaned up, Now lets turn our attention to that personal Website, Since this Website is a presention of the Professional You that you are selling to Potential Employers, lets try to keep it fairly clean and professional. Sure, as part of your personality profile on the Website you can mention that you happen to like specific bands, but keep it as a passing reference  instead of gushing on and on about just how much you happen to be a fan of lets say Insane Clown Posse or Metallica.  Remember what you LIKE to listen to off hours may not be quite the sound that works in the office.

While you are looking for additional tips on this topic, I would suggest starting with an article like this one here 

Oh You’re an Artist, Why Haven’t You Created a Personal Website to Promote Yourself Yet?

We hear it all over the place, suggestions like “Use Facebook To Network” or “Are you on Linkedin yet? And while both of these, and many other services have their benefits, there might be one that you are missing out on when it comes to enhancing your Job Searching toolkit,

A PERSONAL WEBSITE!

This is especially a wise move if you happen to be entering into a career in digital trades. By having a Website, you allow potential employers to be able to view a collection of your work in one place. A simple QR Code, or HTTP address added to your Resume can link a potential employer to an online Portfolio of your work.  

Have skills in Video editing? A page of Youtube embedded videos in one place can showcase your best work.  Graphics Designer? Why not use a simple CSS slide show to showcase what you feel is your top designs. Musician? An embedded Soundcloud page will let the employer preview your tracks to see if you have the sound they are looking for.

Even Web Designers, like myself, can benefit from these type of sites. in fact I have one separate of the Website for Inertial Zen Designs, located here, that shows off everything I’ve listed above. 

By having a Personal Website, you allow your potential employers to get to know your personality a bit better, in a one stop shop of curated information.  Something for you to consider in this modern age.