Customers,Tips on How to secure the services of a Web Designer

We Web Designers get it, your project is important to you as are the reasons behind your desired project, but there are times when we Web Designers have to decline projects.

Earlier today, Inertial Zen Designs received an email from a potential client, nothing unusual for a Design Company to get. Only this email was but one line of text

Hello,how are you doing today?

No signature, nothing else. Well of course, to ensure that this is an actual potential client, and in the name of what's best for business, a polite response was sent with some probing questions.  Those questions included the following:

What type of Website are you looking to have designed?

How many pages are you needing this Website to be comprised of?

When is your desired Go Live date?

And 

would you be so kind as to let Me know how you discovered Inertial Zen Designs

Of course signed with 

Regards,

David Peters, Owner Inertial Zen Designs

the result of these probing questions was an INSTANT response which a 8 point list of what the person was wanting. That list, to sum up was a request to clone another Website's layout, placing it on a desired domain (which I might state was discovered to be already registered by a third party as the person sending this email stated that they did not already have a domain), in a less than 60 day time frame and expecting all of this for a budget of less than $10,000.

Now, readers, you may have noticed a unique request in My probing questions listed above, that being asking the emailer if they would be so kind as to let Me know how they came to discover Inertial Zen Designs.  This is what is known as a Turing Test, and was added to see if this potential client was actually reading the email, a failing that was proven when the "client" asked that I get back in touch with him with 3 pieces of information including

And will like to know if you are the owner ??

The fact is We Web Designers love to hear from New Clients. Part of what makes our jobs exciting is the ability to work with people and bring their ideas to life. Web Design, however, is a very complex career. We have values and standards, and can be very selective in the projects We take on, and like any Professional We expect to be treated with respect for the skill set that we have. 

Website projects, especially ones with multiple Webpages to them, can run into the hundreds of thousands, in fact the Municipal Government of the City My offices are based out of just awarded a $130,000 CAD contract to a firm for a Redesign of the City's Website.

Web Design Companies are more than happy to help you envision your project and take it from your Mind to screens that can reach potential customers find Your products and services, but for that to happen there needs to be a team effort, and that means Respect being given from both sides.

Please, for the benefit of securing your future Web Designer have the following handy when you contact us:

1. Contact Information

    We Designers love to know who we are going to be working with.

2. Summary of desired project

    Details help us envision your project.

3. Make sure that the domain you desire is available 

   Logos, Headers, Content and Search Engine Optimization all end up being tied and referencing your domain name in many ways. if your domain name is not available it can back up a project causing additional costs and the missing of your Go Live date.

4. Have your content and media ready for Us.

  Without content and media, your customers have NOTHING to read, also much like having your domain name secured, it limits the delays and saves your budget having these details ready

5.Evaluate your Budget and Time Frame / Go Live Date

 Web Design projects, like the one mentioned above, are usually billed by the hour with most Designers charging between $45 to $60 an hour minimum. 

This means that project can take around 2,167 to 2,889 man hours (around 54 to 72 weeks) For a project in the $10,000 range, you can expect a Website to take around 167 to 223 man hours (or 4 to 5 weeks ) to be designed

Keeping all this in mind up front will give you, the client, better chances of securing a Web Designer while allowing We, the Designers, the best chances of bringing your vision to life.

INERTIALZENDESIGNS.COM IS DOWN, WORKING ON FIX

Oh, the headaches of owning a small business. Sometime yesterday, there appears to have been an issue with the Website for Inertial Zen Designs.

Here's what I know, Domain Registering Company GoDaddy is indeed having issues, and it appears that instead of pointing to where the site should be, it is pointing somewhere else. What this means is that if customers go to the Website they will find it DOWN.

At this point, I do not have a timeline for when things will be back up and running, but am looking into things and hopefully will be back online soon. Thank you all for your patience in this matter, and rest assured, even though the Domain is not currently resolving, the Website can still be accessed through the temporary address of

http://izd.bugs3.com/index.html

International rulings and social media

Social Media, since the early days of services like Myspace and Yahoo 360, through to the modern sites like Facebook, Linked in and Google Plus have all worked using a basic common theory.

The site works better with more contacts 


To make this concept work a simple premise was put into action. Users were able to upload their contact lists to servers for a cross check of their friends. If your friend was already on the service a button is offered to let you request a friendship, however if they were not, then you could invite them to join.

A decision in Germany ( Article ) has now put this very concept at risk as a Judge has upheld two prior decisions that found Facebook's Friend Finder feature illegal on the grounds that sending a invite to join is unsolicited electronic communications (or as it is more commonly known as, Spam).

Now, at first though, one might be wondering just why a ruling in Germany is of any concern to a user of Social Media in Canada. This is a honest and fair question to be wondering, the answer, however is going to most likely surprise you as it comes down to one law currently in place in Canada

C.A.S.L.

CASL (info ) stands for the Canadian Anti Spam Law, which came into service in July of 2014, and actually holds people accountable with fines for reported unsolicited electronic communications. the fines are tired so that if the average consumer or privately owned business is reported to the CRTC and can not prove implied or express consent has been given up to $1,000,000.00 is issued. If the communication is from a Corporation the amount goes up to potentially $10,000,000.00 per violation.

As the ever evolving nature of the Internet continues to change, so to will laws like CASL, and decisions like the one made in Germany are going to be looked at as road maps into how these type of services are handled in relation to the future of User Privacy on a Global scale.

Tips to vetting and varifying fake Social Media Posts

Social Media can be a great and wonderful way to get information out to Friends and Family quickly, unfortunately it also is a place with plenty of false and misleading messages. Messages that have been posted with the intent of getting a message across, that is if they are posted with good intent. 

The problem with a lot of these messages is that many are shared with inaccurate information, and some are even flat out lies being released into the wild in order tug on heart strings, and in the process evoke a response based off of either fear or a sense of social responsibility  that leads to them being shared.

Today I thought it might be helpful to write up a post with some tips on ways one can validate posts before sharing.

1. CHECK THE SOURCE

Every post out there has a source and be it that story on the negative aspects of a product, or that click bate style headline that reads something along the lines of 

“this mother poured milk into a sock, why she did it will amaze you” 

One thing will be in common, it will have a source. 

So, how does one check the source? Well the odds are if the post is on one of your Social Media sites, they have a page or profile that you can track back to.  Heading back to the origin page will allow you to get some insight into who is posting and as such will allow you to ask questions like

“Why does this page want to post this?”

“Is the history of their posts consistent?”

“What do they benefit from the topic of the post?”

2. SEARCH THE TITLE

Every modern Web Browser has the ability to use the mouse, trackpad or finger in order to highlight text. Use this feature to your advantage and run the title or topic of a post through Google or Bing.  Searching titles or topics will let you find any news articles or blog posts that support or debunk the topic.  Failing to have an actual topic can bring us to  the next point

3. SNOPES, HOAX-SLAYER AND THAT’S NONSENSE

If one can’t find a specific title for a post, the next best thing is to scan a post for any of the following

1. A date

2. A company

3. A City

4. A Celebrity 

basically any person place or thing which you can then place in the search window at Snopes.com hoax-slayer.com or thatsnonsense.com, all sites which do a wonderful job of curating details on social media hoaxes

and 

4. REVERSE SEARCH THE PHOTO

If you happen to be using Google’s Chrome browser this is as easy as right clicking on a image and selecting search Google for this image. However if you are looking for an even deeper search, as in the case of those Bill Gates “Share and get Money” images, you can either install a plug in called Tin Eye or go to Tineye.com and point it’s search to the address of the image.

Using Tin Eye’s search will not only tell you where else the photo is, but allow you to sort results by biggest change, oldest posting and other features.

Of course, the most important thing when you come across a story that has been proven as fake is to let others know. Never hesitate to share a short note with links that support it being such.

While some may get mad at you because they feel stupid for it being pointed out that they shared a fake story, the majority of users in My experience, is that most are glad you did.

iOS Data Saving should not stop with turning off Wi-Fi Assist

With the release of iOS 9 many articles have been written about turning off Wi-fi Assist, and they all are relative when it comes to helping save you’re Cellular Data usage. 

For a quick refresher on this part of thing, the instructions on turning off Wi-fi Assist is as simple as 

settings > Cellular > Wi-Fi Assist and make sure the toggle is not green, as seen in this image

However, while you, the user, are in the Cellular menu, this might be a good time to also do a full audit of just what does use Cellular Data on an app by app basis

As you can see in this image below, A number of your Apps all have the available option to use your data or turn it off so that it only connects when on Wi-Fi, with each App having it’s own toggle switch. 

This allows one to see not only which apps are using Data, but if you have an app that you know you do not use when out of the house or office you can turn off Data while keeping the option to reactivate Data when needed. A good example of this from the image being the Chromecast app.

As the Chromecast App is used to control one’s Chromecast device on their home Wi-Fi network, it really serves no purpose having Cellular Data information turned on.

So, go ahead, take a moment to audit your Data permissions on your iOS device and I think you will find some savings to your Data usage.

My First 24 Hours with Windows 10, And They Didn't Suck

Being a Web Designer comes with a rather unique side effect. We have to be comfortable working with all types of environments and platforms, and while We each have our personal preferences (in My case Apple) one common thing is Our Designs have to look right on any platform a user might consider using.

This, of course, brings us to the New Kid on the Block, Windows 10. Windows 10, right from announcement has felt like it almost had a mentality of "One Platform to Rule them all" to it, and honestly in that aspect it lived up to the hype.

For This Designer, the first experience with Windows 10 came via the free upgrade offered on My HP Stream 7 Tablet. The install process was a breeze, clocking in at a little over 2GB and completing install in less than one hour's time frame.

Once inside the environment, changes were easy to notice and very welcome as tap targets seemed to respond better, and the returning Start Menu delivered on its promise of a Windows 7 like experience, at least in "Desktop Mode". In Tablet Mode things skew more to an android like feel to the interface, with your Start Menu automatically displaying as you close an app and your task bar having shortcuts for a virtual back button, search and multiple desktops.

A stylus may still be a wise investment for those who have a device with a 7 Inch screen size.

Bloatware was present, with the most annoying aspect being the bundled install of Candy Crush Saga. There were also links, via "Live Tiles" encouraging the download of specific Microsoft Apps including Office 365 This however was quickly addressed, along with privacy settings in the control panel.

For those who are wondering about the reports of having to pay for Solitaire, lets address that. the App itself is Free in the Windows Store, however there are small ads bundled into the menus, but when actually playing a game none are to be seen. Your scores with Solitaire, much like Microsoft Mahjong, Minesweeper and Puzzles, can be linked to your Xbox Gaming ID for achievements and cloud backup of your games. 

Cortana, Microsoft's new virtual assistant named for the AI Character in Halo,  was unable to be tested as it appears it has not been rolled out to all markets. This was to be expected as Cortana is on a slow deployment in select markets to start.

Of course, with tweaking and set up done, as a Designer My next step was to jump into playing around with Microsoft's new Browser "Edge" (formerly codenamed Spartan). Websites I had designed, including inertialzendesigns.com displayed flawlessly and even reformatted as coded to account for the changes from portrait to landscape viewing. 

The ability to share a Website to email from directly within the browser could potentially be a benefit for users, depending on options of what email services can be set up and a full service, split screened code inspector that can be deployed in one menu click is very welcome for those moments of troubleshooting Web Code.

Overall first impressions of Windows 10 is pretty good. I would advise using the custom settings instead of express settings while installing if privacy is a concern, could have used a bit less bloatware (hopefully a Microsoft Signature Series version will be made available through the Microsoft stores) and battery life has taken a welcome improvement vs that of Windows 8.1.

So, as I said in the title Windows 10, at least on first impression, does not suck.  If your Windows Device qualifies for the Free Upgrade, I would recommend that you take the time and install it.

Reasons why going local is usually for the best

Monday morning I recieved a email from a firm out of India who was making the claim that they could design My business a Website for a cost of $12 an hour.  Part of their claim was that they could 

Create Websites from Photoshop Documents using HTML and CSS

produce Wordpress Pages in a turn around of 5-10 Days 

produce a Magneto Site in 3-4 Days

Quality bug free sites

Well, My response to this email was to thank them for the offer, however I too am a Designer and code from the ground up using W3C Standard compliant, Responsive Design code. This actually lead to them offering up the propopsal of them doing Search Engine Optimization for My project.

Again, I thanked them for the offer, but declined. These two messages got Me to thinking about reasons as to why having a local Designer can actially be a beneft for a Company's Website Design Project.

Firstly, There is time zone issues. For a North American company, having a Design firm in india means that you are looking at w time difference of anywhere from 8 to 12 hours.  This means that if you want to conference with your Designer, you better bank on being awake at the wee hours of the morning.

Next, Firms like the one which contacted Me, advertise on the benefit that they are cheaper and you wont be paying taxes. Factoring in the time zones and the use of templates, sure your site IS cheaper but ask yourself the following

-Is the inconvience of time zones worth is?

-Do you have an expense that you can declare as a business expense?

-Have you taken into account the fact that the 5% GST in Canada paid on the project can be deducted from the GST your company pays?

Next, lets look at the options of having a Photoshop document turned into a Website.  This is actually something known as "Slicing", which is a technique that has boxes drawn around elements of the image and with the tap of a Menu command generates HTML code.

This technique is actually taught in Web Design course, but highly discouraged due to the fact that the code Photoshop generates is not W3C valid. This will be be explained a bit later in this posting as We look at SEO reasons.

A Photoshop generated Website also means that your site is image heavy and loads slower.

Next. lets look at the use of "Template Design". Your business is unique, you have your own logos, colors and business personality that you want to showcase to your potential clients. A template design tends to result in your Company's website looking exactaly like any of the number of competitors' Websites which you are attempting to stand out above.

And now lets get to Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. SEO is considered this magical art that when applied to a Website gets it onto Page one of Google Results.  The facts when it comes to SEO is that there is a lot of factors Google weighs in the ranking of your Site. Over 200 Factors actually with some of the most important ones being

-Standard Compliant Code (This is where the Photoshop Generated Code factors in the first time)

- Textual content of the site (Google's spiders can not index text inside a image file, your Photoshop code just struck again here)

- Having Social Media Presence (Facebook , Goggle Plus, Youtube, Linked in all score you credibility)

- Mobile Ready Design

- HTTPS certified 

- Quality, Organic backlinks (You can lose ranking by buying links)

- Age of your Website Domain (A one year old site with a short term owner registry wont rank anywhere near as high as a 10 year old site with registry for the next 10 years of ownership)

Overall, in the Financial aspect of Website creation, yes there are services who can offer you up cheap design fees and quick turn around, but ask yourself if in the long run what do you end up losing out on with yournsite by going cheap?