We first got involved with Kiva in 2006. The agency runs a person-to-person micro-lending website that lets visitors help alleviate poverty by lending directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe. The fantastic thing is, any investment that goes through Kiva is re-invested over and over. We initially invested over $1000, and those funds are still being reinvested to help more and more people become self-sufficient through small businesses. It’s a great model.
We have three $25 investment gift certificates, and we want your help choosing how to use them. To take part:
- Reply to our tweet about Kiva (www.twitter.com/rtraction) saying that you want to take part.
- We’ll send a $25 Kiva gift certificate to the first three respondents.
- Visit www.kiva.org (withing 72 hours) and choose an entrepreneur or activity you want to support.
- Tweet about your investment.
- Monitor your investment over time and re-invest or withdraw your money.
** If you don’t use your gift certificate within 72 hours, it will be passed on to the next eligible contestant.
“Why do you need a website?”
In this second blog based on our Techalliance workshop on (re)designing corporate websites, we explore the first question we always ask our clients. It seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how many companies don’t have a clear answer prepared – which is interesting because the answer to this question is the foundation that informs every design, implementation and technology decision in the website creation process. Your website exists to help you achieve your goals, and defining what you want to accomplish is the first step in creating a site that works for you.
There are a lot of competing technologies and approaches in web design, and having a clear goal for your website is the best way to narrow the choices you’ll be making. Designing a website is a lot like reaching for a tool from a giant toolbox – you have to pick the right tool for the job. If you are trying to screw two pieces of wood together a hammer is a poor choice compared to a screwdriver. The requirements for a website that sells products are vastly different from an informational brochure site that simply serves to introduce the world to your company and brand.
Read the rest of this entry »
Recently we were invited by Techalliance to facilitate a public workshop on (re)designing corporate websites. Our approach was to provide business owners with practical advice on managing the process. A common theme throughout the presentation was the idea that clients can prepare themselves with a set of criteria for evaluating vendors, and the designs they provide, to ensure that they are selecting the best solution for their website.
For many clients one of the toughest parts of the web design process is evaluating and choosing the visual design, and discussing their response with their vendor in a clear and concise manner.
Luckily, the essence of good visual design can be understood using only three core concepts:
unity, consistency and hierarchy.
Read the rest of this entry »
When creating a new website for a client a lot of effort goes into creating the visual look. Elements such as colour choice, photography and illustration, intuitive navigation and your company’s brand all play important roles in shaping your customers’ perception of your company. When it comes to your website’s search engine performance, however, none of these things really matter. To the search engines’ computers content is king.
Read the rest of this entry »
Developing a good backup strategy requires thoughtful planning, from the selection of devices to the determination of backup schema and other logistical issues. Each step must be carefully analyzed in light of such factors as staffing, technical expertise, and budget. We’ll take a look at these factors and break down the requirements of a successful backup strategy.
read more …
As developers we can sometimes overlook ease of use when creating forms. We typically focus on functionality more so than end-user experience and that can leave users frustrated. Site Reference has come up with a great list of tips to help remind us of the different ways we can keep forms functional and easy to use.
Here are a few highlights that should be mandatory on any form:
- Never ask for duplicate information – For example, any forms that require a billing and shipping address should have the option of allowing the user to simply click a checkbox that will auto-populate the duplicate fields, if the information is the same.
- Make sure that mandatory fields are clearly marked – This seems like a no-brainer but nothing is more frustrating for the user than continually being returned back to the form to fill in required fields. Which brings us to number three:
- Return relevant error messages – an error message that might make sense to you as a developer may not be clear enough for the end-user. Remember, they aren’t sitting in front of a computer creating forms all day and may not be familiar with the type of information you are looking for.
- Have your form tested out by real users before releasing it – I’ve certainly run into the scenario in the past where I’ve created a form, tested it and everything seemed fine. It wasn’t until I opened up the testing where I received feedback indicating that the form progression didn’t really make sense.
Read the rest of the article here.
from Lifehacker: “It’s known that most spam (particularly malware such as keyloggers) originates overseas (Estonia, Moldavia, China, Poland, etc.) By blocking email from most of the undeveloped world, I’ve successfully reduced spam by 95 percent in the past year. In Outlook, click Actions > Junk E-Mail > Junk E-Mail Options. Click the International tab, then the Blocked Top-Level Domain List button. Now select the countries you wish to block.”
Very handy little tip.
Despite the fact that there are many excellent WYSIWYG HTML editors on the market, when designing the layout of a website to show a client a pixel perfect comp designed in Adobe Photoshop is still one of the best ways to go. One limitation of Photoshop as a layout tool has always been the fact that scaling an image in a layout is a “destructive” editing process – once you scale it down you lose image data and scaling it back up again leaves you with a low quality image. Not anymore – enter the Smart Object.
Read the rest of this entry »
If you are a fan of the excellent Open Source 3D modelling and animation package Blender and work somewhere that has a lot of computers sitting idle (overnight for instance), then FarmerJoe is an excellent, free renderfarm solution that’s easy to set up, is reliable, and has a web-based GUI to monitor and schedule jobs.
Based on a set of PERL scripts, binaries are available from the FarmerJoe Website for Windows, Linux and OSX : http://blender.formworks.co.nz/. While you’re there, check out some of the other excellent scripts written for Blender.
Read the rest of this entry »
As designers there are a couple of questions that constantly pop up? “Hey, what font is that in?” and “What will it look like with a different font?” Sometimes the answer is easy, but not always. Here are two excellent type tools online that can help answer these questions in a pinch.
Read the rest of this entry »
Subscribe to: