Not long ago, I took on a new client who wanted me to rewrite his Web site and add a few new pages of content.
From there, things went downhill.
It starts with a phone call from the soon-to-be client’s assistant on a Wednesday. We set up a time for me to meet with the boss on Friday. That day, I drive to his office (a 2-hour round trip) only to find he isn’t there. Evidently, he left town without telling his assistant.
English as a second language
The boss calls me about 8:30 on Sunday evening and apologizes profusely. After exchanging a few pleasantries, he begins negotiating a price for the job although I have no idea what he wants me to do at this point. I tell him I need more info before I can price the gig. He asks to meet the following morning and I readily agree.
To compound things, English is the guy’s second language and from the get-go we’re on different wave lengths. What should be a 10-minute conversation takes 30 minutes.
When I finally sit down with the boss it quickly becomes evident he has little idea of what he wants other than to have the site “look more professional.” At least that’s my takeaway after meeting for an hour and a half. It doesn’t help that neither one of us understands the other half the time.
Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t you just hate it when you’re in the 10-items-or-less express checkout lane at the supermarket and the person in front of you has something like 20 items in her cart? That’s what happened to me one recent Sunday. It makes me wonder whether she can’t read, can’t add or can’t give a damn.
Maybe what the supermarket needs is to post a picture of a woman with shopping cart tracks across her back instead of a sign with “10 Items Or Less” on it.
Whenever you have copy that includes lots of numbers, think about ways to turn those numbers into prose or graphics so the reader can visualize what you’re taking about.
Put the data into a chart, table or infographic–a visual representation of data. For example, take a look at “The infographic that saved millions of lives.” You can pack a lot of easy-to-understand numerical info into an itty-bitty piece of real estate.
Recently, IBM and The New York Times introduced a terrific data visualization tool, that you should take a look at.
Read the rest of this entry »
- December 1st, 2008
- Posted in Website design, Writing & Editing
- Comments Off
One of the nice things about WordPress is that it’s as friendly to search engine optimization as a beagle is to a bowl of ice cream–even before you start tweaking it.
Long ago, I settled on WP because I was more interested in using it as a simple content management system than an actual blog. All I really wanted to do is build a no-fuss place–comprising four or five pages–where I could showcase my work and experience to promote my Web writing business. I don’t really know how WP compares to other blogging platforms because I haven’t used any of the others.
In recent years, I’ve been paying more and more attention to SEO best practices. I quickly learned a while ago that Web writing and SEO were immutably tied and there’s really no way to separate the two skills. You need to be on your game with both skills or you’re never going to get the ball from the business players. Anyone who tells you differently probably sells replica watches from the trunk of his car on the side.
Read the rest of this entry »
One of my favorite options inside Photoshop is clipping masks. Clipping masks can be used for a variety of reasons. They are used to place an image inside text, or to place an image inside a shape. Clipping masks can also be used to edit a selected portion of an image.
In this tutorial, we are going to use a Clipping Mask to place an image inside a shape.
Read the rest of this entry »
- November 26th, 2008
- Posted in Design, Photoshop, Text effects
- Comments Off
When you’re optimizing your site for Google and other search engines, images may not be everything, but you shouldn’t overlook them. According to Google, you can use Google Image Labeler and other tools “to associate the images included in your site with labels that will improve indexing and search quality of those images.”
To opt in to enhanced image search:
1. Sign into Google Webmaster Tools with your Google Account.
2. Click the URL for the site you want.
3. Click Tools, and then click Enable enhanced image search.
Read the rest of this entry »
- November 26th, 2008
- Posted in SEO
- 4 Comments »
When using CSS to style a website there are Three primary layout types available to web designers. This tutorial aims to arm you with the information you need to know to help make a more informed decision when choosing how to design your website projects.
The Options
The three primary layout styles for determining the width of websites — Fluid, Fixed and Elastic. All have their own merits. There are also drawbacks to these design patterns, so it’s important to know the best situation in which to use each type of layout. Read the rest of this entry »
- November 25th, 2008
- Posted in Design, Website design
- 1 Comment »
Sales of laptop computers, especially the ultra-portables from Asus, Dell, HP and several other companies, are super hot these days and that has repercussions for Web writers and designers alike.
According to International Data Group, the sales of portable notebooks in the US–driven by several new companies in that segment of the business-outsold desktop computers for the first time in the history of computers in the third quarter of this year.
IDG says notebook computers accounted for 55 percent of computers sold in the US. That’s overall (consumers and small-medium-large companies).
Read the rest of this entry »
Symbols can potentially save you a lot of time. Illustrator comes with hundreds of symbols, and there are hundreds more available on the Internet. Before we discuss how to incorporate symbols into our illustrations, let’s define a symbol.
A symbol is an art object that can be used over and over. Each time a symbol is used within an Illustration, it is referred to as an instance of that symbol. An instance of a symbol can be added one-by-one, or can be sprayed onto an illustration via the Symbol Sprayer tool. And, since the original symbol is stored in the symbols panel, one can make a change to the original symbol and that change will be applied to all instances of that symbol. If you are a Flash user, and this is starting to sound very familiar, it is! The use of symbols in Flash is very similar to using symbols in Illustrator.
Read the rest of this entry »
- November 24th, 2008
- Posted in Design
- 1 Comment »
