RSSMay 17th, 2007
Highlights for 5/17
Hooray for Google Analytics v2!
After a few days working with the NEW Google Analytics, it’s everything I could have hoped for. In addition to the ease of use throughout, my favorite new feature is scheduled reports. I can schedule reports to be sent via email of the stats I choose, LOVE it.
I Wish I Thought of That!
Bringo has conquered those awful 800-number machines and found a way to save customers time and their sanity. This is a great idea, can’t wait to try it out!
Starting a New Company?
For those interested in starting a new company, but don’t care to deal with the paperwork, there are some great quality services that help you incorporate or form an LLC online. Through my own research, I found the pricing and service available from MyNewCompany.com to be swell.
A Great Guide on Web Design Contracts
I found this article by Nick Gould about web design contracts to be a great resource. They are a MUST in this business, and this article can help beginners get going in a hurry.
Em Calculator
Ems were some of the more confusing things for me to understand when getting started with CSS. If you are building an elastic layout, this Em calculator is a must!
Got Your Eye on an iPhone?
If so, you need to get a plan with Cingular! Resellular is a quality service I found that helps you ditch your mobile phone contract and move on.
Icon Shoppe
My personal web design superhero, Dan Cederholm, created a little site to sell his signature icons called Icon Shoppe. It’s definitely worth a visit!
Suckerfish HoverLightbox Redux ?!?
Maybe the name needs a little work, but this is a really great dropdown demo. If only I knew of a way to use it . . .
Rediscovering the Button Element
Very useful article about styling buttons, which is something I find myself constantly struggling with.
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May 7th, 2007
Google’s New Search Design
This past Friday I was working with a client and did a Google search as I so often do. However, this time I saw a completely different design for my search results. I could not believe my eyes, Google actually used a gradient on their search results page!
I asked a couple of friends about it, and they could not seem to duplicate the screen I continue to see for my google search results. Then over the weekend I read an article on techcrunch that confirms my suspicions.
All I can do is consider myself one of the lucky ones that google is using to test out their new search results design. I personally think it looks really cool. The only thing I am a little unsure of is the left column, where you can search your term in images, video, books, blogs and so forth. I am not sure it is worth taking up 167 pixels with that left column. Instead, I might consider working those options into the top. I am sure they have thought this through, it’s just my first impression.
I will be interested to see if/when they decide to launch this new design.
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May 2nd, 2007
Project83.com Version 2
A couple of weeks ago, we quietly launched Project83’s first full-scale redesign. It’s something that our team worked really hard on, and I could not be more pleased at how it turned out.
One of the most important principles in redesigning your own site is not to get carried away. In fact, I put myself through our very own development process in order to stay on track and get the final result. All in all, it took a little less than three months from start to finish.
Before
After
As a company, we preach usable site structure, accessible code and fantastic design. The new site was an opportunity to showcases each of these three things in our own way.
1. Usable site structure
Hopefully this speaks for itself. We wrote ALL-NEW site content, created some new pages and got rid of some things. If it was not focused on the main call to action, which is winning our ideal clients, we got rid of it. All of the content is aimed at that target audience.
One of my favorite parts in each section is the “Q & A”. I feel like each page has practical answers to questions we actually get all the time. Also, featuring resources from the showcase and blog at the bottom is a nice addition that does not get in the way.
Lastly, I felt that we needed to make much better use of the sidebar. It now has a sub-nav (when applicable), client testimonial and project interview download. On the home page, it’s completely different, and I like how it works. Pages like the showcase don’t have a sidebar simply because there’s no need for it. We just want to give users what they came to that page to see, which is our work.
2. Accessible code
All of us in the web development community are learning new things every day. It’s really exciting. One can imagine all the great things we learned over the past year, and we put them to work by cleaning up the code a bit.
We also had a little fun with this layout. The CSS junkie in me decided to do a 100% elastic layout for the site. The new design has rounded corners everywhere, so it was a great challenge. Go ahead and enlarge the text size in your browser. The layout expands and contracts beautifully.
Whether users are accessing our site content using Internet Explorer (YUK!), a mobile phone, or a piece of paper printed from the site, we have the bases covered. Without getting too geeky, that’s what gets me excited about the web! It may be complicated on the surface, but technology gives us the ability to simplify everything for the end user.
3. Fantastic Design
I am technically not tooting my own horn here, because our designer Jared is responsible for most of the aesthetics produced by Project83. He does great, challenging work in my opinion. A great deal of time and effort was put into designing all the “little things” for version 2.
The previous site was mostly finished once we designed the home page. With the new site, each page got a great deal of thought and careful consideration so we could highlight important content and make it easy to scan. I think it worked pretty well, and we will continue improving on it over time.
Feedback and comments regarding the new design are always welcome, we hope you enjoy it.
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