RSSFebruary 4th, 2008
Looking for a New Developer to “Date”
Our software company, Brightwurks, is looking to hire a developer for ongoing development with our content management product Springboard, and also to help with some large client projects. Here are the details . . .
Location: Anywhere, preferably in the US
Time Frame: Ongoing contract, potential full-time
Requirements:
- A personality, along with a great work ethic
- 2-3 years plus experience developing web-based applications
- Expert knowledge of working with Java, Struts, JSTL
- Expert knowledge of PHP, and CakePHP experience is a plus
- Expert knowledge of MySQL and/or other relational database management systems
- Understanding of web standards and xhtml/css layouts is a big plus
About Us:
We like to date our people before jumping in the sack, and we believe you deserve the same courtesy. What does that mean? It means we should spend some time getting to know each other and working together before making any long-term career moves. If it’s a great fit, we would love to have you!
To start, you will be working on a couple of large-scale projects with our team. This includes work on our customized content management platform, called Springboard. These projects will require 20-30 hours per week of work, and you will be paid as a contractor. Those hours can grow into a full-time position if we still like each other after a while. If you want to have another job or some projects on the side, that’s fine as long as you can stay on track with our work too.
The only way to get great results from a developer is if they really love the work they are doing, so we want to give you work that you are psyched about.
Benefits:
- We intentionally don’t have an office. Work when and where you want, as long as you can do quality work and meet reasonable deadlines.
- We treat you like an adult. No micro-managing or silly rules. We currently have a very close team of 4 guys, and you get a say in everything that goes on.
- Each project we work on is different, so the work should be continuously challenging and fun.
- We’ll be honest with you. We have nothing to hide. We just need more help!
What’s at stake?
The opportunity to get involved in a young, fast-growing company that is trying to build some very successful applications.
If you are able to refer the winning candidate to us, there is a referral fee of $200 in it for you. We would appreciate the help. Sorry, you can’t refer yourself.
That’s perfect for me! How do I apply?
Please send a resume, samples of work and a preferred hourly rate to hireme@brightwurks.com. Or just touch base and send what you can, but make sure you fill the requirements.
Posted in Project83, Web Development - No Comments
January 31st, 2008
[SHOWCASE] Chris Rice Store and Premiere Speakers
This past month, we had the opportunity to finish up a couple of really great projects . . .
Chris Rice Store
We love working on eCommerce projects, and the Chris Rice store was no exception. Chris is a fantastic musician, and an even better guy to be around. Quite simply, the main objective was not to stray very far from his current website design (done by our friends at Visual Inventor), but to still create something fresh and easy to use.
This project is running an early version of our Springboard store platform, which is coming along very nicely. Enough talk, here’s a screenshot and link to the site . . .
Premiere Speakers Bureau
Another one of our projects that just launched is for Premiere Speakers Bureau. Premiere works with the very best public speakers in the business, and their company is second to none in that business. They are very professional from top to bottom.
We worked with them to design and code 4 templates, then handed it off to John McGary and his team to implement with their current system. They did a really nice job, and it was fun working with them.
Here is a before and after look of how things turned out on the home page . . .
PremiereSpeakers.com (before)
PremiereSpeakers.com (after)
Posted in Project83, Showcase - No Comments
January 15th, 2008
Making Mistakes
A defining characteristic of great organizations is the ability to handle mistakes well. Mistakes are a part of everyday life both personally and professionally; yet very few truly understand the value of taking responsibility, and the effect it has on others.
I believe it’s human nature to struggle with taking responsibility or admitting a mistake. But nothing worthwhile comes easy, right? Being mindful your inordinate ability as a human to make mistakes is the first step to handling them well.
In a technical business such as web development, mistakes, errors and bugs happen relatively often. It’s the nature of our business in a sense, because the web is still in it’s infancy. Great developers find them before the client or the user does, but there is only so much testing that can be done. Sometimes mistakes happen, and handling these situations with integrity and humility is of the utmost importance.
When confronted with a situation where you could be responsible for a mistake, it helps to ask yourself the following questions:
- What role did I or my team play in this situation?
- What are all of the potential ways I could be responsible for what happened?
- If this is not my fault, how can I prove it and work towards a resolution with the responsible party?
Asking these questions always forces me to look into the situation and find an answer, rather than take the lazy, hands-off approach that can be frustrating for others. If you ARE responsible for all or part of the problem, handling it well means following up on 3 crucial levels:
1. Take Responsibility
Simply explain what happened, and apologize. Make sure you NEVER use “but”, “if” or anyone else’s name. Taking responsibility is not an opportunity to make excuses. Even if the problem was only 10% your fault, most times it is more appropriate to take full responsibility for your mistake(s) so that both sides can hopefully move on without hard feelings.
2. Make it Right
Steve Jobs recently did a great job turning a mistake into a great publicity statement for his company. Apple’s environmental policy had came under harsh criticism for quite some time, and he responded with a public letter. This letter not only addressed the problem, but he made it right by revealing their new environmental plan to remove toxic chemicals from their products and recycle them at a higher rate.
What it takes to make a situation right varies, but don’t hesitate to go over and above the status quo to keep the person or client’s confidence. This might mean a discount, a refund, a public apology or simply a heartfelt letter/email.
3. Prevent it From Happening Again
Early last year, JetBlue had a customer service nightmare on their hands after a winter storm. Hundreds, if not thousands of customers were stranded in the Northeast, and subjected to awful delays and phone hold times. This was a defining moment for CEO David Neeleman and the 7-year-old company at the time. The letter he wrote to customers can be found here.
Not only did they accept full responsibility and attempt to make the situation right with their customers, but they took pro-active steps to prevent problems like that from happening again by introducing the customer bill of rights. Considering the situation, I felt that Neeleman’s response was well executed.
When mistakes are made, apologizing and making the situation right is not quite enough. Very clear steps must be taken internally to ensure that the mistake does not happen again.
Our Mistakes
This article was written solely because this is something I struggle with daily, as most people do. We’ve made some bad mistakes too. Here are a couple of them:
Early last year, many of our clients experienced about 12 hours of downtime from a hard drive crash on one of our servers. It was the first crisis we had ever experienced with regards to our servers, and we were not prepared. About a week of work was lost, and it took weeks to get everything back the way it was.
Not only did I call each and every client personally to apologize and outline the plan to get back up, but we made sure it would not happen again. Now each of our servers has a RAID real-time backup drive, and each site is backed up every 24 hours to a separate server across the country.
Another mistake we recently made had to do with one of our clients losing a number of form submission emails from their site. A combination of about 5 separate things contributed to the problem. Were we responsible for all those things? Nope. But if we did our job as a server host and monitored our mail queue, we could have prevented it. Currently we are writing a script to monitor mail queues more closely so the problem does not happen again.
Posted in Project83, Business, Apple - No Comments
December 4th, 2007
Why We Ask for a Budget
In a creative business like web development, pricing and budgets fall into a rather large “grey area”. We try to get away from that as much as possible at Project83, and be very upfront about general pricing guidelines. However, each project is unique, and with that comes a price that must be custom-fitted to the client’s needs. We are accountable to stick to that price in the future, so a great deal of thought and preparation has to go into it.
In an effort to create the ideal website, it is always among my first objectives to understand what the client is looking to spend. Is this our way of manipulating clients so we can charge as much as possible for as little work as possible? Absolutely not! But still, many clients protect this information, as if it does not become clear eventually anyways. So I am going to set the record straight about budgets using a simple illustration.
Let’s say you want to buy a ring for that special someone in your life. Once you have done the research and have a good idea of what you would like, you visit a jewelry store to see what they have to offer. Keep in mind that there are tens of thousands of jewelry stores to pick from, and each diamond in the world is unique. Along with the stone(s), there are thousands of settings to choose from. So it is safe to say no matter what ring you choose, it will be unique.
Within the first 2 minutes of talking with a salesperson, they will mention the B word. They will ask for your budget. They ask not to offend you, but simply because it is the best way for them to understand what you are able to purchase. If the budget is $5,000, they won’t waste your time trying to sell you a $15,000 ring. Conversely, they also won’t try to sell you a $2,000 ring when you can afford a much better quality product. You and the salesperson can instantly communicate on an honest level and find something that is just right.
So what if the client is unwilling to give the salesperson a budget? Then most likely, trying to sell them a $15,000 ring will cause them to leave, even though that store could have had the perfect ring. Or even worse, they could sell the client a $2,000 ring that you ended up displeased with after it was all said and done. In either case, not talking with the salesperson about the budget ends up hurting the client.
A website is like a diamond, in that a number of characteristics make it unique. The service Project83 offers is absolutely unique, which makes it difficult to compare with another company solely based on price. Diamonds have the 4 C’s, cut, color, clarity and carat weight. Project83 has size, service, design and features (not as sexy as 4 C’s, I know). Knowing the budget is the best way to come up with the perfect combination of each in order to make everyone happy.
Failure to communicate clearly about this kind of thing can result in losing a project, or either side not really getting what they bargained for. That’s why any web company that has been doing this for a while is smart enough to work with you on an honest level with regards to budget.
If your budget is $10,000, then chances are our proposal will be within that general range. Why? Because if you go to the jewelry store ready to spend $10,000, then you don’t want to leave with a product that costs half that. You want the very most for your dollar! And it is our job to give you the very most bang for your buck, in the form of a great quality website. Sometimes we can fit all the specifications and be significantly cheaper, but it seldom happens.
Despite popular belief, knowing your budget does not change our pricing whatsoever. It simply gives us an idea of what kind of product would suit the you in the end.
Understanding money and budgets is simply part of the process when working with ANY web development company. Our promise it to be fair and upfront about pricing, but we will not do a proposal without understanding your expectations. It is only fair, and it is designed to help you. Then you can rest assured that the end result will be worth what you care to spend, and hopefully a great deal more, for years to come.
Posted in Project83, Business - 7 Comments
October 23rd, 2007
[SHOWCASE] Carlton Financial and Best-Selling Author
This month we had the opportunity to launch 2 websites that we really enjoyed working on: Carlton Financial Group and Best-Selling Author.
Carlton Financial Group
This website is definitely among the more simple designs we have done, but I think it really turned out well and represents just what our client was looking for. The main objective was to provide educational information about insurance services the company provides, and to encourage potential customers to touch base for a quote.
Insurance in itself can be confusing and daunting for people to get into, which is why we really wanted to keep things lightweight, simple and super-easy to use. The whole site really browses nicely, and has some really useful functionality to help people.
Best-Selling Author
Our team gets really fired up about doing e-commerce websites. There are so many things to consider when building an effective shopping cart that maximizes conversions, and this store turned out to be a fantastic example. Despite other great features and functionality on the site, if it does not help to convert sales, it is unsuccessful for our client.
Although there is some debate in e-commerce circles about the effectiveness of multi-step checkouts versus one-step checkouts, we thought a one-step checkout was best for this site. Once customers click the “checkout” button from the cart page, it’s just one page to complete the order. Thus far, it has been very effective. The cart is run by our in-house Springboard store software, so order fulfillment and customer management is a snap for the client.
Posted in Project83, Showcase - 1 Comment
September 4th, 2007
Feature in Smashing Magazine
We were recently honored to be featured alongside the world’s very best designers in an article from Smashing Magazine, called “50 Designers x 6 Questions”. This was an opportunity to share a little about web development and pass on some advice to fellow designers. For those that are interested, here are the answers we provided to the 5 questions in the article:
What’s 1 typical myth about web-development (which is not true)?
That a great site can get you to the top of google. Developing an SEO-friendly site is only the first step in accomplishing a goal like that. Past the development side of things, there are tons of other factors involved. That’s why we work with an outside company (VKI Studios) that is one of the very best, and I am thrilled to not have to worry about it outside of the code.
1 bulletproof method to get over creativity block
This is far from profound, but walk away. And don’t leave one screen to go sit in front of another and watch TV. Go workout, take a run. Or do some errands. Just do something active for at least an hour that does not require you to think about work or look at your crackberry.
1 thing to do before starting a new project
Get to know your client. What drives them? What are they passionate about? What can you learn about their business that will help you create their ideal website? Who do they compete with and how can you appeal to their target market?
It’s also important to shake their hand if you can. If not, spend 20+ minutes talking with them on the phone. Make sure that you get along, and that you can work well together. Be sure that they are open-minded to your ideas, and that you can be a good listener to them. If something’s not right about the relationship in the beginning, don’t be afraid to cut it off and save yourself a great deal of hassle.
1 thing I wish I knew before I’ve started programming/designing
How much I would enjoy it! Developing websites is really hard work, and it’s not always really fun. But in general I feel that working on different projects with clients in TONS of different industries always keeps the job fresh and full of new challenges.
I also learned very quickly the value of a team. I work with two guys that compliment my skill set perfectly, and I would encourage those just starting out to always be seeking people to work with that are better than you at certain things.
1 common mistake you should always avoid developing web-sites
Shortcuts. This applies to design and code. I don’t care if the client will never notice the subtle gradients or appreciate the beautiful semantic code. Just make sure it’s something you can get excited about, and that you can learn something on each project.
There’s simply too much talent out there to ever think you know it all, so do things in your everyday work that are incredibly challenging and uncomfortable. That’s the only way to keep getting better. Don’t hesitate to spend much more time on a project solely for the purpose of becoming better. It’s worth it!
1 tool or/and service/web-service I can’t imagine my life without
iGTD, from Bartek Bargiel. Unbelievable. http://www.igtd.pl/iGTD/
Also, I wanted to mention that Smashing Magazine just celebrated their one year anniversary. As a result, they are offering some of the BEST books on web development (40+) for free to those that choose to write a thoughtful comment. Read their post to learn more about it.
Posted in Project83, Web Development - No Comments
September 1st, 2007
Project83 Turns Two!
Today is a really exciting day, as Project83 celebrates it’s second birthday! This little design company has accomplished a great deal in our short time, and we have very exciting projects and announcements to look forward to in the future.
A huge “thank you” goes out to our clients, who helped us grow into a web design company that competes with the very best in the business. With their help, we have done nearly 40 sites in two years, 21 of them so far in 2007.
An even greater thanks goes out to Denny Swindle (middle in photo) and Jared McDaniel (right in photo), the other two guys I am honored to work alongside each day. It’s been so much fun working with guys that challenge me each day with their abundance of talent, energy and work ethic.
Here’s to another year working on new projects and constantly learning along the way!
Posted in Project83 - No Comments
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.
Posted in Project83 - No Comments
April 21st, 2007
Smashing Magazine Interview
I was both honored and excited to be a part of a recent interview posted on Smashing Magazine this past Friday. Project83 was one of 35 designers/companies asked 5 questions about web development for their article.
I really enjoyed participating and reading all of the great things everyone else said in the interview. You can read the entire article here.
Posted in Project83, Web Development - No Comments
March 30th, 2007
Designing with Constraints: The Good and Bad
Ever since our yearly journey to Austin, TX and the massive SXSW Interactive conference a few weeks back, I have been thinking a great deal about constraints and their role within web design. I came to the conclusion that they are both good and bad. Understanding both has been pivotal for us in building a successful web design company.
The Good
While it may not seem like it all of the time, structure inspires great work. Nasty terms like “deadlines” and “client specifications” exist for real reasons, and can actually be used as an advantage for designers.
I have heard a number of designers speak about the power of a deadline to make them try something they never would have tried. Somehow in those last hours, the light bulb comes on. Or maybe being forced to work within a specific wireframe for a design helps contribute to an idea you never would have been capable of without structure.
I see evidence of this principle often when designers have ultimate freedom, like on a site of their own. There are no deadlines, so the site literally takes months longer than it should. Sadly it also results in a sub-par product, simply because 110% effort is never given to it for any considerable amount of time.
A site without written specifications or pre-meditated structure can also suffer from the same complications. When we have ultimate freedom, somehow that makes us want to insert every possible feature or design concept. Again the end result takes much longer and it can be very cluttered.
Constraints only allow for the necessities and nothing more, which is a good way to start on the web.
The Bad
One thing people perceive as a constraint that I don’t understand is code. Thanks to technology, the web is a place where most anything is possible to create, so I see no reason to take shortcuts or water things down by considering code during the design process.
Quality web design should start with a user-friendly interface, something that is intuitive for users of all experience levels. Keeping that in mind, there is a TON of room for being creative and building a user experience that is not only functional, yet fun to look at and representative of everything the brand is about.
This principle comes into play with our design process at Project83. Our designer Jared does not get involved in the coding process. I believe this helps him focus on his primary objective, which is design. While having an understanding of how the code works, it is not a primary factor when focusing on the creative process in each site’s development.
Jared’s designs are very detailed, often encompassing tons of layers, gradients, rounded corners and other elements that are scary for geeks. But those characteristics make a good design a GREAT design, something that really leaps off the page. By thinking about the code and how much longer details like that would take to add, we might leave them out. Sure it can take much longer to code the design eventually, but I think it is absolutely worth it.
This is something I have grown to feel very strongly about. First, design for users. Then design for the sake of creating something unique, detailed and representative of the particular brand.
I would like to encourage all web designers to create something without code constraints, as if it were only being printed out. The result could very well be a design with more depth, detail and overall character.
Of course there will always be exceptions to both of these rules about constraints. I see more and more incredible design on the web every day. But in general, I feel these principles have merit. They certainly do in the way Project83 develops websites.
Posted in Project83, Web Development - 1 Comment