Blog Posts: Design / Development
Redesigning the Stop Sign: Unfortunately, Not Unusual»
This short video is a wonderful parody about how the design process too often works; or doesn’t work. It demonstrates what happens when design is not valued or recognized as…
Why Bad Websites Happen to Good Companies, Part 8: Creating Barriers to Downloading Free Information»
Giving away stuff on your website is a really smart thing to do. It’s an opportunity to spread your ideas or information about your products and services, sometimes in exchange…
Part 7, Why Bad Websites Happen to Good Companies: Failure to Install or Monitor Site Analytics»
You would think that a company that puts many thousands of dollars into its website would want to track website results to find out how many unique visitors it gets,…
Outside-In Design for More Usable, User-focused Websites»
There are few things more difficult than setting aside your own knowledge and assumptions to look at things from someone else’s perspective. (If that were not the case, political "discussion"…
Reducing Development Time by Effective Planning in Multiple Team-Member Development»
When developing a website or web application on your own—or with another person you’re used to working with—planning can be pretty informal without endangering the project. When you find yourself…
Oops! There Goes Another Accessibility Mistake»
I’m not an accessibility “expert,” though I care about the issue and do my best to create accessible websites. However, I read a lot of web design/development information, and sometimes…
Part 6, Why Bad Websites Happen to Good Companies: Too Much Stuff on the Home Page»
You’ve seen those homepages with 3 product lead-ins and 2 giveaways and NEW!!! special pricing and the latest news and a billboard about what the company stands for and the…
Part 5, Why Bad Websites Happen to Good Companies: Having a “Splash” Page»
Splash pages represent a fundamental misunderstanding of the online medium. Often, they come from a print perspective (“books should have a cover”), or sometimes from a broadcast perspective (“a show…
Part 4, Why Bad Websites Happen to Good Companies: Leaving the Website to the Webmaster or Web Designer»
Don’t get me wrong: web designers and programmers are critical to the process of creating a website. But they cannot manufacture a viable web presence without the ongoing interest and…
What You Can Learn from the How-Much-Does-a-Website-Cost Question»
Sometime during every first conversation or email exchange with a prospective client, we get asked the how-much-does-it-cost question. We understand people’s need to weigh value, and we don’t mind having…
