Another site launched today: www.shannonsmadella.com. Shannon is competing in the Miss Universe Canada pageant this year in the hopes of being Canada's representative in the Miss Universe competition.
Her site is simple and sharp, full of photography taken by Celestial Photography. Good luck Shannon, Saskatoon is supporting you!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Monday, March 3, 2008
Mashed Bananas launched
Well, it's been busy here at Saskatoon Web Design. Quite a few sites will be launched in the next few weeks. The first one of March is www.mashedbananas.ca. Mashed Bananas is an online boutique of fresh, flirty, and modern brands of products for new moms, babies, children, and the home.
The core of this website is osCommerce, a free and open source e-commerce solution. As a designer, I like the fact that osCommerce has about 12, 000 active stores across the world and a huge community devoted to improving the product. We've employed about a half dozen 'mods' to the mashed bananas store to customize the experience and add the features needed. Just about every graphical feature of the base application has been replaced by custom designed images. And best of all, the store owner is capable of adding, deleting, managing her products, inventory, coupons, newsletters, and much more without the help of her web designer.
For as much as I'm a fan of work, I also acknowledge that many clients would prefer to save some money and take a hands on approach to their operation. They then become more knowledgeable about their store, its operation, and their needs, all of which is only good for business.
The core of this website is osCommerce, a free and open source e-commerce solution. As a designer, I like the fact that osCommerce has about 12, 000 active stores across the world and a huge community devoted to improving the product. We've employed about a half dozen 'mods' to the mashed bananas store to customize the experience and add the features needed. Just about every graphical feature of the base application has been replaced by custom designed images. And best of all, the store owner is capable of adding, deleting, managing her products, inventory, coupons, newsletters, and much more without the help of her web designer.
For as much as I'm a fan of work, I also acknowledge that many clients would prefer to save some money and take a hands on approach to their operation. They then become more knowledgeable about their store, its operation, and their needs, all of which is only good for business.
Monday, January 28, 2008
O IN ONE website launched
This week, O IN ONE's redesigned website and online store has launched. View the golf clothing and accessories store. O IN ONE is the brainchild of a Saskatoon based entrepreneur, selling golf shirts and other accessories. The shirts sport a unique hole in the collar to hold sunglasses or carabina clips.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Open Source Solutions
I'm a big fan of efficiency. Same with the idea of core competencies. Also with saving money. Those three things also happen to be reasons that I'm a big fan of open source solutions when they're available.
What is open source?
Open Source solutions are programs or applications whose code is "open". This means that anyone may alter the code for their own specific uses and distribute it for free. This approach to software differs from the big players in the computer world who prefer all of their products to be proprietary. Good luck making a change to Microsoft Word and offering the new 'improved' version to your friends over the internet.
What are the benefits?
Cost for one. With Open Source solutions, you don't pay for the software yourself. I often recommend open source E-commerce applications because cost-wise, they are great value in comparison with most proprietary applications. Usually a packaged ecommerce shopping cart system will be at least $1000, and if it is custom built for you, it goes up from there very fast. Even with the packaged products, you (or your designer) will still need to re-template it so that it aligns with your organization's image.
Features is another reason. Think about wikipedia for a moment. It has over 7 million articles in over a hundred languages. It's free. How? Because it harnessed the labour of a great many people, and didn't have to pay any of them a penny. Now, of course, there have been instances where articles have been wrong, but as a user you're encouraged to be a critical and active participant yourself, not a silent consumer of information.
Open Source software works on similar principles in that anyone can contribute. Of course, as a user of the software, you don't need to use other peoples contributions. For example, osCommerce has shipping packages for most countries, but if you do business in Saskatoon, you'll likely use just the official Canada Post package. You can pick and choose what works for your situation, and only choose those contributions that are working for other people already.
When wouldn't you use OpenSource?
If you had a very specific need and are willing to pay to see it fulfilled. Then you'll likely want to hire a web programmer to create a tailor made solution and a web designer to ensure it looks good. The same goes if a pre-packaged solution is a perfect fit and the price is right for you. Then go ahead. Admittedly, it isn't too often that I find software that does exactly what I want it too, yet I still have the Adobe and Microsoft family of products on all of my computers because they're close enough and good enough to pay the money for them (no small amount of money either).
What is open source?
Open Source solutions are programs or applications whose code is "open". This means that anyone may alter the code for their own specific uses and distribute it for free. This approach to software differs from the big players in the computer world who prefer all of their products to be proprietary. Good luck making a change to Microsoft Word and offering the new 'improved' version to your friends over the internet.
What are the benefits?
Cost for one. With Open Source solutions, you don't pay for the software yourself. I often recommend open source E-commerce applications because cost-wise, they are great value in comparison with most proprietary applications. Usually a packaged ecommerce shopping cart system will be at least $1000, and if it is custom built for you, it goes up from there very fast. Even with the packaged products, you (or your designer) will still need to re-template it so that it aligns with your organization's image.
Features is another reason. Think about wikipedia for a moment. It has over 7 million articles in over a hundred languages. It's free. How? Because it harnessed the labour of a great many people, and didn't have to pay any of them a penny. Now, of course, there have been instances where articles have been wrong, but as a user you're encouraged to be a critical and active participant yourself, not a silent consumer of information.
Open Source software works on similar principles in that anyone can contribute. Of course, as a user of the software, you don't need to use other peoples contributions. For example, osCommerce has shipping packages for most countries, but if you do business in Saskatoon, you'll likely use just the official Canada Post package. You can pick and choose what works for your situation, and only choose those contributions that are working for other people already.
When wouldn't you use OpenSource?
If you had a very specific need and are willing to pay to see it fulfilled. Then you'll likely want to hire a web programmer to create a tailor made solution and a web designer to ensure it looks good. The same goes if a pre-packaged solution is a perfect fit and the price is right for you. Then go ahead. Admittedly, it isn't too often that I find software that does exactly what I want it too, yet I still have the Adobe and Microsoft family of products on all of my computers because they're close enough and good enough to pay the money for them (no small amount of money either).
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
New Website Launched!
To help bring in the New Year, I've redesigned Saskatoon Web Design. The old site was serviceable, but not quite as sleek as I would have liked. Feel free to email me with your thoughts on the new look.
Website Redesigns
How often should a website be redesigned? It depends upon the site of course, but I think a good rule of thumb is every two or three years. Of course, a well designed site can last for longer than that, but generally speaking once a website turns 5 or 6, its age starts to show, even if its still functional and usable.
Website Redesigns
How often should a website be redesigned? It depends upon the site of course, but I think a good rule of thumb is every two or three years. Of course, a well designed site can last for longer than that, but generally speaking once a website turns 5 or 6, its age starts to show, even if its still functional and usable.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Gender equality in Web Design
The staff at A List Apart (quite honestly the best web design zine I know of) just recently released the results from their massive annual survey conducted amongst new media professionals (web designers, developers, webmasters, etc). There is a lot of data, and you can view their analysis here (pdf file, 1.6mb). I'll write a few posts about things that surprised me.
Gender demographics
83% of web professionals are men. Despite the fact that most computer related occupations share a similar statistic, I thought that it would be a little different in this field.
First off, a good number of the respondents' job titles were: web designer (19.9%), designer (10.4%), or creative director (5.4%). Unlike other responses, such as developer, webmaster, information architect, these titles suggest a "left brain" approach to the web. Typically, women are well represented in other artistic or creative fields.
Second, this industry has a very high rate of self-employed/freelance individuals (23.4%). Again, this is the type of employment that is well suited to those who crave a positive work-life balance: a factor that is often more important to women than men.
Typically, the barriers to entry in this industry are quite low. Higher education can often provide a great starting point for a career, but I suppose a prerequisite that overshadows that is an active interest and familiarity with computers.
Even more than an interest though is the approach. To use an example: the hard core gaming industry (a very male focused business) encourages not just participation amongst customers, but also modifications to the games themselves. Boys and young men learn how to script AI, create electronic models, and design experiences through these games. They are empowered and rewarded for it.
Games targeted at women are still few and far between, but those that lend themselves well to broader audiences prefer to offer intuitive interfaces that hide the mechanics so as not to confuse or scare away the audience. While this may make them more attractive to casual users, it may also be doing a disservice to them as then the customers are taught to become receptive and not active participants. They are reliant on the developers to incorporate things they'd like to see and are taught to wait patiently for that to happen rather than being given the tools to do it themselves.
Gender demographics
83% of web professionals are men. Despite the fact that most computer related occupations share a similar statistic, I thought that it would be a little different in this field.
First off, a good number of the respondents' job titles were: web designer (19.9%), designer (10.4%), or creative director (5.4%). Unlike other responses, such as developer, webmaster, information architect, these titles suggest a "left brain" approach to the web. Typically, women are well represented in other artistic or creative fields.
Second, this industry has a very high rate of self-employed/freelance individuals (23.4%). Again, this is the type of employment that is well suited to those who crave a positive work-life balance: a factor that is often more important to women than men.
Typically, the barriers to entry in this industry are quite low. Higher education can often provide a great starting point for a career, but I suppose a prerequisite that overshadows that is an active interest and familiarity with computers.
Even more than an interest though is the approach. To use an example: the hard core gaming industry (a very male focused business) encourages not just participation amongst customers, but also modifications to the games themselves. Boys and young men learn how to script AI, create electronic models, and design experiences through these games. They are empowered and rewarded for it.
Games targeted at women are still few and far between, but those that lend themselves well to broader audiences prefer to offer intuitive interfaces that hide the mechanics so as not to confuse or scare away the audience. While this may make them more attractive to casual users, it may also be doing a disservice to them as then the customers are taught to become receptive and not active participants. They are reliant on the developers to incorporate things they'd like to see and are taught to wait patiently for that to happen rather than being given the tools to do it themselves.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Web Promotion Campaigns
In this post, I'll go through some of the common elements of an online promotion campaign for a typical small/medium business website. First off though, let's talk about the goals of a campaign:
Search Engine Ranking
Search engines are enigmatic beasts. Sometimes it's hard to tell why one site is listed before another. That being said, there are some factors that will your affect business' ranking on the major engines:
Another important element of your campaign is to be strategic. All of the content on your page should be reviewed to emphasize the words you want people to find you by (ex. web design and search engine optimization are words you'll see all over my site). Try to think of unique words as well to get an edge on your competitors. For example, and this was accidental, my site is ranked on the first page of google when you type in "the invisible movie saskatoon", likely because that phrase doesn't appear all that often online. Now, you'll probably want more relevant keywords as I doubt the guy looking for the invisible movie found it on my site.
Website Traffic
Improving your search engine ranking is a great first step towards your final goals and will increase the traffic coming to your website. There are other more targeted ways to increase that traffic.
One is of course advertising, both online and off. There are millions of other webmasters that will gladly take your money in return for showing one of your ads on their page. The tricky part again is to pick those that will ultimately provide a return on the investment.
Email marketing is another method. If you have an email list and are coming out with a new product or promotion, then letting your past customers know about it while directing them to your website for more detailed information is a very affordable way to increase traffic from the best kind of visitor: ones that have already been loyal to your business.
Interactivity is of course a strength of the internet, and having a site that allows it can keep visitors coming back to your website. Blogs with comment fields, forums, discussion boards are examples. Unfortunately, you do need a critical mass of visitors for this to be effective, otherwise you risk looking a little silly if your only discussion board item is a welcome message.
Sales, leads, business
Ultimately, the point of the above is to capture business (some campaigns may be focused solely on brand building or value adding, but I would posit that these activities as well have the end goal of providing a product or service). If you aren't operating an e-commerce site, and even if you are, it is important to query your customers in a non-intrusive way to find out how they discovered your business. Keep track of that information!
The really annoying thing about any type of marketing is trying to figure out when it's working. Some things can be measured (pagerank, search engine position, website traffic, emails, etc) but others can't (goodwill, billboard exposure, reputation). The factors that you can pin down, should be, and analyzed so that you have an idea as to what the effect of the money and time you spend on your marketing is. Some businesses spend the money and hope it works out, others choose not to make the investments in the first place, the sweet spot of course is somewhere in the middle.
- Increase search engine ranking (ex. PageRank in Google): some people view this as the end goal of a campaign, but in reality, it's the starting point. Because being number one on Google doesn't make you any money on its own.
- Increased website traffic: goal number one will help this, but there are other ways to increase traffic than just through search engines. Again though, visitors alone don't pay for your time, unless if you're selling your traffic (to advertisers of your own), but most small businesses don't fall into that category.
- Increase leads, inquiries, or sales. Here lies the true reason for starting a promotion campaign, to increase the number of people interesting in purchasing your goods and services.
Search Engine Ranking
Search engines are enigmatic beasts. Sometimes it's hard to tell why one site is listed before another. That being said, there are some factors that will your affect business' ranking on the major engines:
- Backlinks (links from other sites to yours), links are rating according to their reputation (think Harvard vs. Lakeland College), relevancy to your site, and quantity.
- Content: search engines want their users to find useful information. If you don't have any on your site, they'll give their users someone else's site instead.
- Size and age of your site, older, larger sites are better.
Another important element of your campaign is to be strategic. All of the content on your page should be reviewed to emphasize the words you want people to find you by (ex. web design and search engine optimization are words you'll see all over my site). Try to think of unique words as well to get an edge on your competitors. For example, and this was accidental, my site is ranked on the first page of google when you type in "the invisible movie saskatoon", likely because that phrase doesn't appear all that often online. Now, you'll probably want more relevant keywords as I doubt the guy looking for the invisible movie found it on my site.
Website Traffic
Improving your search engine ranking is a great first step towards your final goals and will increase the traffic coming to your website. There are other more targeted ways to increase that traffic.
One is of course advertising, both online and off. There are millions of other webmasters that will gladly take your money in return for showing one of your ads on their page. The tricky part again is to pick those that will ultimately provide a return on the investment.
Email marketing is another method. If you have an email list and are coming out with a new product or promotion, then letting your past customers know about it while directing them to your website for more detailed information is a very affordable way to increase traffic from the best kind of visitor: ones that have already been loyal to your business.
Interactivity is of course a strength of the internet, and having a site that allows it can keep visitors coming back to your website. Blogs with comment fields, forums, discussion boards are examples. Unfortunately, you do need a critical mass of visitors for this to be effective, otherwise you risk looking a little silly if your only discussion board item is a welcome message.
Sales, leads, business
Ultimately, the point of the above is to capture business (some campaigns may be focused solely on brand building or value adding, but I would posit that these activities as well have the end goal of providing a product or service). If you aren't operating an e-commerce site, and even if you are, it is important to query your customers in a non-intrusive way to find out how they discovered your business. Keep track of that information!
The really annoying thing about any type of marketing is trying to figure out when it's working. Some things can be measured (pagerank, search engine position, website traffic, emails, etc) but others can't (goodwill, billboard exposure, reputation). The factors that you can pin down, should be, and analyzed so that you have an idea as to what the effect of the money and time you spend on your marketing is. Some businesses spend the money and hope it works out, others choose not to make the investments in the first place, the sweet spot of course is somewhere in the middle.
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