A search of Monster.com and CareerBuilder for webmasters revealed pretty much what I was expecting to see, that there really aren’t any web design jobs in the Evansville area. The closest web jobs at all were in St. Louis and Louisville. This is partly because of the market in Evansville and partly because of the nature of web design currently. More and more companies are moving away from in house web design and are outsourcing the work or simply working with tools to create their own site. This is especially true with smaller companies.
Also the jobs I did find for web services tended to be heavy on the programming end of the spectrum to comply with the way the web is evolving to database driven and user customized content. Increasingly, webmasters also have to be computer programmers?
So where does this leave us, especially those that want to stay in the Evansville area? With a challenge that will require some creative thinking, something we’re all supposed to be good at! I see a potential market for small businesses and non profit organizations that need web services but cannot afford a full time web master or to hire a large firm to take care of it. And by partnering with web creators who are perhaps also looking to freelance, you could create a full service website to business at an affordable cost. This is where I’d like to direct my work, both in web and in design in general.
I think this is really the way that all design is going to move, except for firms that can really afford big design houses. I think that there’s a real untapped market for small business especially in this community.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Search Engine Optimization
SEO is search engine optimization, that is, the art of getting your webpage into Google. SEO is important because the higher in the search engines ranks you are, the more page views you get on your page. Nielsen reported that there were 10.2 billion web searches in the US in January of 2010, and Google led the pack with 61% of the traffic. With that many people searching the web each day, it’s vital that your website be easily findable by the major search engines.
The biggest myth in optimization is that you need to pay someone to handle it for you. The most popular search engine, Google, offers many free tools and advice on optimizing your website. They actively encourage webmasters to use their tools and urge them to stay away from commercial operations that often make use of bad practices for optimization.
The basics are simple, an up-to-date site with clear, unique page titles, descriptive meta-tags and an easy to follow page structure. The easier it is for humans to get from one page to another, the easier it will be for the “googlebots” to get there as well. Google and other search engines use software known as crawlers or spiders to read your site and catalogue titles, keywords and the site map and use this information to get to index your website. Google offers an easy to read easy to followstarter guide to help(warning, pdf).
Links from other sites also play a vital part of search engine rankings, but this is not something that can be commercially optimized, despite what some companies want to sell you. Search engines such as google strongly discourage “link farms” which are just pages full of links. They do not add to your rankings and can actually have your site delisted from the major engines.
In short, the best way to optimize your website is to have a good one. Clean code, dynamic current information uniquely presented will naturally bring your website to the top of the results.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Design, Usability and Accessibility on the Web
Design, usability and accessibility are three keys to web design. While some might argue that one is more important than the other, in reality, all three must work in concert to create a memorable and effective website.
Design is the layout and appearance of the site. How does it look? Is it visually pleasing? How are the elements laid out on the page and do they work well together? In my opinion, web site design is most like print layout. Text, color and images all have to work together to create an informative page. The more visually interesting it is, the better it will hold the reader’s attention. But at the same time, it must communicate the message effectively.
The next piece of web design is usability. Usability is the reader’s ability to effectively navigate and find the information provided on the website. Can the user easily find the information? As important as effective navigation through the web page is the user’s ability to actually use the features on the site. A web page that is using the latest and greatest technologies or is graphic or Flash intensive may be unavailable to a user with a slower connection or an older computer. Also important is how usable is it from devices other than a computer. Increasingly people are accessing web pages from their phones, music players and tablet devices. A fully functional website should be accessible and useable on all of these devices.
Finally accessibility is important in good web page construction. The Internet is accessed by people using a wide variety of accessibility devices such as web readers and motion sensitive devices. Web designers must keep these factors in mind while designing. A user who depends on a web reader for instance, isn’t going to be able to get any useful information from a web page that is built entirely in Flash.
By combining all of these elements, web designers can create a truly effective, usable and beautiful site that can be used fully by a variety of people. The purpose of the web is to push information to users, and these three keys will insure that the most maximum variety of users are served.
Design is the layout and appearance of the site. How does it look? Is it visually pleasing? How are the elements laid out on the page and do they work well together? In my opinion, web site design is most like print layout. Text, color and images all have to work together to create an informative page. The more visually interesting it is, the better it will hold the reader’s attention. But at the same time, it must communicate the message effectively.
The next piece of web design is usability. Usability is the reader’s ability to effectively navigate and find the information provided on the website. Can the user easily find the information? As important as effective navigation through the web page is the user’s ability to actually use the features on the site. A web page that is using the latest and greatest technologies or is graphic or Flash intensive may be unavailable to a user with a slower connection or an older computer. Also important is how usable is it from devices other than a computer. Increasingly people are accessing web pages from their phones, music players and tablet devices. A fully functional website should be accessible and useable on all of these devices.
Finally accessibility is important in good web page construction. The Internet is accessed by people using a wide variety of accessibility devices such as web readers and motion sensitive devices. Web designers must keep these factors in mind while designing. A user who depends on a web reader for instance, isn’t going to be able to get any useful information from a web page that is built entirely in Flash.
By combining all of these elements, web designers can create a truly effective, usable and beautiful site that can be used fully by a variety of people. The purpose of the web is to push information to users, and these three keys will insure that the most maximum variety of users are served.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Review of Photoshop Tutorials
For this blog post I've taken reviewed three tutorials found at the site 27 Best Photoshop Tutorials
The first tutorial I chose to complete was the Photo Portfolio Web Page Layout. I actually found it terribly confusing to follow although after a while I was able to determine what the author meant. I like the final product it produced and did manage to learn a few things about the way photoshop works, but the tutorial itself lacked a lot in explanation. There was not enough step by step processes, inaccurate screen captures (the shape was a color that wasn’t established until the next page) and just a lot of assumption about using the tools and how to access them. There were also inaccurate instructions about how to access certain features. I’m not sure if that’s a version issue or an author issue.
The next tutorial I tackled was Create a Sleek, High-End Web Design from Scratch.
This one was much easier to follow. The steps were more clearly defined and the author explained what he was going to do before giving the instructions. The only problem was I had issues with various elements working as described. No matter how carefully I copied the gradient color numbers he supplied, my background color was different which through off other elements of the design. Also the graphic he used was no longer available on the wesbsite he specified. However I was able to make due by grabbing the piece from the tutorial itself. I learned several new techniques in this tutorial and over all felt it was time well spent, even if the exact outcome wasn’t replicated. The author also took the next step of sending you to a site to learn the html to actually create the page, something the previous tutorial had not done.
The last tutorial I took was 3D Studio Layout - Portfolio Layout. This was the simplest of the tutorials and the easiest to follow. It also provided all the tools you needed to complete it so in the process I gained a couple of interesting brush sets. It appropriately explained the steps and gave nice pictures to compare. I was able to easily reproduce the image and learned some neat techniques along the way.
The first tutorial I chose to complete was the Photo Portfolio Web Page Layout. I actually found it terribly confusing to follow although after a while I was able to determine what the author meant. I like the final product it produced and did manage to learn a few things about the way photoshop works, but the tutorial itself lacked a lot in explanation. There was not enough step by step processes, inaccurate screen captures (the shape was a color that wasn’t established until the next page) and just a lot of assumption about using the tools and how to access them. There were also inaccurate instructions about how to access certain features. I’m not sure if that’s a version issue or an author issue.
The next tutorial I tackled was Create a Sleek, High-End Web Design from Scratch.
This one was much easier to follow. The steps were more clearly defined and the author explained what he was going to do before giving the instructions. The only problem was I had issues with various elements working as described. No matter how carefully I copied the gradient color numbers he supplied, my background color was different which through off other elements of the design. Also the graphic he used was no longer available on the wesbsite he specified. However I was able to make due by grabbing the piece from the tutorial itself. I learned several new techniques in this tutorial and over all felt it was time well spent, even if the exact outcome wasn’t replicated. The author also took the next step of sending you to a site to learn the html to actually create the page, something the previous tutorial had not done.
The last tutorial I took was 3D Studio Layout - Portfolio Layout. This was the simplest of the tutorials and the easiest to follow. It also provided all the tools you needed to complete it so in the process I gained a couple of interesting brush sets. It appropriately explained the steps and gave nice pictures to compare. I was able to easily reproduce the image and learned some neat techniques along the way.
Monday, September 13, 2010
The Web Development Process
The web development process is similar to any other design process. First you must meet with the client to determine their specific wants and needs. You want to determine their problems so that you can develop an appropriate solution. You need to spend time researching their business or project and learn as much about it as you can. Then you need to sit down and start to develop a design. You need to determine what content they’ll need and how best to organize it within the site. Then you can work on the overall look and feel of the website and start the actual design of it. Once you create the site you should upload it for testing and client approval then launch and maintain the site.
Personally, I am most interested in the design aspects of web design as well as content creation and overall organization. While I am interested in learning code and CSS, I know that my personal strengths lie in layout and design as well as writing. This ties in with my design interests and career experiences. While I am interested in learning about more involved programming this is not an area I believe I’ll explore in depth. I’d like to work with a programmer to create websites.
I’m also very interested in the ever developing area of social media and integrating that into websites. The current trend in facebook and twitter and other social sites makes it much easier to tie everything together for the user.
Personally, I am most interested in the design aspects of web design as well as content creation and overall organization. While I am interested in learning code and CSS, I know that my personal strengths lie in layout and design as well as writing. This ties in with my design interests and career experiences. While I am interested in learning about more involved programming this is not an area I believe I’ll explore in depth. I’d like to work with a programmer to create websites.
I’m also very interested in the ever developing area of social media and integrating that into websites. The current trend in facebook and twitter and other social sites makes it much easier to tie everything together for the user.
Monday, August 30, 2010
A Quick History of the Internet
The Internet as we know it today, began as a project of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). ARPA was formed in the aftermath of the Soviet launch of Sputnik. The government, recognizing the importance of computer networks and communications, tasked ARPA with creating a network that could withstand natural and civil disasters. ARPA ultimately created the TCP/IP protocol, the backbone of the Internet.
TCP/IP is a packet protocol. Basically, it takes information and breaks it into pieces. Included in the piece is information about where the information needs to go and how to put the pieces back together. It then routes the packets (or request) to the specified location. These packets can get to their destination via many different routes along the network. Not all packets need to go through the same servers. This allows the Internet speed and redundancy. At the end of the journey the packets are put back together and the request is filled.
As ARPANET grew it merged and took over other networks and by the 1980’s the term Internet was in widespread use. Early Internet applications included e-mail, telnet and GOPHER. In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee, consulting to CERN, began work a program called “WorldWideWeb” to give light to his dream of creating a common information space in which people communicate by sharing information. His simple language, called Hyper Text Markup Language, allowed people to jump from one document to another with a simple click of a link. Initially introduced in 1993, the WWW grew exponentially every year. In 1998, in an article about the history of the web, Berners-Lee stated that part of the dream of the web was for it to be so generally used that it was a realistic mirror of the ways we work, play and socialize. While in 1998, Berners-Lee did not feel that had been accomplished, I think now, 12 years later it has. The web is such an integral part of our lives it is hard to imagine a time when we didn’t have it.
Although as varied and as useful as the Internet has been over the years, it still fills its primary goal in an excellent manner. Time after time in a disaster or crisis we hear about communications networks being shut down, but Internet messages get through. We’ve seen e-mail come out of earthquake zones, and bloggers operating in war zones. Personally, I always remember a story a friend of mine related. He works for New Jersey Transit and was in NYC on 9/11. He could not get a phone line or cell service that morning to call his wife and tell her he was ok. But he sent an e-mail to a friend and asked her to call his wife and relay that he was ok and the e-mail got through. For all the fun uses of the Internet, it accomplishes its main goal every day.
Websites referenced:
http://netvalley.com/intval1.html
http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/ShortHistory
http://www.w3.org/History.html
and a lot from my head.
TCP/IP is a packet protocol. Basically, it takes information and breaks it into pieces. Included in the piece is information about where the information needs to go and how to put the pieces back together. It then routes the packets (or request) to the specified location. These packets can get to their destination via many different routes along the network. Not all packets need to go through the same servers. This allows the Internet speed and redundancy. At the end of the journey the packets are put back together and the request is filled.
As ARPANET grew it merged and took over other networks and by the 1980’s the term Internet was in widespread use. Early Internet applications included e-mail, telnet and GOPHER. In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee, consulting to CERN, began work a program called “WorldWideWeb” to give light to his dream of creating a common information space in which people communicate by sharing information. His simple language, called Hyper Text Markup Language, allowed people to jump from one document to another with a simple click of a link. Initially introduced in 1993, the WWW grew exponentially every year. In 1998, in an article about the history of the web, Berners-Lee stated that part of the dream of the web was for it to be so generally used that it was a realistic mirror of the ways we work, play and socialize. While in 1998, Berners-Lee did not feel that had been accomplished, I think now, 12 years later it has. The web is such an integral part of our lives it is hard to imagine a time when we didn’t have it.
Although as varied and as useful as the Internet has been over the years, it still fills its primary goal in an excellent manner. Time after time in a disaster or crisis we hear about communications networks being shut down, but Internet messages get through. We’ve seen e-mail come out of earthquake zones, and bloggers operating in war zones. Personally, I always remember a story a friend of mine related. He works for New Jersey Transit and was in NYC on 9/11. He could not get a phone line or cell service that morning to call his wife and tell her he was ok. But he sent an e-mail to a friend and asked her to call his wife and relay that he was ok and the e-mail got through. For all the fun uses of the Internet, it accomplishes its main goal every day.
Websites referenced:
http://netvalley.com/intval1.html
http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/ShortHistory
http://www.w3.org/History.html
and a lot from my head.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Goals for web design
I'd like to get a good understanding of web design. I've done basic design before, and I've set up my own web page, but I'm entirely self taught and would like to know more about what makes good design. I would like to learn some of the finer points of HTML and style sheets. I’ve used both in the past but I’ve depended on WYSWG software such as DreamWeaver and don’t know the code behind it. I know that there’s much more that these tools can do that than what I’m currently using.
Also I’d like to gain some marketable skills in this area. I’m currently studying graphic design but would also like to do some professional web design. Web design is a necessary skill to be able to be marketable and competitive in today’s marketplace. I’d like to freelance with a focus in providing graphic services to small businesses in the area and being able to offer a complete package of graphic, marketing and web services would increase sales potential.
I’d also like to use this class as an opportunity to revamp my personal webspace. There’s much more I would like to do with it, I’ve just lacked the skills and the time to make it truly what I want it to be.
I have no fears or apprehension in using the Internet. I’ve been on the ‘net since 1994 and understand the power the web brings. I’ve often said that I know we lived in a time without Internet, because I lived through it, but for the life of me I don’t remember how we ever managed. The web is a powerful tool and everyone needs to appreciate and use it.
Also I’d like to gain some marketable skills in this area. I’m currently studying graphic design but would also like to do some professional web design. Web design is a necessary skill to be able to be marketable and competitive in today’s marketplace. I’d like to freelance with a focus in providing graphic services to small businesses in the area and being able to offer a complete package of graphic, marketing and web services would increase sales potential.
I’d also like to use this class as an opportunity to revamp my personal webspace. There’s much more I would like to do with it, I’ve just lacked the skills and the time to make it truly what I want it to be.
I have no fears or apprehension in using the Internet. I’ve been on the ‘net since 1994 and understand the power the web brings. I’ve often said that I know we lived in a time without Internet, because I lived through it, but for the life of me I don’t remember how we ever managed. The web is a powerful tool and everyone needs to appreciate and use it.
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