Archive for April, 2010

Finding a Client’s Pain Points

By Jared White / April 27th, 2010

Good news! 1stwebdesigner, a popular blogzine for the Web designer community, just published my second article for the site: Client Handling: Finding your Client’s Pain Points. As I state in my article:

In my years of dealing with a variety of different clients, I have noticed one curious trend. It is amazing how many other Web designers have left a bad taste in people’s mouths from previous experiences they’ve had. I think this boils down to two things: lack of experience and lack of awareness.

I want to cover the second point today. As a Web designer/developer, you have an amazing opportunity to shape your clients’ perceptions of what the Internet and online technology can do for them and their business.

Posted in On the Job | No Comments »

Innovation out, awesomeness in

By Jared White / April 9th, 2010

Heh. I just read this great article by Umair Haque about how the concept of innovation as we’ve typically understood it (new features, new capabilities, new flavors, new styles, etc.) is starting to look less appealing than the concept of awesomeness, where you take something and do it a lot better, with more care.

I think the author is basically right. We can try to come up with all kinds of “innovative” ways of doing things and miss the fundamentals. Sometimes, I just want a really yummy cup of coffee and know the ingredients were grown in an environmentally-friendly and ethical manner. I want an awesome cup o’ joe. Simple.

Most technological gadgets trend towards being woefully over-engineered. Too much innovation, not enough awesome. It’s good to be reminded to strive for the emotion, the care, and joy of creating a product — even if the product happens to be a wooden chair rather than a spaceship.

Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

CSS3 Article Published on 1stwebdesigner

By Jared White / April 5th, 2010

1stwebdesigner, a popular graphic and web design blog, has published my first exclusive article (the first of many) called Amazing CSS3 Techniques You Can’t live Without. As I write in my article:

“CSS3, along with HTML5, is quickly shaping up to be one of the most exciting and useful Web technologies in years. In this article, I will be explaining some of the new graphics-rich techniques and properties available with CSS3. You will learn what is likely to be approved as part of the final spec, what is still a work-in-progress, and how to deal with cross-browser incompatibilities and lack of support in older browsers. Ready? Here we go.”

Check it out and let them know what you think!

Posted in HTML5 & CSS3, Visual Delights | No Comments »

New iPad Artistry site launched

By Jared White / April 2nd, 2010

I’m really excited to announce that I’ve started up a new blog called iPad Artistry, and I will be posting photos and a series of detailed reviews of the iPad beginning tomorrow when I pick mine up from the Apple Store.

While this is a design & technology blog, I realized that, as Siteshine is a Web design company, it would be wise to focus mainly on issues related to Web design and creativity. I will cross-link to iPad Artistry from time to time when it seems appropriate, and I do believe the iPad truly will be a driving force in the future of the Web. But if you’re not as much of a fanboy as I am, you can just stay here on NetNotes.

Check out my latest opinion piece on iPad Artistry and let me know your thoughts.

Posted in Gadgets & Gear | No Comments »