NetNotesA Design and Technology Blog
I’m done with shared hosting. Buh-bye. Siteshine is now being hosted on a VPS (Virtual Private Server) I’ve set up, and I will be recommending my clients use a VPS rather than a shared hosting account for all but the most basic sites (like a WordPress install).
Too many performance glitches, support problems, and restrictions on what I can do!
My good friend and client Timothy Youngs has been having some real success over at the ExchangeBucket (formerly American Builders Exchange) lately. Most exciting was a recent shoutout over at BobVila.com which is a popular DIY/home improvement portal. Just a couple of weeks ago I installed a new blog feature on the site so Timothy can get news and ideas out to the community in a more timely fashion.
Also, as a follow-up to my previous post, I am talking with another graphics designer right now about some potential partnership opportunities — starting with Siteshine’s home page redesign project. Should be fun, although it will delay the timeline a bit. I’ll keep you posted as things develop!
We’ll be unveiling a new home page design sometime in the next few weeks. It’s going to be clear, concise, do a far far better job of explaining the work we are doing now. We do more than Web site design, we integrate Web services. Services like Facebook, Twitter, Wufoo. We build experiences that tell stores. We educate and inform on the latest online best practices. All this we will explain on our new home page. More to follow!
Quick update on client work: we have a bunch of stuff going live within the next month or so, and we’ve also been working a lot for existing clients already profiled on our portfolio. So while it may not look like a lot is going on, we’ve been very busy! Which is a good thing. 
I haven’t yet added them to our Portfolio page, but I wanted to give a shoutout to Just World Books, one of Siteshine’s newer clients whose site just got launched a couple of weeks ago. Browse through the books and growing roster of authors this up-and-coming book publisher has featured on their site, or check out the latest political commentary from their newsfeed, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.
I still have a few items to attend to, a bit of spit-and-polish here and there, but it’s pretty much good to go. Congrats, Just World Books!
Apple? Social network? Yeah I know, it’s a bit of a culture-shock. Apple doesn’t quite seem like the “warm fuzzy community builder” company. But, indeed, Apple just released iTunes 10 and with it comes a whole new social network called Ping.
What is Ping all about? Like the title of this post says, and like Steve Jobs repeatedly emphasized in his keynote address, it is a social network all about music. Music. I don’t think this can be stressed highly enough. Most people who are critical of Ping right now don’t understand this. In Twitter, the unit of importance is a 140 character message called a Tweet. It often comes with a link attached. Tweets can be about anything in the world. In Facebook, the unit of importance is a shared object from a friend (which can be a status update, link, photo, etc.). Again, it can be about anything.
In Ping, the unit of importance is music. That’s it. It can be a song or an album or an artist, but it’s all about music. I didn’t understand this yesterday. I was mad I couldn’t dress up my profile with more info about me, or post status updates for people to read. I didn’t understand quite what the point was of being on Ping, since most of my favorite artists don’t have profiles up yet. But then today, I hopped over to the iTunes Store to see if I could find an artist’s Ping profile from an artist’s page. It turns out the answer is an obvious yes, but before I solved that, I discovered something really amazing. I can “Like” or “Post” anything on the iTunes Store. Bingo. That’s the killer app right there. So I can find stuff I like, whether I even own it or not, and then post it to my profile to share with anyone who’s following me. That gives Ping an extra dimension.
Now you may be thinking there are other social networks that work like that, networks that allow people to post music they like. Sure there are. Are they built into iTunes? No. Realize this: Ping isn’t something Apple just hacked together and stuck up on a Web site to try out. Ping is iTunes. iTunes is Ping. I really don’t think that can be stressed enough. The #1 way to find, purchase, and enjoy music on iTunes now will be through Ping, and everyone who likes to shop on iTunes will be using Ping to share the music they like. It’s that simple.
No, Facebook isn’t going anywhere. Twitter isn’t going anywhere. Heck, I don’t think Last.fm or Soundcloud are going anywhere. It’s just that Ping is going to be very successful for exactly what it is: a social network for music built right into iTunes.
And I think that’s pretty cool.
That’s what it’s all about in Web design. I suppose you could argue that it’s true in print as well, but on the Web in particular, we designers have to pay close attention to the interplay of color, font, and texture across a large number of pages, sections, and divisions. If you’re a designer, you probably think that’s a blinding flash of the obvious, but it’s actually shocking how many sites out there seem to pay little heed to any kind of coherence in these areas. That may be due to a site evolving over time (I’m sure work I’ve done isn’t perfect), or perhaps more than one designer was involved in different stages.
Some Examples:
You’re on Page 1 of a site and all the action buttons are blue. You go to Page 2 of a site, and all of a sudden there are action buttons that are green. Why blue on one page and green on the other?
You’re looking at a diagram that puts a metallic sheen on the elements. Then you go look at some similar graphical elements further down the page and they look plastic and glossy. Why are there two different textures on one page?
The headline font is Helvetica on the blog home page and then it’s Georgia on the individual post pages. Should all headlines across a site be uniform?
Now let me say this: I don’t think it’s bad to have a little variation. Variety is the spice of life. Sometimes you may want to consciously use a different headline font in a particular case for a different emphasis or emotion. Sometimes you may want to use a secondary texture on some elements to make them stand out. All I’m saying is: THINK! Use your head and really think through why you’re picking a certain color, font, or texture. Is it because it looks “cool” to you at the time or is it because of a specific reason that is consistent and integrous with the overall design of the project?
Pay attention.
I spent some time in the last few weeks researching and trying out various solutions for online invoicing, and I have settled on a popular one that has a fabulous interface. I’m quite pleased. I tried it out with a client after a recent project was finished, and it worked like a champ.
So now when you hire Siteshine for your next Web site project, you’ll be able to pay invoices online via PayPal (and thus via a number of funding sources including credit & debit cards). Just another way we want to make the design process as easy and straightforward as possible. Personally, I HATE checks and would prefer to use a debit card for all my transactions. Maybe you feel the same way!
Wow! I’ve been really surprised and delighted by the response we got to the video interview we posted a couple of weeks ago. Compared to blog posts or other things I’ve put online in the past, I’ve never had so many people I know personally respond and tell me they’d seen it.
So thank you for your feedback! I appreciate it.
Also, a big shout out to our Siteshine clients. Repeat business is something I value very, very highly, and I appreciate how supportive you have been over the years and even recent business I’ve received from you. Thank you.
I have an idea in mind for a future video which will show a bit of my workspace and what tools I like to use as I’m designing Web sites. I’ll probably post a bit about that ahead of time though. See you then!
Hey, this is a really fun milestone for us: we just posted a video interview that was recorded locally on the Windsor Town Green. I’ve been wanting to get video up on Siteshine since before we even launched, but it’s taken a while to get the concept and the time together. The background was a little bright but thankfully we got good quality audio. It’s always nice to be able to hear clearly!
There’s an important announcement about Siteshine in the video at the 2:30 mark and later some details on our goals and strategy, so please visit the Interview page and watch the video (or at least read the summary). Let me know what you think!
When a company blog isn’t updated for a while, it could be because of several different options:
(a) Everyone’s crazy busy around here. No news is good news.
(b) The company is going out of business. Bye-bye.
(c) Nobody has anything interesting to say. We’re boring.
I’m happy to say the second and third options have nothing to do with reality. We’re not boring, and Siteshine isn’t going anywhere. Anywhere but up, that is.
While I’m not proud to choose the first option, we really have been busy. Part of that busyness has been client projects. I’m doing some really interesting work for a book publisher right now which should be seeing the light of day sometime next month. I also recently completed my wife’s site for her massage business Healing Hands Massage which I’ll be posting on our company portfolio shortly.
There’s been more going on as well internally and right now I’m preparing some updates to our site and a video which will shed some light on recent changes and my vision for the future of Siteshine. I know that sounds vague, but all will be revealed later this week.
One of my goals is providing more transparency with how I conduct business and what I do in my capacity as Web Designer, so I will be putting more emphasis on that on our site and this blog as time goes on.
I want you to know I’ve never been more pumped about designing. My passion is to make things that have integrity and intrinsic value, and everything I do at Siteshine is engineered with that goal in mind.
I leave you with this inspiring quote:
“It is only by doing things others have not that one can advance.”
- General George S. Patton, Jr