I Promise I’m Not Dead – Just Looking Forward

So many of you may be wondering if my silence was due to me dyeing or something, but I assure you that aside from a violent bout of the flu last weekend and a busy busy week I am alive and well. It is for these reasons that I have not been as active on my blog as I would like but I decided I would do a post before an incredibly busy weekend. I’m still in love with code, in fact the more I figure out (and I have a lot to figure out) the more I enjoy it! I have been playing around with Content Management Systems a lot lately and have really enjoyed figuring them out and look forward to working with and creating them in the future. I am gearing up for, and so looking forward to, my work placement with Jester Creative a local multimedia company here in Ottawa (they are also in Toronto). Great company co-run by one of my teachers Sue Murphy who I have come to really respect and look forward to working for.

So that’s the update of what’s been happening over the week, now I would like to talk quickly about where I want to be in the next couple months since I’m effectively finished school in about 4 weeks! I decided today that I’m going to take the plunge, get a domain and finally consolidate my online presence in one place that is truly me. I’m looking into a hosting company right now but I’m thinking I will go with HostPappa.ca since they are a Canadian company, have great features, but are also powered by green energy which is something I care deeply about. So as I finish school I will start to think of how I want to design the site so that it reflects me, and which CMS I want to set it up on. For the CMS I’m thinking WordPress or Joomla, my main reason for considering Joomla is in case some day I want to add advanced features to the site. The design may take a bit because it is not my strong point, but an area I so desperately want to improve on and one that I do have a strong base in.

I’m very excited for the next couple of months and I’d say by the time the weather turns warm I want to have my branding fleshed out, my online presence up, and I’m really really hoping I can preform well in my placement and land employment with them. And just as a note Sarah and I are still trying to work on getting our side venture up and running so that’s also a goal I want achieved by the Spring or Summer.

A Shout Out to all my class mates for an awesome couple years of school, we’re almost there, let’s get through these last projects and then kick ass out in the industry!

Accountability Through Social Media

So the big thing in Canadian politics right now (ok so there is a couple big issues, our politics SUCK right now) is accountability. Our current government was elected basically on a platform of accountability after scandals pushed out the old government. Unfortunately for many (and unnoticed by others) this government has not only turned their backs on their promises but they have, to some, been the worst offenders of non-accountability in the history of Canadian politics. Now this post is not meant to spark debate on the Harper government and it’s tarnishing effect it’s had on the Canadian image, but rather on how interested Canadians can help to change things. That said I am always interested to hear what people have to say on any topic politically related.

We are living in an era where the individual has unprecedented opportunity to speak out and be heard. I have recently watched a TED video on The next age of government where he highlights this fact and how it can help to shape politics. No longer do the big bureaucratic governments have complete control over the message, so why do we let them. People are gravitating away from the large news organizations to the internet in order to get their news. Which means they can find out what they want on whatever topic they are interested in, not just what a few want them to see or think will be profitable.

We can use this to help push political agendas in the favor of the people. Like sites that track crime rates across a particular city. This can then educate the public and give them a tool to use and engage their city council in order to help push change in their city. There are also sites that track government spending in certain countries. Imagine the level of accountability you could hold your government to if you could see every cent they spend in real time. And you could go beyond these things and start tracking cities and countries that are implementing things that interest you and you think are vital, build a community around this and drive change in your own governments.

We no longer have to site idly by and hope that someone influential will come by and push our cause. With the right determination and the knowledge of the social media tools that are out their we can all build communities around what we are passionate about. It is hard work but we can begin to change the face of politics in our country and build nations truly controlled by the people for the people and not just one party’s interests. Utopian? Maybe, there will always be debates because not everyone will agree on everything but lets put those debates, and education (not political spin) in the hands of the people so government truly has to listen to the majority.

This is the power of the new social media revolution, and it does not just apply to politics it applies to everything. So if you have an opinion that you feel strongly about, or are passionate about something and want to push it out there, start to build a community around it and you’d be amazed by what one person can start / achieve in this new world!

Just my opinion…

EDIT: I was also thinking today that these same principles could be used to create a community around consumer happiness. Although there are sites out there that track how much consumers are happy with products and they can give reviews, there doesn’t seem to be one with huge reach. It would be interesting to see if someone could create a big enough community with this in mind that would utilize all social media tools available so that people who are unsatisfied with a product or customer service can hold that company truly accountable. This would help to force companies slow to move on becoming more transparent, open up and acknowledge it’s customers or fall.

Olympic Dreaming

With the Vancouver 2010 winter Olympic games off to a start its been hard to not think about them from time to time as a Canadian. Now this post is based around an idea I had about the medals and is based on the slight information I have about them so if anything I say is wrong please set the record straight.

From what I now each medal is unique in that they each have a different part of a larger piece of art work engraved on each one. As far as I know each one is unique and there are no repeats but again not entirely sure. But lets just assume (cause that’s always a good idea) that they are. It was while thinking about this interesting concept that I had an interesting idea that could of been done. They should of taken a digital copy of the full piece(s) of art work, placed it online, and plotted out where each medal sits in this piece, and as they are won information about the athlete who won it could be linked to it. The individual medal locations could start out slightly grayed out and then when it is won come into full color so that as the games are in progress people would know at first glance which had been won. When a user mouses over a won medal the name of the athlete and country they are from would show up. Then when clicked it could go to a page with information about what sport the athlete was in, the time, or score, etc that they posted to win the medal, and maybe a bio.

I just thought that it was such an interesting and creative idea that they came up with to have each medal unique, and very disappointing that they did not run with it a little more. Imagine how cool it would be as an athlete to be able to go online and see where your “piece” fit into the bigger picture, how they could share this with the people they know. How cool it would be for any sports fan to be able to go and look through at all the different medal winners in a way they could not before. If an Olympics in the future decides to do something similar with their medals maybe they could look into this idea.

Just my opinion…

Bad Usability

So I have not posted in a few days and I’m not happy about that. I really want to start posting more frequently but have troubles keeping up while in school. Anyways I came across something that I found to be a great example of bad usability so I decided I could do a quick post about it. Usability is a big issue on the web today and any web designer worth anything is trying to achieve the best usability they can. It is a topic that I am trying to be better educated on because it’s what will help set me apart in the future from the competition and give me something to sell myself with when faced with a do-it-yourselfers.

I’m a HUGE hockey fan, so when my team (The Ottawa Senators) moved into first in their division I wanted to see how many games the next team behind had before the Olympic break. When I went over to the Buffalo Sabers’ web site I was greeted by this splash page.

Screen shot of Buffalo Sabers' landing page

Now first off splash pages on their own can be bad usability depending on who you ask. In my opinion you should only use a splash page if it’s serving a very specific and useful purpose, such as a language selection, or location selection before serving up the page. All NHL clubs use their splash pages as advertisements that are always changing, which can confuse some users especially since this means the link to enter is always in a different spot and styled differently. Maybe at some point I’ll spend a while collecting screen shots of the ever changing splash pages to demonstrate this, it would be an interesting project anyways.

For this example in specific it’s not even about the debate for or against splash pages it’s, can you even find how to enter the site at first glance? That’s right its that small un-styled link at the bottom of the page under all that advertising! Oh and I would also like to point out that at some monitor resolutions the fold is right at the bottom of the bottom advertisement meaning this link falls just out of the viewable area of the page with no indication that anything lies bellow. If you were not an experienced user you would not spend the time to try and find your way in, and they would probably just click on the first clickable area which would lead to the page to buy tickets. If this is not why the user was going to the page then they would be frustrated by this, and as anyone in the industry knows a frustrated user is not a happy user, and a non-happy user means a non-returning user, and a non…. ok I think you get the point.

I’ll wrap this up so it’s not too long of a read but I do hope to do some more posts on usability as I advance and learn more since it is something I think is very important. The better I am at designing and creating more usable sites, the higher the conversation rates, and the more valuable I would become.

Just my opinion.

The True Cost

Lately I have been reading Clients From Hell (funny site for anyone in design or development!) and hearing stories from fellow class mates starting to get their feet wet working for clients. It’s funny how under appreciated the amount of time and effort that goes into design and development is. Now I know there are plenty of tools out there today that help with both design and development immensely, and many are free, but I’m talking about good quality, standards complaint, efficient code, and ascetically pleasing, exceptionally laid out, usable design. These things take time.

People tend to take the internet, and the amazingly interactive content on it, for granted. In today’s age when people have all these tools to do things they think anyone can whip off a proper website for free and in 20 minutes. This is just not the case if you really want something of superb quality that is unique. Is that what everyone out there needs, no so for them ya then can go out and do it themselves (or have their kid do it as they often say they can) but don’t insult a web designer or developer with a $50 – $200 offer and waste their time.

Even worse is the person who asks “For a site like facebook” and then turns around and says that they will pay $300. So many people really don’t get a grasp the amount of work that goes into creating these sites and applications, or even that they are talking to a professional that has to make a living doing this. Even something as simple as having a map embedded into your site with custom icons marking your offices in the city on it takes time. Yes using the API is easy and straight forward but it still needs to be codded and fit in with the site, it’s not a point and click process. I think this spawns from tools that allow an end user to create personalized home pages so easily in different applications that they believe it’s that easy for the developer to create the application.

I look forward to entering this industry when I’m done, but I’m not so much looking forward to the people who may depreciate what I do. I hope that when faced with theses clients I can be civil and hopefully get them to see the truth, or at the very least know when to turn and walk away because they are just not worth my time (much like the ones at Clients From Hell).

What…. Another Change!?

Yes your eyes do not device I have gone through yet another change on this site, mixing up the look, and changing the name and the about page. I have dropped everything about the 365 day challenge (except old posts), and the about page now reflects my new direction. I’ll give you brief explanation for the change and a look into where I want to go with this.

I decided to do this switch simply because I think I have finally figured out where I want to go with my online presence. I am in the preliminary stages of designing and setting up a site for Sarah and I to discuss our passion for sustainable living. I’ll post all about that once I get it up and running and have links to it. But I still wanted an outlet for my other passion, web development and design so I have decided to dedicate this blog to that.

I plan on posting more creative posts, for the design side, as well as posts about things I find interesting or that I learn about web development. Things like usability, accessibility, and best practices, as well as social media. I want it to showcase what I can do, what I know, and what I am learning about the web.

I’m hoping to push these brands, once I get them both polished up and eventually, if possible, combine them some day as that would be amazing to be able to do both of my biggest passions.