I had the privilege of being a  website design judge at the Capital Area Career Council web design showcase today.  The students were Junior and Senior high school students who are taking classes at the career center to supplement their normal high school education.  They are learning things like: Photoshop, Game design, Programming and web design.  It is a great program and gives the students a taste for lots of different areas in the creative side of IT. 

What was really odd to me is how much these websites looked like the websites from 1995.  Did they have ...

Wow, I just finished reading The definitive Guide to Symfony, and it is definitely one of the better web development books I have read.  They review everything you would need to build about 95% of web development applications.  They review the model, view control concepts, the...

Ryan talks with Walter Sorg of WILS1320 this morning about internet social media websites such as Facebook and YouTube.

Some topics reviewed during this radio spot.

• Why are some online videos popular
• How politicans are using social media
• How social media might be used by a local business
• Does the internet make sense for all companies?
• How is selling online affecting brick and mortar shops, how can they transition

Listen to the Radio Spot (8MB MP3)

This was recorded live at 6:37am and will rebroadcast at 8:07am as well as a Memorial Day 'best of' WILS 1320 interviews.

Usability is a measurement on how easy a website or user interface is to use. This term is also used to refer to how to improve the overall ease-of-use when designing an interface.
The core components of usability are:

• Learnability: Can users accomplish basic tasks on their very first visit? Is it intuitive?
• Efficiency: Once the user has learned the system can they do the tasks quickly?
• Memorability: How easy is the system to use after not using it for a period of time?
• Errors: How many issues did the user run into, how severe were they, and how easily can they recover from them?
• Satisfaction: Is it fun and easy to use?
• Utility: Does it do what the user needs?

General Website Tips

Use a descriptive tagline of what your website does

Have you ever been frustrated by a website after searching high and low and still cannot find out what they do? Consider starting a practice of having a one line descriptive slogan of what the business does on the homepage or every page. Not some lame marketing jargon but plain easy to understand English of what the site is for; if your parents could read it and get it you should be all set.

Using the Window <TITLE>

The number one factor to how your page is indexed in search engines is the description used in the pages title. Start getting away from the old “Company Name > About” style and move to “KEYWORD PHRASES RELEVANT TO THIS PAGE | Company Name” and excluded the company name if you feel it is not necessary.

Search Box Tips

• You do not need to add the text “Search” in front of a textbox if there is a button that reads “Search” to the right that the user is supposed to click on. People have caught on, this is now intuitive behavior and it’s ok to remove that redundancy.
• General rule of thumb, make your search box 27 characters wide.
• Definitely include search on your site if it has over 100 pages

Having a Home link on the homepage

If you are on the homepage you don’t need to have the Home button in the navigation. If you have a consistent navigation on all pages that includes the Home page that at least make sure that the navigation element is highlighted differently when they are on that page.

Name and Logo

Include the name of your site and the logo on every page; link the logo to the homepage.

Links go to new pages, Buttons perform actions

As a general rule of thumb text links should take you to a new page when you click on them and buttons should submit some type of information or take you to the next step in a process.

Using PDF’s on your website

As a general rule of thumb you should try to avoid using PDF’s on your website when possible. They break the natural flow of website browsing. Often users will click on a link and not know it was a PDF link, it then opens up and they have to wait for it to download and for acrobat to start running within the browser and then often times they close it immediately and end up closing their entire web browser. Plus a PDF is just a mass of content that is very difficult to navigate through. Use PDFs if you are distributing large documents that the user needs to print, or documents that must be formatted in a very specific way.

Avoiding Banner Blindness

Studies show that users now understand what banners and advertisements look like on websites and often look right past them. This means it is very important to ensure your content and images do not look like banners. Avoid creating images the size that banners usually are, avoid blinking or animated images, and definitely avoid using traditional pop-ups when at all possible. Text only ads are now proving to be the most successful banner ads because users are still reading them.

Don’t open new browser windows

When you think about building websites you must always be thinking what is intuitive and what is consistent. You don’t want to break many of the normal browsing norms because you want users to feel at home on your site and have little to learn. If you program your site to start opening windows up in a new browsers as users clicks you open up a world of issues. The first and most important is that the back button does not work on the new window; and this button is extremely popular and critical when navigating the web. The second is that different web browsers handle new windows differently. In one it may be a new window or perhaps a new tab, and if it’s a new tab and then moves the user to that page they have to scan their tabs to get back to where they were. Remember, the user always has the option to make the decision themselves if they want the link to open up in a new window by right clicking or CTRL clicking on a link on your site.

Restrictive Form Behavior

Rethink your website forms. Remember that each field that the user has to fill out is some burden to them, so if you don’t need or use the salutation don’t ask for it, and ask yourself that question for each form field. When asking for phone numbers don’t split it into three separate boxes when one will do. Don’t require the user to type the phone number in a specific format or their credit card in a specific format if it doesn’t really matter. Is that field REALLY required or do you just feel it would be nice to have? Think about your forms a bit more, make them easier for your users, not just easier for you.

Splash Screens and all Flash Sites

Don’t do it, they give the impression that the website is more concerned with its own image then that of the users actual needs and their time.

Think about your Typography

You can achieve more with choosing the right fonts, sizes, colors and placement then you can achieve with large graphics and bloated designs.

Website Supplements

Email Newsletters

Your viewer is engaged in your information while they are on your website, but once they are done you have lost that connection. They might not ever come back. Enticing users to sign up for an email newsletter can help you maintain...

I have revamped my email strategy this weekend because it was getting a bit overwhelming and my previous strategies have been failing miserably. When 50 to 100 valid emails come in every day how do you handle that? My previous technique was to read it once or twice a day, reply to what I could then mark anything I had to spend some time on I would mark them as Unread and flag them.

As I type this out I realize once again how ridiculous this ‘system’ was.

So… the new goal is to keep the inbox completely empty. I am taking some of the techniques from Getting Things Done (GTD) to create Ryan’s own Getting Things Done email technique. To start you must make 5 directories...

Microsoft is releasing their own ASP .NET MVC platform that will create a development environment similar to Ruby on Rails and the ASP .NET Castle Project Monorail.

I have tried to start a list of some thoughts I have comparing the two at this point, but I feel Microsoft’s ASP.NET MVC will be a better choice over the Castle Projects Monorail.

Many entrepreneurs and salesmen know that networking with other people is an important factor in creating a successful business. However, I fear that many people overlook this simple and effective way for growing your business, increasing your income and meeting great people. I attribute much of Web Ascender’s success to the "soft skills" of building relationships and working towards lasting friendships with everyone we meet...

How awesome is Go Daddy? Well let me tell you, that their prices for domain names are virtually unbeatable, their prices for secure certificates untouchable, and their customer service is ...

Amazon’s Kindle looks pretty cool. I am one of those people who love’s the mobility and the feel of a true book. I cannot stand reading a long PDF on my laptop because it’s difficult to read in bed, to throw in the car, a book bag a brief case and quickly pull out to read when I want to, plus it tires my eyes faster than reading some dead trees. But, I think the Kindle might actually be a device worth having. For $399 you get:

• A pleasant to read screen and easy to look at formatting
• EVDO network to browse and buy Amazon books anywhere you can get cell. Plus access to Wikipedia
• It’s smaller than most paperback books
• Looks like an easy to use screen, nice large side buttons to move forward and backward
• Search your books
• Full qwerty keyboard
• You can take digital notes while reading your book
• Long battery life – without the cell on you can read for a week before recharging – and recharge is only 2 hours.
• Plus the books are pretty cheap - $9.99

And long term savings:

• Buying books uses paper – killing trees, and has high production costs – machines, ink…
• You have to lug books around from house to house or office to office – they take up a lot of physical space when you are not reading them
• They cost a ton to transport to and from warehouses and bookstores – Gas etc.
• Hopefully more profits can go to the author than to all the middle men

eBooks and book readers have been tried before and have not caught on. Maybe with some like Amazon behind it we can get a great device and a large selection of books this time!