In the beginning, it was boring. And Developers said: “Let there be pop-ups!” And the users saw that pop-ups were bad. Then came Lightbox!
I found a similar mention of this around the internet and decided it was worthy of a mention, to me it summarizes the change of attitudes while using websites over the past decade.
Introduction
As we are faced with projects or work from clients we are always asked the most obscure questions and queries, and I know as soon as I’m asked something obscure I try to picture it and then come up with a probability for it being difficult. But even if its the hardest thing to date I’ve been asked I still say yes I can do that, mind you I will voice my option to the client and will tell them it could be a difficult task or could be time consuming in the build or design process, and probably will bring the overall project cost up.
Theory
Having worked with small business where bothering the client or not being able to deliver will no doubt lose you the business, it has been taught to me that you “Always say yes”, this at times can be a bad idea, all you have to do is watch the film Yes Man to see a representation of this.
But is saying No to a clients project requests something we can or should do as designers or developers, If we have a problem should be not just voice our opinion and offer alternative solutions. After all we are the professionals that our client has come to see because this is what we do, if we are offering alternative solutions to problems should they not take that solution and try to weigh the merits and decide what is best for them. Even after we have offered several maybe easier solutions and the client decides they want it done their way should we not simply say okay, after all this is their project too and the client might just know what they are looking for.
http://fukung.net/v/184/software-project.jpg
Your Opinions
What are your opinions on the matter, are you more likely to say No, thats probably not possible or are you more like me and say yes that can be done and go away and work on it?
Introduction
More and more I am noticing websites that are attempting to sell themselves above the fold (wiki article) on the home page. Not only do I feel this is a vital element for portfolio websites but more product based websites are implementing this design element.
I am fully aware of the numerous people out there writing in their blogs that the web fold is dead and that people know how to scroll, and yes I will admit that the invention of the mouse scroll wheel was great and its getting even easier these days with apples magic mouse and their very smart track pads on the new laptops.
Articles against the fold
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/blasting-the-myth-of
http://www.360innovate.co.uk/blog/2009/05/infatuated-with-above-the-fold-web-design-by-john-ellis/
The Next Step
When designing a new website or even just reorganizing content you have make sure your important content is to the top of your page (or above the fold) and also that any details above the fold help to explain the reason for your site, this is very basic design features but are vital.
The next big step is to sell your website above the fold, and this can be done very effectively with appropriate branding of your website and then displaying a clear and concise message of what your website offers. This should be designed to attract attention and to grab the user and urge them to read on, users can then use the beloved mouse wheel and scroll the page or even follow a link to an article, even then your users can continue to browse your site if they have found what they wanted, and find even more.
 jQuery Screenshot |
This is the jQuery website and this website displays alot of important information and even reviews latest version and who uses the jQuery platform. |
|---|---|
 Apple Screenshot |
The Apple website could be one of the best examples of selling above the fold, Apple have been using this design element for some time and continue to design and show their products above the fold. |
 Lee Munroe Screenshot |
This is Lee Munroe’s Personal Blog and portfolio, Personally I really like this design and the fact he has placed some of the most prominent links above the fold and is also displaying some of his latest work. |
 Songbird Screenshot |
This website is the home of the Songbird media player, They give a introduction to the software and include a picture displaying the software and a link to download the latest version. |
Conclusion
Near the of last week, I got hold of the Black Edition of Assassin’s Creed 2. That was a mistake. The game is far too much fun (read the MiniGamesReview here), and it also managed to slow down the work I had started last weeek on our WordPress theme.
The WordPress Theme seemed like the best idea to try and get the feature we want into our existing WordPress theme. We are working on incorperating the MiniGamesReviews twitter game reviews into the BigGiantCrayon website, and add it in way that will allow the viewer to easily locate they game they to read about.
We have recently been working on a new internetshop for Den Kinesiske Koebmand using the free open source ecommerce platform Magento.
Over the last few weeks we have been very quite. A few business trips and then someone very lucky (ME) got an Invite to GoogleWave. Once I accepted the Invite, I was able to invite upto 8 more people. we decided to give GoogleWave invites to the members of the BGC Network, as a nice test.
Googlewave, hasn’t yet transformed us into the business leaders just yet, but some of the features it has, real time communication, it feels at times like a huge white board, that we can all use. If it works for Google, it will be one of the biggest releases the Internet has seen for a long time. Fingers crossed, because it has so much potential.
When we get some more invites, my twitter followers will be next for the invites.
We have now added the Purple Pixels Art to the BigGiantCrayon Projects section of the websites. Enjoy.
Well I have had a strange morning, woke up to Google Chrome Frame (CF), and like the ‘install everything I find fool that I am‘, I installed it.
This time, it was worth it. http://code.google.com/chrome/chromeframe
Google Chrome Frame is an early-stage open source plug-in that seamlessly brings Google Chrome’s open web technologies and speedy JavaScript engine to Internet Explorer.
When Googlewave preview is extended next week Google Chrome Frame will be encouraged for IE users.
As a web developer this sounds like one of the most exciting web technologies released recently.
For some reason, I seem to be in a writing mood at the moment, which is good for the BigGiantCrayon website, We are currently working on adding the projects to BigGiantCrayon. As you can see we currently have 2 projects on the menu, and more will be added shortly.
The first one added is for an online game called Guild Wars, and the projects is called MappingOut. It is not something we have written, but we have been heavily involved in the testing and development ideas along with distribution of the project. We are the offical distributor for the MappingOut project. If you please Guild Wars, this is an invaluable tool. Never leave an outpost without it.
Next project is called PPSD (A Powerful Program for Simple Data entry), is a server side application that allows the client to update and add content to their website, without needing any HTML knowledge. We are currently working on PPSD2, which will allow the client more access to their website. If you are interested or would like more information then feel free to contact us.
We have been hard at work behind the scenes over the last few weeks, designing and developing the new website for www.purple-pixels.com. We should have a test version of the website available for viewing in a short time.
The new version of the website will be very streamlined and a lot of the content from the current Purple Pixels website will be moved to BigGiantCrayon. If you are interested in an early sneak preview of the new website then follow me on Twitter.
We have added a new developer to the already growing PPSD development team. Welcome Wulf.
Well it has finally happened, and yet it’s not finished. More changes will be occuring daily, but now all the theme changing has stopped. There will be word changes, maybe even menu changes, but this the theme we are sticking to.
Have you ever been into a shop, and wanted to know what the ‘internet’ thought of a particular game/movie. Well now if you have a web enabled mobile phone (or a pc and you just order stuff over the net), then you can join our new twitter feed called MiniGameReviews. This feature is where we ‘try’ to review both games and movies inside the twitter 140 character limit. It might not work, but we thought it was a good idea at the time. So wish us luck.