Photography It’s shocking to me how hard it is to get merchants to actually spend money on photography, when the only thing that will allow a potential customer to trust you enough to purchase a product sight unseen is a picture! Think about it: would a customer buy something off your website without a photo of the product? Nope. Spend the money. Get some photos … Read more
I’ve found the recent commentary on Google’s decision to shut down Google Wave rather entertaining, and sometimes annoying. For several reasons. Here are a few: I wasn’t impressed with Wave in the first place. I watched the big overblown video announcement at Google I/O, and I was excited at the time, but amidst all the hype and chatter about how “exciting” it was, I … Read more
I like studying. I like listening to audiobooks, reading books and watching interviews. I especially like getting the input of a select few brilliant minds in the tech world who actually make sense to me. There are very few “dot com” companies that make sense—and I think the term “dot com” is thrown around carelessly as an excuse for poor business practices. (And that’s coming … Read more
It’s been just over a full year since I took my web design company full-time. As I was driving home from a customer’s office tonight, I had a few thoughts about past year and think about the things I’ve learned. Here’s a short list of a few particular ideas I think are worth sharing. If you’re going to college, get your degree in whatever you … Read more
Recently I’ve really been trying to view websites through the eyes of users, and not as a web designer. As much as possible, I always try to ask myself “would users find this helpful?” Sometimes I see trends that are very helpful to users (example: phone numbers front and center on the homepage) and sometimes I notice things that were probably designed to help users … Read more
Ok, the end of the year is nearing, and so I think it’s time that I share my votes for the best Mac Gems of 2010. Of course, I give full credit to the best magazine ever—Macworld—for coming up with the whole “let’s review hundreds of tiny Mac applications that third party developers and open source groups make and publish a list of our favorites” … Read more
Sometimes, people (usually those who are sold on Microsoft Windows) like to say that Apple users are “fanboys.” This is a pejorative term of sorts, and what a guy essentially means when he calls you a fanboy is “you just like Apple products because they’re trendy and make you look über-chic—you would never complain about any flaws because Apple can do no wrong in your … Read more
I just found the coolest service online: a way to turn my own handwriting into a font for my computer and, (as evidenced here), my own website. If you’re pretty tech savvy, it’s fairly simple. Step 1: go to Fontifier and upload your handwriting to create the font. It’s just nine bucks and you get to keep it forever. Step 2: visit Fontsquirrel’s @font-face generator. … Read more