Here at EH Design we’re always excited when a new site goes live.  So, when two sites go live on the same day, we’re even more excited.

Today, we launched two new site:

Cornerstone Edge

Cornerstone Edge, LLC is a professional Supply Chain Logistics consulting firm offering a full range of supply chain services. Their service offerings range from facility planning through implementation of appropriate technology that improve customer service, increase profitability, and reduce inefficiencies within your operation.

Want to learn more?  CLICK HERE to visit their site!

360 Property Management

360 Property Maintenance and Management,Inc.is a family-owned and operated property maintenance and management business headquartered in Fort Wayne, IN. Their service area covers the greater Fort Wayne and surrounding area. With the individual property owner in mind, their goal is to provide hands-free and trouble-free ownership of an investment property, while also keeping the service affordable and cost-effective.

Want to learn more?  CLICK HERE to visit their site!

One of the “buzz” words that those of us who are into web design often throw around is this whole idea of Web Usability.  Simply put, web usability is an approach to web site development that makes it easy for the end user.  It means that it is easy to use a web site.

Seems simple enough right?  Who wouldn’t want a web site to be easy to use?  Who would ever dream of making a web site hard to use?  Well the answer is a lot of people.  I’ll give just one example – my home town city – Fort Wayne.

Recently, Fort Wayne started a new recycling initiative – One Cart Recycling.  The program, true to its name, provides just one recycling cart.  No more sorting of products.  Simply put all recyclables into the same container.  Sounds like a great idea, right?  The problem is that you have to sign up for this service.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with a sign-up.  The problem is that the city forgot to ask the developer about usability.

Here’s what I get when I try to sign-up:

Can you tell what’s wrong here?  Apparently Fort Wayne really wants me to sign up.  But, only if I have the correct plug-in installed, only if I am running the correct operating system, only if I am not handicapped in certain ways, etc.

I received this message because I have a Apple computer.  And, as a result, don’t have silverlight installed.  And, this tells the 10% or so of people who browse with an Apple computer that you don’t care about them.  But, this is just the start.  Silverlight is estimated to be installed on about 50% – 55% of all computers.  So the city is telling the other 50% that they don’t want them to sign up.  And, this doesn’t even include iPhone or Android users.  Those also wouldn’t be able to sign up.  And, typically (thought not always) silverlight is very difficult for those with disabilities (i.e. vision problems).  So, the city is saying that it has this great One Cart Recycling program that it wants all the residents to sign up for, but not those who use Apples, iPhones, or Android phones, nor the 50% who don’t have silverlight installed, nor those with certain disabilities.

You see, this is the critical part of web usability.  And, it is something any good developer should care about.  To simply sign up for something, I should NEVER force you to download a plug-in, change your browser, switch computers or do anything except just sign-up.  Forcing people to do something extra tells them that you really aren’t that concerned about them.  It says that you would rather make them jump through hoops than get your product.  It says that you clearly didn’t have “ME” in mind when you thought about this.

So, what should you do?  Well, here are a few simple steps to take when developing a site:

• Ask The RIGHT Questions – if you are hiring a developer / designer ask questions like: Will this site work on ALL browsers?  Which browsers will you test it on?  Will it work on both Apple and PC computers and will you test it on both?  Will this work on a mobile phone?  Are any plugins (downloads) needed to make this site work?  If so, what can we do to avoid them?  Will this site be accessible to handicapped people (i.e the blind who might use a screen reader or color blind people who struggle with certain colors)?  Do you follow MODERN web standards – which ones (you might not know what all the modern standards are, but asking your designer to list them will force them to tell the truth)?
• Care About The RIGHT Things - no one would ever deny that the “look” of a site is unimportant.  Of course it matters.  But, other things matter just as much (and sometimes more).  Studies continue to show that people will tolerate a well layed-out site, with clear navigation that is NOT visually compelling.  However, a visually compelling site that is slow to load or hard to navigate will not be tolerated.  Granted people will visit it ONCE because it is cool.  But the cool factor wears off very quickly.  After that, they are left with a confusing, hard to navigate, slow to load site.  While I would never encourage you not to care about the look of a site, I would encourage you to care about more than just the look.  Care about the speed of the load.  Care about the simplicity of finding what you want (how many clicks does it take to get to your answer?).  Care about providing answers.  Care about meeting your customer’s need.
• Think Like the RIGHT Person –  usually site owners think like the owners of the companies.  That makes sense – they are the owners.  But the owners perspective doesn’t matter nearly as much as the customers perspective.  So, while those in your business might know what TERM X means, the customer who visits your site for the first time probably doesn’t know what it means.  Also, what is it like for someone with a small monitor on a really old computer to visit your site?  Does it still work, does it take a long time to load?  Have you tried browsing your site from a coffee shop, from home, from other places?  All this helps you to see what your customers see.  Good websites work for the new person, for the uninitiated.   I shouldn’t have to think to use your site!
• Look at the RIGHT information – Do you know how many people visit your site?  Which page is the most visited?  Which page is the least visited?  How often a person comes to your site and leaves without clicking on anything?  The average amount of time someone spends on your site?  How they arrived at your site – by a search engine or by typing in your URL?  All this is the right information to look at .  And, all of it is available for free, right now.  If your site isn’t giving you this kind of information, then you aren’t looking at the right information.

The list could go on and on.  Web Usability is really a big deal.  Books (lots of books) have been written on the subject!

For now, maybe we can all learn a few things NOT to do from my home city!

What do you think?  Do you have examples of bad usability?  Do you have other suggestions?  Let me know.  Leave a comment below!

One of my favorite companies to watch, listen to, learn from, and use products by is 37 Signals.

I find their cloud products awesome to use (I’m an avid user of Highrise, for example). Their books equally inspiring.

Just recently, one of the designers for 37 Signals, spoke at the future of Web Apps conference in London.

In this talk, he described a five step process for creating a real-world web app:

1. Model
2. Screens
3. Designs
4. HTML/CSS
5. Live Code

While I would have to admin that nothing is really super unique, they way Ryan and 37 Signals works is a great study in getting things done.

Hope you enjoy the talk as much as I did:

Ryan Singer at Future of Web Apps, London 2010 from Ryan Singer on Vimeo.

There’s a new buzz word going on around the web.  It’s called HTML 5.  And, unless you are a web designer, you probably haven’t heard anything about it.  But, it is rapidly promising to be an amazing way to bring new and exciting things to the web.

Need some proof?  Check out this link that showcases some of the coolest new features of HTML 5, created by the boys at 9Elements Design Studio: HTML 5 DEMO!

Now for many of you – about 32% of you to be exact (according to my Google Analytics) – you saw nothing except the “OH NO” warning.

Wonder why that is?  Well, the simple answer is that Internet Explorer doesn’t yet support HTML 5 elements.

There’s a simple test out that tries to tell us how well any particular browser does at implementing the new HTML 5 standards.  You can find this test at http://www.html5test.com.  I recently went through the test with 6 browsers – 3 Mac and 3 PC.  Here’s the results, starting with the best:

1. GOOGLE CHROME for the Mac
   As you can see, Google Chrome for the Mac scored 137 points out of a possible 160.  A pretty good score.
2. GOOGLE CHROME for the PC
   Now the real question here is why Google Chrome for the Mac scored 137 but Google Chrome for the PC only scored 118?  But, 118 was still good enough to snag second place
3. SAFARI for Mac
   Coming in just 5 points behind Google Chrome for the PC is Safari – Apple’s built in browser for the Mac.  Still a pretty nice score!
4. FIREFOX for PC and for MAC
   Here we have a tie (the way I think we should).  Bot Firefox for the PC and Firefox for the Mac scored exactly the same score – 101.

   Now, before I move on to last place, notice the above score.  All of them are above 100.  In the grand scheme of things, this is a pretty good result for modern standards such as HTML 5.

   But, now we have last place:

5. Internet Explorer 8 for PC
   A whopping 19!!!! You have got to be kidding me.  This is the best that Microsoft could do?  All the other browsers score over 100 and Internet Explorer – the most recent up to date version – scores only 19?  Obviously something is very wrong here.

So, with all this information about browser scores and HTML 5 comes the obvious question – WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?  Well, the answer is that HTML 5 is going to be the future of the internet and wether you are choosing a browser or, even more important, choosing a web developer, you want someone who is familiar with HTML 5 and can leverage all of its power for your site.  You don’t want someone stuck with old, out-dated technologies designing your site using the same tools, the same tricks that were popular ten or even twenty years ago.

Got questions, want to make comment?  Comment below or CONTACT US today to talk more!

Keeping track of your brand can be a difficult task.  With all these on-line, social conversations happening it can be difficult to really know what is being said about you, your company, your products, etc.  But knowing what is being said about you, your business, your key markets is CRITICAL. As I’ve said before, if you don’t know about these conversations, you can’t join in the conversations.  And, I guarantee, conversations are happening.  The only question is – are you going to participate.

So, if we agree that there are conversations happening online (blog posts, product reviews, twitter posts, facebook comments, youTube videos, etc.), the question is “how do I find out about these conversations and join in”?

Well, that a great question and there are a lot of good answers.  In a previous post (Two Simple Business Uses For Twitter) I described one method – using the Advanced Twitter Search based on location.  This is a great way to find people who are twittering about you or a topic of interest within a certain distance from you (i.e.  anyone talking about “antiques” within a 50 mile radius).  But, what if you want to join in on conversations happening on other mediums?  What if you want to know about blog posts, web site updates, facebook posts, etc.?

The answer now is Google Alerts!  Google Alerts are a great way to get regular updates any time Google finds a web page with your search term.  Using Google Alerts, you could get an e-mail every time Google finds a new web page that mentions the search term you chosen.  You can choose to get e-mails immediately, and daily or weekly digests (summaries).  You can also choose to have the results delivered to an RSS feed – my personal favorite.  Assuming you choose instant e-mail notifications, you would receive an e-mail every time Google finds a new article, blog, video, image, etc. that contains your search term.  What an awesome way to join in the conversation and help to control your brand.

Here’s the basics of how Google Alerts work:

1. Visit www.google.com/alerts and create your Google alert.  The main screen (once you are logged in – you will have to have a Google account) looks like this:
   Simply type in your search terms, select a type (for instance – if you only want to get results from blogs, etc.), select How often, and select where to deliver the information to (you can choose RSS later)
2. After you click “CREATE ALERT” you’ll be in the manage screen.  It looks like this:
   You can see from this screen shot that I had two Google Alerts set up – both being delivered to an RSS Feed, updated immediately (as-it-happens).  So, any time the words EH Design (my company) or Eric Hall (my name) appears in a new page in Google, the RSS Feed will get updated.  I’ll know immediately whenever sometime is talking about these terms.  Since this time, I’ve added a couple more Google Alerts – basically centered on my around some of my key SEO terms – Fort Wayne Web Design, Fort Wayne E-Commerce, etc.

   Here’s what the RSS feed looks like in my browsers (I’m running Apple Safari – so Internet Explorer would look a little different):
   

3. My final step is to Monitor my RSS Feeds in a convenient RSS Feed Reader.  Since I use an Apple, I monitor my RSS Feeds in my E-Mail program (called, Mail).  So, just as I would go to Mail to view any no e-mail message, so I go to mail to check if there is a new e-mail message, I also see if there are any new Google Alerts.  Here’s what it looks like in my Mail program:

Google Alerts – a great way to keep up to date with your own brand, product, search terms.

Want to know more? Have other ideas about? Leave a comment and share your thought. Or, contact EH Design & Consulting today, and we can talk about all the ways Social Media can help your business!

With Microsoft’s SharePoint conference in Las Vegas starting today (Monday, October 19), Google has broadened its Going Google ad campaign.

Not familiar with the campaign?  It is Google’s ad campaign to push harder into the business world with its enterprise offerings.  Here’s a short YouTube video Google put out:

If you haven’t been watching Google for a while, then you might have missed what they’ve been doing lately.  While still owning the majority of search volume online (around 60-65%), Google has begun pushing into other areas as well.  A few of the key areas that I think any business should consider:

• GMAIL – Google has made some incredible changes to G-mail that can be a HUGE time and cost saver to many businesses.  Now any domain (yourWebDomain.com) can run it’s own e-mal through Gmail.  What does this mean?  It means that you can take advantage of Google’s Anti-Spam features (powered by Postini) – which are some of the absolute best in the business.  You can also read your e-mail online through the G-Mail interface.  You can have an assistant send e-mail on the boss’s behalf ( e-mail delegation), and e-mail archiving.   You get ALL of this without giving up your own domain name.  This means that you continue to have you e-mail as Joe@YourDomain.com, but the e-mail is routed through the GMail Service.  The person sending you an e-mail AND the person receiving an e-mail from you all see the Joe@YourDomain.com as the e-mail, but you get all the storage, spam filtering, e-mail archiving / backup, web interface, etc. of Gmail!

  Cost: $5 per user per year
  Savings:  This could be a huge savings.  Companies can stop paying thousands of dollars for expensive spam filters / appliances.  Also (as you will see below), this cost could be even bigger in that you could COMPLETELY DITCH an Exchange server!  This could save thousands more every year!

• Google Calendar – Google calendar is a powerful, shareable calendaring system.  And, the best feature is that it can integrate seamlessly with MS Outlook and Apple iCal!   In addition to this, it completely supports multiple users – meaning you can see when other in your organization are busy and schedule meetings with them.  You can also share your calendar, allowing others to simply view it, edit it, etc.  Again, this gives everyone all the functions of a typical MS Exchange server at a cost that will save thousands every single year.

  Cost: $5 per user per year (this is the same $5 user per year as the above, not in addition)
  Savings: Again this could be huge.  Getting rid of an Exchange server will save any organization thousands of dollars a year.

• Google Docs –  Google has been putting out three very powerful web based programs – Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and PowerPoint programs.  These programs aren’t as advanced as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.  But, most users don’t use the advanced features in these programs.  And, again, the cost savings is HUGE!  All three programs also allow for complete sharing of docs.  This means you NEVER again have to e-mail a doc to a co-worker.  You simply share it with him or her and you both edit it together.  You can see changes made by Co-Worker X and roll back, etc.  It makes collaboration a snap!

  Cost: FREE (although when used with the $5 per user per year, it is a bit simpler to collaborate)
  Savings: Well, let’s see with the average cost of MS Office from Amazon running around $325, the cost savings is $325 multiplied by the number of workers who choose to use Google Docs.  Again, The answer here is THOUSANDS more, potentially!

• Google Analytics – Do you have a website?  Do you know how many visits you get?  How long people stay on your site?  Which pages are visited the most?  All of this data is available for FREE from Google.  Simply add a few lines of code to the bottom of your website and you can get all the data about your site you could want and MUCH more!

  Cost: FREE
  Savings: None, unless you are paying for an analytics page now or using some stupid looking hit counter (then you don’t save money, you just save the hassle of having a stupid hit counter on your home page)

These are just four of my favorite Google products right now. There’s a ton more that we could talk about.  Things like: Google Voice, Google Wave, Google Checkout, Google Wave, etc.  All of these are available for free and could save companies a ton of money and a lot of time.

Interested?  Got Questions?  Leave me a comment or contact us.  We’d love to talk more with you about how we can help save you money!

So, as a web developer, I have to make sure the a web site works in all browsers.  Generally this includes the following:

• Safari for Mac
• Firefox for Mac
• Internet Explorer for PC
• Firefox for PC
• Safari for PC
• Google Chrome for PC

Of course, I could include a few other browsers (Opera for Mac, Google Chrome for Mac – which is still in developer release).  But this covers the major part of what I’m looking at.  And, again, of course, this doesn’t start to address mobile browsers.

But, the basic job of any decent web designer should be to ensure that a web site looks decent and functions properly in ALL major browsers.

To the uninitiated, this may sound like a fairly simple task.  After all, all browsers are basically the same right?

Well the answer is a resounding NO! All browsers are not equal.  Well, to put it a different way, I could say this:  All browsers are almost equal – except for one.  The truth is that most browsers display things and function in basically the same way with one notable exception – Internet Explorer.  Simply put, Internet Explorer (the big blue E from Microsoft), is the worst browser EVER.

Just recently I was working on some “tweaks” to a site and wanted to see how they looked in Internet Explorer, version 8.  And, of course, they looked awful and didn’t work correctly.  So, I went back to the code to see what was missing.  The answer?  NOTHING.  The code was completely correct, however, Internet Explorer had, once again, invented it’s own rules to display things.

This frustration led me to go to one of the online tests for web browser’s standard compliance.  You see, there is an internationally recognized group of people who come up with how things on the internet should be displayed and what the code is to make something look like “X”.  So this international group puts out “STANDARDS”.  A good browser then would be a browser that adheres to the standards, right?

Well, some of the newest standards available can be checked in a test called ACID3. For anyone so inclined, you can find the test at:  http://acid3.acidtests.org.

I thought it might be fun to run each of the six browsers listed below through the ACID3 test and see what we get.  So, here’s the results:

Safari for Mac

Safari for Mac Acid3 Test Results

Firefox for Mac

Firefox for Mac Acid3 Test Results

Firefox for PC

Firefox for PC Acid3 Test Results

Safari for PC

Safari for PC Acid3 Test Results

Google Chrome for PC

Google Chrome Acid3 Test Results

Internet Explorer (8) for PC

Internet Explorer 8 for PC Acid3 Test Results

Now, I know that the numbers aren’t the only things that matter.  I know that ACID3 is about more than just the javascript tests.  It also has a display element and render element, etc.

But, I don’t think we really need to go any further than the numbers.  If we take Internet Explorer out of the mix, the lowest score is a 93.  Still a very impressive score – especially considering that ACID3 test some very new HTML specifications – ones that really aren’t being used widely yet.

However, Internet Explorer got a miserable 20 out of 100.  What  a failure.  And, what is sad about this is that Internet Explorer still is the most popular browser (click the graph below):

Web Browser Comparison Graph

While I continue to test against Internet Explorer, my only hope is that soon, very soon everyone will realize what a bad, bad, bad browser Internet Explorer really is (we haven’t even talked about security…) and switch.  But, I’m probably living in a dream world, right?

Just recently, I’ve been watching the Digg Dialog with Marissa Mayer. I’m embedding it below.

But, first of all, a little information to make sure we are all up to speed:

1. DIGG – for those of you who don’t know about DIGG, you have to check it out. Digg is one of the most popular web site’s in America. Founded by Kevin Rose (his blog – http://kevinrose.com/), DIGG (http://www.digg.com) is a user generated news site.  Users submit new articles that they find on the web.  Then the users vote (i.e. DIGG) these stories up or down.  Stories with the most diggs appear at the top (on the home page).  With well over 50 million users – it can be VERY interesting to see what is being dugg right now.

2.  DIGG DIALOG – this is the same concept as digg – but applied to interviews.  DIGG will announce a new Dialog coming up.  Then users will submit questions that they would like asked.  Users will then vote (digg) stories up or down.  The top 10 questions – as determined by US, not the interviewer or news channel – are then asked.

Previous Dialog’s have included Trent Reznor, Richard Branson, Nancy Pelosi…

3.  MARISSA MAYER – Marissa is the Vice President for Search and User Experience at Google.  Her influence is all over the search side of Google.

So, the top ten questions, as voted on by the DIGG community were asked of Marissa.  Here’s the video: