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Copy and Paste

Author kimberlyh | 15.10.2008 | Category Designs, SEO, html

Copy and paste.  It can be a godsend, but only in times where it’s actually supposed to happen.

The only place where it honestly should happen is  when actually inserting content into the backend from Dreamweaver or Word or whatever program you might be using to write it - and that’s after you’ve finished writing it.  However, when it becomes obvious that you copy and pasted the last three paragraphs over and over again and just changed a few keywords, things get a bit fishy.

Besides, in many cases, that’s blatant plagiarism, especially if taking from sites outside of your realm.

A home based business site that I worked on had to have a few paragraphs reworked in order to clean it up because of so much copy and pasting.  I honestly hope I caught everything; the last few paragraphs seem especially suspicious, but my main thing with this site was to add in more keywords, as far too much of the content wasn’t keyword enriched at all and to add in more images.

What’s more, it seems that a lot of client sites are changing and quickly.  You can turn in a site and get it back because the client site changed overnight; that means more work, simply because you want the optimization page to look as close to the client’s site as it can, but in the span of a few hours to even a few days, the client site can be completely different - utilizing different images to even an entirely different layout.  This can feel really frustrationg, but staying on top of this sort of thing like the techs here have been equals better results.

Sundance Painting

Author kimberlyh | 06.10.2008 | Category Designs, SEO, html

So, I did a site today for a California commercial painting company, which marks a new turn for the skins.

Today, a lot of time was spent developing a new skin in order to make optimization pages look and feel better - less confusing, if you will.  And believe me, it was time consuming!  I’ll project that creating the CSS templates for sites is definitely going to take a little while; the flow of the new skins page is a lot more CSS dependant for presentation, as it has to have certain elements completely moved from their natural flow into another position, and some even made so that they do not affect the other elements in the flow.

Really, this is a great example of how positioning can be used in order to control how the flow of a skin can be completely changed with CSS.  It is absolutely crazy how much CSS can change the look of a page, and just the power that it has as it slowly evolves and changes with new standards.  Before it was developed, there was a time when the look of a page could only be edited on how tables were made.  As standards have grown, this has changed to having complete control over what div does what and how to present it in the page’s layout.  This, in and of itself, is just the tip of the iceberg of the power of the twenty-first century.

Changes in Code

Author kimberlyh | 01.10.2008 | Category Designs, Development, SEO, html

Sometimes, the smallest change in code can mess things up, and that’s where bugfixing comes in.

I generally follow a cleaned CSS template that I edit for each individual optimized page that I create, because I know the stylesheet so it’s easier for me to read and edit.  But when changes are made to the skin, oh ho ho can there be major bug fixes then!  That might seem slightly irritating, but if you know the flow and dynamics of your code, it’s not that bad - you just have to figure out what changed, and you’re good to go.

Glancing Back

Author kimberlyh | 22.08.2008 | Category Designs

I’ve been doing design for some time, and have lately glanced back at some of my older designs. They have certainly come a long way - especially after I became surrounded by other, more talented designers. Perhaps my optimization page designs aren’t always the best (mostly because the client’s site does not have much to work with, such as this page for a financial freedom site), but the few designs I’ve done here for splash pages and three-page sites are certainly at a much higher bar than early designs that I did before coming here.

I’d certainly say that it is because I am watching other people do designs now, rather than just poking at other designs, and I’ve found a greater amount of resources to draw from. Plus, advice. Definitely, I’d say that the advice helps greatly.

Fun Illustrator Fun

Author kimberlyh | 05.08.2008 | Category Designs

I have a habit of trying a new thing concerning graphics, and doing it over and over again for a little while - and then forget that it completely exists and do other things instead.

Lately it’s been Illustrator blends. I’ve found that it’s so much fun to create two vector curves with the pen tool, then go to object -> blend -> make and make it into a ton of really pretty lines. And today, I experimented and went to blend options -> specific steps, and added 300 lines, with one line a dark color and the other line a lighter color. This makes it look like a gradient - it’s definitely a really cool trick!

Limitations

Author kimberlyh | 02.07.2008 | Category Designs

There are times when I feel absolutely frustrated and scared at the same time.  I worry about having limitations.  Whether it is my math skills or my creation skills, I worry about that brick wall.

I always try to stretch myself a little bit more when I do a graphic/design.  I try to go that extra step - research what’s ‘hot’, look at tutorials to try new things, etcetera.  And yet, there are times when I feel absolutely behind.  I feel that anyone could have done that better, and that perhaps my skills are taking a turn for the worse - or just not improving.

When this happens, it is good to take a moment and clear your mind.  I try to tell myself that there’s still plenty of time to improve, as long as I continue to put in a conscious effort to DO it.  Sometimes it’s a matter of giving yourself your own psychological coaching, I suppose.

Pagination

Author dustinc | 19.05.2008 | Category Designs

While pagination is rather easy to add to a site there is still an abundant of folks just not getting it right, or even doing it at all. Since I am not the pagination expert I won’t be going in depth about the how-to’s but instead I’ll point you in th right direction. Faruk Ates has written a great article on Pagination where he defines 7 very important do’s and dont’s.

Cheat Sheets

Author dustinc | 16.05.2008 | Category Designs, Development, html

Sometimes a helping hand is all you need to finish up that damn project, or just get through those horrendous tasks that keep kicking you down like a Krispy Kreme truck driver making a late delivery to the 7-11 next to Jenny Craig’s. Because information is key, and sometimes you lose your keys, the great folks over at smashingmagazine.com compiled a list of said helping hands; cheat sheets for quick referencing. Everything from PHP to CSS2 can be quickly printed out and posted next to your desk.

User’s Goals

Author dustinc | 15.05.2008 | Category Designs

Keep your goals (the goals of the site and the users’ goals) fresh in your mind by writing them down and repeating them at the beginning of each design session. If you get tired or feel like you’ve lost touch with the message you wish to project - STOP! Take a break, then come back refreshed and look at your goals again.

CSS Stuff

Author dustinc | 13.05.2008 | Category Designs

Since we don’t have CSS constants yet, we need to figure out some way to get a quick reference of “variables” we are using. In web development colors and typography can often be considered as “constants” — fixed values that are used throughout the code multiple times.  You can describe color codes used in your layout. For a given color, you can display sections of your site which are using this color. Or vice versa — for a given design element you can describe the colors which are used there.