A Little History

Due mainly to a lecture I attended at University held by the founder of Lightmaker and his opinion that his staff should work only in the role he had employed them to work in, I felt even with my degree I was ill prepared for a job in the industry. My skill set never appeared to match correctly with the job opportunities available. When I was offered the position of Web Designer at Bronco it quickly became apparent that by working in a small team I would be required to do more than just push pixels. Instead after two years I not only design but I also code in a range of languages including xHTML, CSS, PHP, Classic ASP, JavaScript and SQL. Because of this I am able to perform every role required to see a project through from start to finish.

My Scenario

As Superawesome wrote you have different workers doing their own job with a lot of handing back and forth of work until completion. Although for large projects we do work in small teams, for smaller projects the team may just be me. In this case I would create the design, develop it in xHTML/CSS whilst also integrating any dynamic code such as JavaScript and PHP.

Jack of all Trades…

Being proficient in so many areas of web design and development lead many to think that such a person cannot create high level work in any single area. Although I admit my designs may never be of graphic design complexity or that I would be able to program the likes of Twitter or Facebook I don’t think this is a bad thing for me or my clients. It could be that I could never reach such levels, no matter how hard I tried, so why not expand my knowledge into other areas to help benefit my core skills.

How does this benefit the client?

1. Speed – as the project does not have to be handed to another team member there is no delay in them starting the project or understanding the projects requirements
2. Sympathetic design – the design created from day one is sympathetic to all the constraints the different programming languages going into the site may have. This creates a balanced, clean and useable end product.

It works for me

At Bronco as a small team we use the best methods for us; the ability to work in these different areas keeps me interested in my job, ensuring I never get bored of any single aspect. At large agencies they work the best for them. However I think for any person that works as a web designer or developer it’s an advantage to understand the other processes that go into creating a website, as it helps you create better work.

Post from: Kean Richmond

Designer, Developer, Programmer

Usually I would hope to undertake work where I felt I could add value, but releasing yet another WordPress theme to a saturated market would add little value to the mass population. Instead the projects main value comes in me learning more about how to design and implement themes that provide more flexibility to a range of users than the themes I build for a single client at Bronco.

The Project

Usually when working on a project I will tend to keep everything under wraps until the project is finished or at a stage that requires more input. This is a system that most web designers employ for one reason or another. But for this project I wanted to try and communicate as much of the process as I could hoping to benefit from the following:

• Feedback
• A written record of the project
• Time to reflect on decisions made in the process
• Increased anticipation for the launch of the theme

There are also disadvantages to releasing elements of work before it is completed:

• Stealing
• Loss of impact at launch

There is also the aspect that by publically announcing a personal project you are more heavily tied into its completion. This could be seen as an advantage or disadvantage if you never complete the project.

How Long?

Truthfully I have no idea. So far I have not created a project plan, or even know exactly what features I wish to integrate into the theme. Between interruptions, research, working and sleeping I know the project may take some time to complete. Hopefully however due to the size of the project as opposed to others I considered this should be completed in a small timeframe.

The Future

I’m hoping that once the WordPress theme is completed that it may be easier to create more themes in the future. This would be a good way of utilising design ideas which may not suit my own website and that can be more inventive than I could use for client based work. All this will help showcase my own design work external to the client/developer relationship.

Post from: Kean Richmond

Premium WordPress Theme: The Personal Project

Why?

There are various reasons why a website is redeveloped, in this case some were personal and some were company focused:

Personal

When designing the previous website I was fairly new to the company and learning my trade, and since that point I have learnt a lot. I felt the time was right to redesign the website as our current website was no longer indicative of my own or the companies’ skills. By redesigning the website we could present a better image of ourselves as a company to prospective clients.

Initially it was my own wish to redesign the website and as I manage the project solely I anticipated no issues in gaining approval for rebuilding the website.

Company

The functionality we added to the previous website over its predecessor was substantial; however it was built with unrealistic expectations of the time we would have available to update the website. Due to this some functionality was never launched, leaving sections of the site static or time consuming to update. In rebuilding the website we could correct these flaws and ensure the site worked both for us as a company and for our users.

Design

Once the project was approved it was important that the design showed off the best of our abilities as a company; however it was necessary to ensure the new design would be recognisable to returning visitors. The redesign of the website required consideration of various factors:

Screen Size

Previously, to keep sites accessible, we would design to an 800×600 screen resolution. However more recently the number of users with the smaller screen size has diminished so where appropriate we have been increasing the size we design for to 1024×768. Due to factors including audience and content I decided that designing for the larger resolution would be the most suitable option.

Blue

The Bronco company colours are predominantly blue; however over the years the tone of blue used has altered slightly. Where the previous website used a dark blue I decided that a lighter blue would provide the website with a softer and more inviting colour scheme. This it ensures the website is recognisable and there are no inconsistencies with our offline branding.

Services

Bronco has always offered a wide range of services, with these falling under one of four section headers. In our previous design these main service areas were colour co-ordinated to provide a distinct identifier for the services that fell under each section heading. For this design I originally intended on dropping the concept in favour of icon identifiers. However it seemed excessive to do away with the colour coding altogether, instead I used the colours in conjunction with the icons in a more subtle manor to complement the existing colour scheme.

Navigation

Drop down menus have always been a useful method of displaying a large navigational structure in a constricted area, but can result in accessibility and usability issues. For this design I reverted back to a tab based navigation to provide easier access to content with the fewest number of clicks.

Layout

Usually when redesigning a website I would have to change the layout of the page to accommodate new content or features. In the case of the Bronco website the content on the home page was undergoing very little change. Therefore it seemed best to retain as much as the original layout as possible, again supporting my objective of keeping the site recognisable for returning visitors.

Fairy Dust

One of the most creative elements of the previous design was something we call the sites ‘Fairy Dust’. This was in fact the large background used to provide the website some visual interest for users with larger monitors. In designing the new website I moved away from the strict borders of the old site to employ a repeating background with the content appearing to float central to the page. This meant using the ‘Fairy Dust’ in the same method was impossible, if retained it must be incorporated in a different way.

As the website is largely textual it was important to provide some graphical imagery within the content of the website. This seemed like the best situation in which to incorporate the ‘Fairy Dust’ and with the addition of other imagery we were able to keep yet another element of the previous design and also refine it.

Development

One of the benefits of using CSS when building a website is the ability to make quick changes to a website without editing large amounts of code. Although this potentially allows you to redesign a website completely without impacting the base HTML code, I tend to find this can be slow and results in dirty code. Therefore in such situations I always prefer to start with a blank canvas. Working in this way allows me to bring in all the latest techniques and coding standards we use from the start ensuring the website conforms to the highest levels of standards and optimisation.

As the old website was written in classic ASP and at a time when I was still learning the language the code was very bloated. By starting from scratch it gave me the opportunity to reuse sections of the code that worked, replace bits that did not and rewrite the rest. I also took the opportunity to edit a number of databases and rewrite a selection of the stored procedures in an effort to optimise the website throughout.

When developing the website it was important that we add extra value for its users, some of this came from the design, some from improved usability, and some from added functionality. The biggest addition to the website would be the client section. This section was built initially as a method of presenting new designs to clients, but provides the opportunity to add further functionality to better support the Bronco/client relationship.

Completion

When it comes to internal projects the time scales involved can be much longer and disjointed than similar work due to client projects taking precedence. This can result in a reduction of quality as the project drags on and work is rushed to ensure speedy completion. Although this was a concern and client work did disrupt the project flow the website’s quality was not affected due to the importance of the project.

Upon completion the website was presented to others within the company and selected external associates to gauge reaction to the website and also suggest any issues with the website. There were a number of opinions and suggestions provided that aided us in refining the website ready for launch. When the site launched we had a far superior website in design, usability and functionality that communicates effectively our abilities and services.

The Future

It is common that upon completion of a company website that it can be left to stagnate with infrequent updates. With features such as the news and portfolio sections we’ve always tried to ensure there is fresh and informing content added frequently to the website. With the addition of improved functionality the static content of the website is also easier to update and integrate into the navigation of the website. Over time we hope that the website will expand to provide even more value to our users, promote our growing services and attract more work so the company can expand and improve further.

Post from: Kean Richmond

Portfolio Website: Bronco

Almost instantly the iPhone has become an invaluable gadget. On a recent trip to London the phone not only helped me stay connected while in London but helped me navigate traffic when rushing for the train. Using the internet through the iPhone is superb with its PC like rendering of web pages. However a lack of the ability to open links in a new tab results in a lot of navigation back and forth.

I have always bought phones with the intention that they have multiple purposes as I make few actual phone calls. Previously I have used my phone as a mp3 and radio player. The iPhone’s lack of the latter was a possible deal breaker; however the added storage of the iPhone has allowed me to store my entire music collection on the phone. When I have required an FM radio I have used my old phone.

One aspect of the phone I was concerned with using was the touch keyboard, thankfully I have little issues with the feature and have been impressed with the phones ability to correct mis-spellings. The method of which the phone displays text conversations is also very useful as it displays the texts in a conversation style allowing you to remind yourself of what has been sent previously.

The app store is without doubt the best feature of the iPhone, where with most phones the availability of applications is limited and difficult to locate and install for various different phones. The iPhones app store is quick and easy to use and allows you to add a range of applications built to help aide, amuse and inform. The range of applications is immense and a surprising number of these are available free, although a lot of these are useless. In the time I have had the phone I have uninstalled as many applications as I have kept, most of these with the exception of Twitterrific and Last.fm have been games.

Already I feel that the iPhone is the best phone I have ever owned and certainly fits most of the purposes I wish to have in a portable gadget, whilst both being well built and fantastically useable.

Post from: Kean Richmond

Another iPhone sold

After redesigning my blog it was suggested that I create a WordPress theme. I’ve steered away from this previously as the bloated nature of designing for a blog is in conflict with my almost obsessive need to have full control over my code, which I usually attempt to keep as clean, and simple as possible. In creating my own blog or those for clients I have a certain level of control that allows me to implement my design to pixel perfection. In the case of creating a theme for external use you must consider all the possibilities, with little opportunity to go back and fix them later.

I’ve also considered creating a full web application. After using a recently launched application I was able to see an opportunity to improve it in a specific way. Although I’m positive I could build an application to implement this ‘unique selling point’ I’m not yet positive if the idea is unique or if I can implement some of the other feature of the application that work so well for it. If the idea is not unique then I cannot see a way of differentiating the product enough or be able to find the resources to promote a product that is no different than those already in the market place. There is also the issue of supporting the application after launch and the possibility, due to the nature of the application, that it could out grow my current hosting limits without having ever providing any monetary return.

My third option is to consider something different; creating something that demands fewer resources than my application idea but provides the control provided by a product not so publicly released as a WordPress theme. As I am primarily a web designer I would prefer to develop using technologies I already know, to help expand my learning in areas I already have experience of. Also to reduce complications in the design process I would steer away from creating for third party environments such as those for Facebook or the iPhone. This all might seem closed minded, but I feel for what would be my first personal project I would prefer to use the knowledge I have already with a few additions, rather than learning anything from scratch.

So without any ideas of what may be this fabled third option, I’d be grateful for any suggestions, just don’t expect a share when it sells for millions…… one can dream.

Post from: Kean Richmond

Would creating a personal project just be a headache?

After attending the Future of Web Design (FOWD) conference earlier this year, I have been keeping up to date on some of the other events Carsonified host. Last week it was the turn of Future of Web Apps (FOWA) in London. In the case of FOWA I could not suitably justify the costs of attending the conference as some of the subjects covered would have been little or no benefit to me. This year however Carsonified had expanded the two day conference to include an expo floor, which was accessible for a small cost.

The Expo

As FOWA was held in one of the units at the ExCel centre in London the two conference stages and the expo floor was all contained within the one space, with curtain dividers to split the different sections. The expo floor was rather spread out appearing too large for the number of stalls present. This gave the impression that it was engineered to accommodate an increasing number of conference sponsors rather than a range of products, businesses and services for developers to learn more about.

With the exception of a few stalls, most were very sales orientated. As such within an hour we had left the expo. This was disappointing as in between the conference sessions there were smaller university sessions being held that were available to all. Given the subjects these did seem like opportunities for companies to advertise their products and at 20 minutes long were unlikely to go into any more depth than any information currently available online. So yet again these were not enough to keep us at the expo, unfortunately this meant a walk back through the numerous Christians that had already welcomed us to the ExCel centre. I wouldn’t say I’m a grumpy person but there is only so much happy a person can take before 10am.

Diggnation

Luckily after the disappointment of the first day at FOWA we arrived late on the second day, intending to arrive in time for the recording of Diggnation Live. By this time most of the expo stalls were closing down, however we did get to the Microsoft surface in action, which was cool. Although I have never watched Diggnation or even use Digg so much anymore I found the recording to be fantastic fun. I must admit I found the rock star reception that Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht received to be odd, although this was possibly fuelled by the massive amounts of free beer Google was giving away. Assumingly this was to help them test out their new email functionality. The recording was rather light on content, as I assume the normal episodes are, however the banter between the hosts and crowd made the event truly unique.

Wrap Party

The venue for the wrap party, although a little small for the numbers was very nice and situated just outside the conference centre, making for a large number of party goers to appear en-masse. I must admit that such a party is not my most comfortable environment, and as such I didn’t enjoy myself as much as I wish I could. However the atmosphere was great and the appearance of Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht, although expected given the party was sponsored by Digg and Facebook, was good. This however again caused the rock star effect, especially when they started giving away free stuff.

With such big names appearing at the party, there was a VIP area created for the speakers and their guests. It is unusual for a conference to have a VIP area as such events are promoted as allowing for the mixing of attendees and speakers. The presence of the VIP area and the huge doorman guiding people past the entrance seemed a little out of place, although given peoples approach to the Diggnation team it was possibly the safest option. While there I didn’t meet anyone I recognised, however my fellow conference attendee Scott Mallinson managed to get the chance to quickly speak to both Ryan Carson and Kevin Rose, which was cool.

Although I admit my limited experience of FOWA was a bit hit and miss I’m glad I attended and I think that Diggnation was well worth the price of the expo pass and given the opportunity to see Diggnation recorded live again I would definitely enjoy going. Given the chance to attend the FOWA expo again I think it’s a case of either attending the conference or just staying home.

Post from: Kean Richmond

FOWA and Diggnation

Thanks

Firstly I have to thank both Rosenfeld and Etre for linking to my review of the Web Form Design book. It’s a great feeling when the likes of Etre have highlighted my review as good enough to assist them in marketing the book. The reasons I want to say thank you is because not only have the links helped with incoming traffic in an otherwise quiet month but also the review and links are genuine. I know that it’s become increasingly popular for companies to approach blogs for reviews in return for free products, although I’m not against receiving freebies this blog is certainly not of a size yet to receive those sorts of perks. So to have bought the book myself, review it and then get such recognition is great.

Portfolio

Since launching the current version of my website the portfolio has remained fairly static and there are a few reasons for this. Predominantly I want the portfolio to show only the best of my work, which shows either a progression of skills or contains something not yet present in other sites within the portfolio. I also shy away from including sites where the involvement of the client has resulted in a design that has been too greatly modified to comfortably display as my own work.

I feel the new UK Bathrooms website meets both my own high standards and criteria for the portfolio and has become the latest addition. To read more please visit the portfolio section.

Browsers

The web browser is the one subject that gets the whole internet community talking and currently everyone is trying to figure out what impact the launch of new browser, Google Chrome will make.
The subject has already been covered everywhere in the blogosphere but I do have to highlight the 10 myths about Google Chrome as a good review. Personally I don’t see the benefits of Google entering the browser market other than to increase Google’s hold over the Internet. Their motto of ‘Don’t be Evil’ seems as applicable as “Four legs Good, Two Legs Bad”. The browser does appear to have some nice additions such as The V8 engine and applications shortcuts, although while still in beta there’s time for more to come. However knowing Google’s love of long beta periods (Google Mail anyone) we may never see a finished product.

Where Chrome leaves me cold, Internet Explorer beta 2 is fuelling a tiny flame inside me. IE8 is still far from competing with other browsers as my first choice browser but the IE team finally seem to be trying to fix their wrongs. The feature that has influenced my opinion most is the ‘compatibility view’, which on discovering a site with issues in IE8 allows the user to view the site as it was originally intended in an older browser. This potentially means that the IE team in working towards a more standards based rendering engine do not have to worry about sites breaking old sites as the compatibility view will remedy any problems. This feature is something I would like to see other browsers integrate as it effectively makes websites future proof.

I feel IE are finally moving in the right direction, they just have to speed up to catch the likes of Firefox and Opera.

Death to IE6

With IE8’s launch on the horizon and so many people going prematurely bald over IE6 there has been a growing discussion, led by the likes of 37 Signals and Facebook, to finally stop supporting IE6. There are loads of varying opinions floating around from outright abandonment to charging extra for support. Personally I will support the browser wherever I think the audience share is large enough.

Part of being a web developer is creating the best experience for your users, pushing the boundaries of what is available but gracefully degrading the experience for older browsers to ensure the best experience possible. Changing extra for support only shifts the responsibility to the client who may not be educated enough to understand the issue, or in the case where they may not use IE6, be completely unaware of the issue unless as a developer you tell them. Hopefully as time goes on IE6 will disappear, but then will the focus then move to IE7 as developers look for a browser to blame for holding them back?

FOWA

After attending the FOWD conference earlier this year I’ve decided to take a trip to FOWA this October. Although not able to justify the stretch to the conference tickets as I personally do little in the way of web applications, I decided at £5 having a look around the expo floor with good friend Scott Mallinson would be well worth it. The plan will be to blog about my experience at FOWA like I did previously at FOWD and hopefully get some good freebies along the way.

To Come

Hopefully when I have broadband installed the blog will jump back into life with more frequent blog posts as well as new additions to the portfolio and image sections. The plan is also to upgrade the version of wordpress so hopefully that should go without incident.

Post from: Kean Richmond

August Update

Hopefully when everything is working I should be able to start posting again, I also have some additions to the portfolio and some photos to add to flickr.

Be Back Soon

Post from: Kean Richmond

Too long without broadband

So Cuil, another new search engine has entered the market, claiming to be a Google killer with more advanced indexing algorithms. With the search engines founders coming from within the Google and IBM ranks you’d expect they would have a better chance that most, it’s a pity that with the current system it’s little more than a pipe dream.

Sure I’m basing this solely on my own opinion but I do have some reasons to back up my claim:

Layout

Cuil displays search results in a 2 or 3 column layout, against the traditional one column layout. Although giving users something different can attract an audience I think changing something that works is an unnecessary gamble.

Features

Understandably the feature set is limited due to the age of the search engine but simple features such as advanced search functions are missing. Few users may use these functions but professionals in the Internet community, the leading audience in most new web applications, would expect these simple features.

Infrastructure

With articles about Cuil flooding the Internet you would expect they’re servers would be hit hard, but to be faced with error messages explaining search results could not be found due to server load may very well lose the site any chance of repeat traffic.

Indexing

With a search index reportedly as large as Google’s I would hope that my search may rank, even if the domain is still fairly new. Unfortunately not, although other search engines such as Live do not rank me highly I am still able to find my site in the listings.

Revenue

The site appears to have no method of generating revenue from either selling ads or displaying ads, without a system of generating revenue Cuil’s growth may suffer from lack of funds.

Design

Although a search engines is more about features than design I cannot help looking at the effectiveness of the design. Luckily they kept the minimalistic look that aided Google’s climb to the top; however the design appears to lack a certain sleekness that attracts my eye.

Niche

There are a lot of search engines entering the market to try and topple Google, however some position themselves in a smaller or niche markets to better search a smaller audience, possibly with the intention of one day challenging Google. Cuil has launched with the intention of trying to serve the whole search market, this may weaken their ability to attract any audience, even a niche one.

Conclusion

I do wish Cuil all the best in challenging Google crown, however I feel they have a challenge in not only taking on Google but also to create a search engine capable of doing so. I still see a Yahoo and Microsoft merger the best opportunity in creating a search engine able to even out the monopoly Google has in the online search market.

Post from: Kean Richmond

Hot or Cuil

Recently I have started to do more extensive browser testing, beyond just Internet Explorer and Firefox. Today this led me to a positioning problem in Safari, where by floated elements within a floated containing div would not appear on one single line, the containing div would not widen to accommodate all the child elements. This error only existed in Safari and after a few attempts at fixing it I gave up on the problem as it only occurred in Safari and did not destroy the usability of the website overall.

Upon viewing the website at home, where I use Firefox 3, the same positioning problem has occurred. Unfortunately making this a more significant issue and one I now need to fix. However more worrying is that my coding must be against the standards to break in both Safari and the new version of Firefox. A simple solution is to specify the width of the containing div, however that is not an option in this case. I’m usually an advocate of standards compliant coding, but this is one time where I really cannot understand why what I’ve coded is against the standards.

Post from: Kean Richmond

Firefox 3 actually Safari in disguise