Google Insights Tools
Google released another analysis tool recently called Google Insights, which will help you understand interest for search terms over time, specific regions and within specific categories. The graphs they present show numbers between 1 and 100, a metric which is explained in the help text below:
The numbers on the graph reflect how many searches have been done for a particular term, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time. They dont represent absolute search volume numbers, because the data is normalized and presented on a scale from 0-100; each point on the graph is divided by the highest point, or 100. The numbers next to the search terms above the graph are summaries, or totals.
I searched for web development and noticed some interesting trends. I suppose this should have been obvious to me, but the term is on the decline in general, but still a fairly popular search in our country with a score of 63 (see image below):
However, the search term, while still on the general decline, is relatively on the rise in third-world nations (see image below). Notice that globally, the United States no longer makes the top ten regions for this search term:
On the other hand, the search term blog is (predictably) on the rise, while the term weblog is declining. After all, who says weblog anymore (see images below):
Anyone who is interested in measuring the terms associated with their area of expertise should try out this tool. Notice it allows you to export your search results as a CSV, too.
The Newfangled Response to The 5 Hidden Costs of Running a CMS
Eric linked me to an article this morning called The 5 Hidden Costs of Running a CMS, which I thought could use a response from our perspective. In fairness to the author, it sounds like he is referring to the adoption of established enterprise-level content management systems, which in most cases require adaptation of systems around them. With the NewfangledCMS, our core code is the foundation for each development project, and is built upon in order to provide a custom solution for each of our clients. This difference allows us to provide a positive spin to each of the 5 hidden costs.
The Cost of Training
Every site that we build using the NewfangledCMS goes through several phases of development before it is ready for content entry. Prior to that point, we provide training to our clients (as well as a library of basic NewfangledCMS functionality videos) so that they will fully understand how to use all the basic tools of the CMS as well as any unique functionality that has been built for them in particular. There is no additional fee associated with this training. We also provide on-going support to our clients, which is covered by their monthly hosting/support fee, so if they ever have a CMS-related question, our Project Managers can do this at no additional or unpredictable charge.
The Cost to Quality/Functionality
I fused the next two points into one, because in my opinion the quality and flexibility of a site are mutually dependent. In this case, I would argue that using our CMS allows us to deliver higher quality than we would be able to deliver building a custom site without one. With a site that does not use a CMS, the ability for a user to make content changes would rely upon their development ability. With a CMS, you can manage the maintenance of the site among users that dont have development skills. In fact, our CMS has user controls that allow our clients to assign particular content type maintenance to individuals and groups so that work doesnt get inadvertently undone. From an efficiency point of view, the CMS has the edge here. However, it is true that a CMS might lock in certain kinds of functionality, so with an out-of-the-box CMS solution, flexibility might be limited once its been implemented. In our case, the CMS is customizable, so new functionality upgrades can be handled with much less effort than a site built without a CMS.
The Cost of Redundancy and Complexity
Since our CMS is based upon a core code kernel and then customized for each specific project, this is not an issue for us. However, there is basic functionality that we put in to any site we build, like activity reports, user account management, site backup, etc., that doesnt get used by everyone, but thats not a significant problem to our clients. In most cases, when they are reminded that they have that functionality available to them, they are pleased. Because we focus so much on thoroughly prototyping our projects, each site is built with the specific functionality set needed for what the project was planned to do- nothing less, and usually not much more.
The Cost of Commitment
Our CMS is included with any project we do. That means We give free and unlimited NewfangledCMS user licenses to every client - large or small. We do this because we believe in the positives of using a CMS so strongly.
I appreciated Pauls conclusion though, which Ive quoted below:
Its true that a CMS is not a magic bullet. We believe, though, that a carefully selected CMS solution, like ours, is ultimately a significant benefit.
Label Placement on Forms
Chris Coyier at CSS-Tricks.com has a nice blog post about the pros and cons of different label placements on forms, including research into completions rates.
Design Guidelines for Agencies, Part 2: Whats So Great About Photoshop?
Newfangled works with many advertising and marketing agencies and we love to provide their clients with well-designed, highly-functional web sites. However, some of the art files we receive from agencies are less than optimal for our purposes. Photoshop is Newfangleds standard for creating web page layouts but weve received layouts in many formats including PDFs, Microsoft Word documents, Illustrator files and even PowerPoint slides.
One of the key reasons we create layouts in Photoshop is the ability to build a 1:1 representation of what the final page will look like in a browser, right down to the individual pixels. The difficulty in translating a file from any other program is that it requires practically rebuilding the layout from scratch in Photoshop, using the provided file as a rough guide.
Adobe Illustrator is a great program for building precise, vector-based artwork but it comes up short as a tool for building web pages. The issue lies in importing an AI file into Photoshop and how differently the two programs render artwork. Illustrator is a vector-based program and Photoshop is a bitmap-based (or raster-based) program. If you open an AI file in Photoshop, Photoshop attempts to translate the vector artwork into a bitmap image. This rasterization creates blurred lines along horizontal and vertical edges which can make slicing up the layout accurately for web application difficult, if not impossible.
We encourage our agency partners to provide us with layered Photoshop files whenever possible. This is not because were a bunch of whiny prima donnas, but because Photoshop provides the best platform for creating accurate web page layouts and the results save time and money for us, for our agency partners and for the agencys client.
Note: This post is a reworking of an October 2007 article in
which I recommended a solution for sucessfully importing Illustrator
files into Photoshop for the purposes of web page layout. After further
research, I discovered the solution is incomplete and not adequate for
Newfangled standards.
Next time: How to Set Up a Photoshop File for Web Design
Interview: Debbie Millman, Sterling Brands
Debbie Millman
President, Design Group,
Sterling Brands
Debbie Millman has been in the design business for the last 20 years fulfilling her dream of working in branding and furthering the meaning, purpose and stature of brands in our culture. Debbie is a Partner and President of the Design division at Sterling Brands, one of the leading brand identity firms in the country. She has been there for twelve years and has had the good fortune to work with clients such as Gillette, MTV, Star Wars, Nestle, Pepsi and Campbells. Debbie is a board member of the National AIGA, and teaches at the School of Visual Arts and the Fashion Institute of Technology. She is also an author on the design blog Speak Up, a contributor to Print Magazine and she hosts a weekly internet talk show on the Voice America Business network titled Design Matters. She is the author of How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer, and Essential Principles of Graphic Design.
CB: What fascinates you about the web?
DM: So much fascinates me about the web! I am obsessed and addicted to the web and I am enthralled by the power to find information, to uncover new places, voices, opportunities and opinions. I also love that in many ways, it is a great equalizer. Almost anyone can publish, create, and communicate when you are online.
[Editors Note: Ill say! Debbie is way out of our league. Only the equalizing power of the internet, and Debbies kindness, of course, could make this interview happen.]
CB: What would you change about it?
DM: Any new innovation is not without its foils; if I could I would prevent the sexual abuse and misuse currently being employed in the dark corners of the web.
CB: Do you have a blog? If so, what makes yours unique?
DM: Yes, I have a blog. Nothing makes it unique, other than the fact that it is mine.
CB: What technology has had the greatest impact on how you do your job?
DM: My iPhone. It is the one device that has everything I need: the Internet and email, a phone, GPS, music, and a camera. It also looks really cool.
CB: Who has influenced or helped you the most in your career?
DM: Probably every single person in my book, How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer has influenced my career. That is part of what was so remarkable about being able to do that book. I think almost every single person featured in it had a profound influence on me, and on the way I think.
If I had to pick specific people out, I’d say Carin Goldberg, Paula Scher, and Emily Oberman. Some other people that aren’t in the book that I might also add to the list would be Ellen Lupton and Marion Bantjes.
Aubrey Balkind, my former boss at Frankfurt Balkind, said two things to me that impacted my career. One statement was that he would hire me, but not as a designer. The other was when I was leaving. I told him that I was going to work in brand identity, he just nodded his head and said, “You’re going to’ do well in package design.” When I left, I started working full-time in package design and that really was my niche. I found what I was meant to do in graphic design from that point.
CB: What makes you uniquely suited to your role at Sterling Brands?
DM: I take new business and design presentations very, very seriously. I prepare every second of every day--as every experience and every observation of the world contributes to how I present and what I present. I read a tremendous amount: newspapers, magazines, blogs, news sites, and media sites, basically anything I can get my hands on or head around. That being said, I also do a substantial amount of research before I make a professional presentation: I investigate everything I can about a company and gather and read as much as possible. I believe that presentations are as much about communicating how much you understand a potential client as it is about communicating who you are and what you stand for.
I also believe in relentless preparation--Rudy Giuliani used to say that for every hour he spent in court, he would spend four hours preparing! I dont necessarily go to that extreme, but I do prepare quite a bit. I like to try and have as a goal that nothing unanticipated will happen (which is virtually impossible, but its a goal!) and to insure that, I find it is helpful to visualize every scenario and rehearse as much as you can. It is also helpful to anticipate the questions you might be asked--as well as the worst-case scenario (what will you do or say if your client hates everything???) in order to get you through anything that might happen. I also find it is beneficial to instill preparedness in others.
I also make sure that I have a sound strategic point of view and philosophy. Who we are as designers and what we believe in is as important as our ideas.
CB: What makes Sterling a cut above its competitors?
DM: I am not exactly sure! Maybe our passion, our intelligence and our honesty? Maybe our talent? Maybe our funny personalities and alarming wit? Maybe you should ask our clients. I think they are more qualified to answer the question.
CB: If you had one sentence to pitch a potential client, what would it be?
DM: “How can I help you?”
CB: I believe that everyone has a specific and unique talent that comes in handy at just the right time. It might be something most people know about you or something very few know. What is your super-power?
DM: Two things:
One: I can write mirror backwards. In script and in print, and I can also write simultaneously frontward and backwards with both hands at the same time. You can see an example here:
Two: Sometimes, I can tell what people are thinking about design and instantly understand what will and won’t work in the marketplace. Kind of like Cayce Ballard in Pattern Recognition. But that only happens sometimes.
CB: If the worlds technological and economic systems were to collapse and revert society to locally-focused, agrarian communities, what role would you assume?
DM: I would be a peacemaker.
The Benefits of a Coordinated Project, Schedule, and Billing System
Ive posted several articles on resourcing in the past, specifically on introducing the concept, differentiating between the delivering and resourcing roles, how timekeeping is necessary, and how shifting the culture of project management is necessary. I shared a good amount about how we measured our data, but I didnt speak much about the actual tools we use to coordinate our projects, schedule work, and keep track of billing.
We use an open-source program called dotProject to manage our complete client roster and all projects from start, to finish, to ongoing upgrades. Believe it or not, before we started using this program (not so long ago- in 2006), we managed schedules and tasks with emails and whiteboards. You can imagine why we needed help! Because the tool is open-source, weve been able to customize it enough to fit how we work, as well as tie it in to an existing admin system we built long ago to keep track of sites on our live and development servers, maintain prototypes, and catalog design layouts.
In the image above youll see the dotProject screen showing a client of ours and the beginning of a long list of tasks weve set up in our system since the start of our relationship with them- from prototyping to recent upgrades to their site. Its simple to set up a new client, manage all of our contact information, tie the record in with our admin system and begin setting up tasks in minutes (Ive whited-out a good bit of the info here for privacy purposes).
This next screen (see above) shows the task level for a record in our system. You can see that you easily set up a new task, assign it to a client record and employees pretty simply. Once its in the system, we use logs to track progress and questions along the way. Every time a log is posted to a task, all the employees assigned to the task receive an email alert.
Remember how I said that before using this system we used whiteboards to plan our production schedule? Its embarrassing, but pretty common in smaller shops. Now that weve grown, it was just no longer feasible to manage things that way. What we needed was a visual tool showing our production schedule from a birds eye view, that was also sortable and flexible by resource. Our engineering team built just that and tied it in with our dotProject system so that all active tasks would appear in our visual traffic view (see image below).
These tools are incredibly helpful. At this point in our companys history, were doing more work for more clients than weve ever done, and we have more people internally than weve ever had. We also have two offices, one here in Chapel Hill and the other in Providence, Rhode Island. Between the growth in number and complexity of what we do, and the size of our staff, theres obviously too much room for error with whiteboards and emails, but theres also room for error in our current system. After all, its just a tool. However, the foundation on which the tool rests is our process.
In March, Mark wrote about our project anatomy, noting that it is what holds us accountable to our process while still allowing for growth. We started by printing it out on paper- our idea was that if it worked on paper (click image at left to download the entire anatomy in PDF view), it would eventually work as an online checklist that was integrated with our dotProject and Admin system. We eventually finalized the anatomy and built an online tool that allows our Project Managers to track the process and ensure that no step- especially not QA - is overlooked (see image below).
The benefit here is that by keeping our data in a centralized system that everyone at Newfangled can access, we create a sense of transparency across the company in addition to having a flexible and efficient tool. Although I didnt show screenshots (for obvious reasons), our system includes a detailed billing interface that tracks budgets from quoting stage through invoicing as well as provides sales reports.
Were continuing to expand and improve our system. The more we use it, the more ideas we have for how to improve it.
Developing an Effective Content Strategy
I do most of my best work in the morning. In fact, I'm writing this at 7:00 am from my desk in our currently quiet, empty office. I don't get here early to "show up" my coworkers; I do it because I know that I am going to do my best thinking and highest quality writing first thing in the morning when the office is empty, the phones aren't ringing, and my inbox isn't growing by the minute. Since the creation of this newsletter is central to our content strategy as a company, I have chosen to work on it at a time at which I know I'll be able to do it to the best of my ability and without interruption. Likewise, I hope you've found a quiet and comfortable corner of your workplace to spend a few minutes reading this. Believe me when I tell you that considering these practical issues of time and place is critical to the success of your strategic pursuits, whether on or offline.
This month I want to focus in on the most important aspect of your online presence: Content Strategy. I'll first briefly review what I mean by content strategy, then cover how positioning directs it, and, once you've identified what yours should be, how to put it into practice.
What is a content strategy?
Put simply, content strategy involves identifying the type of content that will best enable you to communicate your positioning and achieve your online goals, then planning for the creation of that content by allocating time and resources to the effort.
A Great Example of a Non-Agency Content Strategy
This months Web Smart Newsletter is all about developing an effective content strategy, particularly slanted toward creative agencies
I was recently pointed to the website for Cadence Design Systems (see homepage image to the left), an electronic design company based in California, and was very impressed by both the design and content strategy. The first thing I noticed was that the homepage immediately and clearly positions Cadence as an expert in high-level synthesis technology by specifically pushing their C-to-Silicon Compiler product in the main slideshow. The other two slides concern an upcoming conference, affirming Cadences leadership in their field, and their 20th anniversary, affirming Cadences success over time.
The rest of the homepages real estate is almost entirely devoted to promoting the Community content of the website. There is a From the Community box beneath the slideshow which displays 9 categories of blog, forum and resource content. To the right, there is an elegant News widget, some quick links, and a graphic promoting an upcoming acquisition. All in all, this homepage shows that Cadence is an established, successful company, confident in its expertise, and more than willing to promote its employees by giving them the freedom to contribute what amounts to the majority of the websites content.
As I mentioned above, the Cadence community is very well developed. First, Community is placed within the main navigation, with a robust menu of community discipline categories as well as format categories. On its landing page (see image above), there is a featured post area at the top, as well as a promotion for their upcoming conference and quick links to the blogs, forums and resources landing pages. Beneath is an aggregate list of recent blog posts, forum posts, and an updated indicator of which forum members are currently logged in. In total, there are 9 communities by discipline, 32 bloggers contributing to the various disciplines, and 15 different forums.In the sidebar are polls and recent news.
The blogs (see landing page image above) are organized by the 9 disciplines, with the 32 employees contributing posts among them. The landing page shows a list of the most recent posts, along with an avatar for the author, a brief abstract, and the tags used by the author. There is also a most popular tags cloud in the sidebar which will give the user a quick indication of the kinds of topics theyll find in the blog.
Cadence has done a really fantastic job with their Resources landing page. There is a simple search filter to the left, which allows users to search by design area (2 main categories and 11 sub-categories), product (3 main categories, over 50 sub-categories), type (25 categories- not just your average white paper) or keyword. On the right is an aggregate list of latest publications, which includes a recommendation system allowing users to give a thumbs up to resources they found helpful. The icon shows the number of recommendations given to each resource.
Lastly, I really appreciated this sidebar which appears on most product, solutions or services sub-pages. In addition to having expected content (i.e. links to news, cross promotions, etc.), there is also a widget showing related blog posts, presumably by discipline area and/or tags. Well done!
Government Adoption of Blogging
ArsTechnica author Yun Xie has an article this morning about US Department of Health and Human Services secretary Michael Leavitts blog, which is really interesting. The article talks about how Leavitt began blogging as an experiment, mostly to see if it would be an effective and efficient means of communicating with citizens and press about public policy. As Xie writes:
The blog is also useful as a shortcut in communications for reporters and staff members. Instead of repeating himself, he can simply ask people to look at his blog, where he lays out his thoughts on common areas of inquiry. ...Due to his positive experiences with blogging, Leavitt encourages his staff in using new media tools throughout HHS, especially for reaching the youth. This has lead to developments like a partnership with YouTube that is slated for the fall, where the public will become involved in the creative process for discussing health issues.
At a Kaiser Family Foundation-sponsored panel on the impact of blogging, panelist John McDonough (Senior Advisor to Senator Edward Kennedy) noted concern in regard to impoliteness running rampant among reader comments online. This is probably something that Leavitts moderated comment system can avoid, but is definitely a significant factor which discourages many from blogging who would potentially have something valuable to contribute- especially government officials. This is also an issue touched upon recently in Time magazine columnist Technoculture columnist Lev Grossman. Blog post on that forthcoming...
Blog Comments: Love em or hate em?
I read this humorous article this week in Time magazine by Technoculture columnist Lev Grossman, which wonders whether reader comments on web articles and blog posts add or subtract value from the content they are attached to. Heres a somewhat harsh but exemplary bit of it:
A random example: on June 11, a user called way21337 uploaded a video to YouTube. Its titled My new gerbil, and it shows, in fact, a black-and-white gerbil snuffling around cutely in somebodys hand. It is 11 seconds long. By press time, it had acquired 102 comments. Lets take a look! They begin with NewTyhuss, who writes, sweet! Things start going south with comment No. 4: id hit it. (Good one, ZRace67!) After a week, were down to eldergod: why dont u shove that gerbil up yur *&% and quit posting stupid videos. bwalhof writes, kill yourself. fast. And so on.
Ultimately, Grossman shares in the lament in response to this kind of commentary and hopes that the standards of real world, offline politeness will win the day. I hope hes right, but I think that the more pessimistic view, that a kind of communal game in which whoever is cleverest and pushes the most buttons wins is under way is what keeps many companies from opening up their online content to user comments.
Any comments from you? bwalhof, are you out there?