After participating in a lengthy Twitter discussion with John O’Nolan (twitter @JohnONolan), it has been agreed that JavaScript is “standard.”

So fellow web designers, after a long discussion I put it to you that JS is now “standard” and should be supported like CSS, not like Flash. – @JohnONolan

I wrote a previous article about discontinuing support for Internet Explorer 6, and I think a discussion about JavaScript is in the same category.

The big question asked is why would you need to develop a site that works without JavaScript?

In short, you wouldn’t. It simply does not make sense with the current online environment. Take a look below for a few examples why.

1. Facebook uses it

The most used social networking site and currently one of the most elite sites on the web, nearly everyone uses Facebook. Try to load Facebook after disabling JavaScript in your browser and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

If Facebook relies so heavily on JavaScript and a huge percentage of internet users are on Facebook, does it really make sense for your site to require proper usability without JavaScript?

2. Everyone has it

Ok, I’m sure you will all jump at the opportunity to yell and scream because not 100% of people have JavaScript enabled, so I’ll backtrack a little and say that at least 95% of people have it.

My argument for this is the same as that for supporting IE6. If a user is browsing the web in IE6, or in this case browsing with JavaScript disabled, he/she is not my target market.

3. What is next?

If JavaScript is on par with CSS, as John mentions above, what is next? Do you think Flash will soon gain universal support? Should it?

Right now, Flash is the only way to accurately know exactly what the user is seeing. It does not matter what browser they are in, what fonts they have installed or even what OS they use, Flash is Flash.

As long as their Flash is up to date!

Can’t forget that key point. What are your thoughts on JavaScript and Flash in the future of the web?

Social media can make or break a brand, a lesson Maytag learned the hard way.

Home appliance giant, Maytag, is facing some tough times ahead after Heather Armstrong (a.k.a. Dooce), number 26 on Forbes’ list of Most Influential Women in Media, had a less than satisfying experience.

You do not want to get on the wrong side of a woman with over 1 million twitter followers.

Maytag gave Heather the run-around after her brand new washing machine broke, take a look below to see her comments.

Will Maytag learn from this experience and possibly offer a public apology? Would that be enough? At this point it is the best option, and quite possibly the only option. Over at T3, Kate Donaho offers these final words:

However Dooce and Maytag settle the issue of the broken $1300 washing machine, it’s yet another cautionary tale for brands that a meaningful social media presence is an essential element of public relations.

Other companies have felt the wrath of social media. These examples will hopefully be yet another warning of how influential social media can be.

What should we do in the way of marketing in these times?

It’s the goal of marketing to define Who to talk to, What to say and How to say it.

It’s a good time to re-evaluate and make corrections as to what works – this is something marketers should be doing on an on-going basis but it’s more relevant now then ever. Bring clarity to what is important and understand your target audience. It’s the goal of marketing to define Who to talk to, What to say and How to say it. In troubled times it’s important to be more precise with your messaging – but continue to move forward – don’t hide in the shadows.

The immediate reaction is to cut the marketing budgets, which many are doing. The long-term perspective is that a lack of presence will negatively affect the marketing equity you’ve built up, reducing consistency and differentiation in the mind of the target audience. Remember, consistency and differentiation are the two most important things in successful marketing.

For example: customers stop hearing about the widgets made by Company X, but Company Y has continued a steady presence in the marketing mindshare game. When I need to buy or upgrade my widget, which company am I going to purchase from – X or Y? I don’t advocate spending funds that don’t exist, but retreating from the marketing game completely is the surest way to decline. Recognize that many of your competitors will do absolutely NOTHING so anything you do will have a larger impact today and in the future when things get back on track.

What To Do Right Now:

1. Define what is critically important about your business or service.
2. Define who is REALLY your most desirable customer, and don’t be afraid to lose the ones that aren’t profitable.
3. Look at your current marketing tools: are they in need of revamping? A redesign of your website or new print ads is a wise investment to keep your message fresh and top of mind with your customers.
4. Find innovative, creative ways to keep yourself in the game. Use less expensive forms of marketing to be creative, innovative and forward thinking.
5. Under-promise and over-deliver.
6. The key is not to overspend, not stop altogether – be innovative not excessive. Pick and choose your marketing tools – keep them sharp and ready to use to keep yourself in the game.
7. Stand out from the crowd.

When the Great Depression hit the United States in the 1930s, Kellog’s continued to push out advertisements even though sales were declining.

Revisit the advertising battle between Kellog’s and Post cereal in the 1920s. When the Great Depression hit the United States in the 1930s, Kellog’s continued to push out advertisements even though sales were declining. Post cut back their marketing, which seemed to be the best thing to do at the time but turned out to be a huge mistake. When the recession came to an end, Post found themselves out of the cereal race because of the advertising efforts made by Kellog’s. Check out TrueYourMarketing.com for a more in depth analysis of advertising in a recession.

Whether it is an online business or a cereal company, advertising is one of most important divisions of a company.

I decided to include a quick contact form in the footer of my new web page design (seen here). I taught myself the basics of PHP to get the form working and all was well.

A few days ago I started getting a lot of spam through this quick contact form. I searched the web high and low all day to find a way to stop these annoying spam bots. Finally I came across a simple solution that has worked wonders so far.

Spam bots are not smart, and will try to fill out every available input area in order to fulfill any potential required fields. How can we use this to our advantage? We will use what is commonly referred to as a honeypot.

A honeypot is an invisible field that lures spam bots to enter text into it, but we want it to be empty.

1. Add the invisible input area with the following code:<input style="display:none; visibility:hidden;" name="validation" type="text" />
2. Define honeypot in your .php file as:$honeypot = $_POST['validation'] ;
3. Then insert the following:if (!empty($honeypot)) {
header( "Location: http://www.domain.com/your-error-page.html" );
}
4. Most likely, you will change that if to elseif and put it inside your main function.

That’s it. Now your form should work just like normal, except it will go to your error page and not submit if that hidden field has text in it. Remove the style from the input tag and test it for yourself.

Thanks to Doug Hockinson for having a site with such great resources.

Image Cred - http://icanhascheezburger.com/

#1 LogoPond

LogoPond is probably my favorite place when looking for constructive criticism. You can create a profile with some information about yourself and include as many logos as you wish. Every month LogoPond will showcase a specific showcase, or user, that gets you tons of exposure. You are able to select which logos you want feedback on, which are in use and which are just for fun. To top things off, LogoPond gives you the option to showcase logos that are for sale.

#2 Logo Lounge

Similar to LogoPond, Logo Lounge offers a community of peers that can evaluate and criticize your designs. On top of that, has three very informative blog categories: Logos in the news, current logo trends, and guest editorials. You can find these on the home page. Logo Lounge also displays a featured member, along with a featured logo designer for your inspirational needs.

#3 How Magazine

A great site all-around, How Magazine has a wonderful forum that allows users to upload images of their designs and ask for active feedback. Its ‘Critiques’ section has over 29,000 posts alone. The resources for freelancers, resume help, general business and more listed on this site are almost limitless as well.

#4 Graphic Design Forum

This is the forum I use the most. It is so popular that you can get feedback within minutes from a diverse group of fellow designers. ‘The Crit Pit’ has over 84,000 posts and is only one of many popular threads on the site. Many categories also exist to help with printing problems, web design help, and basic questions about programs such as Adobe, Quark, Corel and more.

#5 deviantART

deviantART is an often forgotten about place to find feedback. Not only can you seek criticism for logos, but you can use it for nearly every other form of media as well. This is one of my favorite places for inspiration.

Conclusion

Whether it is for a school project or for a client, constructive criticism is always a good idea and these sites will get you on the right track.

For you other logo design needs, inspiration or general questions, I recommend taking a look at Logo Design Love.

Am I missing a site that you think should be on this list? Leave a comment below and let us know.

I think its time has come and gone, and should be left to rot away in solidarity. Those probably aren’t the best words to use when talking to a client about IE6, so take a look at the following:

I launched a site today (http://www.sharpenz.com) and have heard almost nothing but positive things. The few emails I did get with a worried tone to them included issues with IE6.

My client wrote about a screenshot sent in by her friend, describing a weird gray box around an image on the home page. They included the screenshot, and I didn’t need to look at it long to notice they were using IE6. I have some fairly strong feelings on the issue but responded with this:

They (the user) are using Internet Explorer 6, which is two versions old. Internet Explorer 8 is the current version. I specifically choose not to design for IE6 because of how out-of-date it is. The amount of time it takes to construct a page that is IE6 compatible is beyond comprehension because of the way it reads code. The combination of the extra time it takes to build an IE6 compatible site with the miniscule percentage of people still using IE6 makes it a waste of time and money to build in that version of the browser.

It was included in the contract that I will only focus on IE7 and above because of this reason.

Once this site launches you will be able to track how many people visit it from IE6, and I assure you it will be a very small percent. Those that do continue to use IE6 only do so because it is the default browser with Windows XP, which some older companies still use. People that do not have the option to upgrade to IE7 or 8 (because of restrictions placed on their computers) are not your target market. If they do not have the access to upgrade a browser, they are a lower level employee that will not be the ones buying your product.

To sum up, IE6 is the worst browser that I have ever encountered, and the vast majority of web designers have given up on trying to build sites for it.

I use some strong words in the above note, but it is needed to prove a point. The amount of people using IE6 is dropping quickly. With the rise of the ill-fated Windows Vista and the much-improved Windows 7, IE6 is on it’s way out.

I urge other designers to take my advice and not only stop developing for it, but let your clients know why.

The human brain is a complex thing, and though I do not claim to be a psychologist, I do have a certain appreciation for it. I understand that the brain is only capable of so much, more specifically, only capable of so much remembering. A great example of this is Roger Clemens’ infamous “miss-remembering” bonanza. The point I wish to get across in this post is that you, whether as a designer or not, should have a similar understanding of your brain’s capabilities when it comes to memory.

People say that if you go the grocery store with more than three things on your mind, you are bound to forget something. Your short-term memory can only be so helpful, so before it lets you down, write a list.

How is this relevant to design? Whether you are working for a large firm or freelancing, there will be times when there is more work to do than you can possibly remember. Instead of spending precious time trying to organize everything in your head, write it down!

I sit down at my desk every morning, before lifting up my laptop screen, and write down what needs to be done that day. I have an entire notebook dedicated to lists – my to-do lists. If my memory fails me, I simply glance over to my list and look at what else needs to be done.

Not only does this keep you on track, but it significantly increases your productivity. When you finish a task, cross it off. When you get another project, add it to the list.

Make a list of what you need to do, everyday, and there is a much better chance you will do it. ]]> http://wordsoftheweb.com/2009/10/the-key-to-productivity-and-organization/feed/ 1 http://wordsoftheweb.com/2009/09/15-excellent-seo-tips-part-3/ http://wordsoftheweb.com/2009/09/15-excellent-seo-tips-part-3/#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:24:36 +0000 Carson http://wordsoftheweb.com/?p=25

In the final installment of this 3-part series, I will outline five more important things to consider when thinking about search engine optimization. View Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

#11 Link to your domain.

Make sure your link to your home page is set to your domain, and not to index.html. If you link to index.html, you are splitting your links. Outside links go to http://www.domain.com and internal links go to http://www.domain.com/index.html.

#12 Alt tags.

Spiders do not have eyes, meaning they cannot see what images you have on your site. Attach an alt tag to each image you have on your site with a description of the picture.

#13 Use social networking sites.

Facebook, Digg, Twitter, and other social networking sites have more power than you can probably  imagine. Don’t be surprised if your new site is showing up in search engines through a social networking site before your own domain. They are also a great way to increase traffic.

#14 XML sitemaps.

Spiders like it when you make it easy for them, so offer an XML sitemap that displays all of your sites pages. If you’re using Wordpress, Google XML Sitemaps plugin is a must. “Everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, MSN Search and YAHOO, are notified about the update.” It is also useful to create an HTML version of your sitemap with a list of each page on your site.

#15 SEO tools.

Check your Google page rank, domain popularity, backlinks, keyword density, and countless other useful statistics in this Complete List of the Best SEO-Tools.

Final Thoughts

Search Engine Optimization is not just about what things you do, but also about what you don’t do. Shay Howe wrote an excellent article about the Do’s and Don’ts about SEO, you should check it out at letscounthedays.

In Part 2 of this 3-part series, I will outline five more important things to consider when thinking about search engine optimization. View Part 1 here and Part 3 here.

#6 Easy-to-use navigation.

Your navigation should be repeated twice on every page, once at the top (or side), and once again in the footer. Not only does this make it easier for users to find their way around the site, but it guides web spiders around your multiple pages.

#7 Limit stand-alone pages.

If there is a page on your site that you can only get to by typing in the URL, delete it, add it to your menu, or find another way to link to it. These act as dead pages and only hurt your SEO.

#8 Keywords and descriptions.

Every page should have keywords, along with descriptions. These are found in the meta tags inside the head of your code. Keep the keywords to a maximum of 10 per page, along with short, unique descriptions. Read more about the importance of keywords at 1stwebdesigner.com.

#9 301 redirects.

This is the most efficient and search engine friendly way to redirect people to another URL. Be sure you are using either your site with or without the www in front of the domain, but not both. If you do not specify which one (usually done within the .htaccess file – see Webweaver’s notes about how to implement 301 redirects), it will be like having two separate sites competing for the same ranking.

#10 Custom error pages.

Any of the 400 series error pages can be achieved with the .htaccess file using a 301 redirect. This is more beneficial to users than spiders, but aids in eliminating broken links. Check out #8 in Smashing Magazine’s 9 Common Usability Mistakes in Web Design for a more in-depth explanation of custom 404 pages.

In Part 1 of this 3-part series, I will outline the five most important things to consider when thinking about search engine optimization. View Part 2 here and Part 3 here.

Everyone seems to have the inside scoop when it comes to Search Engine Optimization. Some claim it is a science, a series of algorithms that must be accommodated to allow your site to show up at the top spot on Google. There are endless companies that claim to specialize in SEO, and charge a hefty fee with little or no promises of results. Why do they fail to give guarantees? Because SEO is not a science, it is a type of marketing that cannot be conquered overnight.

Some argue that a site’s page rank is relative to the domain’s age, but that is not true. Older sites tend to do well on search engine rankings because they have more content, more links and, most likely, a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t.

Here is a short list about how to give your site a jump-start in the SEO department.

#1 Content is king.

No doubt you’ve heard this one before, and for good reason. Having quality content that is relevant to your keywords and descriptions makes your site more appealing to web spiders. Although, it is not beneficial to overdo it with duplicate pages or large sections of copy-and-pasted text. Spiders are smart, so give them credit when it comes to spotting a cheater.

#2 Links links links.

A blog with no links will be just as search-friendly as a hand-written letter. Relevant links leading away from your page (along with trackbacks) let other sites know you’re there. Do not use ‘click here’ for your links, describe what the link is or where it is going.

#3 Incoming links.

If no one is linking to you, users aren’t going to find you. At this point, you can’t rely on search engine traffic so you have to generate quality, relevant links to your site. One of the most successful ways at doing this is to be active in your topic’s community. Post comments on blogs. With that said, do not spam. Blog authors will get very frustrated and likely delete your comment if it’s sole purpose is to generate traffic to your own site. Always write thoughtful, thought-provoking comments – not only do you get a link, but people may like what you say and decide to check out your site.

#4 Relevant titles.

This may start to sound repetitive, but use relevant titles for each page on your site. Each title is comparable to the title of a novel you pick up off the shelf at a bookstore – the more descriptive and accurate it is, the better indexed the page will be.

#5 Use flash sparingly.

This is usually number one on most people’s lists, but it is fairly common knowledge by now. Search engines cannot read the information in a flash site, banner or menu, so using it is highly frowned upon.