I thought I would write a little post about how jQuery can be used for little usability enhancements and effects.  Now I would never recommend using jQuery without some prior Javascript knowledge but you can definitely jump right into jQuery if you want.  I was fortunate enough to learn enough Javascript over the past year (see DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith) where I have really been able to use jQuery to its full potential.  For those of you that don’t know jQuery is a Javascript library that takes out a lot of the tedious coding that is required in Javascript.  The packed version is only 19kb so the added functionality is definitely worth it.  Now onto some examples.

One of our most recent clients, MVP Software Inc., wanted to make use of some scrolling and fading elements.  Now a year ago I would have used some simple flash elements.  I know now that this is just overkill.  Using jQuery and the InnerFade plugin we were able to successfully rotate the client testimonials (RANDOMLY)  in the header (see the header on any page)…

It’s been too long since my last post but I was struggling to find a good topic for a post.  I have since realized that in the last 3 years I have been able to successfully freelance and bootstrap my business into a successful web design agency.  I thought that I would pass on what I have learned over these last 3 years.

1. Do your homework
   I was fortunate that I had someone to ask a handful of questions (the former GM at my pro soccer club) about starting a business before I took the plunge but that is not the case for all of you.   Learn about the appropriate paperwork to fill out in your state.  Figure out what kind of business entity you want (LLC, Corporation, Nonprofit).  Learn about registered trademarks and copyrights if they apply.  There are tons of books out there but I recommend contacting SCORE with a list of pre-made questions you have about starting a business to get your answers quickly.  SCORE is an amazing FREE service that is basically a bunch of retired business owners that offer their advice to people starting or growing small businesses.  They

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Web standards. Some of you may know exactly what they are and some may have no clue. I like to think of them as a sort of coding practice for any website project. Those of you in the industry have all heard of separation of structure, layout/presentation, and behavior. Most of the time this just means your structure is contained in your (x)html, layout/presentation in your CSS, and your behavior in your javascript.

I am going to list some of the benefits and hopefully anyone from a site owner to a developer can take something from this.

Makes maintenance a breeze

I have worked on too many sites with inline styles or even styles declared in each individual html file and the maintenance is almost NEVER easy. The Find and Replace tool is not perfect so the time it takes to make a site wide change is exponentially larger than if it would have been created with web standards in mind.  This gets especially painful when there is a mess of javascript as well. So to website owners, you could save a lot of money in web maintenance if your site is developed following web standards.

Search Engine

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So everyone would love to see how people use and view their website but it’s easier said than done.   In a perfect world, everyone would have a budget and a good chunk of time for user testing but for smaller web projects this never happens.  For those of you who don’t have the budget or time to conduct user testing head on over to ClickTale.

ClickTale provides multiple options or anonymously recording random user sessions.  It basically records a video of the mouse moving around the screen and the interaction with forms and such.  This is priceless user testing for no cost.  Granted you do not get to see the user and their actual reactions and you cannot ask them questions but this is a phenominal tool for finding usability and design issues with your site.  You can see if your users are actually scrolling down your pages or if they are having trouble with your forms.  It even has some basic heat maps generated for you (by vertical mouse position).

So head over there and sign up for a free account.  They limit you to 100 pages recorded per week but it is a great service to go along…

So many individuals and small businesses out there have taken the plunge into the online world.  In a perfect world once you launched your website your phone would start ringing off the hook with, “We found your company online and would love to do business with you!”.  However we do not live in a perfect world and this does not happen as often as we all would like.  So this post is to get some of you up to speed with some simple SEO tips that you can apply to your own sites to get a little more traffic, generate a few more leads, and ultimately a few more sales for you businesses.

1. Get listed as a business in the major search engines – Google Maps Local Business Center, Yahoo Local, MSN Local Listing Center
2. Write meaningful page titles – This is actually high under-utilized.  I see too many sites’ page titles that read “<insert company name here>” and that’s it.  This is the perfect place to take advantage of geographic and keyword targeting.  For example CWS wants to appeal to the entire Lehigh Valley for web design

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