Sensaris is a new project I did for a company located in Crolles, France. They are a group of engineers who make sensors for some very big names, as well as commercially. We had a lot of fun with this one, and got to work with a lot of really cool and interesting technologies, as well as implement some of the newest technologies web development has to offer. We look forward to working with more innovative companies like Sensaris in the future.

Technologies

• HTML5
• CSS3
• Javascript
• WordPress
• eCommerce
• PHP
• Shopify

We customized Shopify to fit Sensaris’ eCommerce needs.

EC Power is my newest project for a company from my home town of State College, PA. EC Power approached my in search of a clean, professional look for their green energy company. What I came up with is something we’re both happy with. Using WordPress we have a clean, smart design that’s easy to use.

Technologies

• HTML5
• CSS3
• Javascript
• WordPress
• PHP

So, you may have noticed that we haven’t updated in a while. Sean and I have been hard at work on a few projects, both personal and business, so we haven’t really taken the time to write new blog posts. In fact, we’re even considering redesigning this site.

Photography Press is something I made a few weeks ago to learn some new WordPress tricks. The beauty behind Photography Press, is its simplicity. It’s an all-in-one portfolio and blog, that’s easy to use. There’s a good length documentation of the theme, and it’s free to download, so check out the link below!

Technologies

• HTML
• CSS
• Javascript
• WordPress
• PHP

Check it out!

Chosen is a project Sean and I undertook in the Fall of ’09. With this one, we focused on the single page design that was simple and easy to use, while at the same time keeping the design true to the style the band wanted to give. This one was done in WordPress, where we were able to capitalize on the easy to use backend, and vast amount of resources and plugins available.

Technologies

• HTML
• CSS
• Javascript
• WordPress
• PHP

Technologies

• HTML
• CSS
• Javascript
• WordPress
• PHP

Check it out!

This is when I decided that we need to have a consistent method of getting this information from our clients. Theses are the initial questions you should ask before even giving your (potential) clients a quote, because they are integral for deciding what the project will cost you.

How many pages will your website have? What are they?

Although with the emergence of the CMS, pages have become easier and easier to add, it’s still important to understand how large the website will be. The amount of pages you have on a website effects both the design of the project, and the methods used to create the website.

How do you want this site to be built? CMS, blog, or Static

You’re going to have to explain this one to them. Make sure your client has an understanding before hand of what each of these options mean. If all your client needs in one page that they won’t edit, why take the extra steps which will cost them more?

What is your budget?

Some people like to avoid this because they can’t think of a good way to bring it up. That is not a good idea. Once you get an understanding of the clients situation you can better explain to them what features would be the most cost effective, and best for them. Your not helping either of you if you give them a quote before you know what type of budget they’re working with.

Are there any questions you have for us?

Sometimes clients forget to ask questions which could be very important for the designing process. You shouldn’t expect a client to understand your process as a web developer, there are things that they wont understand about how their webpage will be created.

Who will be providing content for this site?

Again, clients don’t always know the web development process. They may think that in agreeing to create a website for them, you are also agreeing to populate that website. While some web development companies offer this, it is always best to get content from professionals and those who know the information best.

What is your timeframe for this project?

Although important this question is often forgotten. Sometimes you might just have to much work on your hands to work with a new client who needs a website in two weeks. If you take too much work you’re doing a disservice to you and your client.

What other questions do you think are important to ask your clients during your first meeting?

On the whole, I’m really happy with my decision. There are some features that I sacrifice, such as processing power, and the lack of a disk drive, but I think that the netbook makes up for that in portability. However, this is one ‘sacrifice’ that I deal with on a daily basis, and that is screen size.

My netbook has a 10.1″ screen at a resolution of 1024 by 600…slightly smaller than a standard resolution. However, despite that fact, some websites aren’t displayed correctly.

While the problem with some websites are often minor, it is still a problem that needs addressing. Since I’ve invested in my Dell, I’ve found myself designing with smaller screen resolutions in mind.

Previously, as time goes on the trend has been for screen resolutions to increase in size. However, with the increased popularity of these smaller computers, maybe we as designer need to rethink our approach. I know that I really take advantage of my 19″ desktop monitor, and fail to recognize the fact that a majority of computer users have a smaller screen.

Now I like 960 designs as much as the next guy, but I think that designers really should be careful about the content we place on the edges of our sites.

Of the two of us, Tim is more of the WordPress savant than I am. While I understand the features, and I can muddle my way through designs, I cannot say that WordPress comes easily to me.

Because of this lack of aptitude, I find myself searching far and wide for different methods of Content Management. I spend time perusing Smashing (which, for the record, is published using WordPress) and making ambiguous Google searches looking for other options.

I’ve looking into Drupal, Light CMS, and Frog CMS. I’ve even had a terrible experience using Joomla in an internship back in May. They were (and are) all nice in their own respects, save Joomla, but they just weren’t what I’m looking for. I want something that is simple to use, all of the features that a user would need without all of the complexity of the typical CMS back-end.

Part of my search stems from a need to find a simple CMS for non-computer-savvy customers. I know that these business owners want to be able to update their site without having to learn all of the ins and outs of their Content Management System. Something that gives them the power to easily edit any content, without all of the “fluff”.

Then, a few days ago, I found my proverbial “Holy Grail” of Content Management. I stumbled across Cushy CMS by a chance Google search…so I decided to investigate further. I watched their video about “How to Edit a site using Cushy CMS (in less than 3 minutes)” and I was hooked. The dulcet tones of their Australian narrator complemented, and even accented, the simplicity of their demonstration.

Cushy, in a stroke of pure brilliance (on par with the first slicing of baked bread), created a system to allow a user to edit the content of a web page externally, and then use the ftp information for the server to update the page. Perfect! Like witnessing a true masterpiece, I sat back in my computer chair, reveling in it’s magnificence.

I exaggerate to prove a point, but I was really impressed. Cushy was created by Melbourne based company Stateless Systems which deserve a lot of credit for a very smart system. I highly encourage you to look into Cushy, and see if it is the right system for you.

Needless to say, I’m going to be using CushyCMS for many pages here to come. That is, when I’m not using WordPress.

Before I start this post, I just want to say, that I may have a bit of a bias on this issue. I’ve been designing on, and religiously using a mac for my entire life. That said, I’m not going to try to tell you whether Mac or Windows is better for web design, but the benefits and difficulties that arise during the design process. Perhaps later on Sean will give an alternative viewpoint on the issue, and give us the pros and cons of Windows.

We’ll start with the cons.

Cons

Internet Explorer

Yeah, Internet Explorer was on mac. It was bundled with the OS until 2003, when it was replaced by Safari. What does that mean for you as a web developer? You can’t test your websites on Internet Explorer. That is, unless you want to code it for IE5.2. That cuts you off from cross browser testing for nearly 50% of internet users. There are a few solutions though. First off, there’s IE4OSX. IE4OSX uses the WINE environment to emulate Internet Explorer 6. This still cuts you off from IE7&8 though. Our second solution is to simply put Windows on your Mac. There are a few ways to do this. One is to use Apple’s Bootcamp software. It’s a pretty useful piece of software. It partitions your hard drive into a Mac disk, and a Windows disc. This seems all fine and dandy, but it’s really not all that fun to have to boot back and forth to check how IE’s doing. You’ve also got to set up your whole web development environment on Windows anyway, to fix your site for IE. The second fix is to buy Windows virtualization software like Parallels. Parallels is a fine piece of software if your willing to shell out the money for it. It saves you a lot of trouble by letting you run Windows inside of your OSX environment.

Image Editing

Macs really don’t have a very good free image editor. Photoshop is great if your willing to pay the money, but a lot of what is so enticing about web development is that it’s something that doesn’t require an investment to get into. All you should need is time. Yes, there is Gimp, but it’s horrid to work with regularly. If your someone who doesn’t work with images regularly it’s fine, but it just wasn’t created for the Mac. There are two versions; the native version, and the XWindows version. To be honest, neither of them are particularly good. The XWindows is basically an emulation of the Windows and Linux versions, which just doesn’t work well on the Mac. The native version is just plain old buggy. Half the features don’t work, and the ones that do look weird. It’s like taking the skin of OSX and draping it over some ugly, other unfortunate program.

Pros

Software

There’s a reason so many web designers use Macs. They simplify a whole lot. There is some great software out there, like Coda and Espresso that really simplify your coding experience if you want to make the investment, but today we’re going to stick to free and open source software.

Cyberduck

Cyberduck is a great piece of software. I use it almost everyday. It’s an ftp client, that’s simple, easy, and free.

TextWrangler

TextWrangler is another great one. TextWrangler is a text editor that’s designed for web development. It supports hundreds of languages and has built in FTP support, but it still manages to function like a pro.

ImageOptim

ImageOptim is about as basic as it gets. Just put it in your dock, drop your images on top of it, and watch as their file size gets into a portion of what it was before.

MAMP

Mamp is like OSX’s verion of WinAmp, except better. It’s not that it has any extra features that WinAmp doesn’t have, or any special little catch, it just does what it says it does. It runs a local server. I’ve never had any problems with it. I run a local version of every WordPress blog I have on the internet to test everything. I’ve never had any problems yet, and don’t expect to.