One important rule we try to follow @ Pemaquid is to always have 3-4 Sharpies and tall stacks of blank paper when meeting w/a Client to review design comps.
It’s the easiest way to sketch out your design thoughts visually. It’s faster than using a whiteboard, and it’s much easier to sketch out ajax or design interactions with Clients - especially those who aren’t particularly Web-savvy - than it is to try to explain it to them verbally.
Scanning through Cameron Moll’s book Mobile Web Design, and he points out the difference between Art and Design:
…what separates design from art is that design ‘is meant to be functional’.
I couldn’t agree more. The graphical, visual look of a Web site, in order to succeed, must serve to make the site useful.
We are hard pressed to do all the work ourselves these days, but are willing to do so until we find just the right person. Are you up to the task?
We are looking for the next Front-End Superstar to join our team. We are in Startup Mode. The ideal candidate for this position thrives in an idea-driven culture, is “always on” and in tune with teammates, is as resourceful as 007 and has a will to win like Mean Joe Greene.
In this position, you’ll be creating the graphic design, xHTML and CSS for some of the biggest and best-known companies in Maine and beyond.
Requirements
Extra Credit
About Us
Pemaquid Communications, LLC combines great visual design w/easy-to-use content management systems to create solid interactive Web sites that provide a great user experience. We a leading designer of sites that meet W3C Accessibility guidelines, adhere to Web Standards, are cross-browser compatible and produce valid xHTML and CSS. We are not graphic designers or programmers (though we do those things) - we are Interaction Designers.
Our goal is to create joyful, useful online experiences for our Clients and their customers.
About a year ago I had a mid-life crisis. I pulled out my bass guitar, which for years had been gathering dust under the bed in the spare room, and looked to join a blues band. Fortunately, I didn’t have to look far.
I play bass and sing backing vocals (badly) in Bluezberry Jam, a great group of folks here in Portland, Maine. My band mates are: Myra Robinson (vocals, percussion), Dave Collins (vocals, guitars), Rudy Gabrielson (keyboards, harmonica, percussion, electric dulcimer, vocals) and Rick Cormier (percussion).
They are all more musically gifted than I am, but I make it up by leading one of the most talented Web design studios in Maine.
In my spare time I recently rocked out an updated site for the band. It uses the Pemaquid Content Manager for self-publishing content. I had some fun w/creative copywriting and design, and it’s got a lot of Pemaquid’s typical interactive goodies, including accessible sliders and photo galleries.
We hope you find it musically delicious! Hope to see you at a gig soon…
Wordpress 2.5 was released about a week ago. It sports an administrative interface that was redesigned by Happy Cog. I’ve kicked the tires on it and it’s a lean, clean machine. You may want to upgrade.
Cardiovascular Consultants of Maine provides state of the art heart care to patients throughout the region. Based in Scarborough and with facilities in Augusta, Waterville, Sanford and Farmington, their goal is to be known as the preeminent full-service cardiology group serving Northern New England.
They approached Pemaquid recently with a story that’s not uncommon: a staff member had set up their site several years ago, but things had evolved to the point where it was difficult to manage the information quickly and in an organized fashion.
Problem solved. Pemaquid created a design that, among other things, features an online resource library on heart health, heart disease prevention and the meaning of cardiovascular terms (think “Cardiomyopathy”, “Coumadin” or “ACE inhibitors”) that are important to people undergoing cardiac care.
Pemaquid provides ongoing content updates for CCM, as well as Web hosting services, and as with all our Clients, we focus on speed as well as design execution. April Donovan, Cardiovascular Consultants’ CEO, says we’re hitting our marks:
I find Rob Landry and his staff to be responsive, professional and reliable. They listen to our needs and offer innovative solutions through great design and quick delivery.
It’s been a pleasure working with April, Elise Plummer, Samantha Smith and all at Cardiovascular Consultants of Maine, and we look forward to working with them for a long time to come!
Wednesday I was the guest lecturer at an e-business class at the University of Southern Maine. The students will be working with us on Extreme Makeover - Web Site Edition.
I’m happy to report that no fruit was thrown, and no snores were heard.
In fact I heard a lot of great questions (”Are there any types of projects you wouldn’t take on?” Answer: yes, but not many. That’s for another post.)
One question was inevitable, I suppose: “How do you make money building Web sites in Portland, Maine?” (Remember, this is a business class.)
After being in the Web design business for more than five years, here’s my answer. It might sound corny or trite, but it’s worked for me.
Identify a problem and then solve it. Over and over. Better and better. I started as a mild-mannered (OK, maybe not so much) HTML coder, then one day a Client asked whether I could help them create a content management system. I realized that interactive programming and databases were involved, so I developed the skills to meet that need. Over time Pemaquid has developed Web hosting, e-commerce and search engine marketing services to meet other needs we’re asked about all the time.
Focus on building relationships. Take good care of people, treat them the way you want to be treated and they will take care of you and they will come back to you again and again (See? I told you it was going to sound trite). A significant percentage of our new work comes to us through existing Clients. When someone says to a business contact “You should work with XYZ Web design”, giving you that third-party endorsement, it’s much more powerful and persuasive than just about any other sales pitch you can whip up.
Do those two things, be creative and always on the lookout for new trends in your industry, and the money (knocking hard on wood here) will usually take care of itself.
I surfed over to a certain Maine Web site the other day and found that it had been redesigned. Here is the site navigational structure:
Can anyone tell me with 100% certainty what those items represent?
Therein lies the problem. You can’t tell what you’re going to get when you click (you can’t even tell that you can click). The only hint that this is the site navigation is that it is positioned in the spot where, if you’ve surfed for any length of time, you know that navigation is usually found.
Here’s the site, btw, if you’d now like to see that nav positioned within the overall layout.
(I don’t mean to pick on Downeast. They’re a great company and their Web site is far better than the previous version. I’m just using their site to show how you can improve the user experience on sites you design.)
Navigation is best as text. Text that is unambiguous. “About” is more effective than “Who We Are“.
Lo and behold, when you mouseover the nav on this site in question, you see a… word.
There are two big reasons why you should use text in you site navigation.
Usability. There’s an excellent book on Web design by Steve Krug called Don’t Make Me Think. In it, Krug points out usability studies show that people usually don’t read Web sites - until they’ve found that article they were searching for - they scan them. Navigational text that is simple and clear supports this scanning activity. With graphics, you have to stop and think (”hmmm… what could a camera mean?…”) This is why icons, unless they are universally understood, are also poor choices for navigational labels on Web sites.
Accessibility. In the example above, if you were visually impaired and came upon this site, there would be no way for you to understand that the images represented the site navigation. It would be much better to place navigational items towards the top of your HTML as a list of text links and to then use CSS to style the list to match your overall design concept.
Web site designs like the one in question point to a larger issue in Web design, which I call The Tyranny of Graphic Design. That’s a topic for another day, but briefly, Web design is not graphic design. It’s interaction design (of which graphic design is certainly a part). In creating Web sites, designers should take care that the graphical design concepts they produce make it easier for people to find what they’re looking for on a site, not harder.
Don’t make me think…
We’ve always had this crazy idea - what if we remade someone’s e-commerce Web site from the ground up, the way they remodel those houses on that TV show?
Well, we put out the word and the response was truly overwhelming - we received requests from roughly 50 Maine businesses who were looking for a makeover. We want to thank them all for their interest. We feel lucky to have had so many worthy candidates to choose from!
We’ve made a selection, and we expect to launch the site in late spring. We’ll be receiving input from students of an e-commerce and marketing class at the University of Southern Maine.
In selecting our Makeover candidate, our first stop was the existing Web site. Then we spoke with some of the business owners to get a sense of their online sales goals. Other things we considered in finding the best fit:
Variety of products. Some candidates sell only one product, and while it’s great to do one thing well, we were looking for a Maine business with several different products in a number of different categories.
Well-defined brand. With our Extreme Makeover, we wanted to focus squarely on the Web site redesign; we didn’t want to spend a lot of time remaking a small business’ image. The brand had to be clearly defined - our job will be to execute the brand strategy through the Web site design.
Existing e-commerce system. Some businesses we considered were locked into an existing e-commerce framework that would have been expensive or time-consuming to rework. The ideal candidate would have more flexibility in terms of the e-commerce systems we wanted to deploy.
We want to tip our cap to the Maine Products Marketing Program for helping put out the word to the hundreds of small Maine businesses who are members of their program.
So who’s the lucky winner of Extreme Makeover? Sorry to keep you in suspense, but we’re going to keep that under wraps for now. Stay tuned to this space for more details as the project unfolds.
It’s that time of year again, when people take a look back at what they’ve done and take a look ahead. Some, including Yours Truly, still even make New Year’s Resolutions.
Seth Godin has a great post on his blog today that fits right in with that theme. He says people should think about what they’re doing right now and ask themselves if they will be proud of themselves 15 years hence. Do we think these are crazy days? Godin says that’s nothing new:
So stop thinking about how crazy the times are, and start thinking about what the crazy times demand. There has never been a worse time for business as usual. Business as usual is sure to fail, sure to disappoint, sure to numb our dreams. That’s why there has never been a better time for the new. Your competitors are too afraid to spend money on new productivity tools. Your bankers have no idea where they can safely invest. Your potential employees are desperately looking for something exciting, something they feel passionate about, something they can genuinely engage in and engage with.
If times are going to be crazy no matter how you slice it, says Godin, Why Not Be Great?
Sounds like a good Resolution to me.
Leo Burnett, the great ad man, had the same idea, which he put this way:
When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get them, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.
And Donald Trump said:
As long as you’re going to think anyway, think big.
To paraphrase The Donald, if you, like me, are going to build Web sites anyway, think big. Stretch a little bit this year:
Here’s wishing you a happy, productive - and Great! - New Year!
Common Good Ventures is a team of experienced business people applying their professional expertise, their networks and their passion for change to help strong nonprofits realize their potential to accomplish even more for Maine. It’s the kind of work that’s sometimes called venture philanthropy.
CGV came to Pemaquid looking to increase the level of interactivity on the site and find unique ways to enhance the non profit advisory services it provides so well offline.
The result is the Virtual Springboard, an online component to the 90-minute forums where each month a non-profit comes prepared to present a specific challenge to a group of business people and hear their “quick-hit” ideas.
Virtual Springboard allows Common Good Ventures to ‘extend the conversation’ surrounding each month’s forum, allowing panelists (folks who help advise) who aren’t able to participate in the physical space to do so online, as well as to more easily share the ideas generated at each session.
CGV staff are able to update the Virtual Springboards and many other parts of the site on demand, using the Pemaquid Content Manager, Pemaquid’s content management system.
Other features include a Photo Gallery that shows CGV staff and Springboard panelists at work (also handled through the Content Manager). It’s a great way for them to easily showcase what a Springboard - or “Volunteering your Mind” - looks like.
Common Good Ventures’ President, Kristin Majeska, says of the project:
Pemaquid has been wonderful to work with, providing us with many creative ideas.
Well, right back at cha, Kristin. It was wonderful to work with you, Diane Oberbeck, Neal Williamson and all at Common Good Ventures. You and your panelists certainly have many creative ideas of your own! We’re glad to be a part of your success.
A tip of the cap to the Dream Team: Jamie Peloquin (Design Concept), Jennifer Ecker (Web design) and Sarah Hines (Creative Services Coordinator - a.k.a. ‘Air Traffic Control’). You guys rock so loud my ears ring!
Is it just me or did the Internet (not) seem a little sluggish today from all the excess traffic?
Today is Cyber Monday, the Monday immediately following Black Friday and supposedly the day when e-tailers’ online sales surge like the rush for a Blue Light Special.
Only trouble is, The Legend of Cyber Monday is just that - a myth, concocted by marketing consultants to spur their Clients into Web site upgrades to prepare for a virtual tsunami.
Cyber Monday historically has not been the most popular online shopping day. In fact, according to Business Week, it’s only the 12th biggest sales day online.
That’s not to say your Maine Web site shouldn’t be ready for business today. It’s just important to remember that your site should be ready for business every day.
Naturally, good Web design should be the most important part of your Web strategy, this Monday and every Monday. That’s right, even more important than your search engine marketing plan. Because today - or any day - it’s not going to matter if you’re the #1 result in Google if people click on over and find that your site is hard to use.
See you on Cyber Tuesday….
Sorry to bring up the subject of “snow” (but hey! we had flurries in Portland yesterday so I don’t feel too bad).
Pemaquid has launched a redesigned Web site for the Maine Snow and Ice Sculpting Foundation. They are best known for the frosty carvings we’ve seen in year’s past at the Maine Winterfest events in Falmouth.
In addition to a new look, MS&I wanted to be able to quickly and easily update content throughout the site. For that, we installed the Pemaquid Content Manager, our user-friendly content management system.
With it, Foundation personnel can update copy and create photo galleries as needed.
Keep an eye on this site for news about the Maine State Snow Sculpting Championship, taking place February 14-17, and stay tuned for the World’s Tallest Sandcastle.
I’d like to thank Shirley Helfrich, Thomas Bennett and the folks at the Prince Memorial Library and everyone at the Southern Maine Library District for inviting me to speak the other day about Web site usability at their annual conference. Thanks for the opportunity, the thoughtful questions - and for not throwing tomatoes!
Here are some of the tips I mentioned (and some I did not), as well as some links to resources you might find useful.
The Folks at A List Apart have released the 2007 Web Design Survey. The report, authored by internationally-acclaimed designer Jeffrey Zeldman and CSS expert Eric Meyer, is the first to take a close look at the Web design profession. More than 32,000 Web designers and developers from around the world participated (yeah, this here gent took part).
Download the Survey findings (PDF - 1.7MB)
Some interesting findings:
Kudos to A List Apart - for people who make Web sites - for compiling this information about what can rightly be called a “profession”.
Pemaquid Communications recently designed and relaunched a Web site for annie|catherine, a dynamic duo that produces designer stationery and related accesories from their studio in the Dana Warp Mill in Westbrook, Maine.
Their products include cards for most important occasions - birthdays, holidays, thank yous and other note cards - as well as calendars, picture frames, wrapping paper and prints of the amazing and colorful paintings of Catherine Breer (she’s the “catherine”).
Working with Catherine and her partner, Annie Darling - graphic artists every bit as talented as our own design team - made for an interesting project. Our challenge was to translate the very clear vision they had for the look of the site into something that would be pixel perfect across all browsers.
That’s why making sure the xHTML and CSS was valid was so important. That’s also why we used a “sIFR” (Flash image replacement) javascript to render the page titles in the specific font requested by the Client.
A custom version of our Pemaquid Commerce content management system for e-commerce allows annie|catherine to easily update product images, prices and descriptions, review and process orders and update other site content including Store Locations, Reps, News and Events. They can also create custom promotional pages.
Finally, we developed an easy-to-use e-newsletter manager that allows a|c to send email promotions at will using a simple yet elegant template Pemaquid designed for them.
If you’re looking for great looking designer stationery or fun holiday cards in advance of the holiday season (Gosh! Is it that time of year already?), you definitely ought to surf on over and have a look.
annie|catherine is graciously offering readers of this blog a 20% discount if they enter the promotional code “adcb” at checkout (good through October 31).
At Pemaquid, we’ve never won any awards for our Web design (we have come close) and we don’t care if we never do.
Often, the criteria for winning a design award and the criteria for making something useful are completely different.
Donald A. Norman, of the Nielsen-Norman group, in his book The Design of Everyday Things illustrates this point wonderfully in telling how two office buildings were designed:
There really were two designs: one in Seattle, with heavy participation by the users, and one in Los Angeles, designed in the conventional manner by architects. Which design do the users prefer? Why the Seattle one, of course. Which one got the award? Why the Los Angeles one, of course.
Aesthetics are important, for sure. But in designing Web sites for our Clients, we’ll pick useful over award-winning every time.
OK, so you’ve decided you want to add a blog to your Web site - a good move since. pound for pound, frequently-updated sites tend to grab higher search engine rankings than their peers who go without. So you download a copy of Wordpress, an open source blog platform that has all the features you’re looking for. Great.
Next, you want your blog to have the same look and feel - theme, if you will - as the rest of your Web site. Your designer cracks open the Wordpress blog in Dreamweaver and gasps at all the PHP code in the templating system. Skilled as she is with HTML, your designer can’t make heads or tails of the CSS or PHP.
Not to worry. Pemaquid has designed Wordpress blogs for a number of Clients. In fact, this blog you’re reading is a Wordpress blog (though an imperfect one - ever heard the one about the cobbler’s children who had no shoes?).
So if you’re looking to add a Wordpress blog (or Typepad blog, or any other flavor), contact us and we’ll get you set up. We’ll do it fast too (48 hour turnaround is doable), if necessary.
If you’re a Web designer, 2007 is the year that Internet Explorer 6 became “the new Netscape 4″. Actually, no, things could never be that bad again, but when you’re designing Web sites using CSS and Web standards, IE6 is the one that now throws up the most humdingers.
A question I often hear from other designers is why, with IE7 and Firefox offering better support for Web standards, aren’t more people upgrading from IE6? (The latest browser statistics show IE6 use falling from about 42% to 36% during the past 8 months.)
The reason has to do with usability and cost-benefit analysis.
While most Web designers wouldn’t dream of using IE6 as their primary browser these days, especially with add-ons like the Web developer toolbar and Firebug available for Firefox, it works just fine for what most people want to do online. Checking email, reading up on sports scores and stock prices, buying shirts from LL Bean and using social network sites like LinkedIn, Flickr, Facebook and MySpace all can be done just fine w/IE6. There’s no compelling reason to switch.
Kevin Hale of Particle Tree has written an interesting article on the subject.
The upshot for Web designers? Remember to focus on usability when working with Clients to design features for an interactive Web site. Think about how customers, employees and other groups will do on your site before investing a lot of development time in creating a cool Web site feature that won’t get used all that much.
And it looks like IE6 will be with us for some time to come.
Eric Meyer, one of the zen masters of CSS coding, has a new product out called CSS Sculptor that makes creating Web standards compliant layouts as easy as pie.
CSS Sculptor integrates w/Dreamweaver, and has templates for more than two dozen of the most common layouts, whether they be fixed-width, liquid, fruit-juicy or nutty-crunchy.
So if you’re a Web designer who’s just coming up the CSS learning curve, you might consider adding CSS Sculptor to your tool kit. Rock on!
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