Years ago, I developed a fairly basic shopping cart. It served its purpose and went into service, where over the years, it was heavily modified but remains in use today. Now, for 2010, I’m introducing a new shopping cart. Something worth the wait for web designers.
Cut and Paste, PHP/CSS Shopping Cart
November 26th, 2009Bring Designers in from the Start
April 4th, 2009As I type this, I’m finishing up watching a TED talk from Jacek Utko: Can design save the newspaper? where he brings up a point that contributed greatly to the success of the newspapers, a point often overlooked by every company most of the time. That point? To bring designers in on a project from the start. Ultimately, it’s the designer’s job to take the end idea and mold it into something for the consumer, to their appeal, so it makes sense to bring them into the foray of discussions and planning.
E-commerce – Placement is Everything
March 24th, 2009From my experience in e-commerce design, placement is everything. Just like a grocery store with end cap displays, it’s what you see first that can impact your buying decisions. With e-commerce, it’s showing the price and button to purchase that become extremely important (as important as showing a photo), because online purchasing can be extremely impulsive.
Finding someone’s true skill level
March 23rd, 2009It’s a favorite interview question, as well as a favorite question to identify someone’s skill level, but does it really reveal anything? It’s often asked in two ways… “Do you use [insert software/tool]?” or “What do you use to do [task]?” Usually this revolves around two packages in the online design world– Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe Flash. Both products provide great support for the production of their respective materials, but just as the age old Mac vs PC debate as to which is better, everyone always prefers their tools and argue they are better than the other option, all the while judging the individual who answers the question.
Know Your Audience
March 20th, 2009When it comes to design it’s always important to know your audience. You don’t want to layout a new web site for baby-boomer aged women in a style meant for the MySpace generation using current techniques of hidden content and exploratory interfaces. There’s learning curves in the interactive world, that a lot of designers have a hard time grasping.
Don’t Let Technology Guide Your Design Decisions
March 1st, 2009If the first thought about a design project (specifically on the web) is that it has to be Flash, or has to be 900 pixels wide, or has to be PHP, or has to have that new AJAX sliding image effect, you may want to re-evaluate your methodologies for design.
