I had the personal feeling that there were some unwritten rules for adding new contacts as it didn’t seem quite right or polite to just go and add new people out of the blue. A lot of the contacts I had in mind display their IM information in public profiles such as on forums and their blogs but still I couldn’t just take the information and add them. I kept thinking to myself, I can’t them, they’re too popular and why would they want to chat to me anyway? I felt like all of the more well know people out there just chat amongst themselves in a secret group surrounded by elitism.

But then, their information is publicly available. Does posting this information online for all to see mean that you’re free to add those people? I’m undecided on that one. If you didn’t want people adding you, surely you wouldn’t make the information publicly available? Even with the contact information on display, it still didn’t quite feel right to add them as contacts. I also couldn’t quite figure out what was holding me back. Maybe there was an underlying fear of disappointment or rejection if I put myself out there and added them but they never accepted. I also felt like I needed a decent enough reason to add them, I couldn’t add someone and not say anything but adding someone just to casually chat didn’t seem like a good enough reason.

Even once I had added someone and they had accepted, what would I say? Are there boundaries around conversations and would I know when to stop bothering someone? Obviously there are times when you wouldn’t want to start chatting. If they are set to ‘busy’ or ‘away’ then they probably don’t want to be disturbed. But what if they’re always ‘busy’? I often have my status set this way but won’t actually be doing anything. The trouble is, how could you know if they were actually busy or not as it’s kind of against the rules to start chatting to someone who is busy.

All of these thoughts would add up to me not adding anyone to start with. If I wasn’t going to chat with anyone, then why add them? And for those that are always away or busy, why did they accept if they didn’t want to chat or you feel like they don’t want to chat?

I’m probably over thinking this as I have a tendency to do with most things but that’s just how I am. So do you think there’s a rule of conduct you should follow when using IM? It may not be that complex a subject and may seem like common sense most of the time but it was enough to get me thinking and enough for me to write this entry. Please share your views on the subject! Also, feel free to visit my contact page and add me on IM!

It was the recent episode of Freelance Radio that caught my attention relating to this as they talked about creatives needing a kind of affirmation, like a child showing their first painting to their parents; they only want to hear the positives and want to praised for their achievements. This is most certainly not what critiquing is about.

This got me wondering about people asking for critiques for their designs and just how many of those people actually wanted some criticism, be it negative or positive. Nobody wants to hear their work isn’t up to scratch but critiques aren’t about that either. They are meant to provoke thought in the designer and suggest different directions in which they can take their designs. They may point out potential problems but they are not there to solve them, merely to help you come to your own solutions.

I have asked for critiques many a time, not because I lack any self belief or confidence but under the rule that there’s always room for improvement and fresh eyes are always going to view things differently than you do. Also, it can be quite difficult to critique things yourself and improve upon them as you are more involved in the design and more attached to it, others are unobjective and completely unbiased. Sadly, this isn’t always the case though and sometimes, designers receive nothing but praise simply because of who they are, regardless of how the design looks. Nobody is above critiquing and it always helps to get opinions of others.

I’ve also given critiques plenty of times too and it’s not as straight forward as you would believe if you looked as some critiques online. Giving your opinion alone isn’t helpful and it takes a more thought out approach to be of any value at all to the designer. I see a lot of comments saying they like or dislike the design but without any reasoning behind the statements. If you are going to bother answering in the first place, please make sure you have at least something to add that the designer can benefit from. There’s no point in boosting somebody’s ego as the majority of people asking for critiques aren’t looking for that sort of thing and those who are, don’t deserve it.

That just about wraps this one up, it wasn’t much article wise but something I feel need to be said and as this is somewhere to voice my opinions and thoughts, I decided it was worthy of a mention. So remember, if you are asking for a critique, be prepared to take some criticism and don’t expect unjustified praise either. If you are giving a critique, think about it first and be sure your response is going to at least provoke some thought in the designer.

The Creative Process

It would be great if we could jump right into Photoshop and design away until we had a pixel-perfect piece of art and not have to worry about how the finished site would actually work. Sadly, this isn’t quite the case. On one hand, our creativity shouldn’t be limited to a set of guidelines set out by our coding standards and on the other hand, our designs need to ‘work’ when complete. Whilst it’s important to keep standards at the top of our priorities when coding, I don’t think it’s so important to keep hitting that validation link and looking for the green bar of approval.

Obviously, validation has a place within the workflow and is a quick guideline for debugging our code and picking out simple errors easily but it’s not the end of the world if something isn’t valid and doesn’t always mean our designs won’t work as we intended them to. If somebody comes across your site and has the experience you expected them to, is that not enough? If the site works as intended across multiple browsers and platforms; the way the intended it, who cares about that validation button?

Semantic Snobbery

There will always be certain people who measure the completion of their projects with a successful validation and they’re not likely to change their process any time soon. Semantic markup is important and I’m not suggesting otherwise but it can be taken too far. My idea of semantic is using meaningful labels and names for elements and using the correct element for the desired effect but is having ‘misplaced’ div or two to create that perfect design really such as faux pas?

Some would say yes and there are some times I would agree with those people. If the desired effect can be achieved without resorting to using the extra element then it should definitely be done that way. This isn’t always the case though and rather than changing our ideas to suit the best practice for coding, we should keep the initial design in minds and remember what we set out to achieve. If that takes an element that isn’t “allowed” to be there, then so be it.

This may sound like I’m brushing standards aside but I’m definitely not. I would take any measures to ensure the design can be realised using semantic markup before even thinking about that extra div and would only consider using it if it’s completely necessary and that’s not even too often.

Design First, Validation Second

Basically, I think too many people place too much focus on the validation of their projects and actually let it inhibit the creativity they initially set out with. If we stick to a strict set of boundaries, we end up never pushing the boundaries of what we can do and our designs get stale and ‘used’.

I would most definitely recommend using semantic markup and checking for errors with the validation tool, just don’t let it dictate your designs to you. It should be there as a final checkpoint and the icing on the cake, not our inspiration and design guideline.

For those of you that read A List Apart, a recent article written by Natalie Jost covered just this topic and was just what I needed. Working from home, there are a lot of distractions away from the computer during the day and especially with my son and wife being home too.

I’m in a situation of not having enough space for a dedicated ‘office’ and I have to put up with a section of the bedroom for now. Not the most ideal scenario by any means but it’s all that’s available to me as a viable option at the moment. I prefer working in a quiet environment so heading out to Starbucks isn’t really the option for me and paying I can’t justify paying for office space at the moment either.

So, I’m thinking about improving upon the current situation with smaller changes that are possible and will hopefully boost some productivity. I’ve got myself a sign for the door to let people know when not to disturb me and a lock for it just in case! I picked up some noise reduction earphones a couple of weeks ago which should block out noises from downstairs and most importantly, speaking to my wife has really helped. I found she was under the impression that I wasn’t actually working when I was at the computer and so she never hesitated in disturbing me. Convincing her otherwise wasn’t too simple either.

Admittedly, there are times when any client projects I have going have been completed or are awaiting some client feedback, preventing me from continuing on them and I have spent some time browsing a couple of sites or using Twitter but I need to focus more on what I can be doing when not working on client projects. There are a lot of things I can be doing in between these projects such as looking for new clients and making new connections but up until now, I’ve been too easily distracted by other things around me.

It’s about time things changed and they need to if I’m going to keep on freelancing as bills will still need paying. I’m now going to start actively seeking out new work rather than waiting for it to come to me which isn’t really working out as you would expect, I guess I’ve just been naive in thinking I could work this way. I’m going to set specific hours during the day to work and stick to them. This means having things prepared to be getting on with during those times and closing any programs that aren’t helping. I’m also going to start keeping track of what I have done during those hours and what I would like to get done. This should help keep me focused on specific goals and keep me busy which should then mean fewer distractions and ultimately, more productivity.

I also want to start updating this place on weekly basis starting from today. I had this plan originally but let things slip and I’m going to do my best to make sure it doesn’t happen again. So, having made my intentions public, you should all be able to monitor my success over the coming months. Finding new clients should be an interesting task as it’s one I have not tried before so feel free to send any referrals my way! I have a couple of projects left to finish off and I’m looking to start taking on more work within the next couple of weeks.

On that note, I’ll end this entry as I’ve got some work to do…

I’m talking about Aviary, a collection of online tools created by Worth1000. Describing what exactly it is that these tools or applications do could be a bit of a lengthy process as nothing like this has been done before and the idea may be hard to grasp.

So rather than trying to explain things, I’ll let the people at Aviary do it for me and start with the description they use themselves. Do read on, you’ll be glad you did!

The following is how the set of tools/applications are described on the Aviary site:

“Aviary is a suite of rich internet applications geared for artists of all genres. From image editing to typography to music to 3D to video, we have a tool for everything. At Worth1000, we are creating a complex ecosystem for artists and providing the world with free, capable collaborative tools and an approach to collaboration and rights management that will turn the marketplace for online art on its head.”

That just about sums it up but doesn’t do it justice. Tools like these could really change the way we work on daily basis and could drastically alter and improve workflow for yourself and your company.

At the moment, there’s an invitation only beta available with just a couple of tools to test out but already I can really see the potential of what these people are doing and the possibilities of what can be done. Rather than run through all of the tools here, I suggest you take a look at them online as there a quite a few. Instead, I’ll take a look at one that is available at the moment and the one that as a designer, interested me the most and that is Phoenix.

Loading up the application looks similar to the way it’s desktop counterparts load, except the fact that it’s in your browser. The current toolset looks quite similar to that of Photoshop with a lot of the expected tools being right where you expect to see them. Where Phoenix gets interesting is with the amount of features they’ve managed to include.

Layer blending modes and filters are even there too. They may not as comprehensive as those provided by Photoshop but the main thing to remember is, this is NOT Photoshop. It’s an online graphics editor and it happens to be free. I could see this application being very handy for collaboration with other designers and even though, in its current state it won’t be replacing Photoshop in my workflow, I was definitely interested in seeing what it had to offer and I think it could be used quite effectively as a tool for rapid prototyping and wireframes.

I was particularly interested in looking at the typographic tools available in Phoenix and was glad to see they are not too bad at all. The standard font styling tools are there as are a couple of extras including letter spacing. The font range is a bit limited at the moment but for a beta version, I’m more than happy with it.

Sound interesting to you? Let me know then, I have 4 invites left at the moment and will hand them out as requested in comments on a first reply, first given basis!

It’s about time isn’t it?

I’ve finally finished off my first free theme and it’s now available for download as well as an online preview. Interested? Read on for more info!

The theme that has taken up so much of my spare time is finally available and was it all worth it? Definitely. Even just as a learning experience I’m glad I did it and depending on the success and feedback, I’ll be doing more soon.

The most challenging part of this theme was the section for featured posts as I didn’t want to use any sort of plugin which would require users downloading and installing too so I’ve done it manually. It can easily be configured and altered accordingly, the same goes for the recent feature listings.

Enough boring you with details you don’t care about, you can either click the image at the top or click here to check out the theme page where you can preview it live and download the three versions.

I hope you enjoy using it as much as I did making it, please leave your comments below and let me know what you think!

I’m talking about designing a free template. In this specific case, a Wordpress theme. You may know I’m in the process of creating my first free theme and I’ve scrapped several designs thus far. Want to know why? Do continue reading then…

I started out thinking I could just mock-up some generic theme that would suit the target audience. I quickly learnt that not only did I not know what a generic theme should include but I had absolutely no idea who my target audience actually was. So I started looking to other places offering free themes and to see who they catered for. In the majority of cases, the themes were far generic for my liking and all looked too similar. The other offerings out there that actually targeted a specific audience did so by creating several themes aimed at different interests so the majority of people had something to choose from that would suit their needs.

Creating several themes to being with isn’t really an option for me at the moment so I decided that designing a theme that catered for more than one demographic would be the best thing to do. That way, I would get maximum exposure and maximum benefit for the work put in. This led me to realize one thing about my target audience and that is the fact that I don’t actually have one. I’m not trying to please a certain client or meet specific requirements with this design, it’s up to the people looking at it to decide if they want to use it or not. Expectations don’t matter in this case and I have complete control over the outcome of the design.

I then started drafting out some different approaches to how I could design this niche-less theme. I don’t want to put something out there that’s just the same as what everyone else is doing but there are some many free themes going about that it’s really difficult to think of certain elements on a page and have them gel together in a way that no one else has done before whilst keeping a certain degree of normality to the look of it. I can’t go too crazy with design as people expect to see certain things in certain places and I’m not sure if disrupting that is a good thing or not. There need to be basic elements included that users will need and they need to be adaptable and open to changes depending on each person’s needs and requirements.

A space for a title/logo needs to be included, a navigation, a sidebar of some sort, a search box and, of course, space for the articles themselves. Then there’s the expected footer and a few other things people expect to see when looking at a blog. Once you have these elements mapped out, you quickly realize there’s not a whole lot more you can put in. After all, it’s not a custom design and needs to remain completely neutral in terms of the look and feel of the overall theme. It then becomes apparent that the only way to separate yourself from the others is in the approach these specific elements and the way you place them on the page. They all must be included but they don’t always have to be exactly as expected and it’s this unique way of arranging the elements to interact in a different way that is helping me out when trying to come up with something that slightly new and different.

The point is, if you’re designing a free theme or even a premium one that many people will purchase and adapt to their own needs, you don’t need to be just another sheep in the flock. Don’t be afraid to try something completely different. If people don’t like it, they don’t have to download it but if people do like it, you’ve got something completely unique to the rest and that’s going to make your design stand out in the crowd.

I hope this isn’t setting any expectations for the theme I’m working on. I don’t people being disappointed when it comes out expecting something revolutionary! I can’t promise it’s going to change the way you look at designs or even that you’ll like it but the thing is, it doesn’t really matter. If you like it, great. If not, don’t download it and I’ll try to please the rest of you next time.

I’ve seen quite a few mentions lately of video being an increasing feature online and I tend to agree with what’s being said. There are plenty of different ways of using video, from live streaming using services such as Yahoo! Live and Ustream to recorded video using the likes of Seesmic and now even mobile video with services like Qik. So why bother using video at all? It adds an extra level of interaction and a personal touch to communication online. Talking to someone via an instant messenger just isn’t quite the same as being able to see them live and chat in much the same way as you would offline.

Whilst there are some great benefits to video, it’s not without its disadvantages either. I think one of the biggest factors with people trying out video, myself included, is becoming comfortable with using a camera in the first place, then there’s the point of sharing it and wondering what others will think of the content. A lot of people will prefer to stick with written content as it provides much more of a ‘screen’ to hide behind and gives you a lot more control over choosing what perceptions you give off when people first come into contact with you. Confidence aside, there’s a couple of small technical points that may put people off, from choosing the right camera to use, compressing and/or converting the video to upload and then choosing the service to go with. However, these issues don’t appear to be stopping many people trying out video online and I assume as more people start using it, others will follow suit.

It used to be the case that the term “vlog” was just something thrown around on sites such as Youtube but more recently, I have noticed this type of multimedia appearing on personal blogs more, and rightly so. I don’t think it’s necessary to give this medium a different name or term, it’s still technically the same as a normal blog entry; just using video instead of text. I can see more people being willing to watch a recorded video you have published rather than reading through a written article so surely using video would generate some more interest in your content?

I’m sure video is going to continue becoming more popular over the coming months but I doubt it’s going to replace written content and blogs, I see it complimenting the content instead. Combining the mediums is probably the best way to go about it. There’s no doubt people enjoy watching videos online when they are produced by those who are looked up to and admired and I’m more likely to watch videos of someone I know or like whilst I’m not very likely to sit through a video of someone I’ve never heard of but I would probably read their content if I found the subject interesting.

I hope you followed most of that, it’s late and I’m rambling. I’m interested to know other people’s thoughts on using video, feel free to leave your comments below and if anyone ever fancies a video chat, let me know!

After listening to the recent episode of the Boagworld Podcast and twittering my thoughts, I got a message from Paul saying he had not included Mint in the discussion about web stats as he had not looked at for a while and therefore couldn’t give an up-to-date opinion. I was asked to write a review about the current version and that brings me to this entry. Let’s take a look at Mint.

During the above mentioned episode, Google Analytics was mentioned as being the “default position” when it comes to people using a web stats package. That may very well be the case and it’s not my objective to turn anyone against it, I simply believe Mint is a much better overall choice when it comes to choosing an application to process your statistics and so, this is not going to be a ‘Mint vs Google’ article, but more a review of Mint alone. If you like analytics, that’s fine but as with Paul’s review, I’m just pointing out that there are more options out there to choose from.

The first thing I suppose I should point out is that Mint is not free, but it’s not expensive either and at only $30 for a license, it’s not much at all to pay. Especially if you are going to be using the stats produced to customize marketing campaigns and keywords, Mint would pay for itself in this regard and paying the one-time small fee shouldn’t put you off picking up a copy. Secondly, it’s a self-hosted solution, meaning you download the package and install to your own server where your website is hosted. The process is really simple and straight forward meaning just about anybody could install it in a matter of minutes without any major problems. One of the main benefits of having a self-hosted package like Mint is the availability of your data. Your statistics are recorded and stored to a database on your server, giving you instant access to the data itself and allowing you to easily backup when you need to.

From a users point of view, the first thing you are likely to notice after logging into your Mint dashboard is the attention to detail that’s gone into the design of Mint. This obviously isn’t a major feature, after all, you are looking for web stats, not a pretty picture but the design is also very simple and therefore does help when it comes to usability and moving around the dashboard. Various different streams of data are shown by default and are organized into ‘Panes’ which can be ordered to your preference and filtered to suit your specific needs. Having this information on the first page you see after logging in means you don’t need to dig your way through different menus to get to the data you wanted – you decide what you want to see and where you want to see it.

A lot of functionality is offered ‘out of the box’ but where Mint really comes into its own is with the available plugins called Pepper. Basically, you can download and install these plugins to completely customize the statistics that are reported for you. For example, if you use Feedburner to process RSS subscriptions from your site, you can install a Pepper that will track subscriptions for you and display the results right in the window without the need to sign into the Feedburner and check. There are many Pepper available at no extra cost and range in functionality from showing you which external links on your site are most popular to showing you which browser, operating system and screen resolution your visitors are using. There are also desktop gadgets/widgets available for both Mac and Windows so you can even keep track of stats straight from your desktop.

Having the vast amount of plugins available for download really lets you decide how you want Mint to function and having your stats constantly up-to-date makes the plugins very valuable indeed. Any statistics you have chosen Mint to record are displayed in real time on the dashboard. It’s not a live stream as such like Woopra is but you don’t need to wait for new visits to be recorded, refresh the page and you really do get a fresh, new look at your stats.

So why pay for Mint? Well, if you’re looking for a simple, effective and effortless way to track and record your statistics, it’s the best option out there in my opinion and the ability to filter out the stuff you don’t want and have Mint only display the information that you deem relevant, it avoids overwhelming you with too much information which can sometimes be overkill. It’s not the be all and end all of web stats but nothing in this area is perfect, there’s always room for improvement. It may not be the perfect package and may not be right for you – but it is another option. Before I forget, if you don’t already listen to the Boagworld Podcast, firstly - shame on you. Secondly, go and subscribe right about now, it’s pretty much the number one podcast out at the moment if you’re into web design. So, thanks for reading and if you haven’t already done so, go and take a fresh look at your site!

Time away from the computer is a good thing; it’s not that I didn’t appreciate the break. It’s just that I couldn’t work properly without the small distractions like Twitter and other online networks/communities. Although these distractions don’t directly benefit my design, for some reason my finished designs come off better when I have the freedom to browse a couple of sites and catch up on feeds.

Basically, working ‘alone’ with no communication with others isn’t for me. I don’t work with a bunch of people or anything but the small online connections I make enable me to function properly whilst working for some strange reason.

Initially, I presumed the benefit of these distractions was that they were providing a break for me, allowing my brain to focus on something else and allowing me to come back to my designs refreshed and inspired. That wasn’t the case either, I tried walking away from the computer for a bit, going out, all sorts of things that would let me clear my head but each time I returned to the canvas so to speak, I was wondering what had been ‘twittered’ and if there were any interesting new feeds or forum articles online. I felt like I was disconnected from everything and in a way, the distractions were still distracting me even though I couldn’t access them.

Once back online, I realised I hadn’t missed much. A couple of good articles to catch up on and that was about it – a bit of an anti-climax. Exactly as things should be – I don’t want to be overwhelmed with new things popping up and truly distracting me from work but having the ability to check every now and then gives me an extra boost of motivation to work.

There were some benefits though to being offline for a couple of weeks. I managed to sort out a list of targets for myself and clearly mapped out what I want to be doing over the coming months and what I want to achieve. Being online, I always just sort of lived in the moment but taking that time out allowed to see things from a different perspective and to really see where I was up to in the long run and what I had accomplished – not a whole lot yet, lot’s of work to be done!

A couple of minor improvements have been made too with this time to think and new connection. I now have a separate telephone line just for business purposes; the number is now on my contact page if you want to get in touch. I also added a small paragraph to the bottom of my about page with some educational information just in case any potential clients, or anyone else interested wanted to know about that.

If you’re wondering what the goals were I set myself, stay tuned! I have started working on a couple of small projects which I shall be writing about soon and anyone who uses Wordpress may be interested in one of those…