CategoryBusiness

June 20, 2011 — Sue Smith goes through a few tips and techniques that can make working with other people’s code more productive. Whether you’re a software developer or a Web designer who does a bit of coding from time to time this article offers you ways to learn to see unfamiliar code as an opportunity. Read more…

June 15, 2011 — The Website ROI Calculator created by Anders Hoff specifically for Smashing Magazine and our readers can get you started with setting goals to know if your website is doing the job you are paying for it to do. Read more…

June 3, 2011 — If there’s one boiled-down, oversimplified thing you need to grasp about content strategy, it is this: know your audience. In this article, Allie Gray shares her advice for newcomers. Read more…

May 13, 2011 — Cassie McDaniel goes through what designers and developers have in common to think better ways to collaborate and work together. Elegance and efficiency, teachability, and more. Read more…

May 6, 2011 — Paul Boag shares his experience on how to deal with clients in the process of creating web projects. Read this article and avoid the endless revisions with your clients. Read more…

April 11, 2011 — Leigh Mason breaks down the process of integrating a credit card payment solution onto your website. If at first glance you consider the prospect can seem unwieldy, this article will help you to understand it much better. Read more…

February 25, 2011 — As many people who work in a creative field like design and development may already know, sometimes our clients just do not understand what it is that we are trying to achieve. The boundaries that we are seeking to push are not ones they approve of for their project, so our creative ideas get backburnered until we can find an appropriate project as well as an agreeable client where you can flex these creative muscles freely. In fact, the standard business processes, especially the ones we allow ourselves to be strapped into, tend to work against us in this aspect. Read more…

February 21, 2011 — Where do good ideas come from? It’s a question that matters a great deal to designers, yet seems to be curiously discounted in the common perception of graphic design. Any time I talk with, say, an uncle at Thanksgiving about my work, I’m reminded that, in most people’s minds, the job of being a designer is mainly a matter of learning a set of computer applications — programs which, when properly operated, presumably do the work of generating ideas on their own. Read more…

February 18, 2011 — We have theories about everything: why the sky is blue, why apples fall, why bees buzz (and do other unmentionable things), why my boss said a certain thing, why that girl in the restaurant looked at me, why didn’t that girl in the restaurant look at me…. We’re wired to theorize. Theories make us feel secure. We can wrap our heads around them and explain them with little diagrams on whiteboards, or with equations, or even graphs. We give theories fancy names like “The Classical Elemental Theory” and “The Flat Earth Hypothesis. Read more…

February 9, 2011 — I used to think the beginning of a website design project was the best part. Hopes are high. People are full of great ideas. Nobody is disappointed yet. But as I gained experience, I found that learning about a client’s brand, competitors and customers doesn’t always give clear direction about design goals. Read more…