First, the sandwich method. It goes a little something like this:

When you sandwich your critique or bad news in good news, it makes people a lot more receptive to what you have to say. It looks less like an attack and more like the helpful-yet-unsavory idea it is meant to be. This isn’t a way to disarm people so that you can sucker punch them; this just a little something you can try to build respect and trust with a person you may not speak to a lot outside of email. Grease the wheels with politeness and things will go a lot smoother.

Another subtle change that can make you more personable is the use of active voice. Oh no. Grammar. Active voice just means that you try to use use the active role of a verb whenever possible.
Example:

Your updates will be processed by the end of the week.

My Response?

Meh. A robot sent me a response. I wonder if my updates will ever go through?

We will process your updates by the end of this week.

My Response?

I look at the calendar. Oh? Really? The end of this week? That’s fast.

An easy way to tell the difference between active and passive voice? Look at who the subject is. In the first example, it’s the ‘updates.’ The updates are processed. In the active example ‘we’ process updates. It’s a lot more personable when there is a person involved.

My last tip should be pretty self explanatory. PLEASE DON’T USE ALL CAPS FOR YOUR ENTIRE EMAIL. EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT SHOUTING, IT SOMETIMES APPEARS THAT YOU ARE.

TweetBeep.com

If you are familiar with Google Alerts, then you’ll understand TweetBeep.com, which bills itself as Google Alerts for Twitter. Basically, you can enter search terms, and TweetBeep.com will email you tweets that match the search when they show up on Twitter.

TwitBacks.com

If you’re not a graphic designer yourself, TwitBacks.com is a good resource for getting a background image for your Twitter account that’s more customized than the backgrounds Twitter offers by default. They have over 80 backgrounds, and you can customize them online with your social networking links, a longer biography than Twitter allows, and even add a picture of yourself or your logo.

SocialOomph.com

If you’re looking to schedule tweets, automatically follow those who follow you or automatically send direct messages to new followers, SocialOomph.com is the choice for you.

Twitter Feed

Tweeting about your latest blog entry is made automatic with Twitter Feed. Just enter in any RSS feed address, customize the settings if necessary, and every time you blog it will be pushed automatically out to Twitter. Of course, other RSS feeds will work as well.

Twitter Grader

Wanting to see how well you’re using Twitter? Twitter Grader is an automated tool from the guys that brought you Website Grader. While this type of tool should be taken with a grain of salt, it is neat to see how you rank compared to others in your town.

Your Twitter Karma

Your Twitter Karma will give you a list of all the people who you’re following or who are following you, and will let you filter the list. A good tool if you want to see who’s following you that you’re not following, or vice versa. It was extremely useful when they would let you bulk unfollow people you were following who weren’t following you, but apparently Twitter asked them to remove that feature. Also, it’s a bit slow and the site is as ugly as sin, but it’s useful otherwise.

Know of some other great Twitter resources you’ve found useful? Please let us know!

Elyssa Dolinger

I think it’s usable, but I always hate how they change things without asking. Yeah, they’re not going to listen to me, but I’d at least like to be asked. I miss my little bar at the bottom! I know it’s on the side but there is so much stuff over there it’s cluttered. I also wish there was just a little bit better definition between sections, color-wise. It all gets mucked together which means I gloss over the link I’m looking for.

The thing that I actually really DO like in this change of layout is the little notifications next to the Facebook logo on the top left of the page. The three subtle icons representing friend requests, messages, and notifications get these little red flags on them when you have some. It’ll even have a tiny number in there telling you how many you have so you can know what you’re getting into before you commit to clicking.

Sean Sanders

I feel like the new layout is more organized. Having the bar on the bottom made it less noticeable than it is now. Also, I like seeing all the categories broken down on the side. It just seems a lot easier to get to different places now. That’s about all I’ve noticed that’s really different.

Amber Hanks

I really like the new design of Facebook. I think the simplified look works better. It took a little getting used to though. I also like that the friend requests and messages are more dynamic. I also like how notifications show up in the left sidebar when you’re logged in.

Unfortunately, chat still appears to be buggy when you have several chats going. It will say people are offline for just a second, and messages won’t go through. Then a moment later, they’re back online again. It’s too bad they didn’t fix some of those things.

Emily Spirek

My initial reaction of the new layout was the opposite of most. Although Facebook has made some questionable updates in the past, I don’t understand why so many people disliked this one. I think the overall intention was a good one, but there still needs to be some improvements.

Here’s what I like:

1. The dashboard with a more central location of everything you need.
2. “Live Feed” changed to “Most Recent”…not a huge deal, just think it makes more sense.
3. I love icons, mainly b/c they simplify everything and look cool. I like the addition of Friend Requests, Messages and Notifications in the top left.

Here’s what I’d like to see:

1. Home, Profile and Account on the same side as the new icons I just mentioned, and turn those into icons as well.
2. I’m not sure if they were refraining from total shock by keeping chat in the same location, but I don’t understand why the Friends Online needs to be in 2 separate locations. On the left sidebar where it says “See All”, it’s awkward how a pop up appears across the screen. I feel like the random choices of online friends is a waste of space. Either put the whole list in the left sidebar or stick with the original chat in the bottom right.

That’s all I see so far, overall I think it was a smart move by Facebook.

We were so blessed to work with all of these organizations, and it was undoubtedly a rewarding experience. Thanks to all of the non-profit winners, and we hope your new websites have aided towards the success of your organizations!

Please check out the sites below and learn about what these people are doing for the community.

2009 Winners:

January:

http://edmondmobilemeals.org/

February:

http://www.dsok.net/

March:

http://oklahomawomenscoalition.com/

April:

(complete, but pending publication)

May:

http://www.vipofok.com/

June:

http://www.edmondlacrosse.com/

July:

http://www.edmondkids.org/

August:

(pending publication)

September:

N/A
(Unfortunately, the non-profit we selected for September
did not have the time available to develop a site with us)

October:

http://www.chosenokc.org/

November:

Wayman Tisdale Foundation

(pending - awaiting confirmation)

December:

Oklahoma Foundation for the Disabled

(pending - awaiting confirmation)

Update: More detailed entries about each non-profit are soon to come!

Hi. My name is Elyssa and I am Tweet-impaired.

The first step to using Twitter, I think, is to understand what it is. Twitter is like a Facebook status update. It’s like blogging in 140 characters. It’s like swimming in a pool of millions of people or stepping into a chat room with everyone in the world invited. It is like all those things, but not exactly any one of them. Twitter is Twitter.

So why is it useful?

It’s real time, instant action. You can follow the news not only by following a news station, but you can search for a topic and get real time information. Remember the attempted Iranian Revolution? As a fledgling twitterer, I watched with morbid fascination as people tweeted and re-tweeted which embassies were open, what streets were not safe and quotes of remembrance about why they were doing what they were doing.

People use Twitter like a community. It’s faster than a forum, and doesn’t require everyone to be present at once to hold a conversation like a chat or instant message. It’s a happy in-betweener. Like leaving a note for someone or sending a text message.

Businesses use Twitter to prove that they’re not robots. When you get a response from a large corporation, a non generic direct response, you’ll definitely start to feel important. @jetblue and @homedepot are actually pretty good at this.

So what can you do with it?

Make it easy to succeed. There are programs out there (like HootSuite, TweetDeck, or Twhirl) that make Twitter less overwhelming and more manageable. These applications will even let you load your Facebook on there (and other social sites) for cross posting…if you’re into that kind of thing. You can even use these applications to search twitter so that you can look for conversations that you might be interested in, or you might even find a conversation about you or your business.

Keep it short and sweet. You can post links/photos/videos you found useful or interesting in your community or even in the world. This is best done with the help of a URL shortening service like TinyURL or Bit.ly. It’ll help tidy up your tweets so that you can explain your link. People like to know what they are clicking into before hand, especially if they are at work.

Use your hashtags. As mind-boggling as they are, hashtags help tweeters follow a thread of conversation and discussion trends. It’s similar to tags on a blog. If you use them, it’ll help more people who are interested see what you have to say.

Yeah, I know. I’m late to the party. And I still feel like a fledgling Tweeter, but somehow Twitter is a little bit more understandable. Like any social media, the most important part is making connections. So get out there and make some friends.

Sound familiar? I still find myself guilty of this phrase, even as a designer. When I see a sleek, simple logo design, it’s hard to appreciate the extensive process that occurred before the finished product.

Sure I could have traced the graphic, found the correct font and duplicated the colors, but that’s the common misconception: it’s not about the actual construction of the logo, it’s about the hours of brainstorming and concept behind the visual. The reason designers pour this much thought and effort into a simple logo is because a company’s entire identity depends on it.

This video I found from Bit Rebels reveals some steps that a client never sees in their logo creation.

Even if some people believe they can recreate a design, it would require a large sum of money for the correct software (most commonly Adobe Illustrator) and hours of tutorials figuring out how to even use the application. Unless their plan is to develop more logos in the future, the wise investment is to depend on a design firm’s expertise.

Although it falls into a different category of design, the same principle is true for web design. Many people outside of the web industry can and have created their own websites without professional help, but in most cases, the difference between theirs and a professional’s is clearly detectable. At a design firm, the hours of designing often go unrecognized, and even more-so the hours and knowledge behind the coding process aren’t fully acknowledged. It really boils down to preference and how professional a business wants their site to look and function.

We know the prices of logo and web design can send some people into shock, but there is a reason we have experts in every field, right? Here is another process from Helvetica Brands to briefly capture the design process. If you click on the images below, it’ll show the inspiration behind the logo and why the designer chose this direction.

Everyday, I’m reminding myself that certain designs are not as simple as they appear. Starting with a blank canvas is more intimidating than some think.

Some view logo design the way I view TV commercials. I see commercials every day, and some of them appear straightforward: I could have easily found a video camera and shot the same thing. Although, without the suitable equipment and expertise, I think it’s fair to say the quality and concept behind it would fail miserably.

So even though the prices are hard to swallow, rest assured you will receive a design that meets your needs, along with the need to compete with the latest trends.

It’s easy to think that design is design and that there isn’t a whole lot of difference between the types of design.

For the most part this is true. There are definitely fundamental principles that translate across genres. Principles like the golden ratio and the rule of thirds and all of that good stuff. (If you’re a designer, even if you don’t know the name you’d know the rule.)

Aaaaand then there are concepts that definitely don’t translate.

Resolution

The great thing about web design is that you don’t need high resolution photographs. If you are buying stock images, this means you can buy the smaller (and usually cheaper) images.

As far as print goes, the higher the resolution, the better. You don’t deal with resolution as much in print design except for the dire need of a higher resolution image. Working in a higher resolution file means working in a larger file. Working on a larger file means higher processing needs.

Color Formatting

Cyan, Magenta and Yellow printing pigments.

CMYK and RGB are two different animals. I could tell you one is additive and one is subtractive, but that doesn’t mean a whole lot to most people. It makes more sense to me to realize that one is light based (the light from the computer screen) and one is pigment (or ink) based.

It is very difficult to match print and web colors since they work with two entirely different color systems. Metallic colors are difficult to achieve, but more difficult for print unless you have access to metallic inks.

Fonts

In large blocks of text such as books, brochures and newsletters, it’s advised to use serif fonts for ease of reading. The serifs have a way of directing the eye and helping you keep your line placement. It’s especially beneficial for the dyslexic because of the more obvious differences in i, I, l and 1. (Yeah those are all different characters.)

On the web, it’s advised that you don’t have large blocks of text. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, but for a lot of sites the fewer words, the better. The more you break up your paragraphs, the better too. So the need for serifs is pretty much gone.

There are also some technical benefits to using sanserif fonts. For example, sans serif fonts can be sized smaller than serifs and still be readable. There are also some aliasing issues (hard pixilation) with windows and serif fonts.

Organization

On the web, it is best to have your navigation available on every page so that you can navigate anywhere from anywhere. The print equivalent would be to have the table of contents on every page. It certainly takes up space.

Good design transcends browsers and platforms and material, but unfortunately a lot of times it is defined by them. Since the very make up of Print and Web are different, by definition shouldn’t the design be different too?

If you are interested in joining the fun, motivated team here at T&S, just call our job hotline at 241-1051. Listen to the entire message, then leave the information that you’ll hear me ask for.

And if you know anyone who is a good candidate and might be interested, be sure to pass this information along to them.

Thanks!

We included the following code in our document’s head, using the Google jQuery implementation:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
google.load("jquery", "1.3.2");

google.setOnLoadCallback(function() {
$("table tr td:nth-child(even)").addClass("even-column");
$("table tr th:nth-child(even)").addClass("even-column");
});
</script>

So that’s the code that gives every other table cell, including header cells, the class of even-column. Now we can style those cells however we’d like.

In our case, a little CSS transformed the table pictured below on the left into the table on the right.

Of course, putting the following in our google.setOnLoadCallback function will do something similar for rows.

$("table tr:nth-child(even) td").addClass("even-column");

This would result in the following:

While this could have been solved by actually hard-coding the table’s cells with the even-column class, we are using Wordpress on this site. This means the client could add their own table on down the line, having no idea what a class is, much less to add a specific one to every other cell in every row of the table. Plus, that would be a lot of work.

That’s a question I often get when discussing search engine optimization (aka SEO) with clients and potential clients. The short answer?

Nope. Nobody can. Anyone who says they can is lying.

Let me clarify a bit.

Optimizing your website for search engines involved improving its content with words and phrases that research and common sense shows your target market might be typing in. It’s more than just picking one single word or phrase you want to rank well for.

How people search

Let’s look at a hypothetical situation. Say we have someone with a company based in Edmond, Oklahoma looking for a website. If they are unfamiliar with web design companies in the area, but know they want to hire a local company, they’re much more likely to search for “web design Edmond” than they would be for “T&S Web Design.”

Okay, you caught me, that’s less hypothetical and more something we deal with every day. So we chose to optimize our site more for “web design Edmond” than any other phrase. But search for the phrase “web design” by itself, and we’re somewhere past the 200th listing.

Remembering the competition

Also, there are competitors to think about. We are very careful to explain to those in certain industries like insurance and real estate that their chances of getting on page one of the search engine results are low at best. Realistically, the chances are pretty close to zero, unless they’re in some niche that has a realistic chance of less people being able to fill. “Castles in New York” might be one such area.

We aren’t Google

Finally, the simple truth is that we’re simply not in control of search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo because we’re not them. As any parent can tell you, no one person can tell exactly what another person (or company) will do.

So if you run into one of those companies that “guarantee” first page placement for search engine optimization, just remember it’s a scam. So don’t fall for it.

But don’t take our word for it

Feel free to check out Google’s advice on SEO, which also warns against placement guarantees. Yahoo! also gives their own SEO advice. Finally, if you really want to, you can read Bing’s blatantly biased SEO advice.

* If you were not aware, Google, Bing and Yahoo! are the top three search engines out there currently. According to some sources, over 96% of searches done online are performed on those three sites.