A lesson in Real-World web design.

I wanted to let you guys in on a lesson I’ve learned more than once:

DON’T BE SEDUCED BY AN EXOTIC TECHNOLOGY NOBODY USES!

Once and a while you may come across, what would seem to be a ‘killer’ piece of software, or maybe a cool new programming language – something in that would appear to give you some advantage.

That MAY be the case, but many times, it isn’t really so – think twice before your leap!

Consider these points:

• You will have to learn this new thingamabob – that takes time.
• Often, new thingamabobs excel in one area and stink in others – problem is that it can take time to figure this out.
• Listen to the king: “Wise men say, only fools rush in.”

Do you notice a pattern here?

Yes, it’s all about time. All this junk (software, programming languages, markup languages etc…) have one purpose in the end: to save you time.

Keep that in mind when you approach things – ask yourself:

‘Will using this save me time?’

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GETTING YOUR FIRST WEB DESIGN JOB

People have been asking for this one, for a long time – I’ve been a total scatterbrain lately with heaps of half-written articles and tutorials!

I must have about 60-70 pages worth of material on everything from web design tips, PHP programming, how to create a database in MySQL, negotiating a web contract – all of them about half finished!

Before I go on with the article on the web design business, I have to say that I have relearned one thing in the last 3 months: do one thing and finish it! I think this is so important, that I’ve even come up with an expression:

‘If you’re half way there, you’re nowhere!’

Wow, I’ve coined my first expression! Keep it in mind when you’re doing your thing – whatever it may be.

GETTING YOUR FIRST WEB DESIGN JOB

One of the first question people ask, is how do you actually get a web design job? This has all to do with your presentation – how the client perceives you is more important than reality!

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Once you and your client have agreed on a price (for your web design work,) it’s time to get some cash!

Why do you need to get money before you start the work:

Two major reasons:

• You need some sort of commitment from the client – nothing guarantees a commitment like cash!
• Respect: you need to establish respect for your services. By getting a payment upfront, you are establishing a professional relationship.

How much should you ask for?

I work with one of two payment structures:

1. Two equal payments – 50% up front and 50% when the job is done.
2. Three equal payments – 33% up front, 33% on delivery of the first draft and 33% when the job is done.

The 2nd option is much better because it’s easy to get the first draft out – this way you’ll have 66% of your money relatively quickly.

On the other hand, it can take a long time before the client signs off on the final. Option #2 is especially handy when you have clients who take forever to respond to your questions causing the project to drag on.

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OK, I wasn’t going to mention it, but there is a 3rd method of getting paid … and that’s not getting paid because you didn’t get a payment up front!

Always get a payment up front!

Stefan Mischook

In a nutshell:

When people surf the web, they have no time or patience to read long blocks of text – keep your writing simple and short.

Some basic tips:

• Use bullets to emphasize major points.
• Keep paragraphs about 7-10 words wide.
• Use lots of white space – give your pages lots of ‘breathing room’.
• Don’t do stupid things like having paragraphs that are all in italics or all bold.
• Make sure your text color is easy to read. For example: dark blue text on a black background is hard to read!
• Keep your text alignments consistent: don’t center align titles on one page, and then shove your titles to the left on another.

Basic writing tips:

• Keep sentences short and again, to the point. Tip: remove unnecessary words.
• Write as you would speak. This could be a problem if you’re a babbling fool …
• Read over what you have written 3 times.

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I can recommend three great books on writing well:

Writing in Bullets: by Kim Long

A good little book that will teach you how to use bullets effectively – there’s more to it than you think.

On Writing Well: by William Zinsser

A classic book on the subject. Not so specialized as Writing in Bullets, it tackles writing from a global perspective.

The Elements of Style: by William Strunk Jr

Another classic. This book gets into the details of writing where you learn about things like:

• Form
• Commonly misused words and expressions
• Basic rules of composition
• And plain old good advice like: omit needless words

Sometimes it can be a little dry, but the book is packed full of great stuff – get it! Actually, you should get all these books – it’s not like they’re expensive!

CIAO,

Stefan Mischook

Hibernate In Action (Christian Bauer & Gavin King) Manning 2005

Beware: this is big time Java-nerd stuff – not for web designers.

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One of the most difficult and time consuming elements of coding most business applications involves the persistence layer. This is particularly the case when object oriented (OO) approaches are used.

While OO programmers tend to think in terms of software objects with properties and behaviors, the truth of the matter is that at some point stuff needs to be loaded and saved in a database.

Anyone who has ever had to write their own object-relational (OR) persistence layer (I have), soon comes to realize that it is an area fraught with peril.

Why use Hibernate?

Hibernate is perhaps the most popular OR persistence framework for Java around today (although there are a number of lighter frameworks available). The authors of Hibernate In Action are part of the core team that developed Hibernate. Diving into the book quickly reveals that the authors know their stuff.

The Details:

The opening chapter (Understanding Object Relational Persistence) presents a detailed overview of pretty much all the main issues one is likely to encounter when it comes to OR persistence. The discussion is lucid and sets the tone for understanding why Hibernate is an attractive solution. The authors also spend some time highlightting why one might NOT want to use OR mapping, which I also found useful.

Sunsequent chapters get you up running relatively quickly so you can see the framework in action. As the book progresses more detailed examples are used to illustrate the potential of the framework, and also some of the limitations.

Conclusion:

Frankly I found the level of detail to be a little tough for a first read, but was pleased to know that the meat was there if I needed to get back to it.

Aside from this minor criticism I found the book to be a relatively entertaining read (7 out of 10) although you probably would need to have an interest in the subject.

All in all a strong book well worth acquiring if you are interested in evaluating the Hibernate framework.

Review by Richard Mischook

You can read more Java book reviews here.