Hi!
I’ve been building websites since 1994 … that’s makes it 20 yrs now! Anyway, it only takes me 9 minutes of video to give you my perspective … I think young nerdlings might find useful. Check it out:
Stefan
Studioweb.com
Hi,
Lots of people come the KillerSites.com in search of an answer to some web design related question – if that’s you, then I invite you to join the forum – it’s free.
Check it out:
killersites.com forum
Thanks,
Stefan
Hi,
In this video, I show you how to create (and use) Gmail email templates – they are very useful if you send out the same email or similar emails on a regular basis.
Check it out:
Thanks for watching.
Stefan Mischook
killerSites.com
Hi,
Anyone who knows me knows that I am an advocate of WordPress, especially from the point of view of a web designer since so many small business websites use WordPress.
… Being a WordPress web designer will unlock many more job opportunities for you. Especially if you add in a little PHP and JavaScript knowledge into the mix.
Not all is well in the world of WordPress
The sad thing is that with great popularity and ease of use, comes great evil – WordPress has had a plethora of security holes and can be the source of many of website headaches because of all the hacking that can likely be subject to. Here are some WordPress safety tips:
1. Keep WordPress up to date!
It seems that the WordPress nerds update this popular CMS every 2.6 seconds! Though annoying, these updates are made with good reason: to plug security holes and other bugs.
Thankfully, the in WordPress update feature (as of WordPress 3.x) works very well. You don’t have to go through the 10 step process anymore to update it – just click on the update button and WordPress takes care of it for you.
Hi,
Let’s start off this article with the conclusion – web design in 2014:
Code:
In the last few years, the web design world (finally) totally embraced the importance of understanding code. The move in that direction started back during the web-standards evangelizing days … in about 2002-2003. There was resistance, but my feel for it now, is that the vast majority of web designers accept the fact that you can’t just rely on point-and-click web visual web design tools, if you want to build sites on a professional level.
… Yes, if you just need to build a brochure website that promotes your raspberry muffins, you can use simple website builders and a template. But if you are building a website that will have any depth to it, code is king and is required. Why? In a nutshell: control and optimization.
Usability:
Usability is as much as art as it is a science because each site requires it’s own innovation (if you will) when comes to making a website easy to use. That said, there are simple conventions that people come to expect:
I would argue that the hardest part of building a website is in making it usable. It also probably the most important aspect of any website because if a site is too hard to navigate, no one will use it.
Simplification of design
This trend towards simpler minimal design I believe is a reflection of the growing understanding in the importance of usability. Usability is hard enough, but making a complex visual design easy to use it mega hard! Simple design means:
Putting the money where my mouth is, we kept all this in mind when building the StudioWeb e-learning website.
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
killerSites.com
Hi,
Some of you know that we’ve been hard at work refining our interactive training system for schools – StudioWeb.
The feedback we’ve been getting from teachers and students has been great and has helped us really improve. So over a year later, nearly 2000 students, we are about to release version 2!
Top StudioWeb 2.0 Features – from a teachers perspective:
• Turn-key courses with automated quizzing, correcting and tracking
• Full reporting + charts
• Teachers answer book
• Printable course outlines
• Course project files
StudioWeb removes all the bookkeeping so you can concentrate on the teaching!
With StudioWeb, even teachers who are not tech savvy can effectively manage a class! In fact, given all the automation that StudioWeb provides, teachers can more easily manage large classrooms.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
Stefan Mischook
Hi,
I get a lot of questions from people wanting to build a web based business. I’m not talking about becoming a web designer or a web programmer, I am talking about building a website and then making money off it.
Sometimes, people just want to put up articles and then sell other peoples products (through affiliate programs) other times they simply want to put up a bunch of ads.
The more ambitious want to sell a service or a product. This blog post is going to be about how to do that … in a nutshell.
What do you need to know (and what to do,) to set up a web based business?
Well, before I get into it, I should mention the stay at home mom who contacted me recently. She had an idea for a website and her goal was to generate ad revenue and sell memberships/access to premium content. She was asking a bunch of questions about setting up a forum, an e-commerce system etc …
So the first thing I ask when people come to me with these questions, is if they know anything about building websites? If you don’t know much, you will either:
Since this mom in question had no money to pay someone to build her site, she was going to have to learn. Before I get into what you have to learn, when you are a do-it-yourself web entrepreneur, let’s quickly talk about NOT ‘putting the cart before the horse’.
😉
Hi!
Some of you may know that I am a BIG advocate the code in the classroom. In fact, I feel that all kids should be learning code in middle and high school for a few reasons:
… You can read about it all on studioWeb.
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
Hi,
I’ve been building websites since 1994 and commercially providing web design services since 1995-96. As you probably imagine, I’ve picked up a few things along the way!
🙂
My number 1 tip for web designers?
At the end of the day, what you are providing is a service. When I was web programming and designing, the consistent compliment I got was:
“I really like the fact Stef, that you deliver on time.”
Strangely, being flexible for your clients, showing up when you say you will, and delivering when you say you will is HUGE! This goes beyond meeting deadlines …
Show up 5 minutes early!
Never show up late and never show up too earlier – you need to show up just on time. If I have a meeting to get to at 2pm and I know traffic could delay me 20 minutes, I would give myself an extra 25 minutes to get there … just in case. If I actually got there early, I would just sit in the car and wait until it was time.
… I’m sure you can find something to do for 25 minutes!
Clients typically don’t like people showing up late and they don’t like it if you show up early too. Just be on time.
Maybe I should have titled this post:
‘The Little Red Riding Hood of Web Design’
Thanks,
Stef
killerSites.com
Building a website can be a daunting process … there is a lot to do! And sometimes, it’s hard to figure out where to start!
No worries though, after nearly 20 yrs experience, I’ve figured it out for you!
The steps:
1. Diagram the site:
Create a hierarchical map of the website. This will allow you to properly plan out all the pages and as an added bonus, the main menu for the website becomes easy to map out.
No need to use any special software … just a pen and paper will do! Draw boxes (that represent web pages) and connect them with lines that represent the links between pages.
2. Create the Content:
Write out the content (text only) for each page in the site diagram. Be sure to include sub headings and sections on the pages. You can use any simple text editor (MS Word, Apple Pages etc …) to do this.
3. Usability:
Once you have the websites content in place, it’s time to look at how you can rearrange the order/placement of page elements … to make it easier for people to find things.
Hint: logical menus can play a big role in this. So again, the quickest way to get this going is to draw out your pages on paper.
4. Design:
With the first three steps complete, you are ready to consider the design/look of the site. Though the design phase of the process is largely about making your site look good, a lot of consideration for usability has to be kept in mind – be sure that the design does NOT get in the way of how easy the site is to navigate.
In the PDF attached to this blog post I’ve included a couple of images that I was too lazy to link embed directly here.
🙂
If you want to learn much more about web design, you may want to check out my popular training package: Complete Web Designer
Thanks,
Stefan
killerSites.com
