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White House website is open for all

Posted on Apr 30, 2010 by Peter Ellis in IT, News, Web Design

I am not sure how much of this is going to be exciting for consumers out there, but this is pretty awesome for web developers. The White House official website (www.whitehouse.gov) is built on an open source platform called Drupal.

Drupal, amoung other open source (another words, “free” code base platforms) such as WordPress and Joomla, is often used for a large-content websites to offer an administrator of that website a user-friendly way to edit/update/create content without any web programing knowledge.

These Content Management Systems (CMS) have years and years of development, along with thousands of developers world wide adding to them to make them better. Like with anything in life there are pros and cons about using an open source CMS, but this is not the time to open up that can of warms.

Anyway, representatives of White House official website made an announcement to release modules of Drupal code they have developed and customized as open source, i.e. are giving them away free.

Imagine your best website developer, the most expansive budget then multiply it times 10 (at least). This is how much time and money the White House has invested into their website, after all the do have to represent the nation on the internet. Now they are making all those custom changes available to other, this is amazing!

Evaluate your website in 50 questions

Posted on Mar 24, 2010 by Peter Ellis in Web Design

I was doing some late night research (what else is new?) and came across a very useful post by Carsten Cumbrowski, born in Germany, now living in California, specializing in website development and internet marketing.

This is a great overall check list that you should review prior to designing a website, and then again, prior to making your website live (to make sure that you did not miss anything). Even bouncing this list by your web designer/developer (hopefully its DIF Design) will be helpful. Its a good way to set goals and to follow through with them. So, thanks to Carsten, we have the following list.

Now, some of the points might now apply to you or might be to technical, either way, take a look for yourself.

Accessibility

1. Is content structurally separate from navigational elements?
2. Is the website cross-browser compatible?
3. How compliant is the website with W3C coding standards? Valid HTML/CSS?
4. Are ‘alt’ tags in place on all significant images?
5. Are text-based alternatives in place to convey essential information if this is featured within images or multimedia files?

Navigation

1. Are links labeled with anchor text that provides a clear indication of where they lead.
2. Depth – what is the maximum number of clicks it takes to reach a page within the depths of the site?
3. If a splash screen or navigation feature is provided in a Java/JavaScript/Flash format, is a text-based alternative also available?
4. Responsive on Click feedback – Is a response given immediately (0.1 seconds) after a click is made on a hyperlink?
5. Do clickable items stylistically indicate that they are clickable?
6. How intuitive is it to navigate? Are signs obvious or obscured? Buttons/Links Like Text, that are not clickable and vice versa, links/buttons that cannot be identified as such
7. readability (somewhat addressed already), type face, font size
8. clear statement of PURPOSE of the site? Purpose must become clear within a few seconds without reading much or no text copy at all.
9. Call to action on every page, no dead ends
10. Is a logical site map available?, If not, is a keyword-based search feature available? Note: Large (multi-thousands of pages) sites should have a search form.

Design

1. Is the site’s design aesthetically appealing?
2. Are the colors used harmonious and logically related?
3. Are the color choices visually accessible? (For example high enough in contrast to assist the colorblind and visually impaired in reading the site appropriately)
4. Is the design audience appropriate?- The standard text size should be readable, for visitors who don’t know how to adjust their browsers.
5. The fonts should be easily readable, and degrade gracefully.- Should look OK on various screen resolutions.

Content

1. Is the website copy succinct but informative?
2. Does the copywriting style suit the website’s purpose and ’speak’ to its target audience?
3. Are bodies of text constrained to <80 characters per line?
4. Can text be resized through the browser or do CSS settings restrict size alteration?
5. Is the contrast between text and its background color sufficient to make reading easy on the eyes?
6. Is text broken into small, readable chunks and highlighted using headings, sub-headings and emphasis features where appropriate to assist in skimming?
7. Within articles, there should be links to more detailed explanations of subjects, or definitions of jargon terms. Are you doing that?
8. Do you have an “about page” that identifies the author of the content, credits to source for content that was not written by the site owner himself
9. Do you have testimonials and publish them on the site?
10. Do you update the content regularly and don’t live by the phrase “set it and forget it”?

Security

1. Any obvious security flaws?
2. How resilient are forms to special characters?
3. Private directories password protected via .htaccess?
4. Are public non-document directories (cgi-bin, images, etc) index able or are blank index.html pages or appropriate permission settings in place to block access?
5. Is customer data stored online? If so, is this database appropriately safeguarded against external access?

Other Technical Considerations

1. Does the site load quickly – even for dialup users?
2. Are all links (internal and external) valid and active?
3. Are scripts free from errors?
4. Is the website free from server side errors?

Other Marketing Considerations

1. Is the website properly optimized for search engines (essential text emphasized, title tags relevant, title text presented in H1, outbound links reliable and contextually related, etc)
2. Does the index page entice a visitor deeper into the site or shopping cart?
3. Does the website contain elements designed to encourage future or viral visitation (i.e. a contest, newsletter, tell-a-friend feature, and forum with subscription option, downloadable toolbar, RSS feed or similar)? – Different Title for every page that start (or at least have it as 2nd or 3rd word) with the single most relevant key phrase that describes the content or function of the page the best. (if you have to explain what the page is for and can only use 1-3 words as Keyword or Phrase, what would it be?)
4. Robots.txt configured?
5. Site Map available?
6. Is every page accessible at least via a single plain HTML Link (no JavaScript or Flash Link)?
7. Does every page have at least some text in the content? (How much Text remains on the Page if you remove all Images, Videos, Flash, Java Applets and JavaScript Code? Anything? Is the remainder still states the pages purpose?)
8. Is every individual page only accessible via a single URL or are several URLs available (and worse, used) to access the same page? Duplicate Content Issue, Canonical URLs.

Legal Stuff/Re-Assurance/Legitimization

1. Contact Page with Real Address, Phone Number (Toll Free for Business) and Contact Form or Email available, basically a clear and easy to use feedback/contact mechanism? A visitor might not assume webmaster@ or you might want them to write elsewhere, or you might prefer to give them a form to structure their communications.
2. DMCA Notice up? Terms of Use page available where you specify what you do and why and what visitors have to agree on if they want to use your site? This is to protect yourself from complains or worse regarding things that you cannot control properly, such as links to 3^rd party websites or Ads from automated systems such as Google AdSense etc.
3. Privacy Policy up (especially if you collect data, email, names, and web analytics tracking cookies)?

Feel free to add to the list by leaving a comment.

Exis game’s website by Rogue Planet Games is launched!

Posted on Mar 10, 2010 by Peter Ellis in Portfolio, Web Design

We are very proud to announce the launch of the Exis game website.

Exis is a game that is currently being developed by an up and coming game developer, Rogue Planet Games.

The client approached us to take over his website design after having issues with tow other design firms. His requests, coupled with the demands of the project, changed our role from designers to project managers. We set forth combining the art from numerous artists around the world, animation from another design firm, and audio content to create a gaming website using database features and user interface options.

This project started of as website design and development, but quickly morphed into a large-scale managed project, that we had an honor of taking the lead on. Working with a dozen of amazing and innovative artists from all over the world made this particular website project one-of-a-kind for DIF Design.

You can ready the rest of the Project Overview in our Case Study done on Exis game. To view Exis website – click here

Coppa Law Group

Posted on Mar 06, 2010 by Peter Ellis in Graphic Design, Portfolio, Web Design

Welcome the newest addition to our portfolio – Coppa Law Group.

Coppa Law Group is an innovative, cutting-edge law firm dedicated in providing the highest quality legal services and they wanted their brand to back them up – strong, rich, and modern. This forward thinking law group is now equipped with a powerful brand.

The corporate identity for the Law Group is complete and we are working on their website now. The website is going to be one of the few theme-oriented websites that we get to design.

For me, theme-oriented designs are very interesting yet challenging to work on. On one side, the theme is pretty much determind by the business that the website is for. On the other, we need to make sure that its not overboard cute.

Well, you be the judge, stay tuned, the website should go live by April 2010.

Tips for Non-Profit Online Communities

Posted on Feb 13, 2010 by Peter Ellis in News, Social Media, Web Design

From Mashable, view original post

So much conversation about social networking revolves around Twitter and Facebook, but in actuality these networks are just the tip of the iceberg. From general networks like Wiser Earth and Care2, to cause specific networks like PickensPlan and the Sierra Club’s Activist Network, there’s a hotbed of social activity occurring in private communities. Non-profit oriented networks use a wide variety of social tools to foster community, including their own white label communities.

Non-profits use white label platforms like Ning to connect with their communities. Ning serves 1.6 million networks (see Mashable’s Six Ways to Use Ning post). “What we’re seeing organizations and non-profits use Ning for is to develop a deeper layer of conversation and engagement with their supporters and advocates,” said Ning’s Morgan Seal. “Their memberships are those that are looking for a more contextual social experience around the things they care about most.”

Here are five tips for non-profits considering their own white label community.

1. The Cause is the Purpose

The cause is the purpose of the network. Don’t build a network for your organization’s website. The mission of the site needs to revolve around the general common bond a non-profit has with its stakeholder community.

“I feel we may be successful because we deeply believe in the importance of community and what it does to people touched by diabetes,” said Manny Hernandez, president of the Diabetes Hands Foundation, which runs the 13,000 person TuDiabetes network. “We have seen so many people come back to us and say: ‘I have had diabetes for X many years. I felt so alone. I never knew there were SO many people who felt exactly like me.’”

2. Listen

Listening to your community remains a core social media principle. When considering building a cause or organization-specific network, listening can be critical in driving community requirements for function and content.

“I think it’s imperative to have a good ‘listening and monitoring’ plan in place to see what their stakeholders are doing online in public spaces — basically to figure out what their audience’s capacity is for collaboration and collective action online in general,” said Maddie Grant, Chief Social Media Strategist for Social Fish. “They should then be able to figure out whether that activity could translate to engagement in their own community site.”

3. Choose a Platform that Serves Your Community’s Needs

Some networks enable privacy; others integration with larger networks. Still others offer great information sharing via wikis. When considering the many white label community options avalaible, try to understand what your community’s needs are before setting up shop.

“Our community had a unique need for a secure and private space where Iraq and Afghanistan veterans could connect with one another, share stories, offer support, and know that the people they’re interacting with share many of the same life experiences,” said Chrissy Stevens, Communications Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). “We spent months assessing our options for starting a white-label social network, and Ning was the only platform that offered the right combination of privacy controls, quality user experience, easy administration and customization, and ongoing support.”

4. Offer Great Value to Your Network

The classic community mistake is to use a network to drive information out into the public as opposed to creating a compelling experience for members. Sometimes that means getting out of the way. Providing value includes a dynamic environment where members interact and drive conversation, participate in activity they can’t find on general social networks, and receive acknowledgment.

“A social network needs to deliver value. I don’t think that you should be sending the members links to your research and reports 5 times a day,” said Holly Ross, Executive Director, NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network. “A theater company may be able to serve its patrons by providing a social space for the patrons to discuss play writing, set design, and/or the latest shows from the company.  A health organization may serve its clients by giving them a space to talk to and support one another privately.”

5. Use the General Networks as Beachheads

It’s smart to include Twitter and Facebook functionality in your general strategy. In many ways, there’s a larger conversation occurring and the general networks can serve as beachheads to bring people back to your network. Conversely, integrating Twitter and Facebook allows for people within your network to talk about your activities in the larger context.

“Even though we run our own niche social network, we are heavily engaged on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn,” said Steve Ressler, founder of GovLoop. “Plus, we speak a lot at in-person events where lots of government folks attend.  This draws a lot of our membership and engagement.”

“They are in a way their own communities, but we are OK with the fact that not all conversations that start through our Twitter account or our FaceBook page end up on TuDiabetes or EsTuDiabetes,” said TuDiabetes’ Manny Hernandez. “Put another way, people will have conversations where it’s most convenient to them and groups creating online communities need to be mindful of this.”