The book Hard Facts talks about the importance of making decisions based on evidence and data ("experiment-driven, data-driven mind-set").  At this point in the book the authors are talking about how fully Yahoo! embraces this approach:

"Yahoo! Inc is skilled at running experiments and learning from them, as well as building a culture that emphasizes evidence-based management. Usama Fayyad, chief data officer at Yahoo!, points out that because its home page gets literally millions of hits an hour, the company can design rigorous experiments that yield results in an hour or less -- randomly assigning, say, one or two hundred thousand visitors to the experimental group and several million to the control group ... Yahoo! conducts experiments and uses the results to enhance company revenues and profits.  Much of this can be done very quickly; sometimes, results can be seen within minutes of tweaking something on the homepage or in Yahoo! Mail. This means there is no reason to spend time discussing which variation to explore or what design opportunities to pursue -- it is often cheaper, easier, and faster to simply try all of them and learn what actually works. Yahoo! typically runs 20 or so experiments at any time, manipulating things like color, placement of advertisements, and location of text and buttons. These little experiments can have big effects, like the one run by Nitin Sharma, which showed that simply moving the search box from the side to the center of the home page would produce enough additional 'click-throughs' to bring in about $20 million more in advertising revenue a year ... Yahoo! has the mind-set that says, Instead of debating which screen design looks best, or which placement of content and which choice of specific content works best, we're going to try it all and see what works."

-- Hard Facts by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton

I absolutely love this paper. I bought it from Falkiner's when I was with L and am very sorry I didn't buy more. Still, it's a good reason to go back. I have waited until I had a paper to go inside it that would do it justice. The one I chose is OK but not brilliant so I will keep searching. They are both Japanese Chiyogami papers. The paper inside the book is a beautiful handmade watercolour paper from Wookey Hole Paper Mill. It does make a very pretty book.

I have been spending most of my time designing the web site for selling these books. We finally decided on a name, I registered the domain name, and proceeded to design a logo and I took a fabulous photo (she said modestly!) for the banner on the home page, incorporating my logo and was really pleased with the result. I then received an e-mail from the hosting company telling me that the domain name had been registered by someone else, just before I tried to register it so it was now unavailable after all. I was so disappointed. For a time I thought all the work I had put in was now wasted but eventually, I thought of a slight change to the name so that I could still use the image and the logo.

Finding a domain name that is short, appropriate and memorable is a nightmare. Everything seems to have been snapped up and is only available to backorder, which is very irritating and frustrating. I hope I might still get the original name but I'm not holding my breath.

Lucid Design is looking for talented people who are skilled with XHTML, Javascript and CSS and have a good eye for nice design. We are also looking for Ruby on Rails developers with good technical knowledge and good application development ideas and experience.

We are looking for someone with previous experience, enthusiasm and a desire to learn.

If this sounds like you and you are a New Zealand resident, please get in touch with Galen at info@luciddesign.co.nz.

Download Free Vector Icon Resources Freebie
3.02mb | 1 x AI | 1 x EPS | 1 x PSD | 1 x JPG

by: spoongraphics

Inspired by helping my boyfriend on his online music business, I wanted to find an alternate solution for him to sell his items, without paying for the high commissions on Amazon and Ebay. So I dove into the world of CSS, PHP, SQL and HTML and started learning e-commerce design.

After months of library trips, searching online and reading message boards, we created http://underground-discs.com. During that experience, I found some invaluable websites. These are sites I still use on a daily basis.

1. Color.cgi by Caspian - I love this handy online tool to identify the HTML color with the code. There are several times, I have the number, but I'm not sure what color it references. What is also helpful is if I'm looking for a complimentary color, it's very simple to find.
2. Da Fonts.com - This is one of my favorite websites to find great font! Sometimes I just search though the selections for inspirations. Not only are all the fonts downloadable, but they are also categorized by type.
3. FrogJS Image Gallery - I came across this script when searching for a good method to display a client's images. Most Javascript coding I felt were bland and boring. This however, has a smooth transition and works on all browsers.
4. Couloir Image Gallery - I fell in love with this script for images. It has a "flash" like feeling without the requirements of flash plugins.
5. Cube Cart - After testing other "open source" coding e-commerce solutions, I found Cube Cart to not only be the most informative, but easiest to work with. What is nice about Cube Cart is advanced options (coupons, discounts, etc) can be purchased by many helpful 3rd party designers at very low cost. However, all the of the style and design is with a simple CSS format.
6. MAGIX Photo Clinic - Before I purchased Adobe Photoshop, I was in a mad search for an intuitive, photo editing program. Since I had no budget, I needed something inexpensive or FREE! I came across Magix Photo Clinic at www.tucows.com and used it every day since. Not only did it help me scale my photos and make minor edits, it was very helpful when selecting colors and identifying the HTML color code. Now that I have Adobe Photoshop, I still find myself using both programs for for editing graphics. I guess old habits are hard to break!
7. Tucows.com - Since i"m a girl on a budget, I'm all about freeware and shareware. Before I commit myself to an application, I want to test and ensure this is the application I need. Tucow.com helps me not only identify what application I should try, but also helps find inexpensive alternatives.
8. Myhours.com - Every consultant should have a method to time stamp their work spent. My Hours.com is a great application I can log and manage my clients projects and send them an accurate report for billing.

Without these tools, I don't think I would be designing and creating web pages today.

Here is an amazing and inspiring story of a teenager Ashley Qualls, Founder Whateverlife. She may not have an MBA, a high-school diploma, or even a driver's license yet, but Ashley Qualls already has an influential and lucrative Web site. Whateverlife.com attracts more than 7 million visitors a month -- mostly teen girls, a valuable but typically elusive niche audience. In just two years it has generated more than $1 million in ad revenue.
more in here

So you’ve been tasked with creating or redesigning a Web site. First you need a design, right? No!

Don’t worry. Many people are tempted to begin looking at designs right away. Before you can even get to that point, however, you should be putting together a plan. Your plan should include talking to your customers to understand their needs. (You are thinking about them, not just you, right?) You should also be taking this opportunity to determine what content you will and won’t include, and how to present it. When you’re ready to start laying it out, there should be sketches and wireframes long before you begin coding.

To help with your process, I’ve put together a list of resources that I have found particularly useful. You can find them on my Web Design Resources page.

I have included Web sites and books. They are good for those who are just starting out with a new Web site, as well as those that want to improve their existing sites. Most of them are written in plain, conversational English, so you don’t have to be a programmer to understand them. And no, they didn’t pay me to include them here. I regularly visit the sites on the list and I’ve actually read all of the books and keep them handy for easy reference. Hope you find some good ones. The comments area is active on that page, so if you have others to add, leave a note.

Enjoy!

Grazie ad una segnalazione su Tevac, ecco una risorsa utile per coloro che desiderano testare le loro pagine su iPhone, ma che per motivi pratici non ne dispongono.

When it comes to cycling, combining safety with style is not always easy. However, these new bicycle tires from Sweetskinz merge the two effortlessly. Sweetskinz is a range of nocturnal tires which are light reflective at night.

Unlike many reflective add-on features, the entire rubber tire itself is reflective. With urban edge, graffiti inspired patterns such as the fiery 'Scorch' and the snake like 'Rattleback', riders can be seen at night in style. by Andy G

see also, pac man bike spokes and hokey spokes

read more | digg story

Instant credibility goes a long way when gathering online traffic and attempting to maintain it. You over-Ad your page, and plug in some nasty SEO text, and you've all but lost your audience. Someone might come visit once, by accident, or because you are saying all the right SEO things, but if you want return visitors, you need to have your pages be content-rich not "SEO-Content" Rich.

I was recently searching online for wallpaper - really just to find out about the file type, size, etc. to use that information in creating my own wallpaper. After clicking on an ad that took me to an "Ad Directory" page and then that took me to another Ad Directory page which gave several links, one on which I chose to click. (irritatingly enough, I don't really want to give this site more traffic, but I think the example illustrates this well)

http://www.screensaversandwallpapersfree.com/categoryLanding.aspx?category=Nature&imgId=Nature&gclid=CNySw4O3m44CFQltZQod0SzkZg

You wade through the ads on the page to get to the content which is buried in, guess what? MORE ads. Then there is a block of text down at the bottom which randomly throws in keywords that might come up in a search. At this point, I'm afraid to click on anything because the last thing I want is to get stuck in a never ending ad trail. I decide to abandon my search till another more tolerant day.

I'm read the text and thinking of people like me, who know a bit about SEO and I know this page is just trying get me there. And, well, I did get there. But at what cost?

Unfortunately, this page actually has a decent design potential, but mucked up with SEO content and ads, has zero credibility.

Don't get sucked into the "traffic black hole" and compromise your brand, your design and the potential for returning visitors. Doing anything you can just to get more traffic is a compromise that will only lead you to an empty site with no visitors and a lot of work down the tubes. It degrades your site foundation which is important for future success.

Just my 2¢ anyway!