Katy Jackson Web Design

I’m twittering - twice!

katyjack — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:15:59 +0000

I’ve had a twitter account to accompany my personal blog, Useless Internet, for a while now - uselessinternet - but I’ve just now created a new twitter account for web design and general tech news updates. You can find me at katyjackdesign and I’m looking forward to posting there and here more frequently.

Even More New Sites!

katyjack — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:31:11 +0000

I’d like to announce two more new sites. Both are weblogs — Useless Internet is a compendium of fun ways to waste time on the Internet and Teens and Tweens Blog focuses on issues important to parents of teenagers and pre-teens. Be sure and check them both out!

New Sites!

katyjack — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 01:47:16 +0000

katyjackson.net has been the typical shoemaker’s child in the past few months. I’ve been so busy on other projects that I’ve totally neglected my own site. However, I’ve got 2 new sites I want to announce today and I’ll be announcing two more in the very near future.

soozietyrell.com is a new site that I’m very proud of. It’s for Soozie Tyrell, an accomplished singer and songwriter, who is also the violinist for Bruce Springseen’s E Street Band.

pintsizedparties.com is also a site that is gathering some news. The site is for a children’s party planning service and Pint-Sized Parties was recently featured in Ebony Magazine!

Stay tuned for other new sites!

Happy Valentine’s Day

katyjack — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 22:26:43 +0000

Here’s your Valentine’s Day Treat from katyjackson.net - the valentine my son inexplicably had me make. He instructed to make it as tacky and cheesy as possible and took a stack to school to hand out to strangers. He reports the whole experience was a wonderful success and I’d say that, given the constraints of my instructions, the valentine itself is also a success.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Preserving Our History

katyjack — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:47:25 +0000

I recently completed a site for John Webb, who is running for a position on the city council for Norcross, GA because he is concerned about the recent bulldozing of several historic properties in Norcross to make room for more lucrative infill development. A listing of the recent demolished properties and properties at risk seen at Save Historic Norcross (another client of mine) is an eye-opening view into what has and what can be lost. Let’s hope there are more people like John Webb looking out for these beautiful pieces of properties.

Update: John Webb sadly did not succeed in his city council campaign, but he will continue to use his site to educate Norcross citizens about the issues facing the city.

Are you concerned about website accessibility?

katyjack — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:16:52 +0000

You might want to think about it. A lawsuit filed against Target by the National Federation of the Blind just got a little more serious. It was elevated to a class action lawsuit by a federal district court in California, surprising many legal analysts. According to an article in Internetnews.com:

Federal District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel also ruled yesterday that both the American Disability Act (ADA) and California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act required Target.com to be accessible to the blind.

This means that all e-commerce retailers should check their site’s accessibility and take steps to overcome any shortcomings.

More about the lawsuit:

Target.com Faces Class Action Suit Over Accessibility

Some good resources for learning about accessibility:

And can we mention Target without mentioning?

Can good design change the world?

katyjack — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:36:42 +0000

Richard Grefe at ABriefMessage.com writes a compelling piece for today, the sixth anniversary of 9/11. In 911, 9/11: The Power of Communication, Grefe discusses how designers can use their abilities to solve complex problems and open the channels of communication between cultures. Worth a quick read.

911, 9/11: The Power of Communication at ABriefMessage.com

One Reason to Tone Down the Ads

katyjack — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:11:32 +0000

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen’s blog has a fascinating article this month on how website users deal with “ad clutter” on websites — they simply don’t look at anything that looks like an ad.

He points to a usability study of the U.S. Census Bureau’s website - 86% of the site’s users could not find the current population of the United States. This is astonishing because the current population is the largest element on site and is formatted in blinding red.

Nielson points out that eyetracking studies showed that users looked at the section containing the population information, but quickly scanned over it because it was so heavily formatted that it looked like an advertisement. That’s a thought provoking idea when you want to really highlight something on your site. Sometimes the loudest element on the page goes unheard.

Smarter Keyword Purchases

admin — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:50:03 +0000

So, you’ve decided to start buy keywords on Google or other search engines to promote your website. But how can you decide which keywords will be the most effective? The best method is still to really get to know your target audience from the inside out, but here’s a free tool that will help: Digital Point’s Free Keyword Suggestion tool lets you enter a phrase and see how often your phrase is searched for in Wordtracker and Overture search engines. It also suggests other phrases that may be good keyword fits. You can use this tool as a brainstorming aid and then check your likely contenders in Google. It’s a good way to come up with some effective keywords.

Web 2.0 Logo Style

admin — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 13:39:46 +0000

Today, we’ll continue our series on Web 2.0 style by looking at Web 2.0 style logos. If your business needs a new logo that will have a good presence on paper and on a website, then you’ll want to see the latest style in logo design.

In general, Web 2.0 style logos have many of the same characteristics as a general Web 2.0 style website, such as:

large text
bright colors - blue, green, or red predominate
simplicity - many Web 2.0 style logos are simply made of text or text with a small icon.

You can find several resources for Web 2.0 logo inspiration. Try these:

The FontFeed - The logos of web 2.0 - great article on Web 2.0 logo design.
web2.0logo.com - great collection of Web 2.0 style logos
Five free fonts for Web 2.0 logos