Nerdburn - Web application & graphic user interface design blog by Shawn Adrian

Summer Hails New Directions

2012-06-02T11:00:00-07:00

So, I've had this design since early 2007 - it's kind of embarrassing now. Like a plumber who's taps leak, or a cobbler who's children run barefoot, my website is a poor reflection of the work I do. It's time to revise.

What's Coming?

I'm switching gears this summer to focus on QuoteRobot and Exching, my two startups, so that means less time for client work. I'll write more about this transition in the coming months - it's pretty exciting. I've spent the majority of my time developing work clients for the last 15 years, and it's exhilarating thinking I can apply that same passion and energy to projects I dream up myself.

I'll be blogging more this summer as well, so I look forward to hearing from all of you who continue to read and comment. Thanks a bunch.

Giving Back Is Getting Ahead: Three Tips From Hiten Shah

2011-10-12T09:38:00-07:00

We're only a few days past the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday, and I have plenty to be thankful about. Yesterday I had the opportunity to chat with Hiten Shah, one of the most generous startup founders in Silicon Valley and founder of KISSmetrics and CrazyEgg - two apps I use and love.

Like Hiten, I'm a big believer than whatever you give comes back bigger. Maybe not immediately, maybe not in the same way, but it will come back around. He signs his email newsletters with this quote from Zig Zigler, which I believe to be true:

You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.

I've seen this principal at work in my own life through this blog. A couple of years ago I gave away my web design proposal template and to my surprise, thousands of people began downloading it every month! This led me to create QuoteRobot with my good friend Jon Cochran, and now thousands of people have signed up for it, earning us a bit of residual income, which I've written about before here.

Three Tips From Hiten Shah

In the spirit of openness I've decided to share the tips that Hiten shared with me during our phone call yesterday.

Tip #1: Focus On One Thing

I'm always dreaming up new apps to launch, and seeing the potential in plenty of opportunities. It was encouraging to me to hear that if Hiten could do it all again, he would have focused on CrazyEgg until he reached his goals, instead of starting another VC funded app when he did. KISSmetrics is a huge success, and he has no regrets about starting it, but I got the sense he was urging me to choose one app and focus until I reached my goals before starting up another venture.

Tip #2: Treat Your Side Projects The Same As Your Client Work

While complaining that I'm spending so much time doing client work that I hardly have any to work on my beloved apps, Hiten reminded me of some wisdom shared years ago by 37signals when they were in the same position. You should treat your side projects as though they are clients. Setting a budget (time), milestones, and deliverables, and holding yourself to them. That is the best way to get your projects finished while juggling consulting work.

Tip #3: Don't Raise VC Money Unless...

...you want to build a $100 million dollar business. If you're in this to create a nice comfortable residual income for yourself, you're not likely going to want the pressure of earning a 10x return in a few short years for some hungry investors. And why take friends and families money, gambling with all your close relationships on the chance of growing a business? If you're good at what you do and have an idea, build it, nurture it, and take it slowly. It'll pay off in the end. Hiten mentioned that after CrazyEgg, he was ready for massive challenge, and thought hard before taking the venture capital route. But he's happy he did it. So be ready if you choose that route!

In Closing

If this post has helped or encouraged you, please remember that I wrote it to share what was freely shared with me, so do the same and find real lasting success. Also, you could tweet about it too :) Also, feel free to check out my new app, coming soon, called Ticksheets - Easy custom timesheets for small business.

Great Customer Support = Measurable Revenue Growth

2011-06-25T13:52:00-07:00

We’ve all heard that great customer support is one key to success in business, but sometimes it’s difficult to measure it’s effect on revenue growth. Well, over the last couple of months I’ve witnessed an interesting by-product to hiring a team member to help with customer support... noticeable revenue growth!

Back Story

On June 1st, 2010, Jon Cochran and I launched QuoteRobot, an app that helps designers and coders create winning proposals quickly. It’s been a lot of work, and we’ve been lucky to see steady growth ever since our launch. I wrote another post about how much fun it is to create residual income with an app - it’s a lot of fun.

One of the things that’s also grown has been the amount of customer support emails we receive. With our day jobs (Jon and I both actively design and code for a living) we’d been falling behind this year on the day to day support and bug fixing end of things. We decided to hire an additional team member in April 2011, and hired an excellent guy named Randy Jennings.

Fewer Cancelations = More Revenue

Like any web 2.0 startup founders, we measure everything religiously. Visitors, signups, retention rates, click through rates, etc. We keep our fingers on the pulse of the business. Watching the numbers is one of the joys of startup life.

Our cancelation rate for new signups has always hovered around 50%. That meant that for every ten people who put in their credit card to use QuoteRobot, five would quit. It became a sort of the rule of thumb we’d use to estimate our future revenue growth.

Since Randy’s been tackling the customer support, we’ve seen a major decrease in cancelations. So major in fact, that our cancelations are down 40%. That’s right, 40% fewer people are canceling now that we have somebody answering emails immediately upon arrival! We had no idea this would make such a difference! I feel naive for not getting on it sooner.

The Graph

Here’s a little graph I made to show the difference it’s made.

We started out the year with an abnormally high cancelation rate. Some bugs emerged during our Christmas hacking sessions that we didn't squash in time, and people are generally more inclined to clean up their credit card bills early in the new year. Then in March, we fixed a bunch of bugs and promoted the changes, so we saw a dip in cancelations, but April brought them back up to the average. Then, we beefed up our customer support, and we've seen what appears to be a sustainable drop in cancelations!

Based on our average cancelation rate of 50% last year, we've seen a 40% drop in cancelations over the last couple of months. Pretty awesome! Talk about some great motivation to continue helping people create winning proposals.

Want More?

If you liked this article and want more, please consider tweeting about it, sharing it, or just following me on Twitter (upper right). Thanks a bunch for reading.

Three Key Ingredients For Success In Business

2011-02-24T09:47:00-08:00

Are you constantly fighting to achieve, but not quite seeing the success you want? Do you look at your failures and cringe, frustrated and eager to improve, but not sure why you fail? I’ve been in this situation, and have been studying the issue over the last couple of years.

Dr. Henry Cloud, a clinical psychologist and leadership consultant, wrote a book titled Integrity which is one of the best books I’ve read on the subject. In the first chapter he outlines three key ingredients for success, which I thought I’d share with you since they resonated with my own experiences.

Competence

Successful people are good at what they do. If you’re a programmer, be great at it. Study, write code, create side projects. Improve. Same for designers. Design passionately and study to improve.

Connections

Be a person who makes alliances with other people. Not just networking, which is sales oriented and one sided, but real human connections. Befriend and give to people. Build trust and those relationships will improve your life.

Character

This is the kicker. You can have both competence and connections, but if you don’t have the character to “not screw it up” you’re bound to fail eventually. We all know somebody like this - a person so talented it just hurts to watch them fail over and over. The missing ingredient is character. The ability to act on your promises, fulfill commitments, draw clear relationship boundaries, and keep your word.

This article is really just a tickle - if you’d like to dive deeper, I recommend picking up the book and reading it yourself.

Facebook Like Button PSD Download

2011-02-22T10:07:00-08:00

Lately I've been putting like buttons on most web sites, and while I'm designing it's always tricky if I don't have a proper transparent PSD of the like button. So, I made one this morning and figured I'd share it.

I'm sure you can easily make one yourself, but sometimes a quick Google search is easier for us lazy designers ;)

Click to Download (PSD)

If you used this, please tweet, Digg, or share it however you like. Thanks!

Designer Turned Coder: Three Apps I Launched in 2010

2011-01-20T12:04:00-08:00

The year of 2010 marked a turning point in my life.

I had been designing web sites for 15 years, in every capacity. I'd been a freelance designer, a UI designer working on startups, an in house designer, leader of a design agency, and even a sales person. The only hat I hadn't worn was the elusive and superior title of "coder", and I wasn't sure I could do it, because I was a designer.

When I was in house at Viviti, as a UI designer, I dabbled in ROR (Ruby on Rails) thanks to Tyler Kiley who sat next to me and patiently answered my questions about coding (he's since moved on to found InQuicker).

Anyway, after that I decided I would try PHP, which I enjoyed a lot more. I'd been writing HTML in text since before there were WYSIWYG editors, so being able to build something from scratch without the magic of rails was more appealing to me. In early 2010, I decided to build my wife an app as a learning experiment, and I donned the coder hat for the first time.

App #1: Exching

Exching is a marketplace for used (pre-loved as my wife says) clothes and accessories. My wife designed it and I built it on Caffeine PHP, a very small framework my friend Gavin had been working on for years.

Exching is live, and growing every day (with no marketing budget). I launched it in March of 2010 much to the enjoyment of my wife. It's taken all year to gain any traction, but we're now seeing daily sign ups and items posted all over North America.

App #2: QuoteRobot

In June, I launched QuoteRobot with my partner Jon Cochran. It's an app that helps designers and coders create quotes and win projects. I use it every week and I love it. I'd consider it a success even if nobody else used since, since it saves me hours every time I need to write a proposal, but fortunately we had over 1000 people sign up the week we launched it, so others share my sentiment.

QuoteRobot became profitable in August and continues to grow. We built it on CodeIgniter, and Jon did most of the coding work, including some terrific Javascript wizardry. He's brilliant to work with, and I've decided that launching an app with a partner is definitely the way to go.

App #3: Golf Group Manager

In May I was approached to build an app called Golf Group Manager. This app allows golf groups to manage their members, create games, and track statistics. I took on the job, and as my first foray into creating an app for a client from scratch (without outsourcing anything), I admittedly did everything wrong. I underquoted, over committed my time to other projects, and blew the timeline in a way I hadn't since I was a teenager. Fortunately, I was blessed with amazingly patient and generous clients.

It was embarrassing, but in the end the project was launched and I learned a ton. The client is happy and the future looks bright :) Whew.

What I Learned

Everything takes longer to code than expected so add extra hours to every quote
Working with a partner is more fun and less stressful
Small projects are better for cashflow (as a freelancer) than large projects
Anyone who wants can learn to code (don't tell yourself you can't do something)

What do you think? I'd love your feedback on my year long adventure into coding so leave me a comment!

A Web Designers Story - Getting Off The Merry Go Round

2010-11-13T20:55:00-08:00

If you’re a web designer, I’ll bet the majority of your time is spent thinking about projects. New projects, old projects, the value of each project, exciting projects you could land, and the satisfying income generated by creating projects.

After 15 years of that, I’ve ridden every horse on the merry go round and I’m tired of the same old track.

Oh, the thrill of the chase still excites me. A new project right around the corner. The pitch, landing it, that first payment at the start, the finish line at the end - but when it’s over, you’re going to be chasing another project. Another spin on the merry go round.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love building projects. I love each of my clients, and helping them build their business' gives me a deep and rewarding sense of satisfaction. After 15 years I feel more passionate about helping clients set and reach goals, and using my skills to achieve them than I ever have. What I'm talking about here is the merry go round of depending on the next project for your next paycheck. If you're a freelancer especially, I'm sure you understand.

The funny thing is, I had only felt inklings of the merry go round dizziness earlier this year. Then something happened. Jon and I launched QuoteRobot in June, and all of the sudden the wheel was revealed for the cycle it is. The curtain was pulled back and my eyes were opened. Oh, the sheer unrelenting joy of having a product in the world. What a new and fascinating way to earn an income!

It's amazing to me how QuoteRobot grows every month - people offer suggestions for new features, more people sign up and my income increases, whether I spend hours working on the project or not. Don’t get me wrong, I spend the hours, but my income isn’t directly related to the hours I work. It’s like riding a horse on the merry go round for 15 years and suddenly taking a ride on a unicorn and experiencing freedom for the first time.

Now that I’ve had a taste, I don’t think I can ever go back. I'm re-structuring my entire design business around monthly contracts for ongoing service. The realization of residual vs. project based income is mind blowing.

I haven’t stopped doing client work, and the majority of my income is still project based, but I’ve had a taste of freedom and I'm going to chase it with every spare moment I have.

What do you think?

6 Things Freelance Designers Should Check out Today

2010-08-25T09:50:00-07:00

This is a small list of a few things I feel are worthy of sharing on my blog today. If you into designing web apps, like I am, or creating UX and UI, you'll find this stuff especially interesting. If you prefer to focus on graphic or web site design, then this stuff will simply expand your mind a little :)

Here We Go

1) Mitchell Harpers Videos Series - Bootstrapping to 7 Figures

This is an excellent watch. I found myself taking notes. If, like me, you're a freelancer with an app and a dream, or just a dream to create an app, this will inspire you. Plus, you'll get bonus points if you send it to your clients, as they'll likely be inspired by it too.

2) 52 Weeks of UX

Read this, all of it. Joshua Porter is one of my favorite UX / UI writers and practitioners. He's constantly inspiring me to be better at the job I love so much.

3) Brian Cray's Blog

Some really juicy and informative articles here relating to UX / UI design. Plus, his blog itself is an example of a very clean, minimalist, usable design. I really love it and enjoy every new post he writes. I'm sure you will too.

4) QuoteRobot - Multi-page Proposals in Moments

Ok so this is a shameless plug for my own app - but I really believe it will help you trim down the time you spend writing proposals, and give you more time to design, or do whatever else you like more than writing proposals (ha, everything I bet).

5) Pictos Web Icons Font

This font from Drew Wilson is clever and perfect for creating icons without using images in your designs. Beautiful, usable, pure css icons. What more could you ask for?

6) SAAS Spreadsheat For Residual Income Business Models

This very interesting spreadsheet will enlighten you if you're trying to build a residual income business, like I am, and many of my clients are. Stuff like this is gold. Thank you Ryan Carson and Marc Roberts.

Let me know if you find any of this helpful. I don't often write posts with lists of links, but why not eh? If you like what I like, then consider following me on Twitter. Cheers.

Complete List of Tax Increases in BC with HST

2010-07-01T10:21:00-07:00

Well, today is Canada day, and also the first day that the new HST takes effect in BC. If you live in BC, as I do, you're probably wondering how the new HST will affect your day to day spending. I've taken the time to create a no clutter, complete list of tax increases in BC as a result of HST. I hope it helps to clarify things for you.

What will cost more with HST?

	Was	Now
Around The House
Newspapers	5%	12%
Certain School Supplies	5%	12%
Magazines	5%	12%
EnergyStar Windows 5% No PST 3 Yes	5%	12%
Thermal Insulation, Weather Stripping and Caulking	5%	12%
First Aid Kits	5%	12%
Smoke Detectors Valued Less Than $250 for Residential Use	5%	12%
Food Producing Plants and Trees	5%	12%
Household Moving Services	5%	12%
Clothing
Adult Sized Clothing for Children	5%	12%
Shoe Repair	5%	12%
Tailoring Services	5%	12%
Dry Cleaning	5%	12%
Used Adult Clothing Purchased for Less Than $100	5%	12%
Food
Snack Foods	5%	12%
Restaurant Meals	5%	12%
Alcoholic Beverages	5%	12%
Catering and Event Planning Services	5%	12%
Home Services
Basic Cable Television	5%	12%
Local Residential Phone	5%	12%
Repair to Refrigerators, Washers, and Dryers	5%	12%
Repair, Maintenance or Renovation Services for Real Property	5%	12%
Landscaping, Lawn-Care, Snow Removal, Cleaning	5%	12%
Accomodation / Travel
Taxis	5%	12%
Camping Sites	5%	12%
Domestic Air, Rail and Bus Travel	5%	12%
Motor Vehicle Parking	5%	12%
Home Purchases
Real Estate Commissions	5%	12%
Health & Beauty
Massage Therapy Services	5%	12%
Over-the-Counter Medications	5%	12%
Vitamins	5%	12%
Entertainment
Admission to Professional Sporting Events	5%	12%
Movie Tickets	5%	12%
Safety Helmets for Sports	5%	12%
Golf Memberships	5%	12%
Driving Range Fees	5%	12%
Gym and Athletic Memberships	5%	12%
Ballet, Karate, Trampoline, Hockey, Soccer Lessons etc.	5%	12%
Tickets for Live Theatre	5%	12%
Bicycles	5%	12%
Admission to Museums and Art Galleries	5%	12%
Music Concerts	5%	12%
Ski Lift Passes	5%	12%
Adult Sized Ski Gloves for Children	5%	12%
Adult Sized Ski Boots for Children	5%	12%
Children’s Sized Ski Boots	5%	12%
Hockey Rink and Hall Rentals	5%	12%
Electronics
Music or Video MP3s Downloaded Electronically	5%	12%
Services
Funeral Services	5%	12%
Fitness Trainer	5%	12%
Hair Stylist/Barber	5%	12%
Esthetician Services	5%	12%
Accounting Services	5%	12%
Interior Design Services	5%	12%
Wedding Planning Services	5%	12%
Veterinarian Services	5%	12%
Tobacco
Cigarettes	5%	12%
Cigars	5%	12%
Chewing Tobacco	5%	12%
Nicotine Replacement Products	5%	12%

In Summary

It looks to me like my own wallet will be hit hardest when it comes to entertainment and grooming. Things like seeing movies, renting movies, going out to eat, and getting my hair cut. What do you think of the new HST? If you're a web designer, or a freelancer, do you think it's going to affect your bottom line?

How to Select All New Entries From Today with MySQL

2010-06-17T08:18:00-07:00

Yesterday I wanted to create a little stats panel for a client that would tell me how many new people had signed up that day. Then I wanted to compare that with Google Analytics unique visitors to come up with a conversion rate for the day.

The Problem

The "creation_date" field in the "users" table was an int(12), and stored as a UNIX timestamp. The MySQL date() functions all work with "real" dates such as 2010-06-18, so comparing the UNIX timestamp with those didn't work.

The Solution

After some careful googling, I combined a couple of solutions to create this:

select id from users where date(from_unixtime(creation_date)) = date(now());

Using the from_unixtime() function, we convert the creation date field into a regular date field in this format: 2010-06-18 00:00:00. Then we run the date() function on that result to strip the 00:00:00 from it.

On the other side, we call the now() function, which gets the current date & time (according to the server, we won't get into timezones here). Then we call the date() function again to strip the 00:00:00 as it returns just the year-mm-dd. Then we compare them, and voila!

I hope this saves you a little searching.

QuoteRobot Lives! Try it Free for 30 Days

2010-05-31T13:39:00-07:00

This is just a quick post to let everyone know that Jon and I have finally launched QuoteRobot :) The official launch date isn't until tomorrow, June 1st, but we put it up early to make sure the DNS propagates in time. If you can see the site, you can sign up and enjoy the benefits because we're giving everyone a free 30 day unlimited trial.

If you have quotes or proposals to make, create them this month and it won't cost you anything! After that we're considering a base plan of $12 per month. Thanks for trying it, let me know what you think!

Buy & Sell Used Clothing & Accessories on Exching

2010-03-16T19:11:00-07:00

My wife Stephanie has been working on this idea for a while - a classifieds site where women (and men theoretically) can sell their used clothing and accessories (or "pre-loved" clothing and accessories in her words). She's just learning to design, and I don't think I'm biased in saying she did a pretty good job.

Show your support for a new designer by visiting Exching, and who knows, you might even want to sell your old clothes and accessories there.

If you find any bugs in my rapid implementation, which you will, please click the feedback link and let me know before my wife finds them first ;)

SimpleYouTube: PHP Class For Getting Video Details

2010-03-11T10:04:00-08:00

While writing a custom CMS for a client, I was approached with the request to enable it to accept any YouTube URL and add that video to a video gallery page on the web site. This turned out to be a lot easier than it sounds, and in this post I'm sharing the class I wrote to assist with the task.

Download It

Click below to download the file.

SimpleYouTube PHP Class
Free to download, modify, and use
Download (1.3kb, PHP File)

What Does It Do?

The class contains two methods (or functions if you're a beginner):

getVideoID($url) - Pass in any YouTube URL, the kind a client might copy and paste from the YouTube web site, and it will return the 11 character YouTube ID.
getVideoDetails($id) - Pass in a YouTube video ID, like the one acquired using the method above, and it will return the Title, Description, and Thumbnail information from YouTube, as an array.

See The Code

class SimpleYouTube {
                    
    // will parse the youtube URL passed to it and return
    // an 11 character youtube ID                
   function getVideoID($url)
   {
      // make sure url has http on it
      if(substr($url, 0, 4) != "http") {
         $url = "http://".$url;
      }
      
      // make sure it has the www on it
      if(substr($url, 7, 4) != "www.") {
        $url = str_replace('http://', 'http://www.', $url);
      }

      // extract the youtube ID from the url
      if(substr($url, 0, 31) == "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=") {
         $id = substr($url, 31, 11);
      }
         
      return $id;      
   }

   // will accept a youtube video ID
   // returns title, description, thumbnail
   function getVideoDetails($id)
   {
      // create an array to return
      $videoDetails = Array();
      
      // get the xml data from youtube
      $url = "http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/".$id;
      $xml = simplexml_load_file($url);
      
      // load up the array
      $videoDetails['title'] = $xml->title[0];
      $videoDetails['description'] = $sxml->content[0];
      $videoDetails['thumbnail'] = "http://i.ytimg.com/vi/".$id."/2.jpg";

      return $videoDetails;
   }

}
?>

That's it - again, it's a pretty simple class, but it does a nice clean job of what it's meant to.

Time Tracking - Hassle or Help? Freckle Enlightens

2010-03-03T09:30:00-08:00

I have a confession to make. I've been designing web sites for almost 15 years, in a variety of capacities, and I had never once logged my actual working hours... until late December of 2009, when I met Freckle, Amy Hoy and company's latest app. Oh, I had an awareness of how long things took, of course, after years of practice I can quote almost exactly the number of hours a specific job will take (give or take a few). But I'm not talking about guesstimating how long something will take, I'm talking about recording how long something did take, in actuality. I had yet to experience the cold hard facts, the truth, which strangely, has set me free.

I'm sure you're familiar with the day in and day out stress of carrying on business. You're balancing multiple projects, you're on the phone, you're trying desperately to focus and achieve - but there never seems to be enough hours in a day. I can relate.

Hassle Or Help?

When I came across Freckle at first, I was impressed with the pretty, usable interface, and made a mental note to try it out so I could write an article about the interface. I had always imagined that time tracking was going to be a hassle. As mentioned, I've been doing this for years and I make a good living from home, why should I track my hours?

Anyway, I signed up, I chose the "Solo Plan", and what immediately jumped out at me was the simplicity with which I could track my hours. This had obviously taken some thought, and it was executed with precision.

I'll spare you all a detailed play by play of the last couple of months and get right to the meat and potatoes of this article. Tracking my hours has been very enlightening and very freeing, and a huge help. I would recommend Freckle to anybody who doesn't mind shelling out $12 per month for a deeper look at their working habits.

A Closer Look

I learned a few things after a couple of months tracking my hours.

I actually work less hours than I thought I did (what a surprise when I feel like I'm working all the time!)
I should re-think my hourly rate
Time tracking is an incredibly valuable tool

I'll flesh these out in more detail below - let's take a look at some screen shots, because I know that's what you're here for.

A Big Home Page

When grabbing the screenshots for this JPG I was surprised how long this home page is! Almost 3000 pixels long! But hey, it's converting visitors into real customers (aka, me) so I'm not going to fault it. I'd be very curious what the conversion rate is for this site.

I love the choice of colors on this page, and the Slash7 mantra that software should be cheerful. Great concept and excellent execution.

Simplified Plans & Pricing Page

Ok, my first though about this page was that the layout changed... why? I can only guess and say that they've stripped all unrelated content from the page, including the more detailed top navigation that was on the home page, in an effort to focus users attention on the plans and the signup links. On the other hand, it could be that they were designed at separate times...

Informative Signup Page

The signup page includes description boxes to the right of the fieldset, and a clearly laid out form, including a radio button with an image for the type of credit card, which is a nice deviation from the select boxes many forms tend to take.

Unique Log In Page Design

The log in page is worth a mention because of the bright colors, right alignment, and the way it's situated in the browser window. It's a unique view of a log in page, and it makes me smile every time I log in, which must do something for usability, right?

Interactive Dashboard

I love the dashboard on this app because it's completely interactive. Rather than just grabbing bits of information from the other sections of the site, and giving a snapshot of where I'm at, the dashboard here does that, and also allows me to interact with the content. I can add hours by filling out a quick form at the top, with no need to use my mouse, and I can edit a time entry by pointing at it.

Keeping On The Pulse

I really enjoy how this page, which is just a quick monthly reporting of where my hours have gone, is called the Pulse. It gives me a clear, visual snapshot of where my hours have gone each month. You can drill down for more info on tags, hours, projects, or people by clicking on them.

Enlightening Project Page

I mentioned earlier that one of the things I learned from time tracking was that I should re-think my hourly rate. I've found that I'm usually coming in under budget on the number of hours I spend on each project lately. I must be getting faster! Getting faster is good news, and good reason to re-consider ones hourly rate. This page is enlightening because it shows the number of hours spent, how many are remaining in the budget, and helps to keep things on track and on budget.

Wowing Customer Support

You may have noticed those little pink "feedback" buttons on the left hand side of each page. Often they indicate a GetSatisfaction account, which is a great way to submit ideas, but not a great way to have a conversation, in my opinion, unless the company using it is constantly on GetSatisfaction. Freckle receives bonus points in my book for building what looks like their own feedback system.

Clicking the pink link pops up a feedback window where you can give advice or ask a question. I used it twice, and both times received a personal email back, from Amy, about my idea or issue and what they were doing to solve it. Great customer support, and what a way to build relationships with users. Kudos.

Time Tracking Has Been a Big Help

To sum up, time tracking has been a big eye opener and a real help for me. My productivity has increased, because my estimating has become even more accurate, and I have seen how much time I spend goofing off during the week. You'll remember I was surprised to find I had only logged an average of 30 hours per week. That works out to 2 hours less per day of actual working time than I would log for a full 40 hour work week. What am I doing with those hours? I suppose lunch counts for one, but the other must just be Twitter, blogs, coffee breaks, etc. Very interesting data to work with.

If you're not tracking your hours, I suggest you start. And what better place to start than Freckle? You can try it free for a month, and if you decide it's worth it, then you can continue using it and paying for it. I bet you'll decide it's worth it.

What Do You Think?

Do you track your hours? Have you used Freckle? I'd love to hear your opinion in the comments, especially if you have some useful bit of data about your working habits that you've mined from your hours.

QuoteRobot: Helping Designers Create Quotes & Win Jobs

2010-01-04T13:27:00-08:00

My good friend Jon and I have been working over the holidays on a dream of mine I had a couple of years ago called QuoteRobot. It's a web app we're building that will help designers and coders create quotes and win jobs, and we're both pretty excited about it.

I figured I'd post about it and show a few comp screenshots. This is all in development, but I welcome your feedback and comments. Feel free to check out the splash page here.

A Few Screens

Here's one of the splash page:

Here's one of the upcoming home page:

Here's a concept of the creator (lacking some color at this point):

Here's an edit on the handles for pages:

Unique Features

QuoteRobot was created in response to the popularity of my free web design proposal template. The idea is to take a tedious process like creating quotes and proposals, and turn it into something that's fun, and really easy. Here's how we intend to accomplish that:

Drag & drop pages: Need a title page on your quote? Drag the template from a list onto the canvas and fill out the resulting form.
Social line items: QuoteRobot will remember line items from the whole user base, and you'll be able to rate, comment, and use them as you wish. This will (hopefully) take the guess work out of quoting.
Multiple templates: Although we'll launch shortly with only one template, we will eventually allow the addition of user-generated templates.
Output to PDF, web, and email: Send the quote / proposal to your client the way you want to.
Immediate acceptance & feedback: Once your client receives the quote, they can click to accept it, comment on it, or refuse it, so you know where you stand immediately.

Help Promote QuoteRobot

Please visit QuoteRobot, subscribe to the email list, and post, tweet, blog and IM about it! Jon and I both work full time and are crunching this out in our spare time so it's a lot of work, but we're dedicated and determined to help designers like us quote better.

20 Free Handmade Buttons & UI Elements In One PSD

2009-12-29T11:18:00-08:00

Sometimes all it takes is seeing a single design element on a web site to inspire me on a project - that's why I've created this PSD of UI elements and buttons. Hopefully it will inspire you and give you at least one element to build future projects with. Each of the elements is in it's own Photoshop folder, so you can just drag them in to your existing PSD's.

This PSD is completely free, with no license or anything. Do whatever you like with it.

Free PSD Buttons Download

I'm sorry my PSD folders are such a mess :) Here are the free button and UI element downloads:

Free PSD Buttons & UI Elements
A sample of about 20 buttons and UI elements.
Download (180kb, PSD, zipped)

Preview

Click the image below to check out the elements included in the PSD:

Please Share & Tweet This

All I'm asking in return for downloading these elements is that you tweet or blog about this post. Also, please comment if you have any questions or just to say "hi".

Most People Want to Pay Monthly for Web Design

2009-10-31T15:41:00-07:00

As a freelance web designer, I'm always thinking of ways to smooth out the natural ups and downs of project based income. One of the ideas I've been toying with for a while is offering to build websites for a monthly cost, rather than an up front cost to the client. My research about this produced some interesting and positive feedback that has me re-thinking my business plan for 2010.

Self Financing

In essence, by stretching out the payment for a service I'm already providing up front, I would be self financing my customers at 0 percent interest. I chose not to have interest because I think people are leery of bankers and the whole credit based banking system right now, in light of the recession and many financial institutions collapsing.

Here's how it would work: For a project that would cost $6000 to create, a customer would pay me $250 per month for 24 months, and I would perform the work up front. This means that the only deposit I would receive on the work would be the first two $250 payments, not much in light of the value of the work, so I'd be taking a risk. Would it be worth it?

Pick-Fu To The Rescue

If you have a burning question and $5 or $10 to spare, Pick-Fu is the answer. I posted a simple question:

"As a business owner, which payment option would you prefer when purchasing a new web site for your business?"

Option A) Pay $250 monthly (24 month term)
Option B) Pay $6000 once

And within a number of hours I received an amazing amount of feedback.

Most Customers Want to Pay Monthly

While this one A/B test is not conclusive, I think the overwhelming majority to one side reflects a greater truth: Most customers would rather pay monthly for web design. In fact, out of 100 people polled, 82 of them chose to pay monthly. When you think about it, it does kind of make sense. If you compare this to other purchases customers make for their business - cars, office space, telephone service, internet service and shipping accounts, you begin to see a pattern in the way businesses operate. There is a definite pull toward managing income and expenses on a monthly basis, and stretching out fixed costs over time.

Reasons for Monthly Payments

Some of the comments on my Pick-Fu question relay why customers may want to pay monthly instead of all at once.

It keeps working capital in the business for unexpected expenses
It ensures the attention of the web designer over a longer period of time
Bank accounts pay interest on balance, so outlaying the payments over time would accrue more interest

In contrast, the only reasons that people would choose to pay all at once would be to avoid the potential hassle of a monthly bill, and to "get it out of the way". I think these comments reflect a small minority of potential customers.

If you're a freelancer, you've probably already imagined yourself receiving a fixed monthly payment from somewhere, but haven't figured out yet where it could come from. By splitting contracts up over a term, you're basically ensuring yourself a steady income during the slow months, and enabling more month-to-month communication between you and your clients, which is always helpful for gaining future projects.

Finishing Up

Do you have any experience splitting projects up into monthly payments? If so, comment and share them below. Also, if you're interested in checking out the details of my Pick-Fu question, feel free to check it out.

Freelance Designers - How to Level Income With Ongoing Contracts

2009-10-02T12:57:00-07:00

As a freelance web designer, one of the trickiest skills to master is maintaining a steady flow of cash. In years past, friends used to chide me about my "feast or famine" way of life. I've learned a few things since then about keeping things steady, and have written about this subject before, but today I want to talk about just one way - Ongoing Contracts.

Many companies (especially those who manage their own web applications) need design work not just to get a project launched, but on an ongoing basis as users offer feedback and suggestions. Their options are to (a) hire someone in house, (b) hire an agency, or (c) hire a freelancer. Because of the costs associated with options (a) and (b), you can easily present yourself as the better business decision.

Simply offer your services for a fixed number of hours per week, in exchange for a discounted rate, to be paid monthly. By offering a fixed number of hours and a special rate in exchange for a long term contract, you can gain a number of benefits.

Benefits of Ongoing Contracts

A fixed, expected payment each month
A project that allows you to really dig into the details of how your design decisions affect real users
Credibility as a result of long term association with a project

Additionally, the client gains a valuable asset to their project, in that you'll continually be adding to it over time, and you'll be fresh with inspiration from the regular freelance work you'll still be doing.

How It's Working For Me

In 2008, I spent the year working 24 hours a week on Viviti, a popular WYSIWYG content management, which I actually use to author this blog you're reading. During that time I was the only interface designer on the project. We took the project from an idea, to an application, through a beta phase, and into a paid product. Viviti gained my interface design work and still uses it, while I gained steady cashflow and a great experience.

After freelancing for almost a year now through 2009, I've been just been retained by my good friend Tyler Kiley, for 8 hours a week of ongoing interface design work on InQuickER, his web app to get people into US hospital emergency rooms without waiting in line. It's already generated a ton of buzz and some controversy on Hacker News and netted him calls from reporters at Forbes, LA Times, Fast Company, the Atlanta Journal Constitution and other lesser known publications in his home state of Georgia.

My duties will include:

Analyzing the site for UI weaknesses
Designing new pages and interface elements
Designing the back-end administration and reporting system
HTML / CSS
Some Ruby tinkering (to my delight)

Since I'm only offering a limited number of hours each week, the contract is affordable for the client, and effective for me (for things like paying my rent on time). Also, it still gives me plenty of time to keep my existing and new freelance clients happy, so business is good.

How To Land an Ongoing Contract

Landing an ongoing contract is easier than it sounds. Chances are that one of your clients already has a need for ongoing work, but doesn't think you're available for it, or thinks you'll be too expensive.

Here are a couple of things you can try:

Approach a few existing clients with the idea, make an offer
Make sure it's an affordable offer for the client, and doesn't take too much time away from your regular business
Be clear in your marketing that you're available to be retained for fixed amounts monthly

Before you know it, you'll have offers for ongoing work in addition to the stream of one-off projects you already get. Not sure how to get a stream of one-off projects either? I wrote another post a while back on this topic, you may find it interesting as well.

Don't agree? Have something you want to add to this article? Leave a comment!

My Lucky 7 List of Design People to Follow on Twitter

2009-09-26T13:39:00-07:00

Lately in the morning when I wake up, I've been checking Twitteriffic on my iPhone and reading everyone's updates. In the midst of a slew of personal anecdotes and random updates, there are a few people who consistently post interesting content that inspires me to get out of bed and get some work done.

Without further introduction, this is my "Lucky 7":

David Kaneda (@DavidKaneda)

By far the most consistent poster of useful information and links on my list, David makes the list at #1.

WDL (@webdesignledger)

They generally post links to design resources - photoshop tutorials, icon downloads, that kind of thing. Sometimes some very useful stuff shows up here.

David Airey (@DavidAirey)

Author of logodesignlove.com and davidairey.com, David constantly tweets about items worth reading for the inquisitive designer.

Max Stanworth (@designshard)

Not sure how I ended up following Max, but he's managed to last through a few purgings of my followers list by constantly posting useful and interesting design related goodies.

Smashing Magazine (@smashingmag)

Well known and loved, Smashing Magazines twitter feed is a blast of design related goodness, just like their web site. If you're not following Smashing Magazine, you probably should be!

Blair Enns (@blairenns)

Author and blogger, Blair Enns often posts interesting articles to read, and links to his talks and other industry news.

Joe Phillips (@jophillips)

A great designer and clever blogger. He always seems to find interesting things to tweet about.

Who's your Lucky 7?

Show appreciation for the people on your list who consistently post useful information. Put them in the comments below and maybe we'll get a great list of Twitter resources going. Thanks for reading!

Stop Complaining and Start Educating Potential Clients

2009-09-13T13:00:00-07:00

Lately I've been reading a lot of blog posts, rants, and articles demonizing the effects of crowdsourcing, cheap labor, spec work, and other such evils in the world; frankly, it's starting to get on my nerves a little bit. While I'm not promoting any of these practices, I'd like to shed a little light on the scenario to hopefully ease some of your minds if you're fretting about this nonsense.

There are tiers of service and quality in every marketplace, including our own. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's one of the foundational principles of a capitalist economy. If you have the ability to provide a better product or service, you're free to offer it if and when you choose.

You The Consumer

Say you wake up in the morning and want a fresh cup of coffee. You have choices, and those choices come in tiers:

Make it yourself at home in your drip coffee maker (roughly $0.30 a cup)
Make it yourself at home using organic coffee beans in a french press (roughly $0.50 a cup)
Head to Tim Hortons or Robbins Donuts (roughly $1.50 a cup)
Head to Starbucks (roughly $3.00 a cup)
Head to a local coffee shop who roasts their own beans (price varies, but usually $3.50 or more a cup)

As a free citizen in a capitalist marketplace, you have the ability spend your money at whichever tier of the market you choose.

You The Service Provider

Now, say you're a web designer who's just set up shop in a new town. You also have the ability to price yourself however you choose.

If you price yourself at the bottom tier, you'll be working day and night making next to nothing, but doing what you love to do anyway. Your clients will be people who don't see the value in a locally roasted cup of coffee, but you may be fine with that.

If you price yourself at the upper end, you'll attract clients willing to spend more, provided you actually provide upper end value in your product or service.

Pricing yourself in the middle will net you a variety of clients, who desire a variety of service levels.

Your Price Should Match Your Service

Generally, people expect to receive more quality for more money and less quality for less money. Don't you? We, as potential customers, have been educated to expect this for years and so we now we expect it. The client spending on the bottom tier (crowdsourcing or hiring their nephew) is likely not expecting top quality service. The client spending in the upper tier is expecting top quality service. If the client expects top quality service for bottom tiered pricing, they've been poorly educated somewhere along the lines and it's your job to re-educate them.

Education is The Solution

Educating potential clients is really just marketing. I find it interesting that so many graphic or web designers fail to grasp this very basic business concept. If you're going to be in business for yourself, you must educate potential clients about why they may want to choose you instead of someone else.

You must educate potential clients about the quality of your work, the experience you have, the results you produce. If you do this, free thinking clients who can afford your price will naturally choose your service.

If on the other hand you have no experience, offer poor quality, and produce poor results, you'll be forced to price yourself at the lower tier or starve until you learn a thing or two.

So, Stop Complaining and Start Educating

Complaining just makes you look like a child. It's time to start taking action - educate clients about why your service is worth the money you're asking for it. If clients want to brew their coffee at home, let them, it's no skin off your back, after all, that's not what you're selling is it?