Brett's Thoughts

Is Your Site Mobile Friendly?

Brett Atkin — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 20:39:35 +0000

In the web design community, responsive web design (sites that work on phones, tablets and the desktop) have been the next step in the evolutionary process for a couple of years. From my perspective, 2013 was the year it became mainstream. I started having clients ask me about it rather than the other way around.

There are tons of reports around the web outlining current usage and growth of mobile phones.This translates into more and more users accessing web sites from their phones. I’ve read 15% of all traffic on the internet is from mobile devices. Based on my own client stats, some sites are lower and some are much higher. Some factors affecting this are type of business and how the business communicates with their target audience

For example, brick and mortar businesses will always get people looking for a phone number/locaition or to learn more during a drive by. If a business regularly communicates with customers by email, that could drive traffic as well. Recent reports indicate more than 50% of all email is opened on mobile devices. So it is easy assume any links to your site in those emails will get opened on a mobile device as well.

Think about your business, your target audience and review your site analytics to determine if you need a mobile friendly site sooner than later. Could you be loosing money and/or alienating visitors because your site isn’t mobile friendly?

Industry Jargon Meets Buzz Words

Brett Atkin — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 21:03:34 +0000

I was looking at the Keynote speaker page for an upcoming conference. Here is the opening sentence for the lead speaker.

“…drives global market and demand strategy, solutions marketing, customer-centric initiatives and serves as global industry thought leader around data-driven marketing…”

That’s really a mouthful and I cut out the beginning and end to protect the innocent.

What does this really mean and are people still persuaded by this?

Tallisto, The Official Introduction

Brett Atkin — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 21:56:29 +0000

My partner has a great write up introducing Tallisto on the Tallisto Blog. If you haven’t checked out Tallisto yet, please do. If you want to sign up, grab one of our limited 6 month free subscriptions.

The Problem with Bootstrapping (and the benefit of beta testing)

Brett Atkin — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:31:54 +0000

My partner and I have been working on Tallisto for several months now. We were hoping to launch on May 1st. Unfortunately, that day has come and gone. A combination of things led to this.

After some extended beta testing, we found some usability issues with mobile devices that are unacceptable and have to be fixed.
New project work came through and had to take priority (we have to pay the bills).

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed by this, but that’s the way things go when you’re bootstrapping.

Our main goal is “Accounting Made Simple”. If we can’t deliver on that for any reason, we’re not launching. We know that “perfect is the enemy of good”, but that doesn’t mean you stop trying altogether.

We’re 1000% committed to Tallisto and hope to launch soon. We’ll keep you posted.

Tallisto – Accounting Made Simple

Brett Atkin — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:47:40 +0000

My partner and I are hard at work on Tallisto, an accounting app for those needing something easy to setup and use for their small business.

If you would like to learn more and be the first to know when we launch, sign up at Tallisto.com and we’ll keep you posted,

What's new at Pixel Jocks

Brett Atkin — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:00:31 +0000

A little more than a year ago, Dennis Good and I launched Pixel Jocks. It started out as a dedicated site for our “websites made simple” service. We are in the process of expanding the Pixel Jocks brand into 3 distinct offerings, custom design, the current Pixel Jocks service and web applications. We haven’t figured out all the details or updated the site yet, but we formed Pixel Jocks, LLC and made everything “legal”. The first web application will be Tallisto and is set to launch on May 1st. It is an accounting application for small businesses that need and want something quick and easy without a bunch of features and functionality they don’t use.

A New Logo

Brett Atkin — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:09:33 +0000

I finally have a “real” logo!

After 10+ years, I finally have a professionally designed logo.

I hired D.Good Design Co. to create it and I couldn’t be happier. It uses the Soto font. It fits me and my business perfectly. I wanted something a little grunge and industrial but not over the top. I picked the Soto font for this reason. The associated graphical element speaks to several of my personal interests and design philosophy (function over form) depending on how you look at it.

The next step is implementing a new WordPress theme that compliments the logo and speaks more to my design sense.

Blog Category Failure

Brett Atkin — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 22:19:43 +0000

While creating an email newsletter for a client today, I came across a blog site they linked to. I kid you not, this is the category listing….maybe they should do a little consolidation and use of tags. This is NUTS!!! If you have a blog, please don’t do this. Just because you use the word in the post doesn’t necessarily mean the post is about that.

Acceptance

Accountability

Accounting

Achieving

Adversity

Anger

Apathy

Approachability

Arrogance

Authenticity

Autocratic behavior

Best work

Blaming

Blind spot

Business ethics

Candor

Career

Career development

Career Transition

Caring

Chief Talent Officer

Coaching

Competitiveness

Complacency

Confidence

Conflict

Consequences

Controlling

Corporate citizenship

Courage

Critical

CTO

Delegating

Directive behavior

Distraction

Distrust

Economics

Economy

Effectiveness

Ego

Emotional intelligence

Empathy

Empowerment

Engagement

Ethical Leadership

Ethics

Excellence

Executive brand

Failure

Fear

Feedback

Feelings

Frustration

Fulfillment

Gravitas

Greater good

Guilt

Happiness

Health care

Hiring

Hope

Human Resources

Humanity

Humility

Influencing

Innovation

Insecurity

Inspiring

Integrity

Interview advice

Interviewing

iPad

Job seekers

Job seeking

Joy

Leadership Book

Leadership landscape

Leadership strength

Leadership weakness

Learning

Listening

Love

Media

Motivating

Opinion

Organizational Change

Organizational Culture

Organizational Development

Organizational Politics

Overload

Pain

Peace

Perfectionism

Podcast

Problem-solving

Purpose

Rationalization

Reactive

Realism

Recovering Leader Blog

Recruiting

Reflecting

Reinvention

Relationship-building

Relief

Responsibility

Risk

Sadness

Savvy

Security

Self-awareness

Self-critical

Self-optimization

Self-test

Self-worth

Shame

Spiritual Leadership

Status Quo

Stress

Sustainable Leadership

Talent Development

Talent Management

Team building

Team effectiveness

Teamwork

Teamwork tools

Time management

Transparency

Trust

Unemployment

Values

Vision

Warmth

Work life balance

Worry

Great Quote in Atomic Ranch Magazine

Brett Atkin — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 06:02:06 +0000

I was reading an article about a kitchen remodel on Atomic Ranch magazine and came across this quote.

…it doesn’t matter how beautiful the finishes are if you’re always bumping into things or struggling to get around the space well…

You can say the same about web design.

Pixel Jocks is Live

Brett Atkin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:00:29 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, Dennis Good and I launched Pixel jocks. It is a new service for businesses looking for an affordable web site with no hidden costs. Because of how we set things up, we can have a site up and running in just a couple of days. Hosting is included for the yearly investment of $500. We also have three add-ons for Events, News and Photo Galleries each priced at $50 a year.

The entire site uses a custom content management system (CMS) that was specifically created for Pixel Jocks. The CMS includes everything needed to keep your site updated but none of those complicated features that you never use or need.

If you’re a new business needing a web site or looking for a microsite for a new product you’re launching, take a look at Pixel Jocks and see what we can do for you.