Cliffpro

How To Quickly Blackout Your Site in Protest of SOPA & PIPA

Cliff Huizenga — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 03:44:26 +0000

Many sites—my site and blog included—will be blacking out their own sites on Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House of Representatives and Protect-IP in the Senate. Many of these sites have had time to develop and plan a method for “turning off” their websites for the day.

If you want to join in on the protest, but don’t have time to design and edit your site, try my quick and easy blocking tool!

The Message

This code will produce a message that blocks out the content behind it and says the following:

THIS DOMAIN HAS BEEN BLOCKED FOR VIOLATING PROTECT-IP (S. 968) AND SOPA (HR. 3261).
Actually, this site is participating in a national online blackout on January 18th, 2012 in opposition of both the PROTECT-IP and SOPA bills.
If these bills pass, the U.S. Government will have the ability to block any website—including any funding partners and external websites that link to the blocked website—based on accusation alone from a copyright holder.
Go to AmericanCensorship.org to learn more about these bills and how your Internet freedoms are at risk.

Demonstration

Click here to see the Live demo!

The Files

Download the source files here: sopa.zip

Included in the zip are three files:

censored.css
censored.js
blocked.html

Censored.css – This is the main styling for the overlay and box. Edit this document if you want to change how the colors and layout look. Included is a CSS media query designed for viewing on mobile devices under 480px wide.

Censored.js – The code that builds the message. There are two parts to this:

function censorThisSite() – This part of the code has some basic document.write commands to write the divs needed to achieve the effect and the content within them, including the actual message.

$(window).load function – I added basic jQuery commands to animate the black background covering whatever website it’s loaded into.

Blocked.html – This is an example document to show you how the code is used.

How To Use In Code

There are 4 lines of code to add to your website to make this work properly. The first part goes in between the tags of your document:

These lines of code load the styles and JavaScript needed to make this blackout message work. Since it does use jQuery, you will need to have a jQuery script link in your site’s tag for this to work (if you don’t use line 2 of the code). Also, it needs to come before the link for “censored.js,” or the commands are ignored and you’re left with a blank screen. Otherwise, just use the three lines of code as shown and you should be fine.

The second part calls the code to run:

Place this line of code where you want the code to run. Ideally, the code should be placed early on in your document—i.e. right after the opening tag—but anywhere in the document should be OK.

IFrame Solution

Some people have already asked to use the code, but told me they don’t have the ability to edit their site/blog’s headers. For those users, I have an iframe solution for you! Simply use the following code:

This uses the sample code I’m hosting to overlay on top of your site. While it’s not an elegant solution, if your ability to edit your own website is limited, this will work for you.

Editing and Assistance

Feel free to edit the code to fit your needs and share this page to everyone you can. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me or leave me a comment. I’ll try to help you.

Let’s stop SOPA and Protect-IP together!

Responsive Web Design: Remember Mobile Visitors

Cliff Huizenga — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:50:37 +0000

Your visitors should never have to feel excluded from your website. If you want to keep visitors coming and returning, you need to cater your web design to their devices. If you haven’t heard of responsive web design, you should find out what it is and how to use it.

You create a great web design and build it out in clean code. Technology, however, is unforgiving to your efforts. With events like CES each year, a whole new playing field of digital devices get introduced as well. New sizes, resolutions, rendering engines… It’s enough to drive you crazy!

That’s where responsive web design comes to the rescue.

One By Fire, Two By NOOK

How often do you get a chance to try your web design on a device you don’t own?

I had entered a Barnes & Noble recently and decided to play with the NOOK Color and NOOK Tablet. The main purpose of my adventuring was to see how my website looked on these devices. Since I had just finished a responsive redesign of my site, but hadn’t tested on the Android platform yet, I figured the site would have major errors.

The result made me smile: It looked almost exactly as I intended. The only difference that caught my attention was my site’s title did not render the inset text-shadow CSS on the NOOK.

Also, as intended, the site would show up normal when held horizontally and switch to a mobile-friendly view when viewed vertically.

Shortly after this experience, I was able to test a family member’s Amazon Kindle Fire with my website design. Sure enough, the results were the same as the NOOKs’.

The Future Is Now, And It’s Mobile

Mobile devices are more than a trend in personal computing; they’re becoming a norm and the standard.

If you want your visitors to get the full experience out of your site, you shouldn’t restrict their access based on their device or screen size. The age of, “You must have a minimum screen resolution of…” is at an end.

It’s time to think mobile first, desktop second.

Have you seen what your site runs on an iPhone? How about one of the many Android-based devices? Ever stop to think how it would look on a Blackberry phone or Playbook, or even an HP TouchPad?

It doesn’t matter if the device is popular or one foot (or both) in the grave. You should think about everyone in your audience and try to give everyone the same experience with your site.

How To Accommodate Everyone: Responsive Web Design

Design and build your site to work on screens ranging from 2 inches wide to 20 feet wide and beyond. The best method to do this is to create a fluid layout using percents instead of pixels to let the content adjust sizes and positions. If you want more control, try working with CSS media queries and working with available space to change the site’s style based on different devices and screen widths.

If it’s your first time designing a responsive website, look at some great examples online for inspiration, and use online tools to help you. Or, you can always buy a book on responsive web design.

Give your visitors a seamless experience on any device. If a visitor can’t access the content they’re looking for, you will lose them, no matter how good the design is on a desktop computer.

And in the end, visitors and conversions are what matter most.

Why Your Freelance Price Is Right

Cliff Huizenga — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:30:56 +0000

With my latest site redesign for the Holidays, I posted a page that may surprise other freelancers: Pricing. You may notice on many web designer portfolios online what an uncommon trend posting pricing publicly can be. I’ve already had my online colleagues comment, question, and praise my decision to do this.

I’m proud to have my freelance prices shown online, and you should be proud of your pricing as well. Here’s why:

You’re Up-front And Honest About Your Costs

When potential clients see your freelance pricing, they will see that you’re not hiding how you charge them for your time. With my pricing, the first two options are targeted at clients who need a quick job done, charged either by the hour or by the day. Those who want a quick job done know right away what I’m asking for and can decide if my services are worth it. This eliminates clients sending me messages asking me to do a quick turnaround on a logo or site for a cheap price.

However, I’ve pushed the third option, “Ask For A Quote,” as the preferred option for those who want more done for less. If a client is flexible on the timeframe and wants quality work done at a slower pace, I’ll reduce my fees and quote more competitively and fairly for the time leverage. Too many clients are rushed by deadlines, which hinders research, creativity, and the overall product. Therefore, I cater to those who are more relaxed about getting a job done, but still want a great product for my time. Want to rush me? See my first two options.

This shows my way of handling showing my freelancing costs. You should be comfortable about being honest and open with your pricing. This builds trust with your potential clients, and that trust will bring them back for future jobs.

You Are Charging For Your Time

These things take time, and you need to charge accordingly. Remember: You’re working for yourself. Therefore, you can set your own rates. Do you want to work hourly, project based, or give the option for both? How much does it cost you to do freelance jobs? What prices are fair to you? Set them and convey those numbers to your clients.

You Are A Professional, So Show It

If you want to be taken seriously as a professional freelancer, let your potential clients know you mean business. You are providing a service to them and in the end they are receiving a product from your labor. You decide how the work is valued to you, and don’t be afraid to let them know it. If they don’t like it, then they simply weren’t worth your time. It may sound harsh, but think about it this way: If they didn’t want to pay your costs, the client probably would have given more trouble than its worth if you took on the job. Never put yourself in that position. Some clients will take every opportunity to take advantage of you if you let them. Don’t give them any rope to hang you.

Remember what The Joker said in The Dark Knight: “If you're good at something, never do it for free.”

What do you think about this? Would you put your prices on your site for everyone to see, or would you keep them to yourself? I’d like to know your thoughts in the comments!

Don’t Tell Facebook

Cliff Huizenga — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:12:41 +0000

Last week, I proposed to my girlfriend of almost five years, to which she answered, “Yes.” After years of sharing our love and our lives together, we are now engaged. So, the natural thing to want to do is shout it from the rooftops for the world to know about it. In our digital age, the best place to do so for all our friends and family to know would be Facebook.

But, we quickly discovered that, without certain people finding out before we could tell them, we couldn’t make the announcement on Facebook right away. Without going into too many details, we were able to make the Relationship Status change the following evening.

It made me think of how open and accessible a platform such as Facebook can be when it comes to important news. However, it also brought to light how keeping secrets or confidential information is an impossibility there as well. I know this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone (including myself), but when you’re not engaged, it’s not a thought that really crosses your mind.

For my situation, I wanted to tell my mother, my father, and my siblings before posting anything online. My fiancée wanted to tell a few members of her family first too. Plus her brother was planning on proposing to his girlfriend for that weekend as well, and we had to work out a plan to make the announcement without blowing his cover. In terms of scheduling and planning something as simple as changing a Relationship Status on a social networking website, it took a full day to do so.

On top of that, not everything goes as planned either. After telling my father (on day 2), my sisters found out before I could tell them, and my younger sister and her boyfriend were already congratulating us… on our Facebook walls! Thankfully, they didn’t completely let the cat out of the bag, but the ability to make instant notifications like that does make you think about how to handle important announcements, doesn’t it?

Facebook does have options for privacy and grouped lists, so technically an announcement could be made and only be visible to select people. But, if you don’t already have a system in place, setting up lists and changing privacy settings can be a bother. Besides, with an important announcement like an engagement, it’s always best to tell the people that matter most in person.

This could also be applied to other social networks. When I dropped a few hints on Twitter, people figured it out pretty quickly and started to congratulate me. My mistake for being so clear with my “vague” hint. I also had a picture of the ring I wanted to post to Instagram (and of course, one for after the proposal), but wanted to share the photos with all the other social networks I belong to. So, that had to wait.

Have social networks become a new factor in making formalized announcements? That depends on how active you are with those networks. For me, I use Facebook as a place to connect to my friends and family, with an occasional update to my “Fan Page.” An announcement like an engagement and how it’s presented on Facebook is very important, because it’s important to the people who care about my fiancée and I. Other networks I use are mainly for either my professional presence or socializing with those I don’t personally know. However, sending an important announcement on one site could easily spread to other social networking sites. And don’t get me started on advertisers picking up on the news!

While I’m all for having open and accessible information online, sometimes the things you want to share have to be delicately handled. Hearing important information through a secondary source, especially though a site like Facebook, can have some negative effects. Another personal example is how I found out my brother was in a car accident a few weeks ago. Found out hours after it happened when my then-girlfriend-now-fiancée found a photo of him on a stretcher posted to his Facebook wall. He was fine, but still was unsettling to find out that way.

Another set of examples would be the stories of families learning of loved ones’ deaths from Facebook first. If friends hear about the passing before the family does, it doesn’t stop them from posting the news on the families’ walls. With applications now getting more sophisticated with mobile device notifications, imagine how heartbreaking it would be to see condolences from friends appear instantly as they happen with no knowledge of what has happened.

Sadly, with both good and bad news, the only way to really be safe about holding an announcement until the time is right is to either deactivate all your online accounts, or just keep the information to yourself until you’re ready to tell the world. To tell a handful of people in person is significantly more difficult than telling everyone all at once online.

Now, for my fiancée and I to tackle our next big Facebook concern: Who to invite to the wedding.

Have you had any issues with posting important information on Facebook? Leave me your thoughts in the comments!

Why Apple’s “Siri-ous” About No iPhone 5

Cliff Huizenga — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:58:31 +0000

Earlier today, I, like most of the Internet, tuned into the live blogs of those reporting from 4 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, CA, on the new iPhone. Online, the term used was iPhone 5. Those getting leaked information heard big things about an iPhone 4S. Some had reported both. After a long, drawn-out report on things discussed back at WWDC in June (like iCloud and iOS 5), people were anxious to hear the real news from Apple.

Then, the official announcement: iPhone 4S? Yes. iPhone 5? No.

While there are initial reactions to disappointment and frustration over the lack of a real iPhone replacement, before you jump into the mob with others, there are a few things to consider for Apple’s planning.

Don’t Blame Tim Cook

Because Apple takes years to develop their new iProducts, this was in the works well before Steve Jobs stepped down as CEO. This was coming, with or without Steve. Tim will keep things alive at Apple.

Setting Up For The Real Show

Apple’s always ahead of themselves by years. They’re most likely testing the iPhone 5 now and designing the iPhone 5S/6. So, when they do announce the iPhone 5, it will combine the anticipation of what people had for today’s event and combine it with new anticipation to generate more excitement/frenzy/fanboyism than before. Today’s event was a small bump to give people something to look forward to next year.

It will come. Just not now. It’s simply not the right time.

2011, The Year Of The iPad 2

Remember back at WWDC when iOS 5 and iCloud was announced? Remember how they also announced the iPad 2, and claimed 2011 to be the year of it? Apple’s not the kind of company to step on their own toes, especially if they know what’s going on behind their own closed doors.

Remember Verizon?

Apple launched the iPhone 4 on Verizon’s network at the beginning of this year. If Apple announced a new iPhone now, it’d be very hard to convince VZW to give everyone an early upgrade option (like AT&T did for the original iPhone 4 launch) so soon. It would anger quite a few customers. And upsetting your customers just isn’t a good business move, you know?

And speaking of AT&T…

It’s only been a little over a year since the iPhone 4 was released on AT&T’s network. Yes, they could do an early upgrade option again, but why bother if another, hopefully better iPhone is possibly coming next year?

The Master Plan

With all this in mind, this is how I see the iPhone 5 launch: Next year, possibly at WWDC 2012, iPhone 5 gets introduced. AT&T customers who bought iPhone 4 (not 4S) should have expiring/expired contracts, so signup would just require contractual recommitment. Verizon customers, having their phones for a year and several months by that time), could be given the option of an early upgrade. Sprint customers and iPhone 4S buyers might still be left behind, but then they are in an “every-other-year” upgrade cycle (which really isn’t that bad). T-Mobile will probably get swallowed by AT&T long before next summer, giving them access equal to AT&T’s. The iPhone 3GS will be extinct, making iPhone 5 $199, iPhone 4S $99, and iPhone 4 free (all with contracts, of course).

Patience, Apple consumers. Next year, we’ll have our real iPhone 5. And then, Apple’s sales are going to explode.

For now, I’m happy with my iPhone 4. “Siri-ously.”

What are your thoughts about today’s announcement of iPhone 4S? How about the lack of an iPhone 5 announcement? Send me your thoughts via the comments!

Thanks to E.J. Coughlin for the title inspiration!

Just Be Yourself

Cliff Huizenga — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 18:52:11 +0000

This has been said many times in many different ways, but it needs repeating.

Too many people try too hard to be like someone else. They follow in the shadow of someone they admire and respect. They formulate their opinions based on others thoughts. They try their hardest to be similar in the hopes to be recognized like them.

Read this carefully: You will never be like them.

Why would you want to be? They are who they are and that’s what makes them unique. That’s what makes you want to go through their tweets, or follow them, or read their blog, or “Like” them. They have made names for themselves, but not because they copied someone else’s style. They’re just being themselves.

And you should too.

Don’t hold back who you are from people just because you’re not “as good” as someone else. Don’t be embarrassed about the little things. These are the things that make you who you are. Be proud of them.

Be proud of yourself.

You should also be proud of what you do. Put your creations up for people to see.

You might have created something both creepy and awesome. You might have created a useful tool to aid others. You might have a profession in breathtaking photography. You might be showcasing and selling your creations online, and you might be one of many doing so. You might even have an awesome photo of yourself holding axes on your blog.

It doesn’t matter how big or small or if it’s been done before. What you do and make is a representation of who you are. And that makes it unique to you. No one else can do what you do, because only you can do it. If someone else did it, it’s unique to them.

And don’t be afraid about letting the world comment on you and your work. It doesn’t matter if you get positive or negative feedback. It will help build you as a professional, as a creative, and as an individual. If someone took the time to let you know what they think about you and your creations, then you have inspired them to act.

You have the power to inspire people just by being yourself.

Let the world know who you are and what you do. Don’t try to be someone else.

And who knows? Maybe you’ll inspire others to be themselves too.

Thanks to Tad Fry, Chase Reeves, Jessica Serra, Andi O’Toole, and James Wilson for sharing their unique creations.

iTunes Match-Making

Cliff Huizenga — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 20:51:38 +0000

Apple introduced iTunes Match back in June as the “One More Thing” of WWDC 2011. Being a part of the iOS Developer Program, I was given early access to try out Apple’s new cloud-based music offering. These are my first impressions.

Currently, my iTunes library has around 13,500 songs and about 83GB in size. Can Apple handle it?

The Setup

Step 1: Gathering Information About Your iTunes Library.

After purchasing the iTunes Match service at $24.99, iTunes Match becomes activated and starts scanning my library for music. iTunes gathers the info needed to submit to Apple. Because of my collection size, all scanning takes significant amounts of time (thankfully, rescans go by quicker). For this step, my system took about 45 minutes to 1 hour to complete.

Step 2: Matching Your Music With Songs In The iTunes Store.

iTunes then determines of my ~13,500 song collection which songs are already in the iTunes Store for instant, ready-to-go streaming and “iCloud-ing.” The scanning goes a little slower, with this process taking about an hour and a half for me. Slow going, but my expectations are that a bunch of my music will not be found, and the majority will be.

Step 3: Uploading Remaining Songs And Artwork.

This step is the big one: iTunes uploads all the rest of my music to my iCloud account for instant access anywhere. However, to my shock, only around 3,000 songs in my collection are found in the iTunes store! What gives!?

It seems that iTunes is very particular about proper ID tagging for your music files. When I say, “proper,” I really mean, “what iTunes has listed on their store.” Many people will have improper tags, or even slightly-altered tags (for example, I removed the “Deluxe Edition” title off a lot of my albums), and if they don’t match during step 2, they don’t get listed as automatically available. I’ve tried renaming a few albums and titles to match their iTunes Store equivalents, but to no success during rescanning of my collection.

Therein lies the second issue: uploading my collection. Uploading any amount of data eats up loads bandwidth, slowing down internet access for myself—and everyone else—on my network. But to do so with ~10,000 songs? I let my iTunes start to do the upload and it had managed to send ~150 songs in under an hour. With the remaining files (at a constant rate, completely uninterrupted), it would take about 2.5 days to complete the upload. Granted, it’s probably understood that the upload would not happen all at once, but if you add music to your collection frequently, a rescan would be necessary after closing out iTunes. What is really unfortunate for us beta users is when the beta period ends, our iCloud uploads gets wiped, forcing us to upload everything again.

With a successful upload, you finally get this message. I used a secondary library to complete this part, as my main collection—on an external hard drive—has not completed uploading at the time of this writing. I’ll get to multiple library handling in a moment.

Streaming vs Progressive Downloading

There has been different rumors and statements online about how iTunes Match handles “streaming” content. The reality is simple: Desktop versions of iTunes will do true internet streaming. iOS devices will do “progressive downloading,” which means your music will play as it downloads to your device.

On the desktop version of iTunes, simply find the song/album you want to play from your iCloud… and play it! That’s it! Playback was instant in my testing.

On an iOS device, select the song you want to play, and it starts to download as it plays for you. If you want to download instead of play a track or album, simply press their corresponding buttons. Tool on-the-go, for the win!

Multiple Libraries (and Issues)

iTunes Match has the ability to combine multiple libraries into one mega library! Since it goes by your Apple ID, you tell your account which libraries you own and they will upload to your iCloud account.

However, while ideally this is an excellent feature, it does not come without caveats.

My setup: My main library is on an external hard drive to help keep my MacBook Pro clean with free space. So, when the hard drive is not connected to my laptop, I have a library of only select tunes and a few new albums that haven’t been backed up yet.

When I told iTunes to add my “minimal” library to my iTunes Match account, it went through the same scanning process as my main library. When it gets to the uploading portion, my minimal library now has all my music listed. This is great… if all your music is already uploaded. For me, however, there’s just a lot of empty promises of future music to listen to. Thankfully, you can turn off iTunes Match on a computer if you only want to see your locally-stored music.

Also, while my main library—attached to another computer—was uploading music via iTunes Match, I tried to start a scan of my laptop’s minimal library to find that iTunes can only do one scan at a time for an account. If I start a scan on my laptop, the in-progress scan on a secondary computer grays out and will require a rescan to continue.

With mixing libraries, I also found two other issues with music collection, or rather, removing music from my collections:

1. If my second library adds songs that are in the iTunes Store, they match without any issue. I can stream or download the matched AAC audio version as I want to. However, if I add the version of the songs I own to my main library, iTunes lists both the iCloud-stored version and my local version. If I try to delete the iCloud version, nothing happens. I’m just left with duplicate copies of music.

What’s funny though is that if I download the iCloud versions of the songs and view their info, I see the same tagging from my uploaded copies, which are from Amazon-purchased songs. Interesting!

2. I scan my minimal library, but don’t upload my music to my iCloud. I have a single song that was scanned but not uploaded, then add the song manually to my main library. What happens? The song is listed twice, similar to the previous example. The difference is you cannot download the iCloud version, because it was never uploaded. However, you can’t delete it either. The fix would be to complete the upload process or remove the file from the first library and rescan. Once my main library has uploaded to iCloud though, this won’t really be an issue. Still annoying in the meantime.

Continue Down The Stream(ing)

I still have a lot more playing around to do with iTunes Match, but for starting off, things are looking pretty good for the new service. This weekend, I’ll have iTunes Match turned off from my laptop while my office computer works though the weekend uploading my full collection. A business-grade internet plan makes for easier uploading, especially if it’s on the weekend when no one is working and no worries of data caps either. In the coming weeks, I will give iTunes Match a more thorough testing, and by launch I’ll give an update post.

For people not beta-testing the software, do you have any questions for me about iTunes Match? If you are testing it, what are your thoughts on iTunes Match so far? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks, But We Prefer Other Design(er)s

Cliff Huizenga — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:31:00 +0000

This morning, I did a bit of ranting on Twitter in favor for the recent AntiSpec campaign. Since tweets tend to come and go very quickly and I wanted my thoughts to be seen, I’m putting them here in my notes.

Introductory note: If you don’t know about AntiSpec, go to their site and read up on it. Then, read about my thoughts on this particular case. No need to re-invent the wheel and tell you what it is while they have already explained the situation successfully.

I saw a tweet from Mark Collins mentioning a logo design contest by a site called “1stwebdesigner.” Typical contest: Do a logo, get a cash prize of $599. No surprises. Typically, I would make a tweet about it and be on my way.

But then, I scrolled down through the logo designs and after the first few rows, I discovered this:

Really?? Seriously, what is this?

OK, I understand that some companies want a good logo and they hope to get one cheap by doing ~~spec work~~ “logo contests” to encourage designers to flock to them for the “opportunity.” We know the basic problems with this. We know it’s taking away the view that designers are professionals and replacing them with the notion that anyone with Photoshop/Illustrator can do a quickie $600 logo. But, to take the few other entrants that actually want to design for the competition and insult them by publicly announcing that the logos are not what they’re looking for before the contest is over?

“We don’t want to take the time and money to hire a professional freelancer or company to design our logo. We’ve got $600 to blow on redesigning the logo and we want it done quickly. Oh! You sent some of your designs for the contest! Well, sorry, these aren’t what we’re looking for, and we want the world to know these aren’t worthy of a shot at $600.”

If you’re going to treat this like a competition, how about when a deadline arrives, show a group of finalists and hide the ones that didn’t make it? When the “contest” is over, they’ll figure out on their own they didn’t get their designs chosen. Give those people a little respect. I know the site has “standards” to what they want their logo to look like, but to publicly insult and humiliate them for trying—even if the site wasn’t trying to single them out—is just cruel. Those designers won’t learn anything that way, so there is nothing to gain from them—or anyone—entering the contest if that’s the attitude they’ll get from giving it a shot.

Contests don’t shoot down entrants while they’re trying to enter. Clients do that with spec work they don’t like.

During my Twitter discussions, a thought from Kris Noble was sent to me that I wanted to share here: “This is the problem with spec though – it encourages lots of half-baked ideas, rather than one kickass one.” This is what sites like 1webdesigner are asking for. Ironically, you would think a site called 1webdesigner would use, I don’t know… maybe one designer or company for their website’s logo. Instead, they’ve already said, “No,” to real design and the process that goes with it when they set up this contest. They are turning down potentially worthwile ideas and instead go for logo entries that blatantly rip off other companies logos (like StumbleUpon, for instance).

Want to do a logo contest? Open it up to K-12 and/or college students and give a small prize. Give those who are nowhere near the professional level a taste of what it’s like to be competitive in the business world and give them a chance to learn from it.

Otherwise, don’t kid yourself and call it what it is: spec work.

Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments.

Are You A Gopher?

Cliff Huizenga — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:21:13 +0000

I’ve seen how different design agencies handle their clients, both through external stories and first hand. Some individuals and companies have their business tactics spot on. While others have it all wrong.

I want to target the wrong ones for a moment. Let’s say you’re working with a client on a web site. How do you handle the following requests:

- I want my logo to be 50% bigger. Visitors need to know where they are!

- Place keywords all over the page. It will put me at the #1 spot on Google!

- I want a person to walk out on screen, covering the site, to talk to the user and push our product. And I need it to work on iPhones/iPads.

As a professional, it’s your job to educate the client not only as to what can be possible but what will work best for the company, its image, and its sales. You’re not just designing or building the site; You’re effectively acting as their interactive marketer as well. You should know what is best practice and what will help and hurt the client.

However, this is not always the case, is it? Here’s the reality most of the time:

The client gets in touch with you, saying something like: “We need you to take this Photoshop our in-house guy made, and make it work on the web. We’ve already had extensive meetings on what we want on the site, and we need you to make it work. Give us an estimate on time, so we can plan our budget around it.” You make an estimate and the project begins. During the development process, the client changes the look—several times—requiring more time to complete than originally estimated. The client wants the site compatible for IE6, because that’s what their offices run on and they “can’t afford to upgrade.” They give split-decision changes that need to be made ASAP for review in meetings, but the changes aren’t seen on their end instantly, because their browsers cache everything and they don’t know how to clear their cache. The estimates get blown away and the client cannot exceed their budget for the project, but explaining to the client that their changes are out-of-scope could risk losing them.

So what’s the typical response to everything they ask for?

“Yes! Of course! We can do that! We’ll get right on it!”

You have no longer kept your role as a professional in the field. You are at the client’s beck and call, salivating for them as they ring their bell. They give a request—any crazy request—and you just “go for” it.

You have now become a “gopher.”

The example I gave above is from an experience in my life and from a very big-name client. Those of us working on the developing end of the project try our best as professionals to give the client what they want, but understand the issues with what they’re asking for and have little to no say in the direction of the project. To keep our jobs, we do as we’re told because the customer is always right.

And hey, what do we really know anyway? We’re just gophers. We “go for” this, we “go for” that. When conflict and differences in opinion arise, we dig our opinions underground to avoid losing our jobs. It’s not like we’re professionals or anything… right?

While this may be a client-friendly attitude to give, in the end it also will hinder our public portrayal as professionals and, ultimately, our wallets. You may act on the client’s demand, but slip up once and they consider you a failure. Their idea of professionalism is being able to deliver what you promised, when you promised, and at a cost you promised.

And they are absolutely correct in this.

If you cannot deliver what they are asking for, when they are asking for, and at the cost they are asking for, you need to tell them. And I’m not talking towards the end of the project when they’re already resenting you for your lateness. These types of discussions need to be made in the very beginning.

If you’re charging flat-rates for a project, let them now explicitly what is in and out of the scope of the project. If their project calls for an initial design they supply, five revisions will slow down production time and cost them more. If there is an hourly charge, make it clear that every hour the project is touched upon will be billed accordingly. Therefore, if they decide they want changes, they’ll better manage them to save themselves money in the end, instead of just pipelining updates every few minutes via email. Estimates for a design/development job are similar to that of a car repair: If something unexpected comes up, the price will change. And we trust the mechanic because he is the professional.

And here’s a radical idea: If the client is going to push back hard on you about their terms versus yours, turn them down! Yes! Turn business away! You may get paid for working on the project, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to make money from it. You can work on several smaller jobs that will pay you for your time and efforts, and you can almost guarantee that money to be worth more in the end.

I know it’s all easier said than done, but if you don’t take a stand in the beginning, you either get screwed over in payment, look untrustworthy, or both. If you want to be a nice guy, go volunteer somewhere. If you want to make money, you need to step up your game a bit.

Or, you can be a gopher. It’s your call.

Have you had this sort of thing happen to you or the company you work at? Have you or someone you know become a gopher on projects? I’d like to read your thoughts in the comments below.

Yes, I Use Natural Scrolling

Cliff Huizenga — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 04:50:02 +0000

You’ve installed OS X Lion for your Mac. You load up a window. You scroll down, but nothing happens. You scroll up, and the screen goes down. You scroll back down again and the screen goes up. What madness is this? Inverted scrolling?? Who in their right mind would ever use this!?

I do. And I’m happy with it.

Everyone jumps to the conclusion of, “This needs to be disabled immediately.” However, I turned mine back on to try it out further. Now, it just comes to me instinctively.

If you use an iOS device on a daily basis, it’s absolutely no different. On a handheld device, this type of scrolling is second nature to us. It makes sense.

It’s… natural scrolling.

So, if you need to bash it, I can’t stop you. But please, give it a try first. I’m not talking out try-it-for-five-minutes-then-turn-it-off giving it a shot. I’m talking about turning it on and really working with it for a while.

And if it’s still confusing, try this: Right before you scroll, say to yourself, “I want to push my content [up/down],” then scroll in that direction. It could help. Did for me.

Give natrual scrolling another try. What have been your experiences with it? Share them in the comments.