We just launched the website for the Greater Pike Community Foundation which is a community philanthropy organization in northeast Pennsylvania. This was a collaboration project with Heron’s Eye Communications, a marketing, publishing and project management firm from the same part of the state. It was a nice change of pace to work with another firm on a web design project. They worked closely with the organization to determine their goals, and JB Web & Photo turned their goals into a web reality.

Other active projects that will be coming soon to a web browser or mobile phone near you:

• The Saint Louis Psychological Association has hired JB Web & Photo to redevelop their website to include an online members-only area and public search website for folks in the Greater St. Louis, Missouri to find a therapist. The site is expected to launch in early summer.
• Shop Around Insurance of Washingtonville, NY will be getting a new website and logo design from JB Web & Photo. The site is expected to launch in early summer.
• W Design Group, a communications design company in NY, is working with JB Web & Photo to develop a mobile website for Grey Towers, a National Historic Site in Milford, Pennsylvania. The mobile site will offer a self-guided tour through a “tree trail” on the property. Patrons with smartphones will be able to scan QR codes on descriptive placards, linking to the mobile website where information about prominent trees on the property will be presented. The site is expected to launch later this spring.
• JB Web & Photo did the original website design for Kelly Masonry & Design in 2006, with a design refresh in 2009. Now that the business’ portfolio of work has expanded (beyond their already large body of work), the website is undergoing a redevelopment in WordPress. We expect this site to launch this spring.

Stay tuned!
Jason

Imagine Candy is a delightful shop in downtown Scarsdale, NY in Westchester County, offering every kind of candy and delectable sweet you can, well, imagine. Through my work with the Scarsdale Chamber of Commerce I met co-owner Donna who came to me with a problem: the website wasn’t ranking well (or at all) when performing search engine inquiries.  Their website was beautifully designed using specialized fonts and vibrant images. It certainly didn’t need help in the aesthetic department, but it needed some work in other areas.  After analyzing the website I concluded that the following reasons could be why it hadn’t been performing well:

• The navigation menu, in order to incorporate specialized fonts, utilized raster imagery for the links and not search engine crawl-friendly typeface.
• Similar to the navigation menu, page headings also utilized raster imagery in place of crawl-friendly typeface.
• The home page contained no mention of the store’s address or phone number, nor a description of the store and its wares.

Over the next several weeks I worked with Donna and identified ways to increase traffic to her store and website. We incorporated new images of the products she sells, links to social media, and made it easier for visitors to sign up for the shop’s e-mail newsletter. She re-wrote new textual content with my suggestion that we shift content normally reserved for an “About Us” page to the main home page, giving visitors important information about the shop up front. Images from within and outside the store, previously not featured on the website, were incorporated. In order to solve the issue of raster imagery being used in place of search engine crawl-friendly typeface I implemented a Google Web Font as a replacement. It has a similar design to the original typeface with wide browser compatibility.

Please give their website a visit: imaginecandy.com, and if you are in the Westchester County or lower Hudson Valley area, please check out their shop. Their selection of chocolates and chocolate-covered pretzels are vast and delicious, and they sell candies from around the world not found anywhere else in the area.

If your website looks great but isn’t performing as well as you would like, contact me. I might be able to work with you and your site to make it even better.

One trend that was apparent was the news media’s reliance on social media as a method of reporting and information gathering. One after another, picture after picture, of flooding and downed trees submitted by viewers via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Perusing my Facebook news feed were photos and short stories of storm-related matters from friends and acquaintances. Each one unique, but carrying with it the underlying theme of “just wanted to let everyone know that we’re okay.”

If it were not for these social media outlets, we’d be more likely to crowd cellular telephone transmission towers with phone calls and text messages. Instead, by relying on data transmission over alternate cellular frequencies and WiFi, towers were more available to emergency responders to assist those in need. I would say the use of iMessage and BBM, which uses data to transfer messages instead of using voice frequencies like traditional text messages/SMS, has contributed to and ameliorated the situation. There wasn’t the pressing need to talk on the phone since I was able to stay in touch with everyone through the various social media outlets and my iOS devices.

For those with electricity who are reading this, particularly those in NYC tri-state area, I hope you are all well.

Just over a year ago, in late August 2011, I booked a trip with my parents to visit St. Louis, Missouri as a 60^th birthday gift for my father. A lover of Budweiser, I planned a tour of the campus with some beer sampling. Also planned was a visit up the top of the Arch and a Cardinals game. My best friend and his girlfriend, who live in St. Louis, would serve as our tour guides. Days before the trip, news of Hurricane Irene and her potential trajectory up the eastern seaboard were in the back of our minds as it could potentially impact our flight home. Given the amount of planning we’d done for this trip and the possibility that meteorologists could be wrong, we continued with our plans.

Halfway through our trip, the potentially apocalyptic outcome of the storm filled east-coast news outlets with predictions of a foot of rain submerging LaGuardia airport (oh no, my car was parked in the long-term lot!).  We decided to cut the trip short and change our return flight to get back before the storm was to arrive. So I got on the phone with Delta – that is, I attempted to get on the phone with them. The phone lines were jammed and the reservation agents weren’t taking any more calls at the time. I couldn’t even wait on hold. So I did the next best thing I could think of – send them a tweet (@DeltaAssist) with my confirmation number and situation.

I got a response back in about 10 minutes, with confirmed seats on a flight getting us in to LaGuardia before the storm, about an hour before the airport was scheduled to close.  I was amazed.

We made the best of our remaining shortened itinerary in St. Louis; we were able to swap our Cardinals tickets for a game the night before our newly-scheduled departure. Around the 7^th inning stretch I got a notification through the Delta app that our new flight had been cancelled.  Sigh. Back to square one…and back to Twitter!  The next best flight we could get was for Tuesday, two days after our originally scheduled Sunday departure. As before, the Delta service reps were prompt and helpful and got us on our way without having to wait on the phone. The extended trip allowed us to do some wine tasting, which was a pretty sweet consolation prize. The predicted foot of rain at LaGuardia never came to pass, luckily, so my car was fine after the whole ordeal.

The St. Louis trip wasn’t the only positive experience I’ve had with Delta and their customer service Twitter account. Earlier this year, in February, I was on vacation and my travel buddy injured his knee. We visited an emergency care center as the pain was pretty bad and was made worse when his knee was bent while in a sitting position. Knowing our flight home was to last several hours, I got in touch with Delta via Twitter to see if any emergency-exit row seats were available. At least this way he could stretch out his knee as much as he possible. Lady luck was on our side and we got confirmed exit-row seats. Success!

Although the stories above deal exclusively with Delta Airlines, it should serve as a model for other businesses. No longer should Twitter, or any other social media platform, be seen as “a fad.” It shows that interaction with customers, no matter the method, leaves a lasting impression.

The iPhone 5 arrives on store shelves at the end of this week (September 21, 2012), and much like the release of previous Apple devices there are already people lined up on the streets to get one. Seriously. I think people who line up days in advance are seeking the media attention more than anything else, but as an Apple aficionado myself I do get excited for their latest offerings. I draw the line, however, at camping on the street when I can pre-order a device online in the comfort of my own home.

Are you looking to upgrade to the iPhone 5 from a previous iPhone? Or are you looking to switch over from a Blackberry or Android smartphone? Here’s the skinny…

Making the upgrade:

If you own an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, you are likely eligible for a carrier-subsidized upgrade depending on the date of purchase/contract renewal. The 16 gigabyte iPhone 5 is $199. The benefits of the upgrade include a larger screen size (great for watching movies or streaming Netflix), thinner profile, and faster data speeds with a 4G/LTE data plan. Much of southern Westchester County and NYC has 4G data coverage with Verizon and AT&T. Sprint has 4G coverage as well, but generally not in Scarsdale (at least not yet). Other improvements to the phone include a faster processor and camera, and longer battery life.

Apple has changed the dock connector from a 30-pin connector to an 8-pin. The 30-pin connector has been widely used on all previous iPhones, iPod, iPod Touch devices, and the iPad. For folks like me with multiple Apple devices, you will no longer be able to use old data cables to charge your iPhone 5, unless you fork over $20-$40 for an adapter. This has been a sore spot with many Apple consumers since it will require such adapters to work with older third-party devices (home stereo system receivers, alarm clocks, etc.) that only use the 30-pin dock connector…AND, the adapter is not guaranteed to work with all devices. Folks who connect their iPhones to their car stereo systems via proprietary cables may no longer be able to do so. Please check with your vehicle’s manufacturer.

Switching to Apple from a different device:

If you’ve been waiting to make the switch to an iPhone, now is the best time to do it. You will have the latest and greatest device that you’ll surely be happy with. The previous iPhone models (the iPhone 4 and 4S) are still being sold by Apple, but now at a lower cost than the iPhone 5. These phones are still fast and current with great cameras and screen resolution. If having 4G/LTE data speeds is not a concern to you, if you live in an area that has spotty or no 4G/LTE coverage, or if you have a teenager begging you for an iPhone, getting an iPhone 4 or 4S is a great alternative that will save money.

How to get one:

For those like me who don’t want to wait in line on launch day, the best bet is to pre-order an iPhone 5 online and have it delivered to you. This is a relatively hassle-free process and the phone will arrive pre-activated when ordered through your carrier’s website. There’s also something to be said for waiting a few days or weeks for the hoopla to die down. By waiting and visiting an Apple store, Best Buy, or your carrier’s store, you should be able to get one provided that inventory is still available. The iPhone is offered in black or white, both of which are sleek and attractive. You can’t go wrong with either one.

Next month I plan upgrading my OS to Mountain Lion, which will coincide with my decision to update my Adobe Creative Suite to the next offering CS6. This will allow me to explore mobile applications – something that has been in the back of my mind for a while now, so I think I will be getting my feet wet in the arena sometime this year, but I digress…

I was quite happy to hear about the new iOS 6 which will be released this fall; the neatest part of that update will be the Siri-voiced turn-by-turn directions.  I couldn’t help but wonder after this announcement how the current developers of GPS-based navigation applications and units are going to be hurting if not eliminated by this new Apple offering. I have a dedicated GPS unit that I take on road trips, but the map is already outdated after a few months of use.  With the iOS 6 Maps application and navigation, I will no longer have this worry.  My dedicated GPS unit will now have to take a back seat (pun intended) to my iPhone 4S.  My iPhone has already become invaluable to me, and now it will be even more so valuable.  Have iPhone, will travel…it is practically summer, after all.

5 Free and Easy Ways to Improve Your Business’s Google Ranking, by BusinessNewsDaily and posted on Mashable, lists “Use WordPress” as one of their methods for improving your search engine ranking. It just so happens that last year I converted this very website into WordPress. I am currently in the process of converting/redesigning two websites previously designed with traditional html/javascript using WordPress. Next week I plan to visit with a client about converting his site to WordPress too.

So, why am I doing it? Not only is WordPress a great and clean Content Management System (CMS), it’s much easier to optimize your site for SEO using WordPress through it’s various plugins.  Combine that with keyword research and you’ll be able to optimize for those keywords much more easily. Working in a CMS also makes it far easier to allow for client back-end access – which is a reason for converting to WordPress in its own right.

After spending some time playing around with it, I believe this will be a valuable tool to communicate design ideas to my clients…well worth the $7 price (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/imockups-for-ipad/id364885913?mt=8). Using a stylus (I couldn’t possibly smudge up the beautiful new screen with my fingerprints, could I?) I can easily draft content boxes, create links, add image placeholders, text boxes, the list goes on. Up until now I’ve been sketching out my ideas on paper, scanning it, and e-mailing them to clients as it was much quicker than drafting a design in Adobe Illustrator. Now I can draft it using iMockups, export the images, and send them on their way. The app is so easy and quick to use that I could draft design layouts right in front of my clients during a meeting if I wanted to.

Last year I wrote about my experience with my first iPad, and now I’ve found another app to add to my arsenal.  I love finding things to make my business run more smoothly.

I’m currently looking into upgrading my version of Creative Suite to version 5.5, as there are a slew of new features that seem enticing – the most enticing feature being able to work with dynamic CMS (Content Management Systems) such as Drupal and WordPress from within Dreamweaver. Before I take the plunge, has anyone out there worked with this feature and find it useful? I’m wondering if this is something I should invest in now, or wait for Creative Suite version 6 which will likely be released later this year.

Please leave a comment below, or get in touch with me using my site contact form. Thanks!

If your current site was last designed about 5 years ago, it might be time for something new and fresh. You may have new products to sell, new employees to show off (hopefully), or perhaps a new message or fundraising campaign if you are a non-profit organization. If you do plan to launch a new website this year, please take advantage of the expertise and design know-how of a website designer.  In the past I’ve blogged about how it’s not the best idea to use a “Do-It-Yourself” website builder, and I want to emphasize again that money is well spent on a professional who can not only guide you through the design process but also create the spectacular website that your business or organization deserves.

Happy New Year!
Jason