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Etherycle sometimes blogs about ways to make you more money!

If your HTML is strictly a semantic layout of your content, then you can always change your presentation with CSS and JavaScript. Semantic HTML is intentionally simple. At a glance, one needs only a basic knowledge of HTML elements to understand your content. This keeps pages light, machine-friendly, and easy to maintain.

By being machine-friendly we improve accessibility and SEO. First, universal access devices such as blind readers allow your content to be used by impaired individuals. Second, Google's spiders are able to better understand the intent of your site through semantic markup.

The process is as simple as separating style from substance. The HTML elements tell you their intended use. For examples, tables should only be used to display tabular data, and never to lay out a site. Let's take a look at the EtherCycle process page:



Because the process page is a list of steps with explanations, we've defined it as a definition list with each step being a term and the explanation being the definition. Take a peek at the code–


 
Learn

 

  

It is fundamental to a project's success that we understand your business. We do this by auditing your content, interviewing key stakeholders & customers, reviewing analytics data, and listening to you.


 


 

All the styling (including the images) are done in CSS3 using selectors–

#process {
    counter-reset: toc 0;
}
#process dt:before {
    content: counter(toc, decimal) ". ";
    counter-increment: toc;
}
#process dd {
    margin: 0 0 3em;
    padding: 0 1em 1em;
    position: relative;
}
#process dd:nth-of-type(1):after {
    content: url("/img/processLearn.png");
    left: 42em;
    position: absolute;
    top: -2em;
}

While semantic code has always been possible and encouraged, only now with the flexiblity of CSS3 are we able to fully realize semantic sites without sacrificing presentation.
The attraction to social media is its authenticity. People like the idea that they're talking to an insider at the business, not just reading ad copy in a newsletter.

That's what is so ridiculous about social media consultants. As experts, they should understand that for a social media campaign to be truly effective, it has to be authentic. Yet any business can hire these same experts to write tweets for them. That's the most inauthentic thing you can do. It's a contradiction, isn't it?

If you want to succeed with social media, you only have to be yourself. You know your brand better than any guru ever will.
Throughout the design process, we include our clients in every step by submitting each design for their feedback. The best results come from this collaboration. However, not all feedback is created equal.

There are three kinds of destructive feedback we've seen:
Solutions – Instead of stating a problem, a design solution is offered. For example, wanting a stronger call to action could be expressed as "Let's make the button blink."
Ambiguity – Offering a meaningless phrase like "make it pop" will lead to frustration on both sides.
Personal criticism – While this rarely happens, feedback can take the form of an insult such as "this looks phoned in." This isn't professional for obvious reasons.

The two-step solution to giving great feedback is to be in the right mindset and then ask the right questions. When reviewing a design composition, keep in mind the goals of the business and those of the audience, then ask yourself:
Is the color palette cohesive with my existing brand materials?
Is the navigation intuitive?
Is the tone right for my audience?
Does this reflect my organization?
Does this help users achieve their goals?
Does this help achieve my business goals?

The best results are realized through creative collaboration. The client knows their customer best, and the designer knows design best. When both parties work well together, everyone is rewarded with websites that are both beautiful and useful.
Music can set the mood, and it can also inspire. Here are some albums we've enjoyed in the office:

Trace Bundy: Adapt – Incredibly technical acoustic guitar.

The Glitch Mob: Drink the Sea – This has been called the best electronic album of 2010.

Johnny Flynn: A Larum – Everything you like about Mumford & Sons but better.

Murder by Death: In Bocca Al Lupo – Dark indie rock inspired by Tom Waits.

Opeth: Heritage – Phenomenally well-produced progressive rock that is as complex as it is melancholy.

Happy workers are motivated and productive workers. (And in our case, it also makes us more creative pixel workers.)

Most managers acknowledge the importance of levity in the workplace. They know emotional fulfillment is important, but they don't know how to foster it. They then make the mistake of trying to plan fun with treat days or awkward mid-day parties. You can't plan for fun.

Fun is about spontaneity. You only need to give your employees the tools to have fun. Forget office policies and planning. Let it just happen. We learned this first hand when a developer brought in a pair of dollar store dart guns. Within two weeks, everyone had brought in Nerf guns. When appropriate, we can now blow off steam via onslaughts of brightly-colored foam projectiles. I firmly believe that we're a better team as a result.

While having a better Nerf arsenal than your competition won't guarantee success, it will liven up your office, and that may improve your bottom line.

I'm Obsessing Over is a advertorial photo-blog for Yvonne Estelle's that we took from concept to launch in four days.

Brainstorm
In an afternoon session, we conceived and planned the project with the client. At the end, we had a domain name, and a plan.



Wireframe
With the meeting still fresh in our minds, we sketched wireframes of the site using old-fashioned pen and paper. (Sketching is the most overlooked tool in any designer's toolbox.)



Design
In PhotoShop, a mock-up of the design is created based on the wireframe.



Launch
After two days of coding and testing, the site was pushed live.
Don't.
You can't outsmart Google. Tips, trick, and secrets for better rankings only work short-term (if at all.) Google is literally constantly tweaking their search results through multi-variate testing of their algorithm.

Content is the best SEO strategy.
More content means more long-tail keyword phrases which means more opportunities for people to find you in searches. If the content is both useful to the user and relevant to your site, it is likely to convert.

$196.29B
The next time you're tempted by the promise of better rankings with no work, remember that Google has a market capitalization of $196,290,000,000 with which to hire teams of people smarter than the self-styled SEO expert who just cold-called you.
As web designers, who do we serve?

Clients: Our duty to the client is to help them achieve their business goals. Often our work is a keystone in their sales process, so we must meet (and hopefully exceed) measurable objectives such as "increase sales 25% over 60 days" or "generate more leads." For the client, our goal is to provide a return on their investment.

Users: We have a moral obligation to the users of our sites. We must provide them with websites that are usable, accessible, and engaging. We strive to serve the user with a positive experience. Conversely, we can never do things we know to be an annoyance.

Ourselves: As a team, we have to make things that we're proud to share. The footer credit we place on our work is not an advertisement, it's a signature. We can only sign those projects that we know improve the web.


Pushing back with clients on what we know are bad ideas can result in friction. In a few cases it has even meant losing clients, but that's acceptable if it means we produce the highest possible quality of work.
Every few weeks a prospective client calls our offices and breathlessly explains that they have the next big idea. These grand plans all boil down to "It's X for Y." Some very real examples are:

"It's Facebook but for nightclubs!"
"We're like Charity: Water only more sustainable."
"I want to create StubHub but just for Chicago at first."
"It's a free website to buy & sell cars. Like Craigslist except free."
"I'm building an e-commerce venture that will sell costume jewelry but all pieces will give back to a charity. Like Russell Simmons."

This isn't innovation, and it certainly isn't a sustainable business model. Why should anyone choose these imitations over the original?

I challenge you to rise above these imitations. When you do, we'll be here to help you build it.


The Amlings Cycle Holiday Toy Ride is an annual charity bike ride event that raises toys for the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots Foundation. The ride was started in 2003 by local bike shop owner Joe Reichert.


For the ninth anniversary of the Holiday Toy Ride, we created a site that allows participants to register online for the event. Through the use of illustrated elements and a prominent call to action, the Holiday Toy Ride is now much more friendly to new participants than it was in year's past.


Register now.