I’m a Macbook Air 10.6.2 &  Safari 4.0.4

Just downloaded a html file and double-clicked it and got this message. Humorous.

These are the kinds of things you get to put up with being a web developer so make sure you hire a good one.

This is a humorous account of what it’s like dealing with clients sometimes. This guy has the balls I don’t know whether he actually said this to a client or not but either way it’s funny.

Sometimes people ask the darndest things…probably without even knowing their asking that and it always seems to come down to web design, photography or graphic design. Maybe it’s just me. Still, I’d like to think I wouldn’t walk into a shoe store and ask them to have some shoes and when I win the race and collect some prize money I’ll pay them back…

http://www.27bslash6.com/p2p.html

I haven’t treated anyone like that in my Phoenix web design company in the last 10 years but I’ve had some ‘funny’ requests. That’s all I’m saying… 

Not too long ago, I had a project come up where I really could benefit from flowchart type outlook on things. I have OmniGraffle, which is a cool tool, but I needed a way to share this stuff with the client and I figured there was probably a web 2.0 way to accomplish this. Just for fun, I started marking all the tools I thought were any good in my Delicious account so I could come back later and compare them. Below are my results and not so scientific conclusions to get your started:

http://www.gliffy.com – Fun to say, fun to use. They’re really going for people who don’ define themselves as ’suits’ of some sort or another. “Diagramming software for the rest of us” is what the tagline says and it’s pretty darn accurate. Although I’ve used OmniGraffle on the Mac, this one is fun to use and gives me pretty much the same results as I was getting there anyway. It’s mature enough to have an API, plugins, & quite a few examples that are diverse.

http://www.exploratree.org.uk/ – Not billing themselves as a ‘flowchart’ tool but rather “thinking guides”. Not a super friendly site design, feels more like you’re looking at a shopping cart, but you quickly get used to it. They have some pretty forward thinking scenarios up for your use and I feel it’s a pretty darn useful tool if you get into it.

http://www.lucidchart.com – Professional diagrams, collaborative aspect, & browser based without Flash. The product tour walks you through everything pretty nicely and you get a good idea of what it’s all about.

http://www.lovelycharts.com/ – Has nice, bright design and it makes me think of Valentine’s day. lol.  They have both a screencast and a ‘take a tour’ video, which seems a bit redundant, but it’s all good. Their gallery is all of 2 (you read that right) at this time but it gives you a good idea of what it’s all about. They’re not the prettiest flowcharts in the world but they get the job done.

http://www.slickplan.com/ – What I like about their site is the simplicity of it all. Free, uses jquery (a personal favorite) & comes with a bevy of free flowcharts to give you a little kickstart. Check out the ‘Why Sign Up?’ link to get more useful info about their service.

http://creately.com/ – Seems like a pretty comprehensive web application. Great site design, nice intro video and several powerful testimonials on the home page. Not free but even the Pro plan is only $10 a month at the time of this writing.

http://www.mindmeister.com – Not precisely a flowchart tool but a mind map tool. They have a nice site design and are active on Twitter. They’ve replied to a few questions I asked the Twitterverse over the years and they had good answers. This speaks to theircommitment & their involvement with customers. Great testimonials, awards, and yes, an iPhone app to boot. Not a free service but the do a free service level.

Sometime I use a few of these tools in my Phoenix web design company & hopefully you will too now.. Feel free to explore the site to get a better idea of what I can do for your business on the web if you need a web site or web application.

Alright, this thing is just darn cool: http://cg.cs.tsinghua.edu.cn/montage/main.htm

A Quick Background: Margo is one the premier, high-end interior designers in the Phoenix area but she had no web presence. After a few misfires on other websites that didn’t make the light of day, she found us and got on the right track immediately. What she really needed was a way to communicate what she is capable of but also all the range of styles she can design in and for. Appealing to many different personal tastes while retaining professionalism throughout the site and getting the right information to potential buyers was a key ingredient.

Design Choices: Purple has traditionally signified royalty and it’s one of the main reasons we’ve chosen that. The text at the top is minimalistic and doesn’t distract from the real information and design at the bottom. Phone number is very clear and easily accessible when someone wants more information. It seems basic but you’d be surprised on how many people just don’t do this?! Leaving money on the table is what that’s called.

Special Features: The menu isn’t too daunting to look at but it has tons of information. Clicking on any of the links will immediately expand it so you can see all the sub pages that are relevant to that section of the site.

The main area features a landscape image with some of her design work showcases different talents and styles of design. It loads a random image per page load so as to appeal to many different personal tastes and styles. It also features 4 smaller thumbnail images which are on a Flash rotator script and slowly roll through her many different projects.

What the Client Says:

“After taking the step from sole proprietor to LLC status, I decided that I needed to move into the 21st Century and establish a website. A business associate recommended a website designer and I promptly hired her with no questions asked. I e-mailed my son to view the progress of the site and he, without my knowledge, e-mailed his good friend Chad to look it over. His honest evaluation convinced me that I needed to start over. I believe that I have a cutting-edge, professionally designed site, that I am proud to refer my clients to.” - Margo Leitz

A Quick Background: Frontline Sales Team is a national sales team that offer college students and other sales people the opportunity to make some summer cash. The level on money you can earn in a summer there is unparalleded but it takes hard work and self motivation.

Just like everyone else the world, when these potential candidates hear about the program, they hit the web to research everything they can on it. What Frontline needed was a professional looking website to match the professionalism of their organization.

Design Choices: We’ve chosen a nice bold design that features inspiring quotes to help student connect emotionally with the challenge of summer work.

Special Features: Potential candidates can look at the slick FAQ, view a calendar of training talks in a town near them.

You can even use a fancy Flash payscale calculator to do some preliminary numbers on how much they can make in a summer depending on how hard they want to work. It’s a good way to get people playing with the idea and still get realistic numbers at the same time.

There is a Member’s Only area so Frontline can communicate with the people who are more serious and not tire kickers. It’s also tied into the Facebook Group.

As always, this site is built to rank in the search engines.

What the Client Says:
	“ Thanks to Chad Creates we have a great website. Its very user friendly and great looking.  Our customers can quickly access their account info along with any Pest Control info they may be looking for. Chad Creates is very easy to work with and they are extremely prompt on getting additions or changes to our website updated.” Darren Kirkham Frontline Pest Frontline Sales Team

A Quick Background: TLC Supported Living is a quality care provider for developmentally disabled individuals, individuals with mental illness and people disabled via a traumatic brain injury. They were ready to step up the next level with a website. It needed to really connect with people who are placing a lot of trust with their company in providing care for their loved ones.

Design Choices: We’ve chosen blues because it’s shown to be a color that evokes trust. We’ve used some of the lighter hues that have a more ‘airy’ feel to them which relaxes and helps any anxiety about hiring an in-home caretaker. The clouds add to this affect.

Features: The pictures in the upper right hand corner rotate in a not-too-fast rate so they don’t feel like an ‘advertisement’ but still showcase success stories from real people.

There is a video on the home page that is served from Blip.tv. It makes for easy client management and uses a custom video player that matchs the color scheme of the site. Every single page on the site can have a video and if there is no video, the page just expands to fill that space so it doesn’t look like anything is missing.

The menu is a gentle drop down and flyout affair that’s not to jarring on the eyes and makes for a nice experience. A newsletter sign up box on the homepage allows them to communicate with their fans. And, a photo gallery showcases their work out in the field. It’s a simple drag-n-drop for them to manage. The Events Calendar shows upcoming and past events and helps people realize just how active this organization really is.

As always, this site is built to rank in the search engines.

A Quick Background: Jack King was ready to go the next level when it came to online presence. He got it. The premier floor installer that just eeks ‘quality’ and ‘thoroughness’ through and through. Potential clients needed to feel that when looking at his website. They needed to get a feel for what kind of work he was putting out and feel comfortable with him and his crew coming into their home to help change their living spaces. A lot people don’t know what and how floor installation is or what it involves. This site gives them as much info as they desire.

Design Choices: We’ve choses tones and colors close to what you’d find on a floor. Clever, right? Well, it’s more inline with the project and gets people to focus on what the task is all about…floor installation. It gives a good sense of professionalism and showcases Jack’s work.

Features: A beautiful photo gallery that lets Jack upload with ease. The end user can view larger photos with a click of a button, drag them around the page to suit, and even click the ‘Play’ button to see the photos in a slideshow format.

There are 3 little thumbnail photos below a main feature photo on each page. The feature photo is a wide, landscape shot that rotates at random on each page load. Every time you hit any page, you’ll get a different photo. At the same time, those littel thumbnails rotate on a slow rate. It’s not so fast that it feels like a ‘advertisement’ but not too slow that you wouldn’t miss it. It allows Jack to showcase many different styles and projects to appeal to as many people’s tastes as he can.

There is a video on any page that he wants to have a video.  There is a littel blurb below for that acts much like a newspaper front page teaser story in order to entice people to view the video. ANY page on the site can have a video and if there isn’t one, the page will expand so there is no trace of a something ‘missing’.

This site is really designed to convert browsers into buyers. At any point in the browsing experience, they can give Jack a call at a glance because his image and phone number are featured in the upper right hand corner. This gives a personal feel to the site so it doesn’t feel like a nameless, faceless corporate website. Whenever they’re ready to buy, they can. It’s the secret of doing a lot of business online.

As always, this site is built to rank in the search engines.

What the Client Says: coming soon….

A Quick Background: Shortly after his son, Joe, was paralyzed from a football accident, father Todd Jackson got to work creating a foundation to help educate the on spinal cord injuries in youth. There was tons of info on adult spinal cord injuries on the market but not to much on younger people. He needed to have a way to get the then newly formed foundation the credibility it deserved, the public the info it needed, and the confidence the support to donate money to help the cause.

Design Choices: We’ve chosen a blue and green color palatte to help evoke trust and satisfy Todd’s color preference. It has more of a minimalistic appeal to it overall and showcases several pictures of Joe.

Special Features: There is a ‘latest news’ section to keep people apprised of all the things that are happening at the organization and the latest updates on Joe. He’s quite active speaking to other youth and his father does a ton of stuff too.

The feature landscape image showcases pictures of Joe nicely in a slowly rotating Flash piece.

The contact information as well as ‘donation’ button is prominently displayed on every page so when browsing turns to donating (in any form), it’s very easy to accomplish.

There is a nice calendar and the store sells wristbands via PayPal.

As always, this site is built to rank in the search engines.