by Matt | Mar 5, 2009 | Personal, Web
Hey gang, I’ve got a quick opinion question for you. Due to a recent (and welcome) increase in the amount of freelance work I’ve been getting, I feel it’s probably time to update my portfolio (on LI dot net). So, my question is this.
Should it remain as Mackenzie Photography, even though it’s under the LI domain name? Or, should it be rebranded? If it’s not rebranded, does one name under a different domain name confuse anyone?
Also, given my love for WordPress, should I try and create a WordPress photo portfolio using an available theme (althought there aren’t too many that are any good) OR should I create a static web page that might be more aethestically pleasing, but be harder to maintain and update in the long run? Is there an alternative option I haven’t considered? Anyone know of any really good photo gallery software that would work well AND look professional? Or should I just stick with a regular old web page?
Thoughts?
by Matt | Feb 27, 2009 | Personal, Web
Along with my upgrades to php and mysql, I’m now able to run a few of the more recent wordpress plugins which had required the latest versions. I’ve replaced the MyGamerCard picture with a much more flexible and customizable version from Ardamis. It’s all CSS, links to the correct pages on xbox.com instead of mygamercard.com, and it’s a callable function that I can use elsewhere (like in a post for example) if I wanted to.
Also, I’m toying with LifeStream at the moment as something else to possibly add. My main issues are that I don’t “tweet” so any updates would be things like digging a story on digg, adding a photo to flickr, that sort of thing. That’s all great and wonderful but anything other than pure text (such as a tweet) adds a thumbnail to it. So, instead of:
“Matt dugg [insert story name here]”
it’s: “Matt dugg a story on Digg: [story thumbnail]”
and I think that’s kind of silly. It’s the same for Amazon, Flickr, etc. If I added an item to my Amazon Wish list it comes out as “Matt added an item at Amazon: [large photo]”. I’m trying to find a way to make it just text or just text with links. If it works I’ll let you know.
Matt out.
by Matt | Feb 27, 2009 | Web
And we’re back… or at least we should be. If you’re reading this, the site is up and active again.
by Matt | Feb 11, 2009 | Aggravation, Personal, Tech, Web, Work
I know a few of you are more than familiar with the concept, but it’s aggravation is all the more real when it’s happening to you. I’m working, right this moment, on what I would consider to be my 16th design for a website. Version #1 was nearly perfect. It had all the right elements, elegant use of white space and a nice user interface. Version #2 included a few minor changes from co-workers in my department, all with quality input. By version #5, we were “showing” the design to groups outside the department. That was 4 months ago. Since then, every week, we have a “tag-up” meeting between 2 directors of different departments, the designers (me and my people), the IT guys, the programmers and backend developers and a VP.
So far we’ve been able to establish that we: like buttons, would like the afore mentioned buttons to do things, and that the logo needs to be bigger. Beyond that, all concepts of good design have left the conversation. We actually had a meeting a little while back about what the search function should LOOK like when it displays results. A full blown, hour and a half long meeting, only to establish that, yes, we should have results in some sort of list.
I know many of you sympathize with me, and reading the article on Smashing Magazine today, I know I’m not alone.
What I can say though, is that this project is facing at least 8 of the 10 “harsh truths” of corporate web design. Especially #’s 4 and 6. Holy shit are we knee-deep in 4 and 6.
“The harsh truth is that if you build a website for everyone, it will appeal to no one.”
“Where some website managers want their website to appeal to everybody, others want it to appeal to themselves and their colleagues…. Too many designs are rejected because the boss doesn’t like green.”
by Matt | Dec 12, 2008 | Web
Photos are fixed, back in their nice little galleries. Archives are fixed, now with nice little javascript drop down sliders. The only thing I can’t remember was what was on my sidebar. Anyone remember?
by Matt | Nov 28, 2008 | Web
The Nation is back under my control. Yahoo was actually fairly helpful. I called their Small Business/Domains 1-800 number, got right to a person, explained what was going on and about 20 minutes later it was back under my account. I changed the DNS servers, locked the domain and now we just wait for it to propagate across the interwebs. Not that there’s anything there to see since I had to wipe the whole directory, but it’s the principal of the thing.
Anyway, I hope everyone’s turkey day was good. I’m still full 24 hours later, and the History chanel is making me sleepy. I think I might just nap until Monday.
Matt out.
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