Hey, its my first blog! It has been awesome! But, I listened to other bloggers talk about how blogging should be regular and I’m calling BS. I made my blog something others advised and was not true to what I wanted: awesomeness.

I want to blog about what I think is awesome, when its awesome. I don’t want to blog about something because its time too. That kinda stuff if for people who want to gain or make a living blogging. I don’t!

I’m not saying you can’t blog regularly, time your posts, make a few bucks, and be amazing at it. I’m saying I don’t want my blog to take of my blog. So, this place is coming down… most of what I have here will exist on my new site but some will be gone forever.

A few purists, I’m sure, will be outraged by what I’m saying. But, if the truth be told, the pseudo class hover has been triggered by user action for quite a while. That is, behavior within presentation.

From the CSS specification, “Interactive user agents sometimes change the rendering in response to user actions. CSS provides three pseudo-classes for common cases.”

This has made me question the principle behind separation of content, presentation and design. And, as I have investigated the idea behind separation, inspiring as it is, I have not found it to be practical.

Separation is a novel idea. It has guided the design style of many amazing programmers and artists. It has led to numerous beautiful and functional websites. But, this segregation of content, presentation and behavior is, as I have found it, much like XHTML 2: little more than an idealistic view worth stemming from.

It is time to leave this ideology behind us. It has served its purpose practically and well. Times are changing and new technologies are piping a different tune: divergence.

It is time to start diverging, not separating.

Part Two: Divergence explained

Update: Podcast has been cleared! Subscribe in iTunes

Also, we are working on making the podcast better. Please bear with us as we get more organized, and our nerves calm down.

Now, I know when you’re new it’s hard to get clients to give you anything, content or cash. But, they don’t know what design is, and they don’t know that they need it. It’s not their job, it yours, and you need to inform them.

Doing design right

As I learned, design was not about picking up a brush and hoping something nice came out (This is what most new website owners assume). It was about understanding, communication and art.

I had the process all wrong:

1. design a site
2. plug in content
3. and market the content

Instead the process is quite the opposite:

1. understand the market
2. develop content based on that information
3. and let the content inform the design.

Market awareness

Marketing is the first step to design. For a writer, marketing is a story. For us, it’s the story of those we are working with. But we can only begin to write once we understand their story.

Content

Every story has characters. Who are the characters of the brand you are working with? What is their history? What is their personality? What do they do for fun? Are they goofy or proper?

Writing is hard if you don’t know these things. In the end writing is about bringing an idea to life. It’s about painting a picture in the mind’s eye; and it’s our job to communicate what that painting is emotionally.

Design

Communication is emotional. It is where most relationships break down too. If a design is not communicating correctly, how can the design stand? Well, it doesn’t. It never will. It’s like a person who smiles on the outside and wages war within. Bad design is like a volcano waiting to erupt without warning, and volcanoes erupt.

Design is informed by content. If it’s not, it’s not communicating.

What is your story?

So, what is the story you need to communicate? Have the characters already been given to you? Or, will you pretend that you can design the cover of a book without pages?

First, if you are having trouble getting your site indexed try submitting the URL to a site that gets indexed frequently. When you submit your domain name to these site be sure their reputation is good. Search engines will rank your site based on how reputable the sites that link to you are. Twitter is an excellent example because they are both reputable and indexed often.

Google URL Adder

If you didn’t know, Google has its own tool for adding URLs to its index. If you’re not sure Google can find your domain, try applying for Google spider to crawl your site on this site by using the tool. Google uses spiders to index websites so they appear in their search results. If you’re confused about how Google works check out this video, or visit their page all about it.

Web Design Agency

Normally, if your relationship is good, the design company that is making your site will add your domain to their portfolio. If their site gets indexed often yours is bound to get picked up. Be warned that not all websites are added to design company’s portfolios. Many only show their best work so they don’t overwhelm new clients coming to their domain.

Be sure to recognize the decisions made by those you are working with. You never know what their situation is like or how many clients they are working with. However, chances are, if you’re a really good client they will do you a favor and get you indexed anyways.

Blogging Weekly

• Monday: Feature Post about the things I care about.
• Thursday: Quick and dirty CSS tutorials
• Saturday: Small business web tips

These posts will continue to appear on this blog, inteldesigner.com. You will not have to add a new bookmark or favorite to your already growing list.

Redesigned Site

I’m also working hard away at updating this site. If you remember, I planned on doing this sooner but my priorities have not fallen that way.

As a compromise I updated the core code of this site just a few months ago. That was not the redesign I had planned back in January.

Booking it

I also told you I was going to write a nice little book for beginners. That is still in the works, I have not forgotten about it. The book will come together slowly, over the next few blog posts. Think of the book as a guided compilation of those posts.

Thank you again

I just wanted to say thank you again for the inspiration you have been, if only by your presence here. If you have any questions do not hesitate to ask, here or on twitter.

As always, I welcome any recommendations you may have and all ideas. Please share.

First, when writing a proposal, include a friendly word of thanks to the prospective client. Let them know that you greatly appreciate their interest. This set the tone for the rest of the proposal.

I’m awesome, brilliant

Next, you may or may not want to include the classic “why we are so great” speech. Including this part can be important when trying to earn the clients trust, but don’t let it become a sells pitch, and don’t go over board. The keyword here is genuine. Remember, you can always demonstrate your ability to deliver throughout the proposal.

Break it down

In the next section of the document you need tell the perspective client what you plan to offer them, the deliverable. You should break everything down so the client can understand what you are talking about. Don’t use to much jargon.

If you are proposing a new website include all the items you plan to create: pages, designs, and everything else.

You will want to describe what each item is, why they need it, what you plan to do, and how you will deliver your promise to them. The client doesn’t want to trained on how HTML works, they want to know how it will make them profitable.

For example, if you are proposing a new contact page:

• Describe the contact page. What is it for?
• Describe why you think it’s important. What is its value?
• Describe what you plan to do. Do you plan to redesign the form, or implement Ajax for usability?
• Describe how you plan to do what you have described. Will you use a retro style, or use jQuary?

You can do a number of things when breaking down and itemizing your proposal, just be sure the client know what they are getting.

Money

Near the end of the proposal be sure to include a complete list of the items you have proposed. This will give your client a better look at what they are getting. More items is not always better. If you want include estimated prices in your proposal.

Summary

Finally, at the bottom of your document include a complete and brief summery of what you are proposing. Keep it short, keep it simple and keep it genuine.

Resources

If you have any resources or advice feel free to share. Here are some of mine:

• Charm Client, Win Pitches
• Boagworld – Briefs and Proposals
• Make That Sale … Without the Sleaze!

This is the big one; is Twitter a platform? I don’t think so, at least not yet. For me and most everyone I have seen, it’s a medium. It a communication channel that can be switch off as soon as something better comes along.

Now, Twitter has a development platform, and for those using it maybe Twitter is a platform; but, for people? No; it’s not one for me yet. I can do about the same with Facebook.

However, Twitter has one leg up on Facebook in that it can help you meet more people in more places. In other words Twitter is public by default, and that’s something Facebook wants to be. (and they are getting heat for it)

When will twitter become a platform: needed?

We “need” Twitter when they tie us to their service. Just think about @Anywhere. It’s a step to suck us in. Good or bad I don’t know. One thing is sure though, Twitter will make it if they do; because if we need them we are using them like a platform.

So the real question is whether or not we need Twitter? I don’t think so. I think Twitter needs us. Please don’t get me wrong here, Twitter is important! It connects us to a network of people and those people make Twitter important. But we don’t “need” Twitter, not yet. Not until they can convert their importance into a need.

Just because something is important doesn’t mean it is needed.

Ok, speed is important, really important. If you don’t believe me just read this blog post Google lunched Sunday. Google lays it out fairly well. They even cite Microsoft and Mozilla, their competition.

However, speeding up your site can be a bit terrifying, or it is for me. There are a load of things that go into speed.

• HTTP requests
• File sizes
• Programing quality
• Content Delivery Networks
• Database structure
• Caching
• Name severs
• And more…

Speeding up your site is not easy, unless your site is particularly horrifying. Still, you need to get on this train. Yes, the train is moving! Here are a few resources that might help you get moving too.

Tools

• Google Page Speed
• Yahoo YSlow

Articles

• 5 ways to give your site a speed boost in less than 30 minutes.
• Better JavaScript Minification
• Website Performance: What To Know and What You Can Do
• Coding a Web Design for Speed and Quality
• You and site performance, sitting in a tree…

Books

• Website Optimization
• High Performance Web Sites