• Ben Callahan | Work | Blog | Personal
• Jeff Friend | Work | Personal
• Andy Rossi | Work | Blog
• Mark Wells | Work
• Rob Harr | Work | Blog
• Mike Ward | Work | Personal
• Grant Root | Work | Personal
• Ryan Clark | Work | Blog | Personal
• Ryan Buttrey | Work | Blog

We got started off with a great conversation about how difficult it is to stay current with all the RSS we’re following. Mike and Grant both use Delicious tagging. While most of us are avid fans of Google Reader, we do get behind because of the rapidly changing industry we’re a part of. Shaun Inman has a beautiful little application called Fever that helps with this problem by tracking which articles are popular and bringing these to the top of your reader. Comment below if you have other ideas…

This month Jeff suggested that we each bring something to discuss. Here are a few of the items we discussed:

Andy Rossi did a quick review of Expression Engine, a PHP based content management system released by EllisLab. This is a platform he’s been reviewing and playing with. Things he likes: solid add-ons available, extreme customization ability, you don’t have to hack at PHP to use it.

Jeff Friend brought up a great conversation about designing in the browser. There has been a lot of talk about this lately on some pretty respected sites and even at An Event Apart. We had mixed reviews in the group about this work-flow. Most concerns centered around the difficulty in finding a web-designer who could code to the standard we all strive for. The opposite is also true, it’s not east to find coders that have a solid grasp of design principles.

Ryan Clark gave us a quick overview of Mail Chimp, a newer bulk email management system. It offers a great interface for managing your lists and emails, extreme flexibility in the structure of your lists and some great RSS integration features.

Rob Harr demo’d a super cool jQuery plug-in called AJAX Upload. It handles the selection and upload of an image with jQuery, allowing you to do this without a page refresh. Beautiful. [will add links when I can get Rob to provide them - he's surfing in Florida right now]

Grant actually brought HAND-OUTS and therefore wins the award this month for “Best Dayton Web Guys Presentation”. The article was from his blog, discussing @font-face integration with a site he manages. Some of the guys use other services to help, Font Squirrel and Typekit were two.

I demo’d a web-based design presentation tool I found called Vyoopoint. It allows you to upload images (or movies, swf’s, pdf’s) of designs for submission to your client. The client can then comment on the designs. It also handles versioning of your designs. There is a free account you can use to test the service.

As we were wrapping up, Jeff called out something called Primer CSS, which will parse your mark-up and generate a skeleton CSS file based on ID’s and Classes found in the document. Very interesting idea. We all recognized the difficulty of organizing a large CSS file and pitched around a few ideas for solving these problems. How do you handle CSS confusion as your sites grow? Leave a comment!

Thanks all for a great meeting. Look forward to the next…

Tessa Joy Callahan

Tessa Joy came into our lives on the 15th of December at 3:08PM. She is as perfect as a little girl can be, despite the fact that I am not. My hope and prayer is that I can be as good of a father to Tessa as my father was to me.

Manic Mouse on Neutica+

After a little over a month with the free Typebased theme from WooThemes here on Manic Mouse, I finally switched to something more my style. It’s not that I didn’t like Typebased, it just felt like I was struggling to make it work for my content.

Neutica+ was designed by Allan Cole and is a child theme of the Thematic WordPress framework. Though I’ve never done anything with Thematic (or any other theme framework) before, the first iteration of this site (which never went live) was actually a child theme of the WordPress default theme. I really liked the concept of child themes, but didn’t want to get stuck in a “perfectionist death spiral” of personal theme design and development, so I just found a free one.

Neutica+ cost me $15. So far the only modification I’ve made is adding the “Grab the Short Link” element on post listings. I’m not an expert in PHP, so I’m not certain that I’ve done this properly, but here’s the code I’ve added to my functions.php file to do it.

global $post;
$shortLink = rtrim(get_bloginfo('url'), '/') . '/?p=' . $post->ID;
printf(__('<span class="meta-utility entry-permalink">Grab the <a title="Short Link to %2$s" rev="canonical" href="%1$s">Short Link</a>.</span>',
   'thematic'),
   $shortLink,
   wp_specialchars(get_the_title(), 'double') );

If you have a better idea or more efficient method for doing this, please let me know. You can just DM me on Twitter.

I have no problem supporting a great theme with a little cash, especially if it helps me get my thoughts online and available for discussion. However, I am a web guy, so eventually I plan on making a custom theme for Manic Mouse. This monumental task will have to wait until my second child is born, any day now. Until then, Neutica+ it is!

• Ben Callahan { @bencallahan, bencallahan.com, forgeideas.com }
• Jeff Friend { @forwardmedia, forwardmediagroup.com }
• Rob Harr { @robertharr, robharr.com, forgeideas.com }
• Andy Rossi { @andrewrocco, iamrocco.net, forgeideas.com }
• Nathan Rambeck { @nrambeck, nathan.rambeck.org, rambeck.com }
• Ryan Clark { @ryanvsclark, ryanvsclark.com, realartusa.com }

Here’s a quick synopsis of some topics we covered:

• quick discussion of squarespace.com
• cool image tool tips at taggify.net
• jQuery tool tips called beauty tips
• bullet proof @font-face syntax from Paul Irish
• discussion on who could present common sense social media for small business
• discussion on the blurred line between personal social media and work social media
• quick review of zen coding
• cool site showing hardware and software of your favorite techy
• discussion about best IDE’s for web dev
  • Komodo
  • Coda
  • Eclipse
  • Dreamweaver
  • TextMate
  • PageSpinner

Great discussion guys. Thanks for attending and contributing. Looking forward to the next one!

{ Last Month’s Meeting Notes }

One was a high-paying customer who made a few bad business decisions and began paying the price for that with market-share. When they finally realized the need to invest in marketing through this crisis, rather than avoid it, they thought they should seek out a less expensive option. This is OK, we’re not the cheapest in town, we’re the best.

The other was a one-person small business for whom I “did a favor”, helping them to get started with a simple website. If you have to chose a client to lose, this is the one you let go. (By the way, don’t do favors for people. I’ve learned how bad this is for the market since I did this. Clients are educated by this and they’re learning the wrong lessons, but I’ll save that for another post.) So why would this upset me?

Well, I don’t want to sound condescending, but in both cases, the organization replacing my company was (quite obviously) inferior.

That’s really all it was. My client was “firing” me and replacing me with someone who had nowhere near the technical skill or design sense that I offered. Being the perfectionist that I am, these situations severely pained me. I pride myself on providing a level of quality and professionalism that nobody in the Dayton area offers. I am always pushing myself, and always pushing my clients, to take calculated risks and find a solid balance between form and function. I spend a LOT of time writing semantic markup, separating style from content, ensuring accessibility and working to create a usable experience for my customer’s customers. The truth is, most of this stuff doesn’t mean much to a business owner. Wanna know what they think is important?

SEO.

Now, I understand that not all potential clients think this way, but this was the key factor that pulled both of my clients away. The website development firms replacing me were both offering search engine optimization as one of their primary services. While I understand that there are a few SEO folks out there doing some good work, for the most part, I agree with Derek Powazek. Build something good and take care of it, then you’ll get good results. What business owners don’t really understand is that all the stuff I listed above that sets my company apart is the stuff it takes to “build something good”. In essence, what I offer is SEO, I just don’t call it that because it’s common sense stuff. It’s what everyone should be doing.

Telling me that your web development firm offers SEO is like telling me that your computer does multimedia.

The Amiga 4000 Baby

I wish I had the statistic on the number of people who bought a computer because it offered “multimedia capabilities”. Maybe you’re even reading this article on a computer that is capable of multimedia. Congrats if you are. Please send me a photo (if you can figure out how to get the pictures off your camera).

Alright, I’m taking this a bit too far, but you get my point. Every reasonable computer out there is capable of doing the kinds of things we classify (or classified) as multimedia. Managing your photos, music, video, etc. However, when people don’t understand something, they follow the buzzwords.

To Business Owners

Don’t hire a company to build you a website if they try to sell you SEO in addition to the web project. They are scamming you. Find a firm that actually knows how to build sites properly, someone you can trust, and let them do what they do best. Even more importantly, don’t move away from a company that understands all of this simply because some other organization is promising you amazing search engine results. Make sure you’re communicating these desires/goals with your firm.

In both of these cases, my client never even mentioned any specific goals. (NOTE: I understand that I have some responsibility here. Both of these cases happened before we were using any kind of measurable results with these projects. I should have had these conversations in a much more specific way than I did.)

All of that being said, just building something right isn’t going to put you on the first page of Google. That takes time and a commitment that most organizations are not willing to give. It takes a content strategy and an understanding of your audience. A good website development firm knows this and will walk you through these concepts up front.

How Could I have Prevented This

I’ve asked myself this question many times. I honestly believe that the real failure in both of these situations was communication. I needed to communicate more regularly with my client about what they were needing and expecting. They needed to communicate more regularly with me about things they’d like to see change. It’s a two-way street, but we (as designer/developers) need to lead this charge. Being proactive in your client communication will dramatically change your business for the better.

The “Graceful” Part

When this happens to you (hopefully it won’t, but when it does) make sure that you remember your brand. You probably want to be known as an organization people desire to work with, your response in difficult situations will show your true colors.

Also remember who own’s the site. Most work for hire contracts explain all of this and typically, your client owns their site files. This doesn’t necessarily mean the hi-rez (original) photos or the PSD’s you layed out, or your FLA files. Of course, this is dependent on your contract, but in general, you should be gracious through this. Show them that you’re not desperate, that you have their best interests in mind, and that you want them to be happy with their design firm selection.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t try to make a case for them staying with you, but do so with respect. Avoid the political temptations of belittling the “new firm” in front of your client. Nobody wants to work with someone who does that. In general, ask yourself what would be best for your client before making any rash decisions. In fact, it might be a good idea to have a trusted friend or partner review any correspondence to make sure you’re not being over-emotional.

This is tough stuff. However, in situations like these a little grace goes a long way.

Got a good “losing a client” story? Share it in the comments below.

Jason Santa Maria wrote a great article for ALA (finally) that gives a few excellent pointers for those of us looking to take advantage of some cool new web fonts. I dig this post because Jason does a great job of describing some typography concerns that are specific to the web.

Jeremy Keith added what he’s calling “Collectives” to Huffduffer and wrote this fascinating journal entry explaining the feature and the thinking behind it. I love Jeremy’s attention to detail, specifically how he settled on the name of this feature.

Stephen P. Anderson has a (sorta’) new poster/concept that clarifies the factors in designing for user experience. This is super cool and a must read if you design things that people do or (maybe more importantly) don’t use.

The fact is, most non-profits don’t feel like they can afford to invest in key branding initiatives so they ask people to do it for cheap. You get what you pay for. Perhaps there are board members breathing down the [financial] necks of the people doing the work. Perhaps there is a concern that if their identity is perceived as “too valuable”, people will stop donating money. I’ve heard them all, but the truth is being hidden in all of these excuses. In order to succeed, every organization needs to understand their own brand, to know their place in the market and be striving toward their next goal. Without a solid identity, their ability to progress is greatly inhibited.

And so, FORGE launched “FORGE Your Dot Org 2010″.

FORGE Your Dot Org 2010 Website

So, Why is FORGE Giving Away Their Services?

Now that the program is in swing and we’re accepting applications, people are asking, “Why would FORGE give away their creative services for an entire year?”. The truth is actually 2-fold.

Dayton, Ohio Rocks

First of all, we love this community. There are so many non-profits doing great work here. We’ve been accepting applications for FORGE Your Dot Org (affectionately known as FYDO at FORGE HQ) for over a month now and I can tell you that it’s not going to be an easy decision. These groups are doing amazing work that affects the lives of real people in our region. It’s so easy to find motivation when the organization you’re working for is meeting a visible need.

Education Through Experience

Secondly, we hope to begin to educate some of the non-profit groups in this region on the importance of a brand. The reality is that people will only support organizations that they trust. Without intentionally addressing this in the branding process and at every touchpoint, it’s very difficult to achieve.

Help us Spread the Word

2010 will be the first year for FYDO and we’re excited. We believe this will be a much more effective way to handle non-profit work at FORGE. We’re looking for an organization that has big vision, is willing to push themselves and has a real need. If you know anyone at a non-profit in our region looking for branding, fundraising, web development, direct mail campaigns or anything else, please send them our way. We’d love to have them apply.

You Can Help

If you feel you have something to offer and you’re willing to donate your services with us, perhaps you’re a photographer or copywriter, please don’t hesitate to let us know! There is a “Get Involved” like on the FYDO site where you can submit your info. We’ll keep you on file and call on you as we need what you can offer!

Keep a Look Out for the Announcement

We’ll be officially selecting the winning non-profit in the middle of December. It will probably be announced on Twitter (@forgeideas) and on the FORGE website and FYDO website. I’m sure I will make an announcement here as well.

I had the opportunity this evening to sit down with a few great web guys from the Dayton area. We all have a passion for making the web beautiful and accessible, we all work for or own local, small businesses that provide web design and development services as a primary offering and we all want a group to discuss these things with. Here’s who made the first meeting:

• Mike Ward [Mike Ward Design // @mikeward]
• Jeff Friend [Forward Media Group // @forwardmedia]
• Nathan Rambeck [Rambeck Group // @nrambeck]

We met at The Greene and chatted about CSS, JavaScript, Drupal, all kinds of geeky stuff. I’ve provided a list of links below to some of the cool stuff that came up.

• blueprint css framework
• blueprint css grid generator
• 960 grid system
• apple-style pagination
• cool fixed-top nav bar
• css sticky footer
• using sprites in css to speed up page load
• firebug
• yslow
• typekit
• forge your dot org
• hover intent
• wordpress flutter
• hsla color in css3
• cool retro design
• css3 support in modern browsers

Wow. Looking back at this list, we probably have enough topics to keep us busy for the next six months. I’m also pretty sure I didn’t get everything. Obviously, we didn’t go into depth about all of these topics, but we touched on all of them at some point or another. I’d venture to say that these are the kinds of things we plan to focus on as a group. It’s the stuff we’re dealing with everyday and we’re always learning.

How Do I Get Involved?

If you’re interested in participating, the only requirements are that you work for or own a small business that offers web design or development as a key service and that you’re a nice person. Leave a comment below and a link to your site if you’d like to be considered for invitation. We’re always looking to meet folks who care about web standards.

I have been telling myself that I need a blog for about 4 years. Oddly enough, work has kept me so busy, and I’ve made other things a priority, so it’s not gotten done. What you see here is the quickest way I know to start sharing some of the thoughts rolling around in my head.

I’ve also put up some basic contact info, in case you need to track me down. This can be found over at bencallahan.com.

About What?

My plan is to write about what I do: making websites. More than just that, I hope to introduce some information that may be helpful to folks looking to build a site for their organization. There are so many snake-oil salesmen in the “website design” or “website development” business. I’d like to answer some of the questions, right some of the wrongs and provide a glimpse of how FORGE does things. The right way.

I also plan to discuss some of the hot topics in the industry and perhaps to look ahead a bit – providing the perspective of someone who does this stuff everyday.

In Case You Were Wondering

My father actually is a Podiatrist, so I suppose this article is a little closer to home than you, or I, may have expected. Not quite a “shoemaker”, but he does some fantastic modifications…