Logo Design

Creating a web 2.0 style logo:
Wedeed logo example of process

Glossy Globe Logo Design

DIY Logo:
Design It Yourself Logo

Resources:
Creating a Business Logo

Sociology & Marketing

" When asking for something you want from someone else, appeal to their self-interest and never to their mercy or gratitude." - Ask the SEO Guru on SEO secrets

PPC Accounts - Adwords

General Info

How long did it take before your ad showed? - AdWords Starter Edition | Google Groups

How to get the most from your Google AdWords Campaign

Google Adwords - how to maximize your advertisement dollars spent at Google Adwords

To succeed with AdWords think differently

To succeed with AdWords you have to think differently. Here are three tried and proven techniques to improve your chances.

Google's new review everything policy is ruining their testability.

googles new review everything policy is ruining their testability.

Moved AdWords

Appear nowhere now! moved adwords

Geotargeting

LOCAL
Google Adwords Geo-Targeting [video explaining local geo-targeting]

INTERNATIONAL
After using the &gl=uk or what ever country code I was looking up at the end of a google search string, and trying to locate a working proxy from another country to connect to, I still could not be sure that my results were accurate and then I went straight to google to a help question called "Why can't I see my ad?" and found what I needed:
Ads Diagnostic Tool will help you check to see if your ad is displaying in other countries depending on what google.com extention the cutomer uses, language, location, ect...

life hacks, hackers and simplifiers

No Impact Man
8 Tools To Ensure You'll Never Lose An Idea
Don’t be Afraid of Contract Work
100 Keyboard shortcuts (Windows)
BlueOrganizer for Firefox
Sell Your Old Stuff
top 20 motivation hacks
The Power Traveler's Checklist, Part One: Pre-Flight

User Experience, Usability and Usability Testing

Understanding usability is the core to creating innovative design. If you find a way to present information with more clarity, your ability to design improves. I have been trying to focus more on "content" when designing than actual aesthetics. I've been trying to communicate the site's purpose and making everything clear, organized, and easy to find what you are looking for. When I saw UX Mag's site, I was amazed by the layout. I realized that it's a user experience publication and thought to myself "of course!" Then I realized that my design focus wasn't on "content" as much as it was on usability.

Usability Focused Site Design(s)

1. UX Mag: User Experience Publication

I hope I find more examples!

The mistake of ignoring usability
"Violating Design Conventions: Consistency is one of the most powerful usability principles: when things always behave the same, users don't have to worry about what will happen. Instead, they know what will happen based on earlier experience. Every time you release an apple over Sir Isaac Newton, it will drop on his head. That's good.The more users' expectations prove right, the more they will feel in control of the system and the more they will like it. And the more the system breaks users' expectations, the more they will feel insecure. Oops, maybe if I let go of this apple, it will turn into a tomato and jump a mile into the sky.Jakob's Law of the Web User Experience states that "users spend most of their time on other websites."This means that they form their expectations for your site based on what's commonly done on most other sites. If you deviate, your site will be harder to use and users will leave. " - no. 8 of the Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design

Best Practices
No link on the homepage that links to the homepage itself
site search is important

Case Studies
Wired Article "How Would You Redo the Google Interface?"
Design View: Google Redux
Design View: eBay Redux

Resources
UX Mag is a publication dedicated to providing information on user experience
Wide Open column: Digital Web Magazine
Jakob Nielsen: Useit.com
Human Factors International
Association for Computing Machinery
Adaptive Path
Fast and Simple Usability Testing
Criteria for optimal web design (designing for usability)
Who are the best communicators? features advertising best practices from David Ogilvy
User Experience Design Illustrated
30 Usability Issues To Be Aware Of

Read More
Twenty Usability Tips for Your Blog — Condensed from Dozens of Bloggers’ Experiences
Things to avoid when creating a website
Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes
10 Ways to Increase Blog Usability

Don’t do this on your website, it bugs me

Internet Socialization

Social Networks

List of social software - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

CRAIGSLIST
FLICKR
MYSPACE
Orkut
Friendster
Live Journal
reddit
digg
twitter
virb
spurl
google bookmark

Web Design Networks
Refresh
9 rules
designrelated

Bookmarking

del.icio.us/login

Digg - Login to Digg

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users

Drew Curtis' FARK.com

LookSmart's Furl - Login

Ma.gnolia.com - Find Web Sites & Build Community Online

Find web sites with Ma.gnolia's social bookmarking online community. Organize bookmarks, search other people's favorites and make friends and contacts online.

Newsvine - Login or Register

Login

reddit.com

Login

Spurl.net - Login

Login

Tailrank - Sign in to Tailrank

Technorati: Member Sign Up

Spurl bar

Social Science Notes
design ethnographers - interpret cultural differences
early 1970s - Stanley Milgram - "familiar strangers"
the new linguistic community = "PatTy D aka tHe ScO CitY 415 LiKe wHa!!!" [repurposing words for cultural self expression]

SEO
S.B.S.F! Social-Bookmark-Spam Facilitators!

Resources
G/localization: When Global Information and Local Interaction Collide

Ready to Launch

I'm waiting for them to launch. They did a good job at letting people know they exist before they actually launch.
http://www.15tags.com/

Copyright or Copywrong?

Copyright Chris Pearson 2005






Copywrong

In an attempt to create design of a better quality, I somehow ended up on a quest to create trendsetting design. I thought that was what would eventually happen if I did what I wanted and ignored the rest of the world but a little reasearch helped me realize I was "outdated". The next thing I thought was "Can I come up with something new that people will actually like?" People liking your design is strongly dependent on following trends. Coming up with something new has nothing to do with following trends. The only compromise is to set a new trend.
I looked at probably 5000 sites before I surrendered. They all started to look the same to me, my taste had changed, and I read enough self-proclaimed style pioneer comments to never want to design again. The further my studies brought me back in history the more ignorant everyone appeared and the more impossible my quest seemed.
I needed a baby step if I wanted to break my designer's block. I needed to create trendy designs and at least update my work. Since I was looking at websites to make websites (usually I looked at old print magazines and album covers), I had to be extra careful that what I created didn't look too much like any of those 5000 sites I've seen. As a whole if your site looks more than half like another site you will probablly be accused of ripping some one off even if they ripped someone off. I don't know why it's ok for a website to look like a Glaser rip off and get to be some kind of pioneer of the Glaser rip off style but there's hell to pay if you add the slightest Glaser influenced element into your design. So there's an unspoken blackout list of where you can draw influence from too. This baby step I'm taking is made for giants.
The next step for me was to understand what copyright really is and to be ready to defend my right to be influenced by the same things as other people.
I ran into a situation today that was an example of someone's work being ripped off and wasn't sure what to do. The design concept was so basic it was hard to entitle someone to the rights of it but it was an 80% dead on copy.
I thought to myself that it wasn't wrong to use the same minimalist style, colors, and have some similar placement of content. Maybe the new guy is trying to interpret it as their own but they are not sure how to get it down to a 40% influence. If I tell them how then it will keep him from doing it again. If I just call him out then he might just personally attack me and go on selling other people's designs to people who don't know better. I went to ask the original designer what they would say if they wanted to help the guy but I could not locate any contact information on the "Best Damn Blog on the Planet" and didn't want to call out the new guy in a public place like a comment string. So I say nothing. Maybe I'll send a link to an article explaining how to make something your own when I find one. Instead I'm just gonna read a couple of articles on the "Best Damn Blog on the Planet" and remember who copied them first.
An excellent example appears in the first article I read on The Best damn blog on the Planet, where he defends himself against an accusation of design plagarism and is point on in explaining design influence in the appropriate context.

A Very Formal Read on the subject
The Ecstacy of Influence talks about plagerism, intellectual property, unailienable rights, copyrights, and gifts

Read more on this subject:

Trade dress

Web Design - Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery [sitepoint forum discussion]

Good Designers Copy, Great Designers Steal

Theft of Wordpress Database [sitepoint forum discussion]

Copyright Tools:

CopyScape: Search for copies of your page on the Web

The Gallery Crawl

I usually only do a gallery crawl when I am hard up for ideas which is not frequently enough. So when the time comes, there are months of content to sift through. The more sites I go to, the worse it gets because I've already have seen 90% of the sites but crawl on to find the ones the others missed. I feel bad when I submit the same picture in similar flickr groups or post about the same site a couple of times on here before I realize it but my crimes effect probably only 2 people a year.

So I am making a crawl list that I can habitually visit monthly or bimonthly.

Galleries
http://www.thefwa.com/
http://www.screenalicious.com/

Reading List

relationaltithe.com
A Groovy Little Unit
Ten Little Cities
The Near-Fame Experience
Doc Ali Boot Camp
How to: Kiss Corporate Life Goodbye
When Does a Blog Become a Magazine
Read This and Become a Professional Design Analyst
6 Keys to Understanding Modern CSS-based Layouts
What Exactly is Social Anyways?
Having Fun With Blog Rankings
http://duennebier.carbonmade.com/
Matt Davies on design process
Your Client Problems Solved: Call for questions
Your Client Problems Solved: Answers (Part 1 of 3)
4 Utopian Communities That Bombed Miserably
Enormous Homemade Slip ‘n Slide.
http://dimmak.imeem.com/
look up gestaultist (sp)
813 art
Discover the edu underground
wikipedia: ziegist
http://upl.codeq.info/
Better Living Through XHTML
The Ten Videos to Change How You View the World watch!
In search of the One True Layout
Print designers can’t design websites
TreeHugger Picks: Downloading Design
Over 30 Cheat Sheets for Developers
Readymechs are free, flatpack toys for you to print and build
Century of Death
Getting Real
Free MIT Courses
125000 years ago: global warming was warmer
odeo for sale
search indie designer co-op
make your own audio tour
indie finds
else wares
girl shop
edge ny
travel... via hotwire
flickr rss
lectures at USF
pen
43 folders
How to Write a Keyword-Rich Home Page the Search Engines Will Love!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamhundley/sets/72157594235409275/
theme: THE MORNING AFTER
http://designdeadline.com/
Web Site Optimization: 13 Simple Steps
http://kevinjmireles.wordpress.com/2006/05/04/user-experience-101/
http://freelanceswitch.com/freelancing-essentials/how-to-continually-sharpen-your-skills/
Elements of Great Web Design: The Polish
Findings From the Web Design Survey
What Beautiful HTML Code Looks Like
http://www.webdesignerwall.com/tutorials/advanced-css-menu/
Download of the Day: Google Web Accelerator
Fuser: Manage All Your Email and Social Networking Messages in One Place
http://builtwith.com/
https://www.cicatriz.se/
http://www.cmsshowcase.com/index.php
http://surveyedlife.blogspot.com/
Nerd Patrol: 25+ Sites For Collectors
GREEN LIVING TOOLBOX: 80+ Green Sites
http://www.e-worldways.com/
http://www.biola.edu/undergrad/
http://www.mochiads.com/
http://ungarbage.com/
How to Size Text in CSS
Free Stock Images
Social Distribution Platform for Media Publishers
http://www.jumpcut.com/
The Loop Hole
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/10/15/the-showcase-of-big-typography/
http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/a_css_styled_calendar/
Modifying Dreamweaver to Produce Valid XHTML
http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Website_Design
ALA article on Copyshot
Modifying Dreamweaver to Produce Valid XHTML
comments on designing for the web
Design in Theory and Practice Series
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox - Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005
The Most Hated Advertising Techniques
Writing for the Web
Let Users Control Font Size
taglines
Ten Good Deeds in Web Design
Mark Boulton articles and examples
http://www.shiftingcreations.com/blog/?p=221

Client Choices: Choosing a style

Web Design-isms: 7 Surefire Styles that Work is the best example I've seen at categorizing the various styles used in web design. This is a very resourceful guide to use with clients in narrowing down a design direction. Maybe they will suggest something that looks nothing like the 7 listed styles and wa-la a magical new style for you to work with.
This resource is a list in which the styles are different enough from each other that a client can differentiate which ones they like and dislike. It is a starting place and gives some common language to the discussion of the design direction. You say web 2.0, they say color bar thingies, you make no headway. You both say web 2.0, they say no, you make progress. There is a need for quick simple categorization. Not all conversations about design are going to be meritful or scholarlly. Art history knowledge would have a noble advantage in categorizing what artistic styles have not been or rarely been explored on the web.
The style(s) chosen are a focus point and your unique additions will help make it your own. Larissa Meek later explains in the comments that "I think it’s important not to 'copy' or 'emulate' but to focus on a style or movement. "
As a web designer the revolutionary ideas start with making content easier to understand, navigate, and use. Style only really influences the small details of the bigger picture.

The 7 styles:
COLLAGISM
ORANAMENTALISM
GLOSSISM
WORDISM
FUTURISM
MINIMALISM
RETROISM


Her examples:
http://www.jrvelasco.com/ - typography and collage [wordism]

Comments examples:
http://www.atelier.ie/ - [minimalism]
http://coudal.com/ - [minimalism]

Offline Reference:
Fresh Styles for Web Designers [listed as an outdated reference to the subject but still probably a good observation]

Important Components of a Web Site

Case A
1. Branding
2. Navigation
3. Graphics
4. Content
5. SEO


Case B
5 Driving Forces listed on http://www.evakoss.com/

1. Visibility - The Search Process: Can your website be found on the internet when your prospects are searching for your products/services?
2. Credibility – When your prospects visit your website, do they take you seriously or does your website hurt your credibility?
3. Usability – Is your website easy to use and does it work on your prospects’ computers?
4. Sales Process – Does your website effectively guide the visitor through the sales pathways of your site to deliver your website goals?
5. Operating Costs - A $1000 saved is a $1000 earned – How to reduce the operating costs of your website.

Case C
Content Focused Components

• create an experience
• honor context
• prioritize your message
• consistency
• design for change
• human element

Organization

Places to put random ideas
Jott - voice to text

best web calenders

To Do Lists
http://www.todolistblog.com/

Printable
Compact Calender and more
The Printable CEO

Web Design Tools

xylescope