Simplicity is Key

The designs you make between becoming relatively familiar with Photoshop and learning to create a worthwhile design, are often the worst. Because as you start learning different techniques in Photoshop, you naturally want to exhibit them through your work. But more often than not it just adds to the clutter of web designs people start out with. Watching Jon Ive talk about Apple products helped me understand the importance of simplicity and how to avoid it. And I have definitely made this mistake on more than one occasion.

For example, gradients are nice when used properly, but subtlety is key.  Using gradients that have similar colors, and that are perhaps only a few shades apart adds depth, without it looking overworked and cheap.

Familiarity is also important. When making a search form, people usually use a magnifying glass icon, because that image association is embedded our brains. It’s the same with colour. Green is for positive actions, red for warnings or excitement. These little things make seem unimportant but they really can make the difference between an alright site and a great site.

Work on your brand first

Its important to make a strong first impression when trying to find potential clients. That’s why your personal place on the web should encompass all your skills, all your ideas of what web design should be, and perhaps where you think it’s going. Don’t follow trends, set them.

If you are not able to make yourself look hire-able, how can you expect to create a site for clients who want to be. Some essential things to include on a personal site might be :

• Portfolio – Make sure this is updated as often as possible
• Services – Outline your services clearly and make sure you can do them all
• Testimonials – Ask clients for their opinion – it gives your site a bit of personality
• Contact Info – Pretty self-explanatory

Some of these sound pretty obvious, but it is surprising how many people forget the important things, especially when they are focused on making something look good, but without thinking about the end user, your missing the point of having a site in the first place.

Stay Frequent & Social

Things like Twitter and Facebook are great because they’ve brought blogging to the average Joe. They’re simple, fun and you can gain alot from it with only a few minutes of use a day. I dont have time to blog daily (or weekly for that matter), so when I have an idea, thought, or something to share, I tweet, or Share on Facebook. And the more I am active on these, more people come to my site. My SEO is fine, but I get a lot of referrals directly from Twitter and Facebook primarily because of my frequent postings on these services

Designing frequently is also important. Web Design isn’t a static career. Trends come and go, practices and frameworks are introduced weekly. Keeping up to date can set you apart from everyone else. Break the mould, and try to create a design as different as you can from the last. If you don’t have any clients right now, create something anyway, and hone your skills.

It’s not about what you want or even what the client wants

Its about what their end-user needs. A lot of clients seem to think that a 2 hour tutorial on Powerpoint gives them a creative advantage over you, but the fact is, they hired you to solve something for their users, not them. Yes, clients know more about their business, but they hired you for your expertise and you have to find a way to let them remember that. It’s alright to say no to clients, as long as you have reason to. Whether its regarding payment or a design suggestion, if they are wrong, and you know it, be straight and tell them (nicely though).They’ll thank you for your honesty.

Just remember that with every design you make,  its an opportunity to better yourself. Try to create something different. Every time that you open Photoshop is a chance to improve, to do something entirely different, to experiment, because you’ll never learn otherwise. Stop when you have to, or if you think your ruining something, and do something else. Have fun with web design, it’s not meant to be serious but to grab attention and excite people.

This is my ultimate career, and I can believe I’m doing it right now. Of course I have off days, and get sick of it from time-to-time, but I play around with colours and images all day – whats not to love?

As I start writing this, its 3am and in the 9 hours since Apple introduced the iPad, and I’ve been trying to figure out why I feel let down. Everything about the event was perfect. Steve Jobs, as usual, put on an excellent show. He could sell you a used mattress and you’d be leaving happy. The device however was an utter disappointment, and the reason Apple gave for selling it is even worse.

They say they are trying to bridge the gap between the smartphone and the portable computer, that it has to excel in key things like: Browsing, Email, Movies, Music,  eBooks. But Apple has forgotten that they have already made products that to these things, and they do them well.

When buying my iPhone, I justified the purchase by saying to myself that it would mean one less device. Instead of having a phone and a MP3 player, I could just have a phone that can play music, movies, browse the web, read PDFs & emails. Sound familiar?

Apple is now trying to make us believe our experience would be best serve if they crammed the best from the iPhone & Mac into tablet form, hence a “One-for-all” device. That sounds acceptable in theory, but it just doesn’t work that way. The PC is already the best way to browse the web and compose documents. The iPhone already has the best solution for checking emails on the couch. And the TV, which has been at the pinnacle of must-have devices for the past 60 years, is still the best way to watch movies.

So when Apple say they’re trying to bridge the gap, the real reasoning behind it is for more exposure to their online stores. The iPad has the iBookstore (bit of convoluted name, no?), App Store, and the iTunes Store, built right into the device. So the $499 price point is pittance compared to how much they will earn through their online repositories, from the stats given at the start of the Press Event anyway.

In the months following up to the iPad’s announcement, we have let ourselves fall victim the rumors and hype surrounding the device. It was going to have cameras, flash,  20 hours battery life and it would run OS X. Sadly, none of these were true, yet 24 hours prior to writing this, it seemed entirely plausible. Usually when Apple announces a new product, there are always more than a few rumors.

But when those rumors didnt turn into a reality, before we accepted it because Apple countered with an outstanding device. This time however, there was no outstanding device, and there was mixed emotions following the iPad announcement.

Expecting all things “magical” when it started, I felt like that was an hour of my life gone once it finished. I’m really not surprised that others felt the same way. Gizmodo’s “8 Things that Suck About the iPad” lists its failures succinctly, while theNextWeb describes how Apple “missed the mark”.

I’m not saying that I cant see any usefulness in the device, but that there are not enough reasons to warrant a purchase. For example it would be nice to not have to bring books with me to college, and have them stored on that device, but I can already store them on my Mac, and its not that much heavier than the iPad.

But why would I need to see my emails on my couch when I have an iPhone? Why do I need to browse the web on a device that can’t do everything that the web has to offer. There is no doubt that the iPad will be snapped up by millions and indeed it’s price is very appealing.

Perhaps after 30 days and your iPad is gathering dust on the coffee table, it may still have power, but it wont do anything you cant do already.

The browser wars is a heated-argument, but I think generally its safe to say that nearly everyone in the know hates Internet Explorer. This week, I want to know “What browser you are using right now?”. Not the browser you prefer, or the browser you use generally, but the browser that you are visiting this site on.

Vote Below

[poll id="2"]

I typed in my birthday, “18 April 1990″ into WolframAlpha to find that the date was 6999days ago. Tomorrow I turn 7000 days old. Or 1000 weeks. Or if you really want to be boring 19 years old and 2 months.

Some other info about that day 7000 days ago:

• sunrise : 6:31 am GMT/IST
• sunset : 8:39 pm GMT/IST
• duration of daylight : 14 hours 8 minutes

I also learned that I have the same birthday as Conan O’ Brian, and America Ferrera (Ugly Betty).

So you see, Wolfram Alpha may only be for mathematicians and idiots for now, but you can get some use out of it. Just dont ask “Why did the chicken cross the road?”

Tommy Collison is the self-proclaimed “Irelands youngest blogger”, but he is also one of the most personal too. He writes on his blog TrustTommy.com daily and at 14 years of age he became an award-winning blogger at the Irish Blog Awards. He tweets about his non-chocolate diet, his drumming and toasters.

Kevin Coleman is Irelands newest young blogger, and at 16 years of age, he set up KevinColeman.ie a blog about sport, social networks and all things funny. He’s an extremely popolar tweeter with just over 500 followers.

Why did you join Twitter? How did you find about the service?

TOMMY: I joined Twitter because my brothers, who were in the US working on a start-up company, were on it we used it to stay connected, and to keep in touch in a quick and inexpensive manner

KEVIN: I didn’t join Twitter for any particular reason, I saw it mentioned on a Liverpool forum so I decided to join up and see what it was like, and I haven’t looked back.

How do you use Twitter?

TOMMY: I use Twitter to keep in touch with people in other countries or people I just don’t meet very often. I use search sometimes, more on my iPhone, to find people, or mentions of things, or following a hash tag (#ddire). I follow people who I think are interesting or who are similar to me. I tweet about basically what I’m up to and but also I ask questions, like what time Dragon’s Den starts and within literally a minute, I have my answer

KEVIN: I mainly use the web version of Twitter, much more then any apps available. However I do like to roam between clients such as TwitterFox, TweetDeck and now Seesmic Desktop. When I’m out and about or away from the computer it’s Dabr.co.uk on the mobile phone. I tweet about everything and anything; what I’m up to, what I’m thinking, and links to articles and stuff on the net. I like to follow Irish tweeters, and obviously people who interest me. I try to avoid following big celebrities, I just don’t see the point in following a person that doesn’t interest you and adds nothing to the feed but only a big name.

Why do you think more young people don’t tweet?

TOMMY: It takes a certain type of person to use twitter, one who is ok putting up the intricacies and the minutiae of their daily lives up on some random website you also need to know people on it as in, 75% of the fun of twitter is reading other’s updates. Also, Twitter isn’t mainstream yet. When it gains popularity, people will come.

KEVIN: I don’t think the Twitter phenomenon has hit younger audiences yet generally. In schools especially, if words get out like Bebo did back in the day, and a majority of the students sign up it’ll spread like wildfire. But at the moment I feel it’s well behind Bebo in terms of occupying young Irish people.

Do many of your close friends/relatives tweet?

TOMMY: Yes, my entire family is on twitter. We all use it to stay connected when we’re not together.

KEVIN: In one word, no.

Finally, do you see Twitter as a fad that will run its course and end, or has it got potential to be something more?

TOMMY: It will grow into something big, yeah. I also, unfortunately, see it becoming quite commercial.

KEVIN: It’s certainly got potential to live and thrive for many years to come. The reasons are there to see now. It’s an amazingly simple way to connect and live online, and especially with it’s real time search capabilities.

Lots of gratitude goes out to those guys for a fantastic interview. So you see kids, you dont need to miss out on what might be the internets greatest company since Google.

As some of you might know, I am 6 months into my 4 year course in Tipperary Institute. In those six months I’ve never been so busy as I am this following week.

So far this week, I have

• Exam on Computer Operating Systems and Architecture for Multimedia Technology
• A project due to hand-up on Wednesday delivering a JavaScript-based game of Tic-Tac-Toe. None of us have this done.
• I also have a web development assignment to get stuck into
• A take home assignment on Lecture 1- 8 of Multimedia Technology
• I have to have a storyboard drawn of an animation that touches on the environment topic.
• And I have to study a piece of animation and talk about how the 12 principles of animation are used in it.

Such a looong week! I’ll manage (I hope)

I am not denying that people should not be curious. I have lived with this long enough to know that if I walk in public, people are going to glance. But some days you just want a day off. And that’s where the internet comes in.I can be who I truly am, without succumbing to social pressures. It levels out the playing field.

I don’t try to be someone else online, I just try to be treated normally online. Something I have with a very select group of people in reality. Hopefully these things will change in the future, until then I shall find comfort in the fact that ignorance is bliss.

It is quite tasking coming up with a user name that is both unique and effective. It has to be to the point, interesting, and rememberable.Some people use their names (fi0nak ), something important to them, or just something funny, interesting, odd,unique, or anything for that matter (TrustTommy). I dont recall as to how I created “miralize” but if i remember correctly its a grouping of the words “mirror” and “realize”. I’ll leave the interpretation up to you.