George Hess gets Skype

For immediate release: George Hess, a long time cell phone user, made a game changing decision last month when he signed up for Skype - a web based communication tool.

“Ever since the Feds broke up Ma Bell it’s been one problem after another”, said the new voice over internal protocol user. Though the biggest determining factor in Mr. Hess’s choice was not customer service, but bar count. “Their (mobile plan provider’s) commercials make it sound like you’ll have more bars everywhere, and at my house I’ve got none!”

Thanks to Skype, he is able to receive calls just as long as he is connected to the internet, and sitting at his computer, and logged into Skype, and has a microphone available. The option to video chat is one superiority that Skype has over his mobile phone. But not everyone George talks to is comfortable with it. “I work from home, and a lot of times people will plug me into board meetings and pull me up on video chat, but I’m still in my pj’s or sitting on the pot ya know. Some people just get weirded out by that.”

For the time being, George Hess still plans on keeping his mobile number active. He welcomes fellow Skype account holders to contact him via his “hessgeorge” username.

Mobile sites, it’s 1999 all over again

Today I had deja vu.

I was optimizing a mobile site to look and function at its best - that of course, was greatly based upon what mobile device was viewing it. I had a browser sniffer to add/remove style sheets and javascript, and alter the markup for each device. It was very slick. But really, just a new way of saying,

“Netscape users click here!!!”

There has been a big debate between web designers and developers as to the future of front end dev. Just read the comments on Zeldman’s blog post (when you have a spare 10 to 12 hours… or so). Will the developers, with their CSS gradients, replace the designers? Or will software replace the developers and hand the magic wand over to the designers? I don’t know, but if mobile development is any indication as to what we’re in for (again), I’d say we’ve got at least another 20 years left in the workforce. ‘Cause you know them clients is gonna want that site looking HOT in IE Mobile 6!

In conclusion, designers, a simple “thank you” would suffice as we pass off the suckling world of standards based desktop browsers and oh-so-easy-even-your-grandma-can-do-it frameworks. In the same way that photography became “easy” (and also abused by grandma), there will always remain high end professionals, like the kind you want to hire for your wedding.

As for me, I best be moving on. Blackberry just took a crap all over my layout.

Front End Dev, now more than just pixel pushing

The days of handing a PSD off to a front end developer with the instructions “make it pixel perfect” are coming to a close. In the past we were all just nerdy, overly organized, graphic artists. Now, as front end developers, we have become a legitimate component to many professional web development companies. And though we mostly still receive a blank stare when replying to the dreaded “so what do you do” question, that does not water down the importance of our contribution.

With browsers racing to answer the call for complete HTML5 and CSS3 support, it is time to stop confining your front end phase to merely production. Front end dev must come into consideration at the very beginning of the project and be a part of UI/UX and Art direction. It is after all, the part of the scope that does the actual visualization of the website.

For your next project, I encourage you to bring in your most experienced front end developer and heed their advice during the wire framing and graphic design of the site. If your front end developer is happy with how the website is deployed, your site will most likely be fast, flexible, future-minded, progressively advanced and will degrade gracefully when viewed on an archaic device.

Be wary of pursuing designs that must render identically across all browsers. Chances are, if the browser doesn’t support it, you shouldn’t try and fake it.

SaveTheDevelopers.gone

There’s been a lot of talk going around about the end of Internet Explorer 6. I used to think the day would never come. Then, sites like SaveTheDevelopers.org, ieDeathMarch.org, and most recently, DearIE6.com began sprouting up. I had hope. While many of the anti-IE6 website acted like a support group for developers needing a good cry, SaveTheDevelopers.org actually provided a little bit of fire power. They hosted a small snippet of code, that when applied to a website prompted IE6 users to upgrade their web browser to one of four more modern options: Firefox, Opera, Safari, and yes, even IE7.

Being the mover and shaker that I was (and just too lazy to make a fully cross-browser compatible layout) I decided to once again, employ the help of my friends at SaveTheDevelopers.org and make use of their handy say.no.to.ie.6.js script. But instead of code, I was given the birdie – for it was gone! The web address itself pointed to an Internet Explorer download page on Microsoft’s website. After the domain expired in early February of ‘09 it was reduces even further to a parked place holder page for GoDaddy.

A quick google on the subject retrieved a few conspiracy theories, a couple of confused bloggers, and a ton of people that still didn’t know the website had disappeared. It turns out that savethedevelopers.com (not .org) also points to the same IE download page that the .org site used to point to… and the conspiracies took off from there.

We had already finished the layout and were left with nothing to give these archaic browser’s users. So we came up with our own idea. Instead of throwing IE6’ers to the curb, we threw them a bone. We set up an automatic redirected that sends all IE6 users to the mobile version of the site. This alternative version is stripped down a bit in terms of content and functionality, but the very concept of having a mobile site is for users accessing the website in a limited browsing capacity. We usually think in terms of a mobile device as being the source of limitation, but IE6 is more inhibiting than some cell phones. It made sense to us that we should at lease offer IE6 users the same option.

So in the end I still don’t know what happened to SaveTheDevelopers.org. But you can keep it Microsoft, or GoDaddy or whoever stole/lost it. We don’t need you anymore, we can save ourselves.

But seriously, I miss you tons.

Does your branding stink of old wieners?

…well maybe it should!

I used to think of myself as an artistic fellow. Someone with an inherit knack for the graphic arts. But I was recently humbled by the branding genius of a local Mexican restaurant. I will only go so far – these amigos however are “shaping” the future.

One of the Wienerschnitzels, a fast food franchise tailored to hot dog consumers, went out of business in Mount Vernon, WA. Naturally, a drive through Mexican restaurant arose from its ashes. But what does one do with all the left over “Wiener” stuff? You can’t let it go to waste – especially during these times of economic crises. Latin–American ingenuity enter stage left, and presto, transform the giant “W” into a pair of fighting roosters and reopened as Taqueria El Gallito (loosely translated The Cocky Taco Shop).

So not only do they save on the majority of money it would usually cost to create signage, but they are sublimely capturing the loyal hot dog eating community. Again, genius.

In all seriousness, I truly am amazed. Often times in the commercial arts business we are asked to work within limits. Whether it’s due to budget, grandfathered in branding, or the Board of Directors son’s-nephew’s–daughter’s favorite color, we are constantly inventing ways to “work with what we’ve got”. This was truly an amazing feet and I take my sombrero off to you!