Open note to shops

On 11/3/11 7:56 AM, in article ,
" wrote:

On Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:08:16 +0000, Bruce
wrote:



Many websites appear to be created with a view to showing the genius of
the creator instead of showing what the reader wants to discover. Fancy
graphics, animated gifs and unwanted background music are some of the
things that make me grind my teeth.

The music, and what seems to crop up a little more frequently now,
talking ads, make me click away from a site instantly. Usually I am
surfing while listening to a radio item and I do not want 'noise' lol

Wow, we're all in agreement. Sometimes I think it's a combination of
playing with the new tools that are easily applied -by the website person,
and the other being trying to grab the instant gratification, more media is
better generation. I just go for the silence button right away. And with
both browsers on the Mac I have some things set to default to silence!

One of our best friends has been a website development manager for a long
time - starting out as writing them for clients of a small boutique company,
and now working for a larger company. What has her as the manager, and
constantly shaking her head is working with clients and her own code people.
Trying to actually put together what will suit the client needs, vs what
they think or may have seen, and then keeping the code/applications people
focussed and not going off with either too many gee-whiz things or not
enough. It's interesting to talk with her - she's very bright, and worked
her way up with diligence - starting way before getting her BS. Her DH, on
the other hand, is kind of a web project savant - he has great ideas for
project applications, gets gigs to develop/manage application developments
(like software for downloading ringtones), web interface stuff - then sort
of goes off some deep end of enthusiasm and ends up getting laid off. Never
known anyone to change jobs so frequently. So now he's pretty much the
house husband with some consulting work, periodically doing some intriguing
web project.

Ah, I remember the wondrous days of just being happy with e-mail (before
the web).

Ellice

On 11/3/2011 10:01 AM, Ellice K. wrote:
One of our best friends has been a website development manager for a long
time - starting out as writing them for clients of a small boutique company,
and now working for a larger company. What has her as the manager, and
constantly shaking her head is working with clients and her own code people.
Trying to actually put together what will suit the client needs, vs what
they think or may have seen, and then keeping the code/applications people
focussed and not going off with either too many gee-whiz things or not
enough. It's interesting to talk with her - she's very bright, and worked
her way up with diligence - starting way before getting her BS.
Ellice

I, too, have been designing websites since 1994. What I'm learning now
more than makes up for what I already knew. There are very few sites
that need background music. 99% of the time it is bad. But that
doesn't mean a bad web designer made it. There's still a lot of people
with little knowledge making their own sites. You wouldn't believe what
clients want/demand that is against their best interests. Also, you
wouldn't believe how many students are creating bad design.

Advertising - although distracting - can mean the difference between
staying alive and going under. The competition is keen and getting meaner.

I have enjoyed my classes on color theory, design theory, a semester on
typeface/fonts and logo design. It has helped for designing embroidery
and judging others' works.

Dianne

On 11/3/11 11:43 AM, in article , "Dianne
Lewandowski" wrote:

On 11/3/2011 10:01 AM, Ellice K. wrote:
One of our best friends has been a website development manager for a long
time - starting out as writing them for clients of a small boutique company,
and now working for a larger company. What has her as the manager, and
constantly shaking her head is working with clients and her own code people.
Trying to actually put together what will suit the client needs, vs what
they think or may have seen, and then keeping the code/applications people
focussed and not going off with either too many gee-whiz things or not
enough. It's interesting to talk with her - she's very bright, and worked
her way up with diligence - starting way before getting her BS.
Ellice

I, too, have been designing websites since 1994. What I'm learning now
more than makes up for what I already knew. There are very few sites
that need background music. 99% of the time it is bad. But that
doesn't mean a bad web designer made it. There's still a lot of people
with little knowledge making their own sites. You wouldn't believe what
clients want/demand that is against their best interests. Also, you
wouldn't believe how many students are creating bad design.

Oh, I'd totally believe what you say. Our friend has been successful
because she's found a way to convince her clients - most of the time - that
those things which would work against them really are not what they need or
should have. And definitely people do their own websites. If it's a
simple type site, and you're not running a shopping cart, and have the
patience to learn what will take toooooo long to load, etc it's not
unreasonable to do your own site. For some people. OTOH, so many people
have little to no knowledge or respect for technology - they assume it's
simple and just want to use it - that they just make some messy site for
themselves. Such is life.

I imagine that many students create not good designs. Part being the
learning curve, and part being people going into what they assume will be a
lucrative, fun and perhaps easy field of study. With that not being the
case, and some of those not really having the bent to do/see design.

There are students in all fields that aren't necessarily in the place that
suits their particular strongest talents -almost nothing surprises me.
After teaching a class required for graduation, and having kids cheating -
without even checking their math - and then arguing about getting 0 credit
for that work...seriously, nothing much surprises me.

Advertising - although distracting - can mean the difference between
staying alive and going under. The competition is keen and getting meaner.

Absolutely. And as you no doubt know, many of the professional needlework
people have gone to using professionals to do, maintain their websites.
It's a lot of work to be sure that links work, and anything interactive.

It totally irks me when a site has links they want you to use, internal to
their pages, and they go to an error . Heck - just either disable the link
or put up a "coming soon" blurb. But getting that error -ugh.

I have enjoyed my classes on color theory, design theory, a semester on
typeface/fonts and logo design. It has helped for designing embroidery
and judging others' works.

Dianne

Sounds like fun. I just finished a class on color theory - it has
definitely helped me with stitching design work.

Ellice

On 11/1/11 5:21 AM, Sara wrote:
On Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:41:56 -0400, "KT in Mich"
wrote:



So if a web page advertizes something and it didn't make it into the
stockroom, then the web page should be revised. It just needs
communication between the incoming stockroom and the webmaker.

And there's the problem. The stockroom may look at the fact that it costs
them $1 per change and decide to wait another day (and another) to see
whether it comes in, before communicating this to the webmaster. If the
webmaster has a day job and a family, he may not get to it right away.

I am fortunate that my webmaster is young and single, and can generally
make changes within 24 hours.

--

Karen C - California

And there you go --- I just learned something new. Had no idea that people
were hired to make these changes. Duh. I'd do the same thing -- wait a
day or 2 to see if the stock arrived. If I wasn't so doggoned old and
ornery, I'd learn how to do website design and take on a new job!
Just for the record, the item I was looking for, a certain color of
fabric, has not been in production for some time, is not scheduled to
be in production, and for all anyone knows, may never be produced
again. So it is very frustrating to see it on a website, order it,
and then be told, well, it doesn't really exist.
I understand that inventory is dynamic, and stuff happens, but.

Sara
In that case, you have my full sympathy. And just what fabric, you
never know one of us might have it!
Cheryl

On Fri, 04 Nov 2011 08:13:24 -0400, Cheryl Isaak
wrote:

In that case, you have my full sympathy. And just what fabric, you
never know one of us might have it!
Cheryl

28 ct. Navy. At least 32" square. At this point I'm not even picky
about the type. Cashel, Lugana, Jobelan, whatever.
Navy seems like such a basic color to me, I don't know why it's so
hard to find.

Sara

On 11/5/11 5:53 AM, Sara wrote:
On Fri, 04 Nov 2011 08:13:24 -0400, Cheryl Isaak
wrote:

In that case, you have my full sympathy. And just what fabric, you
never know one of us might have it!
Cheryl

28 ct. Navy. At least 32" square. At this point I'm not even picky
about the type. Cashel, Lugana, Jobelan, whatever.
Navy seems like such a basic color to me, I don't know why it's so
hard to find.

Sara

hmm- I don't know that I have it upstairs and can't check really until
Monday as stash diving involves taking over the bedroom.

But have you checked with ABC Stitch in Grantham NH - they have TONS of
fabric. Or eBay even?


Cheryl

Sara wrote:

On Fri, 04 Nov 2011 08:13:24 -0400, Cheryl Isaak
wrote:

In that case, you have my full sympathy. And just what fabric, you
never know one of us might have it!
Cheryl

28 ct. Navy. At least 32" square. At this point I'm not even picky
about the type. Cashel, Lugana, Jobelan, whatever.
Navy seems like such a basic color to me, I don't know why it's so
hard to find.

Sara

I went through my inventory list of my private stash (as opposed to my
design business stash) and found two possibilities for you.

I've got a 35x25 cut of Navy 28 count Brittany and a full yard of 28 count
Navy Jobelan.

If either of these will fill the bill, Sara, email me off-list and
we'll play Let's Make a Deal.

Nyssa, whose private stash is better inventoried than her business
stash
At River's End
http://nyssa.cnc.net

On 11/3/2011 11:01 AM, Ellice K. wrote:
On 11/3/11 7:56 AM, in article ,
wrote:

On Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:08:16 +0000, Bruce
wrote:



Many websites appear to be created with a view to showing the genius of
the creator instead of showing what the reader wants to discover. Fancy
graphics, animated gifs and unwanted background music are some of the
things that make me grind my teeth.

The music, and what seems to crop up a little more frequently now,
talking ads, make me click away from a site instantly. Usually I am
surfing while listening to a radio item and I do not want 'noise' lol

Wow, we're all in agreement. Sometimes I think it's a combination of
playing with the new tools that are easily applied -by the website person,
and the other being trying to grab the instant gratification, more media is
better generation. I just go for the silence button right away. And with
both browsers on the Mac I have some things set to default to silence!

One of our best friends has been a website development manager for a long
time - starting out as writing them for clients of a small boutique company,
and now working for a larger company. What has her as the manager, and
constantly shaking her head is working with clients and her own code people.
Trying to actually put together what will suit the client needs, vs what
they think or may have seen, and then keeping the code/applications people
focussed and not going off with either too many gee-whiz things or not
enough. It's interesting to talk with her - she's very bright, and worked
her way up with diligence - starting way before getting her BS. Her DH, on
the other hand, is kind of a web project savant - he has great ideas for
project applications, gets gigs to develop/manage application developments
(like software for downloading ringtones), web interface stuff - then sort
of goes off some deep end of enthusiasm and ends up getting laid off. Never
known anyone to change jobs so frequently. So now he's pretty much the
house husband with some consulting work, periodically doing some intriguing
web project.

Ah, I remember the wondrous days of just being happy with e-mail (before
the web).

Ellice

Oh my...brings back Prodigy.