Social Sites for publicizing:
- http://www.flickr.com – allows for you to post and tag your work, allow for download or copyright protect (is occasionally searched by big production houses for work to purchase and sell for royalty)
- http://irovr.com/ – for ipod touch and iphone users
- http://stumbleupon.com – the tags you create increase your visibility in the search
- http://twitter.com – use to post updates to your blog on professional topics
- http://linkedin.com – network with other professionals, get on the boardshttp://epsilen.com – once you get ccsf.edu email address (projected Fall 2009), sign-up is free – you can post your portfolio (choose public or selectively share) and participate in online communities.
In-person networking and online community sites:
- http://www.meetup.com – find your community online and meet in-person
- http://www.lunch20.com – more techie but good in-person lunch meetups and mingling in SF/Bay Area
- http://www.aiga.org/
- List: http://www.allgraphicdesign.com/graphicdesignassociations.html (down page on right)
Sites with local influence or display art that also show on the web:
- http://www.bayareawoc.com/ – show with them and receive free publicity and displayed work on their website
- http://www.etsy.com – artisan community – another place to sell your work
- http://www.gelaskins.com – become a hosted artist – make skins for ipods, cellphones, laptops, etc.
- http://cafepress.com – order items from web with your designs on them (sell your work – consider quality of items…)
- http://www.curiosityshoppeonline.com/ – a local store where you can display print work but they also have a website
Business end:
- http://icdsoft.com/ – server hosting
- http://wordpress.org/ – setup yourself on own server (own domain)
- http://wordpress.com – setup on their server
- http://timebridge.com – conference calls/meeting setup
- http://skype.com/ – again – for webconferencing
- http://vyew.com/site/ – webconferencing
- http://jingproject.com/ – use to take screenshots (and annotate) and up to 5 min web video segments (for $15 can save as mpeg/mp3 formats instead of just flash)
- http://mind42.com – map your projects (collaborative)
- http://citizenspace.us/ – host local meetings or rent shared office space
- http://google.com – and of course, google suite: gmail, google docs, etc.
Search Engine Optimization and Meta tags
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization – what is SEO?
- https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=sitemaps&passive=true&nui=1&continue=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fwebmasters%2Ftools%2Fdashboard&followup=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fwebmasters%2Ftools%2Fdashboard&hl=en – google webmaster tools
- http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/ – google sitemap generator
- http://www.datadial.net/blog/index.php/tag/negative-keywords/ – even if you don’t use Google Adsense, you should look at the negative keywords section and consider this in your meta tags in html coding
- http://articles.directorym.net/Using_Trademarks_in_Meta_Tags-a952329.html – beware of copyright infringement in meta tags
- http://zensite.home.att.net/meta-tags.html – simple html example of meta tags
Blogs: Categories and Tags
- http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2007/09/22/tags-and-categories/ – wordpress’ explanation of categories versus tags
- http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/07/03/tags-and-tagging-in-wordpress/ – a really thorough explanation of the importance of using tags on your blog
- http://landmark-project.com/blogtags.php – Technorati’s blog tag generator
- http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/09/27/using-categories-and-tags-effectively-on-your-blog/ – how to use categories and tags effectively in your blog
Note from Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/browser/):
- “What are tags? You can give your uploads a ‘tag’, which is like a keyword. Tags help you find things which have something in common. You can assign up to 75 tags to each photo or video.” (P.S. – Flickr is owned by Yahoo…so how about those tags/meta tags?!)
Web 2.0 (for those interested in design for education):
- http://teachweb2.wikispaces.com/ – educational perspective
- http://www.go2web20.net/ – annotated directory of web 2.0 tools
- - what goes into the instructional design process (the “sacred online text” of instructional design with all processes defined and mapped out…): http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/
- - a brief article on using graphics for instruction (site design sucks but the content is relative and informative): http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/skaalid/media/graphics.htm
Finally, don’t forget your medium and audience:
Optimized file formats for the web: .swf, .pdf, .png, .jpg, .gif, .mov, .mpeg, .mp3, etc.
- http://help.adobe.com/en_US/PhotoshopElements/7.0_Win/WSCB4EC73C-17F4-4c4d-887D-2E6712FE6E80.html – list of file formats (from Adobe Elements)
- http://www.pantos.org/atw/35273.html – an old article, but points are still valid
- http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/pdfs/MobileReaderWhitePaper.pdf - how to optimize .pdfs for mobile devices
- http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/pdfs/pdfaccess.pdf – how to optimize .pdfs for accessibility
- http://www.longtailvideo.com/support/tutorials/Web-Video-Compression – discussion on the various video formats and compression for the web
- Always test your work in multiple browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari are most commonly used, but IE does NOT run on Macs anymore).
- Consider too, multiple operating systems – PC, Mac, Linux are the top 3 most common.
- Some file formats are LESS accessible.
- Some file formats require browser plugins (Flash player, PDF, QuickTime, RealPlayer, etc.) so notify your audience of the requirements to view your work and provide links to download latest plugins.
Accessibility issues on the web:
- http://www.section508.gov/ – the federal government’s list and tutorial
- http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/full-checklist.html#wc-priority-1 – the web authority’s list
- http://wave.webaim.org/ – a tool to assess your website’s accessibility status
- http://webaim.org/ – non-profit group that trains on how to make sites accessible (very helpful tutorials)
Your audience and usability:
- Know your audience. Know their habits, know what they are looking for. More than half the time this will require you explaining to them what they need because they don’t have the words for what they need (they don’t know the technical jargon or what they’re asking for is not what they need to meet their goal – such as improper “tool” selection).
- Always make it easy for your audience.
- Sites should be easy to navigate.
- Sites should load FAST.
- Consider the mobile web medium now – so file optimization and clean websites are VERY important now.
- Figure out a way to deliver content to your client quickly and efficiently (and securely).
- AVOID tables for layout – this is BAD format for the “new” web
- Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) when possible for layout
- Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug: http://www.amazon.com/Think-Common-Sense-Approach-Usability/dp/0789723107
- The Non-Designer’s Web Book by Robin Williams: http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Web-Book-3rd/dp/0321303377/ref=cm_cmu_pg_t