Des Moines Web Geeks is a group of enthusiasts who meet regularly to talk shop, sharpen each others’ skills and interact with people who speak the same language. While not all members are professionals, we strive to create a relaxed, yet professional, environment where anyone can speak up and share, regardless of your experience, gender or age.
The RosterMonster is a comprehensive web-based system built for the fan and school to track, view, and analyze real-time stats of athletes in sporting events.
earlier
Lately I've been hearing more and more from clients that they really want video content on their sites. Video on a website can drastically improve the user experience, especially if it's interactive, but video isn't always a good idea. The content you provide to your audience should be engaging and easy. By engaging I mean that it should draw the user in and peak their interests. Easy content means it can go anywhere, be anything and work in as many scenarios as possible. The user should not be bored or confused on what it is she is supposed to do. My website offers an RSS feed and it's readable on all browsers.
Video complicates things a little by not being easy and only if it's done well is it engaging. When you offer video to your users you're applying restrictions on the user's connection speed, and browser limiting who can view your message. Video isn't inherently bad, it just needs special care to be done correctly. When producing video content for the web try to create something immersive and to the point. When including video in your site try to offer the same content in a lessor formate.
Google Analytics does not inherently track file downloads (i.e. links to images or PDF documents). However, you can manually enable this through the use of JavaScript. There are a lot of great implementations of this and some are already in a JavaScript library but I wanted to take a crack at it on my own, and that's what you see above. There are other variations of this script available, just be aware that for every install of Google Analytics, you should also add some version of this.
getting really old now
I enjoyed the pop up tooltips on Mac's OS Snow Leopard so much that I recreated them to be used in a website. My goal was to create something that would degrade nicely and illustrate the Mootools tooltip capabilities. Please download the files and feel free to use them.
ancient history
I have never sought out to be an expert in social media. But, after many years of doing web development, I have become as social-media-savvy as your average teenager (which is pretty good). My experience lies in the few web 2.0 sites that I have created for others (I haven't maintained any "web 2.0" sites and that's the key) and the occasional tweet. At its most basic level, all social media web apps are a version of AOL chat rooms from the 90's, and conceptually, the social web is just a communication channel or tool. There's nothing scary about it. It's not hard to create or implement (from a programming stand point). The challenge lies in finding the right voice to represent you -- choosing where to concentrate your efforts, and staying on top of the conversation. Because of this, I believe that social media is for the PR people, not the web guys.
ancient history
A strong "home page" or landing page will always let the user know where they are and what they should do next. Use design as much as possible to give the user hints as to where they are, and try to use large headline sized links (or something that will get the attention) above the fold to give the user a direction.
ancient history
Lots of cheap tools exist for creating small, short-term websites or "microsites." If you're looking for event planning, for instance, check out this article at mashable for some great ideas.
ancient history
Web design has changed drastically in the past five years. Over the past decade I have taught myself about nine different programming languages just to keep up. Because of this, it's a good idea to refresh or "redesign" your site a couple times a year. A redesign doesn't always have to mean a complete overhaul; you can make a 20% change and call it good. Keeping your site standards compliant and current with the W3C recommendations can also be cheaper than completely redesigning your site every three years or so. Some old sites get a pass though :).
ancient history