Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Adding CMS to Existing Web-Sites

Many of you are well aware of "Content Management Systems" or CMS for short. There are many off the shelf CMS solutions for FREE like WordPress and Joomla, however as powerful as they can be they don't always offer the turn key solution you may be looking for.

For companies with pre-existing custom web-site designs and layouts already online, it would be hard to simply populate one of these FREE CMS solutions with the same content and maintain the functionality of the web-site. However, it would be nice to be able to give access to several employees in an effort to maintain the web-site and keep content current.

Luckily for us web-site designers there is a solution from WebAssist. Their PowerCMS extension for Dreamweaver allows designers to dedicate areas within any PHP page that already exists as manageable content from within an online CMS admin application. This extension is part of their "Design Extender" suite for Dreamweaver. All that is required is a PHP page and a MySQL database. PowerCMS gives us the best of both worlds. Web-Site designers can provide clients with affordable content management for pre-existing web-sites while at the same time maintaining control of areas of the web-site that should not be handled by anyone without a web-design background.

If you are like me, you enjoy the freedom of creating your own web-site designs from scratch within dreamweaver. FREE CMS applications are great for content, but lack in creativity and design. PowerCMS allows you to keep your creativity without sacrificing the functionality that most clients are currently looking for.

You can learn more about PowerCMS online at WebAssist.com or contact us at Rood's Media and we can discuss how this unique CMS solution can be added to your existing web-site.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Tablet Computers Frustrate Designers

With the growing number of people choosing to browse the web with a tablet device instead of a conventional computer, the issue of web-site navigation creeps in. For years now, web-site designers have had a handle on the best way to integrate functional web-site navigation into any design. Now with the dawn of tablet computing all that knowledge has gone to waste.

For me, as a web-site designer myself, I have been raised on "hovering". The idea is simple... you move your mouse around screen until the courser or graphic visually shows you a "call to action". The call to action can be anything from a "mouse-over" effect to a drop down menu or a change in the courser graphic. Once you see the change you know you can then click. Unfortunately this simple yet effective way to help visitors navigate a web-site has gone out the window with tablets.

Tablet computers have no hover action. Everything is very static and you must design new web-sites with clicks for everything. For a designer, this means you must make your web-site deigns very button heavy with a logical "step-by-step" flow. To make matters worse, all manufacturers have their own set of "multi-gesture" touch patterns that result in the device reacting differently to the way you interact with your web-site. If you don't want to "Dumb-Down" your web-site navigation then you will be required to produce a "Mobile" version of your web-site design and a "Computer-Based" design for traditional / full interaction with the user. The end result gives the user the best environment for their chosen device, but clients must now pay web-site designers more for additional layouts and maintenance.

Tablet computing and web-site browsing will evolve over time, but right now it is shaking things up. navigation, native resolution, plug-ins and more are all handled differently with tablets and mobile devices. It is important that all web-site designs keep up to date with trends and how the bulk of users want to receive and interact with their favorite web-sites.

At Rood's Media we discuss all these options with our clients and continue to evolve with web-trends and industry standards. We understand that it is our job to inform our clients and empower them with the tools to help them make the right choices for their future web-site needs.

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Web-Site Designers & Developers Wanted

Rood's Media is currently looking for creative young individuals who are eager to be involved in our growth as a company. If you are a recent college graduate or self taught designer, we want to hear from you. We are currently assembling a short-list of web-site designers, developers, web-masters, digital artists and more. As the industry evolves, individuals with unique skill sets become valuable assets. Rood's Media is asking for your resumes and online portfolios at this time.

Please submit all resumes and portfolio links to info@roodsmedia.com

Thank you.