February 7th 2011
I went to a really good event this week called “Managing Directly – Becoming your own boss” hosted by WiM and Milton Keynes & North Bucks Chamber of Commerce. It was targeted at women looking at starting a business. I’ve been running my own business full-time for 3 years now (+ another 4 yrs part-time) but I still feel I have so much to learn.
The first presentation was by Rita Spada, a business woman with over 2 decades experience in business management, now heading up the local Chamber of Commerce. Her talk was overflowing with useful advice and information, it seemed like there was at least 2 hours worth of material being condensed into 20 mins.
Business survival stage can last up to 5 years
A big take away point for me was that a 3-5 year old business is still in its infancy. Rita used a diagram called the Seven Stages of Organisational Development to talk about the stages you go through as your business grows. She explained that you will be in the Survival stage for at least the first 3 years. This made me feel much better about where we are in our business. I think we might actually be ahead of the game (for our age), when I had so often thought we’re struggling to keep up!
This isn’t the exact version Rita showed us, but a more commonly published (according to my online research) diagram known as The Seven Levels of [Organisational] Consciousness Model, originally by Richard Barrett, who based it on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
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June 7th 2010
I’m going to a conference on called WebContent2010 tomorrow. I’ve been trying to explain to people what it is going to be about, and so I thought I’d get it down in writing before I go, to see how what I learn compares to my expectations.
Working in the web design industry, we’ve gone through all these phases of concentrating on various aspects of the process like the visual design, (and separating design from content with) HTML and CSS, user interface and experience design, information architecture, accessibility, the list goes on. But one massive area which hasn’t had so much attention is content. We are still, in 2010, letting clients copy and paste content from printed brochures onto websites.
When I worked as a front-end developer for another company, there was always a moment post-deadline, when we’d handed over a website and CMS to the client, but we were still bug fixing and tweaking and we’d look at the website and say “Oh gawd, look what they’ve gone and pasted into their About Us page” [snigger]. Followed swiftly by “Oh well, s’not my problem” as we scurried back to that all important CSS adjustment of 2 pixels.
Now I run my own company, when I see something that my client has added to the website which I think is inappropriate or which needs some other attention I’ll send them an email or talk to them about it on the phone right away. I am acutely aware that it doesn’t matter how good our design looks, how well the site is coded or how easy it is to use, if the content of the website isn’t interesting or useful or maintaining the brand identity, then the website isn’t working. I think I’ve always cared about this, but I haven’t always been in a position to do anything about it. Now I’m not in a position to to ignore it.
I have enough difficulty getting clients to pay for copywriting, so convincing them to pay for content strategy is a whole ‘nother hurdle. But it must be done at the beginning. It is always the first question you ask a new client anyway: Why do you want a website? The answer to that question lays down the foundation of your content strategy.
I hope to come away from this conference having more language to talk about content strategy convincingly to clients so I can pursuade them to invest in it. And also gain the toolset to implement a content strategy to make a successful website.
July 6th 2009
I was fortunate enough to go to both the FOWD conference and the @media conference this year. I say fortunate because I think you are pretty lucky if you or your employer can afford to pay for (and allow you the time away from your normal duties) 4 days of conferencing in one year (let alone a quarter) – I managed both because I was volunteering at @media, so I only had to pay for FOWD.
There was quite a striking difference between the 2 conferences this year and I thought I’d share these thoughts here. Please note that I am comparing like for like, so I’m only considering the conference part of FOWD with the @media conference.
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May 20th 2009
Having caught my attention with the inclusion of an Expression Engine workshop presented by none other than Jamie Pittock of Erskine Design (one of the first UK companies to use EE on high profile client work), I decided to treat myself to a ticket to the 2 day extravangza that is the Future of Web Design conference and workshops.
I am aware that there has been quite a lot of criticism of FOWD this year that it wasn’t forward looking enough, too much retrospection and not enough looking at cutting edge technology of the future. In some way I have to agree as you’ll see something of this sentiment in my comments on the design presentations. However, in the process of writing these notes and reviewing the experience as a whole, I’ve realised just how much inspiration there was to be gained from many of the speakers. And I know I’ve already referred to all the meeting people and socialising there is to be done in an earlier post, but I can’t emphasise enough how important this is to the whole day. So perhaps it shouldn’t be called “Future of Web Design” but I’m not going to argue over the name: I went to see a selection of presentations about web design and related topics and that is what I got, and they weren’t all bad—as you’ll see from this lengthy article—there was plenty to take note of.
Illustration of an audience member’s contribution to Coudal’s Booking Bands
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May 11th 2009
I attended the Future of Web Design conference for the 2nd time last week, I first went in 2007 and since then I’ve been to the @media conference twice and dConstruct once as well. During this time I’ve learnt a few things about how to make the most of the experience, based on these key points:
- Be there
- Book early
- Choose carefully
- Talk to other attendees (and not just your colleagues!)
- Do talk to presenters, they want to meet people too
- Have questions or comments prepared to ask/share with someone you would like to meet
- Have the right appropriate expectations
- Go to the pre + after parties
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