Web Development

• There is a new breed of online video consumers: those who consume via mobile devices. Is your business utilizing HTML5 video to tap this growing marketing?
• We share more of our Internet marketing predictions on the Galvin blog. 2012 is the year to really think about how you are engaging, converting, and retaining your website visitors.
• Did you know you that by employing certain web technologies, you can create a game? Check out the reality of HTML5 Game Development and where it’s headed in 2012.
• Web developers will love this! “HTML5 Please” allows you to keep track of what parts of HTML5 and CSS3 that are supported in today’s web browsers.
• Firefox 10 was released January 30, 2012.Mozilla’s Firebug interface got a makeover, focusing on making the user experience a bit more polished. What do you think?

Project Management

• Our senior project manager, Crissy Koger, shares her experience at a restaurant. It’s not a surprise to find out that even waiters have trouble getting requirements from clients.
• Thomas Paine once said we should lead, follow, or get out of the way.Project managers are no stranger to this philosophy. Do you think followship is what makes a project manager effective?
• Project managers can ask questions all day long, but are you asking these 20 questions that should always be asked, regardless of project or organization?
• Generational awareness is another skill that project managers must learn how to master. Are able to recognize generational differences within your team?
• We admire the Veterans who have defended our country and protected our freedom, so we thought it was right on par to hear why veterans make good project managers.

Interactive Design

• Great mobile designs consider the clumsiness of our fingers and limitations of our hands. Are you designing for touch in an ergonomic way?
• Our senior interactive designer, Kiley LoCascio, shares her predictions for the responsive web in 2012by laying out the changes to the development process. Are you ready for a more agile approach to responsive design?
• Typekit released a new feature, which allows you to browse by list. List features include font organization by theme, intended use, and defining characteristics.
• A responsive website demands flexible images. Responsive images can work, but there is a better solution waiting to be discovered by designers and developers alike.

Software Engineering

• Many software developers do not fundamentally understand the nature of the SharePoint beast and what exactly it can do. Are you able to wrap your head around this application?
• Sometimes those 30-day trials aren’t worth the download. As more and more software is spit out on a daily basis, we hope that businesses keep in mind that features and functionality should be communicated to the user before they hit the ‘Download’ button.
• Salesforce released a new help-desk application this week called Desk.com, which helps you reach end users through social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.
• Performing inspections and walkthroughs reaps benefits to your software development team, such as sharing a knowledge of the code. Is it time to rethink software development, testing, and inspection?

Web Development

• How do you cope with HTML5’s dueling standards bodies while supporting web browsers that are becoming more fluid?
• The line between writing books and programs has gotten more blurry these days. Will you take advantage of the tools Amazon has released to allow you program e-books with HTML and CSS?
• Great news for mobile web developers! They can now utilize jQ.Mobi, a lightweight and faster mobile-optimized HTML5 rewrite of the JQuery Framework.
• Firefox has slipped in the web browser market, falling behind Google Chrome. Many users have their reasons for switching, but what will Firefox need to do to get back on top and regain dominance in the market?

Project Management

• How do you kill the switch on a project that is doomed? First of all, don’t declare “done!” Check out these five key strategies that will help your organization to fail fast on projects.
• Project managers should carry out a Lessons Learned meeting with the project team at the conclusion of a project to reinforce both the positive and negative experiences. What kind of questions would you ask your team?
• Project expectations and deliverables are equally important, and should be your focus of every project. Our VP of Professional Services, Tom Schaetzle, shares what it means to go above and beyond client expectations.
• Are you showing your appreciation for your project team? Positive feedback is crucial to any project team’s success. Here’s what it matters so much.
• Ten Commandments of Project Management is a great set of rules that any project manager should follow to help lead them to success.

Interactive Design

• Mobile design is about your audience’s culture, the tasks they want to complete, and the context in which they complete these tasks. Are you raising the bar for mobile standards?
• The Internet is not an interactive Postcard according to the Big Spaceship! There are stark difference between digital and print typography. What would you add to the discussion?
• Responsive design is a process that first requires you to define your break points. Here are some tips that will help to create a better workflow when designing for Smartphones, tablets, and wide-screen monitors.
• When you design a landing page, it is important to make it as visually appealing as possible. Likewise, it should be easy to navigate and error-free. Here are some other unbreakable rules to consider when designing landing pages.

Software Development

• Application developers are expected to favor the Android platform over the iOS platform within the next year. However, good news for mobile users: nearly all developers will choose to support both platforms.
• Have you ever wondered how open-source software is made? If you use the web browser Firefox, it might be easier than you think to contribute.
• Windows 8 Beta is coming out in February with the release of the Windows 8 store. Some of the store app developers speak out against the lack of proper documentation during development.
• Search engine optimization can easily be integrated in your web development process. Developer can use these 7 tips to enhance websites without the magic work of an SEO expert.
• Does America have a developer shortage? Employers are saying that they can’t find enough programmers, but could they be going about it all wrong?

Web Development

• Want to establish an online authority? Here are 11 ways to use content to do so.
• The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) publishes a draft of media accessibility requirements.
• Web developers have a lot to look forward to in 2012, like saying goodbye to IE6 support. Here are 4 other predictions.
• Foursquare’s mobile recommendation engine, Explore, hits the Internet this week.
• Did you know people spend an average of 94 minutes per day using mobile apps? Web consumption wanes as mobile app usage skyrockets.

Project Management

• Here’s a great project management tip for the week: remember to send a follow-up and offer help after a project status meeting.
• We’re half-way through the new year, but here’s 10 project management trends to watch out for in 2012.
• An effective status report should accommodate the needs of executives, the project manager, and the project team.
• Do athletes make good project managers? Here’s a look as to why this may be true.

Interactive Design

• Now is an important time for design; we can’t deny its role in the evolution of the Internet.
• Do you want to tell your client’s story? Then make web content and design impactful.
• The web community is still predicting the top web design and web development trends for 2012.
• To communicate effectively in web design, use the proximity principle.

Software Development

• Need to align people, technology, and process? Then check out this SharePoint implementation checklist.
• There are several ways to capture mobile users, including through the development of mobile-friendly sites, custom mobile sites, and native apps.
• The future of software development is ever-changing, but it might include “probabilistic” applications.
• Building secure .NET websites and web applications isn’t easy, but here are some tips and techniques to consider.
• We thought this was a great read. Ever wonder how to to get software developers to document their code? Here are few tips that might help.

Other Noteworthy Highlights

• This week, Congress felt the backlash against SOPA and PIPA, two bills that threaten the Internet economy as we know it.
• Many websites, including Wikipedia and Google, planned an blackout on Wednesday, January 18 to spread awareness to users.
• The results were stunning. More than 2.4 million Tweets were sent and Google collected 4.5 million signatures to stop SOPA and PIPA.
• As a web company, we understand the significance of these bills and plan to share our thoughts on the issue soon.

When I made the decision a few weeks ago to purchase a tablet I started to do some preliminary research.  To that point in time, I really hadn’t investigated what was available. Sure, I’d heard about the e-reading manufacturers branching out in to the mobile browsing market, but I wasn’t quite sure to what extent.

What I found I really surprised me. There were no fewer than 12 seemingly good options from a hardware standpoint that were available.  This got me to thinking about how we, as the web and software development industry, will deal with the explosion of available devices that should be accounted for from both a technical and strategic standpoint.

Do we test against Amazon’s Kindle Fire Browser? If so, how do we account for the upgrade that will be released mid-way through a project? I would think that they’ll be enough browser versions, hardware types, and screen sizes to make all of our heads spin.

I’m not sure that the businesses we serve have fully adapted to the explosion in HTML browser compatible smart phones yet. Now they need to be budgeting for design and testing considerations for screens ranging in size from 3 to over 10 inches in size as well? What a challenge awaits our industry, along with the marketing industry, as we go through these changes!

For the time being, I suppose that we’ll all do our best to identify key systems and audiences like we always have, we’ll just have to broaden our view of what the possible answers could be. It probably won’t be so simple as to account for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android devices any longer. You’d have to expect that budgets will be raised to account for these key users and their respective platforms. 2012 is going to be an interesting year for our industry and I am excited to see how these changes affect the way in which we approach our work.

And…for the record, I did end up going with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. I’ve had good luck with the Android platform to date, although the app selection does seem to be a little less well-developed than the iPad offerings, but I’ll save that for another post on another day.

Merry Christmas Everyone and happy Tablet-ing!

While growing up just outside of Detroit, Michigan, Gary Galvin had a close relationship with grandmother.  She also happened to suffer from Rheumatoid Arthritis. Even as a child, Gary could see the pain and suffering this brought on his grandmother. At the time, there just wasn’t much that could be done to counteract the effects this debilitating disease.

Fast forward 20 some odd years, when Gary had become a successful business owner an a outgoing member of the Indianapolis business community. It was then that Gary’s own mother was also diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. At first, this was terrible news, leaving Gary to think back to the effects the disease had on his grandmother and fearing that those same effects would now burden his mother as well.

After talking a little bit more with his mother and her doctor, however, Gary learned that advances in drugs and treatment methods over the previous 20 years had significantly reduced the footprint that Rheumatoid Arthritis took from people’s lives. This advancement, in large part, could be attributed to the work of the National Arthritis Foundation.

It was then that Gary decided to make a commitment to the Arthritis Foundation and went so far as to join the board for the Indianapolis Branch of the organization. As a member of the board, Gary was exposed to many of the fundraising events that the Arthritis Foundation put on each year. One new event in particular caught Gary’s eye. The Jingle Bell Run was scheduled for early December and was intended to be a fun filled, festive, 5k run/walk, full of the holiday spirit.

When the need arose for a website that would help the Arthritis Foundation market this new event, Gary was happy to donate the design and development of the website for the initial Jingle Bell Run. That initial commitment continues today. It has become a July tradition for the Arthritis Foundation staff to come to the Galvin offices for lunch, while noting what aspects of the site will be revised for that particular year’s event.

With the 2010 event raising just over $50,000 for the research and development of treatments for arthritis, the Indy Jingle Bell Run has continued to grow over the last 4 years and is now one of the largest Indianapolis Arthritis Foundation events of the year, as well as, one of the top Jingle Bell Run events for the National Arthritis Foundation. Even today, the Indy Jingle Bell Run website is the only dedicated marketing website that any regional Arthritis Foundation has and is the envy of Jingle Bell Run event coordinators nationwide.

Galvin Technologies’ commitment to the Arthritis Foundation has also continued to grow. In 2009 my own father was diagnosed with RA. I, much like Gary, hated to see a loved one be limited in the things that they enjoyed doing. As a result, my wife and I joined the event planning committee as the Logistics and Planning Coordinators for the 2010 event.

I can tell you firsthand that event is growing and the magic of the holiday season really makes it something special. There is nothing quite like hearing Christmas carols echo off the downtown Indianapolis skyline just before as the race starts, only to have them be drowned out by the ring of complimentary jingle bells that the 4,000 participants each tie to their shoes. It is that moment that makes all of the time and effort that we put towards the event so very worth it.

For more information on the Jingle Bell Run, please visit www.indyjinglebellrun.com . You can register for the event here. For more information on the Jingle Bell Run or on Galvin’s continuing efforts to enhance the Indianapolis Community, please give us a call.

Sisters of Providence, located in Terre Haute, IN, gets their website design and developed by Galvin Creative Technologies.

Today I was visiting my in-laws in Terre Haute, IN and had some time to read the Terre Haute Tribune-Star.  I was thrilled to see an article about the new Sisters of Providence website that we helped architect and develop.  It truly was a pleasure working with the Sisters of Providence and their 13 websites.  Galvin Creative Technologies developed a complete content management system which allows the Sisters to maintain every aspect of all their websites.  In addition, the site has eCommerce, ability to obtain donations, event publishing and so much more.

You can read the article on the TribStar.com web site.

You can visit the Sisters of Providence site at www.sistersofprovidence.org

We recently launched one of our newest projects, MyCarbonPledge.com. My Carbon Pledge is an initiative of the Indianapolis Zoo to inform the public about the deleterious effects of carbon gas emissions on our ecosystems and wildlife habitats. The zoo’s efforts to date have mainly centered on the polar bear. As the projections show, two thirds of their population will be gone by the year 2050 due to the loss of Arctic sea ice. MyCarbonPledge.com is at the heart of this campaign, allowing the community to become actively involved in fighting carbon emissions. My Carbon Pledge’s first launch was on Earth Day 2008 and promoted the switch of incandescent light bulbs to CFL bulbs. This first launch turned out to be quite a success with roughly 55,000 bulbs pledged for a total of 8,250,000 lbs of CO2 emissions saved. The zoo then came to us with a new campaign to continue this cause.

This resulted in the new, redesigned and restructured MyCarbonPledge.com. The goal for this year’s pledge was to get people to unplug their unused appliances, while still honoring last year’s pledge of switching to CFL bulbs. The idea was that even though you are not using the appliance there are still carbon gasses being emitted due to energy consumption while it’s plugged in, something that is known as “phantom power”. It is estimated that this simple step can reduce CO2 emissions by 1% and in turn further help sustain the Arctic sea ice and wildlife.

There were two main goals for the 2009 MyCarbonPledge website redesign: 1) market the new message and 2) redesign and reorganize the site to make it more usable. These goals would utilize web development standards, modern technologies and communication design.

By organizing the content better and streamlining the wireframe we were able to strengthen the overall usability of the site. The previous homepage had too much information and the hierarchy wasn’t clearly identified. The new design utilizes a grid system that clearly defines the different sections and allows the user’s eyes to move down the page with ease. The user can still pledge from the homepage as before, but the new pledge and login overlays allow for a cleaner interface. The idea being that the cleaner the interface, the more impact the call-to-action could ultimately have. The new design gives character to the brand evoking playfulness and personality. We created more contrast between the colors and used a dramatic background to give depth and create an environment for the site.

The different sections of the website were also streamlined. The green articles, resources and other links were not well organized in the sitemap. Therefore, users were not getting the information they needed. Thus more attention was paid to calling out these sections inside the site to help users get more excited about the entire campaign. Lastly, we implemented a social media strategy to help get their message out to the public.

The site launched on Earth Day 2009 and has already received 440+ pledges. This project has not only fashioned a business relationship at the Indianapolis Zoo, but is also something we are proud to be associated with. Pledge what you can, and we hope you enjoy the site.

The article discussed the influence that frivolous design can have in a time where people are cutting back on many things they once thought were a necessity.  Expensive furnishings, extravagant tech-toys, and limited editions are still respected, but omitted by the consumer… and designers’ responsibilities will now focus on client goals rather then their own.

A reader from the aforementioned article commented about his friend’s job designing dashboard instruments for General Motors. His friend had designed a speedometer that worked great at night, but was practically unusable in bright daylight.  He had said to his friend, “a great deal of time and effort has been expended to develop instruments which can be read easily and accurately under all conditions. Why don’t you put one of those in the new cars?” And his friend replied, “if we put the best possible speedometer in the cars today, what are we going to do for next year?”

I wasn’t surprised with this reply. Yes, businesses walk a fine line between providing the latest and greatest products, while at the same time withholding certain advancements to maintain a long term product line-up. Companies will always have their priorities, but designers should have theirs as well. Designers need to make sure the client knows what they are investing in will make their brand strong for years to come.

I believe the future of web design can be this bright. Ms. Arieff stated in her article that designers should aim for longer use and fewer materials. In my opinion, in this economy it also holds true for web development. While we might not build with raw materials, we do however build with ideas that shape what the end result will be. The product needs to be strategically planned for the long run; a website that exudes the brand, is communicating the goal and is easily updated.

BuyAMeter

Smart design has now become a priority because it’s quick and to the point; allowing the user to have their experience and move on with their day. BuyAMeter.org is one example in the article which I believe she used to show design has its purpose no-matter what state the economy is in, and purhaps even more critical in its current state. This site has one goal; awareness. The goal is reached by the design and functionality working together. The newspaper visually represents the information and also is a cue on how to navigate the site. The content provides an interesting point-of-view and informs the user within seconds. This site is not functionally expensive, it has no chrome, but does its job; leaving a lasting impression on the user.

Not every site is able to be as conceptually engaging, especially with consumer-based sites. No matter what the final soultion is or what the goals are, the process is the same. Web design isn’t a question of form over function; it is a question of using form to propel the function. As graphic designers our “purposeful pursuits” will be to produce something that is built to last.