business category

Focus on details

A little secret I just discovered, "focus on details" bosses / clients don't understand sketches or mockups.

That's all for today, C U soon.

February 20, 2008, 2:40 PM Comments 0 TrackBack 0

SEO the good and bad

Colleagues and friends I would like to write about SEO as I noticed most of webmasters & designers understood SEO as the art of deceiving search engines to gain better rankings, this is only the bad side of SEO and I want to go through the good and bad.

Bad SEO

You could deceive search engines and get indexed in a place you originally shouldn't be in, by buying fake back links or using headers just for the search crawlers to see and visually hiding it from visitors, that's just 2 tricks there is dozens out there.

Every day search engines upgrade there algorithms to become smarter than bad SEOs, on the other side SEOs create new tricks, if search engine discovered bad trick in a website it may lower its rank or even totally remove it from its database.

I hear some people saying "but showing in the first page of a specific keyword search results is vital to our business", there is always a proper solution. Ofcourse you know these: Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing & Microsoft Ad Center if you don't like pay-per-click plans try TLA to pay-per-month, I'm confused why people pay all that money on SEO while they could pay it on Ads.

Any way I don't know much about bad SEO as I never care to learn it, people always ask me, "Do you know about SEO?" if I answered yes, just the next question "how many back links could you get us ... you know the rest" so whoever ask me I answer "no", but I always wanted to explain to people what SEO really is.

Good SEO

SEO is not a thing to think about, you just have to start writing your clean markup using HTML tags only as they meant to be used, just think of the visitors, what title of the page they should see, what is the biggest first header <H1> better for your visitors to understand the content of this page, as you explain to your visitor the content of your page by its title and headers even regular paragraphs, also the crawlers will understand clearly where your page should be indexed on the search results, if you don't like this place you have to pay and buy an Ad plan.

So to simplify it Good SEO in two points :

  1. Use HTML tags as they meant to be used, your non-tabular data is not meant to be in a <table>, don't use <div> unless you see it's really a division of the page like side bar, ads bar etc... , it's even better if you can free the main header of any wrappers.
  2. Only markup your page nicely explaining to your visitors using page title, main <H1> and maybe a brief explanation about your site wrapped in an <H2> about the content of your site in a brief informative words.

It's always a good idea to start marking up your document from scratch
<html>
<head>
<title>Page title</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Page main header</h1>
<h2>The short description I mentioned earlier</h2>

<div id="main">
<h3>smaller header</h3>
<p>Paragraph</p>
<p>Paragraph</p>
<h3>Another header</h3>
<p>Paragraph</p>
<h4>Even smaller header</h4>
<p>Paragraph</p>
<p>Paragraph</p>
</div>

<div id="side">
<h3>smaller header</h3>
<p>Paragraph</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>

That's for example, and you could mess with the CSS as you wish to style your page but leave markup clean and meaningful, to know what each tag mean you might consider checking HTML Dog.

At the end I like to point you to this Wikipedia entry that has more technical details about the topic.

September 30, 2007, 2:59 AM Comments 0 TrackBack 0

Google Middle East office in Egypt

Google EgyptWow this looks like it's an old news but I never knew it before that Google Middle East office has opened in Egypt, I found it through this article with the date June 23rd, 2006 then I googled the topic and found it also here & here.

According to some sources, a few months ago, Google Egypt hired a Country Manager (Sherif Iskander -- mentioned here) who also serves as a regional manager and is now looking around for suitable candidates to fill the posts of Associate Product Marketing Manager and Product Marketing Manager.

Angelo Embuldeniya on Stravinsky's Sizzlin' Shack

Any way here is the opening jobs in Cairo there is no better place any web geek like me could ever dream of, I wish I get hired by them. Hey Google, If you are reading this you probably see it through Google search pages please check in your jobs@google.com mail and you will find my mail, or drop me a line.

March 26, 2007, 12:46 AM Comments 0 TrackBack 0

Announcing ausedcar.net

ausedcar.net logoHello all! good morning to all of you, Today is the birth of our very own project ausedcar.net all it's meant to do is to be a directory of used cars where you can view cars by any search criteria like make, price & ofcourse country as well as you can add your car with it's details and your contact info for whoever is interested of your car.

So what's so special about this there is dozens of used cars directories out there?

  1. The first principle I put in front my eyes while designing this system is Less is more that means that this is only a used cars directory and it's nothing easier than viewing or adding cars you don't have to login and run through a questionnaire etc it's really so simple.

  2. If your privacy matters you may choose not to show your contact information instead a form will be shown to buyer so he can send you his contact info and a message.

  3. It's all AJAXed maybe a non technical person would not understand that, but it simply means you don't have to jump from page to page every time you request an operation like for example when you add a car or request a photo or contact info "Buy now" no refreshment to the page all in the same page, thanks to Mostafa Sobhy in that and in developing the whole back end system that's terrific Mostafa.

  4. You could follow new added cars by RSS it's a technology for fast tracking content without the need of viewing the whole site, many of you already know that.

For short ausedcar.net is not just a new cars directory like any one out there, it's user experience was perfectly designed to be friendly fun & easy.

Cross posted on ausedcar.net blog.

January 25, 2007, 9:56 AM Comments 1 TrackBack 0

A must read for freelancers

Andy Budd posted 7 Habits of a Highly Successful Freelance Web Designer I can't agree more, here are they

  1. Love what you do
  2. Never stop learning
  3. Specialise
  4. Get a killer portfolio
  5. Network like crazy
  6. Manage your time
  7. Build your reputation

Read the article for more details on each habit.

About the killer portfolio habit Jeffrey Veen wrote Five steps to a better design portfolio which are

  1. Use best practices
  2. Don't innovate
  3. Show your work
  4. Explain what you did
  5. Fill it in

Thanks alot Andy and Jeffrey for sharing your experience with us, those two articles are a must read for all freelance web designers.

November 14, 2006, 8:05 AM Comments 0 TrackBack 0

Managers VS. Geeks

10 mistakes managers always do to geeks, brought to you by a geek who became a manager, Alexander Kjerulf.

  1. Downplay training
  2. Give no recognition
  3. Plan too much overtime
  4. Use management-speak
  5. Try to be smarter than the geeks
  6. Act inconsistent
  7. Ignore the geeks
  8. Make decisions without consulting them
  9. Don’t give them tools
  10. Forget that geeks are creative workers

The consequences of those 10 mistakes are

I couldn't agree more, and that's not only about managers some times it's about clients especially long term clients they some time do those mistakes or some of them which force you to give up and stop working for them, some folks decided to choose there clients but not every body could afford it, at last you discover that it's more rewarding to choose the right client rather than go with the wrong one and get in more trouble later. It also applies to employers, not every employer will value your efforts, you have to choose the right one, some people has done a lot of efforts to be hired by the right ones.

A company like google as an example understands that valuing and comforting geeks has the biggest effect on productivity and motivation and I think that's the main reason of there success, any way read the original post.

May 25, 2006, 7:17 AM Comments 0 TrackBack 0

FRESH PX to sponsor CSS Reboot

CSS Reboot Spring 2006

Here comes again the reboot time when web designers all over the world redesign there CSS styled sites showing the entire world all at once just how great accessible, standards design can really be. On 1st May all rebooters will expose there new designs.

I'm glad to announce that FRESH PX is sponsoring the reboot this year, as our goals are similar the only difference is to refresh web logs instead of reboot web sites.

April 21, 2006, 7:33 AM Comments 0 TrackBack 0

Zeldman: Unmixed

You may think Web 2.0 and the next web are meaningful, industry-shaping concepts, or you may view them as marketing spin. You may trust that Microsoft wishes to be a citizen of the emerging state or suspect that it wants to be king. Whatever you hope or fear, and whatever value you place on such gabfests, to participate would surely be to learn. Plus you’d get to rub elbows with pirates and pundits from Tim O’Reilly and Marc Canter to Molly Holzschlag and some of the big brains behind eBay and Amazon.

- Zeldman: Unmixed

Fears of a reborn of an old disaster, a disaster that Jeffrey Zeldman, the WaSP which he co-founded & a lot of web standards geeks like me, has been fixing for years.

Read the full post Zeldman: Unmixed

March 22, 2006, 10:49 PM Comments 0 TrackBack 0

Getting Real

37signals reveals the secrets about how they get real in a relatively short period of time in there new book Getting Real, I advice entrepreneurs, designers, programmers, executives & marketers to read it.

March 8, 2006, 4:02 PM Comments 0 TrackBack 0

Announcing fast standardization service

I'm happy to announce the new Fast standardization service.

It's as simple as that send us your PSD file we convert it to Compatible, Accessible, easy to modify & fully standards compliant web page controlled by XHTML & CSS, in just few days and send it back to you, in return of relatively cheap price, but it must hold the word Standardized by Point studios.

If you want to apply more than one design to your site send us your 2, 3 or whatever you like PSD files holding the same content and we will handle the job for you, your visitors will be able to change the site style just the way you can change this site style right now from the choose style panel on the left bar.

Still don't know the benefits of complying the standards, check it out.

Send us on info [at] point-studios [dot] com

March 6, 2006, 2:53 PM Comments 0 TrackBack 0

"Web 2.0 Show" interview with Jason Fried

Web 2.0 show interviewed Jason Fried the owner of 37 Signals about his different vision of some aspects that let 37 Signals an inspiration to all of us and a leader of Web 2.0 move, he kind of denied it but definitely it is.

They discussed some of his thoughts and opinions that is mainly found on 37 Signals blog Signal vs. Noise like the less is more vision and there way of developing web apps by designing it's interface before coding the backend and how ridiculous is beta releases. I can't agree more. any way the incredible success of 37 Signals in such a short time prove the brilliance of his visions.

It's about 45 minutes interview you gotta listen to it.

January 17, 2006, 2:55 PM Comments 1 TrackBack 0

New era of publishing

How many times have you read a thousand pages book just to know some information that could be written in only 100 pages or even 10, and how many times you forced to buy a hard copy of a book while you wish you could download it, how many times you wanted to actually contribute and help improving books and suggesting ideas.

Rosenfeld Media

It looks like publishing strategies need to be updated to cope the new era of innovated bright readers, and I think Rosenfeld Media is this bright new publisher, publishing right to the point books that could be read on a short plane ride.

Unfortunately they are publishing user experience design books only, I understand that maybe for a new era of publishing most of regular readers will not be familiar with it, but user experience designers will be familiar with it as this new way actually is innovated from user experience but it maybe called reader experience, but I hope it will be more familiar to more readers by time especially in the technology related subjects, they didn't published any books yet but I'm expecting really nice books from them.

By the way the magnificent design is Dave Shea's design.

January 13, 2006, 9:53 PM Comments 0 TrackBack 0

Google: Ten Golden Rules

Eric Schmidt CEO of Google and Hal Varian consultant with Google reveals the ten golden rules of managing knowledge workers, they are brilliant here are the main points:

Read complete article

December 5, 2005, 8:46 PM Comments 2 TrackBack 0

How to be creative

It is a post by hugh macleod, Titled How to be creative, hugh macleod came up with a creative idea which is drawing cartoons on the back of business cards. And now he wrote this post to share with the world his experience in being creative, and a lot of useful tips in the way of climbing the Mount Everest as he call it.

I got inspired and encouraged a lot with this post, it's a very long post but I like to mention the 30 points that he coined out as the main points for being creative.

  1. Ignore everybody.
  2. The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world.
  3. Put the hours in.
  4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.
  5. You are responsible for your own experience.
  6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
  7. Keep your day job.
  8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.
  9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.
  10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.
  11. Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.
  12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.
  13. Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.
  14. Dying young is overrated.
  15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.
  16. The world is changing.
  17. Merit can be bought. Passion can't.
  18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.
  19. Sing in your own voice.
  20. The choice of media is irrelevant.
  21. Selling out is harder than it looks.
  22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.
  23. Worrying about "Commercial vs. Artistic" is a complete waste of time.
  24. Don’t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.
  25. You have to find your own schtick.
  26. Write from the heart.
  27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.
  28. Power is never given. Power is taken.
  29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.
  30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

To read the explanation of every point read the complete post

Thanks a lot hugh macleod the words can't express how much I learned and inspired from this article.

November 27, 2005, 3:21 PM Comments 1 TrackBack 0

Virtual world starting to have effect on real world

screen shot from second life

The first time I saw a virtual world game was Second life Since then I realized that this kind of games will have a real effect on the real world, I have been playing this game every now and then from about a year and a half ago.

People started to realize the power of the virtual community and that it is an international new market, people in Second Life create virtual objects and advertise for it to sell it for Linden Dollars or even advertise for real products. I have seen people creating objects like clothes, furniture & cars to sell them I even have seen an apple store that sells apple products.

In the last days I saw people collecting donations for Hurricane Katrina relief effort. Linden Dollar is the currency of the game can be exchanged with real Dollars and vice versa.

What are virtual world games?

I don't know them all I only know Second life it is a complete virtual world were you have life and relations with people and homes and jobs in a big 3D virtual world.

September 17, 2005, 2:11 PM Comments 1

Categories: