Business strategy Archive
Hiring new staff
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February 26, 2008 1:53 PM
Marcus' shares his advice on finding new staff
Worthy of your attention in 2008
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January 10, 2008 11:49 AM
As web designers we are all busy people. We are in such a fast moving sector that it can be hard to know what is worthy of our attention. Should we be focusing on Silverlight or brushing up on Javascript? Learning Rails or grappling with mobile devices? In this post I want to share my thoughts of where you should be focusing your energies in 2008.
Bubble 2.0.
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December 20, 2007 1:54 PM
Just in case you need convincing of our upcoming doom...
Keeping your skills sharp
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November 9, 2007 11:24 AM
I recently received a question from Harry asking "what approach do you take to training?". He has some budget set aside and is wondering how he should spend it.
Intranet delusions
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November 2, 2007 3:57 PM
Every business can benefit from some form of intranet whether it is a collection of online tools or a large corporate system. The problem is that many organisations make fundamental mistakes in how they approach their intranet. I want to address 5 of these mistakes.
Marcus says: Don't Panic
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October 22, 2007 6:05 PM
And… obviously, never be without your towel. Douglas Adams has a lot to answer for. Mostly, in my view, for being the funniest (best even) English writer since Wodehouse. Why do all the best ones die young?
Marcus on loss leaders
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October 15, 2007 4:51 PM
Even after going on at length about making sure that contracts are in place, tasks are recorded in detail, requirements consultations are paid for and project management effort is not underestimated 8211 all to avoid under-charging 8211 sometimes there are occasions when you should take a hit and do a project as a loss leader.
Ongoing role of a website manager
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October 11, 2007 10:03 AM
Many organizations and individuals simply underestimate the enormity of the job faced by website managers/owners, failing to grasp that it is an ongoing commitment. It is our job as web designers to make clients aware that running a website requires somebody to be responsible for it over the long term. Every website requires a website manager.
Marcus on budgets
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October 8, 2007 12:51 PM
So here8217s the situation: I receive an invitation to tender in my inbox from a potentially good client. The brief is well written and, for the most part, the requirements are clear. The first thing I do is check the timescales, second is to see what the budget is.
Social Participation as a business tool (Video)
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September 28, 2007 4:53 PM
Social networks and communities are often seen as the domain of the teenage crowd with sites like YouTube and MySpace dominated by this demographic. However, community based applications are applicable to all audiences and can be a powerful tool for businesses.
Who do you ask to tender for your web project?
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September 26, 2007 3:53 PM
With literally millions of web design companies worldwide where do you begin when trying to draw up a list of potential agencies? Who do you invite to tender?
The Geeks alternative to golf
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September 19, 2007 9:29 AM
I have never been a great fan of golf. As far as I can see it is a silly game that ruins a perfectly good walk. For the longest time I didn’t get why so many people played it. I especially did not understand why successful business people wasted so much time hitting a small ball around in a field.
Quick and dirty competitive analysis
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August 9, 2007 3:58 PM
Every organisation should know what their competition is doing online. However, getting your boss to pay for proper competitive analysis is not always easy. I therefore thought I would share some quick and dirty techniques for doing competitive analysis yourself.
Getting things done... in web design
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May 9, 2007 11:21 AM
I have just finished reading "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. Not only has it seriously helped me to get control of my workload but its also made me rethink how I approach web design projects.
When the designer/client relationship should begin
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May 2, 2007 2:16 PM
In the last couple of posts I have looked at the role of the website owner. This has also started me thinking about the relationship between designer and client. In particular I have been considering the point at which this relationship starts and wondering whether the designer should actually be engaged earlier in the development cycle.
A client's work is never done
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April 26, 2007 4:37 PM
I recently wrote a post about the role of the client and how poorly defined it is. This started me thinking in more depth about how clients perceive web projects and how they often fail to grasp the enormity of the undertaking. In this post I want to explore the ongoing commitment that clients have to make to their websites.
The role of the website owner
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April 23, 2007 10:11 AM
There is a lot written about the role of web designers but very little written about what part website owners play in the evolution of their sites. It is an area I have been thinking a lot about recently and I wanted to share a few thoughts with you.
Talk business not technology
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December 6, 2006 9:07 AM
Nothing is ever new. Here I was thinking I was the only one talking about return on investment and that “good practice doesn’t always make good business”. In actual factor both Vincent Flanders and Jared Spool are saying it as well.
Why meetups matter
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October 25, 2006 12:51 PM
There is a lot of focus on the negative aspects of web design at the moment such as the debate about the role of accessibility. However, I believe web designers have a lot to be proud of and that other professionals (like website owners) have a lot to learn from them.
Return on Investment
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October 18, 2006 12:24 AM
Recently a listener of my podcast wrote to me complaining that a recent screencast I did on the business benefits of web standards, didn't work under Linux because it used Flash 8. This raised an interesting question. Do I care?
Standards: Work still to do
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October 13, 2006 10:18 AM
Apparently the battle over web standards has ended; it is certainly true that 68% of web designers seem to favour it. But do clients understand the benefits?
The Business of Web Design
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October 6, 2006 11:55 AM
I have been thinking a lot about our motivation as web designers (as you do!) and am becoming increasingly concerned that in many cases our motivation in projects is entirely wrong.
Revolution or evolution?
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July 15, 2006 5:12 PM
In my last podcast, I spoke about choosing the right design for your site. In the past, I have also written about the need for sites to evolve rather than redesign. Therefore, I thought I would put some of my theories to the test, with the redesign of boagworld.
Keep it simple stupid
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July 11, 2006 9:40 AM
The KISS acronym has become such a cliche that we so often ignore it. After all why "keep it simple" when we can play with the latest cool bit of technology.
The sin of over enthusiasm
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July 5, 2006 11:14 PM
I have received a couple of comments over the last few days that have made me think about the need for pragmatism in web design. Many of us are so caught up in our new found enthusiasm for standards based design that we have lost sight of the realities of building websites.
Dot-com bust 2.0
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February 28, 2006 1:50 PM
At the recent geek dinner I attended, we had a heated debate about the current web 2.0 phenomena. I expressed some concern about the lack of a viable business case to support many of these sites. Well, apparently I am not alone in my concerns.
Investing in your staff
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February 23, 2006 12:23 PM
Unsurprisingly my last post generated a huge amount of feedback. By far the majority focused on the learning curve involved in adopting web standards. Many complained they simply didn't have the time to "get up to speed". The follow is directed at those who employ web developers/designers...
Ecommerce 2.0?
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November 26, 2005 11:07 PM
There is a lot of hype surrounding the new generation of websites that are emerging. Collectively they are labelled web 2.0 applications, largely because they behave more like desktop applications than websites. The question is how the underlying principles of web 2.0 will expand beyond the current raft of "web applications" to encompass more traditional websites. For example, how can web 2.0 principles and technologies benefit a typical ecommerce site?
Site evolution
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November 20, 2005 5:57 PM
In a previous article I talked about changing the client/web designer relationship from a "per project relationship", to a more dynamic continual association, allowing for site evolution rather than site redesign. In this entry, I want to unpack that concept a little further and look at how a site can be enhanced over time rather than redesigned intermittently.
A new client/designer relationship
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November 8, 2005 12:37 PM
I write many posts for this site, but this one marks a turning point in how I approach web design. It started with an article on the List Apart website about realigning your website rather than sporadically redesigning it. This catalyst has made me completely rethink the way I interact with my clients. It has also forced me to rethink how I sell web design services.
Web 2.0 - Where's the money?
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November 1, 2005 6:44 PM
With just two weeks until the d.construct conference on web 2.0, I find myself spending an increasing amount wondering how this whole web 2.0 craze is going to work itself out.
Web standards at all costs?
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October 13, 2005 6:21 PM
So should you always build sites using web standards? Should tables really only be used for tabular data? Is it CSS at all costs?
The missing pillar of web design
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October 7, 2005 6:51 PM
After listening to the various podcasts coming out the Web Essentials conference this year, it has made me think a lot about the nature of web design and the current state of the industry. Although there are some very exciting developments, I am concerned that we may be in danger of loosing some perspective.
Sample site review
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July 13, 2005 1:37 PM
A part of my job at Headscape is to provide site reviews for clients. These range from short overview reports to detailed studies on particular aspects of a site. I recently completed a review for a small ecommerce site called TrapAWasp and felt that it neatly brought together a number of different issues I had been discussing in this blog. The client has been kind enough to allow me to publish it here so hopefully it will be of some use to others. Please bear in mind that this is only a condensed site overview and doesn't tackle issues in much depth.
When good shopping sites go bad
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May 25, 2005 5:18 PM
I have just finished reading a fascinating article on the BBC web site about the growth of ecommerce. This comes on the sameday that I have watched one of my clients fail to grasp some of the basics of ecommerce.
Ecommerce 101
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August 6, 2004 5:45 PM
I am currently working on an ecommerce site and so as normal I have been doing my homework into what improves sales on a web site. Here is a quick summary of the key ingredients:
Charity fundraising online
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August 3, 2004 4:46 PM
A large proportion of the work I do at Headscape is with charitable organisations. I try and keep up to date with developments in the charity sector and I am constantly suprised how many opportunities are being missed to utlise the web.
Is it time to upgrade your web site?
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July 26, 2004 1:34 PM
How do you know when it's time to upgrade your web site? Should you expect to have to upgrade your site regularly? This article gives you the answers.
How we are relaunching our own website
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July 19, 2004 6:24 PM
Its a bit embarrassing really. One of the primary things Headscape sells itself on is our experience with accessibility and the fact that we build using web standards. However our current site has a totally separate accessible version and is built with standard HTML. Looks like it is about time we redesigned our website!
How to make them buy!
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July 15, 2004 9:05 AM
Discover how effective web design is as much about psychology as it is about pretty graphics and cutting edge technology.
Success criteria
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June 20, 2004 5:30 PM
One of the first questions I ask a client interested in developing a new website is, "what are your success criteria?" How a company evaluates the success or failure of its website is fundamental to how that site is built and maintained.
The impact of broadband
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June 18, 2004 5:46 PM
Today the BBC technology website led with a story about how the Office of National Statistics has released figures which show that the number of people connected to broadband has almost doubled over the last year.
