(via Bed cartography)
If you’re primarily a designer and have recently started learning CSS, you’ve probably started to incorporate some of the new CSS features that have been added to the language in CSS3.
But if you don’t have a lot of experience with CSS, then you’re probably trying to figure out what is the best way to handle some of the challenges that arise from using multiple vendor prefixes, dealing with older versions of Internet Explorer, and other CSS3-specific dilemmas.
In this article, I’ll try to cover some of the important things to remember when dealing with these issues. Keep in mind that nothing here is set in stone but these should just be guidelines to help you write more effective, easier to maintain, and future-proof code.
Know your support charts
You probably won’t have to memorize which features work in which browsers. In most cases, CSS3 features will not work in all in-use browsers. And in some instances, even the most recent versions of browsers don’t have full support.
So the first thing you should do is understand where support is lacking. The primary resource you should use is the When can I use… site, which includes charts for CSS3, HTML5, and tons more. You can even do side-by-side comparisons with different browsers, as shown in the screenshot below that compares CSS3 support in Firefox 3.6 vs. IE9:
Although When can I use… is probably the only support chart source you’ll need, here are a few other options to consider:
- CSS3 Click Chart
- CSS contents and browsers compatibility
- CSS Compatibility and Internet Explorer
- Comparison of Layout Engines (CSS)
But know that although a CSS feature may be listed somewhere as “supported”, that doesn’t mean it’s without bugs or inconsistencies. So test thoroughly.
Don’t overuse polyfills
Due to client or agency pressure, or just the fact that you want everything to look and function the same everywhere, you might be tempted to use the many CSS Polyfills.
But many of these scripts can slow your pages down considerably — especially if you use more than one. There are many studies and sources that show the importance of a website’s speed, so any polyfills should be considered carefully and with your site or app’s overall best interests in mind.
To help you decide what to polyfill and what to just allow to degrade to a lesser experience, use the HTML5 Please site. As shown in the example screenshot below,HTML5 Please will often recommend avoiding polyfills for certain features:
Test how features degrade
If you’re avoiding a lot of polyfills, then naturally you’re going to have to allow many CSS3 features to degrade to a more primitive experience in older browsers (usually IE6-8). But don’t assume this will happen automatically.
In many cases (for example, when using multiple backgrounds), you’ll have to declare a property that gets overwritten by the CSS3 feature, but that will still show up in older browsers.
For example, for multiple backgrounds, you might do this:
.element {
background: url(images/fallback.jpg) no-repeat;
background: url(images/example.png) center center no-repeat,
url(images/example-2.png) top left repeat;
}
Notice the single background image declared before the multiple background images line. Non-supporting browsers will display the single image but will ignore the 2nd line. Supporting browsers will read both lines, but the first line will be overwritten by the second.
Some other CSS3 features that could benefit from this type of fallback are RGBA colors, HSLA colors, and gradients.
To help you see how CSS3 feature degrade in older browsers, you can use a bookmarklet called deCSS3.
It currently only works in Chrome and Safari, but just drag the link to your bookmarks bar and then click the link on any site that you want to ‘de-CSS3′ and it will show you the site with text shadows, rounded corners and other new stuff removed. Of course, this is no replacement for actual browser testing, but can serve as a useful guide for faster development before you do your final testing towards the project’s end.
Another tool to aid in dealing with fallbacks is the Modernizr JavaScript library. But if you’re intimidated by libraries, don’t be. Modernizr is not difficult to deal with from a CSS perspective. Check out this tutorial for a pain-free introduction.
Dealing with vendor prefixes
One of the messy parts of CSS3 is having to deal with all the different vendor prefixes. Maintaining code that uses all the prefixes is tedious and in some cases you don’t need all of them. Who can possibly remember when to include “-o-” or “-ms-” and when not to?
Well, as mentioned, using the support charts will help. But here are a few other suggestions to help deal with vendor prefixes.
Use a CSS preprocessor
Preprocessors are all the rage right now. But CSS beginners and designers who aren’t hardcore developers or programmers may have a hard time dealing with these new tools.
So although preprocessors are certainly not for everybody, they are definitely worth considering, because they can seriously improve your production and maintenance time.
An extensive discussion of preprocessors is certainly beyond this article, but here are some links to get you started:
And if you find that stuff too heavy, Chris Coyier of CSS-Tricks has some thoughts on preprocessors that might help you get an overall view. And here’s a post on Nettuts+that covers some of the features and benefits of using a few of the most popular CSS preprocessors.
Be consistent in your code
If you choose not to preprocess your CSS using one of the aforementioned technologies, then you’ll have to deal with maintaining all the vendor prefixes. So make sure you pick a style and order for your vendor prefixes and stick with it. This way, your code will be easier to read and maintain.
For example, some CSS developers put their vendor prefix lines in alphabetical order, and use indenting so that the values all line up, like this:
.element {
-moz-transition: background-color linear .8s;
-ms-transition: background-color linear .8s;
-o-transition: background-color linear .8s;
-webkit-transition: background-color linear .8s;
transition: background-color linear .8s;
}
That’s just one way to do it. But whatever method you choose, just be consistent throughout your code. This would be especially important if you work on a team where others have to read and/or maintain your code.
Of course, not all CSS3 features are this easy to organize (for example, the code for keyframe animations is much more complicated), but for most features you should be able to have a consistent style that makes development and maintenance smoother.
What about the standard property?
You’ll notice in the example in the previous section, the last property declared after the vendor lines is the standard version of the property. If you’re going to include the standard property, this is definitely how you should do it. So always include it last when you add it.
This is to ensure that the vendor implementation of the feature is overwritten by the standard implementation. But there’s a caution here.
For some complex animations and interactions, it is conceivable that the implementation could change so much that when the browser starts supporting the standard property, it could have undesirable effects. So in some cases, you might be better off leaving out the standard property altogether.
I wrote about this topic more in-depth on my blog, so check that out if you want a more comprehensive discussion of this issue.
Use Prefixr
One of the easiest ways to deal with all the cross-browser vendor weirdness is to use a handy little tool called Prefixr. With Prefixr, you just developer your code as always, and you could just use a single vendor prefix (for example, only “-moz-”) for all your CSS3. Then, when you’re done testing in that one browser and have everything working the way you want, just throw your code into Prefixr and it will generate all the extra vendor code for you.
Prefixr also can be integrated automatically with your text editor, and includes support for lengthy keyframe animations code. As an alternative, you can also try out a tool I created called Animation Fill Code that adds the extra vendor code for keyframe animations.
Test thoroughly
The last suggestion I’ll give here is to test thoroughly in all the browsers you’re supporting. You can use dozens of tools and libraries to assist you with your CSS3 development, but nothing can replace thorough tests in real browser environments.
And this advice would be especially important if you’re dealing with a lot of responsive design-related CSS3 (e.g. media queries), and heavy use of typographic features. You want your content to be usable and readable in all browsers, even if the CSS3 features aren’t available.
There’s a simple answer to the question of why you don’t have more clients. Your potential clients don’t know that you exist.
While many freelancers don’t think much about how easily they can be found by their prospects, all freelancers should consider visibility. Your freelancing ability affects whether or not you attract new clients.
If your prospective clients can’t find you, then they can’t hire you. That’s a fact.
In this post, I’ll discuss why freelancingvisibility is important. I’ll also explain how you can make your freelancing business more visible.
Why Freelancing Visibility Is Important
Are your prospective clients having trouble finding you? Do you rarely get an inquiry from a client?
If you don’t have a very strong online presence and your marketing efforts are weak, your clients may indeed be having trouble finding you.
Your prospective clients are looking for freelancers offline and online. However, most clients will wind up using the freelancers who are most readily found–those who are most visible.
Take a few minutes to imagine that you want to hire a freelancer. Imagine that you know very little about freelancing and that you don’t know any freelancers personally.
Where might you go to try and find a freelancer to hire? Now, go there and look to see if you can find your freelancing business listed there. If you can’t, you may not have enough visibility to attract new clients.
How to Get Visibility
Don’t worry. With some hard work and smart decisions, you can make your freelancing business more visible.
Get more visibility online through the following:
- Your Website. It amazes me how many freelancers still don’t have their own website. When setting up your website, remember to brand it for your specialty (which is what the client will look for) and not your name.
- Your Blog Posts. Blog posts are a great way to increase your visibility. Not only do they demonstrate your expertise on a subject, frequent posting has SEO benefits that will make you easier to find in the search engines.
- Your Guest Articles. If you write guest articles on a variety of popular sites, you can increase your visibility. Make sure that the sites where you submit guest articles are targeted to your prospective client.
- Your Social Media Participation. Participation in social media (and especially LinkedIn) raises your freelancing visibility. Make sure that all profiles are as complete as possible and include your freelancing.
- Member Sites. Joining a professional site can also expose you to prospective clients, provided that you pick the right site to join. Once you join, be sure to take part if you want to be visible.
Offline visibility is also important if you want to attract clients.
Become more visible offline in the following ways:
- Professional Meetings. You can often meet a prospective client by joining a local professional society. Consider joining your local Chamber of Commerce. Like any membership, you benefit most if you are active.
- Advertising. Sometimes local advertising pays off. Local ads are often less expensive than national ads. Check into the cost of an ad in your local phone directory and/or your local newspaper.
- Direct Mail. Do some research and identify some local businesses that fit the profile of your ideal client. Put together an informative mailing that describes your freelancing services.
- Cold Calls. After you’ve done a direct mailing, follow through with cold calls. If you can, do some research to see who would be hiring freelancers with your specialty and ask for that person.
- Your Guest Articles. Local newspapers are often looking for columns or guest articles from business professionals in the area. This can be a great way to raise your local freelancing visibility.
- Your Class. Teaching others can also raise your visibility and position you as an expert in your local area. Check with the library, community centers, or Chamber of Commerce to see if offering a class is an option.
Your Turn
Do you have enough clients? If you don’t, you may not have enough visibility to attract clients. Hopefully, some of the ideas in this post will help you raise your freelancing visibility.
Is your freelancing business visible to prospective clients?
What methods do you use to raise your freelancing visibility?
So often, we look at a design trend as nothing more than that – a design trend. But it’s important to look behind these trends, to see the market influences and psychological movements that are influencing and driving them.
One of the most important market influences in web design today is the rapid proliferation of mobile devices that are used for web browsing. This growth will only continue. As of January this year, 8.5% of global website hits came from handheld mobile devices, and the number of mobile Web users are about to hit the 1.2 billion mark.
As more users prefer tablets to laptops and desktops, the demand for responsive web design increases. Designing for mobile devices is a completely new ball game, primarily because user psychology and goals are different, attention spans are shorter and bandwidth is more expensive.
Many of the design trends we’re currently seeing are borne out of this evolution towards mobile-friendly web content. Let’s look at some of the header design trends that we can expect to see as mobile technology grows.
Skeuomorphism
Overused according to some (yet often underrated), skeuomorphism means keeping features from old – often physical – designs where those features had a specific purpose or reason. This is often illustrated in iPad synthesizer apps, which come with “knobs” that you can turn, “sliders” that you can move, or “cables” that you can plug in.
In the website shown below, notice how the designer cleverly uses the laptop’s viewport as a container for latest headlines. Other elements in the design are made to resemble real objects. Overall, it emulates a room in a house. Skeuomorphism, in this case, is purely decorative.
On a more subtle scale, this technique is presented in many ways, such as:
- Textured or “grainy” backgrounds
- Letterpress
- Stitched borders
- Ribbons
- 3D buttons
- Metallic shades
Despite antagonism from some elitist designers, skeuomorphic design offers many benefits in terms of usability. For one, it makes interfaces comfortable, friendly and familiar. It creates an environment where users can easily grasp how an application works without having to click the “Help” button. It encourages users to “think for themselves” by enticing them to explore. When used properly, it allows designers to communicate the purpose of an application or website effectively, and helps users find what they need faster. Speed, after all, is very important in mobile browsing.
Well-used skeuomorphism addresses the needs of the user more than it does the ego of the designer. With good reason, many designers will continue to use it — at least until another trend comes along.
Centered Headers
Mobile devices sport smaller screens and lower resolutions than most computer monitors do. Centering page elements adds visual appeal and balance to a page viewed at smaller resolutions. At higher resolutions, it adds some weight to the identity of the web site, perfect for emerging brands.
Large Typography
Quite a number of current websites display fonts in gargantuan proportions. This makes it easier for users to view the text on a tablet or smartphone. It also has an added benefit: more impact with fewer images. By cutting down on graphical elements, and using effective typography and carefully picked fonts, users do not have to spend a lot of bandwidth just to see the main message on a web page. Websites designed this way are appealing to mobile users. As the mobile market continues to grow, we can expect this design trend to last a long time.
Large letters grab attention. Designers use it to convey the purpose and goal of a website clearly yet effortlessly. Zurb’s headline below delivers a deep message to customers in only four words:
Kevin Thompson’s massive header will let you know upfront that this is a personal, not a commercial website. The sharp bold text is balanced out by the friendly greeting at the top left corner of the page.
Call to Action
Commonly used by app websites, a call-to-action masthead is composed of two main parts: the slogan or the pitch, and the sign-up button. Studies show that placing the call-to-action in the most prominent part of a web page — in this case, the header — improves conversion rates.
Shoplocket integrates an entire sign-up form in the masthead. Just enter your username and password, and you’re ready to start selling. Users do not have to load another page in order to fill up a form, and this is a good thing. When browsing through websites on a mobile device, the fewer pages you load, the more bandwidth you save.
Glitch presents two call-to-action buttons on their masthead. The primary button (“Sign Up to Play”) is larger and more prominently colored. The secondary button, on the other hand, is much smaller and lightly colored. This draws the user’s attention toward the more urgent action.
Call-to-action buttons come in many forms. They could let customers buy a product, or open a page where they can learn more about it. The landing page for Angry Birds: Space has four equally prominent call-to-action buttons that give customers four options to buy the game:
Illustration and Vector Art
Illustrations help convey a human-centric brand and give the overall design a friendly, informal tone. Web designers use this as an opportunity to express their creativity. Additionally, many websites use illustrations to demonstrate instructions or to provide clarity.
Illustrations in web design come in various themes. The Neighbourhood uses an environment-themed illustration for its header.
Made By Chipmunk’s illustrative header serves another purpose. One of the chat bubbles in the artwork shows a snapshot of Chipmunk’s latest work.
Iutopi’s panoramic header entices you to dive below the surface (quite literally, in fact).
The surrealistic tone of these illustrations complements well the interactive (yet surreal) feel of many touchscreen mobile devices.
Left Sidebars
Many websites are taking the header from across the top and squeezing it into the sidebar, along with the rest of the navigation. This helps avoid vertical scrolling to reach content on a small mobile screen; it also takes advantage of additional real estate on widescreen desktop monitors. The new designs for Smashing Magazine and the Notepad++ website(among many others) demonstrate this.
According to Jakob Nielsen, renowned authority on web usability, “web users spend 69% of their time viewing the left half of the page and 30% viewing the right half. A conventional layout is thus more likely to make sites profitable.” This means that when searching for direction, most users look at the left side of the screen first. To help visitors understand the structure and identity of a website faster, it’s a good idea to position the menu and the branding header flush left. Amazon and other marketplace websites place their product menu on the left side of the page for this reason.
Conclusion
Will these design trends linger? Or will they be replaced by other “next big things” in design? As more and more people use mobile devices to scour the web for information, proper skeuomorphism, minimalism and smart typography are here to stay. The others? We’ll see. Only time will tell.
Source: http://designmodo.com/header-design-trends/#ixzz1wBK6gZhx
Sushi has been popular in the Western world since the 1970s, when it was introduced to diners in the U.S. You probably have a strong opinion about it – either you love it and are always looking for ‘the best’ sushi in your neighborhood, or you absolutely hate it and can’t understand how anyone could go near it, much less put it in their mouths. Personally, I’m in the ‘love it’ camp, and today I’m going to share with you six ways that you can leverage the power of sushi to improve your designs. Yes, really!
1. Tell a Story For Your Clients
Traditional sushi chefs in Japan are known for chatting with their customers at length about the local ingredients so essential to their cuisine. If you sit down at their restaurants, they will regale you with stories about the work they do, informing you and engaging you at the same time. Restaurants are social environments – we go out to eat when we could easily stay in because we want to be around other people while we enjoy a (hopefully) delicious meal. People, like this guy, have since turned this traditional, sociable behavior into an international legend, comparing every sushi experience to the pleasant, informative one they had in Japan.
As a designer, you too can leverage this narrative power when you engage your clients. People respond well to storytelling – it makes you stand out from the pool of other designers who never use this tool. Make sure you have a story to tell about your work. Do personal projects you love, and make a habit of explaining your unique and fascinating process to potential clients. They’ll definitely be interested as long as you keep it brief.
2. Simplicity is key
For many Japanese people, eating a little raw fish with rice is a complete meal. The story you tell with your work need not be complicated or overly dramatic. The more you simplify your process, the easier it will become, and the more work you’ll be able to accomplish. Take writing this article, for example. If I hadn’t started out with a process to keep things simple, I would have spent far too long going into details that aren’t necessary to tell the story. Simplifying your process isn’t easy, but once you develop your own system for tackling your work, it will definitely make your life much less hectic.
3. Uncover New Paths
Originally, the rice in sushi served a very specific purpose – to keep the fish preserved as it traveled from the fishing docks to the fish markets. To accomplish this, the rice was fermented and consequently had a very strong flavor that few could stomach. It was traditionally discarded until the 18th century, when people began reducing the fermentation levels and including it as part of the actual dish. Now, sushi rice is the most common ingredient in most types of sushi. Making the rice part of the flavor profile opened up a whole new range of possibilities for flavor combinations.
Coming up with a function, or a solution to a problem you didn’t even know was there is a crucial part of design. Imagine if chefs still threw away their sushi rice before they served you your meal. We’d be missing out on so many different types of delicious sushi – nigiri, temaki, gunkan, and all those delicious rolls we Westerners love. How sad would that be? Good thing someone figured out how to prevent this tragedy from happening.
As a designer, your job is to navigate uncharted territory, making use of things that others miss or overlook. Have a bunch of throw-away supplies, research, or junk mail staring you in the face?Look at it again with new eyes and see if you can’t create a ‘sushi rice’ moment of your own.
4. Details, Details
Because they work with raw fish, which can contain harmful microorganisms, professional sushi chefs are specially trained to pay attention to certain characteristics of the fish that most commercial inspectors don’t bother with. Things like the smell of the fish, its color, firmness, and sterility are examined much more closely to ensure a safe dining experience for their patrons.
Designers can learn a lot from this ultra-specific attention to detail. As you are a decision maker, expected to come up with solutions to your clients’ problems before they even realize the problems are there, you need to learn how to think like a sushi chef and closely examine your designs for tiny flaws that others might not see. Be relentless; weed out whatever doesn’t belong and don’t be satisfied until you’re sure you can present your clients with the absolute highest quality designs you can possibly create. This does two things: one, it puts more awesome design in the world (and who doesn’t need more of that?), and two, it signals to your client that you are different from all the other average designers out there who just turn in work that’s ‘good enough.’
5. It’s All About the Presentation
The reasons for inspecting sushi and sashimi ingredients aren’t all dire and health-related. Fish used for sushi and sashimi is also inspected for its visual appeal. Only the most attractive and flavorful cuts of fish are used, and great care is taken to make sure the beauty of the fish is retained once it arrives on your plate. More creative chefs have signature styles of presenting their sushi – things that make their dishes unique to them and which inspire a mythology among their customers. Does that remind you of anything? Sushi is definitely a designed product, from inspection to presentation. In fact, I can’t think of another traditional food that incorporates more conscious design into every aspect of its creation than sushi. Everything from the way sushi chefs select their ingredients, to the way they proudly tell you about them at the restaurant is a carefully orchestrated production – almost a performance.
You can definitely harness this process for yourself in your design work, and create a similar production experience for your clients and your users. When you develop your own unique production style, clients and users will take notice, and your work will take on a life of its own in the stories people will tell each other about it. You want those stories – that mythology – to take root. It’s the single most important part of your reputation as a designer. What people say about your designs, and how they say it, is vital to getting the best clients. Plus, you can actually influence people’s opinion of your work based on they mythology surrounding it. People are more likely to respond positively to design that has a good mythology, than to design that has little to no mythology.
6. Juxtaposition: the ‘Secret Sauce’
In the West, we don’t really pair unremarkable cereal staples with other, much more flavorful dishes. Except for pasta, which, of course, comes from Asia and is traditionally made from…rice. Go figure. But in Asia, chefs and cooks do this all the time. Rice is used as a palate cleanser and a kind of ‘shock absorber’ for the spicy and flavorful foods it normally accompanies. Sushi is no exception. I suspect the reason Japanese cooks began including rice in their sushi dishes was that they wanted to experiment with different types of flavors for the fish – flavors that would be a bit too strong if consumed by themselves, without the rice as a ‘buffer.’
When you employ this practice in your designs, you are having the same effect on people’s eyes and brains that sushi has on their palates. Simplicity paired with tiny moments of intense detail or “flavor” is a philosophy you can use to create designs that are intriguing and unexpected.
What Do You Think?
How else can you draw design inspiration from sushi? Could you really, really go for a Hawaiian roll right about now? I know I could…
Visual representation of the information in terms of its variables, attributes and other elements is referred to as the data visualization. The purpose of data visualization is to send information to its users in a clear and effective way with the help of graphics. Since any data has to be functional as well as beautifully presented at the same time, you need to do justice to both of these elements. Creating an extremely beautiful visual representation that lacks purpose doesn’t help. Both form and functionality have to be targeted.
Some experts believe that data visualization consists of two parts such as theme based cartography and statistical graphics. If considered from this viewpoint, it covers areas like mindmaps, articles and resources, news display, connections display, tools and services, data display and websites display. These areas are mainly concerned with representation of information and graphics.
Those, who look at data visualization from the viewpoint of computer science, find it related to different fields like modeling techniques, information visualization, methods and architectures of interaction, volume, algorithm, and technique visualization and multi-resolution methods.
Details About Data Visualization
There are a good number of websites to be explored to find some great work in this area. One of such fine example is Akamai Real-time Web Monitor. This world map site presents you with most recent information on internet traffic, network attacks, and response time. If you look at this, you will see that how it gives you general information through vibrant colorful maps along with ensuring easy readability.
You can also navigate through the website Visualizing The Bible. The site gives you a visual presentation of over 63,000 text based cross-references from the Bible. The site aims to be appealing in terms of looks than functionality. Slightly different from this website is Voyage. This is a RSS reader. It shows your subscribed RSS feeds in an absolutely different style on your timeline.
Take a look at Looks Del.icio.us as well. This project is a pack of various attractive bookmark sites, built with layout engine and graphics library which is supported by python. Another interesting site is Stack. On this website, the most recent stories are shown down under the screen and then ‘Diggs’ lands from the sky to graphically present a list of popular stories to its users. Titles of the stories appear on the bottom of the screen as and when Digg touches the story stack. In this process, the older stories are gradually taken off the screen.
If you are planning to create music based website, then exploring Narratives 2.0 also makes a good sense. The site groups the different sound tracks into one channel and shows them in a structure resembling a fan.
Other example from the same category is Liveplasma. Designed as a movie and music visualization application, it enables you to find your choice of movies and musicians. For this, you have to fill in the required field with the name of a movie, actor, artist, director or band in order to help Liveplasma generate matching and relevant results for you.
From the social networking platforms, TwittEarth is an interesting matter for study. This visualization app displays live tweeting done by the people from across the world on a 3D globe. It helps you find the source of the tweet and suggests new people to add to your following list. The beauty of this site is that you don’t really have to partake in any activity. If you want, you can simply be a viewer.
For more in-depth knowledge, you can also check out TED Sphere, Walrus, One Week of The Guardian, MusicMap, Last.Forward and Arc. These will prove to be a good source of inspiration for you.
Examples of Data Visualization
Human Storage [infographic]
Find out what PETA is really all about
Balance Your Media Diet
Geek vs. Nerd: Which Are You?
RootzMap
Tag Galaxy
dataviz1
dataviz2
Voyage – RSS feed reader
Source: http://designmodo.com/data-visualization/2/#ixzz1wBIzXlhT
As cliché as it sounds, the best camera is the one you have with you. Fret not if you don’t have an expensive DSLR. When you have your iPhone cam ready, under the right conditions, it can take some amazing images! With the help of these 10 tips, you’ll be able to your iPhone shooting images that look as great as any point-and-shoot.
1. Do not use the zoom function; your feet is the best zoom.
No matter how tempting, don’t use the digital zoom in. If you really want to take that shot from afar, it’s a sure thing that you won’t get the photo quality you’d want — a picture with noisy background, grainy texture and pixilated outcome. Instead, if possible, get closer to the subject and click on the camera button to shoot.
2. Do not use the flash function; get more light in the background.
The iPhone’s flash is not enough to shine good lighting over on the background and give you truly great digital photos. Rather, it tends to wash out or overexpose everything horribly, particularly the subject’s eyes. The problem can be solved with natural or indoor lighting. Though you may not see the dimness in your screen before taking the shot, once the photo has been taken, you will clearly see the difference when light is more present.
3. Stabilize your hand when holding the iPhone.
Notice that when either you or the subject you’re taking is moving or isn’t steady, the result of the photo would be blurry. To solve this, advise the subject to stay very still. For your part, hold your iPhone like a regular type of camera — steadily. Count to three and if you can’t make one hand stabilized enough, use both hands or find something like the wall or a chair to lean your back or arms on. Slowly click the shutter button to capture the subject and let the lens absorb more light to expose the photo nicely.
4. Tap to focus.
With built-in aperture, the autofocus function is already present in the newer version of the iPhone’s OS. It would automatically take the focal point and show a square on the subject to make it appear clearer. However in some cases, when it is not readily recognized, you have to suggest where the focus should be. Simply move closer and tap directly on the main spot of the subject to focus for better lighting and exposure and higher quality photos.
5. Try different angles.
The standing-straight position can sometimes be just boring, when you can have a lot more. Because the iPhone is just light and easy to carry and turn around, you have the advantage of playing with gravity. As the iPhonographer, try different angles to snap more interesting shots. Be artistic and build up on your imagination! You can try squatting down and shoot at a view lower than the usual eye or shoulder level. To be more comfortable, don’t be shy to sit down on the floor or stand on a chair in a crowded place. You will notice that you will not only capture the subject but also give the impression of how big the room is. You can make your subject loom bigger or smaller, with more dominance or greater depth, emphasis and drama.
6. Keep the iPhone cam’s lens clean.
Most of us carry our phones around everywhere but not our camera. When you have and use your iPhone with you all the time, even if it has protected casing, there is a good chance that the camera lens will get dirty. The iPhone cam’s lens is so small that even a small smudge or a fingerprint on it would affect the quality of your taken photos. Clean it regularly to maintain brightness with a handy microfiber polishing cloth, that piece of cloth you use to wipe off your eyeglasses or your old cotton t-shirt. Also clean the flash near the lens with soft circles, as to remove dust or blotches. Never use any polishing agent on the lens or the touch-screen area with aerosol purifiers, especially those which contain liquor, ammonia or other chemicals or severe substances. These could be harmful for your iPhone’s delicate, oil-repelling touch-screen technology.
7. Take again and again until you capture the best.
Unlike the old days when you had to buy films to practice your camera shooting abilities and find the best frames, digital cameras today offer us with the great incentive of trying and trying until we go tired. There’s no cost except for the draining of the battery and the memory space, of course. But these things can be easily replenished once charged up. Similarly like any regular digital cam, you can have lots of mistakes in using your iPhone camera. Take multiple shots of the same scene and just select the best afterwards. Don’t get disappointed and delete the comparatively “bad” photos as well; you can always use other photo-editing applications or software to improve their quality later on.
8. Experiment with apps!
As mentioned, you can use the many photography app available in the AppStore to edit photos. You can make a collage, combined photos with creative frames, different filters and gradient backgrounds, cartoon versions, embed them with layers of text and stamps and so much more. Install and mix these features from multiple apps. You’ll be surprised with the various results from these exciting applications.
9. Explore around you. Be adventurous!
Take the initiative to go around places and discover great things to capture candidly. People have stories within them and they change in every second with their emotions. Every corner of an establishment has something worthwhile. Whatever event may it be a birthday, a talent showcase, or a sports event there’s something in there you’ll find interesting. Look at the signs and slants of the street and document the wonders of normal everyday life. Magical memories happen only once. Just keep your thumb ready to click and snap them away.
10. Hold, then release.
Want the subject to be in focus and the background blurred out? The trick is to not take it easy and tap the shutter button right away! Instead, before doing so, hold it down for a few seconds until you’re ready to release it to prepare and compose yourself first. This will also relieve you from shaking probabilities and prevent crappy photos.
Few professions demand greater talent, experience and flexibility than web-design. Not only do you have to deal with constantly evolving customer demands, you have to deal with constantly evolving aesthetic norms and design standards. What was popular six months back may already be falling out of favor.
Website layouts, once standardized and scarcely trifled with, are now the focus of extensive experimentation. While it helps to break the mold, in a time of creative crisis you can always turn to these 10 evergreen website layouts that will never let you down:
1. Two Column, Wide Header
This is easily the most common layout design on the internet, standardized since the beginning of the ‘classic’ web. A wide header, usually at least 960px long is followed by two columns – one wide, one narrow. The narrow column serves as the navigation pane and can be placed either to the left or right of the wider column.
Conventionally, blogs place the navigation column to the right of the wide column, while static sites place it to the left.
Example: Uncrunched
2. Three Column, Wide Header
Popularized by Blogger and WordPress, this alternative to the above layout includes three columns – one wide column flanked by two narrow columns. The narrow columns hold navigational elements, while the central column serves as the primary content repository. A wide header is draped across all the three columns. The cumulative effect is a highly usable, if busy layout. The two columns are sometimes clubbed together and kept on the same side.
Example: Gary Vaynerchuk
3. Four Boxes
Common on product and news blogs, this simple layout includes a site-wide header, which is followed by a large header-width box, and three smaller boxes that take up a third of the larger box’s screen realestate each. The number of smaller boxes can range from 2 to 5.
The large box can be used to showcase products or articles/stories; the smaller boxes can offer further information on the product or secondary stories. The end result is an easily navigable and visually dramatic layout.
Example: Flickr
4. Undefined Grid
The undefined grid layout borrows heavily from the conventional grid based layout and turns it askew. Navigational elements follow a site-width header, and are placed in undefined boxes spread across the width of the site. The height and width of these boxes can vary, which adds visual energy to the layout.
This effect is difficult to achieve technically and usability remains an issue, but it can serve as the base for more creative explorations.
Example: Siete De Febrero
5. Large Screenshot
Appropriate for web applications and software, this layout places a large, site-width screenshot of the app directly below the header. With high-resolution images, the effect can be dramatic. Designers often incorporate 3D screenshots, drop shadows, and sliders into the screenshot space to add another layer of complexity to this rather simple layout. The large screenshot is usually followed by multiple (usually 2, at most 4) grid-based boxes giving further information on the product/application.
Example: Paper
6. Single Column
Eschewing the left/right navigation pane for a wide header, navigation menu, and a single content column, this layout finds application in many personal blogs based on minimalistic design principles. The single, central column is typically kept narrow – under 640px in width – and is followed by a footer that includes additional navigational elements. This layout is most common in microblogs such as Tumblr.
The effect is a sparse, minimalistic design that can be somewhat difficult to navigate and is best for microsites; it is best avoided on larger sites.
Example: Visual Craftsman
7. Featured Image/Graphic
This layout has found a lot of favor with smartphone app developers. A large featured image or graphic is placed either to the left or right of the page, with a single column of content next to it. The header is usually minimalistic or absent; the footer points visitors to the relevant download page, besides including company information and disclaimers/privacy policies.
Example: Instagram
8. Fixed Sidebar
Made (in)famous by Gawker.com, this layout includes a fixed sidebar that houses all the navigation elements, while the primary column hosts all content and is scrollable. The fixed-sidebar makes navigation easier, but impacts usability negatively.
Example: Gawker
9. Grid Based Gallery
Popular among photographers and designers, this layout is ideal for visual portfolio sites. In the conventional layout structure, the header is followed by a heading, which is followed by a grid based photo gallery. The gallery can range from 2 to 6 columns with as many rows as needed. The effect is highly visual with a lot of room for creative maneuvering.
Example: YourNeighbors.de
10. Advanced Grid/Magazine Style Layout
The advanced grid layout borrows heavily from the conventional grid layout to create a rich, visuallydense design. There are few rules to follow in this layout and the designer has a considerably large canvas to experiment with navigational elements. Typically, information is organized by freshness and/ or priority, with the most important content showcased right below the header in the largest box, followed by secondary stories/articles in smaller boxes, and tertiary content in even smaller post boxes. The advanced grid usually includes two columns, though many layouts incorporate an additional third column.
The sheer complexity of this layout impacts usability but allows for a lot of information to be packed into relatively compact screen space, making it perfect for news sites and online magazines.
Example: NY Times
When people come to your site, you’re implicitly asking them to believe in you. You may want them to feel secure enough to buy your product or to hire you, or to understand that your reviews are balanced and honest. Even if you have nothing to sell, you still need new users to know that what you write is credible so that they will become regular visitors. The trouble is, it’s all too easy to send wrong signals to users. Here are some subtle – and not so subtle – ways your site might inadvertently be doing that: 1. Your Site Takes Too Long To Load Suppose there are two cab companies – one uses a fleet of sleek BMWs, the other some battered old Fiats. Which would you trust more? So it is with site loading time. A fast loading site feels like it’s going somewhere and that the people behind it know what they’re doing. Image Source: High Speed Internet via Shutterstock The Fix Using a cache system will greatly speed up your site by reducing the number of database calls needed to serve each page. Recommended plugins for WordPress include Total Cache, WP Super Cache and Quick Cache. You can reduce site loading time enormously by combining a cache plugin with a second plugin to minify (compress) your HTML code. This feature is built-in to Total Cache but isn’t activated by default. Image intensive sites will also benefit from compressing image size using a system like WP Smush It which can shave off 10% or more from image filesizes. Bonus: All this is great for SEO too. If you’re using Google Analytics keep an eye on Content > Site Speed to see how your site speed improves. 2. There Are A Bazillion Widgets In Your Sidebar All those shiny widgets may look pretty but if they’re using Javascript (and most do) they’re slowing your site more than you think. In any case, too many widgets just screams MySpace 2002 at users. The Fix How about going cold turkey on the widgets? Do you really need them? Are they helping you communicate with your users? If not, they really should go. 3. Broken Links and Images That Don’t Load No one intentionally puts a broken link on their site, but stuff gets moved around and links get broken. The same can happen with image links. The Fix Get into the habit of checking for broken links once a month or after a major site redesign. I use Link Examiner, a free program that spiders an entire site and generates a report of broken HTML or image links along with the page they’re on. It doesn’t look pretty but it gets a vital job done. 4. You Have No Contact Form Not having a contact form – or at the very least a page with your contact information – sends the signal that you’d rather be anonymous. Subconsciously, visitors will wonder why you don’t want to be found. Image Source: Contact Us via Shutterstock The Fix Add a contact form and test it thoroughly to make sure it works. Don’t forget to include other ways you can be contacted like Skype and messaging services if that’s your style. If you’re not up to building a contact form yourself, there are some easy-to-use WordPress plugins that can do the hard work for you. 5. No Images of the Writers, Owners or Contributors Unless you’re a typographical genius, a website without pictures looks weird. People like to know who they’re dealing with. That’s especially true if you’re an ecommerce site. Users cannot help but wonder, “Who are these people I’m giving my credit card info to?”. But it’s also true if you’re selling services or want clients to hire you. Potential customers are reassured when they can see who’s at the other end of the website. The Fix Sprinkle some good quality people images around your site, but be careful not to make the images too big as that can look egotistical. A human photo is a useful reassuring presence on support pages and order forms, implying that someone is around if something goes wrong. 6. You Have No ‘About’ Page Not having an ‘about’ page is another blunder that sends the subconscious signal that you’re trying to hide something. The Fix A good ‘about’ page isn’t necessarily a long one. Just a couple of paragraphs will let potential customers know who you are and how you might be able to help them. It’s also a great place to introduce the members of your site or business with a mini bio and photograph. 7. Site Design Glitches Even if you’ve spent a lot of time refining the design, it’s easy to miss something that diminishes the trust you’ve built up through your content. The Fix Check for problems that may be small but can derail the visual flow of your site. The problem could be as simple as a header image that doesn’t quite line up, or a font size that’s too small to be easily read – especially when used in footer links to privacy policies and other legal type pages. Too small a font makes it look like you’re trying to hide something. 8. Too Much Design With A Capital ‘D’ Everyone loves a beautifully-designed site, but when it looks like you’re using design to hide a lack of content, you’re in trouble. The Fix Be honest with yourself. Is your design so big it makes your content look small? If so, scale it back a little bit. No one’s saying make it boring, but users need to be able to easily find the basics like site navigation and the content they came to your site for. 9. Too Many Ads Users accept that websites need advertising to survive, but too many ads make you look like a desperate, begging salesperson. The Fix It may be counter intuitive, but more ads doesn’t always mean more money. Be a bit more sophisticated with your use of ads and you might well find they perform better. One full ad showing above the scroll is not a bad guideline. Hang on, you say, this very website has a lot of ads running in the sidebar. That’s true, but they’re positioned in such a way that they don’t intrude on the content, which is the key thing. 10. Spelling Mistakes and Grammar Mishaps This is one of the quickest ways to lose all credibility – bad writing makes you look like an idiot and no one wants to be involved with one of those. Image Source: A List of Homework to do via Shutterstock The Fix Run everything through a spell checker but then check it manually. No spell checker will tell you when you’ve written there when you meant their. Ask someone you trust to check your content – another pair of eyes will usually find something you’ve missed. If you can’t do that, print the content out on that old-fashioned stuff called paper. Seeing it in a new form often means you’ll see mistakes you’ve become used to skipping over when you’re seen your writing on the screen for the 98th time. 11. The Comments Section Is Empty or Full (Of Spam) What users see in the comments section they will assume is a reflection of the kind of people hanging around your blog. No one wants to hang around a bunch of spammers, and an empty comments section on an established site makes visitors wonder why you’re so unpopular. Image Source: Keyboard with Word Spam via Shutterstock The Fix New blog? Only a very small percentage of readers actually comment, so consider turning off comments until you get a bit of traffic to avoid the ghost town effect. To kill spam, make sure you’ve got Akismet or another anti-spam plugin installed and set up correctly. If you’re getting particularly targeted by spammers, consider automatically closing comments on posts after a certain time. WordPress users can go to Settings > Discussion to do this. 12. Your Popup Overlays Popup Too Much The Problem: You get to a site and are just getting into what looks like some pretty good content when the page dims and up pops a newsletter subscription box. You click it off. No harm done. But then it happens again on the next page. And the next. Many marketers say their conversion rate is sky high with overlays, but once per visiting session is probably enough. Even better, why not set it to appear after a second page view or for returning visitors? They’re both signs of engaged users who are those most likely to sign up. 13. Ban The Brochure Speak Are you, “Facilitating innovative solutions to help clients achieve a new paradigm”? Yes? Then stop. Stop it right now. Even if you’re representing a corporate entity, you’re still a human talking to another one, so you need to write like one. Otherwise you won’t make a connection with the reader, which is vital for gaining trust. The Fix Ask someone else if they understand what you’ve written. Sometimes what’s obvious to you is confusing to someone else. Keep your writing simple and to the point. That won’t make it less business-like but it will be a lot more readable. 14. Your Site Doesn’t Have A Personality We can’t help but prefer to buy things from people we like. Even if you’re not directly selling a product, you’re selling yourself as reliable consultant, freelancer or source of information. If your site doesn’t reflect something of your personality, you’re missing a chance to be likeable. The Fix Don’t be afraid to show a little of your personality in your content. Some types of site will lend themselves more to this than others, but anything you can add to help users feel they are getting to know you will boost the confidence they have in you. A little sprinkle of light humour, if that’s something that suits you and your site, can go a long way.
The college Class of 2012 is still basking in the post-graduation euphoria! Congratulations on everything you’ve achieved, experienced and learned over the past four years.
Now wipe that smile off your face and get a job! Seriously… there’s no time to waste!
If you ever saw the movie “The Graduate,” Dustin Hoffman returns home following graduation and spends several weeks scuba diving in the family pool and getting to know his neighbors a bit better.
Of course, Dustin Hoffman would be at a disadvantage against today’s college graduates. He didn’t have a Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, YouTube channel or even a blog. Using those tools intelligently and effectively can go a long way to landing a desirable position, earning some money and getting out of your parents’ house.
Employers, especially if you are applying for jobs that require creativity, writing, marketing or communications, are going to be checking out your social media presence. We’ve all heard the stories of job applicants who lost out because employers found damning photographs or videos of the candidate drunk, stoned or worse. There are other stories of candidates who have lost out because of racist, sexist, homophobic or extreme political views.
Rather than talk about how you can screw up your job search with social media, I’d much rather discuss how you can enhance your chances of getting a job through the effective use of social media.
If you are a healthy, normal recent college graduate, then your Facebook page will have enough incriminating photographs, videos and other questionable content to raise a series of red flags with most any employer (unless you’re looking for a job at Rolling Stone).
So what do you do?
You have several options here. The safest thing is to clean up you page. But who really wants to do that? The next best thing is to manage your privacy settings to make sure that the only people who can see the damaging content on your page are the people you want to see that content.
Another option is to use a pseudonym on their Facebook page to keep them out of the prying eyes of employers (and relatives).
If you use your real name, then use your Facebook page to demonstrate your creativity, show a sense of humor (careful with this one) and to otherwise present yourself as someone who would be a welcome new member of the type of company you’re looking to hire you. Think of the psychographics of the employers you’d like to work for.
You can demonstrate your interests, talents and passions through your favorite books, movies, and the Facebook pages you follow (“likes”).
LinkedIn is quickly becoming the most valuable social media tool for people looking to get hired. Employers are searching all of the time on LinkedIn, so make sure you are found. Make sure your profile is complete, honest and grammatical.
As you build your resume on LinkedIn remember a few key things:
- Make sure it lines up exactly with your “official” resume. That means GPA, honors, dates of prior internships and job.
- Make sure it contains the keywords that employers in your desired field(s) of employment would be looking for. Think of LinkedIn as a hiring search engine and make your profile SEO friendly.
- Try to build as big a network as you can. You never know who is going to see your profile. Don’t be shy about inviting family friends, professors and others who might be of help in your job search.
Employers (like other human beings) are drawn to people who are social, influential, interesting and helpful. Use your Twitter account to show employers that you have built a social network, that you are creative and that you are passionate about things that would be of interest to an employer. Don’t use your Tweets to discuss breakfast, digestive issues or people who piss you off. Use your Tweets to show off your intellect, your wit, your charm. Provide links to articles, videos and other items that demonstrate your interests.
YouTube
This is a grossly underutilized and extremely effective use of social media in getting hired. Make a video or videos that show you in your best possible light. Think of it as an audition tape and the cast you are hoping to join is your potential employer’s. Much more than a resume, a video can give a potential employer a clear picture of what it would be like to have you as an employee. Are you confident? Charismatic? Eloquent? Personable?
All of these can come to light in a video! Once you’ve produced the video, and you’re happy with it, by all means attach it to any job application.
Go For It!
Your generation grew up with social media. You’ve used it to make friends, seek relationships, and to share the good times. Now that you’ve graduated, it’s time to put your social media skills to work for you. As a graduation present to yourself, use social media to land a job!
I’ll admit I’ve been one of those people. You know, the ones who are a bit disoriented when they are away from the cellphone. You have to give me a break. Analytics requires internet access, so I have heard, and a multi-feature smartphone with hotspot capability has become the “Ernie” to my Macbook Pro’s “Bert.” But as ‘bring your own device’ has spread and more professionals are looking to accomplish tasks while on the go, the methods organizations have learned to manage an always-on work environment, if not society, have been called into question. Rieva Lesonsky’s post on flextime is an example of how valuable work-life balance research has grown. Extending the charge for new life balance is the new book Sleeping With Your Smartphone: How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change The Way You Work by Leslie A. Perlow. When I read my publisher copy, I could not help but realize how essential we need a rethink in professional availability. This brief book speaks to large business, but also works for small business networks that are emulating big business processes more by the day. Break the Cycle of Responsiveness Sleeping With The Smartphone opens with its first chapters examining Perlow’s experiment with Boston Consulting Group, a high demand advisory firm that serves global firms. The experiment was to have a few teams try Predictable Time Off (PTO), a specific schedule away from the regular team tasks. PTO “won’t solve all your problems.” Instead it “unlocks a more persuasive opening about work related and work life issues.” That openness, according to Perlow, can lead to better planning and discussions because issues surface that would otherwise be ignored. PTO at first glance may not sound like breakthrough thinking. But the fact of the matter is that we can be so focused on managing “always on” devices and processes that basic “what-are-we-doing” conversations are overlooked. Perlow calls this focus “the cycle of responsiveness” – altering one’s time to meet the increased demand on their time. And I can say I am seeing this as much of a challenge for small business as it can be for the consulting profession Perlow examines. As the first half of the book covers the experience Boston Consulting Group, you will get to draw some of yourself from the experience. So what were the results of the experiment? Perlow noted a comparison of teams, ones that embraced PTO and others that ignored it. In that comparison, several notable differences in attitude towards work and working together resulted – attitudes which, in real-life, would lead to teams better suited to address problems and solve them: 80 percent of those teams that embrace PTO report doing everything they can to be effective, compared with 42 percent of teams that dismiss PTO. BCG individuals engaged in PTO were more likely to see themselves at the firm a long time and were more likely to perceive that they were providing significant value to their clients. The results also imply a thought shift – teams felt more confident to take more beneficial risks. Thus, people are better able to consider more strategic ways that ultimately influenced how a business is run: “…as it becomes evident that the work could still get done as well, and often better, people’s willingness to take risks with regard to issues they raised and attempted to address – both work and personal – further increased…leading to an evolution in what was “acceptable” to say and do.” Workaholics or Successaholics? That the question the second half makes a team answer, through its explanation and how-to implementation. For fostering communication, I felt the steps Perlow offers are as valuable for small business teams as well as corporate teams. Again there is no earth-shattering new concept – how to manage a team’s time – but the book provides a good arrangement of “what to do” in your team or organization. The takeaways and implementation steps are useful: How a team can form goals to support a common PTO schedule. Pulse Check, a set of questions aimed at the team, is meant to push analytical people to go outside their comfort zone to describe how they feel. Tips for effective facilitation of PTO are meant “when people most find it is hardest to make time for it.” Avoid dilution of goals, ensuring that the team “buys into the system.” All these chapters are linked with the author’s emphasis on a slow process in infusion, requiring champions to develop the right level of expectations for improving productivity. It reflects a wisdom of building trust which technological usage can make us forget easily. Sleeping With Your Smartphone may not solve every challenge you face, but it will enlighten any team trying to sync among themselves while questioning the worthwhile of on-demand accessibility. To note Perlow’s coined successaholic question – Is on-demend accessibility really worthwhile or just a badge of honor? It’s up to you to decide. And you may still be one of “those” people – if so, welcome to the club, brother! But after reading this you’ll be more aware of your teammates conferenced on the smartphone who feel they can deliver your deliverable and still have a life.
Online employment is skyrocketing across the globe, according to a recent study byElance, an international platform for online employment. Even the most skeptical would be hard-pressed not to notice the change in the numbers from the first quarter of 2012 to the same time last year.
The Elance Global Online Employment Report for Q1 2012 shows lots of upward pointing graphs. From jobs posted to contractor earnings, the numbers go up and up and up. In fact, both earnings and jobs posted have more than doubled in the past two years.
Elance also tracked the top skills in demand for the following three categories: Creative, Marketing, and IT. Here are the changes from Q1 of 2011:
Creative: +32%
- Web Design +101%
- Photoshop +71%
- Graphic Design +70%
- Video Production +68%
- Content Writing +56%
Marketing: +22%
- SEM +65%
- Internet Marketing +49%
- Social Media Marketing +41%
- Marketing Strategy +41%
- Lead Generation +39%
IT: +14%
- Android +35%
- PHP +33%
- JavaScript +31%
- HTML +29%
- CSS +29%
Some of the trends they found include:
Online Employment Secular Trend
During the recession, companies turned to freelance labor to control costs and manage uncertainty. Now, as the economy rebounds, demand has continued, driven by small business hiring, talent opting to work online and a fundamental shift in enterprise mentality towards utilizing online workers in workforce strategy.
Video, Audio Consumption on the Rise
Forty-two percent of jobs posted in Q1 2012 were in our creative category. In particular, skills such as video production (+68%), editing (+56%), audio editing (+52%) and voiceover (+48%) experienced significant growth.
Large Business Move Hiring Online
Current expectations are that more than half of the US workforce will be independent by 2020. Enterprises already use temp workers, but now we see innovative companies engaging online workers to further reduce cost, gain agility and even improve quality and outcome.
This is all great news for freelancers! And even better news if you live in the following countries:
Top 10 Hiring Countries
- US
- Australia
- UK
- Canada
- Netherlands
- Germany
- Singapore
- Israel
- United Arab Emirates
- Hong Kong
Top 10 Earnings Countries for Contractors
- India
- US
- Pakistan
- Ukraine
- UK
- Russia
- Canada
- Romania
- China
- Philippines
But what is making this trend so, shall we say, trendy?
Recessions
Recessions are happening all over the world—so there doesn’t really seem to be any really great place to work. You might live in a depressed part of the world or even a third-world country, but with an Internet connection, you can work for clients anywhere. Here’s a good example: Greece and Spain, who have been hit hard by recent recessions, have had a spike in earnings for freelancers at 122% for Greece and 142% for Spain in the past year. You might not be able to find a job in your neighborhood, but when you expand your neighborhood to clients worldwide, your personal economy can shift in a big way.
There is really no need to struggle with shortage of talent in your local economy when you can easily work with anyone around the world. The talent of course differs between different organizations and individuals, but then again – so does the compensation for the work. —ArticStartup.com
Saving Money
The cost benefits of hiring virtually (which includes lower overhead, as there’s no office to finance, and because employers can pay per project rather than for a full-time employee’s salary) are getting the attention of more companies in an effort to make smarter operating decisions. —USNews.com
Having someone on staff full time costs a business a lot of money. Many employees get vacations and sick time paid for, have some sort of health plan and retirement options (depending on what country you live in), and take up space in an office. Think about how a businesses rent or lease would change if they had 125 employees who worked from home rather than in a big office in the middle of a city!
Finding the Right Worker
Overseas employers are finding valuable American talent for needs like writing and admin support. Need a translator? Those can be found online as well. —BusinessInsider.com
Newspapers and magazines with a meager budget have an easier time covering worldwide topics by hiring freelancers based in other countries rather than paying to have their own staffers travel abroad.
And there might not be any great local talent, depending on the location. If a business in Podunk, North Dakota needs a website designed and there aren’t any businesses or individuals around to help them, do they just not create a website? Of course not! They find someone to work remotely.
Finding the Right Job
In nations that don’t make it easy for people to create their own jobs by launching a traditional startup, it looks like one way to work around the system quickly is by freelancing for overseas clients. —Forbes.com
Your talents might not match any local jobs. Unfortunately, we don’t always get to choose where we work. I moved from New York City to my hometown in Maine to help take care of my sick grandmother in 2007. I had a hard time finding full time work that matched my master’s degree in journalism, so I started freelancing. It was a way for me to be where I needed (and wanted to be) while still working on my career.
Recently, Adobe released the Creative Cloud, a subscription service that will allow you to use all of Adobe’s Creative Suite applications, and more, for just $49.99 per month. The Creative Cloud is a radical deviation from Adobe’s traditional pricing structure, and a model that many think will completely change the industry. In this article we will take a look at the pricing model for the Creative Cloud to help you decide if it’s the right decision for you.
Back in 2011, before we had ever heard of the Creative Cloud, we asked our readers in an article, if they thought that Photoshop was too expensive. As you can imagine, this article inspired a passionate debate about Adobe’s pricing structure and whether or not it was fair to consumers. Back then, a lot of our readers felt that Adobe products were just too expensive, and as a result, they simply could not afford to purchase Adobe’s products.
The Creative Cloud, however, significantly reduces this barrier. Users no longer have to pay for a full license up front. They can now subscribe to individual applications like Photoshop for just $19.99 per month or purchase a subscription to the full creative cloud, which includes all of Adobe’s Creative Suite apps, and more, for just $49.99 per month. This means users can now choose the option that works best for them. They can pay for a license up front, or choose to spread out the payments over time.
This brings up an important question; which plan makes the best sense? Before we answer that question however, it’s important to first talk a bit about Adobe’s traditional pricing structure. A traditional license toPhotoshop CS6 is $699. Photoshop CS6 Extended costs $999. If you needed more than one Adobe application, suites start at $1,299. This is a lot of money for the average hobbyist, or to some one just getting started in the industry; and as we said earlier, many users simply can’t afford it.
Adobe clearly needed more options for it’s consumers but how could they offer their high quality products to their users, at a reduced price, and still manage to run a profit? Well, that’s where the Creative Cloud comes in. Users can now get individual access to their products for just $19.99 per month or access to the entire Creative Cloud for just $49.99 per month. This makes Adobe products much more appealing to users who simply can’t afford the initial investment of a traditional license.
With that said, many of our readers have asked us which model makes the most sense over time. $49.99 per month sounds like a fantastic bargain but how do the numbers work out 2, 5, or 10 years from now? Well, let’s take a look.
In the charts below, we looked at a potential user’s total investment in Adobe products over time. In the first chart, we compared a traditional Photoshop CS6 license to an individual subscription to Photoshop CS6 through the cloud, over a 9-year period. We took into account the cost of an upgrade at 2-year intervals. As you can see, users who subscribe to the cloud have an advantage over traditional license holders for about 4 years. After that time, it becomes more economical to have purchased a traditional license.
So what does this mean in real numbers? It means that at the end of a 9-year period, a person subscribing to an individual subscription to Photoshop will have paid $700 more than a person who purchased an individual license and then upgraded every 2 years.
What about users who subscribed to the full Creative Cloud at $49.99 per month? The chart below compares the full Creative Cloud to Adobe’s family of Creative Suites. We looked at CS Design standard that costs $1,299 to buy and $549 to upgrade. CS Design and Web Premium which costs $1,899 to buy and $749 to upgrade, and the Master Collection which costs $2,599 to buy and $1049 to upgrade. Like our previous chart, we took into consideration an upgrade every 2 years.
Editor’s note: these numbers are based on the upgrade from CS5 to CS6.
What we found was that Creative Cloud is a far better deal that puchasing a license for the Master Collection. As you can see, at no point during the 7-year period that we reviewed would a Creative Cloud subscriber end up paying out more money than a traditional license holder.
On the other hand, Creative Cloud customers do eventually end up paying out more money than traditional CS Design Standard and CS Design and Web Premium Customers. How much time does it take? That depends on the suite that you’re comparing it to. It will take about 3 years for a Creative Cloud customer to pay more money than a CS Design Standard customer, 5-7 years for a Creative Cloud customer to surpass a CS Design and Web Premium customer.
So what does this mean in real numbers? It means that after 7.5 years, a Creative Cloud customer will have spent $1,603 more than a CS Design Standard Customer, and $403 more than CS Design and Web Premium customers. A traditional license is usually a better deal, unless you need everything included in the Master Collection.
Now that we know how the numbers work out, it’s time to make a decision. Is the Creative Cloud a good deal, or not? Well, that really depends on your perspective. How do you use Adobe’s products? Which products do you need? Are you a professional designer, a student, or a hobbyist? Is this a long or short-term investment? These are all questions that you will need to answer before you make your decision.
If you can’t afford a traditional license to Adobe’s products, then you don’t really have a choice. At $49.99, the cloud is a bargain, and your only option. You’ll be able to use their products for a low monthly fee without having to invest a lot of money up front.
If you are a student, the Creative Cloud is a fantastic deal. You can get a student discount for just $29.99 per month and get access to all of Adobe’s Creative suite products at a fraction of the cost of a traditional license. You’ll be able to evaluate the software, and decide if design is the industry you want to be in, without having to make a huge initial investment in software.
If you’re trying to learn the software but you’re not enrolled in school, the Creative Cloud is also a smart option. You’ll be able to download the software, learn how to use it, and then decide if the software is for you.
If you’re a hobbyist, it really depends on what your hobby is. If you’re a photographer who just needs Photoshop, it might be in your best interest to buy a traditional license as opposed to subscribing to an individual subscription or to getting a subscription to the entire cloud. You might also want to consider how serious you are about the hobby. Will you only be needing Photoshop for a few months, or for several years? If you only need a handful of applications, and don’t need access to everything in the Master Collection, then it might be best to purchase a license to CS Design Standard or CS Design and Web Premium. It really depends on your needs. You’ll have to decide for yourself which is the best option.
If you’re a professional designer, it depends on your needs. If you only need Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator then it might be a better idea to purchase a license for CS Design Standard. If you need a few more apps or want Photoshop Extended, then maybe a traditional license to Design and Web Premium is the way to go. If you need all of Adobe apps, then it seems that the Creative Cloud is the best choice.
If you’re a design firm, again, it depends on your needs and depends on what type of design that your firm does. Do you need access to all of Adobe’s products? If so, the cloud seems to be the way to go.
Conclusion
We understand that all of our readers are different and you are all looking at the Creative Cloud from a different perspective. For some of you, the Creative Cloud is a fantastic opportunity to explore everything that Adobe has to offer its users. For others, the Creative Cloud might not be a very good fit.
That’s what we love about the Creative Cloud. Adobe has realized that their users use their products in different ways, and therefore, have different needs. From our perspective, the Creative Cloud is really about adding more choices. You can choose to buy a traditional license for a large up front sum of money, or you can purchase a subscription to the full Creative Cloud for just $49.99 per month and spread out the payments over time.
Does the Creative Cloud cost more in the long term? That depends on what license you’re comparing it to. For several of the licenses, it does, for the Master Collection it does not.
So what’s the verdict? Is the Creative Cloud a good or a bad thing? Are the pricing options fair or not? In our opinion, the cloud is a fantastic new option. The design community has complained about the high cost of Adobe products for a long time. The Creative Cloud addresses those concerns in a way that is fair to both Adobe and its users. Ultimately, the Creative Cloud gives us more options, it will allow more users to earn a living off Adobe products, it will slow piracy, and hopefully make Adobe a more profitable company. It’s a win/win/win.
With that said, we would love to hear your thoughts. Do you like the new pricing model? Is the cloud the best fit for you? We would love to hear your perspective.
Editor’s note: when we originally published this article, we based our calculations off a potential upgrade from CS5.5. This produced some slightly incorrect conclusions. Since then, we updated our numbers to instead include an upgrade from CS5. This should more accurately reflect a typical user upgrade over a 2-year period.
