We have a new layout up at Digital Skratch. It uses the same color scheme and content and similar design elements as the previous layout. Though this one is more web 2.0 looking and not really “framed in” I’m pleased with how it came out and looks cleaner and more user friendly. We also went with a similar design to our sister company Thats My Ad. To have some type of co-branding between the two.

Back in March we made a post called “Google is getting fast” which I talked about how fast pages are changing positions. I decided to check it again to see if it was still the case.

Last week I searched for “clean web design” and Digital Skratch came up in posistion #54. After deciding to optimize for that term I checked the results every few days. At first we dropped to position 72, and then regained to spots 54 and 53. I checked it today and found our site listed at the bottom of page 1 in the #10 spot!

Again this is proof that proper SEO and ongoing website maintenance should be at the top of your list if your website or online marketing is important to your business.

I recently answered a post on Linkedin on simplicity in design and if simple has gotten “too simple“. I think simplicity is good. Why would you want to complicate matters and cause confusion when it could be simple.

In the world of design I think the web 2.0 phenomenon has brought simple design to the forefront where we see it every day. Simplicity is great for usability, as the design gets out of the way of the content so the user can focus on the job at hand.

With that said there is a fine line with good simple design and design that doesn’t put much on the page. One must find a balance between simplicity, getting the message across and not looking too barren. I have seen many 2.0 style sites with hardly anything on the page and they look so amateur. Then I have seen other sites with relatively the same amount of “stuff” on the page and they look amazing. It takes a professional designer who can add those subtle things to achieve clean web design.

I think simplicity goes beyond design and should be a way to live life -Less is more.

If you have a Mac and want to keep your calendar organized and synced up with co-workers and friends it’s simple with iCal, Spanning Sync and Google.

First use iCal as your main scheduling program. Create different calendars for your needs – Work, Business etc. and select the colors of our choice to represent each calendar.

Next log in to your Google account, click on “Calendars“. On the left side of the page you will see a monthly calendar and beneath that you will see what current calendars you have. Click on “Add” > “Create New Calendar“. Name your calendar the same name as one of your iCal names (for example – Personal). You will see other settings such as time-zone and sharing options. Click “Create Calendar“. The new calendar you just created will show up on the left side of the page, to make things easy to manage click the down arrow and change the color to the same as your iCal.

Now you will need a piece of software called Spanning Sync to “sync” between iCal and Google. Spanning Sync costs $25 for 1 year or $65 for a life time copy. Once the program is installed the icon will appear in the Menu Bar. Simply click on it and select “Open Spanning Sync Preferences” (you can also access this via system preferences).

1 – Enter your Google username and password.

4 – Press “Sync Now” and your schedule is now on your iCal and on Google!

If you wish to share your calender you can do it one of two ways through Google or through iCal.

Google – If the people you want to share it with use Google Calendar click on “Settings” > “Calendars” and then select “Share this calendar“. You will then enter the persons Google mail, select which settings you want them to see and then click “Add Person” then “Save”

iCal – If the people you want to share your calendar with use iCal all they have to do is subscribe to your calendar. In Google Calendar click on “Settings” > “Calendar” and then click the name of the calendar you want to share.

Scroll to the bottom of the page where it says “Private Address“. Click on “ICAL” and a pop up will display a link, copy this link and give it to those who wish to subscribe to your calendar. To subscribe in iCal click on “Calendar” > “Subscribe” and paste in the link. Edit the name and color and any other settings.

Now you can add an entry to you iCal, and Spanning Sync will automatically sync it with Google Calendar so you can access it anytime or share it with friends and co-workers. Also download the Google Notifier for your Menu Bar to stay up with current emails and events.

We did a complete re-design for That’s My Ad a web marketing company that specializes in Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization and Web Analytics. The site features a rich Web 2.0 look to it, with a super clean and simple interface.

We have been working hard on our web site doing lots of minor updates here and there and revamping the look and content over the past few months. We will no longer be posting project updates on the homepage but rather use this blog for that. We also hope to be updating the blog on a more regular basis.

With that said we are wrapping up a website for a law firm, starting a web site for a home protection / hurricane company, and continuing work for JK Harris in the form of newspaper ads. We are also putting the finishing touches on new web sites for Media Placement Group and That’s My Ad.

The days of just getting online only through a computer are gone. There are more and more ways people can access the internet through other devices such as phones, pda’s, and gaming systems.

I recently purchased a Nintendo Wii and Apple iPhone (I love both) and have browsed the net with both devices. I wanted to check out some design and usability differences to see if there were any major problems while accessing the internet on them.

Good clean design, css and proper usability comes into play even more on devices such as these as they may not have all the plug ins such as flash or the screen resolution may be limited.

I started with my site for example – www.digitalskratch.com

I recently added the ability to increase and decrease font size right from my website. This will provide better usability and allow users greater control over their viewing experience. On the iPhone for instance it maybe harder to read some of the smaller type, but with these controls it’s not a problem at all. It is easy to increase the font size to make it easier to read.

The next hurdle I had to overcome was the one of flash not working on both platforms. On my website I have 3 flash boxes. So I added a backup graphic that displays incase flash does not play. Again this will provide the user with almost the same experience as on a computer.

With proper programming and design your website should look nearly the same on multiple platforms, operating systems and browsers. More people will start to access the internet through devices such as these and designers / programmers need to be aware of them to provide users with a seamless experience.

Time Magazine just came out with their 50 Best Websites of 2007, broken down into 5 sections – Arts & Leisure, Audio & Video, News & Information, Social Networks, and Web Services. It seemed that the “theme” of most sites had a social media aspect. There are some really cool sites in there and worth checking out all of them. My personal favorite is Mozy, an online hard drive that is easy to sync on Mac and PC.

As a designer it is important to have lots of tools at your disposal – stock photos, fonts, brushes, backgrounds, vector sets etc. Over time it’s easy to start to accumulate extra files you don’t really need and use. So I think it’s important once in awhile to go through your design tools and clean out files that you never use. You will save time in the long run as Photoshop and other programs will load faster and you will spend less time having to search through a million brushes, fonts and photos.

If you want to delete old brushes out of Photoshop I learned a cool trick. First open up the brushes window where you select the different brushes. You can right click, delete brush and then have to select ok, or on the Mac you can hit the alt / option key and then the cursor turns into a pair of scissors, and then simply click on the brush you want to delete and it’s gone. It saves a few seconds, but if you had to clean out 100’s of old or duplicate brushes it will save time. Once you have them cleaned out remember to save and back up your clean brush set. Click on the sideways arrow on the brushes screen and then select “Save Brushes…”

Fox Marks is a great plug-in for Fire Fox to help manage your favorites. Once you sync your favorites you can then access them online, or if the plug-in is installed you can sync it again and load them on a second computer.

Just remember to back up your files on a regular basis, and go through once in awhile and clean up and delete old files you never use.

I came across this website the other day and found it amusing. It uses something called the “Way Back Machine” to take a look at some major corporate websites back in 1996. It’s amazing to see how far design and usability has come in 11 years. Design conventions were not widely used in the early days of the web and usability was a topic given little thought.

Though design styles may change usability will always be the most important feature of the website. Usability should be the biggest factor when planning and designing your website. You may have the best products or services, you may rank #1 on lots of search terms but if people can’t easily use your site and find the information they are looking for in a short time it does you no good.

Take a look at those websites and learn from the past – to not make some of the same mistakes they did with bad design and usability.