August Interactive Blog

Modular Buildings are Where It’s at in 2012!

Anna Martin — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 02:53:42 +0000

Can you believe that modular buildings can be synonymous with anything but construction trailers? It’s true! Not only can building modular be faster and more cost effective – it can actually be better quality! I love it! I’m actually writing this blog to point out to a very dear customer – not saying any names – that Google will pick up and index anything that you write and publish. Especially if the key words you’ve set your “modular buildings” Google alert to, are being used. But what else do you need? What constitutes good search engine optimization? (That was my plug for the keyword phrase “search engine optimization” by the way.) Publishing relevant material is certainly number one. But what else do you need to do to make sure that the keywords “modular buildings” return results for customer keyword searches on search engines, not just your Google alerts email?

Holiday Icon Set Featured on Smashing Magazine

Anna Martin — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 04:12:10 +0000

August Interactive partner Tomas Gajar’s design work was featured this week on Smashing Magazine. Tomas designed a 91-piece vector web icon set for our end of year holiday ‘freebie’ for friends and colleagues. The set featured many of our favorite icons – all scalable, editable and free for personal or commercial use.

Read Now

What is an RSS Feed?

Anna Martin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:54:57 +0000

You see it all the time—that little orange square on websites that says “RSS.” So what is it? RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and represents a group of web feed formats that are used to publish online work that is frequently updated. Most commonly you may see this in reference to blogs or websites, but it can also be used with news articles or even audio and video links.

By subscribing to an RSS feed from a blogger or website that you like, you will automatically receive information from that blog (or website) whenever the information is updated. An RSS reader in your browser or on your mobile device can be used to get all your daily updates without having to visit individual favorite sites on a daily basis.

Search Engine Optimization and Site Optimization

Anna Martin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 22:35:54 +0000

When we first sit down with a client to discuss search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising, and social media strategy, the first thing we try to explain is the difference between SEO and website optimization. For us, website optimization is the first and most important step in creating a strong foundation for our keyword specific SEO strategies.

Website optimization is part of a good SEO strategy. Content is King, but without a good throne to rule from, your efforts may be wasted.

The purpose of SEO is to help improve the visibility in search engine results. The more highly ranked a website is, the more visitors the website or web page will welcome from search engines. So it stands to reason that we should start our SEO efforts by making the website as attractive and accessible to search engines as possible.

Here is what we look for:

Redirects
Missing Title Tags
Long Title Tags
Multiple Title Tags
Reachability
Anchor Text
Broken Links
Duplicate Copy and Content
Duplicate Page Descriptions
Duplicate Meta Descriptions
Duplicate Page Titles
Server Errors
Robots.txt
On-site Links
Incoming Links
Too Many Links
Hostname
Word Count
Image Descriptions
and Validity of HTML/CSS

To PHP or Not to PHP, That is the Question.

Anna Martin — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:20:43 +0000

In order for a website to use includes, you must use php calls. Basically, the site is still an html website, with the exception that the html is created dynamically by parsing the php includes. If you view the source code for each page sent to your browser, you will not find the php script, only the html. In order for the php in each page to be parsed, the file extension needs to be .php. You could write a mod to hide the .php extension, but I’m not sure if that is ever really necessary.

Support and Maintenance for Websites and Content Management Systems

Anna Martin — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:54:15 +0000

Websites are interactive media whose purpose is to allow a user to quickly access and interact with information on the web – and here’s the key point – from anywhere an Internet connection can be made.

Most website users are unaware that that the friendly graphics-based interface with which they interact is really a complex and harmonious compilation of thousands of lines of HTML and programming code.
Because of the complexity inherent in even the simplest website, there are innumerable opportunities for glitches and imperfections. When you consider that fact along with the reality that a site’s code is deployed in a quasi-controlled environment and accessed across a multitude of platform/ browser configurations, then it’s illogical to think that a site is “done” just because it’s been launched.

Any website – whether basic or complex — needs at least some level of maintenance. This could include:
- redundancy and back-up/restorations planning
- server and software monitoring and upgrades
- cross-browser compatibility monitoring and upgrades
- performance monitoring
- content monitoring and updates
The size, complexity, relative importance, and business value of the website will determine for each website owner what maintenance and support plan is necessary and with what level of cost/benefit relationship he or she is comfortable.

Why are support and maintenance plans needed?
Most clients will always want ongoing changes, enhancements and modifications to their website. This is inevitable – not for lack of due diligence on behalf of the client or the agency, but rather the need comes about as clients grow in understanding the capabilities of web technologies and the real-time use of a system.

We expect that websites and web-based applications will have technical issues from time to time that may require remedy from technical staff. Therefore, it’s prudent and realistic to expect you’ll need to purchase occasional ongoing support, training, maintenance, back-ups, upgrades, software updates, or site enhancements. For this reason, we ask you to sign a support and maintenance agreement to establish an ongoing relationship between you and us for this sort of ongoing work.

What is “support and maintenance” ?
In the context of your website, “support and maintenance” embraces any activity, communication, and interaction by and between you and the Agency that is necessary to maintain a live website or web-based application and support your administrative users. “Support” includes (but isn’t limited to) phone calls, email communications, research, and any efforts by the Agency to meet the your ongoing needs. Finally, “support” applies to requests you make that pertain to overall health and stability of your website or web-based application.

Why is support needed?
For basic websites – static HTML websites – support will most often mean assistance in changing copy and images on the site. This basic need for content maintenance and updates is driven by the site administrator. However, if a website owner is not skilled in HTML and CSS (that is, hypertext mark-up language and cascading style sheets), then support from an HTML professional will be needed for any updates or modifications.

For dynamic and transactional websites, support will most often mean assistance with using the back-end administrative console. While these interfaces are generally easy to use, they do have some intricacies that can be challenging even for experiences users. Furthermore, each site is often configured very specifically for the business and administrative needs of its owner. Therefore, It can be difficult to use generic instructions for administering the site; instead, custom instructions or tutorials are necessary for best use. Finally, a dynamic or transactional site typically has much more traffic and usage than a basic site – and that means a much higher likelihood that issues or encumbrances may arise.

General scope of support and maintenance services

Consulting and administrative support
We are available to respond to your requests for:
1. General information, training, and support as it directly relates to the administrative management of a website or web-based application we develop for you.
2. General information, training and support as it relates to hosting and server configuration, access, and settings for a website or web-based application we develop for you.
3. Technical consulting as it directly relates to the administrative management or enhancement of a website or web-based application we develop for you.
4. Third-party liaison as it directly relates to the administrative management of a website or web-based application we develop for you.
In general, the precise guaranteed response time depends on the particular package you purchase.

Emergency support
“Emergency support” is our availability to respond to emergency website or web-based application problems that may arise occasionally and cause usability, display, or accessibility issues for public and/or authenticated users. Examples of such emergencies include: a site’s being “down”; broken navigational links; database errors; or foreign or malicious content insertions. Emergency problems can also be issues or unexpected and unwanted changes in the site’s accessibility or health that would cause extreme damage to the ongoing business functions and/or the reputation or perception of your organization by the public and/or your customers.

General support
“General support” is our availability to respond to general website or web-based application problems, issues, “bugs,” or abnormalities that may arise occasionally and cause usability, display, or accessibility issues for public and/or authenticated users. Examples include: broken links within the main content of the site; image distortions or display issues; content format issues; user-created errors; or browser compatibility issues. General problems might be issues or unexpected and unwanted changes in the site’s accessibility or health that may cause limited, minimal, or no damage to your ongoing business functions and/or your reputation.

General support also covers our availability to add, remove, or otherwise modify content on your site or web-based application, including adding/replacing images, copy, files, or links; modifying navigational elements, CSS elements, or URLs; and adding/editing metadata.

For more information on support and maintenance services from August Interactive please contact us at info@augustinteractive.com.

Intuitive to Whom?

Anna Martin — Thu, 12 May 2011 14:49:47 +0000

A colleague of mine asked me recently to give him my thoughts on intuitive user interface design. What he got was an earful. Intuitive to whom?

The entire culture of information exchange was irrevocably changed with the invention of the internet. We are now a population of information consumers with a voracious appetite for instant communication gratification. As the expectation of expediency continues to increase exponentially (E3) with each generation, we are more and more aware as website users of how quickly we can find and access what we want. We express our pleasure of course by lingering on internet realty that delivers; and conversely cast our votes of displeasure by immediately leaving a website that doesn’t deliver within the first few seconds. And don’t think no one’s watching. With millions of these votes being cast every second, it’s no wonder user interface developers are infatuated with terms like ‘user intuition’.

If an interface is not intuitive, who would use it? Would you reach for a doorknob placed near the floorboard; or expect the red tube on the table to contain applesauce? Didn’t think so. But what’s intuitive depends largely on what you’re used to. Seriously, talk to a Masai nomad about a doorknob – or ketchup for that matter – and see what you get. And good luck explaining applesauce. (Cinnamon anyone?) Clearly intuition is dependent on what comes NATURALLY to a user – no matter what the user is using. So why would the web be any different? It’s not. Virtual though it may be, it’s still an environment that a PERSON needs to feel comfortable in in order to enjoy.

Bottom line is this…if you wouldn’t invite your 6 year old niece or your 80 year old grandmother to a rage (did I just date myself?) then don’t expect that every website will appeal to every user. Know your audience, understand what makes them comfortable; and most importantly try to define what ‘intuitive’ means specifically in regards to sorting, finding, moving, viewing, reading and generally experienc”ing” anything in their generation. When all else fails…put the logo on the left, give ‘em some tabs and make sure you include an RSS feed.