iKreator Freelance Designer

My review of Five Second Test

Neal Chester — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:57:08 +0000

I was testing a new logo out and I wanted to get people’s first impressions and also what they thought the company represented, so I ran it through Five Second Test. Five Second Test helps you fine tune your landing pages and calls to action by analyzing the most prominent elements of your design only giving the user 5 seconds to review it.

Even though they have paid packages, by reviewing other peoples projects I could build up points that would allow me to get feedback results for free. The more points I have, the more responses I can receive. Here in lies the problem with this service.

Quality reviews

While the site says up front that they cannot guarantee the quality of the reviews, I can see how some web or graphic designers would take advantage of the free feedback by carelessly reviewing others just to rack up points so someone can review their concepts for free.

Nevertheless, I still feel it’s a decent service that I will use again, but I don’t think I’m comfortable paying for it just yet. I think if they had targeted audiences I could select from (like other user testing services) and paid reviewers, I would probably be more readily to pay for this service, but the site speaks of no such thing.

I also had to take into account that there will be some mean people who trash your designs and not give you constructive criticism. So this is to be expected when having the public review your work.

Designers reviewing designers

For all I know, all the reviews could just be other designers like myself reviewing each others work to get free reviews of their own work (this sounds a lot like Concept Feedback which is an excellent site for it’s market).

The problem with other designers reviewing other designers’ work is that we think different than our targeted audiences. We need feedback from people who don’t have a designer’s eye. While their reviews are helpful, this may not be the best solution, but it’s worth using.

The Tests

I found it fun to review other people’s work and I’d happily do it again. I did about 16 tests each giving my honest opinion and response to the reviewers questions. I participated in the Five Second Test, the Click Test and the Nav Flow Test.

I feel like you need a little more time than 5 seconds to review a concept, because most people spend more time on a site before they click away. And because of the window size you review the test in, you have to scroll up and down to see what you’re looking at, this takes time away from actually reviewing the concept and before you know it, it’s gone. So I think 10 seconds would be best — but I get the idea of the 5 second test.

Overall, a decent service.

Custom Scrollbar for Chrome Browsers

Neal Chester — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:15:31 +0000

Internet Explorer allows you to customize the scroll bars and Chrome allows you to do the same. Firefox doesn’t have this option yet. My wish is that there was a standard property for all the browsers because scroll bars are apart of web design and we should have control over it.

::-webkit-scrollbar { width: 14px; }
/* Track & scroll thickness */

::-webkit-scrollbar-track { background-color:#ddd; }
/* Track color */

::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb { background-color: #333;}
/* Scroll color */

::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb:hover { background-color: #000 }
/* Scroll hover color */

::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb:active { background-color: #000 }
/* Scroll click & drag color */

Special Characters in HTML

Neal Chester — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:40:32 +0000

Sometimes I use special characters as an alternative to images; many of these characters I never knew existed. When I surfed the Web, I always ran into 3 problems with character listings:

They contained tons of characters I didn’t use
There was no one list that brought together all the characters I needed
The fonts were too small and the page was difficult to use

So I made my own listing page containing the best HTML characters I felt would be useful to everyone, especially web developers. I grouped them into sections and included the HTML, JS and CSS number codes for your convenience. Enjoy. Special Characters

Where to start learning Web Design

Neal Chester — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 02:52:52 +0000

A connection on Linked In contacted me and asked me a question:

… My question is: there is so much I want to learn as far as web design. I don’t know where to start first: jquery, CSS, flash, HTML, search engine optimization, etc. What would you suggest? And what sites would you suggest for learning?

I responded to her and I thought I’d post my response here for anyone else:

Start with basic HTML:

Here are some sites that will teach you:

W3Schools.com i
SitePoint.com
HTML5doctor.com
HTMLGoodies.com
Lynda.com (free and paid services)

Then move on to CSS:

The sites above teach CSS as well.

And then move to jQuery/Javascript

Lynda.com has a paid service with video tutorials for about $30 a month, no commitments. jQuery should be the last thing you get into after you have a firm understanding of HTML and CSS. Lynda.com also teaches all the other languages as well.

About SEO

Getting ranked high in search engines has to do with the quality of content, proper use of meta tags, how many reciprical links you have, and how well structured your HTML is (which is what you’ll be taught from the above sites). I’m not a SEO expert, but I’ve learned a few tricks over the years from various articles via Google Search.

Flash is for animation and applications

Web developers have moved away from Flash because it doesn’t rank to well as do organic native HTML websites in search engines. HTML, CSS and JavaScript are the primary languages a website should be coded in. When you use flash, I recommend a program called SwishMax which allows you to create animation easier than Flash and it’s much cheaper. Flash isn’t bad it’s just better to code entire sites using native languages I mentioned above.

Web Development Tools

I also forgot to mention one tool all web developers use and that is called Web Inspection. Inspection allows you to see the code behind any given element on a live web page. These tools are very helpful especially when determining errors.

If you’re using Firefox, there’s a plugin called FireBug that will allow you to inspect. Or if you use Google Chrome, it’s already built in. To use the inspector, right-click on any element, choose Inspect and a window will appear displaying the code behind the element.

Other web development software include Dreamweaver and NotePad++.

7 Rules for finding web work on Craig’s List

Neal Chester — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 20:28:52 +0000

I used Craig’s List to find some of my web work. I’ve found that only 30% of Craig listings are worth looking at and about half of those are actually worth working. The reason for this is because many job posters are uneducated as to what they really want, they don’t understand the various web technologies, and in most cases, they don’t have a respect for web and graphic design — they just want it cheap and they want it fast.

Therefore, Craig’s List isn’t the best place to find work. But aside from that, I’ve developed some rules when using Craig List to find full-time, part-time, and contract work, here they are:

Know your worth

I don’t respond to “low-ballers”. $6-$12/hr for professional web work is ridiculous! It’s important to know the going rate for web and graphic design and to couple that with your experience. I’ve found that low-ballers will not only pay late, but will try to overwork you. The low hourly rate is a clear sign of little knowledge and respect for the services you provide.

Review the company/client online

When they reply, follow their signature links and email extension to learn more about who you may be working for. The potential employer is likely doing the same thing. I’ve discovered a lot about people by viewing their Facebook, Twitter and personal websites.

Do a phone interview

When they respond to your inquiry, it’s good to question them before meeting to see if you understand and meet their requirements and if they’re willing to actually pay you :). Reasonable compensation is important, so it’s wise to get these issues out of the way before having a face-to-face meeting.

Call ahead to confirm the meeting

If the phone interview goes well, a face-to-face should be scheduled. I try to call 1-2 hours in advance to make sure the meeting is still on and that the person will actually be there. Sometimes they don’t even show up; and they won’t notify you – I’ve had this happen to me once — totally inconsiderate.

Location and transportation

If the office is too far, this increases your chances of being late. If you’re taking the bus, I recommend no more than two transfers because public transportation can be unreliable at times which will also increase your chances of being late. Being on time is important and it shouldn’t be a journey to commute to work everyday.

Use caution with start-up web design companies

I’ve found that some start-ups can be totally unethical when it comes to money, duties and respect. One start-up wanted to pay me after each job was finished — nothing up front — and I wouldn’t know when I would get paid. That’s insane! The standard practice is a portion up-front and the remainder at the end; especially for contract work. In other cases, like in-house, long term contract and part/full time work, a weekly check is sufficient.

Another woman mentioned that I would be responsible for “other” activities apart from web design like taking out the trash, hanging pictures and God knows what else. You have to decide upfront what you’re willing to do. But you have to understand that when it comes to start-ups, many rules aren’t in place, there may not be any structure yet and they may think they can have you doing whatever.

Finally, you want to make sure there’s respect. I interviewed with an employer who obliviously had no respect for blacks as he continuously made bigoted comments about me and the black race. I called him out on it and he tried to backtrack, but it had become clear that this guy was nobody I wanted to work for. Therefore, I make sure there’s a level of respect, and a clear written agreement on duties and payment before beginning any work; especially with start-ups.

Get answers to important questions

In the interview, I make sure I find answers to these questions:

Does the manager know and understand web design?
Do they respect web standards and ethics?

If the answer is “No” to any of these, then, for me, it’s a bad deal and I won’t take it. A manager that doesn’t “get” web design is in no position to manage and give you orders. Unqualified managers may give you unrealistic time-frames to complete a job because they simply don’t know how long it takes to craft quality concepts and web standard code.

In other cases, they may want you to design things you’re not comfortable with (like porn sites) and have you steal content from other blogs. It’s important to pay attention and listen to your gut while on the phone and during the interview.

These are my seven rules I try to stick to when using Craig’s List.

Conditional IE, In Reverse

Neal Chester — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 02:49:11 +0000

I’ve known for a long time that you can use conditional statements to target Internet Explorer while excluding all the other browsers. Today I learned something new — you can do it in reverse. You can exclude IE from seeing code without effecting the rest of the browsers.

This came into need when I wanted to use a script that wouldn’t render properly because of IE’s bugs. Instead of targeting the other 4 browsers, I found a quick and easy solution at Javascript Kit.

The first is the code we all know. The second is the exclusion code.
Notice the exclamation point before the “IE”:


Show this code to everyone except IE users

This exclusion code works with the different conditional options as well. Just to review: