http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/latest-hits/ en-us Wed, 16 May 2012 23:44:53 PDT Wed, 16 May 2012 23:44:53 PDT SiteCrafting.com GearBox 1.1 (beta) http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/sitecrafting-to-expand-new-markets/ Seeing the time as ripe for expansion, SiteCrafting has launched a new venture in an effort to expand into prescription eyewear. SightCrafters, LLC will bring to the eyewear world what SiteCrafting has brought to the web development business. According to Brian Forth, founder and President of SiteCrafting, "it was the next natural step with our business model." Brian sees eyewear as a niche market in which SightCrafters could thrive. He believes eyewear has received little attention from the business community in recent years, suggesting that perhaps it is time for a new player to come in and revolutionize the business.Ken Foubert, a long-time employee of SiteCrafting, sees the connection between the two businesses. He explains why the web has not attracted a large portion of the population both in the region and nationally. "One of the primary reasons can be directly traced to those who require corrective lenses, says Foubert. "Nobody wants to use something they can't see, so we ultimately miss out on an entire section of the population that cannot see our websites."He points out one project for a local organization that was ultimately scrapped when it was discovered that the client's existing website had received 2 visits over tha past 5 years. Subsequent investigation revealed that 94% of the people in the local area suffered from hyperopia (farsightedness) and did not own corrective lenses.With SightCrafters, the goal is to enable this market segment to see again, resulting in even greater demand for web-based content. "We even have plans to embed browsers right into the lenses," says Nick Williams, a relative newcomer to the company.Williams says the technology has arrived, but that there just hasn't been any demand for it. He also suggests that "such advanced eyewear will make it all but impossible to avoid the web," adding that SiteCrafting's products could be available "at the flick of an eyelash."Time will tell if this new venture will be a success. With so much hype already being built up on the day of its announcement, there is no doubt it will leave its mark. The question is, will the visually-challenged see the mark? Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:48:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/website-innovation-profile-1/ Changing the way an entire industry works is never easy. It can take a lot of time to get people used to doing things in a new way. Fortunately, during the past few years we have witnessed entire industries become disrupted by innovation. The Internet has changed the rules in so many industries - digital music, travel, banking - the list goes on and on. So one of our customers asked, why not Letterman jackets?We all remember (at least those of us that were jocks) receiving our letter and going to the nearest sporting goods store and ordering our jackets. Typically, we chose from a limited set of styles, got measured, paid some money, and then waited 4-6 weeks for delivery. It's a process that still plays itself out in most of the country. Enter Lettermansclub.com...The OpportunityThe folks at Lettermansclub.com found that the process of selecting a coat (now that multiple styles of coats and various patches are available) was time consuming. It was not rare for a student to spend 2-3 hours with a sales person getting measured, fitted, and designing the coat. Once the coat was perfect, the total cost for the coat would be delivered and it often resulted in re-working the coat to fit within the student athlete's family budget.The process was further marred by the lack of being able to "see" the actual jacket and how the color combinations would work. This is similar to viewing three paint sample swatches and having to picture how it will look in a completed room. Oftentimes the "leap of faith" that it would look good was too much and led to more and more indecision. Students would often take the safe road and not add back patches or color combinations they were unsure about.The SolutionThe solution was a fully integrated jacket builder and tracking system. Student athletes are able to login to Lettermansclub.com and design their jacket on their own time. They are able to create an account, color their coat, drag and drop patches, select artwork for their patches, select trim and embroidery colors and submit their jackets online. The system keeps track of the cost of the coat as they are building it so they always know the total cost of their jacket. Once the order is submitted, lettermansclub.com staff are able to print out all the jacket instructions as well as see exactly where patches and embroidery are to be sewn, minimizing errors and resulting in a smooth build of the coat.What's NextLettermansclub.com has a group of dealers across the region and will continue to add dealers across the nation. No longer do student athletes need to choose just the sporting goods store around the corner. They now have an easy online choice. Their local shop is going to be forced to change or will go the way of other businesses disrupted by the innovators. In what area of your businesses can time consuming processes be replaced by innovation? Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:32:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/safari-40-beta/ So at the risk of unleashing the wrath of my own team members against me I am going to have to say this...Safari is better than Firefox. So what if there are several different browsers? All you need is this one. This will be true until the ante is upped yet again by Mozilla, Opera, Google or Microsoft. But today, Safari 4 is king. Now I'm not going to go into all the technical reasons, as I don't pretend to know all the ins and outs of why one is faster, more compliant, etc. I'll leave that to the comments and the input from our team. I will say, however, that as a user I love it. Things I like: It's really, really fast Tabs at the top of the window save real estate -- Thanks Chrome! Top sites and Cover Flow for browsing most visited and bookmarked sites Did I mention it's really fast? I am an Apple guy, and have been for several years, but I've not been a Safari guy. I've always been left a bit disappointed by it. It seemed to not always work quite right, and seemed to always be part of the "second class." So I've hung my hat on Firefox until now.While I don't think this changes much overnight, for today at least it is the browser of choice on my machines. Safari is available for Mac or Windows and it's worth a look. Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:11:00 PST http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/government-20/ It seems the US Government has finally decided to join the rest of us here in the 21st century. Last Thursday our friends in that other Washington launched Data.gov which suggests a promising future for a transparent government on the web.While many of the latest changes in Washington DC have sparked quite a bit of political debate, one recent change has developers on both the left and the right buzzing with excitement. The launch of Data.gov is the start of an effort to make the vast ocean of data our government collects more accessible and more easily found by publishing it in one central location.Currently, the site has launched with a limited amount of initial data, though it is the first step in what will hopefully be a very successful endeavor. The site currently provides an handful of datasets from various government departments, containg everything from energy consumption and population statistics to births, deaths, marriages and divorces.Most of what Data.gov has to offer is more useful to developers directly. This doesn't mean that will remain the case for long. After all, writing applications and playing with data are two of the things developers love most. This is really the most brilliant part about this project. Rather than devoting time and taxpayer resources to build sites and tools that use this information, it is made publicly available in a raw format that can easily be sliced and diced for any purpose the public sees fit. That's right ladies and gents, our government is crowdsourcing! Tue, 26 May 2009 08:43:00 PDT http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/flashs-stand/ This article about Virgin America abandoning Flash for it's website popped up late last week and it seems fitting since there seems to be a lot of discussion around Flash and mobile operating systems - specifically Apple and the iPhone and iPad. Actually there has always been a lot of discussion around the effectiveness of Flash and people usually fall into two opposing camps - yeah, big surprise I know.  My take is that Flash is a good tool when used in applications that could be made way more difficult to accomplish without it. I believe it is a good standard platform for video and some specialty drawing or gaming applications - but that is about it. Much of what people think about related to Flash has to do with what I call Flash for Flash sake. In many cases the visual affects of Flash can be accomplished in a way more search engine friendly, way more content managed way using xhtml/css and some fancy javascript.  All this is fine and good, but it is not why Virgin abandoned Flash. It was done due to the move by many consumers (in this case, business travelers) to mobile and specifically touch screen devices. Most if not all current touch screen devices do not support Flash within their browsers - the ones receiving the most current criticism are Apple's iPhone and iPad, but devices from Google, RIM and Microsoft do not support Flash either. Actually, Apple's devices do support Flash to a point - video - just visit YouTube on your iPhone and you can view that Flash video just fine.  Here's one reason I believe this to be the case - issues with inconsistent programming from site to site using Flash and more importantly the existence of the hover state. See most Flash menus and games rely heavily on hover. This is not an issue on your desktop PC because all you need to do is put your mouse over the object the action takes place. This is not the case on a touch screen where your finger is the cursor and the click at the same time. How can you hover without at the same time clicking? Millions of Flash sites are out there and millions of variations on hover exist - how can touchscreen OS possibly account for each and ensure a consistent experience? I think Virgin is seeing that more and more of their customers are moving toward mobile check-in - same with Alaska Air and they don't want to rely on a technology that is inconsistent on mobile devices. Their solution is to sidestep it in favor of something more predictable and consistent.  A recent launch of ours, http://www.werealotlikeyou.com, looks a lot like Flash, but actually only uses Flash for audio and video playback. All the animations are done via xhtml/css and jquery. It works great on an iPhone, iPad, etc. etc.  Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:33:00 PST http://www.sitecrafting.com/blog/qr-codes/ They may look like a nightmare game of reversi or something sent out by SETI but, to your smartphone, QR Codes are full of all kinds of goodies that can connect the real world to the digital one. Read on to find out what these little checkered gems can do!QR Codes have been around since Toyota invented them for use tracking the movement of car parts in their manufacturing process. Today, we have the capability to help you create them for your needs via a SiteCrafting content management system. But as smartphones are increasingly being loaded with reader apps QR Codes are starting to hit the mainstream. So what can these things do?They work well to bring the print or physical world to the digital one in a standardized way. QR Codes can be generated and used in print ads and promos, ironic t-shirts, and even on live TV to refer viewers to something related to what they're currently watching. Add them to a business card to link to an e-portfolio or to museum/zoo exhibits to link users to an informational video or even to donate right then and there to help keep the doors open. You can even track stats if you're linking to pages on your site setup for QR Code promotions or even via short URL generator stats.The possibilities are fascinating and endless. But are people actually using QR Codes and do they even know what the heck they are? Right now it's a toss-up. However, the more they appear the more people will learn and inquire about them. But QR Code popularity may be short-lived given that smartphones are only getting smarter and more able to read and process the "real world" as seen through their cameras via apps, the likes of which can already read info off normal business cards for adding to your address book. I recommend gently peppering them here much like Twitter or Facebook icons on your website or brochure. Track some stats and see if they're worth it for you.Search for a free QR Code reader for your smartphone (I recommend this one for iOS devices) then try these examples out for yourself: (and feel free to give us a call to brainstorm the possibilities anytime!) Web link to this blog entry Email Kevin Call SiteCrafting Map to SiteCrafting HQ Tue, 23 Nov 2010 09:07:00 PST