Social Media Best Practices to Land that Dream Job
This is a good article for those who are looking for a job in today’s environment. Courtesy ChannelInsider.
SmithCreate
Jonathan Smith is a web designer, graphic designer, and photographer in Harrisburg, PA.
Archive for the ‘ Technology ’ Category
PennLive.com Clutter
How NOT to design a website.
Let this be an example of how NOT to design a website. I know, PennLive.com is a news website and they need to make money through advertising. But placing a repeating logo as a background with your text articles on top is NOT user friendly and makes your NEWS articles extremely difficult to read.
The expanding banner also places all of your articles “below the fold”. As a newspaper company, The Patriot News should know something about “below the fold”. Readers want to find their info and move on with their day without the need to hunt for what they are looking for.
PennLive, you are becoming the MySpace of the news industry. Please find a better way to place and show your advertising! Besides, what is the point of having a repeating logo as the background. This tells me NOTHING about the company. It looks to be some type of “Bath & Kitchen Studio”. What is a “Bath & Kitchen Studio”? Is this a photo studio that is actually in a kitchen and a bathroom? Why do I want to click on this logo? What will I get?
Ok, I clicked your repeating logo background. Now the company says if I came to their site from PennLive I can get a discount voucher. Oh wait, now their website is asking for my name, email, and other information so they can email me a voucher. Still no explanation for what exactly this voucher is.
It seems that you are selling the ad space for it’s exposure. Any clicks going to the advertisers website are probably by mistake or curiosity. I would bet that PennLive is not converting those clicks into sales in this manner. One way to fix this would be to simply run a normal banner that explains what the company is and what the deal is. That would drive more quality click-throughs and hopefully generate more leads for the advertiser.
Sorry for the rant, but this is all very poorly designed all around. Poor site design and poor advertising. I pointed out the reasons why and even gave an example how to fix the situation. Type for some Tylenol, that site is giving me a headache.
Mobile Commerce – Lowe’s unleashes 42,000 iPhones in stores – Internet Retailer
I think it’s interesting that Lowes chose the Apple iPhone instead of the Apple iPad.
Mobile Commerce – Lowe’s unleashes 42,000 iPhones in stores – Internet Retailer.
Roomba 440 Cordless Robot Vacuum Unboxing
I broke down and bought a Roomba, a robot vacuum. I’ve seen these Roomba robots appear on deal sites over the last few years and they always peaked my interest. Reading the comments and reviews on these gadgets I see some people say they are a waste of money and prone to issues. Yet other reviews praise these cleaning robots for their ability to clean floors while you carry on with your day.
The Roomba 440 came up on Woot and I decided to take the plunge and buy it. It showed up at my door a few days later.
Following is the un-boxing of the Roomba 440.
Finally, after a nice charge I set the Roomba 440 loose on my living room and dining room which consists of wood floors and a large area rug. The Roomba shipped with “virtual walls” which each take 2 C-size batteries. These “virtual walls” can be setup in a doorway which creates an invisible barrier in which the Roomba will not pass when enabled. I didn’t have any C-size batteries so I wasn’t able to test this feature.
The above photo shows what the Roomba 440 captured from my floors. Even though my dog Terry is of a non-shedding variety (cockapoo), he still leaves little tufts of hair around the house. The Roomba easily crossed the floors and under the dining room table cleaning hair and dust with ease.
Finally, here is my video of the Roomba cleaning my floor as Terry watches.