Billings Case Study Link
16th May 2010 3 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/429
It was a year ago this month that I decided to ditch my current time tracking, quoting and invoicing methods for an all-in-one solution. I asked for recommendations on Twitter and did a bit of research myself, Billings from Marketcircle was most recommended and the one I ended up going with.
I’ve been thoroughly satisfied with the product and would definitely recommend it. Marketcircle had a few questions for me that I answered in their most recent Billings Case Study:
Empowering Users with Two-Sided Incentives Notes
7th May 2010 2 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/428
Drew Houston the co-founder and CEO of Dropbox gave a talk at Startup Lessons Learned in San Francisco on the 23rd of April and he spoke about the Customer Development Case Study for Dropbox. I highly recommend you go and watch the video, it’s interesting and inspiring.
What was particularly fascinating to me was their switch in strategy from using paid-for advertising such as AdWords to a referral system that actually worked. Their referral program rewards not only the person who is sending out the link, but also the person who signed up because of clicking on the link. Both parties receive an extra 250MB of space. It’s proved to be such a success for them that it has permanently increased their signups by 60%!
My Dropbox Referral URL looks like this for example:
https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTI0MTQ5OTk
So often I see spammy looking referrer URLs just like the one above that people link to and 9 times out of 10 I’ll copy the URL and remove the referrer code. The biggest issue I have is the random unfriendliness of these links, my username or email address instead of the garbled noise at the end would probably work out even better for Dropbox!
I think more companies running referral programs need to start empowering their users and rewarding customers the way Dropbox has. Imagine if for example clicking on an Amazon affiliate link to a product not only earned the referrer a little extra coin, but gave you the customer a slight discount as well. Win win.
Should Website Budgets be Required Info Article
6th May 2010 28 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/427
A while back I got asked for my thoughts on whether having a field for Budget on your websites contact form was a good idea or not. The indecision stemmed from the fear of scaring away potential clients versus the crap information clients might actually list in this form field. It is something I have been conscious of for a long time, I have a Budget field on my contact form and it is a required field. Do you?
Not that long ago my good friend Elliot decided to amend his contact page with the note that:
“In most circumstances, I’m unable to take on projects with a budget lower than £5000.”
This of course wasn’t the first time someone had listed a minimum figure but it continues to generate some interesting discussion on the topic. Very few freelancers, small businesses or big agencies list their prices and it’s probably the most secretive aspect of our otherwise very open industry. Some sites do list rough pricing guides, like Elliot does, some offer drop-down options with ranges of budgets to select from, and some don’t require this information up front at all which I find rather worrying.
I think the Budget field is the most clearly identifiable sign of whether a potential client has truly and completely thought through what they want done and the possibility of having you work on it with them.
The clients that fill in this field with an actual amount, or even a rough estimate of what they expect it will cost them are the best clients to have. They have clearly gone to the trouble to evaluate what they need done, who they want to do it and how much they have to spend on it. Of course, you need to make sure to discuss the scope of their project in detail with them, but actual numbers in this field make for happy days. These are the clients you want to be working with.
“Negotiable” or “You tell me!” means an extra round of discussion to coax their likely budget out of them and even then you will likely have a client that has little concept of the work they want done and what it will truly cost them. A simple solution is to respond with your rates and await the inevitable non-response.
At the end of the day I don’t think there is a right answer, should you display your rates, offer a multiple choice of possible budget ranges or simply leave it open to interpretation? I don’t know. But either way, you should definitely include a Budget field on your form as it’s a sure fire way to find out if the potential client has a $500 budget that you can’t work with, $15,000 budget that you can consider or whether you are going to have to dedicate your unpaid time in finding this information out.
DIBI Conference - My experience graph Notes
30th April 2010 7 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/426
The inaugural DIBI Conference kicked off on Wednesday 28th of April 2010, hosted at The Sage Gateshead by Newcastle and was a split conference for both designers and developers. Organised by Codeworks and brought to you in no small part by Gavin Elliott, it was the first big web conference this far north since Edinburgh’s infamous Highland Fling’s of 2007 & 2008.
DIBI: Design It, Build It was an interesting concept bringing both developers and designers together in one location for a two-track conference that you could freely roam between. I was particularly interested in most of the design side of the conference but hear the development side was just as good.
I am not going to go too in-depth on individual speakers talks, you will be happy to know they will be available to watch online in a few weeks time if you couldn’t make the event or the online broadcast. I have yet to find out how successful that particular option was, hopefully we do soon.
Adii talked about how design should be a key focus of any startup, it was an interesting start to the day and is definitely something I am a firm believer in. Adii managed to answer some tough questions on commoditising great design and personal branding, he handled these well.
Sarah spoke honestly about the principles of iPhone UI design the struggles designers can face and managed to cover a good array of tips in a short amount of time.
Tim blasted through his 2020: A Design Odyssey discussion and emphasised the need for designers to continue evolving else you’ll turn into lazy monkeys. Always interesting to hear Tim speak and the extended Q&A session was a refreshing take that I hope we see at more events soon.
Simon spoke in depth about the theory behind design and how we should be bringing these offline thoughts into our online work. There was a wealth of information in Simon’s talk and some great book recommendations to boot.
Dan presented us with a unique and interesting way to handle usability testing that is so simple and effective. In-browser prototyping and fast iteration during testing sessions looks like it might be a thing of the future.
Andy was last to speak and is always a treat to hear, he spoke about working with the most modern and interesting CSS techniques and designing from the top down with best browsers first. Always inspirational and Andy talks about everything I very firmly believe in.
Gowalla vs Foursquare
Some Highlights:
- Pre-party Venue and general good times.
- Gowalla vs Foursquare banter with Tim! ;)
- Location – The Sage was a great conference venue.
- Field Notes on Entry, Red Bull’s at the Afternoon Break.
- All of the Design side Speakers.
- Catching up with friends and new faces.
Lowlights:
- Lunch – I can’t imagine cooking for 325 people is easy.
- Sponsored Talks – Always a Catch 22.
- After Party – More on this below.
The After Parties at all web conferences suffer from the same problems, a small and crowded venue, too dark and always with music that is way too loud. It’s been an inherent problem for me across the board, FOWD, dConstruct, Build & now DIBI. I love a party as much as the next person but after a super successful event I want to then be able to talk with people and not have to yell in their ears. Hopefully better locations can be sought after at future events.
To wrap up, DIBI was a super successful and very enjoyable event from start to finish. Gavin and the Codeworks team really nailed their first conference and I can say without any hesitation that this will very likely be a conference worth attending again next year.
Massive Blue - My Realigned Portfolio Article
26th April 2010 10 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/425
I last relaunched my portfolio site in May of 2009 and I was very happy with the improved direction and look then, however things have changed somewhat over the past year and I felt that I needed to try and better convey my interests and my clients work in a realign of my portfolio site for 2010 and beyond. The new Massive Blue:
Transparency, RGBA & CSS3
While it is my portfolio site, like my blog it is a playground and experiment of myself, my style and what can be achieved in modern web design. Webkit users are treated to a colour-cycling effect on the homepage background which extends to the background of the logo as well through some tricky PNG transparency. Each individual portfolio entry is also colour-treated to match the primary colour of the work done, and almost all of the content is coloured with RGBA.
Minimum Requirements
Because of some of the techniques I have employed on my site a few people may experience some technical issues, I do apologise for this and hope that it isn’t too bad. Like my 1080px grid explanation from my May 2009 redesign post, it is also a good barrier for entry.
Thanks
I would like to extend a few thanks – Rogie King for the lovely Browser Chrome that I hear is soon be released as a downloadable package – Jason Cale for helping me with the Grid Overlay jQuery (check the link in the footer), to the Dribbble community that commented and praised my preview shots and to all of the lovely comments I have received on my Twitter stream @sambrown, thanks so much!
Look out for some new and exciting portfolio entries very soon.
Design Feedback is Good Link
21st April 2010 1 Comment http://sam.brown.tc/424
Occasionally when I am unsure about a concept I am working on I will fire it around a few of my close contacts who are also designers. This kind of feedback is usually of the Yay or Nay variety as we are all very busy and I don’t look for specific or detailed feedback just their general impression. The majority of the feedback I get is from my clients directly.
I have found Dribbble to be a fantastic source of good feedback on design work while it is still a work in progress, hopefully they implement some Privacy Settings soon so I can continue to use the limited and high caliber community as a design soundboard.
Unrequested feedback can be both a positive and negative thing, you have to take it with a pinch of salt – design is subjective and what one person likes might not suit someone else. What I will say though is that if you are giving feedback, make it constructive – “this sucks” or “don’t like it” are useless unless you explain why and how you think it could be improved.
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My opinions on Design Feedback. Read the full article: Design Feedback is Good →
I love work, just not hard work. Quote
6th April 2010 4 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/423
So I put my laziness to work for me. Instead of long proposals, I wrote short ones. Instead of worrying about competitors, I ignored them. And here's what happened: My company got more work. I found better clients. I slept better. I woke up better. I was happier. And, most of all, running a business became a lot easier.
Fifteen years later, this continues to be the most important lesson I've learned as an entrepreneur: Most of the stuff you agonize about just doesn't matter. Truth is, things are pretty easy and straightforward -- until you make them hard and complicated.
Jason Fried in Driven to Distraction from Inc Magazine.
I used to stress a lot about my business, my clients, the amount of work I was doing and my competitors – but the minute I stopped worrying about all of that and focussed on just doing great work that I was happy with it really made a big difference, to me and my business.
Online and Telephone Banking Security Gone Crazy Rant
1st April 2010 Be the first to comment... http://sam.brown.tc/422
When I recently created a new account with the bank I have been with since I had my Super Squirrel Saver Account 18 years ago I had to go through the laborious task of answering some “Security Questions” for telephone banking that I would later use to identify myself should I use this service, which in all honesty, I don’t. Now, let’s be fair, these supposed secure questions and answers are completely bullshit:
- Please name your first primary school?
- What is your mothers first name?
- Where were you born?
- etc.
Anyone with half a brain or even a friendship with me on Facebook could find out most of this information – what’s more worrisome is that these are the same types of questions that I have to answer to log on to my Internet Banking including – “What is your fathers first name?” – with me being Sam Brown III (the third) that’s probably the least secure thing they could have asked.
I must admit that because I rarely if ever use telephone banking I actually wrote the answers down, just in case. This week I had the unfortunate need to phone my bank to activate something and had all my necessary security answers in front of me ready to give only to be thrown a curveball by the girl on the end of the phone:
- Do you have any regular credits coming into this account and from whom?
- What was the last transaction on this account?
- Do you have an overdraft on this account?
The first answer is no, my credits are from different clients and not at regular intervals (not a monthly salary for example), the last transaction I had absolutely no idea – I could remember taking money out the ATM but that turned out not to be the last thing on the account and I somehow managed to incorrectly guess that I didn’t have an overdraft when I in fact do – I’ve never needed to use it and thus had no idea it even existed. Their response was blunt:
“Unfortunately you have incorrectly answered these security questions and I have blocked access to your account, you will now need to go to your local branch with three forms of ID to reset telephone banking. Have a nice day.”
A bit of an inconvenience to say the least but I did as requested only to be asked by the teller to reset the very same security questions I originally answered when creating the account. I just arrived at square one.
The biggest issue here is not just that these questions are ridiculously insecure but instead of even asking me those – they ask me about recent credits and transactions on my account, which is like aiming at a moving set of goal posts. Without actually having that information in front of me I’m essentially just playing a guessing game – much like one could do to answer their secure questions.
Your Guide to the City at WooThemes Link
18th March 2010 8 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/421
City Guide is a WordPress theme I designed for the fantastic people at WooThemes.
We’ve developed this theme to cater for directory-based wordpress sites. For example, a guide to a city with shops, restaurants and other places of interest all archived in posts with geo-tags and custom content about the locations.
I was approached by the WooThemes Team late last year to design a new theme for them that was a going to be aimed at a niche market instead of the typical blog and magazine themes. The brief was to design a theme that allows one to best publish listings/ratings of attractions in a city and plot them on a map via the Google Maps API. A location-based directory that anyone can morph into something of their own for their local area, town or city.
It was a fun process working together, there was a lot of freedom and some fantastic concise feedback from the team. While I only provided flat PSD mockups the folks at Woo have done a good job bringing it to life and integrating it into their system for you.
If you fancy getting your hands on a copy of this theme you can get a rather generous 20% discount with the coupon code SAMBROWN for the next 2 weeks. Thanks to Woo.
Fresh out of school, you are a technician not a professional Quote
8th March 2010 2 Comments http://sam.brown.tc/420
Question: “I recently graduated from design school and have started freelancing, and I’m wondering how you get clients? How do you get your name out there?”
This person may just as well have jumped out of an airplane and then asked, “Now, how do I go about finding a parachute? Oh, and should I land somewhere specific? How exactly do I do that?” Even so, this lack of foresight is quite common. The immediate lesson is that you shouldn’t become an independent professional with little to no professional experience, with no prospects and knowing little to nothing about the business.
Andy Rutledge lays down the law on Design Professionalism with answers to some very commonly asked questions from both agency and freelance designers.