Website Design Blog: discussion, Inspiration and More…

July 25, 2010 in Identity by Designussion

Some freelance designers are of the opinion that the 80:20 rule applies to a freelancer’s business. They reckon that 20% of our income comes from 80% of our clients and 80% of our income comes from 20% of clients. I happen to agree with this, for the most part.

In my own experience I have found that business from previous clients was where the majority of my work generated from. This may not apply to freelancers who have just started out, but over the years business does head toward the 80:20 rule. Does this mean marketing to new clients is futile? No, that is ridiculous. What it means is that all your efforts in marketing will go further because a client who does come to you will be back for more business and will refer you if you play your cards right.

1. Thank You

Whenever I do business with anyone, I send them a thank you card. This is not always a matter of getting more business but rather its because I’m a nice guy. A side-effect of being a nice guy just happens to be that the client has a record of your contact details in the contact card and feels better and easier about recommending you to friends or family.

2. Mailing List

Add your previous clients to an email mailing list. The problem with mailing lists is that they become irritating, especially when they start to clog your inbox. The best way to have a mailing list which will actually have some effect is to email at most once a fortnight, you can increase this to once a month, but my experience tells me not to do weekly or daily emails.

3. Business Card

A business card gives you a professional look while being personal. The greatest advantage is that it is great for marketing as business cards make their way around. Since a business card has the vital info on there it should be enough to get a potential client to contact you.

If you don’t believe the advantages of business clients, I would tell you to go and watch Will Smith’s film ‘Hitch’. In the film his entire business survives on a single business card.

4. Warm cold calling

If you have a previous client’s details and worked for them two years ago, it may be time to give them a call. When you call them, be genuine and actually ask about them as opposed to launching into a tele-marketer script (like a guy from India who rang me today!). Once you have asked how they are, whether the service you provided for them was good, you should pitch to them.

Don’t ask them, tell them.

Say “Have you heard of our 25% off deals? Yeah, its very limited and as soon as we were offering it I thought of you. Shall I come down and discuss it with you?” That is more likely to receive a yes than the tele-marketer who rang me saying “Sir, my name is John Price (in an indian accent) you want to take advantage, we have excellent deal blah blah blah (for five minutes)”

Finally…

These are not all of the ways of getting business from previous clients, but rather some of the best ones from my personal experience. What does your experience say? Please be kind enough to share your experience with us so all our readers can learn.

July 9, 2010 in Inspiration by Designussion

A couple of years ago, I was young and naive so I made the error of reading Rhonda Byrne’s book
“The Secret” which tries (and fails) to explain an idea which it calls “The law of attraction”. After wasting a good few hours of my life reading about this “law” i realised that it was complete and utter rubbish and the only “secret” about the book is that it is terrible!

As with any self help books there were a few valid points, for example the book explains excellent ways of motivating yourself, however i would strongly urge you not to waste your time with this pile of junk that calls itself a book. All of the remotely decent points found in this book can easily be found elsewhere, so trust me, elsewhere is where you want to look. Try reading some genuine work by Tony Robbins or Timothy Ferriss.

SET TARGETS

Whether it’s a better hourly rate, more money or just more free time to enjoy yourself that you want, the key is visualisation.

Visualise what you want then break it down into small acheivable steps, dont make the mistake that many make and jump straight in at the deep end. Smaller, bite-sized chunks enables you to take that extra step towards your goal.

Start working through your bite-size steps one at a time, making sure you focus on the important tasks first and in no time you’ll on the road to achieving yours goals.

Picture this; your a new Freelancer with the ultimate goal to gain an income, therefore it’s clear that you need some clients.

Step 1, ‘create a sample portfolio’, ’start your own blog’, ‘do some market research’ and so on. Eventually this will lead to ‘get yourself a client’, keep going step by step and you will soon find yourself acheiving your goals.

VISUALISE

I know i’ve mentioned it already, but visualisation is key! In order to motivate yourself to work towards your goals, visualise what you will achieve by getting there. If your a freelancer who’s dream is to drive around in a Lamborghini Gallardo or own a villa in the Bahamas, dont just sit around thinking ‘it will never happen’, instead think ‘how can i make it happen’. Get a picture of the car or that villa and put it on your notice board, spend 5 minutes a day looking at the picture and think how it would feel to own it, visualise how you are going to get it! This should set you up for the day and give you the motivation you need so to achieve your goals.

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

Who says you’ll never afford that Villa? That Lamborghini? The answer? YOU! If you sit around thinking you can’t achieve great things, then you won’t. Beleive in your ability, beleive that you have the ability to make the money, get those clients, retire early. This is not to say that this won’t require hard work, but by beleiving and actively focusing on your goals you will find yourself armed with the drive to achieve what you want. Believe in yourself and you’ll find your clients more satisfied, your time better spent and yourself enjoying what you do. Remember, your are in the position you are because you have skills that
other people do not. You are a freelancer for a reason and that reason is talent, beleive in this talent and you will soon be on your way to acheiving your goals!

GO OUT AND DO IT

“The Secret” may be a waste of time, but a clear message throughout most decent self help books has been summarised above.

If you want to be a successful freelancer then the key is action!

Take the steps talked about above now!

Don’t think ‘I’ll do it tommorrow’ as tommorrow will becoming the next day and the next day will become never. Take control of your career, take control of your life and push yourself to acheive what you know you can!

June 25, 2010 in Identity by Designussion

Some of the older readers of Designussion may have fond memories of Loverboy’s 1981 hit “Working for the Weekend”, but how does this apply to most of us who are freelance designers? A common dilemma faced by freelancers is whether or not to work at the weekend. There are rewards in terms of more earnings and it can be hard to say no.

Working as a freelancer can mean quitting the 9 to 5 routine to find more appropriate times to work, but does it also mean you have to become a machine who works weekends, bank holidays and the like?

What problems are encountered by those of us who work and the weekend, and why should we avoid it?

Needing a day off

I think most of us who are self-employed can remember the day we quit our jobs. I was free, excited and had the whole world in front of me. It didn’t take too long to notice that freelancing is not as easy as it sounds, and can actually be very difficult. Maybe one of the biggest reasons why it gets so hard so quickly is due to the fact that many new freelancers struggle to manage their time effectively. Before long, you’ll be working far more hours than you did in your day job, missing lunch breaks and forgetting to go to bed.
If this sounds a bit like you and your current habits, you really need to stop now and re-think your work-life. Everybody needs a day off sometimes, and without taking one you will be lost for inspiration, poorly motivated and you won’t see a prosperous future. Start taking a regular weekend off to spend time with loved ones or enjoying your favourite hobby.

Working on the Weekend

There can sometimes be advantages to working over the weekend, however, I would say if you want to do this, then allocate some days during the week to take time off. All of us are productive at different times of the day/week so work around this accordingly. If you happen to be most productive on the weekend, then by all means work; just make sure you take time off during the week to compensate.

Certainly, the joys of taking a day off on a regular week day for myself is that everywhere is quiet and I can get a lot more done. For example, when shopping, there is a smaller queue so I can get what I need a lot faster. This also helps reduce the stress of shopping which can be a nightmare on the weekends. Combine this with being able to walk around freely without worrying about hurrying back to the office to keep the boss happy!

One of the other problems with working weekends is that your clients often don’t. This means you may have to wait a number of days to get a response to a simple question and can even delay getting paid. I tend to find working on my own personal projects is most effective over the weekend as I have no-one else to rely on.

In Conclusion

Working on the weekend can quickly kill your motivation and therefore effectiveness as a freelancer. Make sure you arrange time off during the week to make up for time worked elsewhere. There is no right or wrong way to do it – you work for you now so can make your own decisions. Find out what works best for you and go with that. No-one is going to tell you that you are wrong so just experiment!

April 27, 2010 in Identity by Designussion

Again.

After dedicating your valuable time and effort into a project the last thing you want is for your hard work to be rejected or ties to be cut by a dissatisfied client. Unfortunately this can often happen and the blow can be disheartening.

Sometimes the stress of rejection becomes too much and emotions become hard to control. It would be somewhat fruitless for me to tell you to “stop feeling this way”, however there are ways to motivate yourself once more through analysing what went wrong in the first place so to avoid such situations reoccurring. Even some of the finest freelancers in the business find themselves becoming sceptical of their own ability after the crushing feeling of having all their time and efforts put to waste. However, the key is often in the basics. Think of it as a great novelist who makes spelling mistakes, or a chef who cooks brilliant food but doesn’t do so quickly enough. By ironing out these basic errors you’ll find yourself at the top of your game once more with clients queuing up for your services.

Dissatisfied clients

Whether a highly regarded client turns down your work or a customer ends a long lived connection, you need to get to the root of the problem and find out the reason why. As mentioned previously it is likely that basic and avoidable errors were key to your client relationship downfall, not your own ability. Something that may seem so insignificant such as timekeeping could in fact be the cause of your client’s dissatisfaction. It is vital that you look to remove these seemingly trivial issues in order to improve your service for the future.
If you fail to see the problem in order to fix it, a good idea is indeed to get in contact with the client and find out from them. The most effective way of doing so is to send them a quick questionnaire regarding your service. The key to getting the best answers is to focus the attention of the questions towards their discontent, be straight up and ask direct questions such as “What was your main issue with the service provided?”, furthermore ensure the options are both clear and realistic, such as ‘failure to meet deadlines” and “cheaper rates were found elsewhere”. Not only will this provide you with feedback allowing you to evaluate exactly where you went wrong, but it is much more effective than for example a phone call whereby the client is likely to be more reserved in their responses. By using a questionnaire you not only make things easier for yourself, but you may find yourself in the position to approach your former client with a solution to their problem, with luck on your side they will see your willingness to improve and may offer you a revised deal.

Rectifying problems

An important lesson to be learnt is that feedback is the key to improvement, by putting stubbornness aside and recognising where you went wrong, great benefits can come about.

Timekeeping can be one of the easiest problems to avoid. Firstly ensure that you know exactly when the deadline is, and what is required to meet it. This will allow you to break down the project into parts, block off adequate time to complete each part and prevent you from becoming bogged down and rushing. By breaking down the project into small pieces, you will also find it more manageable and the end result more thorough. If you are unsure of how long each piece will take to complete, break it down into smaller pieces until you are sure. It is fundamental that you agree the deadline before accepting it, there’s no use taking on a project you simply cannot meet the deadline for. In this case it may be necessary to negotiate the deadline, ensuring you leave yourself a buffer zone to rectify errors in case not everything goes to plan. By following these steps you should find projects far more manageable and eliminate the issue of timekeeping altogether, you’ll find yourself less stressed and in time develop a natural deadline meeting prowess.

Lack of qualifications can be an issue for some clients. If you find this is the case you may need to learn the new skills required. However this can be time consuming and costly, I advise you only take this route if you are finding this to be a continuous problem, this is as many clients don’t mind, as long as you get the job done to their standard.

Overpriced service. This is a less common complaint amongst clients in my experience. Although of course it is possible to overprice your services and alienate yourself from potential clients, from personal experience, I have found that the minority of clients that indeed complain about costs are usually in fact willing to pay the cost, yet are trying to take advantage of you, my advice is to hold firm with your price if you can justify it. If the client still asks for a reduction then ensure that you negotiate a deal which suits you both equally.

Unproffessionalism can be an issue for certain clients, simple things such as dressing smartly if meeting a client in person and ensuring emails or other communication forms are kept formal and professional. This gives the impression that you are proficient in what you are doing and will reflect upon this in your work.

Final advice

Think of any rejection of your work in a positive manner, rather than becoming disillusioned with thoughts of failure “what if’s”. Put yourself in the position to change for the better by using the negative experience to reassess what went wrong. This mindset will allow you to repair any flaws in your work and come back stronger than ever before.

April 16, 2010 in Identity by Designussion

There is so much information available to us as web developers, whether it is from blogs, articles, books or publications.

It’s obviously a brilliant part of our industry, and will undoubtedly remain that way. Every now and then it is important to take a step back and realise what we do wrong.

Some things can have a negative effect on our progress as a developer, even though in the short-term they may help pay the bills. Sometimes it is important to look at the bigger picture for the long-term.

Much of this should be considered hypothetically and I would encourage you to think about what I have written and comment with your thoughts.

Anyway, here are some key factors that could be conducive to failure in the long-term.

You Can’t Say No to Any Client

This may sound stupid, as after all, every client puts money in our pockets and adds to our portfolio. As I’m sure all of you would have experienced, it doesn’t always turn out this way.

Some projects, I’d rather not publicise, not because of my personal work, but the fact the client didn’t take on board any of my suggestions regarding design and usability, and as such, the final result was not as I would have hoped.

Of course, we don’t all have the luxury of choosing our clients like some of the bigger firms do. But we have to at least be able to understand for ourselves what type of client we might be averse to working with. There may be circumstances where we simply can’t afford to turn a client down, so that’s acceptable.

If we are able to identify some characteristics in clients or projects that we find undesirable, then it’s likely we’re making some progress as developers, and we’re not so much concerned about making money but are primarily focused on making the web a better place.

You Try to Do Everything

This is one of the debateable points I mentioned earlier. But consider this scenario: You are a web developer who does it all: You can create a logo in Illustrator, design a website in Photoshop, are able to work with a range of back-end frameworks, can program in multiple back-end languages, can code valid XHTML and CSS, can create raw JavaScript, have learned to play around with 3 or 4 JavaScript libraries, can do copy writing, content strategy, IA, UX, and even dabble in SEO and SEM.

How realistic is it that you’ll be able to keep up to date and be on the cutting edge of all of those different technologies, concepts, and languages? It’s not realistic at all, so it’s best to pick a few areas that you can keep up with and focus on, and if a particular client requires other services beyond your focus, well, that brings us to the next item on this list.

You Don’t Network

One of the best ways to ensure you keep up with all the current trends in the industry and even stay ahead of the game, knowing about events before they occur, is through networking – whether it be on or offline.

Of course, some of us might be limited when it comes to personal networking, whether because of geography or personal reasons. But we can all network and build relationships with quality developers online. Just interacting with bloggers or posting in webmaster forums could help build relationships.

Another brilliant way to make contacts and keep up with recent happenings in the community is to attend any events or conferences in your area. Many of these events are put on by some of the biggest names in the web design industry, and the information shared is always up to date and often ahead of the game.

As discussed, this goes back to the previous point about avoiding trying to do everything. If you have a solid network of available professionals, you can pick and choose work and specialise in a field – outsourcing to more experienced people in a particular area.

My best advice with networking is to ensure mutual benefit. Don’t just leech ideas, contribute and share your own thoughts. The only way an equal and long-lasting exchange can take place is if greed and selfishness is left behind and you are willing to be just as helpful to those from whom you expect help.

You Don’t Think About Progressive Enhancement

If a tree falls in the forest, and there’s no one there to hear it, does it make a sound? Even if it does, the sound is irrelevant, because it didn’t serve a purpose.

This can happen with a website that isn’t backwards compatible and lacks wide accessibility. This is where progressive enhancement comes in, and it needs to be considered during the planning stages, as it considerably more difficult to implement further down the line or once a design is live.

Progressive enhancement (which is one of the key ingredients when implementing accessibility) ensures a website’s content is SEO-friendly and is available to all site visitors, including those with older browsers, assisted technology, or those browsing the web with JavaScript and/or Ajax capabilities disabled. If your site’s content is not accessible to search engine spiders, then it’s like that tree that falls and nobody is there to hear [see] it.

Thinking about progressive enhancement in your web projects is a good sign that you are trying to maximize the reach of the site’s content and, by extension, maximizing the site’s ability to turn a casual visitor into a sale.

You’ve Already Thought Up a Response To This Article Explaining That I Am Wrong

Much of this article will be dismissed by readers as inaccurate and presumptive. Of course, there are points I have not included, and details I have not expanded on. But before you decide these points are of little importance to a “successful” web professional, take the time to consider what your goals are in building web sites, and where you see yourself in a few years.

I’ve had the unfortunate experience of working with and for people whose only interest in web design was business-related (that is, their goals were mostly financially-driven). Because of the potentially far-reaching effects of what we do as web professionals, our goals should go beyond such superficialities and we should be constantly assessing our personal values to ensure that our progress as web professionals is helping making the web a friendlier place.

Putting focus on reaching such goals, and not always on “making the sale”, is what will eventually make you a successful web professional.

April 7, 2010 in Inspiration by Designussion

As you will all know, choosing the right Content Management System (CMS) is an essential element in becoming a successful web developer. With hundreds to choose from it can be a nightmare knowing which one could be right for you. Some are commercial (paid) and others are free (open-source). This article will discuss the merits of using an open-source CMS for your next project.

What is open-source?

Open-source is a pragmatic methodology that encourages development of a product through the opening of source materials. It has been an important factor in the growth of the Internet with many software vendors benefitting from the effects of crowd-sourcing and collaboration to improve and add features to a base code.

According to OpenSource.org, there are a number of other criteria software must meet in order to be classified as “open-source”. I have discussed all of these below, with my own thoughts in regards to the justification.

Free distribution: no party should be restricted from giving away the software either on its own or as a paid aggregation of products. I like this particular point as it encourages value-adding, long-term growth rather than the get-rich-quick mentality adopted by so many these days.

Source code: must be included and allowed to be freely distributed. All forms of source code should be accessible in some way, preferably via Internet download. This seems like an obvious prerequisite but some software distributors may be tempted to keep some code “secret” which is not in the best interests of easy modification.

Derived works: must allow modifications and derived works. This is another interesting point as it means that software may end up being distributed with a different usage or purpose to its initial developer’s vision. This makes open-source limitless with its advantages: thousands of perspectives can make an extremely versatile product. As a designer and developer, it gives you the opportunity to use your artistic and creative license – adding value to the product and for yourself.

Integrity of the Author’s Source Code: the license must allow for the distribution of the software, but always maintain the credit to the original developer/firm who produced it. This is essential to encourage firms to distribute open-source rights to a product as ultimately they will be credited with its success.

No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups: does exactly what it says on the tin. Removing restrictions and discrimination adds diversity to the process and in my opinion will ultimately lead to a better end product for the end user. Certain cultures and people may have different tastes and therefore a wide variety can only be beneficial in the long-term.

No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavour: whether it be for business or research there should be no restriction. Similar to the other points regarding discrimination I believe this is essential to maintain originality and embrace the true spirit of open-source, with the potential benefits of the initial product release being hugely influential on others, whether it be a commercial purpose or a charitable cause.

Distribution of License: distribution rights must apply to all those who redistribute the product. This is an interesting point as it stops the product/software creator from limiting certain parties from distributing.

License Must Not Be Specific to a Product: “The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program’s being part of a particular software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program’s license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.” Slightly more technical, but this would prevent vendors restricting distribution based on bundling products/software. In the case of a CMS, this is obviously less of a problem as generally speaking a CMS download is standalone and not part of a bundle of products.

License Must Not Restrict Other Software: cannot restrict software that is distributed alongside the open-source software. This is great as it encourages developers to create commercial products to sell alongside open-source software. A great example of this would be paid Wordpress plug-ins. An open-source CMS, distributed alongside a paid product.

License Must Be Technology-Neutral: “No provision of the license may be predicated on any individual technology or style of interface.” Not so relevant in the case of a CMS but does help ensure compatibility across platforms.

All of the above need to be adhered to in order to qualify as an open source product. With the sheer volume of open-source CMS’s on the Internet today, it is tough to know which one(s) are right for you and your business.

What is a CMS?

It is a Web application that uses a central database, such as MySQL, to create, edit and store content in a simple way. An administration panel is then used to edit the content in the “backend” which is then displayed to normal visitors on the “frontend”.

Why use a CMS?

There are various reasons why you may choose to use a CMS, but the primary reason cited is to make the creation and editing of content simple. Depending on the purpose of your project, you may need to use a different CMS each time – so it is vital to understand the needs of your project before deciding. If you are creating a site on behalf of a client, a CMS can be essential. Most clients will have little to no coding knowledge, so the ability for them to edit content with the click of a button is extremely beneficial.

Okay, I want to use a CMS, what choices do I have?

Four of the most interesting are: Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal and ZykeCMS.

Here’s a short overview on each:

Wordpress needs no introduction. Launched in 2003 it is one of the most widely used CMS’ and can be seen on millions of blogs around the world. With the ability to be self hosted or hosted on Wordpress, it has become the choice of many wannabe bloggers with limited experience. Wordpress started out as a blogging platform, but has quickly become extremely versatile it its uses. You can find plug-ins for virtually anything, and the beauty of it being open-source is that you can easily build on anything that fits your needs until it is perfect. Google also loves Wordpress, so if you want to combine SEO and design for yourself or a client, it is often a sensible choice. As a standalone CMS Wordpress is great; but combined with a combination of plug-ins, can be an extremely powerful solution.

Recommended for: blogging; review style sites.

Not recommended for: quick and simple sites; clients on low budgets.

Zyke is newly launched and as such is still at V1.0, but is extremely lightweight, so allows you to pump out small sites in a matter of minutes unlike some of the other options which have higher learning curves. The SEO friendly URL’s and Web 2.0 feel is a particular benefit of this CMS. Being new it means you can help develop the product as you build and learn about the code. The Zyke developer community is where the owners hang out and ask for any feedback. Much like any other open-source software, if you have any suggestions, improvements or ideas – you are free to build them and offer them in the forums to the users. Being a new launch, if you get in today you could soon become one of the lead developers and come widely respected in the community – a great opportunity for the up-and-coming Web developers among you!

Recommended for: quick and simple sites; clients on low budgets.

Not recommended for: big, complex sites; blogging.

Joomla has mixed reactions in the web development world. With a huge developer base comes a number of problems: to every problem there are hundreds of “solutions”. This can bring about even more problems. Out of the four CMS’ mentioned Joomla probably has the highest learning curve but can be extremely versatile when used correctly. I would only recommend Joomla to the most experienced developer and/or designer – it can be disheartening when first used. In terms of SEO it is also weak, with system generated URLs being poor for SEO. There are plug-ins to fix this but it is always useful to have the base software ready to go, without the need for sometimes bulky and buggy additions.

Recommended for: membership sites; larger sites that don’t require a blog.

Not recommended for: the faint hearted; those who dislike high learning curves.

Drupal is another popular choice, widely cited as being one of the most user-friendly CMS options. With a large number of add-on modules it can be adapted for a range of purposes.  Creating templates for Drupal can be problematical, especially for the less experienced developer. PHP knowledge is required, which for the more experienced among you will be no problem, but when starting out it may be best to avoid. The back-end itself is very intuitive, and as such is handy for clients who are not overly tech-savvy, and would like to be able to add content themselves.

Recommended for: clients who are not tech-savvy; nicely designed sites.

Not recommended for: large sites requiring complex code; blogs.

Overall, it all comes down to what suits your particular needs for a project. Each CMS has a number of advantages and disadvantages so it is important to lay out the specifications first and then match them to a CMS. Open-source allows you to do whatever you like with the code, so eventually you will have perfect option you can use over and over again.

As a professional web developer you will all understand the headaches endured by explaining over and over to the same client how to add/edit content on their site. By choosing the right open-source CMS you can remove this hurdle from your projects, empowering your client to do more with less input from you. This will enable you to get your hands dirty with your next project and take away some of the hand holding that many clients require!

Of course, a commercial CMS is always an option too. The best element of open-source is the pure volume of developers working on the product. In the case of commercial software, it is impossible to have paid teams that match the size and diversity of the open-source developers. This means it is always likely that whatever specific need you may have, it has probably already been tackled by someone else in the field.

Not sure which one to pick? Ask your local PHP Developer for more information.

April 4, 2010 in Freebies by Designussion

I thought this was pretty cool. Weebly is having a contest and giving away $13,000 for the best theme you can create with their platform. Designers – get over there, the $13,000 is yours!!

http://themes.weebly.com/contest/

March 19, 2010 in Showcases by Designussion

I have been running into more and more great twitter backgrounds. I chose these not only because of how they look, but how well they match their branding. In many cases, they dont just take exact design elements from their website, just suttle hints from it. Really a lot of thought put into these. Here are some great Twitter Designs:

February 18, 2010 in CSS by Designussion

I stumbled upon these over the weekend while trying to find some inspiration for a project I am doing. A lot of them look like they might be from one designer…he/she rocks.

Best CSS Design #1 – CandyDirect.com

Best CSS Design #2 – ecoVillage.com

Best CSS Design #3 – Johns Hopkins Medicine

Best Design #4 – Quran Interactive

Best CSS Design #5 – iphone Nova

Neil Kornswiet

February 11, 2010 in Showcases by Designussion

One of the toughest things I struggle with is creating the most usable design for a very specific call to action. Whether it is for download, filling out a form, or buying something. A clean call-to-action is by far the most critical part of any website and for whatever reason, it is often overlooked.

I came across 5 really good sites today why I was on my hunt…I may add more to this post later.