If you Tweet a quote from an Associated Press story, are you in copyright violation? If you use press releases to fill a Website with content, are you violating some code of ethics? In this article, Linda offers information about various copyright issues and what you can do to walk inside the line of legality in global venues like social media.
Read MoreIn previous articles, Linda showed you how to begin to build a base foundation for your Web site, including adding news stories and articles. In this article, she'll provide resources that point to video that you can use in your blog or Web site.
Read MoreIn the previous article, Linda talked about how to use RSS feeds for aggregated Web sites or blogs. In this article, she leads readers into using RSS, press releases and other free sources to create a Web “hub” for topical information. She provides perspectives on various news sources, links and information on how to use this material.
Read MoreNow that you've dipped your feet into social media platforms such as Twitter, Ning, Facebook and more, isn't it time you took a hint and applied some social aspects to your Web site? In the previous article, Linda talked about aggregation, and how aggregator sites have shaped current Web trends. In this article, she will pass on information about how to make aggregation work for you through suggestions and links to sites that can make this job easier.
Read MoreOver the past few weeks, Linda has provided explanations about various social networking tools and has provided a list or two of social networking platforms for designers and developers. But, what about your blog? Is it dead in the water, or should you make that blog the foundation of your social media tower? In this article, Linda discusses the answer and some ways to build a better blog for that foundation.
Read MoreIf you're a graphic or Web designer (with a bit of programming thrown in), where do you begin with social media? How can you call attention to your work or how do you find support for questions you may have? In this article, Linda talks about the various ways a designer can use social media, both as a means of support and a way to publicize your designs.
Everyone wants to make a great website, and as mentioned in my previous article, a good start is to ensure aesthetic design and user research are intimately related.
Why do this? Well, very few sites fall over under heavy traffic or contain broken links. They all do what they need to do, they all ‘work’, and with all these ‘working’ sites there’s a need for you to differentiate your site from the others.
In the previous two articles, Linda talked about community-building and offered some examples of sites where you could build community. But, what if your time is stretched and you don't want to build community? What if you'd rather join a social media platform – especially to look for work? In this article, Linda provides twenty+ communities where you can find work as a designer or programmer.
Read MoreLinda talked about community and its relationship to marketing in the previous article. If you plan on building community, will you rely on social networking sites to keep that community together? Or, will you include a Web site in your community-building plans? In this article, Lindatalks about various community-building sites and how you might use them to create a “glue” to keep community active.
In previous articles, Linda illustrated how to use various social networking tools such as Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitter, LinkedIn and Posterous. While many other tools exist that can be used by the designer and/or programmer, at some point the user might consider why these tools are necessary in the first place. Building community is one answer, and the answer is deeply integrated with marketing for many people.
User research is a crucial component of any website or product development process. It will help you to identify the needs of your users and demonstrate how your website, intranet or application can be improved. Focus groups and usability testing are two very useful but very different user research disciplines. This article will look at the difference between focus groups and usability testing, the pros and cons of each and when in the development process you should use them.
At this point in Linda's articles, you've learned about Facebook, FriendFeed, LinkedIn and Twitter. In this article, Linda shows how to pull all those social media tools together and add some glue with Posterous. Posterous is one way to share your designs, programming skills, opinions and more through a venue that can be shared on Twitter, Facebook and your blog.