Tampa Wordpress Web Design - Massive Ant

Tampa, FL -- Graphic Design, Web Design & Development, WordPress Expert Developers, CMS

web design blog

Spec this!

“But my Grandmother doesn’t like the coffee, can you give me 3 others to choose from?”

▶ Your Favorite Photoshop Experts Open Photoshop 1.0

While in a sales meeting and going through our website development history… we were dealing with the performance lag issues with the Flash player on Mac’s and Macromedia’s lack of dealing with it. We had two constant issues to overcome with client’s demands, random Flash performance issues coupled with version compatibility, and, the constant issue of content management, which we had semi-solved with XML. While doing a random search we half lucked into seeing the writing on the wall – the demise of Flash – and found WordPress 1.0. So, funny that I just ran into this fun video (well, fun for graphic designers) Photoshop 1.0. I actually cut my teeth on P’shop 3.0 but had messed around with 1.0 it once on my Dad’s Mac.

▶ Your Favorite Photoshop Experts Open Photoshop 1.0 – YouTube.

Can I use this picture?

A very common question around here. We have to be very diligent about the images our clients give us on a project. In today’s litigious society – even though the website is not “our” website – as the web designers we are just as likely to be named along with the client in any copyright related issues. Our safe advice is to go straight to our trusted stock sites and fork over the few bucks needed for piece of mind. It’s also usually easier to find that perfect image, in the proper size,  needed as opposed to scouring the web for a similar image free of rights. However, sometimes the client has found that perfect image and they really, really want to use it but don’t know if they can. “Better safe than sorry ” usually applies here, but it may be worth going through the motions to find out. Here’s a handy flow chart provided by The Visual Communication Guy to put your image through the test.

 

Mind your own business!

Once again we have a client in the process of being bamboozled out of their $$$ by some slick talking SEO salesman promising them the top ranking on a Google search. Luckily we were able to talk them down from the ledge. These people know nothing about what you do, they just have a list of words they will cleverly cram into a few paragraphs that will read like a bad infomercial. Look good to a search engine? Maybe, but most humans will know it looks like a naked mannequin in the window of an abandoned strip mall. Your clients will know it’s not you and the chances of them sharing it or coming back for more aren’t good. In the long run you’re hurting your business more than helping. Our advice has been the same for years… write it yourself. You’ll save money, connect with your clients, and you may find that it hones your skills to do what you do better. We can help make it easy for you to write, publish and edit your content. Ask us how, we’ll show you how easy it is.
So, who knows your business? You. You do!

Opinion Column — The Inconvenient Truth About SEO | Smashing Magazine.

Information Architechture – or, Why We Need Yor Content Now

We have your logo files and pictures. And more pictures. We’ve talked at length about the importance or frequent, relative content and how this is crucial to search engine exposure. But we have no text from you.  Sure we can help you by guiding the direction and particulars needed to create good content. We don’t recommend copy writers because no one knows your business better than you.  So, we encourage you to write your own content. Which brings up the next stumbling block to getting your website design off and running: we need it now!  [Read more…] about Information Architechture – or, Why We Need Yor Content Now

How people read online: Why you won’t finish this article. – Slate Magazine

Apparently the best way to give your readers information is don’t. I’ll keep it short… In the Twitter age, content dies in a non-scrolling website. Maybe long articles will be broken into a series of tweets. Did you get this far? Yes? Further than most. How the KISS method evolved from keep it simple to keep it short.

How people read online: Why you won’t finish this article. – Slate Magazine

Tampa Bay WordPress (Tampa, FL) – Meetup

I was recently asked by a budding web designer friend for some WordPress “advice” (read: training) and since I’ve barely got the time to breathe in my own backlog of development related updates and training I thought I’d put this out there. Someday I’ll make it to a meeting, sounds like fun with like minded folks (even if they’re our competition, ;-)). Anyway if you’re looking for a place to bounce around some ideas and live in the Tampa Bay area, join:

Tampa Bay WordPress (Tampa, FL) – Meetup.

Happy Birthday WordPress: 10 Years of Glorious Journey [Inforgraphic] – WordPress Schools

Giving our web design clients the control and freedom to mange their own content was the best gift in our business development. Our gift to WordPress is to continue recommending the best CMS platform available. Happy to say we’ve been with you since the beginning. Happy Birthday WordPress!

Happy Birthday WordPress: 10 Years of Glorious Journey [Inforgraphic] – WordPress Schools.

How secure is WordPress?

As designers we’ve grown to rely on WordPress for it’s ability to morph into any client situation. As developers, it’s an easy choice for the same reason but the clincher is it’s stability and security.  The WordPress team is ever vigilant in updating the core software, and while it can take some vigilance of our own to keep up with the updates, it’s good to know we’re never left wanting for a hole to get patched.

WordPress Core is Secure – Stop Telling People Otherwise

WordPress positioning itself well for the future…

After years of Flash development the writing was on the wall, Flash was waning. When it was clear Apple and Flash were not going to play well together on the internet playground, we made the jump to WordPress.  Longevity was the prime factor when we chose WordPress as our preferred platform and prime recommendation for our clients.  As a small firm we needed to reduce long term development time and allow for our clients growth while keeping their cost at a minimum.  With the speed and sometimes surprise of change when it comes to internet technologies being an early adopter, no matter the care taken, can be half research and half gamble, we did our best to reduce the chance factor.  It looks like we made the right decision.

WordPress completely dominates top 100 blogs.

How WordPress Themes Actually Work INFOGRAPHIC

Using WordPress our clients have found that learning how to manage the content on their sites is a quick and painless process.  In fact most find that they are adding more content then they ever thought the would.  They then quickly find out that they are becoming their own SEO professional just by posting to their sites. The natural next step of curiosity is to ask “how does this all work?”.

Follow this link for a great tutorial of sorts complete with nice graphics that isn’t to technical but offers an in depth look at the inner workings of your WordPress site.

How WordPress Themes Actually Work INFOGRAPHIC.

WordPress Android, iPhone, iPad Updates

Here’s the latest on WordPress for our clients who take advantage of Smartphone content management for their websites.  A new version for iPhone and iPad that adds some great features, video support (finally!), the media library gets some attention, and the best part… autosave for posts.

WordPress for iPhone iPad v2.6 Released

Android users get mostly bug fixes on the latest version and the long awaited post status option.

WordPress Android Update 1.3.8

Design Trends Predictions in 2010

We’re exited about two of the trends in Web Design we’ve been playing with here at the Ant Farm, Mobile Design (iPhone website versions!) and the design freedom possibilities of CSS3.  Also a move towards print influenced, typography heavy design should bring Serif fonts back in favor, readability returns! A nice showcase of what’s to come:

Design Trends Predictions in 2010.

Google Loves WordPress

More and more clients coming to us for website design are concerned primarily with search engine placement.  We quickly inform them that there is no magic bullet for getting a top ten return, and to be leery of SEO (search engine optimization) companies promising top returns. After all it’s Google’s game and they make the rules, any gaming of the system and they just change the rules, or worse, just blacklist your site.  At Massive Ant we utilize safe “white hat” techniques for your site to steadily climb the rankings without any stumbling going up the ladder.  The first and best thing we do is utilize the awesome features built in to WordPress.  To learn more here’s a few tips we use that illustrate why we use WordPress as our CMS (content management system) of choice:

Google Loves WordPress – Search Engine Optimisation Blog , Tips & Tricks.

Flash or Jquery? Avoiding the “vs” Perspective

We strongly advocated Flash development over the years, but there’s a new queen in the ant farm… Jquery. With content management needs and the Apple-centric developments created by the iPhone and iPad, design times are a changin’. Here’s an excellent non-confrontational piece on this controversial subject:

A Closer Look at Choosing Between Flash and jQuery | Onextrapixel – Showcasing Web Treats Without A Hitch

What’s this?

It’s our web-design blog.  We may shoot over the heads of some with the web-design geek factor getting too high at times but here is where you’ll find what latest subjects interest us, and maybe you too.